My name is Gragord, I hail from a small village within the Great Kingdom where I worked as a sage, making a decent living at it and still having time for my studies. As is common knowledge, when the Bone March fell to the humanoids, the Overking became irate. I fled my home in the cover of darkness, for the Overking was forcing all men of my talent to feed themselves to the humanoid armies; something that I am not ashamed to admit that I wanted no part of. The Grand Army is not known for providing protection, nor comforts, which my stock depends upon; so, I deserted my home, and decided to make my way to the Free City of Greyhawk. A place far enough away from my King’s contact that I could effectively disappear.
I suppose, that if I had made it to the city of Greyhawk, then my life-path would be different, but that wasn’t so. I traveled the roads alone, in the blanket of night, dependent upon my spells to keep me safe. I, unfortunately, had not gotten so far as a days travel away from my home when the royal guards placed me on their wanted lists and began combing the country-side. I knew well that I could not depend upon the docks, so I had to change my original plans, and decided to risk movement through places where I knew that the soldiers would be reluctant to go. Death in the swamp would be more noble then feeding the gears of a war I cared nothing about.
I made it almost to the Kingdom of Nyrond when I was captured by a tribe of Goblins. I suppose that one would think that a man of my skill could easily destroy these humanoids, and I could, but then I decided that with the war taking place in the north, the Humanoids of the south would not be cooperative with the local human leadership of the kingdom, and I was right. There was much resentment between the goblins and the soldiers who offered to pay a modest prize for my capture, but this bounty was ignored and no information as to my whereabouts were ever released to them.
I allowed myself to be detained into a manner of slavery. I wasn’t taken below ground to help dig the massive network of caves with the other human slaves, instead I was taken to the goblin tribal leader, he informed me that their Cleric had recently been killed, all of his books regarding the religions and customs of the goblin people were scribed in some secret language which the former cleric had used to make himself seem more irreplaceable. I agreed to transcribe these works in exchange for comfortable conditions and a small measure of freedom, and this was how my new life began.
For many moons I worked, and lived among the goblins. I became enthralled by their ethnicity, it then dawned on me that no books that I have ever seen had ever been dedicated to cultures of the lesser human races. My guess is that writers are, by nature, a cowardly lot; thus, I decided to begin a side project, while working among them: To record the facts and behaviors which I witnessed, and, once I finished serving them, I was made good my escape, and I chose to seek more humanoids in which to study. This book is the composite of my work. I write it for those interested in how these monstrous beings live, either for a historical perspective of our world, or to use as one will.
I was shopping in one of those Antiquarian bookshops, hoping to score some old pulp magazines. I’m not sure how I found it, I was just walking by the section on occult and arcane religions, when for whatever reason, a book from the bottom of a pile seemed to catch my eye. Many of the books were on thick wooden shelves, however the overflow, like much of the place, was simply stacked into heaps and placed hodgepodge everywhere. For whatever reason, I started moving books, to see more clearly the book which called to me. The letters were bizarre, in a script that I have never seen, almost runic; well, there wasn’t anything almost runic about it, it was definitely hand-written in runes that were definitely not Germanic, Nordic, nor Celtic; but besides the mysterious text, the inside was illustrated, also by hand, with strange beasts the likes I had only seen in my nightmares! Laughing hyenas which walked upright on two legs, like a man, yellow demons armed with bizarre instruments of war the likes I had never seen and couldn’t place culturally, the more I flipped through the pages, the more intrigued that I became. What kind of fantasy was this?
I’m not sure why I carried it up to the front and purchased it. I mean, I collect old books, but this was definitely beyond my means, paying for it set me back quit a bit, forcing me to live off of soup and little else for the next few weeks, all for some book which I couldn’t even read!
The cover was constructed of dyed leather, stained a lustrous blackish-red, and stretched across what I assume to be some high quality wood. It opened upon three tiny, silver hinges, and the title of the book was foiled in silver as well, mixed with some kind of gemstones which I have never been able to properly identify.
The paper inside is thicker then I’ve ever seen before, almost like that stuff that the trendy magazines use, but without the glossy finish? And the ink was strange too, in the light I noticed that it seemed to glitter, as if some sort of stone had been ground down extremely finely and mixed in with the ink itself.
I needn’t tell you that this book mystified me! It appeared to be ancient, yet it was just too polished, and too perfect. I tried to find a copyright date, but was unable to find one. Surely this was a hoax of some kind, but why?
While flipping through its pages, a slip of paper fell out into my lap. This was written in English, and it stated that this book was obtained and brought to shore by a Nantucket whaling ship called the Despot Pride. Apparently they spotted a ship a few hundred miles off the coast of Cuba, at first they thought that it was an Asian junk of some kind, but nobody could identify the style. Moving into investigate, they discovered that the men on board were not Asian, but almost gypsyish. The boat was too small for ocean travel, it took all of their efforts to keep the small ship afloat, the Despot Pride quickly arrived to their aid, pulling the little junk out of the water and giving the brown gypsy people a ride to the coast.
They reported that the gypsy junk was colorfully painted, the carpenter inspected the little ship and said that he couldn’t identify the timbers used to make her hull. The instructions that the gypsy captain gave to the Nantucketters was odd as well, they requested not to be taken to Cuba, but to some nameless patch of water between Florida, Cuba, and Bermuda, which the whalers did. Upon leaving, the gypsy junk presented the captain of the Pride with the book.
Needless to say that nobody ever reported the Junk again. The only thing left from this experience is this book that I purchased hundreds of years later. I was at a loss, but then it occurred to me that the Captain (or who ever wrote this history) stated that the gypsies spoke English. Could it be that the tome was written in English as well? Now, my grandfather and I would spend our Sundays doing Cryptograms. Just out of curiosity I decided to try and decode the bizarre runes by finding single letter words, and from there, I was able to begin translating the codes into a readable form of English. This worked after a few weeks of sticking to it. I admit now that I became obsessed, but I believe that I am finally making some headway.
Apparently, this book was written in 563, but not of this world, at least I don’t think so. The places described in the first few paragraphs describe no place that I am familiar with, and a few of the illustrations contain maps that are not matching with any known coasts.
I believe that this text was written in a dimension called Oerth, a world much like our own, however one which, if my theory is correct, could be bleeding off our magic to their own plane. I think that the gypsies were from this dimension and accidentally slipped into our own and became temporarily lost.
This book appears to describe humanoids, written by a man who chose to live among them, I will attempt to translate the runes into modern letters, but this process is slow. I only hope that the quality of the posts to come will make up for the lack of quantity.
While I strive to play the game as close to core as I can, one of my greatest pleasures is pushing the boundaries of what was intended. One of the best ways to do this is, again, through alignment.
You take a character or NPC which is normally always associated with one idea, and you reverse it. This is a common tool which writers use in an attempt to freshen up and revitalize old ideas, and it works! Well, sometimes it works, nothing is fool-proof.
Lets take a Necromancer, as an example. When you think of necromancer you always think of a old man with a beard who is chaotic evil and 20th level. They live in black castles out in the middle of noplace and . . . well, do I really need to go on? I’m sure that everybody gets the idea. There is nothing wrong with this description! Things should be as one expects them to be, that is a good formula and players absolutely love the scenario! It is fun! But what about this, instead of an old man, we’ll make him a young man, and instead of 20th level, we’ll make him 1st or 2nd level; and instead of him being Chaotic Evil, we’ll make this specialist Chaotic Good.
The boy dresses in black, he is extremely focused, his family was slain by an evil Necromancer and he plans on taking the evil-doers powers and using them against him. He constantly fights evil, choosing to fight fire with fire. If he can resist the ever-present draw of evil, he will grow to be one of the most powerful forces of good in the world. We can either create this guy as a PC or keep him as an NPC. The problem with him is that at low levels he is extremely weak, he is more of a liability to a party then a benefit. I think that I would keep him an NPC that travels with the party, agreeing to aid them if he can, and instead of them paying him, he’ll pay them. He’ll seek knowledge and experience, he is a minor character who will, hopefully, if he is protected, turn into a major one.
The Con of having him in your party is that you must keep him alive and protect him. The Benefit is that he’s smart, he knows much of the occult and you can use him to pass along myths and legends which the party wouldn’t normally be privy too. He’ll also have access to institutions of higher learning, and be seen as an authority figure on the subject. He is a specialist in all things undead. He will be opinionated, and it is his opinions which will bring the party into trouble from time to time as the wrong people will use his opinions to hide themselves, aiming him at the wrong target which he will attack with zeal only to find out that he has been tricked and maybe he done the wrong thing. He is walking a thin line, a line of evil and his judgment will be foggy at times because of this.
He won’t raise his own dead, he knows that this is wrong, but he will steal the undead from others and then use them until he feels that it is time to return them to their graves. The trick here, is of course to keep the game in balance, from time to time he can fuel an adventure, but we don’t want to turn the game on him, it should be more about the PCs then some NPC and we don’t want to put too much value in him early on, because if he dies then it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. This is a risky campaign idea that in the hands of a weak DM can easily turn into a Railroading situation where the DM will take over the game with his own PC which takes all of the glory. I know that it sounds like I’m making this guy out to be a hero character of the DM but I’m not. This character is essentially broken, it can take a party places where they normally wouldn’t go because they have more common sense then that. A Necromancer is pretty pointless until 6th level, then he can start doing some damage, but until that time he must be babied which I don’t think would be much fun for a full time PC.
Another thing that I like to do is remind folks that not all monsters are monstrous. Well, some are, but sometimes I’ll throw in a curveball. A horde of goblins is seen outside of town, and the public officials want these things killed. The trick is that even low level adventurers can easily wipe them out, they are pacifists who have been banished from the goblin kingdom for weakness. They just want to be left alone and the real goal of the adventure is to see how long it takes before the party figures it out. Then they have to relocate the goblins to a place where they will do some good, perhaps they have a magic item which they worship, and believe that their job is to cultivate a forest (which farmers wouldn’t like) in another part of the area lays a dead ranger, killed by a troll invasion and the forest has darkened and is dying. The trolls must be exterminated and the goblins moved in to restore the balance as the forest guardians.
Of course the trick to this type of adventure is to avoid being to preachy, whatever happens happens, right? But someday down the road perhaps the goblins will form their own little community which can spawn further adventures, and perhaps become a testing ground to see if this new race would make a good stock for PC characters to come from.
I think that that is my beef with the Humanoids Handbook, none of that stuff is play tested well, and dropping the wrong creature into a campaign can destroy it quickly. I believe in slow experimentation. When introducing a new race or class I think that it should be eased in, and I let the PC playing it know that I can pull it back out at any time. I also try to make the PCs as responsible for the world as possible. If the players play this scenario successfully, then they can earn the right to create Goblin characters, but if they fail at the goal, then this goblin stock will be lost forever. I don’t see why anyone would just drop something into their campaign for the hell of it! I have played by share of humanoid creatures, the most powerful being a Wolfwere, but the difficulty of the game was equal to the power. The DM also trusted me not to destroy the game with it, I was hiding in a human setting, and if I were to be discovered for what I really was I’d be killed. It takes the right kind of player to playtest a new race, preferably one who is interested in roleplaying and has experience DMing so that he knows how to be agreeable and not take this advantage to try and beat the system.
Medusa Cactus
Climate/Terrain: Dry/Desert
Frequency: Very Rare
Organization: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Water, Sunlight
Intelligence: Semi- (2-4)
Treasure: P,Q(x10),X,Y
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 7
Movement: 4
Hit Dice: 3
THAC0: 17
No. of Attacks: 4
Damage/Attack: 1d3+1
Special Attacks: Needles cause flesh to stone
Special Defenses: see below
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: M (5’-7’ tall)
Morale: Average (8-10)
XP Value: 650
The medusa cactus looks exactly like a normal cactus in the area, however close inspection will reveal eyes.
Combat: The medusa cactus stalks its victims, moving only at night and so slowly that it can’t be observed. It is covered in needles, many of them harmless, but some contain a venom which mimics the wizard spell Flesh to Stone. At will the cactus can project these needles, its range is 1/2/3 and can fire 3 normal needles, plus 1 venomous needle per round.
The Medusa Cactus regenerates all of its hit points by 8 hours of inactivity.
Habitat/Society:The cactus, because of its nature is almost impossible to spot, it lives with normal cactus plants which looks exactly like it, however they are not intelligent. Their lairs are filled with statues of creatures, forming a lush and beautiful garden oasis, which the cactus enjoys tending, and is always on the look out for new displays. The treasure in the medusa cactus’ lair will be incidental, it doesn’t value these items, except for either items of beauty or lures for more victims.
Ecology: The medusa cactus is a solitary creature, they will not attack their own kind, but they don’t enjoy each others company either. They reproduce upon death, seeds deep inside of it are released, the carcass spawning 1d6 cactuses which stay in the area until maturity, when they each fight for their parent’s garden. The winner of these contests keeps the established garden while the others leave to seek their own fortunes. The only way to stop this birthing process is to burn the dead cactus.
A few individuals have attempted to harvest the venomous needles, however it has never been successful, as the venom is only effective for 3 hours after being fired by the cactus, no magic seems to have the power to delay this natural reaction and it is yet a mystery as to the exact biology or anatomy of this dangerous intelligent plant.
Yeah, I’ll be taking your treasure now. You kids have found some good stuff!, but don’t you be worrying about it, I won’t leave you empty handed, you see, I’ve got some advice for you to take with you. I know that you are going to hate me for this, but some day, you’ll be thanking me because if you are as good as I think that you are, you’ll be doing this to when you get to be my age too. I also know that you think that you’ve earned it, but let me tell you something. You didn’t earn nothing yet!
You want to talk about earning something, try staying up all night in the pouring rain and having to march all day on the next! Try having to leave your brother behind because he broke his leg any you’re surrounded by half-mad ogres! When you can survive a week on your own in the Troll Finns, THEN, young one, then you have earned it.
You see, we in the business call this paying your dues. You can’t just come into the city and expect to find work! This is my work, I’ve got enough competition around here without lazy little piles like you stealing from me. You’re lucky that Strumtum didn’t catch you before I did, he would have taken more then your treasure, and that is a promise. You see here you are a very tiny fish in a very big ocean, and you’d think with a population as big as this city has, that it could sustain just one more band of adventurers, but let me tell you, it can’t! We who stay here, and call this place home, we are cut-throats because we’ve got to be.
I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to rent you a room for the night, and make sure that you get a decent breakfast, and then you and your friends here are going to leave this city, and I’ll tell you why you want to do that.
Out there in the country, they need people like you. Here wannabe adventurers are a dime a dozen, but out there beyond those walls, there are folks out there that are willing to work with you. You go find a town, a really small one, and you’ll find adventure, trust me. There are lots of bad things out there in the world right now, evil seems to be creeping up from the streets itself. You do that, you go to some little hole in the wall village that nobody’s ever heard of, and you call it home. You protect it, you make yourself known, you make yourself available, you make a real name for yourself, and you’ll get something that is worth more then this here treasure that I’m relieving you of, you’ll get respect!
Pay your dues. Folks like me and Strumtum are too damned old to be tramping around the countryside, besides, we’ve done our time doing that sort of thing. Our backs are twisted from sleeping on rocks, our bodies covered in scars, we’re tired, young one. But you aren’t, and that is exactly why you need to go out there. Leave the easy city-work to us old men, and you go take care of the crap that we can’t, and when you’re done, and if you survive it, you’ll find an empty soft bed that you can call home every night waiting for you long after I’m gone.
Well, I’ll be leaving you now. Once you get out of those ropes, you boys head on over to the Aging Dragon Inn and tell them that I sent you, they’ll fix you up good so that you can prepare for your journey.
City work is dangerous, yes you have more resources, better equipment, cheaper prices, and better chances to fence the stuff that you’ve earned for usable gold, however like the story above illustrates, the demographics aren’t in your favor. If you think about it, a large city has a huge population of real classed adventurers. The best fighters, the strongest wizards, the sneakiest thieves, hell there are probably Paladins in the city. This translates to loss of work, and it ruins a low level parties chance of success.
Leaving the city, and taking your adventures out into the country puts the demographics more in your favor, while a city houses hundreds, if not thousands of 1st level fighters, a tiny village being harassed by bandits probably has just 1 or 2 1st level fighters, if any at all!
ENTERPRISING
A player can really give a DM a headache, and upset the balance of the game simply by collecting all of the enemies weapons after a melee and selling them. We can quickly snuff this kind of deal by not having a market for them to sell their wares. A small town’s shop will be centered around the industry that it has access too, of course some arms will always be present, for personal defense, but not enough of a market for the merchant to justify buying a large lot of swords.
Also, if one thinks about it, bladed weapons require care and maintenance to keep them in functioning order, a classed humanoid may properly care for his weapon, but as a general rule, it is up to you to determine how industrious the humanoid in question is. A goblin horde with their own weapon-smith would be very dangerous! Typically a goblin will own a weapon which he found or stole from some place, and he won’t have the common sense, or know-how to properly maintain it. Instead, he’ll just replace the old dull blade with a better one from defeated enemies. More often then not, humanoids will use weapons that don’t require that much care, your bludgeoning-type weapons would be more desirable to them then a sharp blade, unless they know how to sharpen it, it would only serve well for a week or two, maybe less under lots of use.
Because of this, whenever we roll a 1 or a 20 with a humanoid weapon (or any found weapon really), we’ll roll a saving throw for the item against crushing blow. A broken weapon will have to be replaced. I know that lots of fighters, who when they change weapons, just drop what they were using and draw the new one to save on attack time, well a humanoid would be all over that! A good sharp sword would be a rarity, and something to risk your life for.
Armor is much the same way, the many humanoids don’t wear armor, especially not sophisticated stuff because it needs to be oiled and hammered out too, and they just don’t have access to that kind of skill. A critical hit (or a 20 since I don’t really use crits) would also have to make a saving throw else lose a point or be ruined completely depending on the situation and how the DM wants to call it.
Any found weapon or armor would be subject to this rule, with the exception of an enchanted weapon. Enchanted items are more durable and can be left unattended for long periods of time, they are magic! They cut through sharpening stones, resist bending, and repair themselves on their own. At lower levels of play, however, one is typically dealing with +1 weapons, these aren’t necessarily enchanted, they are just of a better quality then the normal blade. Their cost should be double, but if a 1 or a 20 is rolled, you can enforce the item saving throw, if it is failed, the blade doesn’t break, but the +1 is gone. Of course you should modify this saving throw in the players favor, because this is a quality sword and should be able to put up with some punishment. I have heard of folks giving items hit points which I suppose works, but is just way to much paperwork for my liking.
In other words, what I just did was lowered the value of humanoid weapons. They are tarnished and dull and junk, who is going to buy them? I suppose that a really industrious player could restore the blades, but would that really be worth their while?
Food for thought!
On Sunday, the wife and I went on down to Red Oak, Iowa. My father-in-law runs the Montgomery County Historical Museum, and we were invited to the unveiling of the new Villisca Axe Murder exhibit. It was a big hoopla to draw in money for the museum, there was an author there who wrote a book about the murders, and my wife and mother-in-law baked a huge cake in the shape of the Moore House which looked wonderful.
The exhibit itself is brilliantly done! It’s a faithful copy of the Moore bedroom (without the blood), and tons of information about the murders, but this really isn’t what this article is about, something else came out of this vicious tragedy which can provide a model for our hobby. This article will mostly be focused on the social implications of this happening, as the social implications were huge and took a nasty toll on the town which lurks over it to this day.
Just as a quick biopsy of what happened, so that my readers who aren’t familiar with the case can grasp what I’m writing about: In June of 1912, the residence of J.B. Moore, a successful business man who sold farm implements, including the contract with John Deere, was broken into during the night. Whoever did this took the axe which Moore used to break up coal, walked into the house and right upstairs. He killed Mr. Moore, his wife, his four little children, then went down stairs to kill two more little girls who were staying in the guest room. The killer wrapped all of the bodies up in their bedding, covered all of the windows and mirrors, locked the door and walked away. The case has never been solved.
THE COMMUNITY
Before this happened, Villisca was a cosmopolitan little city. Located right on the railroad, the trains provided the blood which kept the towns heart beating. Many of the people in town were middle-class, the lower-classes kept to themselves on the other side of the tracks, but everybody got along. Everybody knew their place in the pecking order. Villisca had two churches, a Methodist and a Presbyterian. It was a classy place, providing arts and entertainment which included high class music (a rarity at the time), big acts, and festivals that brought folks in from all around.
Life was happy! It evolved into an almost British-like social society. Some people owned their own automobiles, and the first symphony to play in the state of Iowa was here. Typical of country-life, folks kept their doors unlocked, and they talked. They talked about their neighbors and it was impossible to get away with anything without the entire town finding out about it.
The biggest crimes that the police had to handle at the time were simple petty crimes, usually the doings of transients who also rode the rails. A hobo camp was just outside of town, new faces were always showing up. Transients could easily find work from the residence, helping around their houses, or working fields. Folks let them come in for dinner, and even lodged them like good Christians.
All of this changed when the murders happened, the police had no idea what to do! The first officer on duty had a local guy watch over the house while he called in a Detective from Council Bluffs to come help out. What happened next really pushes the limit on the imagination.
Once word got out that a grizzly murder had gone down in the Moore house, you would think that people would just whisper about it, and do some armchair detective work and that would be it. The Gentiles of Villisca, these high society people weren’t content to just talk about the murders, or to simply go to church and mourn their dead. Instead, everyone in town, and from miles around, showed up. So many people came to the house that folks were falling off of the porch. The man in charge of securing the house was mobbed, there was nothing that he could do to stop them from entering the house. He told them that if they go inside, then they’ll witness something that would haunt them for the rest of their days, I mean the killer bashed in the heads of children with an axe! Mr. & Mrs. Moore were so deformed that they couldn’t be identified! This was a BAD crime scene, the kind that if it happened today would require councilors on duty to talk to the officers who had to work it. It was nightmarish and folks were lining up to go inside, some folks were even taking trophies, and it wasn’t just restricted to stealing property either, but pieces of skull and flesh were taken by these normally happy people who were now acting like ghouls!
I really can’t stress how nasty this must have been. You’ve got eight dead, mutilated bodies sitting in a closed up house, cooking in the Iowa summer heat. The smell, the bugs, mud tracked in from outside by the hundreds of spectators walking around the place like it was a circus freak-show . . . and they were taking stuff.
To say that the crime-scene was tainted would be a severe understatement. Crime investigation at the time was yet in its infancy, especially in a place like this, where the biggest crime is horse theft. A so-called expert in finger prints came down, but he was so drunk by the time he got off of the train and showed up at the door, that the police sent him to the hotel to sleep it off. Not that finger prints would had been any good, the next day, after he sobered up and investigated, he only found one print in the victim‘s blood, but it was smeared; and even then, we still can’t tell if it was the killers prints, or one of the ghoulish visitors who played with stuff. Even if he had found the perfect print, there wasn’t yet a system in place which it could be checked against, not to mention that fingerprints weren’t excepted in court yet.
Folks try to yell about the police screwing the job up, but I personally don’t see this as the case. It was the ghouls and gawking which made this crime scene unspeakable. Folks were even playing with the axe which the murderer had left leaning against the wall outside of the guest room when he’d finished.
There was enough evidence to piece together what had happened, and blood-hounds were brought in, they led the entire town to the river where investigators found a bloody cloth, but this could had been somebody else’s, as it was a popular fishing spot, and anybody whose ever cleaned a catfish knows how bloody those things are.
In other words, the killer had escaped. After a short simmering of the minds, the good folks of Villisca started realizing what this meant. What happened next is a bit more understandable, but yet again, it went to an extreme that couldn’t be foreseen.
TERROR
There was no motive to this crime. Nothing was stolen, J.B. Moore had no obvious enemies (yet), but even if he did, why kill the children? And it wasn’t just the Moore family, but the two girls who just happened to be spending the night! A local dispute had erupted between the city officials and the power company, because of this, all of the street lamps had been left off on the night of the murder, thus the streets were dark. There wasn’t any moon out that night neither, so it was even worse! The children had attended a Children’s Night at one of the local churches, and the two girls were afraid to walk home in the dark and had gained permission to sleep in the Moore’s guestroom. The oldest girl was friends with one of the Moore children, so this wasn’t a problem.
This crime though, which no matter where you lived at in Villisca, was right down the street, and was so random that it could happen to anybody. ANYBODY! And you and your family could be next! More insanity erupted. Of course nobody believed that it was a local who had done this, it was a monster!
The hobos, who were in the camp outside of town, broke up the moment that they heard, all jumped trains and were out of town before any violence could befall them. Many of the transient workers ran too, of course it didn’t end there. The minorities were next, physically ran out of town if they didn’t go of their own free will. Visitors were no longer embraced, but looked upon with suspicion. The transients which did find work in town were treated oddly too. Before the murders they were usually allowed to sleep in the barn, but now people were putting them in their sitting rooms, while they and their families locked themselves up in one bedroom. The idea was that they could hear the transient getting murdered and they themselves could escape.
People rigged up cans on wires, so that in the dark, the killer would trip the wire and rattle the cans, alerting those inside to their presence. Of course the problem with this is all of the critters that also call Iowa home, many of them nocturnal. Coons would rattle the cans and folks inside the houses were to terrified to even come out and use the out-house!
Everyone bought guns, and there was a run on new locks; no hardware store was prepared for this, and many fights broke out because folks felt that they needed to protect their families and to hell with everybody else (a distinctly UN-Iowan sentiment).
Even today this can be felt, but in 1912, and the decade that followed it, the only way to describe the public is TERRIFIED! Everybody was armed, when folks came home late at night (about 9:30) they were warned to make as much noise as possible, else risk getting shot by their fathers. Nobody screwed around, doors were locked, but rumors stated the mysterious murder took place in a locked house, so nobody felt safe. In effect, everybody was victims of this crime, and the police (also locals) didn’t like it one bit either, this general feeling of helplessness overtook them as well. Before the week was out, every barn, alley, outhouse, and shadow was checked in the hunt for the monster that did this, but nothing came about it. Folks who were kids at the time recalled their terror of watching armed officers surrounding their barns, and them just knowing right then and there that the killer was hiding in there.
SHARK TANK
Emotions in Villisca had ran the gambit, or at least one would had thought that they had. You’d think that the shame of their ghoulish behavior would sink in, but unfortunately people out there saw money to be made from this. Papers from all over were interested in this story, and the quiet, simple people of Villisca were not used to folks as far away as New York caring about what happened to them. One of the first reporters, and one of the biggest trouble-makers soon hit the scene. He didn’t care about the crime, he only saw a chance to make money. This man was a drunk and addicted to opium, originally from California, he was fired from his job as a respected journalist because there wasn’t anything respectful about him. Shock reporting is nothing new, and at the time of the murder, he was in Kansas City working for their paper, and he instantly jumped on the story like a rattler strikes a rat.
Of course he didn’t work alone, another man showed up, and with his charisma and the writers gift of writing, they caused one of the biggest shit storms this state would ever be privileged enough to witness, and fabricated one of the greatest Iowa myths of all time . . . well, unless you’re from Villisca.
This story which they concocted had it all! Sex, Violence, and Rock & Roll long before Elvis would be swinging his junk around on the stage. You see they provided a suspect, all this time folks believed that the killer had to be a transient, no way could he come from ‘this’ community. No way could it be one of ‘them’. It had to be a foreigner, only a foreigner could be monstrous enough to do a whole family in like that. But this lawyer and newspaper man said otherwise. Not only was it one of ‘Them’, but it was the most powerful guy in town!
Now before Moore was murdered, he owned and ran a successful hardware store, but before that he worked for this guy, Frank F. Jones. This guy was a blowhard, opinionated bully. He seemed to have his grubby hands into everything, he operated not just the hardware store, but the bank as well. He was a politician who was running for Senator at the time of the murder. Now I’m not going to lie to you, the story is good! There was real bad blood between the two. Not only had Moore robbed him of the John Deere contract when he quit and opened his own shop, to you folks not savvy in country matters, there is no bigger name in farming implements then John Deere, it is the FORD or Chevy of tractors, and while not everybody owned their own automobile, almost everyone in town used a John Deere, it was a status symbol, and it still is to this day. Thus, this contract was a big deal, but remarkably this wasn’t the only thing that Moore was into in regards to Jones’ affairs, it also was a matter of common Villisca knowledge, that J.B. Moore was involved with his wife!
Great story, right? You can see how this kind of scandal would feed a small community rumor mill faster then the grain elevator fills up train cars, but it gets better. It is said that the suspect hired a professional criminal, a Blackie Johnson, a guy who was in Illinois at the time, not to mention never even knew that he was being called Blackie, this was just a name that the reporter decided to give him; you see, before landing his gig in KC, he wrote a series of fictional stories about this lovably rogue named Blackie, he just applied the name to Johnson, a career criminal, how and why they decided to finger this guy out of everybody else is beyond me, but folks ate it up!
According to the story, J.B. Moore’s old boss and biggest rival let Blackie into the house while Moore and his family was at church. Blackie went upstairs and hid in the attic closet until he was sure that everyone was asleep, then he crept out and butchered everyone with the axe. The two even found 3 witnesses who would testify in court that they had seen or heard this plot taking place. A mysterious group of three men plotting the murder, one man even claimed that he saw the suspect let Blackie in the house! Of course all of these witnesses, but one, caved in or changed their testimony once they took the stand. Jones got sick and tired of being slandered and attempted to shut the lawyer up for good in court, but it didn’t work, instead the lawyer twisted the case so that it wasn’t about slander anymore, but all about the fact that the suspect was the real mastermind behind the murder. Movies aren’t this dramatic! This lawyer would preach his theory everywhere he could. On the street corner, in barns, on porches, and folks were just drawn to him!
Well, the police saw through this. With the collapse of the case against the senator, their attentions were draw to a crazy little preacher from Nebraska who was in town that night and was telling everybody about it in lurid detail.
Rev. George Kelly was not a good person, he was what we here in Iowa refer to as a kook. He was brought into Villisca to cover for the normal preacher who was out of town. He was staying in the home of a church member, and there was always lots of complaints about his behavior. He’d yell at the children, and one of the residence, who was a child back then, reported that he stayed the night at her house once, and her mom was so unnerved and scared that she spent the night on the steps with a rifle to protect her family. She had her husband tell him that he’d have to find a different place to sleep the next night.
Well, to make a long story short, the police arrested the little preacher, but then the next social problem took the town by the throat! There was evidence which the preacher did it. A cloths washing company in Omaha reported that they had cleaned a bloody shirt. Normally one puts all of their cloths on a train, it got sent to Omaha and then returned to the pharmacy were you could pick them up. Well, the preacher took his cloths to the company himself, and didn’t leave his name, he just told them to send it to Villisca when they were clean. He then returned to Villisca and told the pharmacy that he was expecting the bundle. The problem was that the cleaners cleaned the shirt before alerting the police, so we’ve got no idea how much blood was on the shirt. When questioned by the cops, the preacher even stated that it was blood, but said that it was his blood because he had cut himself shaving and just let himself bleed all over his new shirt. Cops didn’t buy it and they grilled him all night until he confessed. HE CONFESSED!!!! He said that the voice of god told him to grab the axe and to “Slay, Utterly”. So he did. He also said that this wasn’t the first time that god talked to him, the good lord also wanted some buildings burned down in Nebraska, for whatever reason, so he done that too.
Another good lead was the preachers previous charge of ogling little girls. I was very brief in my description of the murder, but whoever took the lives of the children took extra care with one of the girls murdered down stairs. The police felt confident that they had their man! But all of the Presbyterians, who knew that the preacher was odd, and really weird, couldn’t believe that he was an axe murderer. Couple this with the fact of the lawyer and the reporter preaching about this scandal to anybody who would pay to listen, to everybody’s surprise, this drove a wedge between the town.
Folks formed two camps. Those that believed that the Senator did it, and those who believed that the preacher did it. Once the little preacher was held for trial and taken to Red Oak, a mob formed outside of the courthouse and he had to be transferred to a secret location, not for fear that the mob outside would lynch him, but because this mob was trying to set him free!
With all of this evidence against the little preacher, the lawyer and the reporter had corrupted every resident in the state of Iowa, titillating them with the story of the Senator. No jury could convict this guy, even though all of the evidence pointed directly to him, including a signed confession! The little preacher was allowed to walk, and the town went nuts.
The factions of the town attacked each other for the miscarriage of justice. Folks who believed that the Senator did it refused to shop in stores owned by folks who believed that the preacher did it. The children of the Senator’s supporters couldn’t play with the children in the Preachers camp. Violence erupted as well, none as serious as taking an axe to each others heads, but fights and arson did happen. It was insane! Surprisingly enough there are even pictures of the father of the two girls murdered in the house shaking hands with the little preacher. He believed, until the day that he died that Blackie Johnson had killed his daughters.
This debate still continues, the Senators life was ruined, he lost everything and was just as much a victim as anybody else effected by the tragedy, probably more so! As he didn’t lose his life, out-right, but he did loose all of his businesses, his prestige, and his money, not to mention that his name is still on the suspect list, and no doubt always will be. The Preacher was busted looking at little girls again up in South Dakota, he spent some time in an asylum before disappearing from the eyes and ears of history forever.
Years later, after all of this drama was over, a new suspect joined the list, a serial killer who could be tied to being in Villisca at the time of the Moore murders with the exact M.O. of this sort of crime. He had killed his own mom and sister in this exact way, not to mention it would solve a string over murders along his path . . . but of course this man is now dead too and this case has cooled to the point were solving it is irrelevant.
THE AFTERMATH
The repercussions of this tragedy can still be seen to this day. The house was immediately rented to a different family, nobody lived their long as the place is one of the most haunted houses in the country, and perhaps that is part of the social implications too. This case still ruffles feathers. The axe was kept under lock and key in the Red Oak Courthouse, it was suppose to be delivered to the museum for the unveiling, however a group in Villisca wishes that the house would burn to the ground and that the axe be buried in the cemetery. The thought of the Museum being burglarized during the night was not out of the question so the axe never made it to the exhibit.
The town was dealt a near fatal blow when the railroad died out, today it is much smaller then it once was, but it still struggles against what happened all those years ago. This could had happened anywhere, it just happened there. In a little-big town in central Iowa which was once known for pork and butter is now infamous for their bad behavior and tragedy.
THE ROLE PLAYING ANGLE
I know that I like to explore murder cases in my games. Nothing entertains me more then presenting a who done it, but something like this can really influence a who-do-it on a much grander scale! A successful village turned absolutely upside down over-night. A reasonable cast of characters. This could make for some really good vegetables in our mystery campaign soup! At least I see the potential, if you don’t then I hope that you at least got a good story out of the deal.
For more on the Villisca Case, there is a good supply of media out there. The Official Website, A documentary called “Villisca: Living with the Mystery” on DVD, and the new book by Roy Marshall called Villisca. There is more, out there then just this brief introduction.
All right, lets play catch-up! I owe you ladies and gentlegamers a post in regards to Specialized Combat Styles! Now this assumes that you know how Weapon Proficiencies work, but it works just slightly different. Dedicating 1 Weapon Proficiency slot to a fighting style means that you are now specialized in its use. Most of the time only straight up Fighters can specialize in anything (Rangers & Paladins may not specialize as they are a sub-class) however fighting styles are a bit different, so it pays to go back and look at the previous post here.
One-Handed Fighting Style
Folks who are specialized in this method of combat, are tricky fighters! They are much better at blocking and parrying then unspecialized characters, and this grants them a bonus of 1 to their Armor Class.
A Fighter may spend a 2nd slot on this fighting style and gain a bonus of 2 to AC but that is the limit.
In order to qualify for this bonus, you can’t be using a shield, but this does allow you to have a free hand to grab objects, or punch people square in the face if you’ve got them pinned down with your weapon.
2-Hander Fighting Style
Folks who are specialists of this style are much faster in combat then others are, the benefit is that the player shaves 3 points off of his weapon speed. This bonus only applies to fighting with weapons which either require two hands to operate, or can be used two handed (i.e. bastard sword). Of course to gain any benefits from this, one has to be applying weapon speeds to their initiative.
Additionally, most folks don’t realize that lots of weapons can be used two-handed, if a player states that he is doing this, and he is specialized in this fighting style, he gains a +1 to damage.
Weapon & Shield Fighting Style
This is the one that got me confused, because I already wrote about this, but I’ll list it again. Specialists of this fighting style can chose to make an additional attack with a shield punch. When doing this, you don’t gain the AC bonus for the shield for that round, additionally you suffer a –2 to attack with your weapon, and a –4 to attack with your shield. If you put an additional slot dedicated to this fighting style, your weapon attacks normally, and you only suffer a –2 to attack with your shield.
For more information on shields click here.
Two Weapon Fighting Style
As a general rule, we only want Rangers to attack with two weapons without penalties because this is a class bonus specific to that sub-class, thus we want to keep it that way. However! How we fix this is that we demand that the weapon in the characters off hand must be a size smaller then the one in the characters favored hand. Now the Complete Fighters Handbook disrespects this rule, so here I will be drift away from its suggestions, but I realize that not everybody has my mentality thus as an option, a specialized fighter can wield weapons of equal size, and only suffer a –2 to the off hand attack.
I don’t follow those rules because I feel that this steps on the toes of all Rangers, I do however grant the normal attack, and –2 penalty (unspecialized fighters make attacks with –2 penalty to their favored hand, and –4 to attack with their off hand)
What this also allows, is for a fighter to make two separate tactical attacks, if he chooses too, he can parry with his off hand (+1 to AC) or pin with his good hand and attack with his off hand. Whatever he wants to do, if the 2 attacks are different from each other, he’ll give up a –1 to all attacks just because he is watching for 2 different things.
It should also be stated right here that a Ranger who chooses to specialize in this fighting style does not gain bonuses to attacks, he can’t improve his natural ability of two-handed awesomeness, thus he is already specialized in this attack form and can choose one of the other fighting styles to specialize in if he wishes to.
Overview
All of this stuff is advanced, but it does fit well in the core rules. Advanced players use this kind of stuff because after a while, standard combat can get boring as heck! If you want to make the game more challenging or different, then I suggest paying more attention to fighting styles, a good DM will also apply this to their NPCs, monsters who only attack with their fists could qualify for different attacks. Take the Flesh Golem for instance. Anybody that ever read Frankenstein knows that the monster was much more entertaining then simply rolling dice to determine hits and damage, spice it up some by letting them interact with their environment!
Fighting styles aren’t just limited to what I’ve put forth from the Complete Fighters Handbook, we can also come up with our own, all we need is an idea and to come up with an effect. PC characters won’t have access to all of them, don’t be afraid to try new things, if they don’t work then just don’t do it again or try and tweak it until you find the right recipe. As long as we are having fun, then we are doing it right.
I have this odd love for D&D plants, which probably borders on unhealthy, but so be it. It is just too bad that there aren’t enough of them! Plants are great because you can put then damn near anywhere, and they aren’t your average “monster”. You can put them to be a pain in the butt, effecting both parties or just the good guys. Skeletons are normally associated with low-level play, however if you give them the right conditions to fight in, they can really ruin your players day regardless of level.
Today’s Sunday Supplement is a plant that I enjoy, I’m not sure if it is original or not, it is a pretty simple concept but I don’t seem to have it listed in any of my books, regardless I hope that you enjoy it!
Plant, Fear Weed
Climate/Terrain: Any Tropical/Temperate woodland
Frequency: Rare
Organization: Clusters/Patches
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Sunlight, soil
Intelligence: Non- (0)
Treasure: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 2-20
Armor Class: 8
Movement: 0
Hit Dice 1
THAC0: 20
No. of Attacks: None
Damage/Attack: see below
Special Attack: Radiates fear
Special Defense poisonous
Magic Resistance: 40%
Size: L (8’+ long)
Morale: Nil
XP Value: 650
Fear Weed
The fear weed is a long leafy vine, they grow in clusters and quickly take over entire areas. The vine itself radiates an aura of fear, as the 4th level wizard spell, which extends 3 feet beyond its size. The plant has bright red berries which are highly toxic if consumed, however getting them is equally dangerous, as any harm done to the fear weed will result in its defenses kicking in, a cut results in splatter of a liquid which is a contact poison (Poison Class M), burning it releases the poison in a vicious toxic cloud (Class J Poison).
Halflings have discovered that the only safe way of destroying this plant is by pouring a bottle of wine on the root, something about the fermented grapes kills it in 1 to 4 days.
I don’t know what it is about Societies that is so attractive to me. Perhaps it is their secret nature, or just the fact that it gives elite Player Characters something to strive for. Not every character should be allowed to join a society, or a group because if we allow that to happen, then they become meaningless.
Some sub-classes really lend themselves to the idea . . . nay, require a little bit extra work on the Dungeon Master’s part to create them. Paladins, Rangers, Specialty Priests, all three of these require some sort of organization in order to be effective, especially Paladins! They are required to pay tithes to someone, as well as take orders from superiors. Rangers, while normally chaotic by nature, and loners, still require some kind of system incase an area becomes too much for one ranger to handle. While it isn’t as tight of a network as the Lawful Paladin, it is still a network all the same.
Specialty Priests, the most widely documented being the Druid, demand a military like infrastructure. But what other classes can benefit from a guild? We know that Thieves use them, Clerics also must follow orders of their superiors, even if this superior is a god whom only he can hear. Fighters, typically always honed their trade in the military or a militia which by nature is also strict. Wizards too, while very loose and secretive about what they do, also, no doubt, have some way of policing their own, as well as forming intelligent societies to further their own alignment beliefs.
You can see where I am going with this now, can’t you. I think alignment is key here, again, we’ll use it as a tool. This is too much work to do at one time, so we’ll just do it on a need-to-know basis when the existence of these societies and groups come into question.
All professional trades rely on guilds, being a carpenter required a youth to spend much time under a master who taught them the trade in exchange for the youth to do pain in the butt tasks which the carpenter shouldn’t be wasting his time doing. It is kind of funny to look at old books on carpentry, today this profession is wide open, but back in the day the trade was very secretive! Looking over antique books dedicated to carpentry is enough to baffle and stupefy any reader as they were written to be as complex and drawn out as possible. Applying complex mathematical formulas to the simplest projects, this was not a profession to be taken on by the laymen! This is serious stuff, which requires years and years of tutelage in the proper institutions!
This wasn’t done out of meanness, but in protecting ones value and industry. Now we are learning a huge lesson which goes with demystifying trades, as our jobs are slowly being replaced by robots or cheaper workers, but I digress, I’m getting too carried away and straying away from my original point.
GUILDS!!!!
Lets invent some! But before we do, we have to have some sort of direction. Our guilds have to have some sort of reason for being, and some structure. They have to have benefits for the members, and a goal or purpose.
REASON FOR BEING
Our game worlds are regulated by an important tool, this tool is called Alignment. NOW QUIT ROLLING YOUR EYES! It’s rude! Alignments aren’t just for rules lawyers, or things to ruin our players lives with, but honest to god tools to make the process of creation easier.
Take a book as an example, and I mean a really good one. One that you love. It has a plot, but if you are like me then you probably love the really complex ones which can’t be described in just a sentence or two. This book has a plot, but it is buried deep inside and hidden within the mechanics of the book. We don’t notice it, of course we know that it is there, but when we are reading the book, it isn’t important to us. The plot is a skeleton, and if we use alignment as a tool, like we are suppose to, then we’ll cover up the alignment just as tightly and neatly as a well written book covers its plot.
You’ve got 9 different Alignments, these alignments show us the relationships among them. Opposing alignments hate each other, Tight groups get along, and mixed groups can tolerate the other and perhaps work together if the need arises (or go through periods of hostility too). Chaotic Evil and Lawful Good will always fight amongst each other, that is the way it works, if this doesn’t happen then our worlds aren’t in balance, and while the real world doesn’t need to make sense, fiction does. This is a mechanic, and mechanics are there for a reason.
Since our mechanics aren’t meant to be obvious, we’ll cover them up with purpose. A good guild should have many goals, however they should also have a purpose that is as fixed as the rising and the setting of the sun. . . or at least appear to be.
A Chaotic Good Wizard’s Guild opposes all Evil, they aren’t as organized and probably meet only once per year . . . if that. To make it really mysterious, we’ll have the meeting be held only 1 time per decade during the Eclipse, this is a meeting which requires all of their energies to keep the forces of evil at bay. Perhaps they meet at a Stonehenge, which is in fact a gate to hell, and if they don’t show up on this date, and if they don’t direct their energies towards this goal, then the gate will be flung open and unleash hell on earth. Well, at least that is what they believe that they are doing, the fact is that nobody really remembers a time when they didn’t do this and a few of the members think that this may just be a waste of time. Evil and Good are just illusions, we of course know that this is a tool of the beasts wishing to be released.
There is also a lawful evil Cleric society, it’s goal is to release these monsters from the Stonehenge. They believe that they can direct the creatures, most of the time they can worship there, except when the CG Wizards guild shows up, they just aren’t strong enough to oppose them face to face. They get along with a Chaotic Evil wizard society, as well as the local Chaotic Neutral Guild of thieves. The master thieves think that both parties are crazy, but might is right, and even though they turn on the LE Clerisy by extorting as much money as they can from the union, the Clerics in charge continue to enjoy the spies, and thorns which the CN thieves constantly place in the CG Wizards guild.
Well, I could go on, but you get the picture of how the alignment tool works. It practically writes itself! Not all guilds will have such an important task, many will simply be there to police their own and to provide a reputable house of knowledge to folks who may require or depend upon it.
Now, honestly, we don’t need to create an enter Lawful Evil Cleric society to appose the CG Mages, all it would take is one evil Cleric who is the main tool of the devil buried under the rocks of Stonehenge. A Lawful Evil Cleric society would have a bigger goal then simply opening a pit to hell, that is just too easy. One man can do that! The main goal of a Lawful Evil Cleric Society would be to infiltrate a Good religion and corrupt it.
On the outside, they would appear to be Lawful and Just, but they manufacture fear. They keep their flock suspicious of each other, they engineer witch hunts, taking out high profile individuals under the guise that they have been corrupted. They would use good clerics to be their foot soldiers, they would get off on the idea! The ruse is undetectable unless the most inner circle is exposed, which is protected by secrecy and fear. Everyone thinks that the inner-circle is a myth, the fact that the church is controlled by evil is insane! They feed the poor and protect the populous from the ever present evil. It wouldn’t take much of the stretch of the imagination to see how powerful this cult could be. Corrupting the church of an entire nation, turning it against their King unless he cooperated with the Inner Circles goals, becoming just a pawn in their quest for greater wealth and power. Anyone who apposes them, their property is seized, their family bloodline discredited, their execution and torture imminent. Since they are lawful, they probably have an entire order of Paladins unknowingly perpetuating their evil plans.
Groups should have goals which are appropriate to their size and power. If one individual can do it on his own, then why have an entire society working to do it? Lawful orders will have more members then Chaotic ones, and will have bigger goals as well as the ability to realize much grander schemes. However, if a Chaotic Order is spread out far enough, this is when they can become dangerous! Chaotic Orders survive on the powers of truly awesome individuals. Great minds are normally associated with your Lawful alignments, however this isn’t always so, Chaotic philosophies embrace the power of independent thought and reward ambition.
Chaotic Evil Bandits are very popular enemies in D&D, most of these guys aren’t even thieves, just big buff bullies who simply take what they want and murder anyone who tries to stop them. Management is usually horrid, if not completely inconsistent. This is their weakness. Even when they do find some kind of direction, say from our LE Inner Circle, these people are simply used as fodder, they serve a purpose only as long as they are useful. The LE Clerics would use them to fake evil miracles and frame the innocent, however if they begin to feel that the CE Bandits are a liability because they know too much, then they will just as easily turn on them, murdering them all quietly in their sleep.
Chaotic Evil Orders require much more thought and planning then Lawful Evil ones do. Thankfully there is a recipe, CE respect only one thing, and that is violence and fear. In CE Orders, you will find highly specialized leaders, or generals. Each of them bring something unique to the table. They will have their own underlings, but they will keep them weaker then themselves. If they believe that anyone within their ranks has more potential then they do, they will seek to destroy that person before he turns on them and takes their position. Members of an order will be highly skilled at this.
Each general will probably be of a different class, so an order will have a further reach then the single classed lawful societies do. The generals will be given orders from a really mean and bad, bad dude! Someone who even a 20th level mage would be terrified of! He will be even better at making himself irreplaceable then they are, a seemingly impossible goal. A demigod in his own right, a mystery man whose name has to be a myth, but it is still whispered just in case.
CE Societies always begin as an infection. Perhaps a LE society invites them into their inner circle, a major mistake, because as soon as the time is right, the CE society will murder and kill the LE masterminds and take over the entire order, and once they have a foot solidly in the door, it will take a full scale war to remove them and most nations don’t have that kind of resources or the skill required to get the job done quickly. Just because a group is Chaotic, it doesn’t mean that they are stupid. Once they become organized in their own way, they are worse then LE. Nobody is happy under them.
An example is a state policed by Murder. The King is never seen, and folks like it that way, he’s been in power for centuries perhaps it is a family name, but there are rumors. Life in the area is harsh, and secretive. Superstitions are high, garlic hangs in every window, small shrines decorate the streets. Pay your taxes, or disappear! This is a military state, however it is worse then that. A secret militia composed of monsters! Few people are aware of this, and those that figure it out are never heard from again. The highest ranks are filled by were-creatures, through mysticism, suspicion, and spies, they secretly deal with individuals in the night. Humanoids are allowed in the city and treated as equals, the human population is kept in check as serfs, each having a job to do, extra money being paid to those who have information about their neighbors. Most religion is outlawed, only evil deities can be openly worshiped, and worship is required by law.
Apposing them is an even more secretive society, a Neutral Good order whose ranks even include humanoids who believe in the old ways, that their kind should return to the wilderness. Their goal is to find out the identities of the individuals who form the secret police force, and assassinate them. They are aware that the King is a monster, but as of yet, no way has been discovered to eliminate him directly. There numbers are much smaller then the Kings, and casualties on both sides are a daily occurrence. The Neutral Good order has had to become more flexible then normal, because of the stakes. They use underhanded tactics believing correctly that the only way to fight fire is with fire.
Man, I just realized that that sounds exactly like the Karagat in Ravenloft, which is cool as it is a magnificent idea! In the art of DMing, one has to know how to take old ideas and make them your own.
Neutral Evil groups are typically associated with thieves, but frankly, that is just too easy. Bram Stoker had struck gold with his classic “Dracula”, in it, the Chaotic Evil Count operated unopposed in his homeland, only being thwarted when he tried to expand his power to the West. His minions were many, but most memorable were the gypsies. Gypsies are a mixture of bard and thieves, but also contain fighters, clerics, and mages in their ranks. Gypsies are more of an alternative human race with mystical and mysterious qualities. Dracula had formed an alliance with them, in return for protecting his interests during the day, and doing his evil bidding, they were allowed to live the life they wanted to live unopposed. This relationship is common with NE groups. They will align themselves with a powerful individual and thrive! Dracula would never turn on them as a whole, he wouldn’t feed off of their people, they were protected and they knew it. A gypsy caravan travels from town to town, they don’t care if the people know they are evil or not, it doesn’t matter, if they do know it is all the easier to operate. They don’t settle down because they have an undying love for travel, they provide entertainment, rumors, potions, and trade, but at a cost, they steal, and swindle the population. They spread fear and do the bidding of their evil master. Harm one of them, and the entire tribe will take their pound of flesh not just from you, but from your loved ones as well, even your children’s children are fair game to them! Never cross a gypsy, this lesson has been learned long ago, they are quick to anger and a powerful enemy that will never forget the slightest misdeed.
The Break Downs
There you have some examples of different factions. Rarely should a PC be able to join one of these things, and then, only after 9th level, and it should always be treated as a big deal.
Some factions are open, while others are highly secretive, have fun with the alignments, treat them as the tools they are and not inflexible borders which always lead people to trouble and abandoning them entirely.
Weapon Fighting Styles known by class are known at begin of play and cannot be improved upon, nor can a class learn a fighting style that he doesn’t have access to by spending Weapon Prof Slots.
Fighters
Single-Weapon Style
Two-Hander Style
Weapon & Shield Style
Two-Weapon Style
Cleric
Single-Weapon style
Two-Hander style
Weapon & Shield style
Rogue
Single-Weapon style
Two-Hander style
Two-Weapon style
Mage
Single-Weapon style
Two-Hander style
Single-Weapon Style is just that, a character using a weapon such as a sword or a club, without the benefits of a shield.
Two-Hander Style refers to weapons which require two hands to make the weapon functional. A bow, a spear, etc.
Weapon & Shield Style requires a single handed weapon, and a shield. Note that at the start of play, only Fighters and Clerics can use shields.
Two-Weapon Style allows a character to fight with 2 different weapons, but the weapon in the characters off hand must be smaller then the weapon in the good hand.
Of course, we can’t stop a rouge from using a shield, however he will be considered non-proficient and except the attack penalties, as if he wasn’t proficient in his weapon of choice.
A single class warrior can specialize in these fighting styles, and additionally, all other classes, except Mage, can choose to SPECIALIZE in any fighting style that they have natural access too. This is a big change, as normally no other class with the exception of single classed fighters can specialize in anything! Of course that there are limitations to this. A class who is not normally able to specialize (all classes except Fighter), are only allowed to spend one slot on specialization. The second limitation is that a new, first level fighter is only allowed to spend 1 slot on fighting style specialization, but may spend additional slots as he earns them by advancing.
I could have sworn that I already did a post on fighting style specialization, but for some reason, it isn’t in my archive. Let me go through it again to make sure that I’m not crazy, and if I am and I never wrote it, then I’ll follow up on this article with the effects.
(NOTE Added August 13th, 2009) I looked all over the blog, isn't it terrible that not even I know what is here anymore?, and I didn't find what I thought that I wrote. I write lots of posts, but not all of them make it to the publishing-block. In the near future I'll make sure to write this article up. Sorry for the unprofessional nature of this post, I write without access to the Internet on a laptop and my files on it are incomplete . . . not to mention that I have the memory of an 'etch-a-sketch'. Again, my appologies.
There comes times in everybody’s game where things come up which aren’t exactly clear. When exploring a mountain range, we need to know the base chance that a character has of climbing. Same goes for looking for traps in a all too quiet passageway, hiding in wait behind a keg of beer, quietly slinking across a chamber floor and listening to what is being said on the other side of the door.
BUT RIPPER! You say, These are Thieves skills! Why, yes they are, but did you know that anybody can use them? Taking a gander at the base thieves skill list, this will tell you the base chances of using them. While anybody can use these skills, only a rogue or a few sub-classes with rogue-like powers, can improve upon them.
Beyond table 26., which I will talk about in a minute, a few other charts are helpful in figuring out the characters chances of success. They are: Table 27: Thieving Skill Racial Adjustments, Table 28: Thieving Skill Dexterity Adjustments, & Table 29: Thieving Skill Armor Adjustments.
These apply to all characters, not just thieves, as ones race, DEX, and choice of armor all factor into the characters chances of success.
Picking Pockets: 15%
Gaffing a key, smoothly handing over a fake map, while passing the real one off to someone behind you without getting noticed, placing false evidence on somebody’s person, all of this can be handled by anybody, of course thieves are the best at accomplishing it without getting caught, but when you are in a pinch, and there isn’t much hope of accomplishing your goal anyway, a last ditch effort can be attempted.
Open Locks: 10%
Sometimes we are faced with a problem, more often then not a good solid axe can help us with it, but other times, such as being trapped in a cell for a crime that we didn’t commit, our captors have a nasty habit of always relieving us of our trusty axes. If we can find some sort of small object, such as a bone or something, we can use it as an improvised lock pick. This challenging feat does require some sort of tools to accomplish . . . unless the lock is large enough to stick your hand in, which would be a rare lock indeed! The rules for improvised lock-picking tools are found in the thieves handbook, but if you don’t have that tome, just make the player make a DEX check, if it is successful, then he can attempt to roll his 10%, failure of course means that the tool broke.
Again, this is a last ditch effort, but it sure beats hanging around waiting for your executioner to show up.
Find/Remove Traps: 5%
If the searching rule works better for this, then still use it, however they are probably going to set the thing off by searching. This roll is checked exactly like a rogues, it takes more then noticing ropes, chains, or a mysterious statue, this roll dictates that those who are successful understand how the trap works, and can either decide to attempt to avoid it, or . . . um . . . disarm it. Good luck with that! But hey, stranger things have happened, right? This of course assumes that a trap CAN be removed, after all, the dice aren’t magical.
Move Silently: 10%
Clearly, anybody can sneak around. This number dictates their chances of doing it. Some races, such as elves, have a really good base (90%) for moving silently in specific environments, such as woods, this rule supersedes this base chance. Though, if he is trying to sneak down an ally street or in some other environment other then the one specified in his racial benefits, he uses this number instead.
Hide In Shadows: 5%
This is more then just hiding in shadows, this is hiding in general, but Hide In General doesn’t sound as cool as Hide in Shadows, does it. Normally it is up to the DM to decide if you are hiding good or not, but if there are any arguments, then you can fall back on this system. Naturally there has to be something to hide in, be it shadows or behind some cover. Again, the DM can add or subtract bonus and penalties has he sees it, a dark warehouse full of boxes should be pretty easy to hide in.
Detect Noise: 15%
This can be used for both eavesdropping and identifying odd noises which seem to always be present in spooky old dungeons and caves. There isn’t anything supernatural about what a thief is doing when he is trying to detect a noise or while he’s listening, he just better trained at it then normal.
Climb Walls: 60%
While a thief can climb a smooth surface, anybody can climb a rough one, and this is the number which dictates his success. Be it scaling a rotten castle wall, or climbing a cliff with death waiting on the bottom, this is our base chance of being able to do it, and THIS number comes up more then any of the others, so we really don’t want to forget about it. It is also worth noting that the Mountaineering Non-Weapon Proficiency modifies this base chance some, or may replace it all together, but this is a most helpful number regardless.
