Castle Mordha -1

I'm still deep in prep work for next month and the Old School D&D game. We took a few minutes at the end of the last Hobbit session to start to roll up 2 characters a piece for the setting, which produced a higher than I anticipated demi-human contingent, with two elves, two fauns and a centaur among the PCs (Fauns are the settings halfling replacements as sneaky types who are more skilled in the woods; centaurs are a PC class just because I think they're cool). That's 50% human, 50% demi-human among 10 PCs. The players will all start with their choice between their two PCs with the other one on tap should there be any unfortunate deaths.

I expect there to be some unfortunate deaths; I may be wrong - they may be very careful/ lucky, but you just can't tell. I have modified parts of the rules to make character death a little less likely (though not as unlikely as 2E AD&D with the -10 HP bleed out) but it's still a risky world for first level PCs.

anyway, to whet your appetite here are the random character background tables I built for when you want to give a little history to your just rolled up new PC..... They should give a good feel for the setting without hemming it in too much.

Background

Players should write down what their PC did before starting play. This can be just a word or two (i.e. Baker, Army Scout) or a couple of sentences describing their former, likely mundane life (i.e Shanterra as an apprentice beggar and lookout before he hit a big score that paid for his wizard’s apprenticeship.).

The DM can choose to give a +2 on any tests where experience of that background is relevant.

If you’re uninspired on non-class background, human PCs can roll here to get immediate inspiration.

D10	Born in…	To a(n)…	,	Family. After training as a	(S)he received class training then joined a	Until a(n)
1	Mordha Town	Slave	Farm/herding	Ecdysiast	Mercenary Company	Plague
2	Shankill Gold Gate	Starving	Land Crafts	Ecclesiast	Privateer Ship	Enemy Attack
3	Shankill Guild Gate	Struggling	Sea Crafts	Soldier	Merchant Vessel	Internal Coup
4	Shankill Docks	Settled	Fishing	Sailor/Fisher	Coast Raider/Guard	Bad Love Affair
5	Shankill Slums	Comfortable	Sailing	Craftsman	Overland Trader	Death of a Friend
6	Alboling City	Wealthy	Thieving	Scholar	Wizard’s Cadre	Accusal of Theft
7	One of Isle’s 26 towns	Eccentric	Trade/Lending	Merchant	Thieves’ Guild	Suspicion of Murder
8	Another Island	Obsessive	Merchant	Accomplice	Hero’s Band	Divine Inspiration
9	An East Island	Devout	Religious	Woodsman	Noble House	Endless Nightmares
10	The South	Crazy	Noble	Farmer	Guild Staff	Evil Commander

…Forced him or her to move on.

Motivation

If the players are having problems coming up with character backgrounds for being in Mordha town tracking bandits, roll 1d12 for immediate motivation:

Roll	Immediate Motivation
1	Helping out a friend/family member
2	Needed a reliable job after the last one went south
3	Needed to prove employment to avoid press gang.
4	Was lied to by recruiter, signed fixed contract.
5	Master ordered you to for mysterious reason.
6	Master died suddenly, you needed to get out of town before you were suspected in killing.
7	Master owed someone an old debt you’re repaying.
8	Your old station too gods cursed dull.
9	Drunk too much, woke up here.
10	Took shelter with this company to avoid angry mob/ mark/ dalliance/ spouse.
11	Sea-witch fortune teller told you that your first death would not find you here.
12	Found old adventurer’s journal that led you here with promise of vast riches.