V&V From the Files of Sir Roderick Hagdon part 1: the Necromancer

I know that I still owe everyone more New Salem stuff, but the depressing nature of it is kicking my ass at the moment given everything else in life. So instead I'm turning my V&V attentions to my transforming some works of Charles Ashton Smith into a pulp super hero setting. The general idea is looking at his Weird Tales and seeing where concepts can overlap with heroes of the likes of Doc Savage, The Shadow, the Spider, etc. who aren't quite super heroes but do fight crime with colorful identities. I'm torn how much I want to have exploration be a big part of this because much as I love the super-explorer genre, it might work better for something else. 

Spoilers for Smith stories below the jump

Knave and Patrons

Knave has some, ok well a lot, of random tables to inspire the GM or help quickly fill in the world in front of the players if they end up going somewhere that she didn't expect. Some of these have to do with developing Patrons, which in Knave-terminology are the divinities, small gods, and spirits that PCs can recover relics/perform quests for to get blessings. Since I had some free time and when I had originally developed Castle Mordha for B/X D&D and then for 13th Age this was a space I had left blank before but now need. So off to the random tables to see what we get! 

Each one of these was made with 2 rolls for Domains, 1 for a Symbol, 2 rolls for Personality, and 1 roll for Goals, which were then built upon or discarded as the idea came together. 

Voynich

Domains: Prisoners, Book (roll on a sub-table said it's a book on Botany; this obviously inspired the name as an in joke.)

Symbol: Book made of leaves (actually rolled something else, but given the domains....)

Personality: Proselytizer, Protector

Goals: Didn't bother to roll since the personality made it pretty clear.

In Action: This local god arose in Mordhiem (the large village that used to serve Castle Mordha) as the Mordha family enslaved the local farmers. It is taken on faith that he caused the earthquake that ended the Mordha's reign. His shrine maintains a manuscript of botany and agriculture lore. Voynich very much wants to expand to the other farming villages on Shankill, and to shield people from Mordha threats.

His shrine is the most prominent in Mordha’s town, made of carefully woven together living trees with a canopy so tight no water gets through. There are 10 people tending the shrine, teaching the local farmers how to best tend to their crops and preaching about the release of prisoners (both actual and metaphorical in terms of if you love something set them free and to not be a prisoner to your anger). The priestess is the mediator of local disputes before the mayor is called. 

Voynich will act quickly and harshly if there are any practicing slavery nearby or holding prisoners unjustly or harshly. Similarly, if someone brings Mordha-originated threats (but not coin or other treasure) into Mordha Town the god will not be pleased.

My Notes: This became the "local" god for Mordha's Town, and works as both a local protector and a very practical agriculture god. The PCs can expect that Voynich and his shrine will push for them to join the faith for quests that either defend the town or spread the faith to other local farming communities; they won't help push into the dungeon, but will help stop anything that bubbles out... with a cost to the PCs if they were reckless.  

Manzeryk 

Domains: Doors, Eagles (again the name is a joke off one of the members of The Eagles)

Symbol: Eagles eye pendant (symbol roll was "eye", so making it an eagle eye made sense)

Personality: Courageous, Blunt

Goals: Destroy Monsters

In Action: Widely worshipped, she is the goddess of Doors (as opportunities, engineering-arch-and-keystone, and as transitions as a psychopomp) and Eagles, whose form she takes. Her goal is slaying monsters, and there are endless tales of her or her worshippers killing Monstum Loci, and when you die it is her eagle who carries your spirit to the land of the dead and gives you a very blunt appraisal of how courageously you lived your life. 

While she accepts prayers from and performs blessings for Mordha Town, she’s done her job too well: the extermination of truly threatening monsters in Shankill’s interior means she pays the area little interest. Her shrine is tended by but three acolytes who travel in from her larger Shankill shrine for either training or punishment. All the rites are performed, but without enthusiasm.

When she learns of monsters inside Castle Mordha her shrine will become much more active, likely to the shock of the local acolytes. If there are monsters to be slain, she will be eager to create relics and extend blessings so as to engage in her favorite sport.

My Notes: I loved the way random rolls produce things (as a V&V player I know this comes as a shock to you), and the idea of a Goddess of Doors & Eagles just opened up so much; especially since I knew I needed a contrasting god to Voynich as a powerful but distant Patron. Looking at "doors" in the most expansive way gave her a very broad portfolio, and Eagles gave her a physical form. The personality rolls and goals made her into a real entity of the sort that grew by an accretion of ideas and legends and actions that made her really fit the kind of Discworld small god becoming major religion I wanted. 

The other two gods coming up next week! 

Scornbul by Midnight Act II Scene III

Melas, knowing what would befall him if he succumbed, steadfastly refused to turn his gaze to the Signora's features, instead accepting the wrenching complaint of his neck and shoulder muscles as he fought against her grip. His vision began to dim around the edges as her iron-hard fingers prevented either blood or breath from passing through his neck. A kick to the Signroa's midsection produced nothing more than her foul, croaking laugh.

"You're too crafty by half, little popinjay. We'll have your hands before you go back in the cell then. And given time you'll tell me all I want to know about your interfering aunt and her sisterhood…."

From the edges of his vision Melas saw a blur of motion then splinters of broken glass and a splatter of port coated his face in liquor and blood. His body spins like a rag doll as the Signora twirls, hurling him towards the third upright chair - the impact reminds the dizzy noble for a moment of falling from his horse onto a rocky field - upsetting the chair and leaving him sprawled underneath it beside the blazing fire. 

"No…no...no more!" he hears Antonio spit at his wife, but any further words are drowned out by a shriek of rage from that foul harridan. By the time Melas clears his vision his fellow prisoner was once again held at an arms length by his wife, whose tightening grip caused an audible splintering of fragile man's shoulder. The port bottle lay shattered on the floor, its blood soaked jagged edge indicating that Antonio had landed a second attack on his betrothed tormenter.  

Melas, shunting aside the pain from his multiple injuries, does the nobility proud by refusing to succumb - indeed, he literally sticks his hand into the fire for the honor of the empire, freeing the red hot poker from the blaze. The sizzling of the flesh on his palm is a distraction as he swings the heavy iron implement in a fatal arc, its glowing tip burying itself for a moment in the Signora's skull. Even as he wrenches it free for a second strike its heat sparks the oil coating the chaos witch from head to toe. Immolated and wailing the creature that was once a lady of the Republic staggered towards the grim faced noble - the flames peeling away her layer upon layer of squamous skin and rendering her own visage disgusting but ultimately impotent. 

The Signora's charge proved more to be an attempt at escape, but Melas would have none of that, his impromptu weapon landing again in a blow to the creature's knee that sent her stumbling into the fire pit. Melas took a moment to wrap his hand in his handkerchief, keeping watch on the body until he was sure that Signora Hueras' threat was ended. A second scrap of cloth served to wrap the fallen ring the Signora had been using to facilitate her communication to her allies, and then he turned his full attention towards his companion. 

Antonio, barely conscious and obviously in physical agony, seemed more certain of himself now that he had witnessed wife's demise. Helping the man to his feet Melas shouldered thus burden as he proved the keenness of his mind, retracing his steps back to the stairs that led to the street in front of the Andres shipping concern. Good fortune had a rack of oiled cloaks by the door that might serve to cover their bedraggled state as they made their way through the dark Scornbul night to the de la Erosas household. 

There his arrival was met by a shriek from the doorman before Osmundo took control of the situation and had both men brought into a private room and called for a healer. The next day passes in a blur as the men recover from their ordeal. Prompt medical attention prevents the blistering on Melas' hand from scarring or impairing his mobility, and otherwise some bandages and trio of good meals are enough to restore the hunchback's strength. Antonio is not so lucky - magical attention is required to set his shoulder, but his mind is still not what it was. Through it all the young Ema is ever present - fetching food, drink, bandages, and whatever else the noble, pirate-fighting Melas might need. 

"There is a monastery in Iselberg, towards' the mountains peak, surrounded by halfling farmsteads on all sides," Osmundo tells Melas as the nobleman prepares to take his leave that evening. "From what I know, the monks abandon their old names and act to strengthen our ties to the spirit of our ancestors. One cannot get farther from the sea and no one will question why Antonio was once reported dead. Our coachman will get him on the road to there once the rain clears. Our family cannot thank you enough for what you have endured on our behalf." The man's handshake was heartfelt, and Melas knew that the fellow was earnest in his restored devotion to the Vienne family, and himself as their agent. 

Melas entered the streets of west Serin, oiled hat and cloak protecting him from the downpour, a newly purchased rapier at his hip to replace the one lost to some blind pirate storeroom, and within moments the young Ema lost sight of him in the pounding winter rain.

Knave and Kin (aka Races/Ancestry/Species)

The school year is starting up, and the "D&D" group at the town library has grown past my ability to run it solo. Unfortunately, our library in the year of our Lord 2024 can't do what my childhood library did in 1983 and just set aside two tables in the children's area every Saturday from when they opened until 1:00 for we little chaos goblins to do what we wanted with the funny dice: there needs to be an adult involved, preferably running the game, so that parents can feel reassured that their little chaos goblins are being supervised and the library can track their usage metrics. 

Fortunately, another grown up has stepped up and is willing to run. With 17-20 kids on the contact list, we're dividing it up so each grown up (and I use that term in the loosest, most biological sense) is running 2 games, alternating weeks. I'm continuing my 13th Age game for one, and for the other, I'm introducing Knave. Ben Milton explained that he designed the game for 5th graders to immediately start playing, and while I am running for rising 7th graders and up there have been kids who had consistent problems with their character's mechanics and crunchy bits: a problem Knave solves by not having any. 

But Knave is also designed for easy modification, and while the game itself is classless and raceless, I figure there's a good chance kids will ask about playing elves and dwarves and so on. I could go into a long discussion of the humanocentric nature of the pulp fantasy stories that inspired the earliest versions of D&D, but... naah. Give the kids what they want (this is why I have a Centaur Fighter/Wizard in my 13th Age game and one PC being the wizards cat familiar in my D&D B/X game). 

So here is what I have wacked together for Kin. Why 'Kin'? Because I'm willing to entertain the complaints against 'race', despite being an old white guy myself, but I really don't care for 'species' as it sounds too scientific to my ears. Is that perhaps a Tiffany Problem when it comes to language? Perhaps. But Kin feels right, so I'm running with it. Here's the two pager I put together for this. 

(and are all my rules mods written on landscape paper with four columns designed to be folded into a digest sized book? Do you even have to ask?)

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Kin Basics in Knave

Being an ultralight, classless OSR design, Knave does not have default kin. However, I know my young players are likely to ask for something, given how integral it is to the concept of contemporary D&D. To accommodate this, I have developed the following rules for playing non-human PCs.

Abilities: Kin may have ability penalties or ability minimums. Ability penalties make it possible to start play with a negative ability, applied in the same cases as a positive score; negative CON reduces items slots and wounds before death. An ability minimum means you must dedicate 1-3 starting points to that ability to play this kinfolk.

Kin Enemies and Allies: Most non-humans have kin enemies. Entire parties of that kin make reaction rolls (p. 19) with that enemy with 2d4. When not all of the party is that kin, reaction rolls are made with 1d6+1d4. Some kinfolk have allies for whom reactions are naturally positive. Any parties where some member has a kin ally rolls 1d6+1d8 for reactions. Treat results of 12+ as 12. Otherwise, this is an advantage or disadvantages on social tests.

Senses: Many Kinfolk have minor sensory advantages over humans. This is never darkvision but may include low-light vision, that doubles the visible radius of candlelight. Otherwise, senses are treated as an advantage on a check involving the sense. (Hearing is the sense used in surprise tests p. 19)

Size: Kin may be small or, rarely, large. If not listed, they’re Medium, encompassing everything from dwarf to just under ogre sized. (Andre the Giant was large; Arnold Schwarzenegger? Medium.) GMs will adjudicate non-standard sizes as an advantage or disadvantage as circumstances require. In general, size will apply to stealth, hiding, fitting through small spaces, and for feats of general strength where mass and leverage can be brought into play. (Size lets kin with a minimum of ability changes.)

Combat: My ruling is unarmed melee does 1d4-2 damage (0-2 pts). Some kinfolk have natural weapons that do 1d4 damage unarmed. It is not possible to power attack with natural weapons. No kin gain bonuses to hit in combat (that is covered by minimum STR/WIS).

Careers: Some Kinfolk replace one of their careers with a kin-career, which will provide 3 pieces of starting equipment and advantage on checks for things associated with their kinfolk’s culture.

Magic: Kin that tend to magic use have a minimum INT and use spellbooks as per normal. Some races have an inherent ability to create magic. This is treated as having a permanent Chaos Spellbook (p21) and is always paired with a negative CON, so the lost equipment slot balances the effect of having an extra spell per day that can’t be lost to wounds. Roll 1d6 for spell formula (p. 27) so wizard names aren’t involved.)

Blessings: Some kin are culturally tightly tied with the divinity of their people. Such kinfolk always have an ability minimum of CHA 1, and the player may decide at the start of play if their character is in favor or disfavor with their kinfolk divinity. Being in favor means they begin play with a blessing but need to align themselves with their patron’s goals to keep it. Being in disfavor means that the PC not only loses the blessing, their kin become a Kin Enemy until they are back in their patron’s favor. (p. 32)

Humans: Humans have any additional advantages, but they also do not have any disadvantages. In the original versions of the game was based on the idea of worlds where humans were ascendant or dominant, with social and level restrictions to enforce human primacy. It’s up to the GM how humans interact with other kin.

Dwarves

Short of stature but broadly built, their society is at least partially subterranean with a focus on mining and craftsmanship. They fought ancient wars with goblins and kobolds for resources underground.

Hill Dwarf: spending as much time above ground as under it, these are cosmopolitan and versatile dwarves. Kin Enemies: Goblins, Kobolds; Senses: low-light vision; Careers: pick Miner or a craft career.

Mountain Dwarf: living almost entirely underground, where war against the goblins and kobolds is constant, these dwarves have a strong common guild culture Abilities: minimum STR 1; Kin Enemies: Goblins, Kobolds; Senses: low light vision; Careers: Dwarf (pickaxe, lantern, carving kit)

Deep Dwarves: abiding deep in the earth, they survive on their faith and their clan ties Abilities: Minimum STR 1, CHA 1; Kin Enemies: Goblins, Kobolds; Senses: low-light vision; Careers: Deep Dwarf (pickaxe, religious tract, clan amulet); Blessings: Mordin, god of Gold and Survival (can always retrace steps even in total dark, as long as they’re good with Mordin).

Elves

Long lived, slender of form, possessed of keen eyesight and a gift for magic, elves are one of the last ancient races, with a deep, and mutual hatred of orcs.

Wood Elf: living in deep forests, they are exceptional hunters Abilities: Minimum INT 1, WIS 1; Kin Enemies: orcs, dark elves; Senses: keen vision; Careers: select hunter or some other woods-based career.

High Elf: having dedicated ages to the study, these elves are inherently magical and broadly experienced. Abilities: Minimum INT 1; Penalty CON -1, Kin Enemies: orcs, dark elves; Magic: one Chaotic spell

Dark Elves: Living in the spaces underground, they are a cult for a demon goddess Abilities: Minimum WIS 1; Kin Enemies: other elves, deep dwarves; Senses: low-light vision; Careers: Drow (spider amulet, 50’ rope, lantern); Blessings: Lolth demon queen of spiders and mazes (advantage on climbing and rope use while they are good with Lolth).

Little Folk

Not so much a race as a category of fair folk that can be found in pockets around the world, secretive and shy, and possessed of their own enemies.

Halflings: short, stout, agrarians for whom anything seldom happens until everything happens Abilities: minimum DEX 1, Size: Small

Gnomes: an offshoot of dwarves who have the innate magic of elves Abilities: Penalty CON -1; Kin Enemies: kobolds; Senses: low-light vision; Size: Small; Combat: none; Careers: tinkerer (magnifying glass, tweezers, gears); Magic: one Chaos spell, always illusionary.

Surrah: cat people who are loathed by other magical animals. Abilities: None; Kin Enemies: magical animals; Senses: keen hearing; Size: Small; Combat: claws and bite do 1d4; Careers: cat (ball of string, several dead mice, catnip);

Nature Spirits

Not so much the embodiments of the natural world as the things that routinely dwell in it, these entities combine magic and the outdoors in impressive ways

Centaurs: Half human, half horse, have wild, half wise. Abilities: Minimum CON 2; Size: Large; Combat: 1d4 hooves

Satyrs: half man/half goat nature spirits, musical revelers Abilities: Minimum CHA 1 Penalty CON-1; Careers: Musician (pipes, paper, pen and ink); Magic: one Chaotic spell

Dryad: women born of trees, they go on walkabout before laying down roots Abilities: Minimum CHA 1, Penalty CON-1; Kin Enemies: spirits of other groves, Senses: sense plants; Careers: herbalist (herbs, sickle, herb manual) Blessings: the spirit of the groves (can disappear into trees/travel through when in their own or neutral groves).

Merfolk: with the blessings of their god they can walk among us for a time Abilities: Minimum CHA 1; Kin Enemies: elemental spirits, Blessings: the god of the rivers (become half fish when wet).

On the Nature of a Cruel and Uncaring Universe

An ongoing topic of discussion amongst fantasy gamers - well, mostly D&D players - has been the concept of "evil races" or even "evil monsters", and the belief that such things are socially, historically, narratively, or ethically impossible. It's an interesting discussion that often turns vitriolic as people on both sides dig in, especially around the idea of evil races where there's just so much space to talk past each other in the various play styles and types of fantasy. How much of it is narrative, how much of it is simulation, how much of it is gameplay, to look at the old Threefold Model. 

Lets say your want your heroes to be facing an existential threat to their civilization. So you take Nazis, you reskin them as Orcs to make it fantasy, and bang. It's always ok to punch Nazis, and always ok to kill them when they start the war. There's no appeasing them; only the complete destruction of their ability to threaten anyone around them will be sufficient. In a gameplay sense you have introduced adversaries that provide moral clarity to the combat. In a narrative sense you have actualized the threat of fascism into a physical form for you to engage and (hopefully) defeat. But in a simulationist sense, well, are all the orcs fascists? Are there good orcs? Why is orc culture like this? Underlying it all is the belief that there must be a way to engage past the wartime footing and get to the root causes of why the orcs are fascists, undo that, and convert them to "good"; you can't just kill all of them. 

Well... yes and no. In wartime the goal is completely destroy their ability and willingness to make war. And that means a LOT of collateral damage. Many accounts exist of, even as the Allies were rolling into their territory and the war was clearly lost, 'good' Germans bemoaning the fact that Britain was supposed to have given up before the USA entered the war, sparing the Germans all this strife. Rooting out fascist ideology required the obliteration of the German state, de-Nazification of its politics, and a generation of work that's outside the scope of a fantasy adventure role playing game. At best, the PCs would need to deal with the combat aspect of the threat, and then leave the complete reconstruction of Orc society to the kingdoms that they act as heroes for, if you want this to be a simulation of that reality. This is, of course, a complete back projection of contemporary morals onto the ostensible 'age' of D&D, but that's a minor concern compared to the deformation of 'history' caused by active divinities, various arcane magic, and dipshits claiming there were only white people across Europe before the age of colonization, so run with it if you like.

But if you don't want to deal with that, it's why you make them Orcs, and not people. Orcs aren't real. Orcs are the actualized threat. They are monsters. They are endlessly cruel and completely uncaring because that is their narrative and gameplay function. And that's OK.

This a roundabout way to get to my main point: You are allowed to actualize threats into things that can be fought and killed. These things are monsters. They don't need a real world reason or explanation or tragic backstory. They are embodiments of real threats. You can have dire wolves stalking the deep dark forest as the actualization of the fear of starvation, or of getting lost and dying in the forest itself. You don't need to explain the circumstances that caused this particular wolf to turn to human predation. It is there because the woods are scary and dangerous. 

Because deep dark woods in an era before human action had wiped out most of the apex predators, and there wasn't contemporary medicine, and accurate maps were hard to come by, and food identification was a hard won skill, ARE DANGEGEROUS. Big Bad Wolves in European fairy tales are the embodiment of that. 

There's a great bit in Larry Niven's Beowulf Schaffer stories (Collected in the book Crashlander) where Schaffer is berating an Earth born companion for his ongoing terran-centric worldview, because the cold of space absolutely does not give a shit about you. Earth is your kind and loving mother where the gravity, air content, temperatures, etc. are all inside your tolerances, as are the pathogens and foodstuffs. In SF, Earth loves you and keeps you safe because you grew up inside it. But that's not the case in Fantasy.

In Fantasy, myth, faerie tale... Earth is dangerous. The woods are dangerous, storms are dangerous, the ocean is dangerous, food is dangerous, the very soil under your feet is dangerous as earthquakes can't be predicted or ameliorated. In the pre-science world, mythologies were invented to put a scaffolding around that chaos, to give us some hope of understanding it and transmitting what we learned about it from generation to generation. And in those myths, threats were actualized into Monsters. Things the heroes can defeat with stealth and cunning and steel (or bronze, or really big clubs...). 

If you have actualized the earthquakes as trolls, then when the trolls rampage through they cannot be reasoned with, any more than the earthquake can. Sometimes they come, and destroy the village. But we're in myth, maybe there's a god of the earthquake/trolls, and really the issue is he's angry because we... STOP! Stop centering humanity. The universe isn't cruel, but it is uncaring. The earthquake/trolls didn't happen because you cut down the magic tree, or moved into this area, or whatever. It happened because earthquakes happen. The god of the earthquake/trolls just likes having trolls attack places, sometimes, if it's in the mood - better than the NFL, and it's bored. It is chaotic, and maybe evil. 

Yes, Myths are built around the belief that surely something we can do will stop the earthquakes! In this model, you can stop the the earthquake by killing the trolls, as the trolls are the earthquake. That's the something you can do. 

Not everything is simulation. Sometimes in gameplay and narrative things that are ethically OK to fight and kill is good design. Fantasy is like that. Sometimes let yourself have the fantasy.