The individual hoard, even one guarded by a draugr, dragon, leprechaun or other such, is but a small adventure, or even just a lucky find in between adventures. Your adventurer happens across it, defeats the guardian, maybe falls afoul of the curse set on the loot, but then that's that. Maybe an evening's entertainment! But we do love more involved adventures, be they ever so chestnut-ty. Only just let them have a rationale.
What was the purpose of the dungeon? Is that purpose still fulfilled by the place?
Did the denizens of the dungeon build it themselves, or did they find it and fill it?
Are the denizens of the dungeon organized? How? Why?
Are the denizens the proprietors of the dungeon or are they in some manner employed by another?
A common trope following Tolkien's Moria is that of the abandoned Dwarvish mine:
The dungeon is a complex of tunnels and shafts dug under a mountain, deliberately, in order to mine ores, gems, truesilver, whatever. At some point the dwarves are set upon and driven out, either by dragons or by orcs or by elder creatures awakened by the deep delvers. Since the dwarves were eaten or driven off, the complex is now the dwelling of a broad array of nasties filling its mazy ways.
A temple complex is a classic sword and sorcery trope. Ardis is chock full of temples, because it's chock full of gods. Quite often there's a good deal of gold, silver and gems involved in the altars, ceremonial gear, offerings, and other accoutrements. Less popular gods are typically less powerful, but their temples tend to be poor. The richly-appointed temples tend to belong to more powerful gods, who can be counted on to have: A) fanatic followers and priests defending the temple B) enchanted or demonic guardians defending the temple C) elaborate traps defending the most sacred treasures D) tombs, either of key priests, prophets or the god itself and E) fabulous wealth for anyone wishing to dare the above along with F) the lasting disfavor of the god itself.
This stuff can be strung out over campaigns beautifully: the party either is tasked or undertakes on its own nickel to rob the precious jewelled idol of Nisshur-Telpec from its temple complex; the job goes down easily but as they travel to deliver or fence the idol they find themselves continually harried by the black-robed, fanatic followers of Nisshur-Telpec, who seem to unerringly find them wherever they go - even after disposing of the idol in whatever way they do. (Perhaps if the party researched and found that Nisshur-Telpec was a god of eternal vendetta, they would have picked another target...)
A dedicated tomb complex (closely related to the temple, possibly one and the same) works too: especially if the goal was to bury the deceased (or is it!) particularly deep. I have in mind Ardis' ancient history of wizard-wars: think of one of the great god-wizards, defeated and imprisoned in a deathlike state far below a mountain. The tomb becomes the heart of a vast underground - were the tunnels the work of the god-wizards who won? Or were they dug by the minions and descendents of minions to worship and perhaps one day free their master?
More to come as it occurs to me.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Why Is There Treasure? Notes on loot and where it comes from.
Note: I've been re-reading a load of Fritz Leiber, and since this posting have been reading Stardock - wherein our heroes dare a fearsome mountain climb in the hopes of winning fantastic gemstones at the top. Prior to the climb, they dig a cairn, and bury their heavy gear there for safekeeping: swords, helmets, armor, and supplies for the hoped-for return trip. In short, a traveler's horde.
Why should there be treasure hoards just waiting to be ransacked, guarded or not? History helps with this, actually: there's plenty of reasons for treasure to be gathered together. I assume a few things first: banking in Ardis is primitive, where it exists at all. It's mainly confined to the great coastal cities south of the Teeth of the Gods. In Vladria, there's banks in Valdosk on the shore of the Black Sea but for the rest of that vasty place there is no banking as we'd recognize it. So those who have money have to keep it safe themselves. For the Volods, this is an easy matter: they have a keep, and soldiers to guard it. Such merchants as there are have their wealth in their wares, and have strong rooms in their shops to keep their valuables safe. Peasants don't have much wealth, but what little they have must be hidden: their shacks are easy to break into and plunder.
There's support for hoards being left by merchants traveling in dangerous places. Villages would hide their valuables when threatened by attack by invading armies, or raiders. Historically, such hoards would be protected only by secrecy. In a world with magic, there might be charms hiding them more completely. A particularly valuable hoard might have some manner of trap to protect it as well.
And since we posit a world fairly thick with adventurers, we can assume that they themselves hide a fair amount of loot. Most are wanderers and have no homes to speak of: where do they keep all their gold when they go adventuring? Bors the Bold has some hundreds of silver and gold from his last venture: does he schlep it back underground with him the next time he goes delving? If he doesn't drink it, or spend it on weapons or women, he's going to have to hide it somewhere. And supposing he dies in his next adventure? There that gold will sit - until it is found.
Think of Beowulf's dragon: the singer tells us that the hoard was left by the last survivor of a defeated people, and that the dragon finds the hoard afterwards and settles there to guard it. Now, a dragon isn't going to show up for some merchant's buried strongbox, or an average delver's plundered coin. But other critters might! Leprechauns, for one; No less authority than W. B. Yeats ascribed their wealth to "treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time" and found by the gold-loving small folk. Ghosts and other undead types might guard in death treasures buried by them in life.Certainly, many of the man-like monsters can be counted on to dig things like this up to add to their own treasure.(More on this, later.)
Then there's burial hoards. On one end of the scale are vast tombs of ancient kings, priests or wizards: these can be elaborate affairs, thick with traps, magics and votive treasures, and guardians both living and dead.Egyptian tombs make a fine example, but think also of viking ship burials, Tolkien's barrow-downs, and the like. Think too of the burial-places of travelers, or adventurers. Looting a buddy's corpse is not cool! One might expect to be burned, or buried, with one's possessions - especially if no known heir existed. Such a grave might well be haunted by the adventurers' ghost, or invaded by a ghouls, or dug up by beasts!
The undead guarding a funerary hoard, or even a traveler's hoard, are a natural development: the monster's motivation is tied to the death of the previous owner.
Many monsters guard treasure as part of their nature: dragons, for example, are notorious for jealously guarding treasure: they guard treasure until their greed is outmatched by their hunger, and when that is sated, they return to their hoard.
Many "mannish" monsters assemble hoards as well: Ogres are downright vulgar in their acquisition and display of wealth. Trolls and giants usually have something in the way of treasure, though it tends to be incidental to their hunting. Social monsters like goblins and orcs gather treasure and display it to show their power; within their tribes they take from each other: the stronger have more because they take it from the weaker; the weaker will give tribute to the strong for protection.
Beastly monsters - giant spiders and so forth - may have treasure, but only in the sense of "leftovers from victims." The same with demonic creatures: they have little use for gewgaws: if a demon has a treasure, it is probably something that the demon has been bound to protect: a powerful talisman or other such.
Why should there be treasure hoards just waiting to be ransacked, guarded or not? History helps with this, actually: there's plenty of reasons for treasure to be gathered together. I assume a few things first: banking in Ardis is primitive, where it exists at all. It's mainly confined to the great coastal cities south of the Teeth of the Gods. In Vladria, there's banks in Valdosk on the shore of the Black Sea but for the rest of that vasty place there is no banking as we'd recognize it. So those who have money have to keep it safe themselves. For the Volods, this is an easy matter: they have a keep, and soldiers to guard it. Such merchants as there are have their wealth in their wares, and have strong rooms in their shops to keep their valuables safe. Peasants don't have much wealth, but what little they have must be hidden: their shacks are easy to break into and plunder.
There's support for hoards being left by merchants traveling in dangerous places. Villages would hide their valuables when threatened by attack by invading armies, or raiders. Historically, such hoards would be protected only by secrecy. In a world with magic, there might be charms hiding them more completely. A particularly valuable hoard might have some manner of trap to protect it as well.
And since we posit a world fairly thick with adventurers, we can assume that they themselves hide a fair amount of loot. Most are wanderers and have no homes to speak of: where do they keep all their gold when they go adventuring? Bors the Bold has some hundreds of silver and gold from his last venture: does he schlep it back underground with him the next time he goes delving? If he doesn't drink it, or spend it on weapons or women, he's going to have to hide it somewhere. And supposing he dies in his next adventure? There that gold will sit - until it is found.
Think of Beowulf's dragon: the singer tells us that the hoard was left by the last survivor of a defeated people, and that the dragon finds the hoard afterwards and settles there to guard it. Now, a dragon isn't going to show up for some merchant's buried strongbox, or an average delver's plundered coin. But other critters might! Leprechauns, for one; No less authority than W. B. Yeats ascribed their wealth to "treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time" and found by the gold-loving small folk. Ghosts and other undead types might guard in death treasures buried by them in life.Certainly, many of the man-like monsters can be counted on to dig things like this up to add to their own treasure.(More on this, later.)
Then there's burial hoards. On one end of the scale are vast tombs of ancient kings, priests or wizards: these can be elaborate affairs, thick with traps, magics and votive treasures, and guardians both living and dead.Egyptian tombs make a fine example, but think also of viking ship burials, Tolkien's barrow-downs, and the like. Think too of the burial-places of travelers, or adventurers. Looting a buddy's corpse is not cool! One might expect to be burned, or buried, with one's possessions - especially if no known heir existed. Such a grave might well be haunted by the adventurers' ghost, or invaded by a ghouls, or dug up by beasts!
The undead guarding a funerary hoard, or even a traveler's hoard, are a natural development: the monster's motivation is tied to the death of the previous owner.
Many monsters guard treasure as part of their nature: dragons, for example, are notorious for jealously guarding treasure: they guard treasure until their greed is outmatched by their hunger, and when that is sated, they return to their hoard.
Many "mannish" monsters assemble hoards as well: Ogres are downright vulgar in their acquisition and display of wealth. Trolls and giants usually have something in the way of treasure, though it tends to be incidental to their hunting. Social monsters like goblins and orcs gather treasure and display it to show their power; within their tribes they take from each other: the stronger have more because they take it from the weaker; the weaker will give tribute to the strong for protection.
Beastly monsters - giant spiders and so forth - may have treasure, but only in the sense of "leftovers from victims." The same with demonic creatures: they have little use for gewgaws: if a demon has a treasure, it is probably something that the demon has been bound to protect: a powerful talisman or other such.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Musing on Setting
So, I've set up a general world map; I'm adding some detail here and there but I haven't been inclined to go into great depth yet. I don't want to lavish too much detail on any one area where it's unlikely that I'll ever have delvers! I'm running a game set in Vladria now, and I'll be adding some detail there in due course, but it's so far not really necessary: they've happened on an adventure traveling between volods, and the precise nature of the local color is not germaine to that adventure. I'll be needing it eventually, though.
What I'm more interested in thinking about now is feel. The last time I ran this game, I did so with a relatively high-fantasy theme: there was the seed of a fairly sweeping quest that never really got off the ground, there wrongs to right, and so on.
I want to keep things as episodic as possible this time around, and that doesn't lend itself to grand Tolkienite quests. It lends itself better to pulp, to low fantasy. Conan. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. That sort of thing.
Now, low fantasy generally isn't exactly crawling with Elves and Dwarves and Hobbits and so forth: It's mostly about MEN, confronted with the uncanny. Well, T&T is chock full of Elves and Dwarves and Fairies and Leprechauns and Hobbits, and there's uncanny everywhere. So it's a bit of a challenge taking that stuff down a notch and putting things more in a framework conducive to pulpiness. Some of the players may be a little high-minded for that: we'll see. I'll add more here as I get time.
What I'm more interested in thinking about now is feel. The last time I ran this game, I did so with a relatively high-fantasy theme: there was the seed of a fairly sweeping quest that never really got off the ground, there wrongs to right, and so on.
I want to keep things as episodic as possible this time around, and that doesn't lend itself to grand Tolkienite quests. It lends itself better to pulp, to low fantasy. Conan. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. That sort of thing.
Now, low fantasy generally isn't exactly crawling with Elves and Dwarves and Hobbits and so forth: It's mostly about MEN, confronted with the uncanny. Well, T&T is chock full of Elves and Dwarves and Fairies and Leprechauns and Hobbits, and there's uncanny everywhere. So it's a bit of a challenge taking that stuff down a notch and putting things more in a framework conducive to pulpiness. Some of the players may be a little high-minded for that: we'll see. I'll add more here as I get time.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Vladria Overview
From Cosmographia: "In the middle part of the world are the Dwarvish mountains, so called because it is said that of old the dwarves first came to light from beneath their peaks, in the first age of The Kindreds. But since it has happened that the old dwarf-kingdoms have been scattered, and the mountain fastnesses have been taken by crawling things, it is more common to refer to these mountains as The Teeth of the Gods, though it ought to be thought that the teeth of the Gods were neither so crooked, nor so riddled with cavities...
...let it be described here Vladria, the land west of the storied Trollstep mountains, and north of the Teeth, and yet east of the Alderwod. It is a hundred leagues broad, and somewhat more than two hundred leagues north to south. These are truly the foothills of both the aforementioned ranges, and are variable and rocky; the valleys betimes fertile, and with many forests about. Rivers there are, that wind north to the Frost Sea, or south and east to pay tribute to the river Argrar, which flows from the north reaches of the Trollsteps. Chief amongst the kindreds here are Men, though the other red blooded kind there also are. The people of these parts are ruled by many lords, who are called Volods, none of whom give way to any, and none of whom rule over the others, notwithstanding their pride and desire for domination. For the lands there about are difficult for great armies to move free, and none can build them great armies that their neighbors and rivals cannot see them. And though some of them be greater and some of them lesser, and at all times they press on each other, none may press so hard as to weaken their own strong place and be prey to yet other foes. And by virtue of these little wars, and the nearness of the Beasts of the mountains and the forest, and the Barbarians of the northern wastes, the warriors of Vladria are doughty and proud, and forward in battle."
...let it be described here Vladria, the land west of the storied Trollstep mountains, and north of the Teeth, and yet east of the Alderwod. It is a hundred leagues broad, and somewhat more than two hundred leagues north to south. These are truly the foothills of both the aforementioned ranges, and are variable and rocky; the valleys betimes fertile, and with many forests about. Rivers there are, that wind north to the Frost Sea, or south and east to pay tribute to the river Argrar, which flows from the north reaches of the Trollsteps. Chief amongst the kindreds here are Men, though the other red blooded kind there also are. The people of these parts are ruled by many lords, who are called Volods, none of whom give way to any, and none of whom rule over the others, notwithstanding their pride and desire for domination. For the lands there about are difficult for great armies to move free, and none can build them great armies that their neighbors and rivals cannot see them. And though some of them be greater and some of them lesser, and at all times they press on each other, none may press so hard as to weaken their own strong place and be prey to yet other foes. And by virtue of these little wars, and the nearness of the Beasts of the mountains and the forest, and the Barbarians of the northern wastes, the warriors of Vladria are doughty and proud, and forward in battle."
Friday, February 17, 2012
Excerpts from "Cosmographia": The Whole World
Ed. Note: Cosmographia, widely know as “The Book,” is one of the most widely printed books of the known world: it is published by the Collegium (widely known as the wizard’s guild) and is viewed – in the civilized world – as the birthright of the trained mage, and the core text of any educated person.
Most mages are concerned primarily with the second “book” of Cosmographia, collectively known as The Spell Book. While the book alone is not enough to open the secrets of magic to a novice, for a trained wizard it holds both the basic spells of a wizardly repertoire and the key to understanding more. Many wizards unwisely ignore the pedestrian content of the early chapters: copies of the second book can be had without the earlier volume, though they usually show considerably more wear; complete volumes of Cosmographia virtually always have more damage (tears, bloodstains, burnt pages) in the later part of the book.
The first part of the book, however, is useful. It is a description and a rough history of the known world, describing its several ages. The book was available as a manuscript throughout the fourteenth century, and it was committed to type in 1482. It was little revised, so much of the information is a century old, and out of date. Its most interesting – and most often missing – leaf is a woodcut map of the world. (see previous post)
The world:
"...Ignorant persons have it that the world is flat, or that it is set upon the back of a great elephant, or that it is in a bubble, or some other such nonsense. Any who have seen a ship sail off in the distance (as foolish an act as that may be), can reason that the world must be round, and so it is. One could then make them a model of all of Ardis, in the form of a ball, if one could but know the form of the rest of the world. It is possible that The Dragons do know, for they alone have crossed the outer sea.
"The continent of Ardis can be considered in four parts: The Southlands and Northlands, divided as it were by the Dwarf Mountains, are two parts. The Frost Sea, the Elves' lake of Eilin Ened, and deep Zilar mark off the west part of Ardis, and that is the third part. The Dragon Kingdom, the great Trollstep Mountains, and secret-shrouded Sset all lie beyond the Eastern mountains and the Black Sea and these are the Fourth part. All Ardis is bounded by water: To the south is the Inland Sea, where men and elves go in ships. The east and north are close set by the Outer Sea, where mariners cannot go. Also forbidden to the kindred of Ardis is the Sea of the West, though the elves say their fathers sailed across it in deep antiquity.
"The Sea of the West and the Inner Sea are connected by a narrow strait, and the Wine Sea. Across it is the only other continent known to the wise, which is Qesh, which has two parts: Upper Qesh, which is a great desert, and Lower Qesh, which is a terrible forest. Mariners report no cities on those coasts, and none have reported that they have sailed far south or west along them."
"The continent of Ardis can be considered in four parts: The Southlands and Northlands, divided as it were by the Dwarf Mountains, are two parts. The Frost Sea, the Elves' lake of Eilin Ened, and deep Zilar mark off the west part of Ardis, and that is the third part. The Dragon Kingdom, the great Trollstep Mountains, and secret-shrouded Sset all lie beyond the Eastern mountains and the Black Sea and these are the Fourth part. All Ardis is bounded by water: To the south is the Inland Sea, where men and elves go in ships. The east and north are close set by the Outer Sea, where mariners cannot go. Also forbidden to the kindred of Ardis is the Sea of the West, though the elves say their fathers sailed across it in deep antiquity.
"The Sea of the West and the Inner Sea are connected by a narrow strait, and the Wine Sea. Across it is the only other continent known to the wise, which is Qesh, which has two parts: Upper Qesh, which is a great desert, and Lower Qesh, which is a terrible forest. Mariners report no cities on those coasts, and none have reported that they have sailed far south or west along them."
Oh Hi!
Okay, I've been worldbuilding again: Fantasy this time, instead of Sci Fi; Tunnels & Trolls instead of Traveller. I'm starting with the BIG map, then drilling down: starting with the biggest picture I'm prepared to contend with, knowing I'd never ever use all of it, so that when I do detail I can have it be in context.
The whole world is Ardis.
The year is 1520.
And here's the world map, circa 1482:
I'll post a bigger one later.
The known world is BIG: almost three thousand leagues wide, a bit larger than Eurasia. For some fantasy perspective: I've just been rereading Fellowship of the Ring, and the distance from Caradhras in the Misty Mountains to Mordor is about three hundred leagues. So I'm figuring the largest practical adventuring setting is liable to be about four or five hundred leagues in breadth, about the size of Western Europe, or India - and generally speaking, only a small part of THAT will ever have to be shown in detail.
I'm leaning towards two settings, here. There's a mountain range right in the middle of the map. I haven't named them yet - for now I'll call them the Dwarf Mountains, because I know that once there was a dwarf-kingdom there, and in antiquity it was destroyed and scattered. Their tunnelings have since been taken over by goblins and other nasties. So I want to stay close to those!
Just south of the mountains are the kingdoms of Khurasan and Angapam; rough analogs to Persia and the Mogul empire. That, in Ardis, is CIVILIZATION. The most cosmopolitan cities are along the coast of the Inner Sea, in the south. The northern reaches, in the foothills of the Dwarf Mountains, are more hinterlandish, and good adventure fodder. So that's one choice.
The other region that's attractive is Vladria, to the northeast of the Dwarf Mountains. Further east are the Trollstep mountains (full of monsters, good adventuring.) To the north are berserker tribes (good adventuring.) And to the west is a great huge forbidding forest (more good adventuring.) I'm picturing Vladria being heavily forested and broken by high hills and low mountains - not good for big kingdoms, but favorable for lots of little baronies. And THAT'S good adventuring. So I'll think about both.
There's a lot of the game, at its root, that is based on Tolkien, and it's hard to get away from that. Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits all exist in T&T and all owe much to J.R.R.. Some of that I'll keep, simply because so much of what makes these critters is dependent on what's gone before. But I'll try to recontextualize that stuff.
I'm going to try to incorporate a certain amount of the wackiness that's part of T&T's charm, but that's liable to be down on the very micro level: the broad context doesn't need to be silly - at least, no more silly than the whole RPG thing is in the first place.
So, welcome to Ardis.
The whole world is Ardis.
The year is 1520.
And here's the world map, circa 1482:
The known world is BIG: almost three thousand leagues wide, a bit larger than Eurasia. For some fantasy perspective: I've just been rereading Fellowship of the Ring, and the distance from Caradhras in the Misty Mountains to Mordor is about three hundred leagues. So I'm figuring the largest practical adventuring setting is liable to be about four or five hundred leagues in breadth, about the size of Western Europe, or India - and generally speaking, only a small part of THAT will ever have to be shown in detail.
I'm leaning towards two settings, here. There's a mountain range right in the middle of the map. I haven't named them yet - for now I'll call them the Dwarf Mountains, because I know that once there was a dwarf-kingdom there, and in antiquity it was destroyed and scattered. Their tunnelings have since been taken over by goblins and other nasties. So I want to stay close to those!
Just south of the mountains are the kingdoms of Khurasan and Angapam; rough analogs to Persia and the Mogul empire. That, in Ardis, is CIVILIZATION. The most cosmopolitan cities are along the coast of the Inner Sea, in the south. The northern reaches, in the foothills of the Dwarf Mountains, are more hinterlandish, and good adventure fodder. So that's one choice.
The other region that's attractive is Vladria, to the northeast of the Dwarf Mountains. Further east are the Trollstep mountains (full of monsters, good adventuring.) To the north are berserker tribes (good adventuring.) And to the west is a great huge forbidding forest (more good adventuring.) I'm picturing Vladria being heavily forested and broken by high hills and low mountains - not good for big kingdoms, but favorable for lots of little baronies. And THAT'S good adventuring. So I'll think about both.
There's a lot of the game, at its root, that is based on Tolkien, and it's hard to get away from that. Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits all exist in T&T and all owe much to J.R.R.. Some of that I'll keep, simply because so much of what makes these critters is dependent on what's gone before. But I'll try to recontextualize that stuff.
I'm going to try to incorporate a certain amount of the wackiness that's part of T&T's charm, but that's liable to be down on the very micro level: the broad context doesn't need to be silly - at least, no more silly than the whole RPG thing is in the first place.
So, welcome to Ardis.
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