Bat in the Attic

 For those of you who are unsure about How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox, tomorrow, June 27th, the PDF version will be the Deal of the Day on DriveThruRPG. For 24 hours starting at 10 a.m. Central Time, the PDF will be $3 instead of the normal price of $14.99.  

If you want print copies How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox is offered in both softcover and hardcover. While the Deal of the Day doesn't effect the print price, the PDF is offered as a free option if you purchase a print copy.

Plus check out the other things I have on my Bat in the Attic Storefront. 

Bat in the Attic Games Update

I am working hard on Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms. I am currently fleshing out the magical strangeness of the Ring Islands before moving to the ruins and lairs of the Northport map. After that, I will be wandering into the various settlements of Northport and seeing who is living there and what they are up to.

In addition to the main maps, I have been working on maps of important towns, cities, and locations. 

Ring Islands, West

Right now, it is looking like I will be done in time for a fall Kickstarter. 

Once again thanks for everybody who supported my projects and have a Happy Fourth of July holiday and summer!

The Release

With the successful conclusion and fulfillment of my Kickstarter, I am releasing How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and The Isle of Pyade to the public on Friday, April 12th, during the livestream of the Random Party Generator at 8pm EDT. Special discount coupons will be available for those joining the live stream, along with a live drawing for at-cost print copies of both Blackmarsh and at-cost hardbacks of both books. The discount coupons will be active for one week after the show.

Until they go public during the live stream you can monitor the Bat in the Attic storefront on DriveThruRPG.

Livestream of the Random Party Generator 

Bat in the Attic

Special Thanks

I wish to say a special thank you to the 908 backers of my How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox Kickstarter. Your generosity not only made this project possible but also allowed me to upgrade the production values beyond my previous expectations. 

Also, a shout out to my wife, Kelly Anne, who not only supported me throughout the project but also contributed two pieces of art to the book. This marks her debut as a professional artist. 

Thanks to Joethelawyer, Tim of Gothridge Manor, and my friend Josh, whose support and advice were instrumental in making this project a success. 

Finally, thanks to Erik Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern who is hosting the Random Party Generator. 

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox

Preview

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox!

Starting in 2009, I wrote a series of 24 posts on the Bat in the Attic Blog covering the different aspects of creating a hexcrawl formatted setting.  Now that the blog posts are completed, I combined and rewrote these posts into a single book.  In addition to advice about creating your setting, the post fleshs out the Isle of Pyade into a small setting that you can drop into your own campaign.

What is a Hexcrawl-formatted setting?

This type of setting starts with a hex grid placed over the map with each hex numbered.  The hex locations of the various locales, such as lairs, are noted and arranged into an index.  This format provides a convenient way to reference detailed local information within the setting.

You can look at the map, see the hex number the location is in, and then look it up quickly in the book.  It works in reverse as well.  You can read about a location in the book, with its hex location noted in the text.  Then, look up where it is on the map quickly.  This format allows easy access to dozens of detailed locations scattered across the setting map, if not hundreds. 

Hexcrawls and Sandbox Campaigns

Sandbox campaigns are distinguished by the fact the players drive the campaign forward by their choices.  In a sandbox campaign, the players may decide to head west instead of east in pursuit of their goals.  The ease of looking locations up makes the hexcrawl-formatted setting a valuable tool for the referee trying to keep ahead of their players while running a sandbox campaign.

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox will teach you how to make a hexcrawl-formatted setting and explain what details are essential to include to handle the different types of sandbox campaigns. 

The Isle of Pyade

Preview

A thousand years ago, this island emerged from the Cataclysm as a bare expanse of rock and soil. Whatever existed here prior was obliterated in the chaos. It took a hundred years for it to transform from a barren expanse to a weed-choked landscape and finally back to its original wooded condition. During that time, survivors, both humans and animals, found themselves washed up on its shores. They established several fishing hamlets in and around East Bay. Despite the chaos of the time, they managed to carve out an oasis of tranquility due to the island's isolation and the great fishing in the Midland Sea.

This was all shattered when scouts of the Lich Tavaras discovered the Isle of Pyade. Tavaras decided to claim Pyade as his own. The lich and his undead army landed on the shore of the Bay of the Dead with his undead army. He quickly subjugated the fishing hamlets and enslaved the populace.

Within the Caves of Mount Devon, Tavaras decided to establish his stronghold. On the North Downs, Bone Keep was established at the center of several latifundia, which were developed to feed the growing slave population.

Tavaras ruled Pyade as his personal domain for nearly 200 years. He survived the fall of the Dark Lord and the collapse of the Dark Empire. His downfall came with the arrival of crusaders from the United Church. Their forces besieged Tavaras' stronghold, breached the mountain and brought down the Lich Lord.

After the downfall of Tavaras, the island was liberated and made part of the Eainian Empire. When the empire collapsed amid civil war and anarchy, the island was incorporated into the Kingdom of the Isle and granted to the Gevon family five hundred years ago.

Over the centuries the Gevon invited halfling families and dwarven clans to help settle the island and exploit its rich lands and resources.

Bone Keep and the other ruins from the lich Tavaras rule remained abandoned. The wars that liberated the islands did not leave much time to cleanse the island of Tavaras' evil taint and abominations. To the present the northern half of the Isle of Pyade remains dangerous to the unwary.

Today, the Isle of Pyade is starting to emerge from relative obscurity. The new Empire of Po threatens the independence of Pyade and the Kingdom of the Isles. Ancient evils are beginning to stir again in the depths of Mount Devon. Once again, the island has become the center of attention, providing opportunities and wealth to those willing to brave its dangers.

Blackmarsh, Digest Edition

Rob's Note: The PDF on DriveThruRPG is free to download. So, no preview is needed.

In the days when man knew only the working of stone and fought for their existence against the orc and the goblin, the sky turned to ash and down fell the fiery mountain onto the land. The world tore open and the grey waters rushed in. Those who survived the impact were lost as boiling clouds rushed out in all directions leaving a wasteland in its wake.

The Mountain That Fell left a gift; magic. Near and far, those of learning and strong of heart discovered new powers to shape the world. In the desolation around the Smoking Bay the adventurous found viz, magic in physical form. And there was more, scattered amid the landscape were strange artifacts and stranger creatures that survived The Mountain That Fell. For a time men, dwarves, orc, goblins, and other races braved the dangers and fought each other in the wastelands. Then the elves came into Blackmarsh expelled the feuding races, drove the monsters out, and healed the land.

In the present day, many come to Blackmarsh to harvest viz, kill monsters, or seek the strange artifacts left by The Mountain That Fell. The only force that stands against the wilderness is the Blackmarsh Rangers. Anyone who is willing to defend the land and its people are welcomed into their ranks. Powerful kingdoms outside of Blackmarsh are beginning cast a covetous eyes toward the land's riches. Will the adventurers of your campaign become wealthy and powerful? Or will their bones join the many that have sunk into the swamps?

Blackmarsh is a complete, ready to run setting for your campaign. It can be run as its own setting or an expansion of your existing world. Contained in Blackmarsh are 17 geographical entries, 78 described locales, and one detailed town; Castle Blackmarsh. Each entry provide one or more adventure hooks to use in your campaigns.

Rob's Note: If you can afford it the hardcover print option comes with two blank pages in the front and three blank pages in the back that you can use for handwritten notes. The inside covers are also blank. The printing process for hardcovers wraps a heavy paper protector between the covers and the first and last pages of the book

Update!

The books have been released for the public links in the titles.

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox Kickstarter

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox Beta Layout

I am pleased to share the first beta layout of How to Make the Fantasy Sandbox Kickstarter for my backers.

Some of the art are placeholder pieces. I have been buying stock art over the years but there are gaps, particularly in pieces that depict various characters. Thanks to your generosity I can not only cover those gaps but also expand the amount of custom pieces I can order. 

I want to give a shout-out to Fat Goblin Games, and The Forge Studios where I bought much of my art from.  They both have Patreons and I recommend them if you are looking for art for your project. 

The various maps and other example illustrations are created by myself and represent the final version. There may be further tweaks because the original we designed to be part of a blog post. 

The PDF is bookmarked but I haven't linked all the URLs yet.

Further Steps

Up on deck is the beta layout for the Isle of Pyade. 

The print proofs for the new digest version of Blackmarsh have been shipped.  Like with my Majestic Fantasy RPG Kickstarter, I will be releasing the print codes immediately after I check over the proof.  Each backer will get a code for the hardback version and the softcover version.

Interviews and Livestreams

I have had a couple of interviews and livestreams talking about How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox.

Random Party Generator

The regular livestream that I am part of.

Games with Dave

A live stream where Dave and I talk about the Kickstarter and fantasy hexcrawls.

Fumble Table

Damien and I discussed Fantasy Sandboxes and my background in fantasy roleplaying.

Also, check out his review of Blackmarsh

Wrapping it Up

Again I appreciate everybody's support and feel free to ask questions and leave comments on the draft and the project. 

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox Kickstarter

 

Launch Party!

I will be launching the Kickstarter during tomorrow's Random Party Generator show on YouTube at 8pm. We will be discussing world building and I will be glad to answer any questions folks have.

Random Party Generator

Funded!

Thanks to everyone's generosity the Kickstarter is now funded!

 Part XXIII  Index Page

This is the twenty-fourth and last post in a series detailing the 34 steps I recommended for making a Fantasy Sandbox Campaign. 

Today's post will cover steps 33 and 34. 

33. Make up a rumor chart with 10 to 20 items that feeds the players into the encounter and plots you created above. 

34. Identify major regions and create a random encounter chart for each (monsters, wildlife and NPCs) 

To do this post, I had to go back and collect all the previous posts and consolidate them into a single document detailing the Isle of Piall. 

Then I looked through the entries and picked out the following to be a list of true rumors that I can use when the players interact with the various NPCs on the island.

True Rumors

• A secret passage beneath Bone Keep leads directly to the Fortress of the Lich Lord, bypassing many of the dangers on the surface.
• The Black Queen, Lady of the Underearth, was once a powerful ally of Tavaras and has been amassing power in the Underearth for centuries.
• The ancient Dwarven city of Southpoint is rumored to hold a powerful artifact that can help defeat the awakened evil lurking in the depths of the mines.
• Sir Avar, once a revered paladin, has fallen from grace and allied himself with the Black Queen, now controlling much of Bone Keep.
• The Sahuagin have been testing the strength of the island's defenses with raids, in preparation for a large-scale invasion.
• The Empire of Po is seeking to absorb the Kingdom of the Isles, with the Isle of Piall as an early target for expansion.
• The Baron and the King's Sheriff are at odds, creating tension and division among the people of the island.
• The merman King Aventis is willing to forge an alliance with those who prove themselves friends to his people.
• The Rot Lord, an agent of the Black Queen, is building a zombie army in Sable Port to seize control of the area.
• A map detailing the locations of valuable treasures and artifacts in Sable Port can be found hidden in one of the abandoned buildings.
• The Chalice of Healing, an ancient relic, is said to be hidden somewhere in Sable Port, and both the Baron and the Sheriff are vying for its possession.
• A shrine dedicated to Duke Barradon, leader of the crusaders, lies hidden and forgotten within the depths of Bone Keep.

Then I came up with a list of false rumors. Keep in mind the best false rumors are those that contain an element of truth to make them seem plausible.

False Rumors

• The Fortress of the Lich Lord is nothing more than an elaborate hoax, meant to scare away curious treasure hunters.
• The Sahuagin are actually peaceful creatures, who have been framed for the recent shore raids by a nefarious third party.
• The Black Queen is merely a myth, a story created by the inhabitants of the island to keep their children in line.
• The Empire of Po has no interest in the Isle of Piall and is focused solely on internal affairs.
• The Bone Knight, the skeleton warrior in control of Sable Port, is actually a noble and just ruler who seeks to restore the city to its former glory.
• The merfolk and the sahuagin are actually allies, working together to drive the surface dwellers from the island.
• The Baron and the King's Sheriff are secretly working together to consolidate power on the Isle of Piall.
• A powerful dragon resides in the heart of Mount Devon, guarding a hoard of unimaginable wealth.
• The ancient Dwarven city of Southpoint is nothing but a ruin, devoid of any treasures or valuable artifacts.
• Sir Avar is secretly working to undermine the Black Queen's plans from within her inner circle.
• The Chalice of Healing is a cursed object that brings misfortune and death to anyone who possesses it.
• A giant kraken lives in the waters surrounding the Isle of Piall, waiting to drag unsuspecting ships to the depths.

Random Encounters

The last step is to make a series of random encounters.

 Doing this was never one of my strong points. For most of my campaigns, a simple table indexed by terrain or locale for cities was sufficient. Then I would take into account the circumstances and location of the party. Maybe roll a d6 to see how the encounter initially was set up. With 1 being the worst circumstance for the party and 6 being the best circumstance for the party. Then I riff off of that to come up with the actual encounter. 

For a long time, I thought if I just had the right table it would save a lot of work for me. But then I coded up the city random encounter tables from Midkemia Press' City supplement. For those of you not familiar it is a deeply nested set of random tables that generate random encounters for cities. It is very well done and full of flavor but impractical to use during the session because of how many different tables you have to traverse to generate a result. But the real kicker is that when I finished coding up the tables and started generating, the results were not much more helpful than the more simple tables I used in the past.

Then I ran Adventure in Middle Earth which had a Journey system to handle travel. I thought that was by far the best random encounter system I ever ran. What made it work is that each possible encounter was at just the right level of detail to be useful but generic enough to be easily tailored to the party's circumstance. The system also had you generate at most a handful of encounters that you then place along the route of the journey. Unfortunately, that system didn't survive the transition of AiME into Free League's Lord of the Rings RPG. But it did reappear in a standalone product called Uncharted Journeys for D&D 5e. However, like many 5e products, it was far more verbose than it needed to be. 

I am working on my own take for my Majestic Fantasy RPG. I plan to support three categories of encounters: journeys over lands, voyages over water, and trips across a city. Because this going to be an OSR project one common result will be a straight random encounter roll. You will be able to use your favorite table when this result is generated. I figure it would work better for folks who like to kitbash. Instead of completely throwing away whatever they used previously you will be able to merge my take in. 

But the travel rules will come with a set of random encounter tables for Blackmarsh. I really like the Monster Manual II system of rolling a d8 + d20 for a range of results from 2 to 20. What this does is create a plateau of equal odds in the center. For d8+d12 this is 9 to 13 as shown below. This also allowed TSR to make slots for very rare, rare, uncommon, and common encounters. 

Majestic Fantasy RPG, Travel Rules (rough draft)

I am going to go with a d4 + d8 for a 2 to 12 range for this post and my rules. I find eleven entries easier to manage. But I am not going to give just one table for the entire island (or Blackmarsh). Instead, I will divide the region into different areas that make sense. For the Isle of Piall, there are three major areas: the southern half of the island that mostly settled and cultivated. The northern half which is mostly wild, and the hex around Sable Port has a high frequency of undead.

Northern Wilderness (north of hex row 04)

(2) Very Rare: An ancient treant, upset about intruders on the island.

(3) Rare: A pack of Wereboars from the Amur Forest led by Spardion their leader

(4) Uncommon: A noble hunting party from Mikva out hunting deer.

(5) Common: A Giant Eagle on the hunt. Its nest is on Mount Devon

(6) Common: A small group of Dwarven miners from Hawth, in prospecting for minerals

(7) Common: A group of Halfling foragers from Sandpoint, gathering rare herbs

(8) Common: A wandering cougar, patrolling it's hunting ground.

(9) Common: A pack of Wolves stalking a prey, possibly the party

(10) Uncommon: A patrol of skeletons led by a Wraith from the Black Queen, foraging for viz and rare herbs.

(11) Rare: A roving band of sailors out on a hunting expedition from a ship anchored on the north shore.

(12) Very Rare: A Valard the Yellow Mage practicing magic, causing confusing sights and sounds

Southern Piall (includes hex row 04, and 05)

(2) Very Rare: An Earth Elemental lumbers across the party's path. It was awakened from its slumber by excessive farming activities

(3) Rare: A visiting noble from the Kingdom of the Isles, travelling with a full retinue of guards

(4) Uncommon: A group of thieves from Carra in a woodland camp, planning a crime.

(5) Common: Farmers searching for lost livestoc.

(6) Common: Patrol from Mikva, inspecting for any illegal activities

(7) Common: A group of farmers, crafters, or merchants heading towards Mikva for market day

(8) Common: A wandering Priest of Veritas making the rounds blessing the fields and the people

(9) Common: An enthusiastic group of local kids, playing at being adventurers

(10) Uncommon: A Bard from Mikva, collecting stories and songs from locals

(11) Rare: A runaway from justice is hiding out.

(12) Very Rare: A female Ghost of a former Lady of Piall is singing a lament, cursed to roam the lands

Sable Port (hex 0402)

(2) Very Rare: The Wraith of a deceased sailor, haunting the harbor and scaring the locals

(3) Rare: The Rot Lord's undead spy, observing and plotting against the living

(4) Uncommon: A ship from the Kingdom of the Isles, docked for resupply

(5) Common: Local fisherman, discussing a recent decrease in their catch

(6) Common: Bone Knight's skeletal patrol, maintaining the fragile order

(7) Common: An argument between two factions, escalating into a street fight

(8) Common: A homeless beggar who is actually an undercover agent of Sir Avar

(9) Common: A group of off-duty sailors from the Midland Sea, causing a ruckus at the local tavern

(10) Uncommon: A merchant trying to sell maps to the rumored treasure in the Fortress of the Lich Lord

(11) Rare: A secret meeting between King's men and the representatives from the Isle of Po

(12) Very Rare: The Black Rose, a notorious assassin, spotted in the shadows

Wrapping it up.

While it took me 14 years to complete the entire series of posts, I hope you found this useful. I am currently finishing up a final draft of a book where I combined and re-edited all 24 posts and plan to publish this. It will also contain a standalone description of the setting I used. I will keep folks posted as to when it will happen which will be soon. After talking about it with my editor I am going to rename the Isle of Piall to the Isle of Pyade (rhymes with fade). Piall dates back to when I was in the 8th grade and much worse at naming things. We tried pronouncing Piall and realize that Pyade would be a better choice. However it will remain the original Piall in these posts. 

Last, I figured out how to incorporate the background of the Kingdom of the Isle and the Isle of Pyade into my Majestic Fantasy Realms.  So that version will make an appearance in a future work. I will have a longer post next week about where I am at with my projects and how soon you should expect to see them including How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox.

Until next time

Fight On!

 Part XXII  Index Page

This is the twenty-third post in a series detailing the 34 steps I recommended for making a Fantasy Sandbox Campaign. 

Today's post will cover steps 29 to 32. 

29. Pick the 12 most important NPC or Monsters 
30. Write a paragraph describing each and fully stat them. 
31. Pick the most six common encounter type. (City Guard, Border Warders, Bloody Hand, Orcs) Write a paragraph and fully stat them.
32. Scan your description for any regional organization and write a paragraph on them. Fully stat the most common encounters involved with them.

My choice of using a small example like the Isle of Piall constrains my choices of what to pick for important NPCs, Monsters, encounters, and organizations. It does illustrate an important point about making a sandbox, its scope. 

The details increase geometrically with the area covered by the setting. Piall is five hex columns by five hex rows and has about 27 entries. Blackmarsh has 27 hex columns and 19 hex rows and has 94 entries. Finally my upcoming "Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms" has four maps each with 31 hex columns 41 hex rows along with 200+ entries each. The amount of detail grows geometrically as the size of the map grows. Make the map twice the size in terms of hex rows and columns, and you will have to put in four times the work. 

If you pick a smaller number of locales to flesh out on a larger map this will mean more to make up as the campaign progresses. For your first sandbox make it a size that you feel comfortable with. The time estimate that accompanied the first posts of this series was based on an area the size of Blackmarsh, a map the size of a regular piece of paper, with about 100 entries total.

What to Detail?

The most important NPCs or monsters on the Isle of Piall should be the ones that the players are likely to interact with. Once you determined this list then describe their capabilities and/or plans in detail. Given the limited scope of the Isle of Piall I opted to describe 14 individuals and their associated organizations.

The NPCs of Piall

A couple of years back I found a mini binder at my local Staples. There was also various inserts including pouches and dividers you could buy as well. I realize this was the solution to a organizational problem I was having with running my campaigns. 

Often core rulebooks and supplements are too verbose to use as references during play. You have to read through a bunch of explanatory text before getting to the heart of the mechanics or details like the modifiers you need. 

So since the early 80s I been making cheat sheets for the RPG I used. Especially for GURPS. 

Binders were letter sized, often too big to be handy. So I shifted to loose sheets. But loose sheets get scattered.

So when I saw this

 I knew I could get the benefits of my old binders but in a convenient form almost as good as loose sheets and without the issue of things getting scattered. So I bought the above as well as some inserts. Then I started to make what I needed for my campaigns. The two that had the most work were for my Majestic Wilderlands using my Majestic Fantasy Rules (based on Swords and Wizardry) and for DnD 5th edition. Also included setting material from the Majestic Wilderlands and Blackmarsh.

Is is one of the binderx open showing the different pages, dividers, and pages.

The binder cover has interior pockets. I printed stuff on digest sized pages and used dividers to organize them. This was followed by a couple of pocket inserts. Then after I added some punched digest sized graph paper and digest sized punched paper with ruled lines. Then finally a pouch with pens, pencils, and index cards.

Here is what I put into each.

The Majestic Wilderlands

• The digest version of my Majestic Fantasy Basic Rules. 
• A Majestic Fantasy RPG Spell and Magic Reference 

• Majestic Fantasy Equipment 
• Majestic Fantasy Potions and Elixirs
• Majestic Fantasy Merchant Adventures
• Majestic Wilderlands Prices List (unliked the equipment it just has prices no descriptions and it more comprehensive).
• Magic Item Creation rules
• "Historical names make for better games" from Dragon #49. This makes into every binder I made since the mid 80s.
• Pocket inserts with monster stat cards
• Graph Paper
• Lined Paper

• Pouch with Pens, Pencil and Index Cards

Rob's Notes: I am planning to replace my Majestic Fantasy Basic Rules in the binder with a even more terse reference. Followed by a character class reference so I can quickly answer player questions.

Blackmarsh/DnD 5e

This binder is also used when I run my Majestic Wilderlands using the 5th edition rules.

• My favorite letter sized 5e reference charts, shrunk a tad, laminated and turned into fold outs.

• A blank 5e character sheet
• A terse combat summary

• Mounted Combat summary
• Underwater Combat summary
• Resting rules
• Custom Classes: Berserker of Thor, Elven Mystic, Halfling Shadows
• 5e NPCs for a feudal setting.

• 5e Arts of Magic, used in place of Wizard traditions.
• Basic Character Class summary levels 1st to 6th that I use for convention games. It all the important character creation steps.
• Character Classes 1st to 20th (just traditional four, Cleric (Life), Rouge (Thief), Fighter (Champion), Wizard (Evocker) )
• A booklet sized copy of the Equipment chapters from the 5e PHB.
• A digest sized booklet of Blackmarsh

• A letter sized foldout map of Blackmarsh
• Pocket inserts with 5e monster stats printed on index cards.

• Graph Paper
• A pouch insert with pens, pencils, and blank index cards.
• I also have 5e reference booklets that I used before this in the inside pockets of the binder.

 In my Majestic Fantasy Basic Rules, I touched briefly on the idea of that the setting has a life of it own. Most of I wrote was about prep, before and during the campaign. I didn't touch on things one can do at the table to breath life into the setting. This following is one thing that hopefully you find useful that makes players feel like they are part of a living breathing world with a life outside of what they do.

The specific issue I will be dealing with is life within a fantasy urban setting. The example I will be using will be based on Judges Guild City State of the Invincible Overlord.

One effective technique I use  is to develop a patter to describe what going on particularly in urban areas. I don't attempt to describe everything unless asked. I limit it to things that "caught" the attention of the PCs. The time you go downtown or to a crowded area look at what you notice as you go about your business. Then take a long look around at everything else. You will find that you have a natural filter that so that only certain things come to your attention. Because of this I feel comfortable in highlighting only a few details as the player traverse the city. If the players specifically want to observe in detail then I will paint the full picture around them.

To explain how I do this I made a graphics to illustrate what it is I do using the City State of the Invincible Overlord. The map I use is on the right and is fully keyed. The map the players see is on the right. Either laid out on the table, or up on the screen if using a VTT. There will be a marker on the player map to mark their current position.

The initial situation is that the party is current eating breakfast at the Seahawk Tavern. They decide to pay a visit to the Sorcerer's Supply House. I look at my map and figure out it would take four minutes to get there. Each square is a 120'. The party can move two squares a minute.

The urban encounter table I use has you rolling every minute. I will making six rolls: one to see if anything happens in the tavern while leaving, one to see if there anything going on outside of the tavern. Then four more to see what happens along the way. The reason for the first roll is that for the purpose of encounter the Tavern is it own thing. The reason for the second roll is that players don't know what they will find once they leave the tavern. So I roll to see if anything is going on when they exit. The rest are normal periodic encounter rolls.

I rolled the following.

1. No Encounter
2. Foreigner Urchins/Children To/from market/church/work Seeking/In a duel/fight/etc.
3. No Encounter
4. No Encounter
5. No Encounter
6. Thieves Guild: Pursecutting/Stalking a mark/etc.

This how it would play out.

The players can deal with or ignore each of these situation as they see fit. It not uncommon for one or two players to decide they want to check out or deal with something while the rest of the party moves on. In which case I handle the split using a round robin technique. I will spend 5 to 15 minutes with a group and then turn my attention to the next group. Going back and forth as needed.

The Dots on the right hand map roughly marks where I would pause the party (or character token) and describe something.

It take some practice but highly effective in giving the players the sense they are part of a larger world. 

One problem I had until recently is the number of encounter rolls I needed to make. After running two campaigns using Adventures in Middle Earth, I really liked their journey rules. The most applicable part is where you roll for the number of events based on the length of the journey using a logarithmic scale. This means you will have journey 10 times a long before you get the twice the encounters. 

I am working on how this will work for a city adventure. The general gist so far is.

• One the same street: 1d3-1 encounters
• Within the same quarter: 1d4 encounters.
• Across the city: 1d6 encounters. 

Afterwards I sprinkle the encounters along the player's route where they would make sense. Sometime it more or less evenly spaced. Other times they can be bunched up around a single block of buildings.

Hope folks find this useful.

 Part II

After the end of the last post, the world of magic is dominated by clerics, religion, and divine magic. With the exception of the Elves and their allied culture where a tradition of arcane wizardry was developed along divine magic. 

As world rediscovered bronze and later iron technology. Arcane magic remained in the background. Cultures and religion proved to be a barrier but not an impenetrable wall. Independent discoveries and trade with the elves slowly spread arcane knowledge, spells, and rituals. Like in Earth's history the endless summer of small regional cultures doing their own things was to be shattered by the rise of the empires.

The Rise of the Viridians

Despite being divinely constructed and guarded by the Great Dragons, the entrance to Abyss that chromatic crystals guarded was a location in the world that could discovered and explored. Chance and circumstance combined with evil intent to allow a powerful wizard to steal one of the chromatic crystals, the Ebon Flame. The story of that wizard and the war against him is epic but is a tale for another time.

The theft of the crystal left a gap within the ward. and a thousand years later, the weakest of demons the Green Lords or the Viridians found the gap and they were just weak enough that they could use it to escape. Once free they sailed away and founded an empire. Soon other races including the Elves came into conflict with the Viridians and war broke out.

For magic, the Viridians had the first major independent tradition of arcane magic outside of Wizardry. Demons had no access to the divine as they considered themselves enemies of creation. So they developed arcane rituals into a high art including the development of the powerful 7th to 9th level rituals.  

The Rise and Fall of Empires

The Viridians did little to endear themselves to humans and the other races. They believe themselves to be lords of creations and sought to enslave whole cultures at every opportunity.  But their numbers dwindled and like neighboring cultures their realms experienced a rise, a fall, a dark age, and rebirth.  In both the Majestic Wilderlands and the Majestic Fantasy Realms there were three empires over the centuries. The downside of how the Viridians acted that for many cultures, arcane magic became associated with demons and evil.  It wasn't until the rise of the next great empire that arcane magic came into it's own.

That empire was the Ghinorian Empire in the Majestic Wilderlands, and the Bright Empire in the Majestic Fantasy Realms. Both considered themselves universal empire espousing ideals to appeal to all people regardless of cultures. Both had a dominant religion that preached these ideals as divinely ordained and both were highly successful in spreading to all corners of the main continent.

Like most religions in other cultures, the empire had a tradition of Arcanists subordinated to the church. One specialty found among others in various orders of scholars and monks. The success of the empire meant contact with many different cultures including the Elves and their tradition of Wizardry. And the Viridians and their tainted  tradition of arcane magic. This widespread contact lead to renaissance of learning and scholarship spearheaded by the church.

But as the centuries rolled on, the empire developed cracks and faltered. Both versions weakened by civil war, and both had their death blow delivered by barbarian invasions. In the chaotic centuries after the fall, the church shattered and it adherent left to fend on their own. The old arcanist used their knowledge of elven wizardry, the rituals of over a dozen cultures, and Viridian own tradition scrubbed of any demonic taint to create a new form of arcane magic, the Magic User. Freed by the demand and constraints of religion the early magic-users were able to prefect the new way of casting spells and teach it to others. 

Like a wizard a magic user performed mediations to memorize a spell form that could be filled with energy and released as spell. But instead of internalizing the forms, they made a crucial innovation of the spell book. The use of the spell book allowed many more forms to kept in a magic user's mind compared to a wizard. In addition it only took a short amount of time to rememorize new forms. Although the number and powers of the memorized forms depended on the skill of the magic orders.

The Magical Orders.

Art by Richard Luschek

The centuries after the empire's fall saw the rise of various magic orders. The Order of Thoth arose from some of the early magic-users banding together for protection. The Order of Sarrath was an alternative tradition of ritual casters that became an important part of the Ochre Empire one of the largest successor realms to emerge from the collapse of the Bright Empire. The various viking cultures developed an order of ritual casters using runes. Alongside these new order Wizards from the elves and their allies and Viridian artificers who used the old form of ritual magic to create magic items.

All of the orders are still finding their way. The present day of my campaigns in both the Majestic Wilderlands and the Majestic Fantasy Realms is set during the time where these orders are coming into their own. The turmoil's of their early history is past and each have established a place in their respective cultures.  

The wider world is also coming into its own as the various realms have move past the dark age after the fall of the empire. Commerce and finance has step alongside land as a source of wealth and power. And nobody know what the next few centuries will bring either for the realms or magic. 

The Mechanics

Magic Users

The same as any classic edition. Additionally magic users can cast 10 minute rituals from their spellbooks. The maximum level they can cast as a ritual is equal to 1/2 of the high spell level they can cast (rounded down). If a magic-user can cast 4th level spells they can also cast 2nd level spells as ritual. In this area magic-users regressed compared to the older ritual caster due to the focusing on memorizing spells. 

Order of Thoth

The same as magic users above. In addition they learn the Shield of Magic which confers 20% magic resistance per level until it maxes out at 100% at 5th level when they become a master in the order. I recommend limiting this to non-damaging spells that require a save like charm person. Not to spells like fireball or stinking cloud that create something else that does the damage. The Shield of Magic was developed to protect mages from being controlled as a slave by another mage. 

Order of Sarrath

This is a order of the ritual only spell casters known as Theurgists. As an official arm of an empire dedicated to worship of the dragon god of war and order (think lawful evil) these spellcasters learn to cast joint rituals. They can combine their caster levels for an increased spells effect. For example 5 5th level Theurgists can cast a 25D fireball.

Rob's Note: I have to admit, I thought this would work out better than it did. At the time I thought there were a fair amount of spells in the classic editions like fireball where they were more effective when cast by higher level magic users. This turned out the exception not the rule for the classic editions. 

But would out work out fine if 5e is being used. In 5e most spells are more potent when cast through a higher level spell slot.

Runecasters

This is another order of ritual only spell casters originated among the dwarves and human viking cultures who used runes. Instead of scrolls runecaster can scribe runes that function the same. Used the spell is cast and the rune disappears. The difference is that runes are more compact so Runecaster can make runewands or runestaffs with many runes on them. And they are more lasting than paper being carving into a durable material like wood or stone. Runes for a spell take up around three inches of length for a staff or wand. A three inch by three inch square on a flat surface.

Charms

Charms are like scrolls except they remain after being used. They cost double (money and time) what a scroll costs and half to recharge (money and time). They also can be activated by non-spellcasters as one-use magic item. For runecasters they are an advanced form of runes.

Wrapping it up.

My hope with this short series of essays on magic and society provide some useful insight and inspirations for your own campaign. The history of magic I outlined is not the only way it could have played out. With different premises and history turning in a different all kinds of interesting possibilities emerge. 

One thing to keep in mind if you believe that a magic utopia is inevitable. Once way to sidestep that issue to set the campaign prior to the time in which the utopia will happen. Everything has a beginning and Rome wasn't build in a day. 

Finally this material is also preview of the upcoming Lost Grimoire of Magic. The next book in my Majestic Fantasy RPG series with will debut late this summer after the Wild North is released.

Part I

In my previous post I discussed the status of magic at the beginning of history within my setting, the Majestic Fantasy Realms. Here I will discuss the aftermath of the Dawn War and how it gave rise to the first great era of magic. 

Prior to the Dawn War all magic was arcane and ritual based. The gods were known as the Lords of Creation and functioned as guides, teachers and coaches rather than as a source of divine mystery. Their roles were to prepare the two races, humans and elves, for the roles they were to play in the newly created world. 

As recounted in the last post, the demons were imprisoned in the Abyss with the chromatic crystals and as a result magic in a concentrated form was cycled throughout the world. Providing a source of energy to cast spells within seconds instead of minutes.

Faith, Signs and Portents.

The Lords of Creations decided that their close presence to the mortal races was one of the primary causes for the rise of the Demons. After the Abyss was sealed, they withdrew from the world and only interacted with those who followed their philosophies. Communicating through signs and portents, they sought to teach through faith instead of direct instruction. In doing this they changed from being the Lords of Creation into gods with religion and faiths.

Their clerics became the first true spellcasters in the world. Those who developed or had the strong faith found they had power as well. They were given divine insight to use the new sources of magical power coursing throughout the world. Through meditation and prayer they could memorize specific spells. Developing the forms in their mind. Then while casting filling the forms with magical energy and finally releasing the form and energy as a spell. As the cleric became more experience their divine insight developed to allow them to cast more potent spells. 

However, power had a price, and that price was belief and faith. Belief in what they were taught and faith that it was right and real and not madness or the whisper of demons rising from the Abyss. Without faith and belief, there was no divine insight, without divine insight the ability to cast spell within seconds disappeared.

As religions developed and took hold, the Cleric became the dominate spellcaster overshadowing the old arcane ritual casters. A major contributing factor was the Shield of Faith, which made Clerics invulnerable against spells and rituals cast without a god's divine insight unless the spell manifested something in the physical world like fire, ice, stone, or lightning. In many cultures the ways of the old ritual based arcane spellcasting was lost. Except for one group, the Elves and their allies.

The Elves and Wizardry

Within a few generations only the elves preserved any memory of the time before the Dawn War. Like other cultures, the god also only spoke to the elves in signs and portents. But among the elves and their allies it did not developed into a full blown religion but into various philosophies one committed their lives too. Those who committed to one of the divine philosophies also received the divine insight to learn and cast spells within seconds. 

But because elves still remembered, they and their allies also still practiced and more important continue to develop the old arcane rituals. They learned how to cast rituals with divine insight separate from the forms they created in their mind with their daily meditations and prayers. They could cast divine rituals without a having to write them into ritual book.

And the elves and their allies developed a way to casting arcane spells within seconds called wizardry. Through a complex series of meditations, rituals, and study, Wizards could internalize spell forms to fill with energy to cast at a moment’s notice. However, it took practice and further study to be able to do their more than once a day and with more potent spells. Even then the Wizard were very limited in how many spells that could be internalize and the process of internalizing a form took years even decades. An issue that wasn’t present with divine insight. 

Wizardry did not spread far beyond the elves and cultures allied with the elves for two reasons, the laborious study involved which was fine for immortal elves but took up much of a human’s lifetime. The second and more tragic, was that many rejected interaction with the elves and their allies when elves began to contact others cultures again a thousand years after the Dawn War. The worldview of the elves and their allies was seen as godless to cultures dominated by religion. 

Hedge Mages and Arcanists

Magic in concentrated form flowed through everyday life. It would manifest in physical objects known as viz only to dissipate at dawn the next day. Creatures, some known as monsters, developed ways of harnessing magical energies to better survive. Outside of the elves, religion and the clerics were dominate but over the centuries people both within a faith and outside were continually rediscovering arcane magic and ritual spellcasting. Most times it was a curiosity and limited to a few weak rituals. In some cultures an underground tradition of Hedge Mages developed who lived on the fringes of society and passed down hard won rituals from master to apprentice over generation. Mostly making a living by brewing potions and elixirs for the few who found them. When the culture’s religion found out about them the reaction was nearly always negative and many died after being called heretics and apostates. 

Some religions allowed orders of arcanists to develop and catalog arcane rituals under the strict supervision of the religious hierarchy. Arcanists were rarely a separate order but instead a specialty among scribes, librarians, and record-keeper. 

The Dawn of the Magic User

As the centuries rolled on and history unfolded, chance and circumstance allowed cracks to form in the dominance of magic by clerics. In the next post I will conclude this series by talking about the events that lead to the rise of the magic-user.

On one of the posts I made on social media, Ian Borchardt created a great phrase for how I view magic's effect on the cultures of the Majestic Fantasy Realms.

One of the big problems is that magic in a lot of campaigns tends to be non-scalable, being focused in individuals. Thus I suspect that as a result the effects of magic would tend to cluster tightly, rather than spread through the society. Small islands of wonder in what is otherwise a less developed world (since there would be less incentive for overall development).

Over a decade ago I wrote a post speaking in general about some of issue surrounding magic and society.

Magic and Society (Feb 2010) 

I wrapped the post up with this.

There are a lot of dials here you can play with and the results is that many types of settings can result even when they share the same assumptions I am making. By doing this type of exercise you find yourself considering the different possibilities. This is can ultimately to a more interesting and fun game for you and your players.

Since then I done more work detailing my setting both as the Majestic Wilderlands and as the Majestic Fantasy Realms.  Hopefully a brief overview will serve as an example of some of the thing I touch on that post.

One the things I developed is the technology of magic. How was it discovered and how did it developed into its present form as outlined by the system. Currently the Vancian system found in ODnD's 3 LBBs. 

Originally in the Majestic Fantasy Realms level of magic was low, spells could only be cast through laborious 10 minute rituals. The range of spells was similar those found in the 3 LBBs of ODnD. Magic could be found in physical form as viz and that would allow a spell to be cast within seconds. Related spells could be cast quickly if made into a scroll or a magic item.

After the Dawn War, the Demons were imprisoned in the Abyss. Each of the surviving gods created a crystal. Nine of them were used to seal the entrance of the Abyss, and the tenth was the master Chromatic Cystal.

In order to power them, the gods had the crystals channel the ambient magic into their crystalline structure and then release it back out into the world. Creating a self sustaining loop the keep the demon imprisoned. A side effect this that were now flows of magic throughout the world. Concentrated enough to allow magical energy to be gathered quickly and released as a spell within seconds. 

The nine crystals "tainted" the flow emerging from them creating nine distinct forms of magic. Each form reflected the personality and powers of the god that created the crystal. These nine forms plus the original ambient magic became known as the Ten Arts of Magic.

Like our world's zodiac, they became associated with specific images and colors. The Claw (Black), The Eagle (Red), The Flame (Orange), The Forge (colorless, original ambient magic), The Hearth (Green), The Lantern (Purple), The Skull (White), The Storm (Indigo), The Tree (Blue), The Web (Yellow).

The Mechanics

So what does it means in terms of Swords and Wizardry? I created the following additions*

• The maximum spell level the spellcaster could cast as ritual is determined by their level. 
• Rituals take ten minutes to cast and require the presence of the spellbook.
• Ritual spell caster can't memorize spells. 
• The ritual spell caster had to have scribed the spell into their spell book. For pre-literate societies arcane spellcasters used natural media like cave walls, bark, stone, and sometimes dried tablets of clay to scribe mystical pattern that enabled to learn the spells. 
• Magic items can be used in seconds within the time of a single combat round. Thus any spell used in combat had to be scribed as a scroll (or similar object), a wand, or a magic item.
• One additional wrinkle I will touch on later is that if the ritual spell caster has viz, magic in physical form, then a spell can be casted within seconds. The number of viz needed is equal to the level of the spell. Viz is ephemeral and the spell caster can only maintain a number of viz equal to half of their level (rounded up) plus their intelligence bonus. Excess viz dissipates at the next sunrise, unless they have a special magic item called a Arcane Coffer.  
• Spells are kept the as they are written in the book**. 
• Each spells is associated with an art of magic. 
• If cast with viz associated with a specific art or a spellcaster with a focus in that art. The spell has an increased effect***. 

 In my previous post, I talked about how resolved the issue of how to price real estate for when my players want to buy not build. Along with sharing it here, I posted links on facebook and other chat groups I frequent. 

One poster posted an interesting comment about the lack of profit motive my post implied. One part stood out as a reminder of how I view the Majestic Fantasy Realms.

Without any profit there is no growth and they would stay in the Middle Ages forever.

Over the decades, even before the internet, sometime I got into debates over how a fantasy setting would work, especially with my friends who knew how I ran the Majestic Wilderlands. One thread of the conversation was the impact of magic. Some who I talked to believe that magic would guarantee prosperity, create what we would now call a post scarcity society.  

My counterpoint, that the Industrial Revolution wasn't just about about technology but also ideas of how people can organize themselves or conduct business with each other. Without those idea, all what would happen with magic is the lives of an elite few would get better while the rest of the populace would have marginally better lives like the introduction of the horse collar allow formally difficult to cultivate lands to be brought under the plow to grow food. I usually pegged the average effect of magic at 20% better.

But it was just a guess based on instinct on what I read about history.

Then a few years back, I read a book that I felt gave my opinion a little more weight. 

It called a Farewell to Alms: A brief economic history of the world. 

The thesis as far as my post goes, is that prior to the industrial revolution. Improvements in technology or society only resulted in a temporary increase in prosperity. With more food and better living condition, the birth rate rose. Within in a handful of generations, the population grew to the point where living conditions were no better than before, except now there are more people. 

One main reason is that the pace of technological and society productivity prior to the industrial age could not keep pace with the birth rate except in brief burst. Like the introduction of the horse collar allowed areas with thick heavy soils to be cultivated easily greatly expanding where crops could be grown.

In this regard magic is no different than technology. The spread of using magic throughout a culture would bring about a temporary prosperity, which will bring about an increase in birth rate, which over time would bring everything back to the way it was except now there are more people.

That is until conditions are such that ideas, technology, (and magic since we are talking fantasy) come together to form an industrial magical revolution. Where productivity increases outstrip birth rate for decades and centuries.

As I been saying for years to friends, the Majestic Fantasy Realms is set in the time period before all that happens. But it nice that my guess has better foundation in fact. 

It is a good book and I recommend it highly. It also goes into why the first industrial revolution happen which may provide inspiration for a different kind of fantasy campaign set during that time. If that interest you I recommend getting Susanna Clark's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. A story of English magic set during the Napoleonic Wars. 

Once the treasure is won where can it be spent? One popular choice is to build or buy a stronghold, whether it is a lonely wilderness outpost, a crossroad inn, or a building in a bustling city state. 

Buying versus Building

If the campaign is set in a city or town, often there isn’t room for new construction. Instead the characters will have to purchase an existing structure or at the very least a vacant lot. 

Unlike the modern era, people in medieval and ancient time didn’t generally view the buying and selling of property as a means of profit. While specifics varied between cultures, examples include property viewed as a having a just price (see Thomas Aquinas), or the property was part of a bundle of rights individuals were due in their culture because of tradition, law, or social standing.

For my campaigns, I simplified this. Purchase of property in most cultures of my setting is viewed as an investment made for the income it produced. Not unlike buying a share of stock in a company. The value may go up and down based on larger events, but like a stock it has a specific value that is bought or sold at. Therefore, for these rules the price to buy a stronghold is the same as its construction cost. It reflects its fair price.

This sounds odd to a modern reader. In the modern era, a real estate developer will buy property, hire a contractor for construction and then in turn sell the property at a price higher than what the developer paid.

In the setting I created, there are no real estate developers. Those with the wealth to buy real estate and building would be outraged if somebody tried to sell them land or buildings for more than its fair value. 

Instead buildings are built as investments by those who plan to use them. A lord builds a castle as the lynchpin of a domain, a craftsman constructs or renovates a shop on a lot. 

When sold, the buyer pays only the actual value of the investment. What society considers at the time its “fair” value. Buying and selling at a profit is reserved for grubby merchants dealing in various commodities or luxuries like grain, spices, silk, or (gasp) magic items. Even then they are only tolerated not praised by the nobles, clergy, and peasants. 

Keep in mind that the fair value can rise and fall depending on local conditions. It also varies from its construction price if its use to produce income radically changes. 

If there is little difference in cost in buying versus building, why build at all? 

First because land and building are viewed as an income producing investment, the market is limited, people of the times are conservative about losing a source of income, and the property was often tied to a bundle of rights reflecting a social station in the culture like a knight’s manor. Loss of the property could mean the loss of one’s social standing. This meant the property you what may not be available at any reasonable price. Hence the need to build. In addition, if you build you also get to tailor the land or building to your specification rather than having to deal with already there.

It is possible to build at a cost lower than its fair value if you control the basic resources that are needed. Namely the right to harvest wood from a forest, and control of a stone quarry. Without needing to pay the market rate for lumber and stone, you can easily build at 75% of the cost or lower.

Not much in the way of mechanics in this post. But thinking about this and doing the research has allowed me to solve a long standing issue in how I run campaign. When PCs want to buy instead of build, what the price? And what the motivation of the NPCs selling the property?