Session Zero Lecture

 

Welcome to Dungeons & Dragons. I’m so happy we can all be here together today. 

Some of you are new to D&D, which is AWESOME, and some of you have played the contemporary version of the Great Game. Also awesome. To start out, let’s talk a little bit about what it means to play old school D&D. 

The contemporary game is based on the premise that the player’s characters are heroes and they play through an adventure that is produced by a dungeon master, in which these characters will be heroes and will triumph. 

In the beginning, however, D&D was player-driven. The referee (not dungeon master) would provide a premise, a location, and several people, places and things with which to interact. Then the players would set their own goals and agendas and set off for whatever adventures they wanted. 

There has been a continuity of the old way. Guys have published their own rule books that capture the essence of that play style and use a lot of the rules from the first decade of our hobby. These rule sets are recognizable and intelligible to other folks who play the same way, and soon you recognize them too. 

This is my rule set. It’s called Crown & Valor. The emphasis of this rule set is simplicity and clarity. It is based on rules drawn from original d&d and the first three  editions of basic d&d with just a splash from the contemporary game.

A good example of Crown & Valor’s simplicity is in its character class offerings. There are six of them; just six. You will see that six is plenty for a full robust D&D play experience. 

In chess, there are six different kinds of pieces: king, queen, bishop, knight, rook and pawn. Each has its own rules for movement and some have special abilities and/or limitations that make for interesting choices in the game. If every piece could move just like the queen, that would not be as interesting as real chess.

Coincidentally, there are also six different kinds of pieces in Crown & Valor. These pieces are the Cleric, Fighting-Man, Magic-User, Dwarf, Elf and Hobbit. We call these the standard character classes. Admittedly, these are more complicated than chess men, but this is a useful analogy because the six Crown & Valor  classes are somewhat uniform. That is, two Fighting-Men are more alike than they are different. Just as one chess pawn follows the same rules of behavior as the others, each kind o character has rules about what he is good at and not good at. 

In 1968, an English wargames enthusiast named Tony Bath invented the hit point. 

Who here can explain what a hit point is? 

(Something about a measurement of health, life and death etc.)

In the game of chess, how many hit points does the king have? How many hit points does the rook have? 

They all have one hit point. That means  they’re alive or dead. One is alive, zero is dead. 

Our figures in Crown & Valor, like in all forms of d&d, have varied numbers of hit points. That means that sometimes they will be able to take one or more assaults that would kill a chess man. You can add equipment to him to make him harder to hit. As you play him, he will get more hit points. When they take damage but do not die, they will slowly mend up just like real people do. 

The pieces we use in chess play on a game board. It is a very abstract representation of a battlefield. Their actions are restricted to fighting each other. 

Our figures in Crown & Valor also play on a kind of game board. It’s less limited than a chess board. This game board is mostly in our imagination and it represents a whole world. Our figures can do anything a real person could do, and in some cases, their abilities let them do more. They can explore the wilderlands, delve into the mythic underworld, conduct war campaigns, quest for magic artifacts, start a religion, rule a country, or whatever else you want him to try. 

This freedom of action is what differentiates this kind of game from all others. 

You may notice that I often use the word “figure” to refer to your character. I do this because d&d has its roots in the wargaming hobby. A miniature figure placed on a tabletop battlefield would represent one hero or a unit of many soldiers working together. You can find such figures online. Some hobbyists will collect and paint them. I keep a figure of the last character I played, back in 2019. His name is Robert Bluetooth. He is a cleric to Freya. 

In addition to recalling the hobby’s roots in wargaming, I choose to say figure because you do not have to actually role-play your guy to get the whole experience. But you can. Some people like to use distinctive voices and even wear costumes. Some people will speak in the first person and say “I crush that goblin with my mace.” Some people will refer to the character in third person: “Bluetooth attacks the goblin with his mace.” And some people will just refer to the game mechanics. “I’ll move my figure to this goblin figure and roll to hit.” All of these approaches are equally valid. 

You have heard the term Dungeon Master. What are some other names for this job?

(Solicit names)

I am not a Dungeon Master; I am the Referee. A referee’s job is to keep things moving and make impartial rulings. We have numerous rules to adjudicate many situations. But when we come to a corner case, it will be my job to decide what to do. 

I will also present the world and the various people to you. I’m not master of anything. It’s up to you to choose your figure’s destiny. 

For those of you who have played first-person video games or have played contemporary rile-playing games, our point of view will be quite unusual. Rather than a tone of heroic fantasy, it will feel more like a war story. Your characters are quite ordinary to start - very much like you and me - and will gain in skill and power by collecting treasure. They will be the focus of our story, but not the focus of the world. There is no set outcome and you’re not guaranteed to win.

Treasure is the measure of power in this kind of d&d. One gold piece equals one xp. (Repeat.) This is a departure from contemporary games which use various ways to hand out XP. We earn XP from killing or otherwise defeating enemies and monsters, but it’s a small amount compared to the treasure XP.

You will find that this game is much more deadly than what you’re used to. I’m not responsible for keeping your characters alive. I’m responsible for presenting the world for you. It’s up to you to be as careful or as aggressive as you like, and find out what happens. 

For this reason, think carefully about what gear your man will bring and how to proceed in the face of the unknown.

It will help to hire people to carry torches, haul gear, and even to help fight on your behalf. In fact, the Fighting-Man class has a great class feature where he can lead units of men effectively at low levels and eventually lead armies. We call these kinds of people henchmen or hirelings.  They are a central part of this kind of game. 

The lethality of this version of the game will probably be a surprise. At zero hit points, you’re dead. Magical healing is scarce or expensive, and natural healing is slow. But the death of one figure is not the end of the game for you. 

You know when you play Mario Brothers, Mario dies. A lot. Sometimes it’s your fault and sometimes it’s just bad luck. But when he does die, he comes right back so you can keep trying. 

In a similar way, when you lose one figure, you can grab another and keep going. To that end, we will roll up several characters to begin. That way, when one dies or needs to do something else such as heal up or research a new magic spell, we can bring in the next guy. Or maybe you just get bored with your first one and want to try a different character class for a time. 

So the first thing we do to make up a character is determine his basic physical and mental abilities; three physical and three mental. In d&d, there are six ability scores, sometimes called stats. Why? It’s arbitrary. Some games have three and other games have nine or more. In 1971 or 1972, Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax decided there should be six, so it’s six. They are: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma. 

Each of these has two numbers attached to it. The first is the base score and the second is the modifier associated with that first number. Don’t worry about this yet. The math will make sense later. 

Ability scores range from 3 to 18, and cluster around 10-11. Why 3 to 18? Because those are the numbers generated when we throw three six-sided dice. When Dave and Gary started, all they had was six-sided dice, so that’s what they used for just about everything. 

So we throw three six-siders, total them up, and write the total next to Strength. Then do it again for Intelligence, and Wisdom, and so on down the line. 

Now peek at the character sheet. Look at how little space is devoted to those numbers. They’re not a huge factor in determining a figures success or failure. 

For those of you who have played any version of the game before, you’re going to look at these numbers and be kind of bummed. They seem very pedestrian or boring or LOW. In Crown & Valor, low stats are not a death sentence. Three means you have the minimum ability necessary to be an adventurous man, and 18 means the best in the realm at that thing. But even a 3 is not weak - it’s just the bare minimum one would need for the sort of life these figures lead. 

In this rule set, scores of 14 or above are exceptional. That means you write a +1 next to them. This is a modifier to any die roll your man will make on a d6. It represents about a 17% bonus to those rolls. Stats which are 6 or below get a -1. 

There are a couple of reasons we do it like this. One is, people like to roll dice. Another is, as we throw the dice and see the numbers, our figures reveal themselves to us. This one is clever; this one is strong; and so forth. 

Now let’s assign a character class to each of your four sets of ability scores. However, only one of these four can be a demi-man. The rest have to be a member of a human class. They can all be the same or all different; but at least three must be humans. This is a rule I use when I referee any rule set; it does not appear in the Crown & Valor book. The reason why I made this rule is to keep the adventuring party majority-human. 

Let’s go ahead and read about the seizure classes available to you. 

Now assign classes to each set of ability scores. 

Now that we know their classes, we can determine their hit points on 1d6. Note that a character adds his Constitution modifier to the total. This suggests that a character of most classes with a CON score of 6 or lower who rolls 1 for his hit points will begin the game with zero hit points. He will start out dead! 

So be it! Not to worry. When your bullpen is empty, you can make a whole new list of backup characters. 

Now choose one of those characters to be your starting character. We will assign his former job, his age, his birth date, and his alignment. We can mark down his class-based special abilities. We can hand out his starting equipment. Once we know what he is carrying, we can tell how many squares he can move in a Turn. 

There are a few other details to fill in, but the character is basically ready for play. You might give him a name, or you might wait to see if he lives to second level before naming him! In the mean time, you can always refer to him by his character class or his former job. 

Next we will talk a little about the world in which these characters live and the town in which they begin play. 

What every parent should know about the Cyfandil campaign

Cyfandil is pretty close to vanilla d&d. The tweaks are minor. But in this sociopolitical climate, “vanilla d&d” as the greybeards know it is fraught with potential misunderstanding, hurt feelings, and ideas that some folks won’t be ready for. 

Take a look to see what potentially-controversial topics we will cover. 

1. There are three human cultures; rough analogs of White Europeans; rough analogs of North African nomad types; and rough analogs of East Asians. 

They are not meant to be real world peoples. The cultures, names, places are a pastiche. I do this to better resemble the real world (but in miniature.) 

The land we will start in and perhaps spend most of our time in is the Europe of the world. Very few nonwhites. 

However anyone can decide to play any of the human cultural traditions without penalty. 

2. There are elves, dwarves and hobbits. Elves and dwarves are not unheard-of but neither are they common in the realm of men. 

Thematically, adventuring is a particularly human pursuit. Other races join men, but only rarely. Elves don’t like to slum it with people; Hobbits consider adventuring scandalous. 

Therefore I will enforce a strict limit of 40% or less of the main characters being non human. Just how you divide that up is up to the players. 

3. There will be off-screen romance. Nothing acted or role played, but a character might pick up a spouse or paramour.  

If someone wants to opt out of this part of the game, they may do so. The reason I have it at all is twofold: it presents the prospect of having children and starting a dynasty; and marriages can be politically or economically valuable. 

In any case, there are no half-elf, half-dwarf or half-hobbit babies. They are not biologically possible in this world. 

4. Characters, including those played by players, will die. Perhaps frequently and perhaps not, depending on how aggressive the several players are in the game world. 

But these deaths are not a defeat for the players. They are a part of the story. Character death is a learning experience, and it often makes for a good tale in the later telling. 

Consider the Mario Bros. franchise. Mario dies all the time and for many reasons, whether by player mistake or bad luck. But he always comes back and the player can continue playing.

It’s the same concept here, except that the character won’t be like the immortal Mario, but instead a different character every time. 

In some ways this is better, because everyone gets to try out different kinds of characters. 

5. The realm of Aluvia is Christian. Not Christian-analog, but Christian. The good guy clerics are delegates of God, like from the Bible. The bad guy clerics get their powers from the Devil and other related evil beings. 

5a. There are other religious traditions. While it is not a pluralist culture, we will not discriminate if you want a Buddhist or a disciple of Odin. 

5b. I will not be preaching.  At all. I do not run my game as a tool for evangelism, nor conversely one for social commentary. The church is just one power center in a world of many power centers, and there happen to be holy men who go adventuring.  

6. Finally, players will be responsible for playing their own character, but also assisting in the maintenance of the world. 

Time passes. Events happen. The characters and others change the world in many ways. These gallant paper men eventually grow old and retire or die. 

When the several characters are exploring the unknown, then among the characters, someone has to track their limited supplies. Someone has to navigate. Someone has to map. Someone has to manage the treasure they collect. Someone has to chronicle the tales for posterity. 

Therefore, each of the players will take on these administrative roles on behalf of their characters. 

There are two reasons for this: one is to take some of the burden from the referee, who has a lot going on; and two is to reinforce the concept that this is a shared world and shared experience that we are building and maintaining together. 

Welcome to Cyfandil

An enjoyable rustic pastime 

Cyfandil is a temperate island chain at a northern latitude, consisting two major islands and hundreds of smaller ones. Its land area is about the same as Madagascar, or a little larger than the British Isles. 

Demi-Men live here and there, but are somewhat uncommon. Besides, there’s quite enough cultural variety in Man’s tripartite lineage: Aluvian, G’harundim and Sho. 

Our part of the realm is Aluvia, which is a lot like Medieval Northern Europe. 

Aluvian civilization has risen at times and fallen at others, leaving mysteries and secrets in the deep forest; but the Aluvian people carry on regardless. 

Now the Aluvian League is experiencing spots of turmoil, as it does from time to time. Robert, the Duke of Sutton, is attempting to unseat King Bradnwyr. Nobles have begun to form up in support of one or the other. Little skirmishes have commenced here and there- the usual vainglorious summer nonsense.

Thus far, the war has kept itself at a sensible distance. Merchants and pilgrims bring news from the corners of the Realm. War news has been interesting and non-threatening, like hearing the final result from a rousing shinty match at Glenden Wood. It’s something harmless for the old gainsayers to gainsay about when meeting in town.

 

Welcome to Cragstone

 

Our little part of Aluvia is called Lleannedd March. Our town is Cragstone, named for its founder, Thorsten Cragstone, the hero of times past. Neither a village nor a city, Cragstone is home to 100 families. The economy is based on trade by road and river. Among those men and Hobbits whose business it is to know such things, Cragstone is known best for producing an excellent grade of honey. 

Where You Come In

You are members of the mysterious Order of the Brass Dragon, a society by, of and for adventurous men. However, it is a society with absolutely no benefits, nor dues, nor oaths whatsoever. Benefits, that is, aside from your brooch: a smart brass brooch with which to hold your cloak in place, and the moderate air of mystery such a brooch might lend. 

A nigh-distant but fitting goal for a character when he starts will be to collect enough money and power to conquer a hex, build a castle or other great dwelling, and become a Lord. However, a player must decide what each of his characters truly wants from his paper life.

 

What Everyone Knows in Leanned March

• Strange noises come from the accursed wood just outside town.

• The Empire is enjoying civil war again.

• Roads are dangerous! Monsters and bandits prey on unsuspecting travelers. Stick together.

• Locusts destroyed the crops last year in Glenden Wood.

• Rithwic was hit by the plague. Some say it was G’harundim merchants who brought it there. 

• Most people say Druids are a myth.

Patrons and Factions:

•Lord Alberz, Marquis of Rithwic. His delegate in Cragstone is Lieutenant Kenneth.

•Dockmaster Brodus Stoneriver of the Dwarven Sea Clans. 

•Brienne of the Collectors Guild.

•Various Chaotic types outside the towns. 

Concepts of Note

 

Character death is close so decisions are more meaningful. 

Henchmen are important. 

Cha > Str.

Speak in natural language. I will adjudicate. I will show you what rules I use when applicable. 

Town is safe. Your character cannot die in town. 

House Rules

 

The Bullpen.

Any adventuring party is permitted to have a maximum of 40% demi-men.

Race as class.

Strict observation of time.

Slow Healing.

Clerical discontinuity and other unusual rules. 

Stochastic Rounds.

Bandages.

No initiative. 

Light sources. 

Opportunity attacks. 

Splintered shields.

Named the Pub

 

Preparing a world, Preparing a session

 The essence of play in the folkstyle of D&D is to push into unknown places, to explore, to meet new people, to acquire resources such as gold, magic items, allies and land, and to eventually build your very own domain where you can be the Lord andmold the world in your image.

To begin a campaign, some folks will want to start with the whole continent and kingdom. That’s fine. It’s fun. There are a lot of tools to help keep track of a whole world. But you don’t have to do nearly so much. In fact, if your goal is to get started in a reasonable amount of time and with a manageable amount of prep, then coloring in the whole world map is quite inefficient. We do not need a world; we need a neighborhood.

1.       Devise the premise of the world. That is, explain the nature of your specific game in a few sentences. What makes your campaign world special? Make it so you can tell someone what’s special about it in under one minute or print the information on one side of a business card. Consider your tone, what races and classes will be available, and what is special about your particular world.

2.       Think about one six-mile hex and then its surrounding hexes. That’s seven hexes and a total of 224 square miles. Place your starting town in the middle of the map. Realistic medieval cities and towns take up no more than a single one-mile hex. Consider water and food sources. Consider defense.

Then place the entrance to a dungeon somewhere nearby. Other points of interest can be generated procedurally as you go along. A village every 2-3 miles and a castle or fort every 12-15, a witch’s coven, an accursed fairytale forest, a goblin redoubt, a magical stone circle, a guard golem who dispenses quests and rewards. All of these can come later. The really important things are the haven of town and the entrance to the adventure site.

3.       Map out at least three levels of the starting dungeon. Each level should have a theme of some kind to distinguish it from the other levels. A good guideline is that the first level should have about 7-13 rooms, the second 13-25, and the third 25-30. Not every level has to be bigger than the one above it; these are only suggestions. We will talk more about just how to do that later on.

4.       Go back and draw the layout of the starting town. Think up some inhabitants. The party will need some shops to buy and sell, a place to sleep, a place to hire henchmen, a reason adventurous men may be available for hire, a place to hear rumors, and two or more power centers.

Power centers could include a chaotic temple, a thieves’ guild, a septarch’s tower, a league of fighters’ hall, NPCs of various backgrounds, roles and secrets.

5.       If the starting town does not have a castle or fort, place at least one within a day’s travel – about 12 miles. Consider placing a couple of towns 5-10 miles away from one another too. Use several kinds of terrain surrounding the starting town, for terrain provides the players with meaningful choices. Place roads and other pathways in logical places and at a logical technological levels.

Going through the steps above, this is what I have devised.

6.       Premise: The starting realm will resemble medieval northwest europe c. 1100. There will be three races (phenotypes) of Men, but the vast majority of NPCs will be Aluvian, the White European analogue. Starting classes are limited to fighter, wizard and cleric; and demi-men are limited to dwarf, elf and hobbit with race-as-class rules. Level cap is 14 and there are not many people in the world who have reached level 9. All classes other than fighting-man will be rare and exotic. At any one time, only 40% of the PCs can be demi-men; the balance must be human. This is to enforce the human-centric nature of adventuring. The several players shall decide among themselves who gets to play the demi-men, should there be excess demand. Most D&D monsters will be present. Some monsters will be new. Some monstrous races will be presented as unique individuals rather than myriad.

7.       Starting location: The town is named for Thorsten Cragstone, a legendary Aluvian general. Lore has it that he founded the town and he is buried somehwhere nearby. There is an impressive patinaed bronze statue to him in the middle of town, even though no one really knows what he looked like. Whosoever is in town when the church bells ring noon gathers before the statue and pledges their allegiance to it, as it is the embodiment of Cragstone’s fighting spirit. The townspeople believe they are all descendants of his or of his friend Zenopus the Septarch, or of both. When a man from Cragstone swears an oath, he will say, “by Cragstone’s beard,” or “by the crook’d staff of Zenopus,” or perhaps simply, “by the Founders.”

It is located at an elbow in the Rith, which is a broad, slow river with ample littoral marshlands. It has average quality farmland. The locals are known for their honey and their candle wax, since beekeeping is a point of pride.

Because of its location on the river and halfway between the towns of Rithwic and Glenden Wood, it is also known as a decent market town. In addition to the permanent shops, there is a paddock down by the river where merchants will sell wares from their wagons. There’s a small chance that you can find just about anything down there, and a slightly smaller chance you can sell just about anything.

Demographically, Cragstone is a town of 100 families. At least one is Dwarven; at least two are Hobbit; none are Elven (PCs aside.) There is one G’harundim woman in town who is the jeweler. (G’harundim are a North African type of people.) The rest of the town of course is made up of Aluvian Men and their kin.

Since this is the starting town, I can be certain that we will spend at least several sessions there. Therefore it makes sense to stock it with lots of NPCs. I have created about 50 NPCs to be “the people in the neighborhood.” Name, race, job, most common locations. This includes the town guard and a number of ne’er-do-wells from which henchmen can be hired. I have also established several craftsmen who will be useful to the players for specific equipment, information, and to buy unusual items they may find. I don’t know how much the players will decide to utilize any of these resources, but they’re available.

The power centers in town are threefold: There are two churches (one Catholic and one Protestant) and there is a sheriff named Lieutenant Kenneth who leads the town guard and acts as the chief civil authority in town. He is a neutral Hero, or fourth-level fighting-man.  The town has one true cleric, a first level Lawful named Edrick the Coward and one second-level fighter who acts as Kenneth’s sergeant.

I have not assigned traits to any NPCs in advance since I prefer to assign them procedurally as I go along. That way, I can be surprised and delighted right along with the several other players.

Greater Cragstone

This is greater Cragstone. The little hexes are 1 mile across and the bigger ones are 6 miles across. 

In reality, the towns are a little close together. Real towns would be 8-10 miles apart. I put them where they are for ease of mapping. 

The map is about 95% done. I think I need to connect a road and maybe I should blank out the lair at 2315.

Click to enbiggen.

Races and Places

Not the map - just an example 

On the People of the Realm

One of the implicit assumptions of vanilla d&d is that the people are analogues to European Whites. I will retain that here but it bears mentioning that I even considered some alternative, which I would not have done a few years ago.

White European types will be a supermajority. This is the principality of Aluvia, a White country in a White region. There will be a very few demi-men and a very few nonwhites. The other races of Men in the world are East Asian analogues and North African analogues. There will be one G’harundim (North African type) in town. 

I don’t anticipate any racial politics between human groups unless the players force the issue, and I don’t expect they will. I’m certainly not going to broach it. It’s just flavor. Later, the players may decide to travel to the other lands and find different cultural norms and different kinds of dungeons and wilderness.

On the Shape of the Realm

Cragstone is going to be the middle town in a three-town run along the as-yet-unnamed river. There will be significant trade along the river and the road. Therefore it makes sense to put castles nearby. 

About half the six-mile hex will be farmland and half will be forest, including some dense forest. It will be hilly too, giving some verticality to the land. This helps to take the land out of the realm of a board game and into the realm of the real.  

On the Landmarks of the Realm

I’m going to put a proper castle at the confluence of two rivers a little northwest of the northern town, Rithwic. I’m going to put B2 in the next hex over. Rename everything and reskin the monsters to provide a little mystery. 

That gives the townspeople a defensible position within a day’s walk in either direction and provides sites for interesting adventuring opportunities. 

I’m also going to put a bandit “castle” (fortified house) somewhere nearby, with a charismatic Sho (East Asian) warlord and 300 men, either north or south along the trade road. Probably two hexes away, so the patrols from one of the castles will have skirmish with the bandits. Idk how much it will come into play, but imo it’s important to prepare factions for the players to encounter as well. 

Past that, there will be a ruined Septarch tower and two other dungeons in the same hex. (Septarchs are the archmages of the realm.)

On the Monsters of the Realm

As far as local monsters, I’m going to have new humanoid monsters that aren’t really new. They will be reskinned and renamed but retain the same ecology and society as the ones we all know from a million years of playing, but they will look different and act a little different, giving the same-but-different that people seem to enjoy. 

Drudges are cat men who breed like crazy. The least of them are 1-HP monsters. The most powerful of them cast war spells such as lightning bolts. They are like goblins. 

Tumeroks are tall grey warriors. They present kind of like romans and kind of like cavemen, and are obsessed with honor and order like Dwarves might be.

Monoguas are various colors. They have three eyes vertically in the middle of their face. Monogua eyes are prized for magic material components and potions. 

I’m going to keep ogres and trolls and minotaurs as is. Kobolds, I don’t know. I may make kobolds like Doozers. Neither benign nor malign. Into mining and building underground.

Orcish is an affliction men get, similar to lycanthropy.

I might introduce Ouphes, which are a dark mirror to elves and gnomes. They are merchants, jewelers and bankers. Nepotistic and ruthless and sour and obnoxious. Rarely, Ouphes gain character levels like men do but they should not be PCs.

I’ve been and will be super busy. Regional maps to come.

Cragstone's NPCs Updated

This feels finished. The only thing left to name is the pub, and I'm going to throw that out to the audience to see what they have to say.

You will see that the NPCs all have names, purposes and locations. The locations will be slightly fluid but these are good places to find the people. Locations a-c are not really locations. They are more like ranges. a, b, and c are guard watches. a in the morning, b in the afternoon, c as relief. d is "anywhere in town" and e is in the countryside as a special encounter. 

Note that there is a Catholic church in town but no regular NPCs are inside. Both churches will sell holy symbols and holy water, and do exorcisms and detox, but only Edrick the Coward is a true cleric. 

I have some idea of how the town will be laid out. I have not decided where the local dungeon or dungeons will be located or what wandering monsters will lurk within the home hex. Yet. 

Click to embiggen.

The People of Cragstone

The starting town for the campaign will be the village of Cragstone in the principality of Aluvia. The town is named for the ancient hero Thorsten Cragstone. The town square has a statue of him, but nobody really knows what he actually looked like.  

What handsome children!

Here is an utterly useless list of the 45 townspeople that the PCs might interact with in town. Of course there are a lot more people in Cragstone - I think the number will be 500 (100 families.) That gives us enough folks to farm and raise cows. 

But here, should there be some Hobbit families mixed in with the people? Cragstone is the kind of place Hobbits would like. Bucolic. 

The authority figures in town are... I guess... Lieutenant Kenneth and Oswent the Town Crier, with Sergeant Shanks in there somewhere. People probably just solve their own problems, mostly, and there probably isn't a lot of crime. Frs. Berry and Gildenhearn are probably pretty helpful too. 

There's also a docks area, since Cragstone is on the river, but it isn't a commercial hub. There isn't even a regular ferry service. If you want a ride, you have to get someone to sail or row you. I don't know whether I should make up some NPCs for the dock area or not. Probably at least one cartoonish sea captain. I'll keep thinking. 

If I were to randomly assign an appearance and a personality trait to each of NPC, I would use Table 1. It's also useful if you need a name on the fly. Say! Maybe one of these people is the aforementioned sea captain or a dock worker? Who knows!

If you're wondering how you can make up your own passel of commoners, you might consider this site: 

https://codepen.io/isaacwilliams/full/MoMNVK/ 

or this site: https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/07/horrible-peasant-npc-generator.html

Getting itchy for a new campaign

It’s going to be months before I can think about running a table. May at least. But I’m itchy now. 

Think I’m going to start the campaign in a fairly small town, far away from the capitol city. 

Cragstone: named for an ancient hero. It is a town in the principality of Aluvia. It looks like this:

It’s on a broad river and there are all the things adventurers might need - including a ruined wizard’s tower with a dungeon underneath.

Of course I’ll port a lot of ideas over from the Fallen Empire campaign because it’s the same world and continent.

Inside the kingdom there will be three noble houses. Outside the kingdom, two other kingdoms of Men. I find myself drawn to groups of three.

There will be elfs, dwarfs and hobbits in small numbers. The world should be human-centric. 

Race-as-class, 14 levels, etc. very b/x.

More as we go along.