AD&D 2E

Lets Build: A Pantheon with the World Builder’s Guidebook (AD&D 2E)

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For a project I am working on, I am going back to The World Builder’s Guidebook (AD&D 2E) to work out some details. First up will be the creation of a pantheon using the guidebook. I have some ideas which I want to explore but need to get a proper feel for the place before I get started. So lets get rolling.

Firstly is to work out what type of pantheon it is; the dice roll a 53, resulting in one pantheon per major culture, with overlapping deities. In effect this means that there is one deity per portfolio (war, love, sun etc), but that they are known by different names to different cultures. A prime example of that are the gods and goddesses of the Roman and Greek pantheons – many of the Roman ones were rebranded Greek ones, similar in a lot of ways but with different names.

Int his case, I am thinking that there would be one fairly large pantheon and that each culture uses elements of it. Some deities, the main ones, may be fairly universal while others may be more specific to only a few cultures. The relative importance of them will vary from culture to culture, so a deity of agriculture may not have much meaning to nomadic herders, while a deity of rain would likewise not be followed in a desert dwelling culture. The deity of war would be of far grater importance to a militaristic, expansionist culture than a more civilised, peaceful one.

Next we move onto the pantheon size. In this case it is the size of the pantheon for the culture we are working with, and not the size of the overall pantheon. A roll of 23 results in a Small pantheon. Given the culture involved it a relatively minor one that can work well. Rolling for the number of deities, we get 1 Greater, 2 Intermediate, 2 Lesser and 2 Demi, a total of 7 all told. We will work out who they are later.

With the size worked out we work out what the organisation of the pantheon is, or at least this portion of it. The larger pantheon will be a mixed one, with various elements as the pantheon evolved. This portion rolls a 63, a Natural pantheon. Basically, they represent various elements of nature; animals, plants, seasons, weather etc.

Lastly we work out the involvement of the pantheon in the affairs of mortals. A roll of 37 results in Aloof; the deities don’t get involved much, if at all, and only in times of great need. The Valar of The Silmarillion are an example of that, at least later on.

Now to work on the specifics of the Pantheon.

Greater Deity; We roll 3 on 1d3 for the number of portfolios they have. The first roll is a 19; Oceans. That fits in very well with the Natural theme of the pantheon and indicates that the culture we are working on has deep connections to the ocean. The second roll is 06; Animals. In this case it wouldn’t be all animals, but oceanic animals. Our last roll is a 36; Sun. That one doesn’t seem to fit as well, so I re-roll and come up with 51; Fate. Given the nature of the sea, that one fits in well.

There are no actual rules for determining gender or actual alignment of the deities, beyond a range of them. Animals, oceans and fate could be of any alignment. My house rule is to just flip a coin for gender and use the alignment chart for cultures to figure out the alignment of a deity, re-rolling for any non-allowed ones.

Rolling gives a male god who is neutral-good, completing the picture of him. The God of the Ocean is seen by this culture as a benign ruler, concerned for the well being of his people over the rules of law and individual liberty. He preaches acceptance of the fate that comes on all, whether raging storm or unexpected wealth, and the creatures of the sea are his, the bounty of them provided to his followers. The sea drakes that explore the depths of the ocean are his sacred creatures.

Intermediate Deity #1; We roll 2 on 1d3 for the number of portfolios they have. The first roll is 73; Music and the second is 54; Fire. They are also female and of a neutral-good alignment as well. At first glance it seems a bit of an odd combination but I can see how it works.

The Lady of the Flame, at least in this culture, welcomes all to her warmth and represents all that is good about fire; the provider of heat and of cooking. Moreso, hers is a place where people gather around to share, to sing and make music. She represents the good aspects of fire and most likely was one of the early deities worshiped by early people, simple hunter-gatherers at their campfires.

Intermediate Deity #2; We roll 2 on 1d3 for the number of portfolios they have. The first roll is 10; Earth and the second is 80; Trade. I like this combo and will keep it for the overall pantheon but I think I will set it aside for this pantheon and roll again as it doesn’t quite fit the picture I am building up in my head for them. Instead we roll 27; Seasons and 37; Sun. They are a male neutral deity.

The Lord of the Seasons is even more indifferent to the fates of mortals than most, caring simply for the rise and fall of the seasons, from summer to winter and back, and with it the waxing and waning of the strength of the sun.

Lesser Deity #1; We roll a 1 on 1d2 for the number of portfolios. The roll is 52; Fertility. They are a chaotic good female deity.

The Lady of Birth and Growth cares little for the rule of laws, instead being about the growth of all things, the blossoming of new life, the birth of new creatures. Given her inclusion in the pantheon and the more chaotic nature of her personality, the culture in question might have looser laws on such matters as marriage, and less stigma on those born out of wedlock.

Lesser Deity #2; We roll a 2 on 1d2 for the number of portfolios. The rolls are 100; Time and 31; Sky. The deity is a lawful good female.

The Lady of Time is closely connected to The Lord of Seasons. Perhaps related, perhaps married. Perhaps both, depending on the culture and mythology involved. They mark the orderly passage of time, displaying it in the heavens with the wheel of the stars and the moon, and like the Lord of Seasons, being indifferent to all else, but in a far more orderly manner than the passage of seasons.

Demi-power #1; They have a single portfolio, rolling a 78; Thunder. They turn out to be a neutral-evil female deity. An unusual one, but given the oceanic theme of the culture, one that could fit in. The Lady of Storms is a selfish deity who rages at will, caring little for the deaths she brings to those caught up in her displays. For such reasons mortals fear her but also respect her, seeking to appease her nature with offerings in return for their safety, but they don’t exactly love her.

Demi-power #2; They have a single portfolio, rolling 48; Death. They turn out to be a Lawful-neutral female deity.

Death comes to all. It is part of nature, unavoidable. While her sister, The Lady of Birth and Growth ushers you into the world, it is The Lady of Death who ushers your soul on. She is not a cruel or uncaring deity, merely one carrying out the natural order of things, regardless of the standing of the victim. All in the end come to her, and hers is a place where suffering and pain are no more.

That is the pantheon of the culture that we are working on, an interesting mix. The details of the pantheon can now be fleshed out as the culture is built up on but as it currently stands we have a few points of interest to look at. But as you can see, you can get some interesting mixes and from that try and build a story around them, to see what ideas it sparks. You don’t have to stick exactly with what the rolls give you, though they can certainly help get the creativity flowing.

Lets Build: A Dwarf Stronghold #2

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After the last stronghold, I feel need to expunge the shame of it being a gully dwarf stronghold and make a proper dwarven one. For this, it will be a mix of rolls and choosing options, a perfectly valid option given in the book.

Stronghold Name

The stronghold name will contain three prefixes to go with the suffix. Our rolls net us Far, Nal and Nor. For the suffix we get Gak. Mixing them up we get Norfarnalgak. It sounds decent but I want a little more, so I make some miror changes to get Norzarngak.

Subraces Present

Rather than roll on the subrace table, I am going to choose – in this case mixed subraces. There are more than one type of dwarf present in this stronghold. I will still roll to see which is dominant, and how many, and what type, of other subraces are present.

We roll 58 on 1d100, which gives us Hill Dwarves as the dominant subrace. A 4 on 1d4 means 4 other subraces are also present, so a very cosmopolitan dwarf stronghold.

Hill dwarves have 3d100+100 adult males present. The roll for that gives us 188, for 288 adult males. That will also give us 144 adult females and 72 children in the fortress.

When other subraces are present, you are meant to modify the dominant race to reduce their numbers – in the case of 4 others, we are meant to reduce it by 75%, but I keep the old numbers. I want a big stronghold. Well, as big as a dwarf stronghold can be.

To find out who else lives in the stronghold, and how many of them, we roll on the Hill Dwarf Subrace Table. The first roll gives us 3d6 mountain dwarves, the second gives us 4d10 gully dwarves (we just cant seem to escape them), the third 2d8 duergar and the fourth 1d12 deep dwarves. We roll 12 mountain dwarves, 31 gully dwarves, 7 duergar and 10 deep dwarves. These are the adult males, so there will be more women and children.

If we had reduced the size of the dominate subrace as suggested, we would have 216 less adult male hill dwarves but only 60 adult males from other subraces, which would make a huge population drop. That is why I ignored it – there are few enough dwarves in a stronghold already to justify that.

Overall Alignment

An 8 on 2d6 for the alignment of the stronghold gets us Lawful Good – very much typical of the LG Hill Dwarves. That isn’t to say that everyone in the Stronghold is LG, but the overall outlook of it. Besides LG dwarves, there would also be Chaotic Good, Neutral Good and Lawful Neutral ones in smaller numbers. Other alignments might be present, but they would be very rare and would keep their alignment hidden.

As discussed in the next part, the other subraces have their own enclaves in Norzarngak, and these may have differing attitudes and ways of life than the rest of the stronghold. Rolling for them, the deep dwarves are overall Neutral and the mountain dwarves are Lawful Good. The duergar turn out to be Lawful Neutral, discarding the Lawful Evil ways of their subrace. The gully dwarves are also Neutral, being less chaotic than the rest of their kind. It seems the hill dwarves of Norzarngak have had a positive influences on their duergar and gully dwarf cousins.

Type of Stronghold

What is the size and importance of Norzarngak? One option we have is to have a primary stronghold for the hill dwarves, and have smaller, secondary ones for the subraces, as trading enclaves or family strongholds. These may end up wildly different to the main stronghold itself, which could make for some interesting adventure hooks.

For Norzarngak itself, we roll a 2 on a 1d100, which means this is a major stronghold, a capital city which may rule over other, lesser strongholds. It also means that the population is doubled – in this case 576 adult male hill dwarves, 24 mountain dwarves, 62 gully dwarves, 14 duergar and 20 deep dwarves. These are just the adult males, for a total of 696 adult males.

For the others, I decide that the mountain dwarves belong to a trade enclave, linking Norzarngak and their home civilisation. The duergar belong to a family stronghold, a single family of 14 males, 7 females and 3 children living in their own part of the stronghold.

For the deep dwarves, I let the dice decide and it comes out as an outpost – outposts have a 35% chance to be mines, and I roll an 01, so this is one of those. The deep dwarves (20 males, 10 females, 5 children) live in the deepest parts of the stronghold and control the local mine, which certainly gives them some power in the stronghold. The question is, what type of mine is it. An early chapter in the Complete Book of Dwarves allows you to roll up mines and see how rich they are. A 1d100 gives us 90 on the Mining Products Table – a silver mine. To see the quality of it, we roll a 1d10 on the Ore Quality Table and get 10, as good as it gets. A 10 allows us to roll again, and on a second 10 it is a pure vein, otherwise it requires smelting. Our second roll is only a 9. Close, but not quite. This mine produces smelted ore equal to 2000 silver coins each week per miner. This, then, is the main source of Norzarngak’s wealth.

The gully dwarves I don’t roll for. They live in the general populace, and I have a few ideas for them to expand on.

The Age of the Stronghold

A major stronghold has been around 2d10 generations. In Norzarngak’s case that is 12 generations, each of 350 years, or 4,200 years. Norzarngak is old, and well established. The deep dwarves mine has been around 1d6-1 generations, or 4 generations – 1,520 years. The mountain dwarf trade enclave has been around 1d4-2 generations, or 2 generations – 800 years. The duergar family stronghold has been around 1d6-1 generations. I decide they have been here 4 generations as well, or 1600 years. They arrived around the same time as the deep dwarves.

Government

On a 1d100, we get a 81 for government type. Checking the government table, that results in an oligarchy, an elite group of dwarves elected or selected on the basis of their wealth to rule. These could be drawn from nobles, guilds or merchants, the only requirement being wealth. As such, I can see some representation from the deep dwarves, on the account of their mines, and possibly mountain dwarves as well, in addition to the hill dwarves who remain the majority of the oligarchic council.

For the other enclaves, the mountain dwarves are a theocracy. A priest runs their trade enclave, obviously a dwarven god of trade. The deep dwarves are feudal. A deep dwarf noble is in charge of the mine and all its workers. Meanwhile the duergar are a guild. A guild master runs their small family stronghold, which means the family are all likely part of the same guild. Thinking it over, and trying to integrate them into Norzarngak, I decide that they are the Guild of Silversmiths. They turn the silver mined by the deep dwarves into works of value and intricate design. While each enclave is ruled in its own way, they all full under the jurisdiction of the oligarchic council of the stronghold. The gully dwarves are, as mentioned, just part of the general stronghold.

Attitude

Now to see how this rich, oligarchic stronghold interacts with the world beyond. Our first 1d20 roll gives us 15, isolationist, but our previous stronghold was one of those, so we are going to try again. Especially given we know that it trades with other dwarves at the least. A second roll is a 9 – friendly. Well, as friendly as dwarves get. They will most likely have more dealings with other races. Only 50% of the adult population is part of the militia, but given the size of the stronghold, that is still more than 500 basic members of the militia.

I decide that the enclaves may also have their own attitudes as well, which might make for a more interesting story for the stronghold. The mountain dwarves are expansionist, with 100% of the adults in the militia. Expansionists societies want to grow and move into new areas, even if it means going to war. It certainly adds an interesting new dynamic to the stronghold – the small religious trader enclave of mountain dwarves agitating for a more aggressive foreign policy to the friendly and more numerous hill dwarwves.

The deep dwarves are dispossessed – they lost their ancestral lands and, though few in number, still wish to reclaim. We need to roll on the war table to find out who drove them from their homes into exile. We actually roll 100 on 1d100, which means three races were involved. They turn out to be ogres, trolls and drow, though whether they were working together or separate we can work our later. Lastly, I decide that the duergar were also dispossessed – they arrived at around the same time as the deep dwarves, so it makes sense that some great war 15 or 16 centuries before in the deeper parts of the world drove the remnants of their civilisation to seek refuge elsewhere. Both the deep dwarves and duergar have 50-100% of their adult population in the militia. Given their background, and desire to reclaim their ancestral lands, 100% sounds appropriate.

Resources

Norzarngak is large and powerful, and probably wealthy. To see how wealthy we roll a 1d20 and add 2 for being primarily hill dwarves and 3 for being a major stronghold. The result is 24 – rich. There is great wealth there and even the lowest dwarf is exceedingly well off. Starting dwarf characters get a bonus +1d10x10 gp. A starting fighter normally gets 50-200 gp to start with, but one from Norzarngak gets another 10-100 on top of that.

I don’t roll for the enclaves in this case. The wealth of the stronghold is shared around between all, even the gully dwarves.

Relationship with other Player Character Races

As a friendly stronghold of lawful good alignment and with a lawful good race, Norzarngak rolls 1d20-9 to figure out its relationships with the other player character races nearby. They turn out to be friendly with humans, gnomes and halflings, meaning members of those races visit regularly, trade is brisk and some may even live among them. For the elves, they roll cautious but I downgrade that to merely indifferent. I’d rather steer away from the more antagonistic attitude between elves and dwarves that is often portrayed. In this case they are neutral and businesslike. Trade is done, and maybe a few elven merchants live in Norzarngak, but few other elves come to visit all that much.

The other enclaves have their own attitudes towards the other races. For the mountain dwarves, they roll a 1d20+1, due to their expansionist attitude, though their lawful good nature tones that down. They turn out to be indifferent towards gnomes and halflings, no doubt seeing little threat from them, but cautious towards humans and elves. While gnomes and halflings may visit the trade enclave, humans and elves generally aren’t allowed without close supervision.

The deep dwarves down in the mines roll an unmodified 1d20 due to their neutrality and attitude. They are friendly towards the gnomes, indifferent towards halflings and cautious about elves and humans. They welcome gnomes and their may even be some living down in the mines. If a halfling actually wanted to venture down in the mines, they would be allowed to but humans and elves would be frowned upon, though not actively barred.

The lawful neutral nature of Norzarngak’s duergar gives them a 1d20-1 roll. In something of a surprise, they turn out to be friendly to humans, indifferent to halflings and gnomes, but cautious to elves. None of the enclaves seem to be big fans of the elves.

The gully dwarves, once again, follow the attitudes of the general stronghold.

War and Peace with other Races

Just because the stronghold has a general friendly outlook doesn’t mean their can’t be war. Normally they roll a 1d20-5 on the War/Peace table, meaning they may be in an uneasy peace that may erupt into war, but additional factors have to be taken into account. The disposed deep dwarves and duergar would roll a 1d20+10 and the expansionist mountain dwarves would roll a 1d20+5, making peace all but impossible and war likely. However, having the enclaves be involved in wars but not the stronghold itself would make little sense. The more aggressive nature of the enclaves pushed the the roll back to a straight 1d20 for the overall stronghold I decide. The result comes up as 11 – an uneasy peace. Now to find out who the uneasy peace is – a roll of 1d100 comes up as a 17 which reveals the enemy as drow. That should have been a fairly obvious choice from the history of the deep dwarves and duergar. We also need to find out how long the peace has held. That is a 1d8 roll on the peace table, which is normally a 1d10 roll, meaning always have been at peace is out of the question. The roll comes up with 3d10 years – as recently as 11 years before there had been conflict between Norzarngak and the drow. A few more rolls finds out that war had gone on for 5 generations, or around 1750 years before comings to its end, a steady war of border skirmishers and raids during which time the homes of the deep dwarves and duergar were overrun.

Having problems with just one race doesn’t seem enough through. We need a bit more for the purposes of adventures, so I will roll up two more enemy races and find out what trouble has happened with them.

The first are beholders, always troublesome neighbors. Currently there is a peace with them as well, the conflict having ended 31 years prior after a 6 year long invasion.

Lastly are hobgoblins, and it turns out there is an active war going on with them, it having been going on 34 years currently. It started just after the war with the beholders began, so there may be a link there. Now the other wars have ended, the dwarves have more resources available and the war is escalating in nature.

Militia

There is a war going on and so we need to know what Norzarngak has to fight it with. While a friendly stronghold with only 50% of the adult hill dwarf population in the militia, there are still 864 adults (576 male, 288 female) in the stronghold. Half of that is 432 milita.

Hill dwarves have elite (13) morale and are normally equipment with chain mail and shields, but because Norzarngak is rich, they are able to outfit all of them in plate mail. For weapons, it is a mix, with each dwarf having two weapons. A fixed percentage of the militia is equipped with each combo, so for instance 25% of them have axes and hammers, and 10% have axes and heavy crossbows.

Hill dwarf leaders are equipped with full plate armour and shields, and there are the following ones; 10 2nd-6th level warriors, 2 4th level warriors, 2 6th level warriors, 2 3rd-6th/4th-7th warrior/priests, 1 8th level warrior, 1 7th level warrior, 1 6/7th level warrior/priest and 1 4/4th level warrior/priest. In total they have 432 militia and 20 leaders.

The enclaves have their own small forces of militia as well, ready to back up the main force.

There are 36 adult mountain dwarves (24 male, 12 female), all of who are in their militia. Given they are expansionist, they get +2 morale, increasing theirs to 15. They only get 1 leader, a 2nd-6th level warrior. The militia also have plate mail and shields, with the leader having full plate. In total they have 36 militia and 1 leader.

There are 21 adult duergar (14 male, 7 female), all of who are in their militia, all equipped with plate mail and shields, with elite (13) morale. For whatever reason, duergar and gully dwarf militias get a lot more leaders than the other subraces. This duergar militia has 5 2nd level warriors and 2 4th level warriors in full plate. In total they have 21 militia and 7 leaders.

There are 30 adult deep dwarves (20 male, 10 female), all of who are in their militia, all equipped with plate mail and shields, with elite (13) morale. In theory they aren’t meant to get any leaders until they have 40 members of the militia but we will give them 1 3rd level warrior in full plate. In total they have 30 militia and 1 leader.

Special Units

A stronghold can have special types of forces, basically the kits described in the books such as Battleragers and Hearth Guards, totaling 10-20% of the total number of male dwarves in the stronghold, which are in addition to the regular members of the militia.

Norzarngak has 346 adult males in the militia and I am giving them the full 20% they can have. Given how large and wealthy the stronghold is, they can afford it, and the current war also would obviously also mean more would be needed and available.

That gives them 69 special units, which can come from any subrace. I am not going to split them up as normally I would assign them from the pool as needed, but each subraces would have certain kits they would favour other others, as follows.

The Hill Dwarves favour warrior kits, like the Animal Master, Hearth Guard (a female warrior kit), Highborn (nobles and rulers), and Sharpshooters. There are also some Diplomats (thief kit) given their relations with other races, and the occasional warrior/thief kit like Traders and Vermin Slayers.

The only gully dwarves that serve in the militia are actually a few individuals who are actual special units, and they favour thief and warrior/thief kits like the Pest Controller and Vermin Slayer.

Given the religious nature of their trade enclave, the mountain dwarves favour priests and warrior/priest kits. I have allocated two members of the speical units to them – a Ritual Priest who rules the enclave and a Trader who oversees the trading done by it.

The duergar, being a bit more stealthy than others dwarves, like thief and warrior/thief kits, especially Wayfinders, warrior/thieves who specialise in exploring in an effort to find ways back down to their lost homes.

Like the hill dwarves, the deep dwarves favour warrior kits, and also have one assigned special unit – a Highborn, the feudal ruler of the mine enclave and the Uncrowned King of their lost stronghold who yearns to reclaim his birthright.

War Machines

With a bit more than 500 members of the militia, Norzarngak gets to roll 10 times on the war machines table, resulting in 9 war machines. We give them 2 grinders, pedal powered machines equipped with a number of huge rotating blades designed to roll down tunnel and chop up enemies, 2 heavy ballista and 5 light ballista.

Animals

In addition to regular dwarves, Norzarngak is also defender by brown bears, with 2d4 bears forming part of its defence per Animal Master in the stronghold.

Conclusion

There you have Norzarngak in all its glory, a wealthy, large and fairly open city full of many dwarves of different kinds. There are 576 adult male hill dwarves, 288 adult female hill dwarves, 144 hill dwarf children, 20 adult hill dwarf militia leaders, 24 adult male mountain dwarves, 12 adult female mountain dwarves, 6 mountain dwarf children, 1 adult mountain dwarf militia leader, 14 adult male duergar, 7 adult female duergar, 3 duergar children, 7 adult duergar militia leaders, 20 adult male deep dwarves, 10 adult female deep dwarves, 5 deep dwarf children, 1 deep dwarf militia leader, 62 adult male gully dwarves, 31 adult female gully dwarves, 15 gully dwarf children and 69 special units of various subraces. And some brown bears. That gives a total population of 1,315 dwarves in one of the largest, grandest strongholds in the world. Yeah, numbers in the book may be a little on the low side for cities, but you go with what you’ve got.

In addition to those dwarves, and bears, you’re likely to see a few small pockets of humans, gnomes and halflings living in Norzarngak, maybe a two or three dozen of each, just to give the city a bit of extra flavour. And if you are lucky, or unlucky, depending on how you few it, maybe a couple of elf merchants as well.

History

When the first hill dwarves struck the earth more than 4000 years ago and established Norzarngak in the Norzarn Caverns in the Silver Hills, they had little idea what their legacy would become. From the first days, Norzarngak grew, and from it spread out the Sons of Norzarn through the hills, founding colonies along its length.

Some three thousand years ago, the first primitive strangers began to appear on the plains below; humans, halflings, gnomes and even elves. It provoked interest in the dwarves of Nozarngak, and they went among the strangers and taught them, and from it friendship grew with most, though the elves held themselves apart and soon trade began to blossom and flourish between the dwarves of the Silver Hills and the growing cities on the plains.

And while there was peace for almost two and a half thousand years since the time of the founding of Norzarngak, it was not to last. Drow began to appear in the deep places , and war was kindled, not just with the hill dwarves but other dwarves too that lived beneath the earth. 150 years after it had begun came the first great tragedy of the war, for the drow brought together a force of trolls and ogres to aid them, and they overran the strongholds of the duergar. Those few that survived fled and threw themselves on the mercy of the hill dwarves of Norzarngak. While the hill dwarves did not fully trust their grey dwarf kin, yet when they saw the pitiful remnant before them, they took pity upon them and took them in, aiding them.

It was not to the be the last tragedy either, for a mere 80 years later the deep dwarves were destroyed by the drow and their allies, and the remnants of their people, lead by their last king, came to Norzarngak and there took refuge, but they were not alone.

With them came another band of dwarves, ones the deep dwarves had rescued from the hands of the drow, a people broken by torture and magic. Of what origins they were none could say, only that they had been reduced to a sorry state. Gully dwarves they were to be called, and ever fear of the drow lurked in them.

Shortly there after the alliance between the drow, trolls and ogres ended until only the drow remained and so a reprieve was granted upon Norzanrgak though the war yet went on, in raids and skirmishes through out the caverns and the depths. It was uncertain who turned on who first, but the three races all turned on each other, with the drow emerging triumphant.

During this period, the refugees settled into their new life with the hill dwarves. The deep dwarves, under their Uncrowned King, began to explore the depths below Norzarngak, seeking hidden routes to their old home, during which time they discovered silver in the hills and began to mine it. A change came upon the duergar, for a mix of loss, gratitude and the examples displayed by the hill dwarves saw them slowly drift from their darker ways, resulting in a small but respected enclave within the stronghold, devoted to the silvercraft and to the law. While the occasional black sheep cropped up still, the duergar were quick to deal with it least they loose the respect of the wider community, as they see it, though the broader stronghold would perhaps not be so quick to judge.

For the gully dwarves, the hill dwarves sought to rehabilitate their fallen kin, to mend the damage done to them. It was a hard task, with little success, but still the hill dwarves work at it, while the gully dwarves live among them, generally working as servants and in other simple tasks. Yet from time to time one emerges among the gully dwarves who show glimmers of their past selves, the most famous being ‘Chomper’ Dorin, one of the most dangerous battleragers to ever walk the deep caverns beneath Norzarngak.

For seven hundred more years the war went on, with neither side able to gain the upperhand. Then, from the distant Thunderpeak Mountains, from Holy Belnorkak, came envoys and traders from the mountain dwarves. Led by a priest, the religious mountain dwarves establish a trade enclave in Norzarngak, lending aid to the hill dwavres in their struggles with the drow, for to them it was a religious struggle.

Even for the long lived drow and dwarves, the war went on for a long time, for 17 centuries, and would, no doubt have continued further, but for an unexpected change. Into the caverns and the well worn battle fields came a new foe, hobgoblins, a disciplined and numerous foe, and they began to attack both drow and dwarf. Even so, the ancient enmity could not be so easily shaken.

Yet that was just a foretaste of what was to come, for a mere 3 years later came the beholders, seeking to dominate and enslave and they washed over the caverns in a full on invasion. Dire were the battles fought at the very walls of Norzarngak, and only through above ground routes was the way kept open. It was during this war that ‘Chomper’ Dorin came to fame, and while he helped break the invasion, he fell before the end came.

Both drow and dwarf were shaken by this invasion, and the still ongoing clashes with the hobgoblins, and so, a mere 14 years after the beholders were defeated, the war between them came to an end, though neither side particularly trusted the other.

11 years has passed since then, and the war against the hobgoblins is escalating, with all sides seeing out allies to aid them in the growing battles. The fate of Norzarngak, and indeed all of the lands around, both above and below, now hangs in the balance.

Lets Build: A Dwarf Stronghold with The Complete Book of Dwarves (AD&D 2ed)

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One of my favourite things is random charts and rolling on them, to see what madness ensues. And of the core races in most fantasy games, dwarves are my favourite. Tough, stalwart, down-to-earth dwarves. And so it is luck that The Complete Book of Dwarves for 2nd ED AD&D just happens to have random charts, specifically to create a dwarven stronghold. And it was fairly balanced, unlike the Complete Book of Pointy-Ears, which should outright be banned.

We are going to go through the process, step by step, and create one with jut dice rolls and nothing more. While the book says that you can pick and choose if you want, we are going to let chaos and fate choose for us. One odd thing to note is that Dwarf Strongholds as presented in the books never get very big, with maybe a couple of thousand people living in them at most. Dwarven cities just aren’t a thing apparently.

First up is the name of the Stronghold. For that we roll 1d4 times on the Dwarf Name Prefix table and then roll on the Stronghold Suffix table, whack them together and mix to come up with a name. Sadly no meanings are provided, like in Dwarf Fortress. For us we get 2 prefixes, which are Bal and Kil, and the suffix of Hak. Balkilhak.

Next is to find out just which dwarven subrace lives there, and how many of them there are. There is a chance of a mix of subraces as well, but we don’t get that. Instead we roll a 23 on the d100, which turns out to be Gully Dwarves. Oh dear. They are unwashed, cowardly, degenerates who give all true dwarves a bad name. They scavenge in the refuses of others for their treasures and are dealt with contempt by everyone.

Why the dwarves get saddled with such a terrible subrace and a certain pointy-eared race doesn’t is one of the great travesties of gaming.

A gully dwarf stronghold has 1d100+100 males in it, plus half that number of females and one quarter of children. We roll a 49 for 149 men, 74 females and 37 children, for a total of 260 inhabitants.

We know that gully dwarves live in Balkilhak, but we don’t know the overall alignment of the place. For that we roll 2d6 and consult the Gully Dwarf column of the Overall Stronghold Alignment Table. We roll an 8 – Chaotic Neutral. Standard for gully dwarves, resulting in a stronghold teetering on the edge of collapse.

A picture is forming, but now we need to find out what type of stronghold it is, from a major one all the way down to a tiny one occupied by a single family. A roll of 44 on 1d100 results in a Secondary Stronghold, the standard size, and one without any population modifiers.

How old is Balkilhak? Dwarves think in terms of generations, not years. For a secondary stronghold, it has been around 2d6 generations, but because gully dwarves are involved, we subtract 2 from the roll. We roll 11 – 2, for a total of 9 generations. Somehow the gully dwarves have kept this place running for 9 generations, and given a gully dwarf lives for around 250 years, that is 2250 years the place has been standing. That is something of a miracle.

How has that happened? Perhaps the government type will give us some clues. For that we roll 1d100, but we add 10 to that for being gully dwarves and 10 more for being a chaotic aligned stronghold. A roll of 75 +20 = 95. Theocracy. Priests rule the stronghold, but what gods they follow we may not want to know.

Our next step is to work out the attitude of the stronghold, which impacts their military strength. A decadent stronghold is not going to be as strong as an expansionist one. In our case we roll a 20 on 1d20 – Isolationist. They avoid all contact with other races if they can help it, and 75-100% of their adult population, male and female, receive regular training. It is probably more likely that all other races avoid contact with them than the other way around. Just for the best really.

What about the resources that Balkilhak has access to? That is a 1d20 roll, -10 for being gully dwarves and +1 for being a secondary stronghold. That is a big penalty. We manage to roll a 19. Modified, that brings us down to 10, or average wealth. For gully dwarves, that is living in the lap of luxury.

Even an isolationist stronghold has some sort of relationship with the other races out there, and the first we roll for are the four other player character races – humans, elves, gnomes and halflings. For that we roll a 1d20, modified by +1 for being chaotic neutral. Isolationists treat all rolls of 4 or less as being a 9 – they cant actually be friendly with anyone. Humans are an 11 – cautious. Elves are a 7 – cautious. Gnomes are a 10 – indifferent. Halflings are a 15 – threatening. Balkilhak is neutral towards the gnomes, even allowing some to visit and maybe have a merchant or two live among them. For humans and elves, the relationship is strained, and any visitors are searched and watched closely. Halflings are warned off with threats of violence and are not allowed into Balkilhak at all, though they aren’t at war. They just really don’t like halflings for some reason.

What of other races? We need to roll on the War/Peace table for that. An unmodified 1d20 gets us 5 – peace. How long have they been at peace? A 1d10 gives us 7 – 2d6 generations, or 4 generations. 1000 years before Balkilhak was at war, and we need to find out who with. A 1d100 roll on the war table gives us 63 – lizardmen. Not your standard enemy, but gully dwarves aren’t your standard race. On the war duration table, we roll 1 on a 1d10, which gives us a 1d8 day war, or 3 days. To find out what type of war it was, we roll a 1d10, with a +1 modifier for being isolationist. The result is 10 – invasion. Sounds like the lizardmen came across Balkilhak, stormed it in 3 days and then found nothing of real value and so left again.

The last step of the process is to work out the type of militia that Balkilhak has. As we saw earlier, an isolationist stronghold has 75-100% of its adult population in the militia. The total adult population is 223. In this case we will go with the 75% value. Gully dwarves being the cowards they are, a quarter of them hiding or running away before the fight makes sense. That gives us 167 members of the militia.

Looking at the entry for gully dwarves, we find their base morale is 7 (unsteady), +1 for being isolationist, for a final value of 8. Give the base value for all other dwarves is 13 (elite), it gives you an idea how cowardly this lot are. They are only equipped with leather armour and shields, and whatever weapons they can scavenge. Probably only weapons like spears, clubs, knives (rusty ones at that) and not much else.

There are a few gully dwarf leaders who are a bit better than the average gully dwarf. For ever 4 members of the militia, there is a thief of level 2-6, for every 5 a warrior of 2-4, for ever 10 a warrior of 2-6, for every 50 a warrior of level 8 and for every 100 a warrior of level 10 and a priest of level 1-10. Except for the thieves, the leaders have chain mail armour and shields.

The final total for the militia is;

167 1st level dwarves, 41 2nd-6th level thieves, 33 2nd-4th level warriors, 16 2nd-6th level warriors, 3 8th level warriors, 1 10th level warrior and 1 1st-10th level priest. The leaders are in addition to the regular militia members, which means there are 95 more people in the stronghold, increasing the size of it to 355 gully dwarves.

Stongholds may have access to special forces, such as Battleragers and Hearth Guards, but it is unlikely gully dwarves would have any, or be inclined to risk themselves in such a manner. For ever 50 members of the militia, they might have a war machine. We roll 3 times on a 1d10+1 for being isolationist, giving results of 2, 7, 8. A 2 gives nothing, but the other 2 mean there are 2 war machines in Balkilhak. Ramshackled things no doubt, prone to breaking down, but present. From the list, we give them 2 light ballistas, as everything else is a little too complex for gully dwarves. Some strongholds may also be guarded by trained animals as well, but without specialist trainers it means Balkilhak doesn’t. Still, there are rats around. Lots and lots of rats.

Why the mad god Balkil decided to create the gully dwarves is unknown, but created them he did. Somehow they survived and clustered around the stronghold they called Balkilhak, a place that wobbled on the edge of anarchy and collapse throughs its long history. Guided, if it could be called it, by the priests of the mad god, laws and rules were decided on by whim and ever changing. Not that the gully dwarves paid much attention to them.

They are ignored, left to their own devices, and about the only ones that pay them any attention are gnomish traders who arrive from time to time to buy what ever items of value that the gully dwarves have found and sell them baubles in return. The day may come when the whims of the rulers decided that the gnomes are to be barred, just as the halflings are.

Should any be serious about it, the place could be taken easily, as the lizardmen once proved in a one sided three day war, but to date no one has the desire to do so, for their would nothing of value to be gained from it. Thus, their lowly and oft despised nature keeps the gully dwarves of Balkilhak safe for now.

Let’s Build a World: Part Six: Cosmology and Mythology

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With the establishment of our pantheon complete, the chapter moves on to the cosmology and mythology section.

Normally I don’t do much with this one but I felt it would be interesting to have a look at for the purposes of giving the guidebook a thorough examination.

The cosmology section has charts so you can roll to determine such things as the astronomy of you system, the number of planets and moons, their sizes and types.

Firstly there is the astronomy to deal with – the laws of physics that govern the separation of the worlds from the void.  Does it follow real physics, does it have Wildspace as in Spelljammer, is there an aethereal void, as in light and air goes on forever, or is there something else, subject to the DM’s creation.

On a D8 we roll 4 – Wildspace with spheres.  So as per Spelljammer.

Next is system organisation – is the sun (or suns) at the centre of the system, or is the primary world at the centre with the sun (or suns) revolving around it.  Is the world a flat earth or is there something else, subject to the DM’s creation.

On a D8 we roll 1 – Heliocentric, 1 sun.  There is only one sun in the system, and that is at the centre of it.

After that we roll a D12 to see how many planets there are, and for each planet D8-3 for the number of moons, with an additional D8-3 if you roll a natural 8.  And after that you roll for each planet and moon to figure out what each world type is, according to the general AD&D view of worlds.  Are they earth, air, fire or water worlds, or something else, which could range from para-elemental, quasi-elemental or anything else according to your imagination, such as giant world-trees or the body of dead deity.

And when you have done that you roll to see the size of each of the worlds and planets.

That is a lot of work and a potentially a lot of dice rolling for what is essentially background information that may never actually impact upon your campaign, which is why I don’t tend to do it.

But for the sake of completion, I am going to do it for this setting.

The dice say there are four worlds in the system.

World One – Enormous (80-100K mile diameter) Air Planet.  A gas giant.  It has two moons, a tiny (800 mile or less diameter) earth world and a terrestrial (800 to 16,000 mile diameter) earth world.  This later one falls into the size range of most campaign worlds, the size of which can be rolled for back in the worlds and planetology chapter.

World Two – Terrestrial Air Planet. Another, small, gas giant.

World Three – Terrestrial Water Planet.  That looks like it is our campaign world.

World Four – Tiny Fire Planet.  It has two moons, a tiny water world and a terrestrial other world.

This last world seems a little weird, with a strange moon orbiting around a tiny world of fire, almost like a tiny second sun, and that strange moon is larger than it.

But I think I can make something of it, tying it in to the mythology of the system that we generated with the pantheon.  It reflect the battle between the pantheon and the Darkness, in miniature.  The fire world represents the sun, the water world the pantheon and the other word the Darkness.  It is a shadowy world of darkness and the fact that it is larger than the water world reflects the relative strengths of the two sides, that the Darkness is, right at that stage, the stronger party.  As the balance between the two sides ebbs and flows, so too does the size of the two moons relative to each other.

After the section on cosmology, the book goes on to discuss planes and myths and legends.

There are no charts here to roll on, just a series of suggestions for outer planes and creation myths and divine myths and sagas and the like, and what they may or may not contain.

Is that kind of detail important?  Possibly.  It does depend on what type of campaign you are running and the type of players you have.  If they are hack and slash dungeon delvers then maybe it won’t come up much, if at all, but if it heavily based on the intrigues of temples and political manoeuvrings between religions it may be very important.

Given the nature of the world as it has developed so far (and my delusions of being a writer) I will, over time, be actually making up a lot of this over time.

And with that done, in our next part, we shall be moving on in the chapter to history.

Lets Build a World: Part Five: Expanding the Pantheon & Revered Ancestors

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In our last part, I built the pantheon of deities, uncovering some interesting disputes and hooks and plot points for the world.

I have been thinking it over a little, and want to add a little more variety.  As earlier established, the pantheon is meddlesome.  While some, such as the Storm Lord and his daughters, are well fitted for that, the others have less inclination to get involved except for against that trio.  There need to be some further intrigues going on to explain their meddlesome nature.

With that in mind, I wanted to add two more deities to the roster, one a greater lawful evil deity and one an intermediate neutral evil deity.

Fifth intermediate power:  I roll twice for this deity and come up with 23 – oceans and 61 – love.  A NE deity of love.   And of the oceans.  Oceans as a portfolio can also include other waterways, such as rivers, springs, lakes etc.

I give this one a bit of thought before coming with some answers.

The dice say that they are female, so what I decide is that they were once a good aligned goddess of the sweet waters, of springs and rivers of the land, and that she was also the goddess of love and beauty.

But something went wrong.  Terrible wrong.

She became twisted, turning into a goddess of lust and debauchery, of the baser emotions of love.  In addition she became associated with madness, and there are springs around that to drink will drive the imbiber mad.  While still the fairest of all the pantheon, she is now a siren rather than a graceful spirit of the waters.

And the cause of her madness, and possibly also of the Storm Lord and his daughters?

The other power.

Second greater power.

To give some conflict to the setting we need a power that troubles the pantheon, a big bad that is the reason that they are so meddlesome.  Something that is not part of the pantheon, but is opposed to it and wants to destroy it.

To get some ideas for that I make some rolls for its portfolios, even though it isn’t technically a deity; 46 – darkness, 63 – magic and 48 death.

After a little bit of consideration, I think I can make a way to see how that works.  This power wants to see the return to how things were before creation, which is sees as an inherently chaotic state of being.  It wants the perfection of the dark and the grave; stillness, silence.  They want to remake creation, to reshape it into endless, frozen perfection in which life has no part.

To that end it has corrupted and twisted, trying to subvert the pantheon, and has indeed managed to break some of them from their intended rolls, causing division among the ranks of the pantheon.

And it has its own source of magic, the magic of death and darkness.  Necromantic power comes from it, and the undead are of its design.  The intelligent undead, the vampires, the liches and the like are its agents in the world.  Warlocks make pacts with it for the powers it can give.  The ambitious swear to it, for much has been promised to them in That Which Will Be.

As a result, there is a battle going on for the souls of the living and the dead, for as long as the souls remain in creation then the Darkness can not undo it, but should enough slip into its grasp then it has the power to do so.

Which does help explain some of what the other outsider power of Death is doing – he opposes the Darkness and his priests are trying to keep the souls of the dead in creation, and to give them a chance to return to life and earn themselves an esteemed role, one in which they can not be poached from.

And that is a position of an Revered Ancestor.

Revered Ancestors

There is one final addition to make to the pantheon, in the form of the Revered Ancestors.  Consider them saints if you will.  They occupy a place beneath the demi-goddess, in that they have no divine powers, can not grant spells, answer prayers or the like.

They are simply mortals who have transcended beyond the lot of normal mortals due to some great skill or act of faith, and have been accepted into the house of one of the deities, where they become the patron of some lesser aspect of their patron’s portfolios.

For example, Revered Ancestors of the Goddess of those who earn their living upon the sea may be the Patron of Sailors, the patron of Fishermen, the Patron of Merchants, the patron of Ship Builders, the Patron of Net Weavers and so on.

In this manner, if gives a lot more options to have the pantheon be meddling, with various Revered Ancestors able to interact and influence the world, on behalf of their deity.

Technically they are dead, but they have earned a place where they can not be touched by the Darkness, and each one who becomes a Revered Ancestors strengthens the Pantheon in their battle.

For the moment we will leave the pantheon and the powers behind for now.  There will be more later, names and descriptions and proper write ups, as well as matters such as myths and legends.

But for now we move on, in our next part, to cosmology and mythology.

Lets Build a World: Part Four: The Deities

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In our last part, we established the parameters of our pantheon.

They are a universal pantheon, followed by everyone, regardless of culture or species.  That isn’t to say that they don’t favour some over others, but they acknowledge the existence of all.

They are on the small side for a universal pantheon, but still number eleven in total.

They are actually a family of deities, tied to the natural elements of the world.

And they are meddlesome.  They like to involve themselves in the affairs of the world, and that, no doubt, makes trouble for the heroes of the world.

Normally greater and intermediate powers have 1d3 portfolios, lesser powers have 1d2 and demi-powers have 1 portfolio, but I am going to make some arbitrary decisions here.  That is one thing that the book does stress – if you don’t like results from dice rolls, you can ignore or change them, or just pick ones you like.

For our pantheon, the greater power will have 3 portfolios and the intermediate ones will have 2-3.  And some choices I will be selecting for, rather than rolling.

The Greater Power.

The first portfolio for our greater power I will be choosing.  Given the nature of the setting, they will have Oceans as one of their portfolios.  It makes sense seeing as how we are dealing with a water world here, or at least for the part where we are concentrating on.

There is no mention made of choosing gender, but I am thinking of a female, the Mother of the Oceans, progenitor of the world and the other deities, as well as those who live upon it.

I make two other rolls – 98 – prophecy and 64 – magic.

So from that, we can get an idea that magic comes from the sea, and that prophecy is closely linked to it.  As the progenitor of all things, it makes sense that they would originate from the Mother of the Oceans as well.

For her alignment, she can have any.  There is no actually method given to determine alignment beyond saying what ranges they can and can’t be.  So I have been using an early table for social alignment of kingdoms in a previous chapter to work out the alignments of deities.

A roll of 72 gives chaotic good.

The Intermediate Powers.

Next come the four intermediate powers.  They will be the first born of the Mother of the Oceans,  Each will have one aspect of nature and one to two other aspects, some chosen and others rolled for.

I had already decided on two arbitrary choices for the first intermediate power – earth and fire.  He is the Lord of Volcanoes, Father Earth, the one who caused the lands to rise up from out of the oceans that allow people to dwell on.  He has one sacred island, the first island, where his temple is and often he can be found.

Earth can have any alignment, though fire tends to non-lawful.

Rather than rolling, I arbitrarily select neutral-good for him.

The second intermediate power rolls 2 portfolios; 93 – lightning and 43 – war.  I decide to add thunder to it, as well as elements of wind and sky as well.  They shall be the Storm Lord.

Alignment wise they can be anything, except for sky, which is non-lawful.

A roll of 47 gives us neutral-evil.

This gives us a wild god, motivated by self-interest, who rages at will and provokes conflict and strife.  By the sounds of it, he could be in conflict with his mother, Mother Ocean, and possibly his brother, Father Earth.

The third intermediate power rolls 2 portfolios as well; 27 – seasons and 35 – sun.

As the sun waxes and wanes in strength, so do the seasons turn, so the two of them fit well together.  I add a third portfolio as well – time, for the passage of the sun marks not just the seasons but the years as well.  There are aspects of fate to his position also, the acceptance of what must happen.

Alignment can be anything.

A roll of 57 gives us true neutral.

Somewhat of an oddity among the rest of the pantheon, the Sun Lord cares little for the fate of mortals.  While they see the sun’s light as a blessing, as it brings warmth and life, for him it is merely a marker of time and seasons.

The fourth intermediate power rolls 3 portfolios; 39 – plants, 7 – animals and 60 – love.  The last one I decide to change from love to fertility.

A coin toss gives us a female goddess, the Lady of Life, who brought forth the birds and beasts and fish, the trees and seaweed and all in between.  While she understands all must make a living, she prefers the wild places of the world and strives to keep them protected.

Her alignment can be anything.

A roll of 79 gives us chaotic-good.

The Lesser Powers

With our major powers established, and a nice conflict brewing already, we can move on to the lesser powers, possibly children of the other gods through mortals, depending on what their positions are in the pantheon.

Lesser power one rolls 2 portfolios; 68 – mischief and 30 – sky.  A trickster deity of winds, but not storms, who delights in mischief.  A child, perhaps of the Storm Lord.

They turn up to be a female, and their alignment has to be chaotic.

Rather than rolling, I decide on chaotic-neutral for her.  While she delights in pranks and making fools of others, she is not malicious like her father, but that does not mean she sides with the others against him either.  Blowing a ship off course and causing it to arrive late is more her style, rather than causing a storm to shipwreck them.

Lesser power two rolls 2 portfolios; 19 – oceans and 96 – messengers.  The bringer of messages, a sailor upon the seas, travelling from port to port.  There could very well be a source of tension between them and the trickster, especially if she keeps blowing messengers off course.

They turn out to be male and chaotic-good.

Lesser power three rolls 2 portfolios; 87 – crafts and 58 – hunting.  A little bit of thought can make this work.  They are the deity of sailors and fishermen, those that earn their living from the sea.  They are the builder of boats and sails, of nets and harpoons.  To their portfolios I add trade as well.

They turn out to be a female deity, perhaps a daughter of the messenger god, or perhaps a lesser daughter of Mother Ocean.  Maybe in some myths she could be both.

The tables in the guidebook suggest she can be any non-evil alignment, and the roll for it comes up chaotic-good as well.

Lesser power four rolls 2 portfolios; 53 – fire and 45 – war.  A child of the Storm Lord then, who delights in violence and the destructive nature of war, of sacrificial victims set aflame and burnt offerings.

Not a nice deity at all.

Unusually they turn out to be female.  Rather than roll for their alignment, I select one – chaotic evil.

While her father can be tolerated, as storms, while wild, are not necessarily unwelcome, this goddess has no redeeming features.

For lesser power five, I decided to arbitrarily create him, rather than to roll for him.  He is a god of death and the husband of the Lady of Life, for life and death are linked.  he brings comfort to the suffering and solace to the bereaved.

Even though it isn’t an option to roll for, I assign him the portfolio of ancestors.  His priests care for the ancestors and commune with them on behalf of the living.

On a whim, I make a roll for another portfolio for him, and come up with music.  His priests not only care for the dead, but compose and perform music for them.  It is possible that there is a reason for that which I must consider.

Rather than roll for alignment, I choose for him, selecting neutral-good.

The Demi-power

And now we come to the last of our pantheon, the lone demi-power.

They only have the one portfolio, for which we roll 41 – war.  Another war deity.  No wonder there is so much strife going on in the world.

After a moment of thought, I give them two more portfolios to work with – guardianship and redemption.  A defender of the weak and vanquisher of evil.

Her backstory is that she was a great hero who became sick of the destruction wrought by the two evil gods of war, and vowed to stand up to them and bring them down, a course of action that has sparked off a religious war.

Her alignment has to be of a good alignment, and the roll comes up as 10 – lawful-good.

The other deities, though sympathetic to her plight, are somewhat of mixed views, as the other gods are family and if they were brought down, it may mean the rest of them could be vulnerable too.  But they can not just strike down one of so noble a cause and nor exactly can they aid her, least it spark a war amongst the gods as well.

So there we have a rough sketch of the pantheon, and the spark behind the troubles of the land.  At some stage I will do a more detailed write up and expand upon it.  There may be more deities added at some point if any particular need is found.  The exact relationships amongst the deities will also need to be worked out, but it provides a good basis to work upon.

Part five of this project looks at expanding the pantheon.

Lets Build a World: Part Three: The Pantheon

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So far we have established the hooks for our world, or at least the part of it that the action takes place in.

We have an archipelagic region of hundreds or thousands of islands, while the people who live there are balkanised into dozens of minor nations, none larger in size than a city-state, and the place is either on the verge of or plagued by major warfare.

Before delving into the look of the place, the cultures and races and nations, I am instead going to try and figure out why it turned out this way.  And for that I am heading for Chapter Six: History and Mythology.

There is no correct order in using the book so you can skip around the chapters like this, building it as feels best for you.

The first part of the chapter deals with designing the pantheon or pantheons for your setting.

It all starts with figuring out what pantheon type you have.  Is there one universal pantheon for you whole world, or does each major culture have their own one?  If so, do they have contact with the other pantheons, or do they overlap?  In that situation, there is a singular god of war, but he is known by different names in different cultures.

Our dice roll is 32 – One universal pantheon.  In this situation, all deities in the setting belong to a single pantheon, regardless of racial or social divisions.  Several gods may share responsibilities (or squabble over) important portfolios, such as war, leadership or love.

Now that we know the type of pantheon, we need to work out how big it is – small, medium, large or huge.  As we have one universal pantheon, it is larger than usual, so we add 25 to the d100 roll.

Our dice roll is 12 +25 = 37 – a medium pantheon.  This will result in a pantheon that will be smaller than the classical pantheons of Greece, Rome or the Norse, but still a reasonable number of deities.

So time to roll them up.

Our rolls give us 1 greater, 4 intermediate, 5 lesser deities, and 1 demi-god.  The greater god is most likely the head of the whole pantheon, while the sole demi-god gives us some interesting options.  Is he a new comer and the spark of the war?  The result of some illicit affair?  A great hero who has been rewarded for their deeds?

With the numbers of deities worked out, next is to work out how they all fit together. Are they a family, are they aspects of nature or elemental powers.  Perhaps they are merely stewards of the realm for a yet higher power, or a bureaucracy.  Or maybe they are a mix of organisations.

Our roll is a 90 – a mixed organisation.  To find out what exactly it is, I roll a couple more times – 12: familial and 62: natural.

Family pantheons are composed of one extended family, each with roles or portfolios generally related to their position in the traditional family hierarchy.  The Greek pantheon has a strong familial organisation.

Natural pantheons have major aspects of nature represented by the deities of the pantheons.  Portfolios found in this type of pantheon might include animals, plants, mountains, seasons, weather, seas, dawn or sunset, wind or even particular species (a bear-god, a wolf-god, etc).

The gives us a working base for the pantheon – a family of deities linked to the natural elements of the world.  I am still thinking that the demi-god is an outsider in some manner, one that might be at the heart of the troubles, and not of the natural elements of the world.

Our next step is to resolve how involved the pantheon is in the world.  It could range from oblivious, where they are completely unconcerned with the world, to direct, where you wouldn’t be surprised if you bumped into a deity in the local pub.

For out pantheon, we roll a 83 – meddlesome.

Meddlesome powers take interest in even the fairly minor events or situations concerning their followers, and the manipulation of their temples’ fortunes is the primary means of discourse (and field of rivalry) of the deities.  Moderately important followers receive advice and guidance, and the highest-ranking followers are in frequent communication with their patron.  Deities create avatars at will in order to interact with their followers and meddle with mortal affairs.

I’m getting a real Greek mythology vibe here, especially along the lines of the events of the Illiad and the Odyssey.

The last step is to work out the portfolios and alignments of the deities.

But that is for next time.

 

Lets Build a World: Part Two: World Hooks

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Lets start making a world.

As previously mentioned, it is going to be done using the World Builder’s Guide, a AD&D 2E accessory.

For those who don’t have a copy, I thoroughly recommend it. If you don’t mind it in PDF form, you can grab it fairly cheap over on DrivethruRPG.  There are always copies up on Ebay, but they come at a much higher price.

This first part is going to relatively simple – we are going to generate the World Hooks for the setting, a factor that is central to the entire design effort.

For example, Athas of the Dark Sun setting has hooks of a desert world, psionics, unusual magic in the form of defiling that has ruined the world and of course ancient, extremely powerful kings who ruled over a scattered handful of city-states.

The chart for world hooks given a number of categories, those being Climate or Landform, Sites of Interest, Cultures, Situation and Historical.

Climate or Landform can result in archipelago worlds, desert worlds, subterranean worlds or worlds with wild or unusual weather as examples.

Sites of Interest deals more with what the PCs in a setting will be dealing with; cities, dungeons, ruins, wilderness or the like.

Cultures establishes what the principle culture of the campaign setting will be like, based on real world cultures, such as Arabian, Barbarian, Renaissance or ever Seafaring.

Situation covers a wide range of factors that may influence the setting, such as if it is a dying world, or if there is an unusual technological or religious situation or if a deity plays an unusual active role in the world.

Lastly in Historical, were some past event has left a legacy upon the world.  There may have been crusades of mass migrations, or the primary culture is caught in a potent civil war.

When rolling up for a hook, you could roll just one, or you could roll for a number that could provide an interesting mix, even if at first they don’t seem like they could work.

For the purpose of this world, we are going to make three rolls.

So drum rolls please.

83 – Situation

88 – Historical

14 – Climate or Landform

For Situation we roll Warfare

For Historical we roll Balkanisation

For Climate or Landform we roll Archipelago.

That gives us an interesting picture of the world, and one that gels together nicely.  Not all rolls might work together so well.

So let us see what we have, using the descriptions given in the book.

Warfare: The primary culture of the campaign is locked in a cycle of warfare.  The conflict may be internal of external. Military expeditions, espionage and sabotage are a principle source of adventures for the heroes.

Balkanisation: No powerful empire has ever united the central culture of the campaign, leaving a world littered with hundreds of counties, baronies, estates, principalities and city-states.  Shifting alliances and strife between rivals and neighbours creates many adventure opportunities.

Archipelago: No large continents exist, only countless islands (Ursula K Leguin’s Earthsea is a good example.) Kingdoms could be limited to one island apiece, or multi-island trade empires could be prevalent.

From that we can start to get an idea of the region we are working with, of many islands, each independent, locked in struggles with each other.  It doesn’t mean the whole world is that way; in fact most of the world could actually be arid, with one large sea on which is scattered the archipelagos.

But it does give us a starting picture, that may include pirates and hidden treasure, sunken cities and shipwrecks, of wild storm-wracked seas.  Or maybe viking style raiders, of cold, grim islands with ruined towers of past ages upon them.

As we progress we will find out more about it.  Are we dealing with classical style triremes, or medieval caravels or even age of sail tall ships?  Are there those who have tamed sea monsters to aid their causes, or fly across the sea on carpets or dragons?  What races live there and how do they live?  Are there aquatic races who live beneath the sea, and how do they interact with the surface dwellers?

As we continue on, we will work that out.  And more.

In Part Three we take a look at the Pantheon.

 

Lets Build a World with AD&D 2ed World Builder’s Guidebook: Part One

/ zekestone / Leave a comment

Amongst my many flaws is that I’m a gamer.  One of the old school style.  As in pen and paper RPG gamer.

I’ve played many different systems over the years – and own even more.

One of my favourite was AD&D 2ed.  Yes, the one with THAC0.  I much preferred it to 3ed, but more of that on another day.  AD&D 2ed had one of my favourite world settings of all time, that being Dark Sun.  Again, something that I will discuss in more detail at another time.

Among the many accessories that were released for 2ed was the World Builder’s Guidebook.  Pretty much anyone who has DMed an RPG has thought about designing their own world and setting at some stage, and this book was designed to help that.

World_Builder's_Guidebook

My copy of it has seen so much use over the years that it has become rather worn.  One of these days I am going to have to get a replacement that is in a little bit better condition.

The book goes through a step by step approach as to how to build a world, starting at the top and working down, or starting at the bottom and working up.  Or either starting in the middle and working in either direction.  There is no right or wrong way to do it – the book simply provides the tools for you to do what you want.

It is also crammed full of many handy charts that you can roll on to generator all manner of information for the world, for anything from cultures and religions, to racial make up of the world and even the type of world and the cosmology it inhabits.

The book is split into six main chapters.

Chapter One deals with approaches to designing your world – and the all important world hooks that make it up.  Are you designing from a character driven approach, a sociological approach, a macroscopic or microscopic approach or even a mix of then and others.

Chapter Two covers the Worlds and Planetology – designing the whole world, its size and shape, hydrography, tectonics, climatology and basic look.

Chapter Three covers Continents and Geography.  Starting with a continental sized region of the world, you fill in its landforms, its climate and weather, terrain, waterways, and where the main races of the region live.

Chapter Four is Kingdoms and Sociologies.  Starting with a single kingdom or region, you work out who the inhabitants are and their culture, their government and technology, the physical cartography of the region, such as cities and towns and roads, its population and resources and settlement patterns.

Chapter Five is Cities and Provinces.  There you start with a single city or major population centre, and its surrounding region, more details on its cartography, the populations and services available, and the monsters and ecology of the region, as well as any sites of interests for adventures.

Chapter Six is History and Mythology.  Here you can design the pantheons of the setting, the cosmology the world inhabits and the history of the world.  it isn’t quite to Dwarf Fortress level, but it is good for a starting point.

You can jump in at any of these chapters and design a world.

And that is what we are going to do over the coming weeks and months (though hopefully not years.)

In Part Two we deal with World Hooks.