<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536</id><updated>2025-02-24T02:27:51.809-08:00</updated><category term="Super-long"/><category term="Monsters"/><category term="General-purpose musings"/><category term="Random tables"/><category term="Central Asia"/><category term="Character classes"/><category term="The Wicked City"/><category term="Actual Play"/><category term="Misc. setting stuff"/><category term="Almost a review"/><category term="Religion"/><category term="Clockpunk"/><category term="OSR"/><category term="Art"/><category term="Warhammer"/><category term="Early Modern"/><category term="Playable adventure"/><category term="Literalised metaphors"/><category term="Yet more cannibal monsters (I blame Hannibal)"/><category term="Pathfinder"/><category term="Possibly not entirely serious"/><category term="Victorian weirdness"/><category term="Steppe"/><category term="City of Spires"/><category term="Hexcrawling"/><category term="Rules stuff"/><category term="Taiga"/><category term="Desert"/><category term="Shut up about poetry already"/><category term="Romance"/><category term="The Great Road"/><category term="Devonshire"/><category term="Underworld"/><category term="Qelong"/><category term="self-indulgence"/><category term="Gaming with toddlers"/><category term="Comics"/><category term="Crime"/><category term="Downloadable resources"/><category term="Miniatures"/><category term="MANLINESS"/><category term="Tundra"/><title type='text'>Against The Wicked City</title><subtitle type='html'>Romantic clockpunk fantasy gaming in a vaguely Central Asian setting. May feature killer robots.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>372</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-8632954981404005007</id><published>2022-07-03T09:37:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2022-07-03T09:37:14.668-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Actual Play"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="City of Spires"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Rules stuff"/><title type='text'>Notes on a semi-successful skill system</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;When I finished my Team Tsathogga campaign back in 2019, one of the things that I &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2019/05/dissecting-frog-team-tsathogga-in.html&quot;&gt;noted afterwards &lt;/a&gt;was the extent to which fighters had struggled to keep up with magic users as the game progressed into the higher levels. At the time, I wrote:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote style=&quot;border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: #f4f4f4; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;&quot;&gt;One quick and dirty fix that I&#39;m considering is to let each fighter pick a new area of noncombat competency every time they go up a level, so that by level 8 or so they&#39;re less &#39;meat-shield&#39; than &#39;Batman&#39;, although mastering entire new fields of knowledge every few months does rather strain my disbelief.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I started my City of Spires campaign shortly afterwards I put this into practise. In this campaign there are three classes, Fighter, Magic-User, and Cleric. Magic-Users and Clerics get spell slots. Fighters get extra hit points, to-hit bonuses, and a skill slot every level. Spending a skill slot on something means you are &lt;i&gt;really good &lt;/i&gt;at that skill, and will always succeed at attempts to use it except under severely adverse conditions. If you have the &lt;i&gt;Climbing &lt;/i&gt;skill, for example, you can automatically climb any normal surface you encounter, although doing so quickly or quietly might still require a Dexterity check. New skills have to be something your character could plausibly have learned, although given the vast lengths of game-time the campaign has covered (twelve in-game years and counting) this has seldom been a major obstacle.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&#39;s how it worked out in practise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWobbPfsrfArPkLS1k_A1O2nxSGHr2Ju3STJ5mKvWUpoUosQIB8XL2LBL4q3EccmbrFmJqjoVOm335UZKmIn00kqat8ohFnSytNq0mMMpcf724HC8bnET1rRATXcekZWjfz3n-Ruu-YooIW95G3le7pkU0mRSh4FI6kPT81b-fi4zUYT-Qxt9su2eN0w&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1100&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1400&quot; height=&quot;298&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWobbPfsrfArPkLS1k_A1O2nxSGHr2Ju3STJ5mKvWUpoUosQIB8XL2LBL4q3EccmbrFmJqjoVOm335UZKmIn00kqat8ohFnSytNq0mMMpcf724HC8bnET1rRATXcekZWjfz3n-Ruu-YooIW95G3le7pkU0mRSh4FI6kPT81b-fi4zUYT-Qxt9su2eN0w=w379-h298&quot; width=&quot;379&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Low Levels: One Weird Trick&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At low levels this system worked &lt;i&gt;great. &lt;/i&gt;Three level 1 fighters might have almost identical combat stats, but if one of them is great at &lt;i&gt;Running &lt;/i&gt;and one of them is great at &lt;i&gt;Climbing &lt;/i&gt;and one of them has &lt;i&gt;Heightened Senses &lt;/i&gt;then the roles they play in actual play will be totally different. These skill choices worked powerfully to help distinguish mechanically-similar characters, and helped each character make distinctive contributions to the problems they encountered. By level 3 or so I was feeling pretty good about the system as a whole.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mid Levels: Convergence&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As the PCs carried on advancing, the skill system continued to do a good job of letting PC fighters keep up with magic-users in terms of their contributions to problem-solving. But we increasingly ran into a problem: adventuring life being what it is, certain situations just &lt;i&gt;keep coming up, &lt;/i&gt;and so it became logical for everyone to start developing a fairly similar set of skills.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When you only have one choice you might legitimately take either &lt;i&gt;Climbing &lt;/i&gt;or &lt;i&gt;Hiding, &lt;/i&gt;but once you have &lt;i&gt;six &lt;/i&gt;choices most PCs tended to converge on a broadly similar package of skills dealing with perception, mobility, and stealth. &lt;i&gt;Hiding, Move Silently, Tracking, &lt;/i&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Night Vision &lt;/i&gt;isn&#39;t identical to &lt;i&gt;Climbing, Camouflage,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;Riding, &lt;/i&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Heightened Senses, &lt;/i&gt;but it&#39;s not that different, either - they&#39;re both &#39;sneaky scout&#39; skill sets. Even characters who were determined to develop in other directions often found they only needed 3-4 skill slots to complete their concept: the party builder, for example, took &lt;i&gt;Scavenging, Tinkering, Tunnelling, &lt;/i&gt;and the surprisingly useful&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;High-Speed Barricade Building. &lt;/i&gt;After that he just spent his skill slots on stealth, mobility, and perception abilities like everyone else.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;High Levels: Superfluity&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The difference between having one skill slot and having two was huge, but the difference between having seven and eight was minimal. Most &#39;adventurer&#39; concepts really only needed 4-6 skills to cover the main bases, so at high levels players were often unsure what to spend their skill slots on - sometimes they&#39;d just say &#39;I&#39;ll think about it&#39; and then leave them unspent for several sessions. This led, in turn, to the rise of &#39;reactive skill learning&#39;, with players saying things like: &#39;hang on, I&#39;ve got a couple of spare skill slots. I can spend one of them on &lt;i&gt;Woodworking&lt;/i&gt; and then carve the idol that the ritual needs!&#39; (I tended to permit this as long as the skill was one they might plausibly have learned, given their background, concept, etc.) Also, by this point the magic-users had &lt;i&gt;so much magic &lt;/i&gt;that mundane skill mastery was getting progressively less important. Thorny problems tended to be solved by throwing &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/06/escape-from-ghoul-queen.html&quot;&gt;huge amounts of utility magic &lt;/a&gt;at them, instead.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Lessons Learned&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;For a game that probably won&#39;t go beyond level 5 or so, I think this is a good system, allowing fighter-types to clearly differentiate themselves from one another in ways that add very little mechanical complexity but have a large impact on actual play. At higher levels, however, it increasingly broke down. If I were to use it again I might let high-level characters (7 or above, perhaps) &#39;double down&#39; on a skill, spending a second skill slot to elevate it to near-superhuman levels. Alternatively I might let high-level characters to trade unused skill slots for some other benefit (e.g. a bonus to hit points or saves), to avoid the embarrassment of just having them piling up unused on the character sheet. Either of these would still allow someone who wanted a true &#39;Renaissance man&#39; PC to just keep broadening their skill set, without requiring &lt;i&gt;every &lt;/i&gt;high-level fighter to do the same!&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/8632954981404005007/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/07/notes-on-semi-successful-skill-system.html#comment-form' title='32 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8632954981404005007'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8632954981404005007'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/07/notes-on-semi-successful-skill-system.html' title='Notes on a semi-successful skill system'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWobbPfsrfArPkLS1k_A1O2nxSGHr2Ju3STJ5mKvWUpoUosQIB8XL2LBL4q3EccmbrFmJqjoVOm335UZKmIn00kqat8ohFnSytNq0mMMpcf724HC8bnET1rRATXcekZWjfz3n-Ruu-YooIW95G3le7pkU0mRSh4FI6kPT81b-fi4zUYT-Qxt9su2eN0w=s72-w379-h298-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>32</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-4133792347938393594</id><published>2022-06-19T14:42:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2022-06-19T14:42:45.401-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Early Modern"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Victorian weirdness"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Yet more cannibal monsters (I blame Hannibal)"/><title type='text'>Early modern corpse medicine</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;I recently read a book called&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Mummies, Cannibals, and Vampires, &lt;/i&gt;by Richard Sugg. Despite its title, it&#39;s not about monsters. Instead, it&#39;s a history of what Sugg calls &#39;corpse medicine&#39; - the early modern practise of using bits of dead people in attempts to cure the living. Sugg can be a bit credulous in places, but he does a good job of establishing that human blood, fat, and bone saw fairly widespread use in both European folk remedies and &#39;academic&#39; medicine during the period, giving rise to a range of often gruesome medical practises that, in some cases, lingered on as late as the nineteenth century.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here are the most gameable bits.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5R-SO42EJjCOhDQxT7GpudJWIIW79lrMfhIeE-aedilCGQLY-zvoCibvmBxp_RA_tjkyvktX0dC2rdgbgXRZhYziuxPRgWNPKu0AWJyPSHB-8VfRPo_QIMgySe3xHHfiolSvx4MgK5wCTWdXewhX95aRJ2EY_M1eBdiRplIpb_2dva472n_8nEt42PA&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;500&quot; data-original-width=&quot;333&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5R-SO42EJjCOhDQxT7GpudJWIIW79lrMfhIeE-aedilCGQLY-zvoCibvmBxp_RA_tjkyvktX0dC2rdgbgXRZhYziuxPRgWNPKu0AWJyPSHB-8VfRPo_QIMgySe3xHHfiolSvx4MgK5wCTWdXewhX95aRJ2EY_M1eBdiRplIpb_2dva472n_8nEt42PA&quot; width=&quot;160&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Skull Moss: &lt;/b&gt;The theory went like this: during life, your brain is constantly sloshing around inside your skull, marinading the bone in brain juice (AKA &#39;vital spirits&#39;). So after you die, some of the life-giving power of your brain juice should logically still inhere in your skull. You could just grind up a skull and use the resulting powder as medicine, and indeed many people seem to have done exactly that. But the &lt;i&gt;best &lt;/i&gt;way to get the power out is to take a human skull and grow moss on it, preferably by moonlight or starlight. The moss sucks the power of the vital spirits out of the skull, and you can then powder and eat the moss as a remedy.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;My loved one is sick! Bring me the powdered skull of something with really powerful brain-juice! Maybe a wizard or a dragon or something.&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;Actually, what we &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;need is their whole skull, so we can grow moss on it in the light of the full moon. That won&#39;t be a problem, will it?&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;And we need the brain-juice to be super-fresh, so you&#39;ll need to either find one that&#39;s just died, or kill one for us yourself. Remember - the skull must be intact! No headshots!&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;If your PCs end up building some kind of freakish garden full of moss growing on the skulls of everything they&#39;ve ever killed, then so much the better!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Strangulation boosts skull quality: &lt;/b&gt;If someone dies by hanging or strangling, then at the moment of their death their life force will obviously&amp;nbsp;be trapped inside their head, unable to escape down into their lungs. This means they will die with a head full of &lt;i&gt;super-charged brain juice, &lt;/i&gt;making their skull (and any skull moss subsequently grown on it) extra-potent for medical purposes. There was consequently a brisk trade in the skulls of the hanged.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;We need the skull of a [wizard/dragon/whatever] that died by strangulation. Any other death makes them useless to us. Here&#39;s a noose. Good luck!&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;Did you hear? They&#39;re hanging Horatius the Hexmaster tomorrow! &lt;i&gt;Everyone&#39;s &lt;/i&gt;going to want his skull! We need a plan to get in first...&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Subdermal talismans:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;One particularly hardcore early modern soldier apparently wore a lump of skull moss &lt;i&gt;under the skin of his own head,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;presumably by cutting a flap of skin off his forehead, pushing the moss under it, and then sewing up the wound and letting it heal. Probably the intention was to fortify his own skull with a double-dose of life-giving brain-juice. Apparently it worked, too, protecting him against being injured by sword-blows to the head.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;PCs should &lt;i&gt;absolutely &lt;/i&gt;be encouraged to sew lumps of skull-moss from all the scariest things they&#39;ve killed under the skin of their own heads. Give them mechanical bonuses for doing it. You should be able to spot a real monster-slayer from all the weird scarred-over lumps bulging out of their foreheads.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;An enemy with a sufficiently impressive skull-moss collection might be almost unkillable, requiring PCs to specifically cut away their subdermal talismans to render them vulnerable to harm - tricky if they&#39;re also wearing a helmet!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEit_AiPwr3pd0pMp66CmtmEW2BEMiHF4Yo1OmUmJm7jJDf7pCl6hYT0KObEe-ROJJtAzhiTo3IRGZDhbdMk1qB-PULNg47JnIO2vPeZyw6-vr1x8j4ReSy3cvvCkmTPco2svL22xHz1SEs-5YiqdVdV4ruh7dZNrZXV-ZgAw0lUqZqpdgUwzx1oaKAszA&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;440&quot; data-original-width=&quot;728&quot; height=&quot;193&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEit_AiPwr3pd0pMp66CmtmEW2BEMiHF4Yo1OmUmJm7jJDf7pCl6hYT0KObEe-ROJJtAzhiTo3IRGZDhbdMk1qB-PULNg47JnIO2vPeZyw6-vr1x8j4ReSy3cvvCkmTPco2svL22xHz1SEs-5YiqdVdV4ruh7dZNrZXV-ZgAw0lUqZqpdgUwzx1oaKAszA&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Wound salve: &lt;/b&gt;According to the early modern doctrine of sympathy, a connection existed between a wound and the weapon that caused it. Rubbing a &#39;wound salve&#39; made of human blood, fat, and skull moss on a bloodstained weapon would make the wounds caused with it heal, no matter how remote the victim might be.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;I can&#39;t treat this injury - the poison is far too powerful! Find me the knife that made it! I&#39;ll treat that, instead!&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Wounds could be used as a means of ensuring loyalty at a distance. &#39;Oh, that wound looks pretty mortal, doesn&#39;t it? But as long as you keep making payments, I&#39;ll keep applying wound salve to the knife I just stabbed you with...&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sugg doesn&#39;t discuss it, but there was also believed to be a &#39;powder of sympathy&#39; which, if stabbed with a weapon that had been previously used to wound someone and which was still stained with their blood, would cause that person to experience sudden pain, no matter where they were on Earth. The potential value of such powder as a weapon (or, indeed, as a long-distance signalling mechanism) should be obvious!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;A cure for bad blood: &lt;/b&gt;To reconcile enemies, take blood from both of them and mix it with fertile soil, then grow herbs from the soil and feed the herbs to both enemies. This mixing of their life forces will soften the enmity between them.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;This scenario basically writes itself. &#39;Here&#39;s a bag of dirt, a bag of seeds, a sharp knife, a bottle, and a cookbook. Now get out there and end that feud!&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Good luck convincing someone who knows you&#39;ve been consorting with their mortal enemy that you&#39;ve got a totally innocent reason for first cutting them open and stealing their blood, and then coming back and feeding them a bowl of herbs with questionable origins!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Blood lamps: &lt;/b&gt;Take a lamp, fill it with human blood drawn from one person, and then light it. The light from the lamp will reflect their condition - if it burns clear and bright they&#39;re probably OK, but if the flame wavers it means they&#39;re troubled, and if it goes out suddenly for no reason it means they&#39;ve died. Presumably the lamp required periodic blood top-ups to renew its connection.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;A ruler or spymaster might maintain whole rooms full of blood lamps, one for each person they want to keep tabs on. Plenty of opportunities for sabotage by spiking one person&#39;s lamp with someone else&#39;s blood!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;I know he &lt;i&gt;says &lt;/i&gt;he&#39;s fine, but how&#39;s he &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;doing? Here - take this lamp, steal some of his blood, and pour it into it. I just want to make sure that he&#39;s actually OK...&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixQofEnMMhbJ4-pmg59VDilcxnMI58HbhloJExE1XtdLflQmmUgUpjtj1_grC0d_VRjVRiyZyVBVjHesORN8YCuNGu1i1-F8jNgcUzF64FPxHUz6DSYkXTDe64x7stQCOYhUqpuQAqdOC0voTjHvXmPUa1P1u5nsP-nGqkIGD0y0ZsColOz_dqeqpmbQ&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;574&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1200&quot; height=&quot;202&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixQofEnMMhbJ4-pmg59VDilcxnMI58HbhloJExE1XtdLflQmmUgUpjtj1_grC0d_VRjVRiyZyVBVjHesORN8YCuNGu1i1-F8jNgcUzF64FPxHUz6DSYkXTDe64x7stQCOYhUqpuQAqdOC0voTjHvXmPUa1P1u5nsP-nGqkIGD0y0ZsColOz_dqeqpmbQ=w422-h202&quot; width=&quot;422&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Hand of Glory does appear in the book, but is surely too well-known to need writing up here.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Dead man&#39;s hand: &lt;/b&gt;One seventeenth-century doctor recommended treating piles and swellings with the sweat of a dying man. This was obviously a pretty time-limited resource - if he&#39;s genuinely dying, you&#39;ve only got so long before he tips over into being dead - but luckily, there was an alternative: you could rub them better with a dead man&#39;s hand! (Presumably he had a preserved one that he used for this purpose? I imagine it mounted on a stick for easier rubbing...)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;A particularly stubborn disease might need rubbing with a particularly powerful severed hand - perhaps one belonging to a dead cleric, wizard, etc. If you can grab some of his sweat while he&#39;s dying, that&#39;s a bonus!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A curse or monster might inflict terrible swellings on those who oppose it, requiring the PCs to rub one another down with severed hands in mid-melee!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;The executioner&#39;s other trade: &lt;/b&gt;Each human body was believed to possess a certain allocation of life force, which leaked away through age and sickness - thus the bodies of young people (especially healthy young men) who died suddenly by violence were held to possess great power, as so much unspent life force remained bottled up within them. Many early modern executioners thus carried on a thriving trade in the blood, bones, skin, and fat of their victims, all of which were believed to possess healing properties and even to be able to ward off black magic due to the life force with which they were charged. The fresher these body parts were, the better - people desperate for cures would sometimes come to beheadings with cups, ready catch and drink the victim&#39;s blood right at the foot of the scaffold.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;A corrupt magistrate might be in league with the local executioner, having specific people executed on trumped-up charges because he believes their body parts are likely to fetch a particularly good price on the open market.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;In a region plagued by witches, different families might compete fiercely for bits of each person executed (and agitate constantly for more executions), seeing such corpse-talismans as their best hope for protecting their families from dark sorcery.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A PC suffering from a magical curse or disease might learn that their only cure is the freshly-spilled blood of an executed man. When&#39;s the next execution happening, again? And they&#39;d better be ready to fight for a spot at the foot of the block - they won&#39;t be the only ones there waving empty tankards around and trying to guess the likely trajectories of arterial spray...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;PCs tend to inflict a lot of violence and untimely death - what if they start selling the blood and bones of &lt;i&gt;their &lt;/i&gt;victims, too? How will the local executioners react to someone trying to break into &#39;their&#39; trade?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrk3Pc54-lwK-qSzLRTEIoFzO4Mpo_gKrgUCZnc8viOZkJwi430wDk1-LM4XjpLZn5W-IuHHEtp_dJCHmIPbbBSR3bQn__OFjgtf7jd_PIyWiNPB6gFsS-6PAiHv82EmICQQuLA_nI1qN2ASmGRHIzRl6Ah6y8w9LVF5s4f1ly299ssRXczkfx4fX9YQ&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1433&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1239&quot; height=&quot;284&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrk3Pc54-lwK-qSzLRTEIoFzO4Mpo_gKrgUCZnc8viOZkJwi430wDk1-LM4XjpLZn5W-IuHHEtp_dJCHmIPbbBSR3bQn__OFjgtf7jd_PIyWiNPB6gFsS-6PAiHv82EmICQQuLA_nI1qN2ASmGRHIzRl6Ah6y8w9LVF5s4f1ly299ssRXczkfx4fX9YQ=w246-h284&quot; width=&quot;246&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Blood against age: &lt;/b&gt;Drinking the blood of the young and healthy was thought to grant strength to the old and infirm. Normally the &#39;donor&#39; was paid, though rumours circulated that some rulers had young victims abducted and murdered for the sake of their life-giving blood.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;In-game uses:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;No, I need someone &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;healthy. Get me... like... a barbarian champion, or something. Then tie him down so I can drink some of his blood!&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Campaign start concept: the PCs are a bunch of random travellers kidnapped because their hardy, athletic frames make them ideal targets for the local lord&#39;s medical vampirism. Now they need to break out of his horrible castle before he drains them all dry like the ghastly, thirsty, geriatric monster he is. Good thing they&#39;re all such vigorous specimins!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;A cure for flatulence: &lt;/b&gt;Tired of farting at inconvenient times? Try wearing &lt;i&gt;gloves made of human skin! &lt;/i&gt;For some reason they&#39;re good for the joints, as well!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;(We can only hope that not too many people tried putting this one into practise, although the idea of human leather doesn&#39;t seem to have disturbed our ancestors as much as one might expect. Books continued to be intermittently bound in human skin well into the nineteenth century.)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;So what you need to do, right, is wait until he begins his big speech, and then &lt;i&gt;pull his human-skin gloves off! &lt;/i&gt;His uncontrollable flatulence will finish his career on the spot!&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgBnb4H1pxPpv-I-EJYcQjGwSamZjgn6QR2B_Bn6cDBr34Jra8UeLpfo5Bv-ZmORVBoIKgaGzxC94kWBRxtp58Quy6C6_yDf7pj2VY1Emi05rf5OshRnFrdqyvR3Yhgv7X-iAn7GAXDQukwN-4G9z8b_uo6rgXOjT9Sg3bPI8iI0mM8rGJk-TI4oOik0w&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;453&quot; data-original-width=&quot;604&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgBnb4H1pxPpv-I-EJYcQjGwSamZjgn6QR2B_Bn6cDBr34Jra8UeLpfo5Bv-ZmORVBoIKgaGzxC94kWBRxtp58Quy6C6_yDf7pj2VY1Emi05rf5OshRnFrdqyvR3Yhgv7X-iAn7GAXDQukwN-4G9z8b_uo6rgXOjT9Sg3bPI8iI0mM8rGJk-TI4oOik0w&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Preserved scalp of the Red Barn Murderer, Richard Corder, and a book of his crimes bound in his skin. From 1828.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mummy: &lt;/b&gt;The crushed flesh of Ancient Egyptian mummies was believed to have many healing properties - so much so that demand for it soon outstripped supply. Egyptian corpse-merchants made up the shortfall first by substituting &#39;natural&#39; mummies (the dried-out corpses of travellers killed in desert sandstorms) for the ancient kind, and then by just buying up as many bodies as they could, drying them out in giant ovens, and exporting them as &#39;mummies&#39;. Paracelsian medicine maintained you could make a home-grown version just as good as an ancient one by taking the freshly-killed body of a young man who died by violence, leaving it out overnight, cutting it into strips, and macerating it in wine. So as well as moss-covered skulls, dead men&#39;s hands, human-skin gloves, crushed-up mummies, and pastes made from human blood and fat, the workshops of early modern doctors may also have contained &lt;i&gt;shredded corpses in wine. &lt;/i&gt;For, y&#39;know, medical reasons.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;Find me a genuine ancient mummy, with a pyramid and everything! Then crush it up so I can rub it on my injuries. You can keep the inevitable cursed gold for yourselves.&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;PCs may kill a lot of people, but they probably don&#39;t carry giant urns of wine around on adventures with them. So for an extra pay-off, why not drag all those corpses back to the local wine-merchant and have them made into medicine? Let&#39;s just hope no-one asks any awkward questions about why you&#39;re dragging all these hacked-up corpses around...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;With all these mummies being traded back and forth, how long can it be before an undead one gets mixed in with the rest, and wakes up just as it&#39;s being unloaded from the ship? Imagine how angry some ancient priest-king will be upon discovering he&#39;s narrowly avoided being ground up for medicinal purposes...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Some early modern doctors also broke into barrow mounds in search of ancient dead people to grind up into medicine. Think of all the furious barrow wights!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Black Doctors: &lt;/b&gt;Suspicion of the medical profession seems to have run deep in rural Scotland. There parents would warn their children of &#39;the Black Doctors&#39;, medical murderers who lurked around looking for potential victims. When they spotted a likely target they&#39;d sneak up behind them and slap a black adhesive patch over their nose and mouth, suffocating them and preventing them from calling out, then drag them off to make healing broth from their bodies and bones. (Very similar stories circulated in early Victorian London, where medical murder-gangs were rumoured to garrote pedestrians and throw their bodies down through hidden hatches into ever-boiling cauldrons in the tunnels below.)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Plot seeds:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Hunt down the medical murder-crew preying on the local population! Then struggle with your conscience over what to do with all the cannibalistic healing broth you&#39;ve just acquired from their hidden lair!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Actually, those suffocation-patches sound pretty handy for adventurers, too...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjiSp2tUFJM3MpoUd5GKLwsP8GbEXjqPGSHDFfoyfpje0GD8NAb-KIywZDNqg7IDu7SShxIKDkuP83PEgHTgM5GlHysSWYiUeI34cl0Fih8pVZ_m8cJW9G1q_8G78uG6hmONB0oW_FsOd9ObbL9-W_nxkT9clXqCDu-XsOFT4jOIk4FyzQB_LBdeddvcA&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;810&quot; data-original-width=&quot;638&quot; height=&quot;425&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjiSp2tUFJM3MpoUd5GKLwsP8GbEXjqPGSHDFfoyfpje0GD8NAb-KIywZDNqg7IDu7SShxIKDkuP83PEgHTgM5GlHysSWYiUeI34cl0Fih8pVZ_m8cJW9G1q_8G78uG6hmONB0oW_FsOd9ObbL9-W_nxkT9clXqCDu-XsOFT4jOIk4FyzQB_LBdeddvcA=w334-h425&quot; width=&quot;334&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/4133792347938393594/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/06/early-modern-corpse-medicine.html#comment-form' title='22 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/4133792347938393594'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/4133792347938393594'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/06/early-modern-corpse-medicine.html' title='Early modern corpse medicine'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5R-SO42EJjCOhDQxT7GpudJWIIW79lrMfhIeE-aedilCGQLY-zvoCibvmBxp_RA_tjkyvktX0dC2rdgbgXRZhYziuxPRgWNPKu0AWJyPSHB-8VfRPo_QIMgySe3xHHfiolSvx4MgK5wCTWdXewhX95aRJ2EY_M1eBdiRplIpb_2dva472n_8nEt42PA=s72-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>22</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-6755160694714379378</id><published>2022-04-08T03:20:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2022-04-08T03:31:39.709-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Actual Play"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Art"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="City of Spires"/><title type='text'>City of Spires character art, by Autumnal Bloomer</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;One of the players in my City of Spires campaign recently commissioned a collection of character art for the party from Autumal Bloomer, of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/871374114/digital-dungeons-and-dragons-dnd-rpg?click_key=a8f5f2e7ad4694fc1140160ea08d5428fdde98ba%3A871374114&amp;amp;click_sum=c4cbacc2&amp;amp;ref=shop_home_feat_1&amp;amp;frs=1&quot;&gt;Tabletop Character Art&lt;/a&gt;. I thought they were absolutely adorable, and so - with the permission of both the original artist and the commissioner - I&#39;m reposting them here. If you&#39;d like images of your own D&amp;amp;D characters in a similar style then do give Autumnal&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TabletopCharacterArt?ref=simple-shop-header-name&amp;amp;listing_id=871374114&quot;&gt;Etsy shop&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;a look!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmf00OYsZFj095FE8EYwicA9Rv07KiXLbj_HHxKx_jlbOhuLiQdR-lRcNl3-5j9TRh-zQ31LrcHuGhXd9VAsWLEaFVwJBDSm187hvlg-OFP8kkWcBr_sLshKdlJJFzepOmb1Ue9W8s4kx63HOt0LgQVurTZqcAmXWCaWVbnKhv-m2UX2QnKqg589DmrQ/s1748/barnabus.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;402&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmf00OYsZFj095FE8EYwicA9Rv07KiXLbj_HHxKx_jlbOhuLiQdR-lRcNl3-5j9TRh-zQ31LrcHuGhXd9VAsWLEaFVwJBDSm187hvlg-OFP8kkWcBr_sLshKdlJJFzepOmb1Ue9W8s4kx63HOt0LgQVurTZqcAmXWCaWVbnKhv-m2UX2QnKqg589DmrQ/w272-h402/barnabus.png&quot; width=&quot;272&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Barnabus, scribe turned sorcerer.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLcPJ_5N3gF8sguQwyka7dM1Kb6NeyT4iTzfKxjQ93Xj6b4RVY-Cg4eH8mOvtsxd8ZnwWUR7LRchiPmfCziYmz8wh3fNJQ_sWYjxCz1A_l0jhJ7K4JegBdorgJpP0MQABLCHsqsD7iU0qfXxChd2a1ncrFHcazpfn3WC0vvtmV3zb-BZ9-Bv8uylGHwA/s1748/barry.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;397&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLcPJ_5N3gF8sguQwyka7dM1Kb6NeyT4iTzfKxjQ93Xj6b4RVY-Cg4eH8mOvtsxd8ZnwWUR7LRchiPmfCziYmz8wh3fNJQ_sWYjxCz1A_l0jhJ7K4JegBdorgJpP0MQABLCHsqsD7iU0qfXxChd2a1ncrFHcazpfn3WC0vvtmV3zb-BZ9-Bv8uylGHwA/w268-h397/barry.png&quot; width=&quot;268&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Barry, vagabond swamp magician.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2mivknwlCWeaM_njtp0rQcmBzIX1_dxIuVNqb1p_yqUXoufI5EgRKLLpxYow1ObI93jc0ind_OOtFPsHJJakwDlpvgk2htZXmGEqMz-VEKG8o-LxvNeL3mbQDrXxD9ir2UdG8sD95Bc_Ezk7SJzFsYKkMTub2alYgwZz_BXIPzJ-c_wPd2EAFcyJl6Q/s1748/crabface.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2mivknwlCWeaM_njtp0rQcmBzIX1_dxIuVNqb1p_yqUXoufI5EgRKLLpxYow1ObI93jc0ind_OOtFPsHJJakwDlpvgk2htZXmGEqMz-VEKG8o-LxvNeL3mbQDrXxD9ir2UdG8sD95Bc_Ezk7SJzFsYKkMTub2alYgwZz_BXIPzJ-c_wPd2EAFcyJl6Q/w270-h400/crabface.png&quot; width=&quot;270&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Crabface, levitating crustacean pope.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YD2PILnqEh6Hgt1clme2reqjGeRSa_a68vkJGcL8mHoRr3nOhK7xXqBO4zXOqYfnWo8dUl1gmokPJdUnIpEd7k4dPzTgudOY6TgjUsuJid_GOQjInp0jisNvofyYbV-XSlRR1fICnNiR0qepiCs5ptBIcrV7T678yiXUfLu3Wsfo-YJjyngQKvVqIg/s1748/cyrus%20and%20zari.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;405&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YD2PILnqEh6Hgt1clme2reqjGeRSa_a68vkJGcL8mHoRr3nOhK7xXqBO4zXOqYfnWo8dUl1gmokPJdUnIpEd7k4dPzTgudOY6TgjUsuJid_GOQjInp0jisNvofyYbV-XSlRR1fICnNiR0qepiCs5ptBIcrV7T678yiXUfLu3Wsfo-YJjyngQKvVqIg/w273-h405/cyrus%20and%20zari.png&quot; width=&quot;273&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Cyrus, Harvester of Men, and his knife-throwing murder-monkey Zari.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15i2eaK6m1hvhzce4rADjurVTUSv59VhBGC5idrCNvVSQ889qU1Ux5B2ruSzGLX-y2a-aHIAhKLapIJU3rS82V9EAyUleRGrQHWfmfveBNum4M9q2INH_QTorwPUSDdQ9EHTP3-NwS5YerxCulFvbv8PrKbXAPozW_6a0lAfk0Hqb5qe7uz3XPrk7hg/s1748/darius.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;397&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15i2eaK6m1hvhzce4rADjurVTUSv59VhBGC5idrCNvVSQ889qU1Ux5B2ruSzGLX-y2a-aHIAhKLapIJU3rS82V9EAyUleRGrQHWfmfveBNum4M9q2INH_QTorwPUSDdQ9EHTP3-NwS5YerxCulFvbv8PrKbXAPozW_6a0lAfk0Hqb5qe7uz3XPrk7hg/w268-h397/darius.png&quot; width=&quot;268&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Darius the Organ Collector, with his offal bag and his pet raven, Giblet.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju6mkJBpZwqHkkY3Qpp8_uTZEHl2Tpca6EyttnHlYvnE0oIaWoIAQtfip6Q0BTmExYQbuh_m7No3Tm07nbYEPJy03XeVTZi6yyP9v0RUW0XtvChDcI4BQmMs2ofsGf39zi_3ErbCNXTD2Euor1tNMYGF0gswUeWzjL8AV-AG1WkWUPd-UEQTD4lwQnBA/s1748/Ira.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;408&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju6mkJBpZwqHkkY3Qpp8_uTZEHl2Tpca6EyttnHlYvnE0oIaWoIAQtfip6Q0BTmExYQbuh_m7No3Tm07nbYEPJy03XeVTZi6yyP9v0RUW0XtvChDcI4BQmMs2ofsGf39zi_3ErbCNXTD2Euor1tNMYGF0gswUeWzjL8AV-AG1WkWUPd-UEQTD4lwQnBA/w276-h408/Ira.png&quot; width=&quot;276&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Ira, bee-swam hive-mind sorceress.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjweJaryiGoiegxbwCqjIHPexv1sX44Q0cXCpDyonwei_x3eDMk3AiO_2sdCHbEBVJ-jyqrpd5B-xlazYDfu8UmbK_yhY69Z697utfswIOzLTkyl-7dQN1yweWu1zYNeeov27z0ng26bPhE14wX4eQokVYsCeaWjPiumN5d4ClP8Rh649R3TjL4UcRtqw/s1748/jyll.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;391&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjweJaryiGoiegxbwCqjIHPexv1sX44Q0cXCpDyonwei_x3eDMk3AiO_2sdCHbEBVJ-jyqrpd5B-xlazYDfu8UmbK_yhY69Z697utfswIOzLTkyl-7dQN1yweWu1zYNeeov27z0ng26bPhE14wX4eQokVYsCeaWjPiumN5d4ClP8Rh649R3TjL4UcRtqw/w264-h391/jyll.png&quot; width=&quot;264&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Jyll, crossbow-woman extraordinare.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nSxIC2ExFpcc-Ij3Yg6lDkT2ZxayFfDWq7RZtS9p5uNUBFTZ8up1fy9hhCbGaEItmSbdRypjlmdSvwBUuMm4D6P1hA1ARp8iAdfdoe-XkLUoTu0FLmCX8VowvvQKTm3jAcUujoHSDnj-Mj51BYRLGQEYx8cuq0zVzBol-osZlYf-nk1ZXo0pxYebRQ/s1748/lucius.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;362&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nSxIC2ExFpcc-Ij3Yg6lDkT2ZxayFfDWq7RZtS9p5uNUBFTZ8up1fy9hhCbGaEItmSbdRypjlmdSvwBUuMm4D6P1hA1ARp8iAdfdoe-XkLUoTu0FLmCX8VowvvQKTm3jAcUujoHSDnj-Mj51BYRLGQEYx8cuq0zVzBol-osZlYf-nk1ZXo0pxYebRQ/w245-h362/lucius.png&quot; width=&quot;245&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Lucius, long-suffering herbalist turned city administrator.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Xp2sPLmDyD8xedsofqtkouFU3ytJuI7n4zg_NiUwCU-OMkDqlqOtDR5xIm41FcaGcQdGC5S7bsrgIEk_I--c-2eWQbNRz8_rCccGhOyLuN_rg1CqvaMBYgL61aM3ossBTWStS7JoFbXujBwTUYFPAyHyI4mlLLgFZ2YldFOfyCSTwRTfEZY8zt9P7g/s1748/marcus.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;381&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Xp2sPLmDyD8xedsofqtkouFU3ytJuI7n4zg_NiUwCU-OMkDqlqOtDR5xIm41FcaGcQdGC5S7bsrgIEk_I--c-2eWQbNRz8_rCccGhOyLuN_rg1CqvaMBYgL61aM3ossBTWStS7JoFbXujBwTUYFPAyHyI4mlLLgFZ2YldFOfyCSTwRTfEZY8zt9P7g/w257-h381/marcus.png&quot; width=&quot;257&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Marcus, evangelist of the Shining Ones.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMXh9hyveVwkm1grgrRbjsBdRvXJMfbQrCRkBnt-OMh-vtSZFQ4XWiztC7alL8TsIA6FobRsTNVO50sPzZSFOk_kMKLlkXbMPmH3OEtaz8HrTdVA2s5SuI2NrSRw722zPfH7prTH8qtDFg9QltHnE64IMV0S2AarUtxT55ueJFQnbmIheGhTtf20NIVA/s1748/nikolai.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;360&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMXh9hyveVwkm1grgrRbjsBdRvXJMfbQrCRkBnt-OMh-vtSZFQ4XWiztC7alL8TsIA6FobRsTNVO50sPzZSFOk_kMKLlkXbMPmH3OEtaz8HrTdVA2s5SuI2NrSRw722zPfH7prTH8qtDFg9QltHnE64IMV0S2AarUtxT55ueJFQnbmIheGhTtf20NIVA/w243-h360/nikolai.png&quot; width=&quot;243&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Nikolai the distractingly sexy trapper.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jUqddOfIjWw63JSxBnFXBl2IwwE1cl7OB5-3psXAPQyP08NeuCEw5JCFUO2Z-z4tTlfztHv6gxWZwKeK-Ee7Rgz-221r_zyGpIRWAQYOllkTr7vWSpr3DNdrrudzlezppLpEcfGZM665BClefHWUocA1HGfPgoayQ8tqstZiABMb5d79_CCjn59HOQ/s1748/rattigan.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;359&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jUqddOfIjWw63JSxBnFXBl2IwwE1cl7OB5-3psXAPQyP08NeuCEw5JCFUO2Z-z4tTlfztHv6gxWZwKeK-Ee7Rgz-221r_zyGpIRWAQYOllkTr7vWSpr3DNdrrudzlezppLpEcfGZM665BClefHWUocA1HGfPgoayQ8tqstZiABMb5d79_CCjn59HOQ/w242-h359/rattigan.png&quot; width=&quot;242&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Rattigan, rat-man energy-stave wielder.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLD5y91FgvPGNP3_rbo6qkn1KCk5leTvglfnSbuQGfgrH7_UphluPK0vqHk9h78BUUjEaSjhThl2YrW9WpKYuWIAvh2EeJKMGuhTOldZVynIXa0kUCIc9ZCFZ2-40VHB5AFEHEYVDgBxC22LUKMG2bj6ZsOSv4NFFsJnn6u6JpMoJ79SCCqER-b2ktw/s1748/viktor.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1748&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1181&quot; height=&quot;360&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLD5y91FgvPGNP3_rbo6qkn1KCk5leTvglfnSbuQGfgrH7_UphluPK0vqHk9h78BUUjEaSjhThl2YrW9WpKYuWIAvh2EeJKMGuhTOldZVynIXa0kUCIc9ZCFZ2-40VHB5AFEHEYVDgBxC22LUKMG2bj6ZsOSv4NFFsJnn6u6JpMoJ79SCCqER-b2ktw/w243-h360/viktor.png&quot; width=&quot;243&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Victor, heir of the Witch-Queens.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1280&quot; data-original-width=&quot;4693&quot; height=&quot;182&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgKcI9zY0GB1sNi9lxVM6yzJEmYPQ5BVExE2lOv_b6n6fb0ki6WLpZpVn2KIlxe8vahS8POdY1jcnM4dMQZxpF4PgGcF98YWeHU-prR9uD1JecsMOjoEp4Abv6Zx-_i-eU7bVVmOUSCID9YCOwcd34e0QiKz0DV0JZHorR-o-DxJUZiZDtRfjHUdj_VQ/w668-h182/splash%20(1).png&quot; style=&quot;color: #0000ee; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;&quot; width=&quot;668&quot; /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The whole damn crew!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/6755160694714379378/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/04/city-of-spires-character-art-by.html#comment-form' title='12 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/6755160694714379378'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/6755160694714379378'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/04/city-of-spires-character-art-by.html' title='City of Spires character art, by Autumnal Bloomer'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmf00OYsZFj095FE8EYwicA9Rv07KiXLbj_HHxKx_jlbOhuLiQdR-lRcNl3-5j9TRh-zQ31LrcHuGhXd9VAsWLEaFVwJBDSm187hvlg-OFP8kkWcBr_sLshKdlJJFzepOmb1Ue9W8s4kx63HOt0LgQVurTZqcAmXWCaWVbnKhv-m2UX2QnKqg589DmrQ/s72-w272-h402-c/barnabus.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>12</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-181060776967954150</id><published>2022-04-03T02:27:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2022-04-08T03:31:57.619-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Actual Play"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="City of Spires"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Super-long"/><title type='text'>Team Tsathogga / City of Spires setting primer, for Severed Fane</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Severed Fane asked for a &#39;small campaign bible&#39; for my current campaign, City of Spires, which shares a setting with my previous Team Tsathogga campaign. This campaign world started as a kitchen-sink-y science fantasy setting, suitable for running short, casual games over beer with players new to D&amp;amp;D. To my utter astonishment, I&#39;m still running games set in the same world six years later, and it has now accumulated a staggering level of background lore.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What follows is a&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;very&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;zoomed-out version of the setting. Obviously I can&#39;t include anything that my PCs haven&#39;t discovered yet, but this post provides a snapshot of the discovered regions of the setting as they currently stand, fifteen years of game-time after our first campaign began!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglqeqUtEm82DeXYrw-n0jVuYPFqunDXBtWDlDrlqZAa15ajjdB5Nod_mY14PwgmcI-6qcM1SFe1MD7oPjLywwaC47045vvwf07loLz0fA8HfE2QTb7M22d6rKRFvUrt-zAaNxz58Sgbyb2K1d_gGikULmJkhjw6D5tTF0ScixbZfP9HbIP1IUjK9p_BQ&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;409&quot; data-original-width=&quot;800&quot; height=&quot;236&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglqeqUtEm82DeXYrw-n0jVuYPFqunDXBtWDlDrlqZAa15ajjdB5Nod_mY14PwgmcI-6qcM1SFe1MD7oPjLywwaC47045vvwf07loLz0fA8HfE2QTb7M22d6rKRFvUrt-zAaNxz58Sgbyb2K1d_gGikULmJkhjw6D5tTF0ScixbZfP9HbIP1IUjK9p_BQ=w461-h236&quot; width=&quot;461&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Deep history: &lt;/b&gt;City of Spires, like Team Tsathogga before it, takes place on the world originally known as Research Planet Alpha Three. It was colonised thousands of years ago by a spacefaring empire of serpent men, who used it as a research base for something called &#39;The God-Mind Project&#39;: this&amp;nbsp;seems to have involved going to other planets, capturing the various god-like psychic &#39;hyper-intelligences&#39; they found there, and bringing them to Alpha Three in a limbo state of [&lt;i&gt;sleep / death / non-existence&lt;/i&gt;] for research purposes. Presumably this was eventually going to lead to some kind of pay-off for the empire, but their civilisation was destroyed in an interplanetary slave uprising before their work could come to fruition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even before their empire fell, the serpent-men on Alpha Three were not much involved in the day-to-day running of the colony. In the part of the planet in which the campaign is set, the various species they imported or created were ruled for them by three client states: the Zaant Imperium (ruled by island-dwelling ape-men), the Omen Kingdom (ruled by one-eyed giants), and the Nameless Empire (ruled by human magicians - its name is genuinely lost, having apparently been burnt out of history by some terrible magic). When the empire fell apart, a rebel space fleet obliterated the main power centres of these loyalist states from orbit. The rebels were then meant to land and liberate their enslaved subjects, but &lt;i&gt;something happened &lt;/i&gt;and the liberating army never came. What went wrong with the rebellion, like the purpose of the God-Mind Project, has been one of the major mysteries behind both campaigns.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The game is set 1300-ish years later.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Chaos Ages: &lt;/b&gt;The destruction of the serpent man power structure, coupled with the non-appearance of the rebel army, ushered in an age of chaos. The magitech infrastructure of the old empires fell apart, and the world was ravaged by the various war machines, monsters, and bioweapons released, intentionally or otherwise, during the war. Power in many regions was seized by local warlords who managed to salvage fragments of functional magitechnology from the general conflagration: these included the Witch Queens, the Cannibal King, the Scavenger Lords of Aram, and the Kings of Ruin. Other regions fell under the sway of cults worshipping the alien hyper-intelligences kidnapped by the God-Mind project, whose containment systems were shattered by the war, leaving them leaking incoherent psychic distress into the surrounding world. This was a pretty grim era, remembered in most places as a dark age of strife now thankfully surpassed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The modern era: &lt;/b&gt;In the end the various Chaos Age despotisms mostly destroyed each other, or were overthrown by their subjects, or simply disintegrated when their scavenged relic technology finally degraded into uselessness. In their place came more stable polities, unified by pro-social religions such as the worship of the Bright Lady (a deified folk memory of the original rebel commander), the Shining Ones (pure-energy beings imprisoned by the serpent folk to power their magitech infrastructure), and the Golden Lotus (a transcendent embodiment of cosmic Law). The God-Mind cultists, who despite their formidable supernatural powers tended to be a crazy and dysfunctional bunch, were mostly driven into the wilderness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today a range of nations have arisen in the more habitable areas of the old empires. However, the areas beyond their borders are still littered with radioactive ruins, magical dead zones, and the lairs of weird creatures who escaped from the prisons and laboratories of the serpent men.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh87tgZ2gKshrvgVyhOTVPqD4IlCsOyo9XSPxs3037OqvzbnlBaPK5i6MTRoZn6HWAgMh1fNqCXVbm69BhXBIktUHJOuvXa608hVKmtPaFTGDoOBo74JoKScSLzXxtBwfjmoSgIkPFmfRixl3x7oISo6pO6rR1AEM8v8b8-RK7Gnzr8ZTbvb66ZWFochg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;550&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1280&quot; height=&quot;197&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh87tgZ2gKshrvgVyhOTVPqD4IlCsOyo9XSPxs3037OqvzbnlBaPK5i6MTRoZn6HWAgMh1fNqCXVbm69BhXBIktUHJOuvXa608hVKmtPaFTGDoOBo74JoKScSLzXxtBwfjmoSgIkPFmfRixl3x7oISo6pO6rR1AEM8v8b8-RK7Gnzr8ZTbvb66ZWFochg=w456-h197&quot; width=&quot;456&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Regions visited so far&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Qelong: &lt;/b&gt;Based on the (excellent) supplement of the same name, this Khmer-inspired nation was &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/09/actual-play-propaganda-videos-and.html&quot;&gt;saved&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/10/actual-play-lotos-eaters-team-tsathogga.html&quot;&gt;from&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/10/actual-play-severed-hands-in-lobster.html&quot;&gt;utter&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/11/actual-play-fire-acid-and-laser-beams.html&quot;&gt;ruin&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/12/actual-play-nath-i-am-your-father-team.html&quot;&gt;by the PCs&lt;/a&gt; during the first campaign and is now staggering back towards something resembling normality, although vast swathes of the hinterland remain effectively post-apocalyptic. The Naga who empowers the river flowing through it was one of the victims of the God-Mind project, and is presumably imprisoned somewhere beneath the nation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Cold Marshes: &lt;/b&gt;Freezing expanse of marshlands inhabited by mutated &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2019/02/actual-play-shut-up-and-eat-your-marsh.html&quot;&gt;marsh giants&lt;/a&gt;, and by human tribes who ride upon great swamp beasts and drive squirming masses of bog mummies into battle by beating on enchanted drums. The PCs in the first campaign kidnapped one and forced him to give them &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2019/02/actual-play-we-should-have-started.html&quot;&gt;drumming lessons&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Stonemoors: &lt;/b&gt;A windswept land of sheep-herding crofters brought to crisis when the perpetual snowfall ceased on its holy mountain, denying meltwater to its rivers and causing a serious drought. (This turned out to be due to the theft of an &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2019/02/actal-play-first-we-steal-flying-boat.html&quot;&gt;enchanted maiden&lt;/a&gt; from the mountain, who had been slumbering in suspended animation within a magitech casket.) In desperation, the hardest-hit clans turned to a cave-dwelling monster, the Blood Fiend, for power to extort food their neighbours. In the first campaign the PCs found the casket but kept it as a power-source for their flying ship, and &#39;solved&#39; the problem by sending the Blood Fiend and his followers off to reclaim the Fiend&#39;s birthplace in the Grey Uplands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Plateau of Yeth: &lt;/b&gt;Inspired by &lt;i&gt;Minotaurs of the Black Hills &lt;/i&gt;by Raging Swan Press. Plateau inhabited by minotaur clans, who arrived here as invaders, but whose power was broken by the terrible heat-weapons of the bat-folk who lived within the citadels of vitreous stone at the plateau&#39;s heart. Since then they have lived humble lives as tributaries of the bat-folk, whose skill in technology remains great, but whose numbers have now waned to the point that their citadels are almost empty. The PCs from the first campaign &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/12/actual-play-holy-heat-rays-batman-team.html&quot;&gt;adopted one&lt;/a&gt; who had aspirations of reversing the decline of his people, but then apprenticed him to a mad scientist and forgot about him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Great Northern Wilderness: &lt;/b&gt;Vast expanse of hills and forests inhabited mostly by savage cave dwarves and mad vulture-men, who once ruled as death-priests of the necromantic Carrion Kingdom until their defeat by the bat-folk of the Plateau of Yeth. Hidden here are the Pools of Life (loosely based on &lt;i&gt;Dwimmermount&lt;/i&gt;), an ancient complex&amp;nbsp;where the serpent men originally created their &#39;demon&#39; shock troopers. An attempt to duplicate this feat by a sorcerer in the Chaos Ages led to the creation of the minotaurs, who were the closest he could manage to the real thing, but who soon turned on their creator. Later still the Pools were looted by a magician in the service of the Church of the Bright Lady, who went rogue and used his stolen technology to create the creatures of the Grey Uplands. In the first campaign the PCs shut down the complex and its malfunctioning monster-engines, and led the creatures trapped within it back into the light.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Grey Uplands: &lt;/b&gt;Remote upland region inhabited by the various monsters created using magitechnology stolen from the Pools of Life - including the Blood Fiend, who later ran off to the Stonemoors. In a castle at its centre lived an isolationist settlement of humans with transparent skin, bred for medical testing purposes. The PCs in the first campaign evacuated the humans to a haunted valley they&#39;d found earlier, and sent the Blood Fiend and his followers back to reclaim their homeland.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Purple Islands:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Inspired by&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/03/actual-play-forged-love-letters-and.html&quot;&gt;Taken over&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/03/actual-playvictory-at-last-team.html&quot;&gt;by the PCs&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;during the first campaign, now the home of a motley assortment of humans, apemen, and undead practising a syncretic religion that the PCs invented. Contains a lot of relatively intact ruins due spending most of the last four hundred years outside the timestream. There was once a hidden Serpent Man science base here, but the PCs invaded it and killed most of them, with the ones that got away vanishing into the jungles of the south.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Reval: &lt;/b&gt;This temperate agricultural kingdom is the seat of the Church of the Bright Lady, which is run by mysteriously similar-looking &#39;Angels&#39; and an all-female council of Elders who appear to be mutants of some kind. Site of &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/03/actual-play-glasstown-job-team.html&quot;&gt;Glasstown&lt;/a&gt;, home of the setting&#39;s leading magical academy, which has some kind of sinister dealings with the &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-men-in-mirror.html&quot;&gt;Mirror Men&lt;/a&gt;. Recently ravaged by a plague of &#39;demons&#39; falling from the sky - these turned out to be genetically-engineered warriors created by the serpent men, who had been floating in orbit in their cryo-chambers since the empire&#39;s fall. In the first campaign the PCs discovered their ancient command codes, and managed to free some of them from servitude.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Underworld: &lt;/b&gt;A vast expanse of caverns beneath Reval inhabited by many strange monsters, including goblins and toad-folk loyal to Tsathogga, who was one of the beings kidnapped for the God-Mind project and is presumably imprisoned somewhere down there. The dominant underworld powers were previously the &lt;a href=&quot;http://theystalktheunderworld.blogspot.com/2014/10/science-fungoids.html&quot;&gt;Science Fungoids&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2015/05/eight-navigating-houses-of-nox.html&quot;&gt;Navigator Houses of the Nightmare Sea&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;(which I lifted from They Stalk the Underworld and False Machine, respectively), but in the first campaign the PCs inflicted terrible damage upon the Science Fungoids, allowing the Navigator Houses to establish trade relations with the surface and press everyone nearby into debt slavery.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Grand Duchy: &lt;/b&gt;Cold northern nation, remote and agriculturally poor, a centre of the fur trade. Plagued for years by the Devourer cultists hidden in the mountains, who secretly served the serpent men of the Purple Islands, drawing liquid time from a sleeping titan buried in the earth (another God-Mind project victim) and using it to keep the Purple Islands isolated from the timestream. It was the fall of this cult that precipitated the reappearance of the Purple Islands and the rain of &#39;demons&#39; in Reval. The PCs in the first campaign ransacked the cult temple, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/11/actual-play-deathfrost-mountain.html&quot;&gt;adopted&lt;/a&gt; the undead cultists they accidentally awoke while doing so, leading them back to the Purple Islands.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ingra: &lt;/b&gt;A fertile land of shady, forested hills and valleys, once a stronghold of the Witch Queens until their defeat by the followers of the Bright Lady. Witch-cults and beastmen still lurk in its deeper forests. Its cities are famous as centres of learning, and especially renowned for their schools of medicine. A secret society, the Cult of the Divine Surgeon, commands the loyalty of many senior doctors and academics, revering an obscure golden-armed hero figure from the early Chaos Ages.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aram: &lt;/b&gt;Once a hub of trade between the eastern and western nations, now in decline since the Howlers cut off the roads to the east. Centre of the faith of the Shining Ones, whose holy city was once the capital of the Nameless Empire. Reliant on alchemically-modified warriors to keep the Howlers at bay. Its nobles telepathically link themselves with psychic golden serpents, and are served by Gearsmen, clockwork automata animated by human souls. The kingdom was wracked by internal discord until the PCs from the second campaign mostly resolved the situation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Southern Desert: &lt;/b&gt;Wandered by pastoralist tribes who live in fear of a terrible devil of the wastes, the Black Jinn, who dwells in the House of Tarnished Brass somewhere deep in the desert. This desert was once the home of a cult revering a god whose name is both &#39;Fire&#39; and &#39;Hunger&#39; - the ruins of its &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/more-encounters-from-city-of-spires.html&quot;&gt;sacred sites&lt;/a&gt; still dot the desert, haunted by firenewts and other &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/11/desert-monsters-from-city-of-spires.html&quot;&gt;servitors&lt;/a&gt; of this vanished faith. Ancient obsidian warriors roam its southern reaches. This whole region was menaced by the sinister schemes of the Red Architect until the PCs in the second campaign blew her up.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Far Towns: &lt;/b&gt;Marshy region of isolationist farmers, recently brought back under the control of the City of Spires by the PCs from the second campaign. Threatened with annihilation by the Howlers until the PCs saved them with the aid of a giant robot snake and an order of ninja death cultists they founded by accident. Deep in the marshes live a matriarchy of hags, the remnants of the once-terrible dynasty of the Witch Queens, hiding from the world and served by loyal ogre clans who live in enormous halls woven from reeds. The PCs are currently working with them to find a way to neutralise the Howler threat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Wastes of the Cannibal King: &lt;/b&gt;These once-fertile lands desertified as the weather control satellites of the Nameless Empire ceased to function - getting these back online has been a long-term goal of the PCs from the second campaign. In the Chaos Ages they were ruled by the fearsome Cannibal King, from whose tyranny the ancestors of the Tajarim fled long ago. Today they are dotted with haunted ruins, though the PCs have managed to clear out most of the worst ones.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Howler Territories: &lt;/b&gt;Once a centre of sheep farming, this upland region was overrun by the Howlers - aggressive, territorial humanoids created by the dwindled Witch Queens, who hoped to use them as an army with which to reclaim their empire. The Howlers fled their makers and infested the hills and forests, driving out the human population and cutting off the roads between Aram and the City of Spires. The PCs from the second campaign have been trying to work out how to deal with them for years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Old Road and the City of Spires: &lt;/b&gt;Trade route that runs through the deserts north of the Pale Mountains, connecting Aram to the lands of the Tajarim and the kingdoms beyond. The major waystations along this road are the oasis-cities of Halwa, Wasat, and the &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/02/72-encounters-from-city-of-spires.html&quot;&gt;City of Spires&lt;/a&gt; - this last is much the greatest of them, though it has fallen into accursed ruin since the closure of the road by the Howlers drove its merchant oligarchs to desperation and despair. In the days of the Nameless Empire the city was bombed flat, but immense underground complexes survived beneath the surface, and the treasures and horrors stashed within them have played a pivotal role in the city&#39;s history. The PCs in the second campaign seized power in a coup and now govern the City of Spires with the aid of a variety of freakish allies, including cyborg cultists, reformed diabolists, rat-man mechanics, and the remnants of the local nobility.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Pale Mountains: &lt;/b&gt;These towering mountains are fought over by hardy human clans and furry abhumans with a fondness for gunpowder, which they manufacture from stinking nitre pools. One peak was hollowed out by the Nameless Empire as the resting place for its honoured dead, and a vault beneath it held the egg of the Great Worm, a larval hyperintelligence which presumably had something to do with the God-Mind project. It has since hatched, giving rise to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/remnants-of-nameless-empire-more.html&quot;&gt;worm-cult&lt;/a&gt; which the PCs from the second campaign destroyed so that they could turn the whole mountain into a worm farm for their giant rat-breeding side-project.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Lands Beyond: &lt;/b&gt;South of the Pale Mountains stretch lands that were once part of the Nameless Empire, but which were so devastated by bioweapon releases and orbital bombardments that civilisation here has never really recovered. One blasted city is inhabited by a &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/06/escape-from-ghoul-queen.html&quot;&gt;nation of ghouls&lt;/a&gt;; other regions are home to wandering cattle-herding wagon tribes, or clans of hidden people who watch over the ruins of the doomed cities from which their ancestors once fled. Further south these lands are apparently ruled by lords who call themselves the Barons of Rust, but the PCs have never visited their territories.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhuSi2zOnNQOONOOkBaxg4sAdDgrHRALWj4C4E57xNpCrv1eKS8RBJ9RmZkRov-qqyT3uIXTcXQv0VJJ_z1_vbaYAM1op7EmSi8FBDdpWFliSeQnyPp5_UFQnDn3EcgVlrj2eJ2x0eWJv7bTeBs380UYoviADm5tOBFUBzydCcyEvYAhBZjhtCc8PARXw&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;371&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1000&quot; height=&quot;206&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhuSi2zOnNQOONOOkBaxg4sAdDgrHRALWj4C4E57xNpCrv1eKS8RBJ9RmZkRov-qqyT3uIXTcXQv0VJJ_z1_vbaYAM1op7EmSi8FBDdpWFliSeQnyPp5_UFQnDn3EcgVlrj2eJ2x0eWJv7bTeBs380UYoviADm5tOBFUBzydCcyEvYAhBZjhtCc8PARXw=w553-h206&quot; width=&quot;553&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/181060776967954150/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/04/team-tsathogga-city-of-spires-setting.html#comment-form' title='17 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/181060776967954150'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/181060776967954150'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/04/team-tsathogga-city-of-spires-setting.html' title='Team Tsathogga / City of Spires setting primer, for Severed Fane'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglqeqUtEm82DeXYrw-n0jVuYPFqunDXBtWDlDrlqZAa15ajjdB5Nod_mY14PwgmcI-6qcM1SFe1MD7oPjLywwaC47045vvwf07loLz0fA8HfE2QTb7M22d6rKRFvUrt-zAaNxz58Sgbyb2K1d_gGikULmJkhjw6D5tTF0ScixbZfP9HbIP1IUjK9p_BQ=s72-w461-h236-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>17</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-1342572451387684462</id><published>2022-03-11T02:24:00.002-08:00</published><updated>2022-04-08T03:32:15.903-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="City of Spires"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Hexcrawling"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><title type='text'>More encounters from the City of Spires: the uplands</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Second in a series of three 1d10 encounter tables, one for each of the three biomes that my PCs have been most active in recently. This post covers the uplands. Feel free to roll on them next time you need to stock a random hex!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMhCPQIW5kKODt-jTGWhkIJgeb5LhEGJTMiW_c03wnQ99TFMHFFdg1sU7VnyhI8zcGlamT9tyFcoRunhmXBnS7SyGWPNp_n5DoOK-Vic_5oH6njf9biSKG9UpoZJ15LSn3n6_WhxflZRhb3KLJRz4KdTdFMxzC_LE7UmkfEfWQJAWL7C0viRFaiyJ0ow&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;720&quot; data-original-width=&quot;486&quot; height=&quot;371&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMhCPQIW5kKODt-jTGWhkIJgeb5LhEGJTMiW_c03wnQ99TFMHFFdg1sU7VnyhI8zcGlamT9tyFcoRunhmXBnS7SyGWPNp_n5DoOK-Vic_5oH6njf9biSKG9UpoZJ15LSn3n6_WhxflZRhb3KLJRz4KdTdFMxzC_LE7UmkfEfWQJAWL7C0viRFaiyJ0ow=w251-h371&quot; width=&quot;251&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;1:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Wooded hills dotted with overgrown ruins. There are many springs and streams, here, but not all are safe to drink from: some ancient catastrophe seems to have poisoned many of the aquifers, and the area is shunned by travellers, who fear that drinking from the wrong stream could spell their death. These lands are inhabited by clans of hidden folk, who live in concealed settlements deep in the forests, and keep watch on outsiders from afar. They are the only ones who know where to find the ruined, poisoned cities that their ancestors once fled from, and of which they consider themselves the ancestral guardians. Today these ruins are roamed by ex-human monsters over whom the clans maintain a sorrowful watch, believing them to be all that remains of those who did not flee quickly enough when disaster came.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;2:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Uplands inhabited by furry, bestial abhumans, who roam the vallies by day and creep back to their lairs by night. They have learned how to make crude gunpowder using the nitrate pools in the foothills: it&#39;s vile stuff, coarse and smoky and impure, but the abhumans love their bombs and blunderbusses and use them fearlessly despite their tendency to explode in the faces of their wielders. By these means they carry on an ancestral feud with the human mountain clans (see 3), killing them when they can and nailing their turbans to the walls of their hillforts as trophies. Though brave in battle, they live in fear of the cruel ghosts said to haunt the mountains, who carry their victims off into the heights and leave them to perish in the snows. Their king dwells in a ruined clifftop castle, his armoury stuffed with prodigeous quantities of black powder.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;3:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Mountains claimed by rival clans who live by herding and raiding from inaccessible villages hidden amidst the scree slopes, their independence guaranteed by the impassable nature of the terrain, which they navigate with the same agility as the mountain goats they herd. They are easily spotted afar off amidst the rocks and snow by the bright red fabric of their turbans, though these are grey withinside and are worn inside out when the mountain-men do not wish to be seen. They are great travellers, roaming far and wide across peaks that anyone else would regard as uncrossable, and serve an important role as traders and messengers between peoples whom the mountains would otherwise have severed utterly. Outsiders passing through their lands are usually seized and held prisoner for ransom, though the clans do this entirely without malice, regarding it simply as the immemorial custom of their people.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;4:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;These hills are infested with rebels, who raised their standards a few years back, dreaming of rallying the people and sweeping their king from his throne. That didn&#39;t happen, and the king&#39;s men drove them into the uplands - but then his armies were called away by troubles on the border, and the rebels have been here ever since, lurking in the forested valleys, unable to return home while they are regarded as enemies of the crown. Initially many of the local communities supported them, but with each year that passes the &#39;contributions&#39; they level on the nearby villages looks more like simple theft, and they are well on their way to degenerating into a mere bandit gang with a fancy flag. Their leader is a charismatic aristocrat who has discovered, somewhat to her own surprise, that she much prefers her new life as a terrifying bandit queen to her old life as an admired and accomplished young noblewoman. Her spiritual advisor, a saintly healer-priest, is quite besotted with her, and continues to insist on the obvious righteousness of their cause even as their grand rebellion declines into mere brigandage.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;5: &lt;/b&gt;High in these hills stand isolated villages, whose inhabitants practise a syncretic faith that combines the local state religion with worship of their ancestors. Each family traces its lineage back to one of a set of founder-heroes, to whom they maintain household shrines - a practise that has repeatedly got them into trouble with the religious authorities, who regard them as borderline-heretical and mistreat them accordingly. Their men are famous for their courage in battle, claiming their bravery comes from the knowledge that their ancestors are watching over them. The most closely-held secret of these villages is that their ancestors really &lt;i&gt;are &lt;/i&gt;watching over them, having gained a ghastly immortality from deals struck with a dark spirit of the desert: by day they sleep beneath their ancient burial mounds, but at night they squirm from the cracks of the ground to watch over their descendants from afar. After so many years the ancestors have become bestial and barely-human, with wild eyes, claw-like nails, and tough, fibrous flesh covered only by their black and matted hair. They are a mad and bloodthirsty bunch, but their descendants are fiercely devoted to the &#39;grandparents&#39; who have protected and watched over them for so long. Only the elders of each community are entrusted with knowledge of the hidden burial grounds where the ancestors &#39;live&#39;, and are charged with keeping them supplied and placated with offerings of blood.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;6: &lt;/b&gt;These rocky, forested hills were once inhabited only by solitary trappers and hermits, but the lands upon which they border are now ruled by a cruel lord who overburdens his subjects with conscription and taxation. Driven to desperation, a growing number of people have simply abandoned their old lives and fled into the woods, joining fledgling communities nestled in remote valleys where they hope the lord&#39;s men will never find them. They have acquired a protector of sorts in the form of a malfunctioning clockwork warrior with bladed wings, who was unwisely revived from deactivation by another local ruler, and promptly mutinied when it was unable to match its current circumstances with the memories recorded in its fractured mechanical mind. Paranoid and unhinged, this automaton assumes any soldiers it sees have been sent to recapture it, and murders any who trespass into its domain - a fact which has so far stymied the local lord&#39;s efforts to reclaim his errant subjects. He is growing increasingly irate about this, and has offered large bounties for anyone capable of destroying this mysterious defender of the woods.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;7: &lt;/b&gt;Officially these hills are the site of one of the local ruler&#39;s hunting lodges, &lt;i&gt;and nothing else.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;Secretly, however, he also maintains a hidden prison here, in a low, mossy fort concealed by screens of trees. Here he stashes those inconvenient individuals whose disappearance he has deemed desirable, who are dragged to the prison by night and kept in ignorance of its location. They are watched over by snarling semi-human guards, who have been alchemically modified by the king&#39;s enchanters to ensure their ferocity and remove their ability to speak. Here many people are held who are generally believed to be dead, including high-status individuals implicated in a recent rebellion (see 4).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;8:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Half of an ancient castle clings to a mountainside, here - the other half lies smeared and tumbled across the slope below, having been toppled in an earthquake centuries before. Once the seat of some ancient tyrant, it is now the home of an exiled magician, banished from her homeland for dealings with unholy beings who promised her knowledge and power - an opportunity whose loss she still very much regrets. Since taking up residence here she&#39;s managed to refurbish the flying stone skull-throne that belonged to the castle&#39;s original owner, an airbourne symbol of power and terror that has allowed her to convince the inhabitants of the surrounding villages that she&#39;s a terrible witch whose wrath must be placated with offerings of food, herbs, and flowers. Although amoral in the pursuit of knowledge, she&#39;s otherwise a decent enough sort, and far from the fearful hag the villagers imagine her to be, even if her years of living in isolation are making her increasingly eccentric...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;9:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Long ago, this mountain was partially hollowed out by a now-fallen empire as the resting place of its most honoured dead. Whole sections of the complex have collapsed over the centuries: what remains is accessible only by clambering through ancient elevator shafts, and is still defended by &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/remnants-of-nameless-empire-more.html&quot;&gt;zomborg&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;guardians, who stand watch over endless rows of ancient, embalmed corpses in broken glass cases. Few were buried with much treasure, but the halls are an antiquarian&#39;s paradise, and the cumulative value of all those rings and earrings and belt buckles is considerable. In the uppermost part of the complex the embalmers themselves still rest in cryosleep, though various freezer malfunctions over the centuries has turned their brains to mush: if revived they will mostly come lurching from their chambers crazed and screaming, some of them brandishing still-dangerous cybernetic limbs. Only one of them, an apprentice embalmer wearing a protective amulet gifted to him by his sorcerer uncle, is really reviveable alive and sane, though he will be utterly distressed to learn that his civilisation has fallen while he slept.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;10:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Beneath this mountain lies a great vault, built to contain the egg of the Great Worm. At some point after the fall of the civilisation that built it, the egg hatched, giving birth to a vast, blind worm-god crawling endlessly around its prison. At some point after &lt;i&gt;that &lt;/i&gt;a band of luckless refugees chose the wrong cave in which to seek shelter, and ended up being converted into &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/remnants-of-nameless-empire-more.html&quot;&gt;worm cultists &lt;/a&gt;by the psychic radiation of the monster-god below. Now they and their worm-man followers labour endlessly to dig their way through the innumerable tons of rubble that lie between them and their buried god: already they have dug close enough that anyone descending into the lower workings will be enveloped in the dreams of the Great Worm, a hallucinatory dream-world of alien jungles that the Worm recalls through ancestral memory, but has never actually seen. The cultists have unearthed many relics of the ancient world in the course of their excavations, and will eagerly trade these for sturdy pickaxes and shovels if the opportunity arises. Vulnerable travellers who are unable or unwilling to hook them up with good shovel suppliers will be abducted and dragged down below instead, where the Great Worm&#39;s psychic radiation will progressively transform them into worm cultists as well.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/1342572451387684462/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/03/more-encounters-from-city-of-spires.html#comment-form' title='9 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/1342572451387684462'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/1342572451387684462'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/03/more-encounters-from-city-of-spires.html' title='More encounters from the City of Spires: the uplands'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMhCPQIW5kKODt-jTGWhkIJgeb5LhEGJTMiW_c03wnQ99TFMHFFdg1sU7VnyhI8zcGlamT9tyFcoRunhmXBnS7SyGWPNp_n5DoOK-Vic_5oH6njf9biSKG9UpoZJ15LSn3n6_WhxflZRhb3KLJRz4KdTdFMxzC_LE7UmkfEfWQJAWL7C0viRFaiyJ0ow=s72-w251-h371-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>9</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-2904086323305915688</id><published>2022-03-06T15:31:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2022-03-06T15:56:32.811-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="MANLINESS"/><title type='text'>Gender and 1990s comic books 4: Witchblade</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Fourth and possibly last in this series, depending on whether I can muster the energy to do posts on any of &lt;i&gt;Kabuki,&amp;nbsp;Dawn, Aphrodite IX, &lt;/i&gt;or &lt;i&gt;Fallen Angel.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;This one&#39;s just on gender, as&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Witchblade&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;had little interest in race beyond the usual 1990s surfeit of honour-obsessed Yakuza assassins. Previous posts on &lt;i&gt;Shi, Warrior Nun, &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/thats-what-shi-said-race-gender-and.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/race-gender-and-1990s-comic-books-2.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/race-gender-and-1990s-comic-books-3.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She&#39;s mostly forgotten now, but there was a time when &lt;i&gt;Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;was a pretty big deal. Her comic ran for 185 issues, or 230-ish if you count the spin-offs and crossovers. It appeared monthly from 1995 all the way up to 2015: a run that dwarfs those of most of its competitors. &lt;i&gt;Witchblade&lt;/i&gt; quickly became the tentpole of the &#39;Top Cow&#39; comics universe, relegating older characters like &lt;i&gt;CyberForce &lt;/i&gt;to the status of mere supporting cast. It had a manga series (2007-8) and an anime series (2006) and a two-season live action TV show (2001-2). And it provided a launchpad for Croatian artist&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Stjepan Šejić, who illustrated dozens of issues of &lt;i&gt;Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;and its spin-offs between 2007 and 2013 before achieving online fame for his heartwarming lesbian BDSM romance comic, &lt;i&gt;Sunstone &lt;/i&gt;(2014).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In later years, the creators of&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Witchblade&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;were very open about the fact that they came up with her because&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Shi&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Lady Death&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;were the most successful characters in comics at the time, and they wanted a piece of the &#39;bad girl&#39; action for themselves. However, unlike the other comics I&#39;ve discussed in these posts,&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Witchblade&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;was initially written by an actual woman, namely Christina Z, who wrote the first 39 issues. Its gender politics weren&#39;t as in-your-face as those of&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ghost,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;but it was still pretty clearly about the difficulties of wielding female power in a world built on male violence and female victimhood.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyRLYnDAkOKl_vvnQ8bJnTWXxQmwItR1sGkmJtVckZAhNqQyYuanHgBFYgnevqqcE0SrZ-h9k8DWZuoHL6mw4qFG1TY9jOponTRblGlA_3TGHeh4xzorIDcxDr2BA_16Vlv_MZGSxhwpLmimSRhtm-UcuxfPCpvo13Mycw3gHz6tPoUNV9zdS83fDezA&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;671&quot; data-original-width=&quot;465&quot; height=&quot;357&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyRLYnDAkOKl_vvnQ8bJnTWXxQmwItR1sGkmJtVckZAhNqQyYuanHgBFYgnevqqcE0SrZ-h9k8DWZuoHL6mw4qFG1TY9jOponTRblGlA_3TGHeh4xzorIDcxDr2BA_16Vlv_MZGSxhwpLmimSRhtm-UcuxfPCpvo13Mycw3gHz6tPoUNV9zdS83fDezA=w247-h357&quot; width=&quot;247&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;As the Witchblade armour shreds Sara&#39;s white ballgown, her empowered (and sexualised) &#39;bad girl&#39; identity rises from the ruins of her &#39;good girl&#39; femininity.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Witchblade&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;had two opening plot arcs. The first arc - issues 1-8 - tells the story of Kenneth Irons, billionaire, sorcerer, and all-around embodiment of patriarchal power. Irons is obsessed with the Witchblade, an ancient gauntlet which grants great power to its wielder... but all of its previous wielders have been women, and any man who tries to wear it ends up maimed or dead. When it merges with NYPD detective Sara Pezzini, Irons choreographs a series of events to try to compel her to yield it up to him, in a not-very-subtle allegory for the way in which powerful men manipulate women into giving up the power that is rightfully theirs. Sara resists and reclaims the Witchblade, and Irons apparently falls to his death.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The second arc - issues 9-14 - tells the story of Dannette Boucher, Irons&#39;s wife, who is basically a metaphor for the ways in which women become complicit in misogynistic power structures. Abjectly devoted to Irons, Dannette allowed him to experiment with implanting fragments of the Witchblade into her body, wilfully blind to the fact that he sees her sacrifices only as a means to enhance his own power. By the time he&#39;s done with her she&#39;s a monstrous mutant freak who constantly builds up power within herself, power that she can only get rid of by discharging it into other people, cooking them to death in the process. Realising that she&#39;s going to need a steady stream of victims, she demonstrates her internalised misogyny by setting up a modelling agency that keeps her supplied with desperate young women, whom she treats the same way Irons treated her: as disposable fodder. Sara hunts her down and reabsorbs her power into the Witchblade, killing her.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Both stories set Sara up as a kind of champion of her gender, against the cruel men who seek to steal the power of women and the abject women who help them do it. The Witchblade, as its name implies, is the symbol of her power &lt;i&gt;as a woman. &lt;/i&gt;(Pop-feminist Wiccan neopaganism was everywhere in the mid-1990s.) It connects her to a lineage of female resistance stretching back through time, embodied by all the previous women who carried the Witchblade in other times and places - a fairly obvious metaphor for the project of feminist history, which at the time was very invested in excavating histories of &#39;inspiring&#39; women who could act as heroines and role models for new generations of girls. Interestingly, similar &#39;lineage&#39; scenes - in which heroines have visions of all the &lt;i&gt;previous &lt;/i&gt;women who have wielded the same power they currently hold - appear in both &lt;i&gt;Magdalena &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Warrior Nun Areala. Buffy, &lt;/i&gt;with its conceit that the power of the Slayer has passed from one woman to another throughout history, represented a minor variation on the same theme.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1KCE2Avu_EeHtIisGV-Ga7fml3345Dc59rJu8LFVXR3kcifmCV73h3F2Yq2I8X2ViC4g7WKyVxRzI5qlpBsDtQzBCzxcb7FNJ4MqGRjNakE9ngQoAEwk1LBemGqq-gZmUfNOhGX-2pFQiUiHXXLSQP0tcPuInJcR1jwIVyxvsQhnO3ogDgsiueLYF-w&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;589&quot; data-original-width=&quot;699&quot; height=&quot;318&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1KCE2Avu_EeHtIisGV-Ga7fml3345Dc59rJu8LFVXR3kcifmCV73h3F2Yq2I8X2ViC4g7WKyVxRzI5qlpBsDtQzBCzxcb7FNJ4MqGRjNakE9ngQoAEwk1LBemGqq-gZmUfNOhGX-2pFQiUiHXXLSQP0tcPuInJcR1jwIVyxvsQhnO3ogDgsiueLYF-w=w377-h318&quot; width=&quot;377&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what qualifies Sara to wield the Witchblade, when most women and all men fail to do so? Simple: she&#39;s just stronger and braver and tougher than pretty much everyone else. She tells an anecdote at one point about how, when she was young, some boys encouraged her to climb a wall, and halfway up it she realised that they hadn&#39;t really done it because they wanted to see her climb: they&#39;d just wanted to look up her skirt. She responds by climbing so far above them that their lustful leering is replaced by awe. But the limitations of this as a methodology of liberation are fairly obvious: it only works because Sara is stronger and braver than the boys who seek to humiliate her. That&#39;s great for her - but what about everyone else? What about all the girls who only possess average levels of strength and courage, the ones who will never be chosen by the Witchblade as its wielders?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sara frequently expresses contempt for women too weak to walk her path, including her own mother and sister. She scolds Dannette for allowing herself to become a victim, declaring: &#39;Unlike you, I&#39;m not&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;stupid&lt;/b&gt;. I&#39;m not going to&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;blame&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;my&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;plight&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;on some man who screwed me over. I refuse to let anyone,&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;man&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;or&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;woman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;or&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;object,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;decide&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;my&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;fate.&#39; (Dannette, as she lies dying, replies brokenly: &#39;I&#39;m sorry, Sara. I wish I could have been as strong, as independent, as you.&#39;) The comic is thus led towards a kind of &#39;Great Woman Theory of History&#39;: advancement comes through the actions of a series of heroines, women badass enough to take on the patriarchal weight of history and kick the shit out of it. Ann Bonney is named as a previous wielder of the Witchblade, and so is Joan of Arc. Everyone else just sort of cowers and waits for the next heroine to come along.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjA0fwwIRLz1jPyNHfuhiPVMjsajd5dhBLmKQ-DwjEGBXp_HPMx5j0LFw2uUPaiR4-iCLf41PSFHpd3k5tb8rCL3M6bOctuRE4vMy4DXLI2uKavsAGJkRjoawsQcyT_hX8aLPQVgJerhynYDxuYH6r-uRz_WMlfbcska0lh8ddHCb_WlyhBDRxKAcIEYg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;871&quot; data-original-width=&quot;979&quot; height=&quot;304&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjA0fwwIRLz1jPyNHfuhiPVMjsajd5dhBLmKQ-DwjEGBXp_HPMx5j0LFw2uUPaiR4-iCLf41PSFHpd3k5tb8rCL3M6bOctuRE4vMy4DXLI2uKavsAGJkRjoawsQcyT_hX8aLPQVgJerhynYDxuYH6r-uRz_WMlfbcska0lh8ddHCb_WlyhBDRxKAcIEYg=w342-h304&quot; width=&quot;342&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Sara as phallic woman, from Witchblade #1.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even more than&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ghost, Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;thus&amp;nbsp;celebrates a version of femininity which wins power by being more masculine than the actual men. Sara Pezzini&#39;s only emotion is anger, her only mood is &#39;pissed off&#39;, and her only problem-solving technique is violence. Her favourite movie is &lt;i&gt;Dirty Harry,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;she loves guns, she idolises her detective father, and when her partner is murdered she refuses to do anything as girly as talking to a counsellor: instead she works out her grief in true macho style, through boxing practise at the gym. However, whereas &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;pairs its aggressive heroine with calmer, kinder men - &#39;beta heroes&#39;, as they were called in the romance literature of the time, before the internet poisoned the term beyond usefulness - &lt;i&gt;Witchblade, &lt;/i&gt;like most female-authored media, pairs its alpha heroine with a man who is &lt;i&gt;even more alpha than she is.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Enter Kenneth&#39;s personal enforcer, Ian Nottingham, a sexy bad boy so over the top that only a woman would ever have written him. He has knee-length black hair and a British accent and he catches bullets with his bare hands and cuts cars in half with katanas. Ian actually &lt;i&gt;does &lt;/i&gt;wield the Witchblade for a while, despite his gender - probably because, like most male love interests written by women and unlike the ultra-macho Kenneth, Ian actually has quite a lot of femme traits, including physical and emotional vulnerability, a history of abuse at the hands of patriarchal authority figures, and a tendency to wear floor-length gowns and pose with pink roses. Ultimately, though, even a gender-fluid man isn&#39;t woman enough to handle the Witchblade, and it is to Sara that it always finally returns.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh83aI0Fk79yfb-3vLdApaSFSomhjTOhSwbG5HjmSuUz4IXz30fJukxMOIed4mwpvruOpUTOQWbQp-byMRKMJW96RhpO1sHA-uWCmiWvV9RZ-IxouGOzQWq3eXd2zDzRL_p2kpj2E7lTE_-iwwwkZbb7AkxnI6S99HjqdCedG4zfW-JAY_J-EgJqJHTig&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;641&quot; data-original-width=&quot;441&quot; height=&quot;361&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh83aI0Fk79yfb-3vLdApaSFSomhjTOhSwbG5HjmSuUz4IXz30fJukxMOIed4mwpvruOpUTOQWbQp-byMRKMJW96RhpO1sHA-uWCmiWvV9RZ-IxouGOzQWq3eXd2zDzRL_p2kpj2E7lTE_-iwwwkZbb7AkxnI6S99HjqdCedG4zfW-JAY_J-EgJqJHTig=w248-h361&quot; width=&quot;248&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Apparently Ian&#39;s pay is &#39;a high seven-figure salary and access to Irons&#39;s vast laser disc collection&#39;. Adorkable.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;is also notable for being much &lt;i&gt;kinkier &lt;/i&gt;than its competitors. The whole &#39;bad girl&#39; genre owed its existence to the fact that, in those innocent days, internet pornography had not yet become ubiquitous, meaning that there was still a market of horny adolescent boys willing to pay two or three dollars a month for comic books full of pictures of mostly-naked ladies. &lt;i&gt;Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;provided fan service in spades: every time Sara activates the Witchblade it rips her clothes up, providing endless excuses for her partial nudity. (Later writers dialled this up to absurd extremes.) But it also repeatedly featured tableaux of men and women in bondage gear or fetish fashion, and depicted Ian and Kenneth&#39;s relationship as &lt;i&gt;deeply &lt;/i&gt;homoerotic and sadomasochistic: in one scene Kenneth even dresses Ian up in chains and a rubber gimp suit for a spot of water torture. Sadomasochism, of course, also structures Kenneth&#39;s relationship with Dannette, Dannette&#39;s relationship with her victims, and even Kenneth&#39;s relationship with the Witchblade itself, which is explicitly described as an abusive relationship in which the more the Witchblade hurts him, the more he desires it. Even Sara&#39;s triumph over Kenneth has a sado-masochistic edge to it, as Kenneth pleads with her to show him the full power of the Witchblade by hurting him as badly as she can. Sara refuses, which reminds me of the old joke: Sacher-Masoch meets De Sade in hell. &#39;Torture me!&#39; begs Sacher-Masoch. De Sade thinks for a moment and then says: &#39;No.&#39;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcl41ItlBphDzqXhlzQcR_WkASFwFri6SA-23vbbVUdA586LCGbX4DKLkPhICEEoPcZr6E9G10HcZ5lUNRPALJ_Ptiaghr1NKNKkr2SyGwwCWn0RtPITL-JCousllfxyF-vac7jLmzWTGNEtNQ2mreUT9pYk_zD1232_NIy1-DiadEs6LZOXF7gJ7Mgw&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1103&quot; data-original-width=&quot;499&quot; height=&quot;387&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcl41ItlBphDzqXhlzQcR_WkASFwFri6SA-23vbbVUdA586LCGbX4DKLkPhICEEoPcZr6E9G10HcZ5lUNRPALJ_Ptiaghr1NKNKkr2SyGwwCWn0RtPITL-JCousllfxyF-vac7jLmzWTGNEtNQ2mreUT9pYk_zD1232_NIy1-DiadEs6LZOXF7gJ7Mgw=w176-h387&quot; width=&quot;176&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Ian Nottingham: assassin, anti-hero, gimp.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;As a result, while they feature relatively little actual sex, Christina Z&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;comics are much more sexually charged than, say, &lt;i&gt;Shi. &lt;/i&gt;She&#39;s clearly interested in the inseperability of sex, power, and violence, and in the way that Kenneth, Ian, and Sara are all attracted to one another &lt;i&gt;precisely because &lt;/i&gt;they keep trying to kill one another. She also has a much more grown-up understanding of what it feels like to be fascinated with someone else&#39;s body, as in the scene where Sara borrows Kenneth&#39;s coat and finds herself thinking about the warmth and strength of his body inside it. Sadly the art doesn&#39;t back her up on this, remaining fixated on busty women in revealing clothing to the virtual exclusion of all other forms of eroticism, although it did feature a surprising number of hot guys in bondage for a comic so clearly marketed at heterosexual boys.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;After the first fourteen issues, Christina Z&#39;s run carried on for another couple of years. She started lots of new plot threads - a cult, a conspiracy, Ian&#39;s backstory, Sara&#39;s childhood traumas - but never resolved any of them, and her run ultimately just trailed off into nothing. After that the comic passed into the hands of other authors and dissolved into stream-of-consciousness fanservice gibberish for a while, before going to David Wohl, who upped the fanservice even further but also tied up most of the dangling plot threads left over from Christina&#39;s run. Finally it went to Ron Marz, who wrote &lt;i&gt;Witchblade&lt;/i&gt; from 2004 all the way to its final demise in 2015. Marz professionalised the comic: he gave it a consistent tone, cut back on the nudity and nonsense plotting, and tried hard to elevate it above its trashy &#39;bad girl&#39; roots. But he also masculinised it, ditching Ian in favour of some generic &#39;nice guy&#39; hunk, and dropping any attempt to engage with gender politics.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLk_yK58HJPtMfbaAmkp2ms-UyiJmPD9nbdqoFm4w7Xu4wh-SsMii5KjQx_1y06sDN9FBtWACPId_JZufBczmEbD4mpjO_JEMhUhLay9x2-o-6xqBhq6q9e9JLwH_ZJXTAfMvpKpJNv1P0BC5qA43EhQAVhnnsP4P8B52_lsPBmg7HoT0rXH3bNgk_Sw&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;627&quot; data-original-width=&quot;999&quot; height=&quot;271&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLk_yK58HJPtMfbaAmkp2ms-UyiJmPD9nbdqoFm4w7Xu4wh-SsMii5KjQx_1y06sDN9FBtWACPId_JZufBczmEbD4mpjO_JEMhUhLay9x2-o-6xqBhq6q9e9JLwH_ZJXTAfMvpKpJNv1P0BC5qA43EhQAVhnnsP4P8B52_lsPBmg7HoT0rXH3bNgk_Sw=w431-h271&quot; width=&quot;431&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;I can&#39;t really claim that &lt;i&gt;Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;is a good comic. Its art is amateurish compared to that of &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;or &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;or &lt;i&gt;Kabuki, &lt;/i&gt;and the writing is mostly pretty weak. Its &#39;solutions&#39; to the social problems that it identifies are not exactly sophisticated: when &lt;i&gt;Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;had a crossover with &lt;i&gt;Darkminds &lt;/i&gt;in 2000, it takes the more emotionally intelligent Nakiko just a few pages to realise that the Witchblade&#39;s all-violence-all-the-time methods ultimately mark it out as just another abuser, and that what its wielder &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;needs is a supportive female friend and a good hug. But for its first 14 issues &lt;i&gt;Witchblade&lt;/i&gt; is at least an &lt;i&gt;interesting &lt;/i&gt;comic, worthy of note for the way in which both its author and its heroine struggle to find ways of using the &#39;bad girl&#39; formula to assert themselves within a male-dominated world. That their answers are necessarily imperfect does not lessen the significance of the fact that they asked the questions in the first place!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/2904086323305915688/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/03/gender-and-1990s-comic-books-4.html#comment-form' title='14 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/2904086323305915688'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/2904086323305915688'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/03/gender-and-1990s-comic-books-4.html' title='Gender and 1990s comic books 4: Witchblade'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyRLYnDAkOKl_vvnQ8bJnTWXxQmwItR1sGkmJtVckZAhNqQyYuanHgBFYgnevqqcE0SrZ-h9k8DWZuoHL6mw4qFG1TY9jOponTRblGlA_3TGHeh4xzorIDcxDr2BA_16Vlv_MZGSxhwpLmimSRhtm-UcuxfPCpvo13Mycw3gHz6tPoUNV9zdS83fDezA=s72-w247-h357-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>14</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-5439993268211397721</id><published>2022-02-24T04:05:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2022-04-08T03:32:45.953-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="City of Spires"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Desert"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><title type='text'>More encounters from the City of Spires: the desert</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;A year ago I posted tables of&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/02/72-encounters-from-city-of-spires.html&quot;&gt;72 encounters from the City of Spires&lt;/a&gt;, as a convenient means of recycling material from my ongoing campaign into something that other people might find gameable. As the game is&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;still going on&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;(and now approaching the two-and-a-half year mark, or five and a half if it&#39;s considered as an extension of the previous Team Tsathogga campaign set in the same world), I thought it was probably time for an update.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since taking over their city the PCs have been spending more and more time in the outlying wildernesses, so I&#39;m going to be doing three 1d10 encounter tables, one for each of the three biomes they&#39;ve been most active in. This post covers the desert. Feel free to roll on them next time you need to stock a random hex!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNqF-P_lnLXK7kD7akO_vbLLhEbsn5e9NxMxe7dbKLtg2JgLTJBbjHLWaiBax3lZrxmqMyJ6e5pUb4qTJYedO6XmM4AtaS40AAOo1dv39JZ96ZhN0I0J09uB89Lin1__NYvA771ZaulA0Z8pXKC0ZX0fRBJPi0OQ5EzaIboCZCnLYz-izwlnNCityrHw&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;779&quot; data-original-width=&quot;581&quot; height=&quot;357&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNqF-P_lnLXK7kD7akO_vbLLhEbsn5e9NxMxe7dbKLtg2JgLTJBbjHLWaiBax3lZrxmqMyJ6e5pUb4qTJYedO6XmM4AtaS40AAOo1dv39JZ96ZhN0I0J09uB89Lin1__NYvA771ZaulA0Z8pXKC0ZX0fRBJPi0OQ5EzaIboCZCnLYz-izwlnNCityrHw=w267-h357&quot; width=&quot;267&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Deserts&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;b&gt;1:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Desert expanse roamed by nomad pastoralists, who travel between watering holes with their herds of goats, sheep, camels, and horses. Harsh experience has taught them to live in dread of the evil spirits of the desert, to whose wicked deeds they attribute all their misfortunes. A thriving market in protective charms, spells, and talismans exist among them, and the clans compete fiercely over those rare men and women believed holy enough to protect them from the devils of the wastes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;2:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;A trade road winds alongside the wadi here, watched over by linen-swathed desert giants, ten feet tall, leaning on gigantic spears. They are few in number and serve a human king, acting as his shock troops and honour guards, and demanding a toll from all who pass. The king&#39;s palace stands nearby, an ancient building divided awkwardly into human-scale and giant-scale areas. The giants are long-lived and more loyal to the palace than the man who rules it, transferring their loyalties each time it changes hands with little more than a shrug of their colossal shoulders.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;3:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;City built by the side of a wide, shallow oasis, surrounded by stands of date palms and overgrown with sedges. The people of the city are famous for the manufacture of papyrus: in the heat of the day they sleep, and conduct much of their business by night, in streets lit by innumerable papyrus lanterns. Their ruler is a once-vigorous man, now sinking swiftly into indolence. In the dusty caravanserais the traders mutter that the desert clans no longer fear him, and that their demands grow more outrageous every year.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;4:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Here the desert clans have been driven from their watering holes by an aggressive race of diminutive lizard folk, who came surging suddenly out of the desert and have since been conducting excavations of certain long-abandoned buildings of baked brick that lie nearby. Their diggings have revealed walls painted with ancient frescoes, depicting beautiful androgynous figures dancing between pillars of fire. The lizardfolk are mute, and exactly where they came from and what they are looking for remains deeply unclear. The nomads who claim these lands would very much like them to be driven back into the wastes from whence they came.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;5:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;A ruined city deep in the desert, raised up on a rocky plateau. In its central plaza a holy fire burns eternally, huge and hot enough to burn a man to ash. Any who come here are met by a white-robed spirit who asks if they come as pilgrims: any who say no are driven from the city by swarms of mute, dwarfish lizardfolk (see 4) who come pouring from the ruins to aid her. If they affirm that they&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;are&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;pilgrims then she will ask which of them is the celebrant: whomever is chosen will then be invited to step into the flame and be burned to death, so that their fellow pilgrims may ritually partake of their charred remains in the name of her god, whose name is both Fire and Hunger. Anyone who actually goes through with the whole ghastly rite will win the favour of her ancient divinity. A being of pure ritual, the spirit&amp;nbsp;is easily confused by anyone who goes off-script, and quick-thinking PCs may be able to capitalise on this in order to escape.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;6:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Desolate dunes roamed by&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/11/desert-monsters-from-city-of-spires.html&quot;&gt;desert zombies&lt;/a&gt;, dehydrated animated corpses with flames flickering in their hollow eye sockets. They guard the lair of an undead sorceress, whose body animates only in darkness: in the light she is merely a corpse, clad in tattered crimson rags. During the day she lies buried beneath the sands, her tame bone worm coiled around her, but when night falls she and her mount rise up to resume their unholy work. In life she was a great architect, and knows many secrets of the famous palaces and temples of the world, their hidden tunnels and concealed chambers, having been responsible for designing many of them herself. Now she seeks the resting place of an ancient god once revered in these lands (see 5), confident that she would be able to tap its power for her own purposes if only she could build a temple over it in&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;just the right way...&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;7:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Dusty hilltop ruin encircled by bandit camps. The bandits chased a bunch of wizards in there a while back, and have been keeping watch on the ruins ever since to make sure they don&#39;t sneak out again. They haven&#39;t gone in after them because the wizards, in desperation, activated the slumbering stone golems with which the ruins are littered: now they cower in the ruins of the very manufactory in which the golems were once mass-produced, relying for protection on the ancient ward-lines that once kept them out of the manager&#39;s offices. The wizards have no way of controlling the golems, which now randomly attack anyone entering the ruins, though they&#39;re very much hoping to come up with one before they all starve to death...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;8:&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;Oasis city ruled by an aristocracy with ash-grey skin, marking them out at a glance from the general populace, who have normal dark-brown skin tones. Each year, the city&#39;s emir makes ritual offerings to the spirits of the oasis to ensure the prosperity of his city. He claims to enjoy the favour of the spirits, and those who defy him are dragged off into the night by the Misery Men: anonymous enforcers with jet-black eyes, their presence announced by a cold, damp smell like the bottom of a half-dried well. Among the people, mentioning (or even acknowledging the existence of) the Misery Men is believed to incur extreme misfortune. The remains of an immense rusted tank by the side of the oasis suggest that something was once contained here, although whatever it was must have leaked into the oasis long ago... (No further details - my PCs haven&#39;t got to the bottom of this one, yet!)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;9:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Wasteland haunted by clawed, burrowing humanoid scavengers the colour of charred meat, who sense tremors through the earth and dig their way up to sieze unwary travellers by night.&amp;nbsp; Though savage and feral, they are smaller than men and do not like to attack except by ambush. The smell of cooking meat will attract them from miles away, and a funeral pyre will bring them in swarms. If killed the bones within them are found to be black and charred, as though burned by some terrible fire, and are filled with cinders where their marrow should be.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;10:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;The desert clans shun this region, roamed as it is by damaged but still-functional obsidian warriors, huge and mighty and almost-indestructible. Beyond them, in the heat-haze, can be glimpsed the bulk of an immense structure half-buried in the desert sands, its walls riven in ages past by some unimaginable violence. Sometimes the wind carries strange sounds from this building - distorted voices, hollow booming, the scrape of metal on stone - but since the fall of the cult of he whose name is both Fire and Hunger (see 5), none have successfully run the gauntlet of the obsidian warriors to discover what lies within... (No further details on this one - my PCs haven&#39;t been inside!)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/5439993268211397721/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/more-encounters-from-city-of-spires.html#comment-form' title='5 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/5439993268211397721'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/5439993268211397721'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/more-encounters-from-city-of-spires.html' title='More encounters from the City of Spires: the desert'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNqF-P_lnLXK7kD7akO_vbLLhEbsn5e9NxMxe7dbKLtg2JgLTJBbjHLWaiBax3lZrxmqMyJ6e5pUb4qTJYedO6XmM4AtaS40AAOo1dv39JZ96ZhN0I0J09uB89Lin1__NYvA771ZaulA0Z8pXKC0ZX0fRBJPi0OQ5EzaIboCZCnLYz-izwlnNCityrHw=s72-w267-h357-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-8452134529721035447</id><published>2022-02-19T08:44:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2022-02-19T08:44:59.837-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Literalised metaphors"/><title type='text'>Race, gender, and 1990s comic books 3: Ghost</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Malcolm Svensson asked for more of these, so blame him for this. Previous posts on &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Warrior Nun Areala &lt;/i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/thats-what-shi-said-race-gender-and.html&quot;&gt;here &lt;/a&gt;and &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/race-gender-and-1990s-comic-books-2.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;was part of the same wave of comic book action heroines that gave rise to &lt;i&gt;Warrior Nun &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Shi. &lt;/i&gt;She slightly predates them both, first appearing in 1993, but her story proper began with the 1994 &lt;i&gt;Ghost Special: &lt;/i&gt;her comic was then published almost-monthly by Dark Horse until 2000. Like &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;she appeared in 65-odd issues overall, but her stories were much less fragmented, tending towards long-arc storytelling reminiscent of the better sort of 1990s genre TV rather than a staccato rattle of throw-away miniseries. This post is mostly about the first 36 issues, which were written by Eric Luke.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjIrF4q6e5SJPbYVwg9SagarxrWKZc2p1dCHsbOSAKDzpEme3RqgPQ6ma25y67W7t4jjxfLnc5TbH1CX1So8oU6BrHI_7ZbgDKqk6K3HgxS-jVI3PdNr7q0qh8w3L19LuO_EVqru-4yVR2Xw6cRNW5PJwHU6pKhuxn05NLskcr1TlDkOlGzwrK1L_z0og&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;576&quot; data-original-width=&quot;482&quot; height=&quot;319&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjIrF4q6e5SJPbYVwg9SagarxrWKZc2p1dCHsbOSAKDzpEme3RqgPQ6ma25y67W7t4jjxfLnc5TbH1CX1So8oU6BrHI_7ZbgDKqk6K3HgxS-jVI3PdNr7q0qh8w3L19LuO_EVqru-4yVR2Xw6cRNW5PJwHU6pKhuxn05NLskcr1TlDkOlGzwrK1L_z0og=w266-h319&quot; width=&quot;266&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Warrior Nun, &lt;/i&gt;Luke&#39;s run on&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;is a story about wielding female power in a male-dominated world. Like them, it was written by a man; but unlike them, it initially took an openly and confrontationally feminist stance. Especially in its early issues, its heroine, Elisa Cameron, is very blunt about why the world is such a mess: it&#39;s because men are cruel, violent, and selfish, addicted to the power they wield over women, and her solution is to take them down one headshot at a time. Her targets are embodiments of exploitative patriarchal power structures: pornographers who pressure reluctant women into sex work, cult leaders who use religion to amass harems of female followers, sexually predatory businessmen who exploit their female employees, and cruel misogynists who get off on hurting and humiliating women. The cure is always the same: .45 calibre death.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These days, people often get anxious about who has the right to tell which stories. There are certainly parts of &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;that I suspect would have been done differently if it had been written&amp;nbsp;by a woman: it can be a very male-gaze-y comic, with quite a lot of gratuitous female nudity, and it does feature an awfully large number of rape monsters. (In a particularly blunt bit of symbolism, at one point Elisa destroys a whole nest of rape-demons with the aid of a bottle of oestrogen.) At other times, though, Luke&#39;s perspective can be a positive asset: he clearly sympathises with the rage and pain of women, but he also understands something important about the ghastly force of male desire, depicted here not as some kind of accidental and easily fixable social quirk but as something horrible, primordial, and endlessly destructive. It doesn&#39;t always work, but when it does it&#39;s powerful stuff.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEHC3WTJLvTLvKWIoEXFJmvEdMZpFsZ67XgvUEbWeD-z2TMOhIIN1QAhLueHmqQK0jB2kQaLxuP7w7yevFLDbw-866L1GvkhLHsY-sdJiZASBCIj9U86BvdwRhxTNxeGG687CxmC2k6pIlVBqfHPpxbQcQXYh8QJtdVHgHy-kBUZZdTrWfArL86hLc7g&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;665&quot; data-original-width=&quot;837&quot; height=&quot;390&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEHC3WTJLvTLvKWIoEXFJmvEdMZpFsZ67XgvUEbWeD-z2TMOhIIN1QAhLueHmqQK0jB2kQaLxuP7w7yevFLDbw-866L1GvkhLHsY-sdJiZASBCIj9U86BvdwRhxTNxeGG687CxmC2k6pIlVBqfHPpxbQcQXYh8QJtdVHgHy-kBUZZdTrWfArL86hLc7g=w490-h390&quot; width=&quot;490&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;has a superb hook: a woman wakes up amnesiac, invisible and intangible in a bathroom, concludes she must be a ghost, and decides to solve the mystery of her own death. As following the trail leads her to one scene of injustice after another, she becomes not just a ghost but a vengeful revenant, cutting a bloody swathe through the evildoers who plague the city of Arcadia. She&#39;s terrifyingly powerful: she can control the tangibility of both her own body and whatever she&#39;s currently touching, allowing her to, for example, render her bullets solid while her body remains untouchable, or to grab someone, ghost them, push them inside a wall while they&#39;re intangible and weightless, and then let go, causing them to die messily as they rematerialise inside a solid object. But even though she can kill almost anyone, she&#39;s a complete outsider when it comes to the hidden power structures of the city. It takes her twenty-five blood-soaked issues to gradually murder her way to the truth about what is actually going on in Arcadia, and even longer to solve the mystery of her own origins.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Given the level of carnage that gets meted out in every issue, with Elisa regularly mowing down whole rooms full of men at a time, the comics very wisely make no attempt to present Arcadia as a credible American city, the kind of place where ordinary people might live and work and raise families. Exaggerated urban decay was standard in comics of this era, but Luke&#39;s run on&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;goes much, much further, depicting Arcadia as a Gothic Art Deco hellscape of perpetual night: a kind of stylised Film Noir nightmare world in which violence is omnipresent, life is cheap, and everyone is either a criminal or a victim. (The artwork of Adam Hughes in the early issues does a great deal to define Arcadia&#39;s visual identity in this respect.) Several of Elisa&#39;s battles involve the destruction of entire city blocks, but no-one seems to care, or even really notice. Apparently Arcadia is the kind of place where a demon can crash a blimp into a skyscraper and everyone will just shrug and get on with their day.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhydrQB_s03zHHatbDoZ4SrpUvQSkBbNURcvqqi_0eb6c4FMMU4pYmWa3n3wyrx6xeYBoVnte8ZibRO0eBlBAZoi1oSZEUX6DUnpaf_GBCD9sQepfk9Hw1iDJjnuog7L2tTisvPDp50XPJ7XLbtW5iGp-4bM8qh_kzLb97Ipbmka46wDW8CphNmcEz3_A&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;614&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1023&quot; height=&quot;258&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhydrQB_s03zHHatbDoZ4SrpUvQSkBbNURcvqqi_0eb6c4FMMU4pYmWa3n3wyrx6xeYBoVnte8ZibRO0eBlBAZoi1oSZEUX6DUnpaf_GBCD9sQepfk9Hw1iDJjnuog7L2tTisvPDp50XPJ7XLbtW5iGp-4bM8qh_kzLb97Ipbmka46wDW8CphNmcEz3_A=w430-h258&quot; width=&quot;430&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The airships and the Art Deco architecture, like the 1940s fashions that so many of the male characters seem to wear, serve to anchor&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;more in the world of pulp fiction than that of conventional superheroics. Elisa&#39;s costume owes as much to 1940s &#39;good girl&#39; art as to modern superhero design, and when it&#39;s revealed that the city of Arcadia was originally built by a GLOBAL CRIME CONSPIRACY as cover for an UNDERGROUND CRIME CITY built around a SECRET CRIME MACHINE - a plotline that wouldn&#39;t have been out of place in &lt;i&gt;Doc Savage &lt;/i&gt;- it feels like a logical extension of what&#39;s come before, rather than a random asspull. (In fact, my reaction on reading the relevant issue was: &#39;OK, that explains &lt;i&gt;so much &lt;/i&gt;about this place...&#39;) Elisa&#39;s twin .45 pistols are an obvious homage to &lt;i&gt;The Shadow, &lt;/i&gt;but whereas the pulps &#39;explained&#39; crime in terms of individual psychopathy or racial degeneracy, &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;depicts it as an expression of masculinity gone berserk. A city of phallic towers ruled over by violent, abusive criminals is, for &lt;i&gt;Ghost,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;the logical result of a society in which men think less with their brains than with their dicks.&lt;/p&gt;By far my favourite part of &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;is the way that it plays on the symbolism of this &#39;nightmare city&#39; material. Elisa frequently waxes lyrical about her sense of connection to the city, the way that she experiences it as her shadow or reflection, and this connection works on at least two levels. On a personal level the city is a reflection of Elisa herself, mirroring her pain and trauma back at her: it&#39;s full of crime and violence because &lt;i&gt;her mind &lt;/i&gt;is full of crime and violence, meaning that these are the only parts of the city she is capable of seeing. But on a collective level &lt;i&gt;she &lt;/i&gt;mirrors &lt;i&gt;it: &lt;/i&gt;she&#39;s the &lt;i&gt;city&#39;s &lt;/i&gt;ghost, the composite ghost of Arcadia&#39;s innumerable anonymous victims, risen from their graves and back for blood. (Her amnesia means that she identifies less with the person she once was than with the city in general.) There&#39;s an awful lot of as-above-so-below symbolism: Elisa literally has a version of the city inside her head that she uses for teleportation purposes, while the &#39;real&#39; city outside is terrorised by a demon who escaped from Elisa&#39;s subconscious, a demon who embodies everything that she hates and fears about men. When it turns out that, for example, Arcadia is the way it is because it is inhabited by a giant psychic envy monster whose tendrils grow inside the walls of every building, or because it is secretly ruled by a man with the psychic power to induce suicidal despair, these figures are simultaneously wholly symbolic and entirely literal. This wasn&#39;t new ground: back in 1989, Morrison&#39;s brilliant &lt;i&gt;Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth &lt;/i&gt;had already made explicit that Gotham is Batman, Arkham Asylum is Batman&#39;s head, and all Batman&#39;s fights with his villains double as metaphors for his struggles with his own worst urges and deepest fears. But it&#39;s still pretty well done, and the moment where Elisa is given the key to the city by a hundred-year-old PSYCHIC CRIME SOLDIER and rises up into the sunlight, finally transcending her own inner darkness, had me grinning from ear to ear.&amp;nbsp;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXaDm4jlHbSEl9j4nNlZ_5PaOvH1VuyFggZKuQ6VpCDtyUZ9_eucRCi9hpEG7OO5KoG2LgI7qCKW1ZaOICk9CRBPaFdlOpMBv1UxMr-mGWezyPBQGSIgMD9lpuVqhblwIxQtlhRgYoKjdHKanq-5TKhKVpzTQiUC8ZDfbwBXbqHiysnu6Q8HHlL2PX7A&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;606&quot; data-original-width=&quot;612&quot; height=&quot;354&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXaDm4jlHbSEl9j4nNlZ_5PaOvH1VuyFggZKuQ6VpCDtyUZ9_eucRCi9hpEG7OO5KoG2LgI7qCKW1ZaOICk9CRBPaFdlOpMBv1UxMr-mGWezyPBQGSIgMD9lpuVqhblwIxQtlhRgYoKjdHKanq-5TKhKVpzTQiUC8ZDfbwBXbqHiysnu6Q8HHlL2PX7A=w357-h354&quot; width=&quot;357&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As the comic goes on, and Elisa faces down her literalised inner demons one after the other, she gradually mellows out. She goes from avenger of the dead to champion of the dispossessed, toning down her anti-male rhetoric as she does so. In some ways I found this a bit of a disappointment, as the earlier issues gain a lot of their strength from the clarity of Elisa&#39;s feminist anger, but it obviously came as a relief to many of the comic&#39;s male readers, who were writing in from very early on expressing their hopes that Elisa would calm down and realise that &lt;i&gt;#notallmen &lt;/i&gt;are rotters. It also allows her to gradually escape the &#39;strong female character&#39; box she&#39;s initially trapped in, within which - like many other 1990s antiheroines - the only way to be strong and female is by actually embracing a kind of parodic ultra-masculinity, communicating entirely through violence and feeling no emotions other than rage. (See the earlier issues of &lt;i&gt;Witchblade &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Fallen Angel &lt;/i&gt;for more examples of the type.) All Elisa&#39;s complaints about the stupidity of male violence, and the absurdity of men clinging to their guns to compensate for their own sense of inadequacy, look a bit hypocritical when her own go-to problem solving technique is &#39;shoot everyone to death forever&#39;. It&#39;s thus probably for the best that she&#39;s ultimately able to develop beyond it, tapping into empathy as well as rage, even if the comics do lose some of their edge as she does so&lt;i&gt;.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The elephant in the room is the way that Elisa&#39;s militant feminism collides with the very male-gazey fanservice of the art direction. Elisa may talk like a particularly angry Riot Grrl, but she dresses like a showgirl - much to the perplexity and irritation of the comic&#39;s female readers, who quite reasonably wanted to know why its man-hating heroine insisted on fighting in high heels. Nor was she alone: this was a comic that featured a &lt;i&gt;lot &lt;/i&gt;of fanservicey character designs and nearly-naked women, including supposedly &#39;empowered&#39; characters like Mindgame, a female psychic whose teammates apparently couldn&#39;t come up with a better way to keep her from injuring herself during her trances than tying her up in leather bondage gear, complete with a ball-gag. At times this lends the comic a queasy sense that it&#39;s trying to have its cake and eat it: Elisa gets to take down creepy misogynist villains like Hunger and Reverend Scythe, but only after the reader&#39;s had a good chance to ogle at the debasement of their female victims, who very frequently include Elisa herself. Some of this may have been editorial mandate, based on the desire to drive sales - the editor admitted to having been the one behind Elisa&#39;s footwear choices, for example - and one reader mournfully wrote in to describe&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;as &#39;a well-written comic [...] that can only survive by the grace of the lead character&#39;s cleavage&#39;. But it remains an uncomfortable fit for a series whose heroine holds a special contempt for pornographers, and who repeatedly critiques the way that media objectifies women. In issue 30 a villain demands that Elisa engages in a &#39;sexy nurse&#39; striptease for him, a process that she finds so degrading and destructive to her sense of self that she freaks out and shoots him, instead. But as he himself points out, he&#39;s not asking her to do anything all that different to what her costume does for her every issue.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEir4VSfgQ8m7WH8tbxALkHwjpYA0NAC5E5YVZ-yq_mh21wbMQg719DlVHq5TeLDNC7ON4qgGgtCjkf7eYYbTAmLr8iruaWGdoPPeToIDz2_7j4ZKHh6XSdQLUvd6wzTSprFWeQpJXGuGaWsCWSdFaDVmZHcB7Oe4-GPMy4-P4iQTIZugQiT7DXwr0pKbA&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1667&quot; data-original-width=&quot;542&quot; height=&quot;532&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEir4VSfgQ8m7WH8tbxALkHwjpYA0NAC5E5YVZ-yq_mh21wbMQg719DlVHq5TeLDNC7ON4qgGgtCjkf7eYYbTAmLr8iruaWGdoPPeToIDz2_7j4ZKHh6XSdQLUvd6wzTSprFWeQpJXGuGaWsCWSdFaDVmZHcB7Oe4-GPMy4-P4iQTIZugQiT7DXwr0pKbA=w173-h532&quot; width=&quot;173&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, Dark Horse assigned a female staff member, Debbie Byrd, to answer the letters columns for most of Luke&#39;s run on&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ghost, &lt;/i&gt;making very clear that they did so because they wanted the comic to have a female &#39;voice&#39;. Debbie steadfastly defended the comic&#39;s feminist politics, and sometimes poked fun at it&#39;s sillier aspects (like Elisa&#39;s costume), but her role sometimes put her in the awkward position of also having to defend things that didn&#39;t make much sense, like the issue in which Elisa is magically able to defuse an apparently hopeless situation by kissing another woman. (The amount of lesbian queerbaiting in 1990s comics was &lt;i&gt;incredible.&lt;/i&gt;) Her position, as a woman defending a woman written by a man, feels somehow symbolic of the whole situation. &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;was a comic that supported women in every way other than letting them actually draw or write it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Race-wise, Elisa inhabits a world that is, for the most part, as snowy-white as her costume - probably partly because it takes so many of its cues from 1940s film noir, where non-white people scarcely exist. On the plus side, this meant that the reflexive Orientalism that ran rampant through so many contemporary series is absent here, and Arcadia may well have the lowest ninja-to-civilian ratio in all of 1990s comics. Interestingly, though, one of Elisa&#39;s closest allies - and the man who first starts her on the road to wondering whether not &lt;i&gt;all &lt;/i&gt;men are bastards - is King Tiger, an Asian martial arts mystic who assists her many times over the course of her story. Despite his decency and ethnicity he&#39;s &lt;i&gt;not &lt;/i&gt;desexualised, prompting one Asian female&amp;nbsp;reader to write in in issue 29:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote style=&quot;border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;And thank God, finally, an Asian-American superhero (Okay, so he still does the stereotypic Asian mystic stuff). And he gets the girl, too!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It all makes a welcome change from the endless sexy Japanese ninja girls with whom most other &#39;bad girl&#39; comics at the time were overrun. Sadly, King Tiger - like most of the comic&#39;s character&#39;s - got thoroughly wrecked when &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;changed hands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Eric Luke&#39;s run on &lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;lasted for one special plus 36 issues, of which issues 1-25 were the best. After that it passed into the hands of other writers, who ditched everything that made the comic distinctive, including its feminist themes and its Deco-Gothic aesthetics. Soon it was just another &#39;action girl&#39; comic book, full of boobs and gunfire, signifying nothing. But for a few years at the start it was genuinely something pretty special.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Next in line: &lt;i&gt;Witchblade!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/8452134529721035447/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/race-gender-and-1990s-comic-books-3.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8452134529721035447'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8452134529721035447'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/race-gender-and-1990s-comic-books-3.html' title='Race, gender, and 1990s comic books 3: Ghost'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjIrF4q6e5SJPbYVwg9SagarxrWKZc2p1dCHsbOSAKDzpEme3RqgPQ6ma25y67W7t4jjxfLnc5TbH1CX1So8oU6BrHI_7ZbgDKqk6K3HgxS-jVI3PdNr7q0qh8w3L19LuO_EVqru-4yVR2Xw6cRNW5PJwHU6pKhuxn05NLskcr1TlDkOlGzwrK1L_z0og=s72-w266-h319-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-5772754118872565661</id><published>2022-02-04T16:55:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2022-02-04T16:55:28.706-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Actual Play"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Early Modern"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="General-purpose musings"/><title type='text'>Drunken incompetent regional magnates: the purpose of aristocracies</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;First up, a brief announcement: the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/896102915/knock-issue-three&quot;&gt;kickstarter for Knock! issue three &lt;/a&gt;has now gone live, packed with material from the old-school blogosphere&#39;s finest. It will also have a couple of my articles in it, so if you&#39;ve ever wanted to own a physical copy of my &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/02/when-all-you-have-is-hammer-item-based.html&quot;&gt;d100 problem-solving items table&lt;/a&gt; but couldn&#39;t be bothered to print it out yourself then &lt;i&gt;this is your chance&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Anyway. Something mildly interesting happened in my game this week: the PCs were negotiating with a king to end a civil war, which had started when the king had framed a mostly-innocent nobleman for his own misdeeds. The PCs wanted him pardoned, and suggested that the king should instead pin the blame on a different, more powerful nobleman, who was (a) actually much guiltier and (b) a drunken wastrel whom nobody liked. The king baulked at this, which somewhat confused some of the players. &#39;Isn&#39;t he a drunken incompetent?&#39; one of them asked. &#39;Yes&#39;, I replied, &#39;but he&#39;s a &lt;i&gt;very rich and influential &lt;/i&gt;drunken incompetent!&#39;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The negotiations moved on and a compromise was ultimately reached, but thinking this over I feel there may have been a disconnect between the assumptions that I and (some of) my players were bringing to the table. To them, I think that getting rid of a corrupt lord who was despised by his own people seemed like pure upside, something that should be easily acceptable to everyone who wasn&#39;t him. Whereas my assumption, roleplaying as the king, was that openly moving against a powerful regional magnate - even one he personally disliked - would be something that he&#39;d want to avoid unless he felt that there was absolutely no alternative. This isn&#39;t the first time I&#39;ve felt such a disconnect: in reading discussions of fantasy RPGs and similar online, I&#39;ve sometimes seen the view expressed that pre-modern aristocracies are purely parasitic, something that can be circumvented or done away with without disadvantaging anyone other than the aristocrats themselves. Frequently these seem to be rooted in modern liberal-democratic assumptions that aristocracies are obviously stupid ideas, and that any society that has one would be better off getting rid of it as soon as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgS_RSUcNterGsmYXjwHD4rsM0cw8nBDBsr04rFqxwM6P9XNT_MdMvyc5npV4Y5VBCFCjYF8CpYX_AaeDxvJJn5WT9RhtqnHlqV2Yy-hGY6ohY0PxBpPPwuyWsCBd6web9OWSeKpJ1NjAl93Rx6pSPhP088wCPDa362RPij0Zh8c4FafduD6P_ZZhpZnw&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1357&quot; data-original-width=&quot;800&quot; height=&quot;306&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgS_RSUcNterGsmYXjwHD4rsM0cw8nBDBsr04rFqxwM6P9XNT_MdMvyc5npV4Y5VBCFCjYF8CpYX_AaeDxvJJn5WT9RhtqnHlqV2Yy-hGY6ohY0PxBpPPwuyWsCBd6web9OWSeKpJ1NjAl93Rx6pSPhP088wCPDa362RPij0Zh8c4FafduD6P_ZZhpZnw=w180-h306&quot; width=&quot;180&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Nice throne, but what exactly is the &lt;/i&gt;point &lt;i&gt;of you?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, I myself believe in democracy, and I am very glad that I don&#39;t have to spend my life bowing and scraping to the guy in the castle down the road. But I also think that social forms develop for a reason, and that if most of Europe and Asia kept circling back to social systems built around powerful land-owning aristocrats for thousands of years, then that probably wasn&#39;t just due to some kind of historical accident. When people think of aristocracies, I think they often tend to think of &lt;i&gt;nineteenth-century &lt;/i&gt;aristocracies, lounging in their stately homes, expensive and decorative and mostly useless. But pre-modern aristocracies have a function, one that is not easily circumvented before the rise of the modern state, and understanding this function can help in making settings where all the obligatory dukes and barons and whatnot actually have some reason to exist.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pre-modern life is &lt;i&gt;local. &lt;/i&gt;There are no accurate maps, no accurate census data, no accurate statistics: the only way you can properly learn about a region is by living there, not just briefly but for years on end. Learning who lives where, what they produce, what they trade, understanding the social fabric that connects each family or community to those around it... all this requires specific local knowledge, and there are no shortcuts to acquiring it. Under these circumstances, establishing an effective system of resource extraction (taxation, conscription, etc) is often going to be the work of years, if not of generations. Any thug with an army can ride into a major population centre, steal everything not nailed down, and ride off. But if he wants his power to extend into the woods and the hills, the hamlets and villages, then that thug and his family need to be prepared to settle in for the &lt;i&gt;seriously &lt;/i&gt;long haul.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is the service that the local lord provides. If they&#39;ve been there for long enough, he and his relatives will have wound their tendrils &lt;i&gt;deep &lt;/i&gt;into all the prominent local families, bought off or intimidated all the local village &#39;big men&#39;, and learned through a grim process of trial and error roughly what kind of tax burden can be extracted from the region without actually triggering famine and/or revolt. He&#39;s probably been hunting and hawking in the area his whole life: he knows where to find all the hidden villages nestled deep in the forests, the ones that will never appear on any official map. His family&#39;s grip on the area will often have been decades if not centuries in the making. If you just banish them and install someone else then it might take a long, &lt;i&gt;long &lt;/i&gt;time before his successors are able to exploit the region with anything like the same success.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjwj6HpeLr_qLzpIBeQv9mz1jKwddKGqnA3K7hBezxAPeKbo_-7PndG6Vn3sli8VLEXbeg44WU8p-fTto6sYor6xKVeV-qkItn6qSfqmd5z032HsSWfo207-YZWtpoLpbw8K96UtuQtszlmssekomkrlvaBz_wvdRsopK7iJ1hGoEQ8gVD805dzvxVtmQ&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;706&quot; data-original-width=&quot;440&quot; height=&quot;364&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjwj6HpeLr_qLzpIBeQv9mz1jKwddKGqnA3K7hBezxAPeKbo_-7PndG6Vn3sli8VLEXbeg44WU8p-fTto6sYor6xKVeV-qkItn6qSfqmd5z032HsSWfo207-YZWtpoLpbw8K96UtuQtszlmssekomkrlvaBz_wvdRsopK7iJ1hGoEQ8gVD805dzvxVtmQ=w228-h364&quot; width=&quot;228&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Thus I have made myself&amp;nbsp;INDISPENSABLE!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And above the local lord is the regional magnate, who is playing the same game one level up. As the local lords work their hooks into the local clans and prominent&amp;nbsp;village families, so the magnate works &lt;i&gt;his &lt;/i&gt;hooks into the local lords, gradually establishing a network of family ties and legal dependencies and bribes and threats and traditions and alliances that allow him to tap them for resources, and to call upon their aid in times of war. The whole system is intensely local and intensely personal: it&#39;s &#39;I know a guy who knows a guy&#39; all the way down. A really well-entrenched regional magnate can run his domain like a petty king: the royal court can issue laws and proclamations, but the court is far away, and royal power can only extend out into the regions via networks of local intermediaries. In the little hilltop towns that the king has never heard of, the law is usually whatever the local lord says it is.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a result, for a king to antagonise one of his regional magistrates is a really big deal. That magnate stands at the head of a patronage network that reaches all the way down into miserable, marginal settlements that only a few outsiders even know how to find, and alienating him - or alienating his family by executing or banishing him - risks disrupting the functioning of government across a whole chunk of the kingdom. Dispossessing his whole family and installing someone else could easily be even worse: while they&#39;d presumably be loyal to you, it might take decades for their replacement to get a proper system of leverage up and running to replace the one you&#39;ve just destroyed. (Remember, all of this is personal - a matter of &#39;you owe my brother a favour&#39; or &#39;my cousin married your sister&#39; or &#39;our grandfathers served together in the war&#39; - and so none of it is straightforwardly transferable to a new candidate.) And of course there&#39;s always the risk that the offended magnate (or his family) will simply storm off and rebel, relying on their remote strongholds and local support networks to keep them safe. You&#39;ll probably win the resulting civil war - you&#39;re the king, after all - but winkling them out of their distant castles is probably going to be a slow and bloody business, and exactly the kind of thing that rival kings love to take advantage of if given half a chance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So when the PCs in our session this week proposed to King Bahir that he should sacrifice Lord Maruf, I think that what they &lt;i&gt;meant &lt;/i&gt;was &#39;You&#39;re the boss, so why don&#39;t you pin this whole mess on this under-performing middle manager?&#39; But what I, in character as the king, &lt;i&gt;heard &lt;/i&gt;was: &#39;Hey, that guy whose family network you rely upon to hold down the northern provinces and the border lords? The one whose people know how to extract tax revenue and conscript soldiers from the upland villages around the domains of the Broken One? He&#39;s expendable, right?&#39; The fact that King Bahir personally disliked Lord Maruf was beside the point. He just couldn&#39;t afford to take that kind of hit unless he really had to.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Luckily, in the end the party circumvented the whole issue by staging an illusionary wizard battle in a desert instead!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgOClmGwP5h1iqgcUsNmVRE4qC27eGpIv4ckVwhHRWACL010T-FOCFZsUukLaUT4NLzTmTkPWH8tgx1pBf6m_9ctH-pFuPxfxW50vIKCOqQllLd1hgovtFgFsSKGw10i5KM8a-VHWpb10Y_ZL-g3w_u5MpGC4YUOgM9tR1P_k2GKcfgP4b0iPxkRSumAg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;736&quot; data-original-width=&quot;736&quot; height=&quot;328&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgOClmGwP5h1iqgcUsNmVRE4qC27eGpIv4ckVwhHRWACL010T-FOCFZsUukLaUT4NLzTmTkPWH8tgx1pBf6m_9ctH-pFuPxfxW50vIKCOqQllLd1hgovtFgFsSKGw10i5KM8a-VHWpb10Y_ZL-g3w_u5MpGC4YUOgM9tR1P_k2GKcfgP4b0iPxkRSumAg=w328-h328&quot; width=&quot;328&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/5772754118872565661/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/drunken-incompetent-regional-magnates.html#comment-form' title='33 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/5772754118872565661'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/5772754118872565661'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/drunken-incompetent-regional-magnates.html' title='Drunken incompetent regional magnates: the purpose of aristocracies'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgS_RSUcNterGsmYXjwHD4rsM0cw8nBDBsr04rFqxwM6P9XNT_MdMvyc5npV4Y5VBCFCjYF8CpYX_AaeDxvJJn5WT9RhtqnHlqV2Yy-hGY6ohY0PxBpPPwuyWsCBd6web9OWSeKpJ1NjAl93Rx6pSPhP088wCPDa362RPij0Zh8c4FafduD6P_ZZhpZnw=s72-w180-h306-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>33</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-4141772294789395014</id><published>2022-02-01T13:25:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2022-02-01T13:25:56.700-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Religion"/><title type='text'>Race, gender, and 1990s comic books 2: Warrior Nun Areala</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;&quot;&gt;[Advance warning: this post will probably be of interest to no-one but myself and a handful of pop culture historians.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;&quot;&gt;Researching my post on &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/thats-what-shi-said-race-gender-and.html&quot;&gt;Shi &lt;/a&gt;involved a bit of reading around it, into the weird, spine-twisting world of 1990s &#39;bad girl&#39; comic books. It didn&#39;t take long for another one to catch my attention - in this case Shi&#39;s close contemporary in the surprisingly crowded field of &#39;fanservicey&amp;nbsp;1990s&amp;nbsp;comic book Catholic martial artist superheroines&#39;, namely&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Warrior Nun Areala.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;I promptly read something like one hundred issues worth of nunsploitation superheroics, and now stagger back to report my findings.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHDBC9wIcymjDrFe89U3fn6HTjoNN9QWqg-7qvJvGg-IyxcX_xue21KN654M2RnnAIeBzYzp8I4Gvl9EZxNaF26AHbzGE4lkeu8m2-saZsyzzZmQCxQNv2dCoyhMmy0W5LA260SoHE_a04KkCvqfUMKZZMKxKn37nVjyBdeMWy_Nsu5CPZ44F-_c-GGw&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;485&quot; data-original-width=&quot;227&quot; height=&quot;450&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHDBC9wIcymjDrFe89U3fn6HTjoNN9QWqg-7qvJvGg-IyxcX_xue21KN654M2RnnAIeBzYzp8I4Gvl9EZxNaF26AHbzGE4lkeu8m2-saZsyzzZmQCxQNv2dCoyhMmy0W5LA260SoHE_a04KkCvqfUMKZZMKxKn37nVjyBdeMWy_Nsu5CPZ44F-_c-GGw=w210-h450&quot; width=&quot;210&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;Anti-Pope Sixtus VI, punching through walls one-handed like a total boss.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;&quot;&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;&quot;&gt;Shi&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;&quot;&gt;and WNA debuted in the same year, 1994, and in many ways they are&amp;nbsp;mirror images. Both are drawn in manga-influenced styles, and both are&amp;nbsp;action heroines in revealing outfits who jump around a lot while hitting people with swords. Both flirt with &#39;bad girl&#39; iconography, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;while actually depicting their heroines as completely morally upright and sexually chaste.&amp;nbsp;But whereas&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Shi&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;was an Asian heroine created by a white American artist fascinated by Japanese Buddhism, Areala was a white heroine created by a Taiwanese-American artist&amp;nbsp;fascinated&amp;nbsp;by Roman Catholicism; and while&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Shi&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;had aspirations to artistry, sophistication, and moral seriousness, WNA was gleefully trashy from the outset.&amp;nbsp;Ana angsts endlessly over how to reconcile her violence with her religious morality. Areala just yells &#39;HAIL MARY!&#39; and then beats everyone up.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Here’s the concept: it’s the eleventh century, and Vikings are ravaging Europe. Belatedly noticing that the warriors she watches over spend most of their time&amp;nbsp;brutalising&amp;nbsp;helpless civilians, the Valkyrie Auria has an ‘are we the baddies?’ identity crisis and converts to Roman Catholicism. She then spots an unarmed nun being pursued by Vikings, and merges her spirit with her own, creating a new, composite, superpowered being: Warrior Nun Areala. Areala slaughters the Vikings, achieves sainthood, and proceeds to found a secret order of all-female Catholic demon-hunters, the Warrior Nuns.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigevvYf1SiLVZ6eO26--bRmby7faiLUrb1tPi9-jp-p-k0ZrBGzGj6HdfppuK9zrsmvmX64DA3sL_uSyNfpmuK5iazkoF--fIiHTr1DzC-GXc1U72AF0S4QCUqszgEHVyhjZn0OOvDPnzSRKs0BfpN1dBsS2wRs3Q3B7C1O_g2BX9nLhwNkwGt_9BLjQ&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;929&quot; data-original-width=&quot;795&quot; height=&quot;437&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigevvYf1SiLVZ6eO26--bRmby7faiLUrb1tPi9-jp-p-k0ZrBGzGj6HdfppuK9zrsmvmX64DA3sL_uSyNfpmuK5iazkoF--fIiHTr1DzC-GXc1U72AF0S4QCUqszgEHVyhjZn0OOvDPnzSRKs0BfpN1dBsS2wRs3Q3B7C1O_g2BX9nLhwNkwGt_9BLjQ=w373-h437&quot; width=&quot;373&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;The story then cuts forward to the 1990s, by which point there has been no noticeable demonic activity for decades and the Warrior Nuns are viewed as something of an obsolete embarrassment by the Vatican. Newly-qualified Warrior Nun Shannon Masters is sent out to New York… just in time for a demonic invasion of the city led by an immortal ancient Roman Satanist arms dealer named Julius Salvius, who plans to use his army of cyber-demons to TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Shannon tries to stop him and gets splattered, but as she lies dying she has a vision in which Saint Areala merges with her, healing her wounds and granting her superhuman prowess. (Oddly enough, the Trinitarian echoes here – Areala as Mother, Shannon as Daughter, Auria as Holy Valkyrie Spirit – are never discussed or explored.) Declaring herself to be Warrior Nun Areala reborn, Shannon proceeds to defeat Julius and saves the world. Then she hangs around in New York to beat down any other demons who turn up.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;This concept could have been used as the basis for a serviceable urban fantasy series, and indeed several subsequent writers tried to use it to tell &#39;serious&#39; urban fantasy stories, usually with poor results. But Dunn&#39;s original series leans&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;deeply&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;into high camp. Shannon is trained by a cyborg nun named Mother Superion. Her&amp;nbsp;nun-fu fighting style involves yelling things like &#39;VIRGIN KICK!&#39; and &#39;ROSARY ATTACK!&#39; while hitting people. (And, yes, her rosary beads explode on impact.)&amp;nbsp;Her original Warrior Nun costume has&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;three&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;cleavage windows. (It gradually became more&amp;nbsp;sensible over time.)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;At one point she is attacked by a wooden golem who communicates entirely in anagrams of &#39;Warrior Nun Areala&#39;, and who thus lurches around saying things like &#39;WAR AURA, LEARN IRON&#39; and &#39;I RAN A RUNE WAR&#39;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;The colours are bright and the visuals are cartoonish and the whole thing has a slightly amateurish air that reassuringly implies no-one involved in the comic was taking things too seriously. And the characters communicate in &#39;dialogue&#39; like this:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote style=&quot;border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&quot;YOU STUPID NUNS!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;AGAIN&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;I WIN! YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT THE FORCES OF HELL! HA! HA! HA! HA!&quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;(And then his plane explodes.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGD8U_9X4jCTqQKZS9kGs9Q5einiP_QKs1Ydeo-K3vNJ8lD9N8h5FQ2Ki-dt1JjqgZ7ucQhlU10cslTLhbj4LqPFRscl7MOBehv7tAU_vH2MJYjklxT_zS3jkDKE8FxLGwr1qxD1m9fzRY_7QeblL5XJAg1aN08d4jMymNt75gFp8Vpo2oV0x3G0O7YA&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1049&quot; data-original-width=&quot;939&quot; height=&quot;501&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGD8U_9X4jCTqQKZS9kGs9Q5einiP_QKs1Ydeo-K3vNJ8lD9N8h5FQ2Ki-dt1JjqgZ7ucQhlU10cslTLhbj4LqPFRscl7MOBehv7tAU_vH2MJYjklxT_zS3jkDKE8FxLGwr1qxD1m9fzRY_7QeblL5XJAg1aN08d4jMymNt75gFp8Vpo2oV0x3G0O7YA=w450-h501&quot; width=&quot;450&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;It&#39;s also obvious that Ben Dunn is a massive D&amp;amp;D nerd. Demons answer to &#39;lord Orcus&#39;, describe inferior demons as &#39;low-level lemures&#39;, refer casually to conflicts between &#39;demons&#39; and &#39;devils&#39;, and describe Earth as being on &#39;the Prime Material Plane&#39;. One character is referred to as &#39;a level 5 Magic Priest&#39;, who went missing while &#39;battling a type 7 demon&#39;.&amp;nbsp;At one point, the demon princess Lillith is even attacked by an&amp;nbsp;armoured&amp;nbsp;Catholic priest who introduces himself as &#39;THE CLERIC!&#39; (She kills him one panel later.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Even though&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Shi&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;was a higher-profile property at the time, WNA had a lot more comics - 120ish vs 65ish over the same ten-year period - probably because Ben Dunn&#39;s Antarctic Press was a much more efficient comic-producing company than Billy Tucci&#39;s Crusade Fine Arts, which seems to have existed in a perpetual state of crisis.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;These are mostly filled with inconsequential adventures, and endless spin-off mini-series about minor characters: Shotgun Mary, Lillith, Dei, Crimson Nun, Silver Cross, Serina, The Redeemers, etc, etc, etc.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;As with&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Shi,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;however, the core narrative is contained in just a few issues:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Warrior Nun&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;1-3&amp;nbsp;(1994),&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Rituals&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;1-6 (1995),&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Resurrection&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;1-3&amp;nbsp;(1998), and finally issues 9-12 of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Warrior Nun&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;series 3 (1999). Those sixteen issues tell Shannon&#39;s actual story, although frustratingly it cuts off just before reaching its climax: the next issue, &lt;i&gt;Warrior Nun &lt;/i&gt;3:13, time-jumps forwards to introduce a new, younger, Buffy-inspired heroine, leaving the original story unresolved. (Maybe it got wrapped up in series 4? I couldn&#39;t find those.)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;Considered as a stand-alone sequence of sixteen issues, I felt that there was a lot to like about the core story of &lt;i&gt;Warrior Nun. &lt;/i&gt;The first twelve, by Ben Dunn,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;are lurid and campy and fun, fully self-aware of their own silliness: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;it was only when people tried to take it seriously that the whole thing went off the rails.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Both Barry Lyga&#39;s&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Warrior Nun&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;series (1997) and Steve Englehart&#39;s&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Warrior Nun: Scorpio Rose&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;miniseries (1996) tried to use WNA to directly tackle serious themes of&amp;nbsp;institutionalised&amp;nbsp;sexism, racism,&amp;nbsp;antisemitism, and homophobia within the Catholic church, a task to which it was wildly unsuited. They were meant to be character-driven stories about faith and doubt, but&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Shannon herself is essentially a non-character: her whole personality boils down to &#39;be good&#39; and &#39;serve the church&#39;, and whenever they come into conflict the first one always wins.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Her backstory is like that of every D&amp;amp;D character irritated at having to waste time on background that could be better spent adventuring: &#39;I&#39;m an orphan who was raised by paladins to be a paladin so now I&#39;m a paladin. Motivation: be a paladin. Personality: Lawful Good. Now where&#39;s the dungeon entrance?&#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjndCRFbXDFrBAFEajoLzqpbyKTvCTwZRvi_2nEDGjiCEcdAZs8bXJgdFfBfNGjY43gUM6y92-vch3RBPuOTkbDL5jUi4oila6foNDEAWt0wxG8VzEiHKvYDVbgrc6RV3d_njnXy95k7WWkwbQSgnh2MVXq6XEhJP2zlRh3fivL5PxRHlzGwsQaLsqyBg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;872&quot; data-original-width=&quot;380&quot; height=&quot;472&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjndCRFbXDFrBAFEajoLzqpbyKTvCTwZRvi_2nEDGjiCEcdAZs8bXJgdFfBfNGjY43gUM6y92-vch3RBPuOTkbDL5jUi4oila6foNDEAWt0wxG8VzEiHKvYDVbgrc6RV3d_njnXy95k7WWkwbQSgnh2MVXq6XEhJP2zlRh3fivL5PxRHlzGwsQaLsqyBg=w206-h472&quot; width=&quot;206&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;There&#39;s nothing inherently wrong with being a non-character if you&#39;re in the right kind of story. Secondary series protagonist Shotgun Mary exemplifies this: she&#39;s an ex-nun with a motorbike and a shotgun who rides around America shooting demons in the face. That&#39;s it: that&#39;s her&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;entire life.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Some of the Shotgun Mary stories are almost abstract in their pure simplicity: cultists do cultist stuff until the demons show up, and then the demons do demon stuff until Shotgun Mary shows up, and then Shotgun Mary shoots everyone in the face and the story ends. (It appears to be a fundamental law of the Warrior Nun universe that all problems can be solved by Shotgun Mary shooting them in the face.)&amp;nbsp;It&#39;s more like a dance than a story. And because of that absolute simplicity, when a complication&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;is&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;added - as with the rather touching revelation of Mary&#39;s homosexuality in&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Shotgun Mary: Blood Lore&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;(1997) - it can actually&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;work.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Whereas the writers who worked on WNA in 1996-9 kept trying to write about Shannon as though she was an actual&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;character,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;and she just&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;wasn&#39;t,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;and it never really came together.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Ideologically, WNA clearly wanted to have its communion wafer and eat it, too. In one sense, Shannon is an exemplar of 1990s &#39;Girl Power&#39; pop-feminism: heroic, capable, near-invincible in battle, and frequently shown to be right while her male superiors are wrong. At the same time, she&#39;s a &#39;good girl&#39; who willingly subordinates herself to patriarchal religious authority, and never objects to the assortment of ridiculous stripper costumes she&#39;s asked to wear in the line of duty. (It&#39;s Mother Superion, not Shannon, who ultimately insists on a more sensible design.) Like the &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/03/image-archaeology-paladin-girl.html&quot;&gt;Paladin Girls&lt;/a&gt; of whom she is, in a sense, an early example, she&#39;s sexy without being sexually threatening, empowered without being confrontational. (Compare and contrast the&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Ghost &lt;/i&gt;comics written in the same period&lt;i&gt;, &lt;/i&gt;whose &#39;feminist avenger&#39; rhetoric deliberately set out to alienate parts of its male readership.) Shannon&#39;s secretly in love with a priest, Father Crowe, but they&#39;re both sworn to celibacy, and both much too moral to dream of breaking their vows.&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;Judging from their letters columns, other contemporary comic books featuring &#39;strong female characters&#39; - &lt;i&gt;Shi, &lt;/i&gt;for example, or &lt;i&gt;Ghost, &lt;/i&gt;or &lt;i&gt;Kabuki&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;- were extremely proud of the fact that they had female readers who identified with the pain and anger of their heroines. I&#39;m not sure that WNA had any female readers at all.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRCLRKJSB1djpYXiiYVxUyfOBRvvoCcwUvSMTm_Mf-ri8G2Lo8zx9kHNvVyQ_wjalYEU7l5NfoXftK78RhDnIGU4o0gZLlFjGW_V5EUREl0-G02sQLmSJ6IH0dSYQrlYjTlk_85YATdoL7sG8JGHPeKFxRJ-57CdVj6mh3ovMq67SnnOd78tGCQAgXog&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;645&quot; data-original-width=&quot;598&quot; height=&quot;309&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRCLRKJSB1djpYXiiYVxUyfOBRvvoCcwUvSMTm_Mf-ri8G2Lo8zx9kHNvVyQ_wjalYEU7l5NfoXftK78RhDnIGU4o0gZLlFjGW_V5EUREl0-G02sQLmSJ6IH0dSYQrlYjTlk_85YATdoL7sG8JGHPeKFxRJ-57CdVj6mh3ovMq67SnnOd78tGCQAgXog=w287-h309&quot; width=&quot;287&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;What could possibly have driven them all away?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Religion-wise, Dunn took flak from both sides: Catholics wrote in to complain that he was sexualising and trivialising something holy, while atheists and neopagans expressed disgust at his depiction of Catholic militant orders as heroic rather than villainous. Certainly Dunn&#39;s portrayal of the Catholic church was much more positive than that of most other comic books of the era: &lt;i&gt;Magdalena &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Witchblade, &lt;/i&gt;for example, mostly depicted it as a nest of intolerant fanatics and loopy demon cultists. Maybe he absorbed something other than an epic-level nun fetish from his days as a Catholic schoolboy after all...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;&quot;&gt;The most remarkable part of the&amp;nbsp;series came in 2000, when Chris Allen took over as both writer and artist on the main book for four highly impressive issues. Abruptly the story swerves into&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;operatic grandeur, as Satan comes to Earth, Shannon renounces the church, Father Crowe confesses his love, and Auria&#39;s opposite number - the demonic valkyrie Nebelhexa - manipulates the franchise&#39;s greatest villains into breaking open the hidden vaults where the first Pope is locked away, crazed and immortal, deliberately written out of history by his successors. (The true original Pope turns out to be a black man, in a fairly obvious but still effective metaphor for the erasure of black experience from Eurocentric histories.) After dozens of issues worth of plate-spinning, Allen pulls all the narrative triggers at once, and it briefly looks as though the whole franchise is actually going to &lt;i&gt;grow up.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;Sadly, the series got yanked out from under him and soft-rebooted back into perpetual adolescence before he&#39;d even finished his narrative arc.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Thinking about why Allen&#39;s arc worked for me when Englehart and Lyga&#39;s didn&#39;t, I concluded that it came back to the difference between working &lt;i&gt;with &lt;/i&gt;a concept and working &lt;i&gt;against &lt;/i&gt;it. If your form is something that tends naturally towards absurdism, like a nunsploitation superhero comic or the average D&amp;amp;D adventure, then suddenly asking your audience to take it completely seriously usually won&#39;t work, because the premise is at least somewhat inherently ridiculous. But if you just&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;keep turning up the dramatic volume,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;then such stories can often attain a level of weight and significance of their own accord.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;Shannon, like many D&amp;amp;D PCs, has virtually no inner life: she relates to the world purely through action, and as a result she is fundamentally ill-adapted to stories about psychological complexity. What she&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;can&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;do is grand gestures: doomed final stands, dramatic renunciations of allegiance, declarations of secret love. Comic books thrive off that sort of thing. So do D&amp;amp;D campaigns.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;I haven&#39;t seen the recent Netflix adaptation. The 2019 comic book miniseries was pretty good, though!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbmGLAsPbg-Xr32_O3YLElxBOezC_SZpPozTDFML6f0R7eMdj27KvZtS_80sxo3gjGGBAycvhVPZILKPnRptBb4Ejli-j2kAA105ClwU_IBvc7Fwa1HdMegR4fgWCKvHj8md-sZxB6zM3WklMmY3Szf1aNFq4UN8luZjkkbEHSFrkSVt2v33wNs1X3Pw=s1024&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;936&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1024&quot; height=&quot;293&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbmGLAsPbg-Xr32_O3YLElxBOezC_SZpPozTDFML6f0R7eMdj27KvZtS_80sxo3gjGGBAycvhVPZILKPnRptBb4Ejli-j2kAA105ClwU_IBvc7Fwa1HdMegR4fgWCKvHj8md-sZxB6zM3WklMmY3Szf1aNFq4UN8luZjkkbEHSFrkSVt2v33wNs1X3Pw=s320&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/4141772294789395014/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/race-gender-and-1990s-comic-books-2.html#comment-form' title='10 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/4141772294789395014'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/4141772294789395014'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/02/race-gender-and-1990s-comic-books-2.html' title='Race, gender, and 1990s comic books 2: Warrior Nun Areala'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHDBC9wIcymjDrFe89U3fn6HTjoNN9QWqg-7qvJvGg-IyxcX_xue21KN654M2RnnAIeBzYzp8I4Gvl9EZxNaF26AHbzGE4lkeu8m2-saZsyzzZmQCxQNv2dCoyhMmy0W5LA260SoHE_a04KkCvqfUMKZZMKxKn37nVjyBdeMWy_Nsu5CPZ44F-_c-GGw=s72-w210-h450-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>10</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-226157159646883848</id><published>2022-01-27T14:34:00.002-08:00</published><updated>2022-01-27T14:34:59.817-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="OSR"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><title type='text'>Major injuries: what doesn&#39;t kill you makes you stranger</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;In yesterday&#39;s game, one PC was rescued from captivity by the party, but not before undergoing some pretty severe torture. This presented me with a bit of a quandary: having him simply bounce back from such an ordeal after a couple of &lt;i&gt;Cure Light Wounds &lt;/i&gt;spells felt wrong, but at the same time I didn&#39;t want the consequences to feel like a punishment. (The problem with most &#39;lasting injury&#39; rules is that they make you weaker as a consequence for failure, which makes you more likely to fail again in future, which makes you even weaker... realistic, no doubt, but not what most people are looking for in fantasy adventure games!) In order to model what I think of as &#39;comic-book trauma&#39; - the kind where undergoing severe physical suffering makes you&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;different&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;without necessarily making you&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;less capable &lt;/i&gt;- I thus proposed the following off-the-cuff house rule:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgB8ruGFA967Z20e7YM8WddBfC6Kf3uctGxHo9MAbxWskmOepbvTaVu0SA83pkBnSbdBCOz01SOqVHoVb8_ntivi702F6GcRzDQU5mXlFlVLO0Xb7fJBT8nbHDILyx4z1xa_QFCZrDa4Wty9Jd6GysvRbM2pqE7-S9L9HEcwSLCxbDdkMy62aTH3r1U4A&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;260&quot; data-original-width=&quot;220&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgB8ruGFA967Z20e7YM8WddBfC6Kf3uctGxHo9MAbxWskmOepbvTaVu0SA83pkBnSbdBCOz01SOqVHoVb8_ntivi702F6GcRzDQU5mXlFlVLO0Xb7fJBT8nbHDILyx4z1xa_QFCZrDa4Wty9Jd6GysvRbM2pqE7-S9L9HEcwSLCxbDdkMy62aTH3r1U4A&quot; width=&quot;203&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;1:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;When a character undergoes &lt;i&gt;life-changing suffering &lt;/i&gt;(not just a regular injury, but an ordeal so severe that they will never quite be the same again), roll 2d6 of different colours. Declare before rolling which one is the &lt;i&gt;good dice &lt;/i&gt;and which one is the &lt;i&gt;bad dice.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;2: &lt;/b&gt;The &lt;i&gt;good dice &lt;/i&gt;shows how the experience has changed you for the better, as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gain +1 Strength permanently. Your ordeal has left you filled with a slightly crazed fury that drives you to train harder than you have ever trained before.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gain +1 Dexterity permanently. Your experiences have left you jumpy and on-edge, sharpening your reflexes.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gain +1 Constitution permanently. After what you&#39;ve lived through, regular pain and hardship barely even registers anymore.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gain +1 Intelligence permanently. Your experiences have made you hyper-vigilant, determined not to miss anything lest you expose yourself to further suffering.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gain +1 Wisdom permanently. Your sufferings have given you a new perspective on life.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gain +1 Charisma permanently. When your injuries heal, they leave you with the kind of scars that make you look cool and sexy and dangerous.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;3:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;The&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;bad dice&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;shows how the experience has changed you for the worse, as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lose&amp;nbsp;-1 Strength permanently, due to permanent muscle damage.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lose&amp;nbsp;-1 Dexterity permanently, due to permanent nerve damage.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lose&amp;nbsp;-1 Constitution permanently, due to permanent organ damage.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lose -1 Intelligence permanently, due to permanent brain damage.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lose&amp;nbsp;-1 Wisdom permanently, due to lasting trauma and/or derangement.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lose&amp;nbsp;-1 Charisma permanently, due to disfiguring scars.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;4: &lt;/b&gt;If you roll a double, then you&#39;ve somehow passed through your ordeal largely unscathed. In retrospect it probably seems more like a bad dream than something that really happened.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;(Naturally, in yesterday&#39;s session my player rolled a double and the whole thing was wasted, but we might use it again in future...)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Do note that using these rules freely enough will increase the chances of characters drifting towards the extreme ends of the stat distribution range, though this is probably pretty appropriate for people who&#39;ve been through as many extreme experiences as they have!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/226157159646883848/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/01/major-injuries-what-doesnt-kill-you.html#comment-form' title='22 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/226157159646883848'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/226157159646883848'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2022/01/major-injuries-what-doesnt-kill-you.html' title='Major injuries: what doesn&#39;t kill you makes you stranger'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgB8ruGFA967Z20e7YM8WddBfC6Kf3uctGxHo9MAbxWskmOepbvTaVu0SA83pkBnSbdBCOz01SOqVHoVb8_ntivi702F6GcRzDQU5mXlFlVLO0Xb7fJBT8nbHDILyx4z1xa_QFCZrDa4Wty9Jd6GysvRbM2pqE7-S9L9HEcwSLCxbDdkMy62aTH3r1U4A=s72-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>22</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-2496727119823650823</id><published>2021-12-28T16:31:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2022-04-08T03:33:12.047-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="City of Spires"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Monsters"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Underworld"/><title type='text'>Remnants of the Nameless Empire: more monsters from City of Spires</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;More monsters that my players have run into during my current City of Spires campaign. These ones lean further into science fantasy, as one of the key conceits of the campaign is that it&#39;s a fantasy setting built on top of the ruins of an SF setting. The deeper you dig the more likely you are to start running into all the malfunctioning cyborgs and radiation zombies left over from previous ages of the world.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtEV6CDa35LSGPwMx8pK6J5vx5ramKa7Nd3ZjY7z0WGLQFaNXkTankyqDFR0ixA5dy5Be_nR5xb_jMyme4h-h5B9nN9JdZivJc-iwQe6PJ4KNKyyjph3hZo1u_azBlqK5aB7SWoroV0UbWNuQ0QWlzTa3mvyHOACzyljqrvbMw_jOPa056xBmYUjkV7Q=s350&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;350&quot; data-original-width=&quot;280&quot; height=&quot;264&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtEV6CDa35LSGPwMx8pK6J5vx5ramKa7Nd3ZjY7z0WGLQFaNXkTankyqDFR0ixA5dy5Be_nR5xb_jMyme4h-h5B9nN9JdZivJc-iwQe6PJ4KNKyyjph3hZo1u_azBlqK5aB7SWoroV0UbWNuQ0QWlzTa3mvyHOACzyljqrvbMw_jOPa056xBmYUjkV7Q=w211-h264&quot; width=&quot;211&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Worm Cultists: &lt;/b&gt;AC leather, 1-5 HD, damage by weapon, morale 7.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Long ago, the Nameless Empire procured the egg of an alien worm-god for study. At some point after the fall of their empire, this egg hatched, giving birth to the enormous alien monster known as the Great Worm. It remains trapped to this day in the subterranean vault it was originally stored in as an egg, but its dreams and magical radiation are powerful enough to bleed into the world outside.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Worm cultists are those wretched individuals who strayed too close to the Great Worm&#39;s prison, and found their minds overwhelmed by the power of its alien dreams. Compelled by its will, they dig themselves as deeply as they can into the rock and earth that entomb it, bathing themselves in the bizarre radiation that it emits until they are utterly changed, body and soul. Their bodies and limbs become slimy and segmented, studded with bristly hairs that allow them to sense vibrations in the earth and air. They can still just about speak, though their voices sound as though they&#39;re gargling with slime. At the apex of their transformation they tear out their own eyes, their empty sockets becoming hollow, slime-filled pits in what were once their faces. Mortal sight would only be a distraction from their new senses.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;Worm cultists retain human-level in&lt;/span&gt;telligence, though the submersion of their minds in the dreams of the Great Worm tends to make them rather unhinged. They are utterly devoted to the Worm, and work tirelessly to free it from its prison. Their boneless bodies can squeeze through any space wide enough for them to get their heads through, and they can tunnel efficiently through soil and dirt. Their bristling hairs allow them to sense motion, making them hard to evade: they can also instinctively sense radiation, including the background radiation found throughout nature, and can recognise different substances from their differing radiation signatures. They are still blind, however, and cannot easily distinguish between e.g. one human and another unless they hear them speak. Drying out is very painful for them, and they take an additional 50% damage from heat- or fire-based attacks. They prefer to remain in cool, wet, dark locations whenever possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All worm cultists double as priests of the Great Worm, and have the spellcasting abilities of a cleric with levels equal to their hit dice.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiVIfneI2Xs9xinlNNbfrGkJbtBmoGsDrjgZjmjM8k7sflPFkPLxSP8a3nWerq8LLIip691D_NY2vKq4Vm9EPcztCsNm4t6z5cRGez4poC2Xa1n6LltQ1AfKUGHxt_bWldRoEcxmuY3e-52EN0ECVLgtUEeONHKVp4vWNiHS1TIZs_CThrnNlhueJ38Ww=s921&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;854&quot; data-original-width=&quot;921&quot; height=&quot;297&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiVIfneI2Xs9xinlNNbfrGkJbtBmoGsDrjgZjmjM8k7sflPFkPLxSP8a3nWerq8LLIip691D_NY2vKq4Vm9EPcztCsNm4t6z5cRGez4poC2Xa1n6LltQ1AfKUGHxt_bWldRoEcxmuY3e-52EN0ECVLgtUEeONHKVp4vWNiHS1TIZs_CThrnNlhueJ38Ww=s320&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Image by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.artstation.com/artwork/leto-ii-from-dune&quot;&gt;Artur Owsnicki&lt;/a&gt;, after an image by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.deviantart.com/gorrem/art/Leto-Atreides-II-God-Emperor-of-Dune-442480774&quot;&gt;Devon Cady-Lee&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Worm Men:&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;AC leather, 2 HD, damage by weapon, morale 6.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is what worm cultists eventually degenerate into after soaking up too much magical radiation. Their legs atrophy into vestigial stubs, while their arms warp into long, boneless, wriggling tendrils. Any hint of neck or waist disappears: apart from their arms, they now resemble giant segmented worms with distorted human faces at their apex. Their radiation-fried brains are only semi-intelligent, and they cannot speak. They have the same sensory abilities as worm cultists, and are even more proficient as tunnellers, but lack their spellcasting powers. They usually fight with crude clubs or spears.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Worm men are hermaphroditic, and are capable of breeding with one another, though their irradiated state means that their fertility is very low. They instinctively obey worm cultists, who use them as warriors, labourers, and guardians.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMRlS2lwyQE8g0hbSc9csmw-J9LSm9f2z_WHSvpELrgKnVH6xg42pVORe-P7wxZcuDGePyXw-iSir1ldJcPkYMKePT1cv8Jjw4s1ZRKC0HkgSK8uefifftfwYReq-39YoMHgwfhvRo_Xff/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;768&quot; data-original-width=&quot;768&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMRlS2lwyQE8g0hbSc9csmw-J9LSm9f2z_WHSvpELrgKnVH6xg42pVORe-P7wxZcuDGePyXw-iSir1ldJcPkYMKePT1cv8Jjw4s1ZRKC0HkgSK8uefifftfwYReq-39YoMHgwfhvRo_Xff/&quot; width=&quot;240&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Image by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VaBXP&quot;&gt;Patrick Reinemann&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Zomborgs: &lt;/b&gt;AC chain and shield, 3 HD, damage 2d6 (blade hands) or 4d6 (energy blaster), morale N/A.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cybernetic zombies built by the Nameless Empire to guard the resting places of its honoured dead. They resemble embalmed corpses held upright by cybernetic skeletons: their right arms terminate in a variety of blades (to allow them to assist with embalming work), while their left hands have been replaced with short range energy blasters. These blasters require three rounds to reload between shots - zomborgs will try to keep their distance while their blasters are reloading, but if their enemies close with them they will fight with their blade-hands, instead.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Zomborgs sense intruders via motion sensors built into their eye sockets, whose blinking red lights are easily spotted in the darkness of their ruined vaults. They have no other senses, and are oblivious to noises, smells, lights, etc. They have no intelligence beyond their preprogrammed &#39;guard-hunt-kill&#39; and &#39;autopsy-embalm-preserve&#39; routines, and are incapable of learning from experience. (My PCs mostly dealt with them by luring them into traps.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gJF2Iz_z6azDT7PPhW4rpFnTYixOh5K4vjWLuEYPlYuaAzjYy17MCgIzNHfjUn17pbHVn_8TfFeK_EhFfOXa5-k3yse_ZO71NmcI0Prx9RM92TjJ1i8MjSpE0GiztT9mbckkkSCMNiAH/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;295&quot; data-original-width=&quot;236&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gJF2Iz_z6azDT7PPhW4rpFnTYixOh5K4vjWLuEYPlYuaAzjYy17MCgIzNHfjUn17pbHVn_8TfFeK_EhFfOXa5-k3yse_ZO71NmcI0Prx9RM92TjJ1i8MjSpE0GiztT9mbckkkSCMNiAH/&quot; width=&quot;192&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Stranglers: &lt;/b&gt;AC chain, 1 HD, damage 1d4 / 1d4 (2 claws), morale 5.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These hairless subterranean humanoids are a deliberately devolved caste of engineer-slaves created by the Nameless Empire. Their stature is dwarfish, averaging only 4&#39; high, but their bodies are lithe and muscular and they have freakishly long arms ending in long, clever, multi-jointed fingers. They can see in the dark, and underground they are as agile as monkeys, effortlessly climbing and swinging along walls and ceilings. They are capable of squeezing their bodies through narrow cracks like contortionists, and their nests are usually found in spaces only reachable via fissures so narrow that only they can squeeze through them. They possess only animal-level intelligence, but have an instinctive knack for mechanical labour if commanded to undertake it via the correct machine-noise signals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stranglers get their name from their secondary function, which is to protect the areas they inhabit against intrusions from unauthorised personnel, i.e. anyone without the correct subdermal microchips. When they sense intruders into their ruined underground complexes they will creep stealthily down upon them, aiming to sever ropes, douse lights, and otherwise render their victims blind and vulnerable: then they will leap down upon them in chattering swarms and try to claw and strangle the life from them. If a Strangler hits the same target with both claws in the same round it has its hands wrapped around their throat, and will proceed to throttle them for an automatic 2d4 damage per round in place of its normal attacks until either it is defeated or its victim dies. (Obviously, this special attack only works on enemies who have necks and need to breathe.) They attack only from ambush and in packs, and will retreat if faced with determined opposition.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stranglers are usually found in the wreckage of Nameless Empire factories and laboratories, some of which still house semi-functional AIs dozing through the centuries on sleep mode. Explorers who manage to fight their way through the Stranglers and contact such an AI may be able to persuade it to microchip them if they can convince it that they are there on legitimate imperial business, though the AIs may demand that they perform other tasks in return in service of their long-dead empire.&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/2496727119823650823/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/remnants-of-nameless-empire-more.html#comment-form' title='5 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/2496727119823650823'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/2496727119823650823'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/remnants-of-nameless-empire-more.html' title='Remnants of the Nameless Empire: more monsters from City of Spires'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtEV6CDa35LSGPwMx8pK6J5vx5ramKa7Nd3ZjY7z0WGLQFaNXkTankyqDFR0ixA5dy5Be_nR5xb_jMyme4h-h5B9nN9JdZivJc-iwQe6PJ4KNKyyjph3hZo1u_azBlqK5aB7SWoroV0UbWNuQ0QWlzTa3mvyHOACzyljqrvbMw_jOPa056xBmYUjkV7Q=s72-w211-h264-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-4841231421463726011</id><published>2021-12-10T13:54:00.004-08:00</published><updated>2022-01-30T15:29:36.466-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Art"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Comics"/><title type='text'>That&#39;s what Shi said: race, gender, and 1990s comic books</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Who here remembers Shi?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_goIrbP2v6PmatMGM57O7IIjGhjRGNaksjM0_XYetpoIovEg6TOxm0wyVJlBHD6fgWHvfJw_uwwJJh7TZqw8AkvUCOZcbxyrfvw27QHPUZXOVFMiUOXgAfOjqL_RB6z-DlQdXTlr3HgVe/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;538&quot; data-original-width=&quot;350&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_goIrbP2v6PmatMGM57O7IIjGhjRGNaksjM0_XYetpoIovEg6TOxm0wyVJlBHD6fgWHvfJw_uwwJJh7TZqw8AkvUCOZcbxyrfvw27QHPUZXOVFMiUOXgAfOjqL_RB6z-DlQdXTlr3HgVe/&quot; width=&quot;156&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;I certainly didn&#39;t until recently. As my dalliance with &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2019/06/so-close-and-yet-so-far-strange-story.html&quot;&gt;Mutant Chronicles&lt;/a&gt; demonstrates, however, there are few limits to my tendency to become fascinated by whatever 1990s pop culture ephemera happen to cross my path. In this case, all it took was a stray link to a recent kickstarter and the fact that the comics turned out to be on sale at Drivethru.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;In many ways, &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;turned out to be a kind of bottled essence of mid-1990s nerd culture. A sexy Japanese woman in a stripper costume, written and drawn by a white American man, engages in bloody martial arts battles against urban criminal gangs while quoting Sun Tzu&amp;nbsp;and pontificating on the nature of Bushido, all against a backdrop of Japanese corporate takeover of American business. It has everything: violence, Orientalism, urban decay, mercenaries, ex-Special Forces vigilantes, objectified &#39;action girl&#39; heroines, guns, katanas, rampant fetishism. It even finds room for the then-current preoccupation with Catholicism that was so much a part of other 1990s action-girl comics like &lt;i&gt;Magdalena, Fallen Angel, Warrior Nun Areala, &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Avengelyne.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;What surprised me about &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;is that, despite all this, it actually had some real merit. It &lt;i&gt;almost &lt;/i&gt;manages to tell a story worth telling: not a narrative for the ages, by any means, but a good, pulpy tale about the self-consuming nature of violence and the futility of revenge, with strong roots in both Christian morality and Japanese pop culture. The art, at its best, manages to accomplish an effective fusion of Manga stylings, Floating World prints, and the Western superhero comicbook tradition. In places it comes close&amp;nbsp;to being a cross-cultural success story, an example of an Italian-American Catholic artist developing a fascination with Japanese Buddhism that gives rise to something greater than the sum of its parts. But it never &lt;i&gt;quite &lt;/i&gt;managed to cohere.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_98Uj2sJRQROqZir4aBvbgSe8oGB4P4JMBGZNNxunQOxd5o-uDPEDunwK6IKtOQ3hx3iBhMx476OVC8_X6hgbRsyP5N5ip1VjY2myQnRfqr_uWJ0vOmVS71fbZ8HPuBOyOkPz7LeYU4eK/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;335&quot; data-original-width=&quot;540&quot; height=&quot;199&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_98Uj2sJRQROqZir4aBvbgSe8oGB4P4JMBGZNNxunQOxd5o-uDPEDunwK6IKtOQ3hx3iBhMx476OVC8_X6hgbRsyP5N5ip1VjY2myQnRfqr_uWJ0vOmVS71fbZ8HPuBOyOkPz7LeYU4eK/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;Here, as elsewhere, the hallucinatory Japanese warriors Ana sees around her in battle mirror the way that the comic itself is haunted by the Floating World imagery upon which it draws.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Here&#39;s the story it wanted to tell: some time in the 1970s, a Japanese martial artist marries an American woman, converts to Catholicism, and retires from his old life to run a small business. One of his rivals sends a Yakuza hitman, Arashi, to hunt him down.&amp;nbsp;He overpowers Arashi, and is about to kill him when his daughter, Ana, runs out, yelling &#39;Thou shalt not kill!&#39; Arashi takes advantage of the distraction to shoot him dead, and then flees.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Traumatised by her father&#39;s death, Ana goes to her paternal grandfather for martial arts training, planning to shape herself into an avenger. Arashi, meanwhile, emigrates to America and builds himself a criminal empire. Years later, Ana hunts him down and starts killing his henchmen, but finds herself increasingly shocked by the human toll her violence is taking: after all, the men she&#39;s killing have wives and children, too. She tries to abandon her mission, but she&#39;s in too deep, and her attempts to disentangle herself only end up with more people getting killed. Finally, sorrowfully, she concludes that she has to see this through.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Meanwhile, Arashi&#39;s powerbase is starting to crumble under the impact of Ana&#39;s assassinations. His enemies circle and the loyalty of his followers wavers, culminating in a coup attempt in which his own lieutenants rise up against him: Arashi wins, but is left broken-hearted, having killed his own closest friends in order to preserve his power over an empire that is already falling apart. Ana arrives to kill him, they fight, and she loses, but Arashi no longer has the heart to kill her, recognising her as a truer embodiment of the martial virtues he once aspired to than he ever was.&amp;nbsp;Instead he commits symbolic &lt;i&gt;seppuku &lt;/i&gt;by calling the police and framing himself for the murders she committed, while she abandons her avenger identity and walks away, her traumas resolved. The end.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;At its best, &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;manages to be a rather humane story about the way in which violence can estrange us from ourselves: a story in which every fight scene has real psychological weight for the heroine, rather than just being meaningless padding of the &#39;and then ninjas attack!&#39; variety. Its moral core is a struggle between three sides of Ana&#39;s personality: the religious morality that calls her to forgive, the honour code that calls her to avenge, and the primordial bloodlust embodied by the figure of the demon-samurai which haunts her, that calls her to just keep killing people because killing people feels &lt;i&gt;fucking awesome. &lt;/i&gt;But anyone who has the slightest familiarity with 1990s comics will be completely unsurprised to hear that this core story kept getting buried under mountains of utter gibberish. There are conspiracies and misunderstood mutants and ancient orders of secret warriors and more fetish fuel and cod-Asian mysticism than you can shake a &lt;i&gt;bokken &lt;/i&gt;at.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL-TBSXbzojqND807CGOu02pSL2SY6mI4scIEHIet_DH9xZ99GoDu_pyxw13cVIowc8e9bFNPW6W3YeUGwYdgyIicNxPzxNa7xu9hl6X-gvWjRlGRDxjzj_vpHWb5wYE3qnHeJWwKYKKob/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;788&quot; data-original-width=&quot;539&quot; height=&quot;412&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL-TBSXbzojqND807CGOu02pSL2SY6mI4scIEHIet_DH9xZ99GoDu_pyxw13cVIowc8e9bFNPW6W3YeUGwYdgyIicNxPzxNa7xu9hl6X-gvWjRlGRDxjzj_vpHWb5wYE3qnHeJWwKYKKob/w283-h412/image.png&quot; width=&quot;283&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;had honourable beginnings. The early editorials keep emphasising that it wasn&#39;t like &lt;i&gt;those other &lt;/i&gt;&#39;bad girl&#39; comics, with their meaningless violence and gratuitous fanservice, and at first it was &lt;i&gt;sort of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;true. Billy Tucci had an actual story he wanted to tell, supported by real characters and an above-average-for-1994 level of understanding of Japanese culture, and these helped to make &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;a hit back when it was still just a struggling indie comic coming out at irregular intervals a few times a year. It got mainstream recognition: Tucci wrote proudly about the coverage he&#39;d received in &lt;i&gt;The New York Times &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Elle &lt;/i&gt;magazine, notice that he attributed to his heroine&#39;s &#39;style and sophistication&#39;, approvingly quoting a description of Ana as &#39;the Audrey Hepburn of comics&#39;. He was obviously frustrated with the way that &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;kept getting lumped together with what he viewed as inferior works, a perspective that&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Shi: Shiseiji&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;(1996)&amp;nbsp;was written to refute, as its editorial makes clear:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;blockquote style=&quot;border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;[A]s he spies upon Ana&#39;s adventures as Shi, our shiseiji has no idea of the complex moral issues that drive Ana&#39;s quest to avenge her family. Consequently, all he sees in Ana is a &#39;super ninja-bitch&#39;. In this respect, Shiseiji is very much like a lot of fans in the comics community who write Shi off as another &#39;bad girl&#39; book. The fact of the matter is that Ana isn&#39;t bad at all. She&#39;s not a ninja, either.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;By 1997 Tucci was riding high, and unwisely tried to make &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;the lynchpin of a whole new comics franchise, with everything that implied in the late 1990s: spin-offs, crossovers, trading cards, alternate covers, the works. There were even plans for a &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;movie starring Tia Carrere, whom readers of a certain age will remember as Cassandra from &lt;i&gt;Wayne&#39;s World.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;But the audience wasn&#39;t there, and the comics industry was in crisis, and by 1998 it was obvious that the entire enterprise was in deep trouble, with cancelled series and plaintive editorials begging readers to tell them what they were doing wrong. By 1999 the whole thing had collapsed into ruin.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;It&#39;s easy to critique&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Shi.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;Critiquing&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Shi&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;is like shooting fish in a barrel. Ana&#39;s whole character design is an exercise in fanservice - one comic even lampshades this by having her visit a strip club, where everyone naturally assumes, based on her costume, that she&#39;s one of the performers. Her fighting style apparently consists mostly of jumping into the air while sticking her butt out. The dilemma her character is built around rests on awful essentialising stereotypes that juxtapose kind humane western Christianity with alien and implacable Asian honour codes. (Moments where Ana starts talking about her&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;giri&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;tend to be particularly bad.) For a story supposedly built around a &#39;strong female character&#39;, a surprising amount of the plot consists of men taking decisions on Ana&#39;s behalf while she flops around having existential crises. The ancient secret orders of the Nara and Kyoto&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;sohei,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;whose feuds drive much of the plot,&lt;i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;are portrayed as murderous idiots, a kind of parody of Western stereotypes about Eastern religion, forever killing each other over trivialities and committing ritual suicide at the drop of a hat: it&#39;s impossible to believe that such organisations could hold together for a single generation, let alone a thousand years. (The 2004-5 miniseries&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Shi:&amp;nbsp;Ju-Nen&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;- which inexplicably featured costume designs by&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Anna Sui,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;of all people - showed them finally wiping each other out: the only wonder was that it hadn&#39;t happened sooner.) And the series never knew what to do with its secondary protagonist, Tomoe, whose narrative rapidly devolved into stream-of-consciousness mad-libs even by comic book standards. Not even the queer-baiting between her and Ana ever amounted to anything.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpYLAePo4xQ1lZ5nsC3Bn6V9tIkVutRYcrcNFMf3RZCCh5UZOt6IyGTubIO-8m1lzc-98jE2-uhg5ARhsqefL9WBnlmjrAbbhDa5g8tOQJA2_vn_VFkJhptqtm8w7VWl62UiXa6EdsSnI1/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;632&quot; data-original-width=&quot;376&quot; height=&quot;309&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpYLAePo4xQ1lZ5nsC3Bn6V9tIkVutRYcrcNFMf3RZCCh5UZOt6IyGTubIO-8m1lzc-98jE2-uhg5ARhsqefL9WBnlmjrAbbhDa5g8tOQJA2_vn_VFkJhptqtm8w7VWl62UiXa6EdsSnI1/w184-h309/image.png&quot; width=&quot;184&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;&#39;I love you, Tomoe! But in a totally Platonic, heterosexual way, because it&#39;s still 1997! Now let&#39;s have another scene where we hug while we&#39;re both half-naked!&#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The attitude of the whole franchise towards its Asian sources is deeply conflicted. On one hand, Tucci was clearly fascinated with all things Japanese, intrigued by Shinto and Buddhism, visually enraptured by kimonos and samurai armour, and delighted by the expressive potential of manga. (&lt;i&gt;Shi&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;had a manga spin-off in&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;1996,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;an era when manga was still relatively little known to the mainstream American comic-book market.) He proudly printed an endorsement from Stan Sakai, creator of &lt;i&gt;Usagi Yojimbo, &lt;/i&gt;who praised &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;for being more respectful of its source material than most of its competitors, and who described it as &#39;captur[ing] the &lt;u&gt;spirit&lt;/u&gt; of the buyuden - tales of valor popular in medieval Japanese literature&#39;. Tucci even collaborated with the Korean-American writer Hank Kwon on the short-lived series&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Horseman&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;(1996), whose story of an immortal Korean warrior predated the arrival of&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Hallyu&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;culture in America by several years.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;At the same time, though, Tucci kept&amp;nbsp;condemning&amp;nbsp;the very Asian cultures that he drew upon so heavily, returning repeatedly to the cruelty of the historical Japanese persecution of Christianity, and to Ana&#39;s need to reconnect with her mother&#39;s Catholicism as an antidote to the violence and inhumanity of Bushido&lt;i&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;Even when he was publishing his own manga series it was at pains to distance itself from association with the&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;wrong kind&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;of manga, keeping its own brand of softcore fanservice carefully distinct from the form&#39;s reputation for more extreme pornographic content. As the editorial to the first issue explained, &#39;Weird monsters, giant robots, invaders from space... you name it, we&#39;ll do it (although, we&#39;ll skip emulating some of the racier stuff, like LA BLUE GIRL or DEMON BEAST INVASION. Sorry, but Shi just isn&#39;t that kind of gal).&#39;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_LP40OEVrvCJzN17CqVA8_1xvhZAh0JyK7paX6FfItKZsdql_wzowtqlXE6dQ9OWOVa5bZ5ruxroi-h1ZbVgVIC_vg8fDOYnMS9kIEKQbf4-2dkZcV7YCLb3P53lTjnakpN-1cqFaUY9-/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;650&quot; data-original-width=&quot;438&quot; height=&quot;286&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_LP40OEVrvCJzN17CqVA8_1xvhZAh0JyK7paX6FfItKZsdql_wzowtqlXE6dQ9OWOVa5bZ5ruxroi-h1ZbVgVIC_vg8fDOYnMS9kIEKQbf4-2dkZcV7YCLb3P53lTjnakpN-1cqFaUY9-/w193-h286/image.png&quot; width=&quot;193&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;OUR manga isn&#39;t porny at all!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The frustrating thing about &lt;i&gt;Shi &lt;/i&gt;is how close it kept getting to becoming something more. Take these passages from the 1995 comic&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Shi: Senryaku. &lt;/i&gt;Here&#39;s Ana, aged seventeen, learning a harsh lesson about why the white American boy she likes keeps smiling at her -&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;blockquote style=&quot;border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&quot;Let me guess,&quot; Mike offered. He let an insinuating tone creep into his voice. &quot;You&#39;ve heard some things about Oriental girls, you were wondering if they&#39;re true, and since I&#39;m married to a Japanese woman...&quot;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&quot;Hey, I knew you&#39;d understand,&quot; Ted said. The leer in his voice echoed Mike&#39;s. &quot;The guys in my frat say that Asian women are, like, totally submissive and they&#39;ll do anything! Y&#39;think Ana would be like that?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&quot;Gee, Ted, I guess you&#39;d better ask her&quot;, Mike responded, as I stepped out of the office. Ted gaped at me, astonished and ashamed. I glared at him. He turned to Mike, realized he&#39;d been set up, and stormed out.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Full marks to Mike, right? Except that after becoming Ana&#39;s substitute father figure, and sharing all his sorrows, he shows his true colours as well:&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote style=&quot;border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;I felt so sorry for him. Suddenly we were embracing. I was rocking him, trying to comfort him... and he kissed me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I froze, mortified. What was he doing? He kissed my eyes, my hair, he whispered in my ear. It was okay, he said, Mariko didn&#39;t understand him, our bond was so special, so deep, and then he said: &quot;Ana, you&#39;re so beautiful... I&#39;ve been waiting for this since the day you walked in...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He&#39;d been waiting for this since the day I walked in. Which meant he&#39;d been planning for it since then. Which meant that everything he&#39;d been for me was a lie to make me vulnerable so that this could happen...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I broke away from him. I couldn&#39;t speak. I trembled with fury and anguish at the incredible depth of his betrayal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;This is pretty insightful stuff for a 1990s comic book, offering not just obvious critiques of racial stereotyping and fetishisation, but also a more subtle awareness that just because a man seems to transcend such vulgar prejudices doesn&#39;t mean he&#39;s not waiting to exploit you the moment he gets the chance. But this appears embedded in a series whose entire marketing strategy essentially boiled down to: &lt;i&gt;&#39;HEY! LOOK! BUSTY ASIAN CHIX! CHECK OUT DAT A$$!&#39;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOWx8u7t27e1u9bkI6Df8ktYlcxtZsOgb0DDzcXmGPtImCy-nxmDipoewSBdKIW5vXH1PFa5Pmy2rJBradbueRW-4ix1ao3jicoabj9OOz1nibYcYG_p8pH6zCS959mFN8bbBkT9jEkBd/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;516&quot; data-original-width=&quot;522&quot; height=&quot;326&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOWx8u7t27e1u9bkI6Df8ktYlcxtZsOgb0DDzcXmGPtImCy-nxmDipoewSBdKIW5vXH1PFa5Pmy2rJBradbueRW-4ix1ao3jicoabj9OOz1nibYcYG_p8pH6zCS959mFN8bbBkT9jEkBd/w330-h326/image.png&quot; width=&quot;330&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;See what I mean?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;But under all the nonsense there&#39;s some real strength, both in the writing and the imagery. &lt;i&gt;Shi, &lt;/i&gt;I fear, was a graphic novel &lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;manqué&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, undone by the realities of mid-1990s commercial comic book publishing. If the strongest elements of &lt;i&gt;The Way of the Warrior, Shi: Kaidan, &lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;Shi: Senryaku, &lt;/i&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Tora No Shi&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;had been distilled down into a single series of about twelve issues, it could have been &lt;i&gt;great, &lt;/i&gt;a kind of red-and-gold counterpart to David Mack&#39;s astonishing black-and-white &lt;i&gt;Kabuki: Circle of Blood: &lt;/i&gt;a&lt;i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;lurid martial arts crime drama about a traumatised girl taking on the legacy of her legendary ancestress in a half-crazed bid for revenge and redemption, haunted by a hallucinatory swirl of Japanese folklore and Catholic religious imagery, &lt;i&gt;oni &lt;/i&gt;and angels, leering &lt;i&gt;tengu &lt;/i&gt;and bleeding saints. But drawing it out to over sixty issues, and diluting it with all the superfluous characters whom Tucci hoped to publish spin-off series about, just let all its strength dissipate, reducing Ana to the status of yet another 90s action girl with too many katanas and not enough clothes.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The moral of the story is that if you only have one story to tell, then for heaven&#39;s sake &lt;i&gt;just tell that story.&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The application of this moral to RPGs is left as an exercise for the reader.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIJCQvyy38CBymF3kcOoytWK-IKnDR2UZUPjvLhlG5xNGdo-c50MUHyQkWjSv4gogyCC4JUetH4DVGYlaIOdebFSKiYIYoZ6j186YgCVmbtV7hqAGUS962I2Bc8OeRwFWBGEknZNzuIfC/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;326&quot; data-original-width=&quot;835&quot; height=&quot;212&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIJCQvyy38CBymF3kcOoytWK-IKnDR2UZUPjvLhlG5xNGdo-c50MUHyQkWjSv4gogyCC4JUetH4DVGYlaIOdebFSKiYIYoZ6j186YgCVmbtV7hqAGUS962I2Bc8OeRwFWBGEknZNzuIfC/w543-h212/image.png&quot; width=&quot;543&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/4841231421463726011/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/thats-what-shi-said-race-gender-and.html#comment-form' title='6 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/4841231421463726011'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/4841231421463726011'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/12/thats-what-shi-said-race-gender-and.html' title='That&#39;s what Shi said: race, gender, and 1990s comic books'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_goIrbP2v6PmatMGM57O7IIjGhjRGNaksjM0_XYetpoIovEg6TOxm0wyVJlBHD6fgWHvfJw_uwwJJh7TZqw8AkvUCOZcbxyrfvw27QHPUZXOVFMiUOXgAfOjqL_RB6z-DlQdXTlr3HgVe/s72-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>6</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-1378025687886503585</id><published>2021-11-15T16:26:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2021-11-15T16:26:21.436-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><title type='text'>Upstairs, Downstairs: d20 Power Relations</title><content type='html'>You know what makes for good drama? &lt;i&gt;Unequal power relations!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;You know what makes for even better drama? &lt;i&gt;Power relations that are not what they appear to be!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVzlk0XO6I8bzM9T3_qr4_YiFZU3VCYqFTbdaujpQvMlgW91ga8vvWGDjL23fzmjlEEVSQCmfgLCfDtFdm83RdJ96-4YbpvEPRv7Ih9FmZZPtmlgxhTU_cThODYkcThJlRjeKJYQPp9z8/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;625&quot; data-original-width=&quot;456&quot; height=&quot;271&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVzlk0XO6I8bzM9T3_qr4_YiFZU3VCYqFTbdaujpQvMlgW91ga8vvWGDjL23fzmjlEEVSQCmfgLCfDtFdm83RdJ96-4YbpvEPRv7Ih9FmZZPtmlgxhTU_cThODYkcThJlRjeKJYQPp9z8/w197-h271/image.png&quot; width=&quot;197&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Gerard ter Borch, &lt;i&gt;Young Woman with a Maid &lt;/i&gt;(c. 1650)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Next time you introduce two NPCs, make clear that one of them is higher status than the other. This can be obvious (noble and servant, employer and employee, lord and villein, officer and soldier, teacher and student) or more subtle (two members of the same guild, community, regiment, or family, one of whom is just &lt;i&gt;slightly &lt;/i&gt;senior to the other), but it&#39;s something that they&#39;re both acutely aware of, and it inflects every interaction between the two of them.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Then roll 1d20 on this table to find out what the relationship between them &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;is!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Exactly what it seems to be. The high-status NPC is in charge, and the low-status NPC respects their authority.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Creepily extreme. The high-status NPC makes all the decisions, and the low-status NPC obeys instantly and without question, having apparently reduced themselves to a mere instrument of their superior&#39;s will.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;One-sided. The low-status NPC is sycophantically devoted to the high-status NPC, to an extent that obviously makes them uncomfortable, and keeps making desperate attempts to prove the extent of their loyalty.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Emptily theatrical. They make an enormous show of performative authority on one side and performative deference on the other, but anyone paying attention will notice they both actually just seem to do whatever they want.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Performatively informal. The high-status NPC makes a big performance over being the low-status NPC&#39;s friend, treating them as an equal, etc, but in practise they expect their authority to be accepted without question.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Erotically charged. The pair of them seem to be enjoying this whole &#39;giving and taking orders&#39; thing a bit&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;too&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;much, in ways that may make people speculate about exactly what goes on between them behind closed doors.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Founded on lies. The high-status NPC is actually the lower-status of the pair, and is trading on some kind of falsehood (e.g. forged qualifications, fake titles) to invert the power relationship that would otherwise exist between them. 50% chance the other NPC has started to suspect that something weird is going on. Obviously they&#39;d be furious if they learned the truth.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Overt dependency. The high-status NPC makes a show of calling all the shots,&amp;nbsp;but it&#39;s blatantly obvious that all the real decisions are being made by the low-status NPC.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Puppet show. In public the high-status NPC appears to be in charge, but actually the low-status NPC wields all the real power, either through some external hold (e.g. blackmail) or just through sheer force of personality. Their &#39;superior&#39; would never dare to do anything that went against their wishes. (50% chance that the high-status NPC is actually OK with this state of affairs; 50% chance they resent it bitterly.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Covert subversion. The high-status NPC makes all the decisions, and the low-status NPC pretends to obey, but secretly tries to undermine and sabotage them at every opportunity.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Overt subversion. The high-status NPC makes all the decisions, but the low-status NPC openly mocks and defies them at every chance they get.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Covert equality. The two NPCs go through a charade of authority and submission in public, but actually regard one another as trusted equals and genuinely seek one another&#39;s input and guidance, though they may need to conceal this due to the status difference between them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Stiffly formal. The two NPCs have a very clear understanding of the exact nature and limits of their duties to one another, and scrupulously observe these at all times, making a great show of observing their obligations to one another to the letter without exceeding them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Founded on love. The two NPCs genuinely love one another, romantically or otherwise, though depending on the status difference between them they may need to keep this secret.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Founded on fear. The low-status NPC only obeys the high-status NPC out of fear of punishment. If they can safely get away with disobeying them without consequences then they will happily do so.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Founded on self-interest. The low-status NPC serves the high-status NPC only because they currently believe it to be in their best interests to do so, and will desert them in a heartbeat if a better opportunity comes along.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Founded on abuse. The high-status NPC ensures the subservience of the low-status NPC through physical and emotional cruelty. The low-status NPC hates them bitterly, but is too beaten down to resist them unless they&#39;re absolutely sure they&#39;ll get away with it.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Chronic misunderstanding. The low-status NPC is apparently loyal to the high-status NPC, but somehow manages to comically misunderstand almost every order and instruction they are given. (50% chance this is a campaign of passive resistance on the part of the low-status NPC; 50% chance they really are just that dim.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;It&#39;s complicated. While the overall status difference between the two NPCs is clear, there is one significant area of life in which the low-status NPC is actually &lt;i&gt;higher &lt;/i&gt;status than the high-status NPC, and can expect to be treated as such. (E.g. higher educational attainment, higher professional standing, higher religious status, higher military rank.) 50% chance the high-status NPC acknowledges and respects this; 50% chance they&#39;re furious about having to defer to someone they normally regard as an inferior.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Masquerade. The two NPCs have swapped places, with the low-status NPC pretending to be high-status, and vice versa - there may be a good reason for this, e.g. fear that an assassination attempt may be imminent, or it may just be a random whim of the high-status NPC. Neither is performing their assumed social role very convincingly. 50% chance the low-status NPC is still loyal to the high-status NPC despite their apparent role reversal; 50% chance they&#39;re scheming how to make their change in status permanent.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYmrgif4OqPoJtFZL8lr9H-n5HFuHeoA_DP1wF1r8MuPkB7tnnm8yqR4mYdwA0oLKdfBJ_lWU8pldIymcOGD5k-GcUbKPW3O_fdbVBMLXQb6dfofBur0smnBVtRN7rGnihqctuB0nhzO4g/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;350&quot; data-original-width=&quot;225&quot; height=&quot;334&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYmrgif4OqPoJtFZL8lr9H-n5HFuHeoA_DP1wF1r8MuPkB7tnnm8yqR4mYdwA0oLKdfBJ_lWU8pldIymcOGD5k-GcUbKPW3O_fdbVBMLXQb6dfofBur0smnBVtRN7rGnihqctuB0nhzO4g/w214-h334/image.png&quot; width=&quot;214&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/1378025687886503585/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/11/upstairs-downstairs-d20-power-relations.html#comment-form' title='12 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/1378025687886503585'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/1378025687886503585'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/11/upstairs-downstairs-d20-power-relations.html' title='Upstairs, Downstairs: d20 Power Relations'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVzlk0XO6I8bzM9T3_qr4_YiFZU3VCYqFTbdaujpQvMlgW91ga8vvWGDjL23fzmjlEEVSQCmfgLCfDtFdm83RdJ96-4YbpvEPRv7Ih9FmZZPtmlgxhTU_cThODYkcThJlRjeKJYQPp9z8/s72-w197-h271-c/image.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>12</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-8083001250760179402</id><published>2021-11-09T16:43:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2022-04-08T03:33:22.354-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="City of Spires"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Desert"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Monsters"/><title type='text'>Desert Monsters from the City of Spires</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;A few monsters who have turned up in my current campaign. I think my PCs have figured all these guys out well enough for me to safely list them here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1275&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1920&quot; height=&quot;213&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnX7S5m116OkiVcNQ0MewiEyfQs5Pd9WLCx-bf0-xLB2c9XzVDsrokF7LytUQt7zo2BiwtzPHg4iRWNH1dqZMCx83WkHlVcouZ1dVpu2DDguCIN4PtlevI0X-u9C5E_NPBYeMG1pLgmGKB/s320/akihiko-tsuji-black-ogre.jpg&quot; style=&quot;color: #0000ee; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Image by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o3Q6O&quot;&gt;Akihiro Tsuji&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Smoke Giant: &lt;/b&gt;AC chain, 4 HD, 2 fists (1d8 damage), morale N/A.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Smoke giants are artificial guardians created by a long-fallen civilisation. In their dormant state, they just look like a thick covering of soot, coating everything in the room they guard. When they are disturbed, however, the soot flies up into the air and rapidly coheres into an ogre-sized humanoid monster, jet-black from head to foot. The giant furiously attacks anything that enters its protected area. If reduced to less than half HP, or if the trespassers depart, it explodes apart into a cloud of choking black smoke, which gradually settles to the ground as thick black soot. In smoke/soot form it recovers 1 HP per round until fully healed, at which point it will cohere back into humanoid form if the trespassers are still present. If reduced to 0 HP it explodes into smoke and does not recohere.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a dormant smoke giant can be collected into a container while in soot form without triggering it, then the resulting container can be used as a missile weapon: the moment it is opened, the giant will explode out of it to attack anyone nearby. Smoke giants are sometimes found still lying dormant inside their original storage crates.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Once my PCs worked these guys out, they dealt with them by building an improvised suction pump attached to a hose, which they used to suck up the soot a little at a time from outside the giant&#39;s trigger radius. Then they mixed the soot with clay and baked it into bricks, effectively imprisoning the giant. The smoke giant&#39;s attempts to reform itself from inside the bricks makes them vibrate violently whenever anyone approaches, allowing them to function as an intruder alarm system.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcavReVnzZin7y8RzLKEhIasVrTK9xEtYGgWiWGnvSL4_EPPVLalv9r7zv2lqu518XAuWqiILOLlVuZAbmqKY6_fKXFuUbghrvocuR0Om4OsaKourVSoVc4whMd9Ha5mlkCp9ObQc6CdGg/s640/black-locust-face-lee-alloway.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;423&quot; data-original-width=&quot;640&quot; height=&quot;212&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcavReVnzZin7y8RzLKEhIasVrTK9xEtYGgWiWGnvSL4_EPPVLalv9r7zv2lqu518XAuWqiILOLlVuZAbmqKY6_fKXFuUbghrvocuR0Om4OsaKourVSoVc4whMd9Ha5mlkCp9ObQc6CdGg/s320/black-locust-face-lee-alloway.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Locust Spirits: &lt;/b&gt;AC chain + shield, 4 HD, 1 claw (1d8 damage + strength drain), morale 8.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These awful famine-spirits look like shadowy humanoid locusts. They are only semi-corporeal and take half damage from non-magical attacks. Anyone struck by their claws is filled with terrible weakness, as though they hadn&#39;t eaten for days, and loses 1d6 strength - this strength returns at the rate of one point for each decent meal they eat. Anyone falling to Strength 0 is reduced to an emaciated corpse, apparently the victim of months of starvation.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Locust spirits are only semi-intelligent, and can usually be found as servitors to more powerful spirits or dark magicians.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-eAzHhW7NUQzFW42yZ18iYB0Bnn0NEmUhQPTzHthOB3jGouKKB-il8pkzXSIC3j6ahVkngUeV7XS5lqurknbOpivqTJiwcPDJnqKow3LFme_YjR-s8Nh582pV7a6Zr2VtmLrJ2M6O7nn/s330/T_Anubis_JackalKnight_Card.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;330&quot; data-original-width=&quot;250&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-eAzHhW7NUQzFW42yZ18iYB0Bnn0NEmUhQPTzHthOB3jGouKKB-il8pkzXSIC3j6ahVkngUeV7XS5lqurknbOpivqTJiwcPDJnqKow3LFme_YjR-s8Nh582pV7a6Zr2VtmLrJ2M6O7nn/s320/T_Anubis_JackalKnight_Card.png&quot; width=&quot;242&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Jackal Knights: &lt;/b&gt;AC plate, 6 HD, 1 greatsword (3d6 damage) or 1 bite (1d6 damage), morale 9.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These terrible demon-warriors of the desert can take the form either of a jackal (in which case they have a bite attack, and can run much more swiftly than a human), an armoured jackal-headed warrior (in which case they have a greatsword attack, and move at human speed), or a dust devil (in which case they have no attacks, but are immune to non-magical attacks, can move at much greater than human speed, and can blow through narrow spaces). Shifting between forms takes one round.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In jackal or warrior form, they have long, lashing razor-sharp tongues, with which they can attempt to open the arteries of one opponent per round in melee combat. Unless their target is wearing armour on their neck, wrists, and thighs, they must save each round or else be cut, bleeding out for 1d6 damage per round. Spending a full round bandaging the wound allows for a new save to stop the damage. Any healing magic stops the bleeding instantly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jackal Knights register as magical to &lt;i&gt;Detect Magic, &lt;/i&gt;and casting &lt;i&gt;Dispel Magic &lt;/i&gt;on a Jackal Knight in dust-devil form will force it to resume one of its corporeal forms.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1080&quot; data-original-width=&quot;736&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHI6dlD3Hk38G6oTHMdJRgTPFGNILNYlrI1gIoZe6fdfeS8wd5C8BfHL8aGIJlUPscqgSRtTSVUY6gGjVpOMiShkGnzr7BlL1iy7Ya7igUpUP8I7xKvEG-b0RPJqqT7yPZiej50CJMgdKs/s320/4c3aead757f1809c25b192e7b78ff771.png&quot; style=&quot;color: #0000ee; text-align: center;&quot; width=&quot;218&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Desert Zombies: &lt;/b&gt;AC leather, 2 HD, 1 claw (1d6 damage), morale N/A.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This one was adapted from a &lt;i&gt;Pathfinder &lt;/i&gt;monster. Created from the dehydrated corpses of unfortunates who perished in the wastes, these zombies resemble dried-out desert mummies aside from the candle-like flames that flicker inside their hollow eye-sockets. By day they slumber beneath the desert sands, quiescent unless disturbed, but by night they wander the in search of prey, their eye-flames visible from afar off in the darkness of the desert night. If they hit anyone in melee, their target must save or be grabbed and pulled in close enough for the zombie to exhale its dessicating breath all over its victim, causing an additional 1d8 damage in spontaneous dehydration.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The flames in their eye-sockets serve as their eyes: immersion in sand cannot extinguish them, but immersion in water can. A zombie whose eye-flames are extinguished is effectively blind, and will simply wander randomly. If it is still animate by the following dawn, the flames in its eye-sockets reignite the moment the sun comes over the horizon.&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/8083001250760179402/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/11/desert-monsters-from-city-of-spires.html#comment-form' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8083001250760179402'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8083001250760179402'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/11/desert-monsters-from-city-of-spires.html' title='Desert Monsters from the City of Spires'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnX7S5m116OkiVcNQ0MewiEyfQs5Pd9WLCx-bf0-xLB2c9XzVDsrokF7LytUQt7zo2BiwtzPHg4iRWNH1dqZMCx83WkHlVcouZ1dVpu2DDguCIN4PtlevI0X-u9C5E_NPBYeMG1pLgmGKB/s72-c/akihiko-tsuji-black-ogre.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-6169589166652396642</id><published>2021-10-24T10:46:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2021-10-24T16:12:00.541-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="General-purpose musings"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="OSR"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><title type='text'>Game-enhancing powers, game-ruining powers, and yet more magic items</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been running OSR D&amp;amp;D more-or-less weekly for over five years, now, with a heavy focus on exploration, problem-solving, and diplomacy. Combat happens, but I learned early on that the kind of combat power-ups that most later D&amp;amp;D editions obsess over were almost irrelevant: when most fights are either one-sided ambushes or desperate fighting retreats, the shift from 1d8 damage to 1d8+2 damage is really not that big a deal. My players regularly forget which magical weapons their PCs are carrying. What they never, &lt;i&gt;ever &lt;/i&gt;forget is exactly who is wearing the &lt;i&gt;Ring of Invisibility to Undead.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwknRSf3C3qpMkW2RSpyleHZg3z_xtaFolPgC8QpV92y4IGtFOGN70BAQoSZeKrgtB_3VblFueytDfBxBhr4sobk6EZiliKtYcvNGZrJnY05cPDt9jmaw8VbY7jNOx4Z6jvOJ48D3xGPCN/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1244&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1920&quot; height=&quot;207&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwknRSf3C3qpMkW2RSpyleHZg3z_xtaFolPgC8QpV92y4IGtFOGN70BAQoSZeKrgtB_3VblFueytDfBxBhr4sobk6EZiliKtYcvNGZrJnY05cPDt9jmaw8VbY7jNOx4Z6jvOJ48D3xGPCN/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;FORGOT WHO WAS WEARING THE RING.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whether in the form of magic items or spells, I&#39;ve tended to give my PCs access to lots of utility magic, in order to enable the kind of improvisational problem-solving on which such games thrive. But there&#39;s utility and then there&#39;s &lt;i&gt;utility, &lt;/i&gt;and a power with too few limitations can quickly break a game. Previous games, for example, taught me the hard way that giving PCs high-speed at-will flight is a genie that&#39;s really hard to get back in its bottle once released, trivialising everything from difficult terrain (&#39;I fly over it&#39;) to tripwires and pressure plates (&#39;I fly over it&#39;) to melee-only enemies (&#39;I fly over it and kite it to death&#39;). And the Team Tsathogga game taught me that even the humble &lt;i&gt;Charm Person &lt;/i&gt;could become hard to manage once the PCs had enough spell slots. (&#39;We hide in the bushes and cast &lt;i&gt;Charm Person &lt;/i&gt;on him twelve times! One of them&#39;s &lt;i&gt;bound &lt;/i&gt;to work!&#39;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, these problems are context-dependent. A more superheroic game could probably have taken both flight and mind control in its stride. (Although maybe not: every &lt;i&gt;Exalted &lt;/i&gt;game I ever played in ended up crashing and burning due to the difficulty of challenging PCs with near-unlimited powers of mobility, persuasion, information-gathering, and stealth.) But assuming you&#39;re after something resembling traditional fantasy, in which &#39;a castle&#39; or &#39;a troll&#39; is a dangerous but solveable problem to a clever and well-equipped party of adventurers, then here are my notes on the kinds of powers that make for good, enjoyable problem-solving tools, as well as the kind that can easily spoil things for everyone unless counterbalanced by significant downsides or limitations, and a handy list of magic items to go along with both...&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVwT_xdlYjiCRZHuMwPR_VZHQryJ8nw0uIgwlZ-CXHXyFW85k3y-nb8Sq0NCEDufoshqJNOVeZwn1y1hVZAfJTvM84V5ZhGV_Yhue9f1K24Vamg_9ih000Xjq1f2j4L51fYiV4_jJj2Ai/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;455&quot; data-original-width=&quot;728&quot; height=&quot;243&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVwT_xdlYjiCRZHuMwPR_VZHQryJ8nw0uIgwlZ-CXHXyFW85k3y-nb8Sq0NCEDufoshqJNOVeZwn1y1hVZAfJTvM84V5ZhGV_Yhue9f1K24Vamg_9ih000Xjq1f2j4L51fYiV4_jJj2Ai/w388-h243/image.png&quot; width=&quot;388&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Good Stuff - abilities that facilitate creative and intelligent play&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Levitation: &lt;/b&gt;Slow, vertical-only flight. Allows for all kinds of ingenious problem-solving but requires careful set-up, not particularly useful in combat, and generates hilarious mental images, especially if you allow levitating characters to be moved horizontally by party members pulling them along on ropes from below!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Invisibility: &lt;/b&gt;This might seem very powerful, but if it genuinely is &lt;i&gt;only &lt;/i&gt;invisibility - meaning that you still make sounds, leave scent trails, make footprints, etc - then there are so many potential failure points and counter-measures that it&#39;s more likely to be used as an ingenious component of a cunning plan rather than as a slam-dunk victory condition. Partial invisibility (e.g. you still cast a shadow) is even better.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Illusions: &lt;/b&gt;The power to create intangible visual and/or audible illusions enable more demented ingenuity than just about any other ability. Endlessly flexible, and the lengths that PCs will go to in order to make sure no-one reveals the trick by just &lt;i&gt;touching&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;their illusionary treasure / monster / whatever are the stuff that truly insane PC plans are made of.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Tunnelling: &lt;/b&gt;Magical dig-through-stone-walls tunnelling can often short-circuit scenarios, especially in dungeon environments, but having a character with the ability to burrow through sand and loose dirt at semi-realistic speeds opens up all kinds of unorthodox approaches to break-ins, getaways, etc.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Light and darkness: &lt;/b&gt;These are good, flexible powers with a wide variety of uses relating to stealth and detection, most of which require a bit of set-up if PCs are going to get the most out of them. (If you&#39;re going to use darkness to cover your escape, how will &lt;i&gt;you &lt;/i&gt;see while inside it?)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Disguises: &lt;/b&gt;Powers that let people disguise their appearance to match someone else&#39;s are a particularly interesting form of illusion, because the potential pay-off is so large but the dangers of detection are so high. I feel that these are best when they perfectly mimic appearance &lt;i&gt;but only appearance: &lt;/i&gt;when it comes to mimicking voice, gait, mannerisms, knowledge, etc, the PCs are on their own!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Movement effects: &lt;/b&gt;Things like &lt;i&gt;Jump, Spider Climb, &lt;/i&gt;etc - powers that let you get into places you normally couldn&#39;t reach. Allow problems to be approached from unusual angles, often quite literally.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Environmental manipulation: &lt;/b&gt;Things like creating heat, cold, fog, rain, etc - not inherently beneficial in and of itself, but capable of creating a new situation which cunning PCs may be able to turn to their advantage!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Construction abilities: &lt;/b&gt;Essentially a subtype of environmental manipulation - the ability to e.g. rapidly reshape earth, construct barricades, etc. Anything that lets PCs reshape an area on the fly and thus shift the spatial dynamics of an encounter.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Water breathing: &lt;/b&gt;Like tunnelling, water breathing abilities open up new opportunities for getting into and out of places, and allow locations to be connected together in new ways via underground rivers, water pipes, etc.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Enhanced senses: &lt;/b&gt;Things like enhanced hearing, the ability to see perfectly in poor light (&lt;i&gt;not &lt;/i&gt;total darkness), the ability to follow scents like a bloodhound, etc, opening up new and unexpected avenues for acquiring information.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Communication abilities: &lt;/b&gt;The more things your PCs can interact with, the better. Let them talk to monsters. To animals. To rocks, plants, corpses, water, air... As long as whatever they&#39;re talking to is not guaranteed to be useful or co-operative, giving them more opportunities for communication can only enhance their options for creative problem-solving. (&#39;OK, how do we bribe the &lt;i&gt;trees &lt;/i&gt;into helping us?&#39;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Temporary intangibility: &lt;/b&gt;The trick is to &lt;i&gt;not &lt;/i&gt;pair this with invisibility, by&amp;nbsp;either making it ghost-style phantom projection, or literal gaseous form. It then creates an interestingly asymmetric situation - you can see and be seen, but can&#39;t affect or be affected by anything you&#39;re seeing. Can be used either for scouting or for one-way infiltration - you can walk through the walls to get &lt;i&gt;in, &lt;/i&gt;but then how are you going to get &lt;i&gt;out?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Very specific immunities: &lt;/b&gt;Complete immunity to fire, for example, or to falling damage. Abilities like these may be intermittently useful in combat, but they also allow situations to be approached in completely different ways. (&#39;So I&#39;ll fly over the castle in a hot air balloon, jump out, drop a thousand feet down into the courtyard, and then open the gates from the inside...&#39;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Limited telepathy: &lt;/b&gt;Things like the ability to sense someone&#39;s emotions, or read their surface thoughts - just enough to give the PCs an exploitable edge in social situations without having to worry about every mystery collapsing on contact.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Emotion control: &lt;/b&gt;Genuine&amp;nbsp;mind control can easily become an &#39;I WIN&#39; button, but the ability to scale up a specific emotion requires much more care to use effectively. &#39;I can make people feel really angry&#39; is not, in itself, likely to solve many problems, but can easily be a &lt;i&gt;component &lt;/i&gt;in such solutions...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiA8UCsRBip79j7ciX-4Z2fxTk6ARyZQT21esvdWSDIO-m09ntlArR4bnBudKC5_gmbnVFMEscITdIrSvPXCj2rGK44i40mQpYXd0MSXxRp50WdMGDivyXpN5cFp6XbbbQKCXddUxIkjl7/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;401&quot; data-original-width=&quot;277&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiA8UCsRBip79j7ciX-4Z2fxTk6ARyZQT21esvdWSDIO-m09ntlArR4bnBudKC5_gmbnVFMEscITdIrSvPXCj2rGK44i40mQpYXd0MSXxRp50WdMGDivyXpN5cFp6XbbbQKCXddUxIkjl7/&quot; width=&quot;166&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Bad Stuff - abilities that short-circuit play without significant limitations&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Unlimited flight: &lt;/b&gt;Trivialises too many kinds of obstacles and opponents, especially if it comes with perfect manoeuvrability as well. If you want to give your PCs access to flight, try to build in some serious limitations.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Unlimited intangibility: &lt;/b&gt;Genuine walk-through-walks-style at-will intangibility tends to trivialise information gathering, infiltration, escape, theft, etc - everything except combat, essentially.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mind control: &lt;/b&gt;This includes &#39;super charisma&#39; powers of the &#39;I&#39;m just that persuasive!&#39; variety. Anything that means PCs can simply steamroller interactions with NPCs&amp;nbsp;rather than having to actually work out how to befriend or manipulate them is likely to lead to much less interesting play.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mind reading and lie detection: &lt;/b&gt;Short-circuits any kind of investigation or mystery and makes diplomacy much less interesting.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;&#39;Sniper&#39; attacks: &lt;/b&gt;Very powerful, very accurate, very long-range attacks can make for very one-sided, non-interactive combat scenes, and thus for very boring gameplay. This can easily become an &#39;everything looks like a nail&#39; situation.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Unlimited information effects: &lt;/b&gt;The ability to commune with near-omniscient beings, for example, or powerful divination effects that always return accurate answers. It&#39;s usually OK if PCs are allowed &lt;i&gt;just one question, &lt;/i&gt;but if this is a power they have repeat access to then it becomes very hard to maintain any kind of mystery, or even ambiguity.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Speed/mobility effects: &lt;/b&gt;When confronted with any kind of enemy, one question the PCs are always going to ask is &#39;can we just kite it to death?&#39; This is a fair question, but if the answer is always &#39;yes&#39; then the temptation to resolve every possible encounter in exactly the same way becomes very strong. I&#39;d thus advise caution in granting mobility effects that allow PCs to engage opponents without ever allowing their opponents to engage with them: speed effects, for example, that let them move at full speed while still attacking. It&#39;s fun the first time, but it can become very boring very fast.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5p0jiAweFnQPFDqaHjhNfZ6EKwNTwFboFiQPJFSJJpNo-X_ux55MXGlepzuBk2CGPMdDqXjIbVkdpXtOI7lk5F6r1SXk2mbP5q2KQ9wnso0790gNzFi4QwQp3Md2rcwgg4-fyFLfIv9kz/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;419&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1024&quot; height=&quot;131&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5p0jiAweFnQPFDqaHjhNfZ6EKwNTwFboFiQPJFSJJpNo-X_ux55MXGlepzuBk2CGPMdDqXjIbVkdpXtOI7lk5F6r1SXk2mbP5q2KQ9wnso0790gNzFi4QwQp3Md2rcwgg4-fyFLfIv9kz/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;1d20 magic items for ingenious problem-solvers&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mat of Levitation. &lt;/b&gt;Anyone sitting cross-legged on this threadbare prayer mat can levitate at will by concentrating. If they stop concentrating for any reason then they fall. Only vertical movement straight up or down is possible.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ring of Near Invisibility. &lt;/b&gt;Anyone wearing this ring becomes invisible, but still casts a shadow. The ring itself does &lt;i&gt;not &lt;/i&gt;become invisible, and may be spotted floating around by alert observers.&amp;nbsp; The ring does nothing to mask the wearer&#39;s scent, sound, or footprints.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Amulet of the Mole. &lt;/b&gt;This amulet permits its wearer to dig tunnels through sand or dirt (&lt;i&gt;not &lt;/i&gt;stone) like a mole, at a rate of 5&#39; per minute. Tunnels will only be wide enough for the person who dug them to crawl through on hands and knees. It does not grant any ability to see in the dark.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Hatpin of disguise. &lt;/b&gt;Prick someone with this pin hard enough to draw blood, and the next time you place it in your own hat or hair you will take on their physical appearance until it is removed. (This is a visual illusion only, so if e.g. they have a beard and you don&#39;t then anyone touching your chin will realise something is amiss.) Your clothes and voice remain unchanged.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Armbands of the ape. &lt;/b&gt;Anyone wearing these chunky brass bangles gains the ability to climb and brachiate like an ape or monkey, rapidly scampering up trees or walls and swinging easily from branches, ropes, chains, etc. Wear them as anklets and you can swing by your feet, instead.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/09/magic-bags-and-things-inside-them.html&quot;&gt;A random weather bag.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/09/magic-bags-and-things-inside-them.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;A random emotion bag.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Tree Phrasebook. &lt;/b&gt;This enchanted book allows you to talk to trees... sort of. Reading from it gives you enthusiastic-tourist levels of ability to understand and be understood by trees, mostly by making alarming groaning noises with your throat. It does not make trees inherently well-disposed towards you, though they can be bribed with fertiliser or threatened with fire. Similar books may exist for communicating with rocks, rivers, etc.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Thought interceptor earring. &lt;/b&gt;If anyone within your line of sight thinks a &lt;i&gt;really big thought &lt;/i&gt;(e.g. &#39;OH MY GOD I LOVE HIM SO MUCH&#39; or &#39;I WILL FUCKING KILL HIM&#39;) while you are wearing this earring, then you will &#39;hear&#39; it as though it had just been shouted into the ear to which the earring is attached. Such thoughts are &#39;spoken&#39; in the wearer&#39;s own voice and it will not always be apparent whom they are coming from, though context will often make this obvious. If you&#39;re in a whole crowd of people all thinking &lt;i&gt;really big thoughts &lt;/i&gt;(e.g. a panicking mob trying to escape a fire) then the effect is simply deafening.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Torc of water breathing. &lt;/b&gt;This golden torc is decorated with engraved gills. Wearing it allows the wearer to breathe underwater. It does not provide any swimming abilities, or the ability to see in the dark.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cloak of limited flying. &lt;/b&gt;Once per day, this bright red cloak permits its wearer to fly rapidly for 1d10 rounds - this ability is triggered by simply leaping into the air. The user is unaware of how long the duration is, and will only know the magic has stopped when they start dropping out of the sky.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ghost juice. &lt;/b&gt;Drinking this potion causes you to temporarily die and become a ghost for 1d6 hours. During this time you are intangible, allowing you to float around and walk through walls, but you are &lt;i&gt;not &lt;/i&gt;invisible, and are clearly recognisable as a ghostly, ghastly version of yourself. You &lt;i&gt;can &lt;/i&gt;talk during this time, though your voice is thin and tends towards wailing. You are immune to non-magical damage for the duration, and cannot cause physical harm to anyone else. At the conclusion of the effect you are sucked back into your body and return to life.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2020/10/20-double-edged-potions-for-ingenious.html&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;A double-edged potion.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Divine Pass Note. &lt;/b&gt;Write a single factual yes-no question on one side of this enchanted papyrus, wait five minutes, and turn it over. God will have written YES or NO on the other side. Shortly afterwards, the note will spontaneously combust. Anyone trying to use this item to learn things that Man Was Not Meant To Know will find that &lt;i&gt;they &lt;/i&gt;spontaneously combust, instead.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Acoustic Amulet. &lt;/b&gt;Wearing this amulet enhances your hearing tenfold, allowing you to listen in on conversations thousands of yards away. Any kind of loud noise that occurs nearby while you are wearing them will be painful if not deafening.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Hammer of the survivor. &lt;/b&gt;This worn construction hammer is stained with zombie blood. As long as suitable construction materials are available, it allows stockades and barricades to be constructed at twenty times their normal speed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Magic Feather. &lt;/b&gt;As long as this feather is gripped tightly, no fall from any height will cause any damage to the holder.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;FX Box. &lt;/b&gt;Looks like a complicated wind-up music box with a directional speaker. A wheel on the side can be set to any one of dozens of options (e.g. &#39;thunder&#39;, &#39;sounds of battle&#39;, &#39;screaming&#39;, &#39;birdsong&#39;, &#39;suspicious conversations&#39;, etc). When the crank is turned, the selected sound will be heard emanating from the place that the speaker is pointing at for as long as the user carries on turning the handle.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Black Breath Choker. &lt;/b&gt;Wearing this onyx choker allows the wearer to exhale huge clouds of blinding darkness, which completely block all light and dissipate like smoke (meaning that they&#39;ll vanish much more quickly in a high wind or similar). Each exhalation exhausts its power for 1d6 minutes. The choker does not grant the ability to see through darkness.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/02/when-all-you-have-is-hammer-item-based.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;A bag containing 2d4 items from this list.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWHZpx83zYKkybW3HSNOCK6kw0SuGShBCO-U2dcWgVmJeBydZJ3FzZ7iJWy_8ofb2uddm14M_R2WQckYPqeJzOEDEE17VqhTX7Svv_c9kFkRD-KuKDBJ8t0-uJpRnm7Z2bx8Mt0Yn3RQkz/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;500&quot; data-original-width=&quot;800&quot; height=&quot;241&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWHZpx83zYKkybW3HSNOCK6kw0SuGShBCO-U2dcWgVmJeBydZJ3FzZ7iJWy_8ofb2uddm14M_R2WQckYPqeJzOEDEE17VqhTX7Svv_c9kFkRD-KuKDBJ8t0-uJpRnm7Z2bx8Mt0Yn3RQkz/w386-h241/image.png&quot; width=&quot;386&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/6169589166652396642/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/10/game-enhancing-powers-game-ruining.html#comment-form' title='27 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/6169589166652396642'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/6169589166652396642'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/10/game-enhancing-powers-game-ruining.html' title='Game-enhancing powers, game-ruining powers, and yet more magic items'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwknRSf3C3qpMkW2RSpyleHZg3z_xtaFolPgC8QpV92y4IGtFOGN70BAQoSZeKrgtB_3VblFueytDfBxBhr4sobk6EZiliKtYcvNGZrJnY05cPDt9jmaw8VbY7jNOx4Z6jvOJ48D3xGPCN/s72-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>27</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-7835511288394448515</id><published>2021-09-26T15:35:00.002-07:00</published><updated>2021-09-27T07:00:50.441-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><title type='text'>Magic bags and the things inside them</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve always thought that Aeolus&#39;s bag of wind from &lt;i&gt;The Odyssey &lt;/i&gt;would be a great item for a D&amp;amp;D campaign. It&#39;s a bag with a wind inside it: point it in the right direction and open it to blow your ship across the sea, or knock your opponents down, or blow out a fire, or whatever. The effect is powerful enough to be useful, but specific enough to force players to think about how to turn it to their advantage, and the fact that it&#39;s a one-use item means you don&#39;t need to worry about the PCs suddenly upending your whole campaign setting by generating winds on demand.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I reckon that the same principle could be applied more broadly. What other intangibles could a magician put inside a bag?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Category (roll 1d3)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Weather bag.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Emotion bag.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Abstraction bag.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlVfQIny9inUaSlpPSRIxBBBSx7EVfoqH5pj84qaGHgkoZEJJMLIId2Q3DutXat8sIxpG6KLW7oB9ydeH1fXhdxpAh_C2cnkbdrSCFqWZWumziBMNL29TLXY3_zOfGQeM6ZlxAP9EPmfZ/s307/51f9df7d817fca9efc59eefb14aa6f26.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;305&quot; data-original-width=&quot;307&quot; height=&quot;305&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlVfQIny9inUaSlpPSRIxBBBSx7EVfoqH5pj84qaGHgkoZEJJMLIId2Q3DutXat8sIxpG6KLW7oB9ydeH1fXhdxpAh_C2cnkbdrSCFqWZWumziBMNL29TLXY3_zOfGQeM6ZlxAP9EPmfZ/s0/51f9df7d817fca9efc59eefb14aa6f26.jpg&quot; width=&quot;307&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Weather Bags (roll 1d8) - &lt;/b&gt;When opened, these create a localised weather effect in a radius of 1d10x100 feet around the bag, which lasts for 1d6 hours. (The wind bag is an exception - see below.)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Blizzard bag: &lt;/b&gt;Cold to the touch, and shakes and shudders violently. When opened a whole blizzard bursts out, filling the surrounding area with screaming winds and freezing, blinding gales of snow. Visibility drops to almost nothing, flying is impossible, and surfaces will be rapidly covered with snow and frost, making them very slippery and difficult to cross for anyone who isn&#39;t moving very slowly and carefully.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cold bag:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Cool to the touch - you could put it in a crate to make a crude refrigerator, or make a tiny hole in it to release a steady stream of ultra-cold air.&amp;nbsp;Opened all at once it releases a burst of intense cold, enough to make a scorching desert feel pleasantly cool, or a temperate day feel like an arctic night. (If it&#39;s &lt;i&gt;already &lt;/i&gt;an arctic night, you&#39;ll be in instant-death-from-hypothermia territory.) As well as the obvious effects on living things, the sudden drop in temperature may freeze nearby water and cause surfaces to become slippery with frost.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Fog bag: &lt;/b&gt;You could make a pinprick in the side and use it for spooky dry-ice-style mist effects, but if this bag is opened a huge cloud of fog will pour out, reducing visibility in the surrounding area to almost zero. Good for covering escapes and other acts of stealth.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Heat bag:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Warm to the touch - you could use it like a hot water bottle on cold winter nights, or make a tiny hole in it to release a steady stream of heat powerful enough to cook or burn with. Open it all at once and it releases a burst of intense heat, enough to make a polar ice waste feel temperate, or a temperate day feel utterly unbearable. (If you&#39;re already in the tropical heat, it will raise temperatures to unsurvivable levels.) As well as the obvious effects on living things, the sudden increase in temperature may melt nearby ice or cause nearby water to evaporate, and will create a powerful localised air current - after all, hot air rises!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Rainstorm bag: &lt;/b&gt;Moisture continually osmoses through the fabric - handy if you have something you want to keep moist. Make a tiny hole in it and water will trickle out: the total amount you can get out of it is finite, but it&#39;s many, &lt;i&gt;many &lt;/i&gt;times larger than the bag could possibly physically contain. Rip it open and a drenching, monsoon-style rainstorm bursts out, cooling and soaking everyone within the affected area, massively decreasing visibility, and extinguishing open fires. Surfaces will be slick and slippery within minutes, and if there&#39;s nowhere for all the water to drain off to then localised flooding will soon ensue.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sunlight bag: &lt;/b&gt;A faint glow emanates from between the closely-woven fibres of this bag, equivalent to soft candlelight. Make a hole in it and a beam of strong, bright sunlight emerges that you can use like a flashlight, or as an anti-vampire laser. Pull it open and hot, bright, dazzling sunlight pours out, floodlighting the whole area as though under a noonday sun, making stealth difficult and potentially causing temporary blindness in areas shifting rapidly from dark to light.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Thunderstorm bag: &lt;/b&gt;Shakes violently and makes loud rumbling noises. In most respects this is just a noisier version of the rainstorm bag, but if you pull it open you get flashing lightning and deafening thunder as well as just rain, making it extremely hazardous to anyone standing on top of tall objects and/or waving conductive objects around.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Wind bag: &lt;/b&gt;Trembles continuously. Poking a hole in it causes a strong stream of air to pour forth - potentially useful for blowing out flames, for example. Opening it fully causes a powerful gale-like wind to pour out of the bag for the duration. Unlike all the other weather bags, this wind does not simply create an environmental effect in the area around the opener: instead it is directional, with wind continuing to blow outwards in whichever direction the bag is pointed, allowing it to be used to propel ships across water, used as a weapon to knock people over, etc. Once the bag is opened there&#39;s no way to shut it again - the wind will just keep blowing out until it&#39;s exhausted.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEDnyRtczv3B0AdCtW_tKcGg5tTOgmNeI2bIAhlOPNJbC8yZnLVGmSAUlylod5Oqh0MTcpaP4WR47Fw2L6WGXN053hwSbVR-vXAid-taMzNTiFy25utkGgTGQnCfRAOj8BRTfNKn-J84DF/s500/1795c6ad94fbb8346fc984510faea567.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;500&quot; data-original-width=&quot;461&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEDnyRtczv3B0AdCtW_tKcGg5tTOgmNeI2bIAhlOPNJbC8yZnLVGmSAUlylod5Oqh0MTcpaP4WR47Fw2L6WGXN053hwSbVR-vXAid-taMzNTiFy25utkGgTGQnCfRAOj8BRTfNKn-J84DF/s320/1795c6ad94fbb8346fc984510faea567.jpg&quot; width=&quot;295&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of Emotion (roll 1d10)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b&gt;-&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;When opened, these create a localised mood effect in a radius of 1d10x10 feet around the bag. Anyone within the affected area when the bag is opened must save or be affected by the relevant emotion for the next 1d6 hours. Many would make good missile weapons as long as you can be sure of them bursting on impact.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of anger: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected will be filled with irrational rage for the duration. The tiniest setbacks or disagreements will prompt screaming arguments and howls of fury, minor provocations will lead to fistfights, and serious insults or challenges are likely to provoke lethal violence.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of confidence: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected will be filled with irrational confidence for the duration. This isn&#39;t insanity - they won&#39;t believe they can do something impossible, like fly or breathe water - but will tend to make people very, very reckless. Rank amateurs will gleefully attempt tasks that they would normally leave to trained professionals, while experts will throw all their normal caution to the wind. These effects &lt;i&gt;can &lt;/i&gt;be helpful - e.g. to give someone with social anxiety the confidence to speak publicly - but will always tend more towards &#39;manic overconfidence&#39; rather than &#39;calm self-belief&#39;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of curiosity: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected will be overwhelmed by curiosity. What&#39;s behind that door? What does that lever do? Why &lt;i&gt;does &lt;/i&gt;that guy always look pale whenever anyone mentions snakes? Very occasionally, this can be a good thing, prompting people to solve puzzles and unravel mysteries they would otherwise have left untouched. More commonly it will lead to broken friendships at best (&#39;What &lt;i&gt;did &lt;/i&gt;happen on that night you told me never to ask about?&#39;) and broken limbs at worst. (&#39;I wonder what happens if you push the button marked &#39;do not push&#39;?&#39;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of envy: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected will have their feelings of envy and resentment magnified manifold. This makes most social interactions enormously difficult: even something as simple as handing out jobs will cause intense bickering as people argue over all the ways in which they are being unfairly slighted. Anything that would normally cause envy &lt;i&gt;anyway &lt;/i&gt;(e.g. seeing someone else with something you powerfully desire and/or believe should be rightfully yours) may well lead to acts of theft or violence.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of fear: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected will be consumed with overwhelming anxiety, convinced that something absolutely terrible is about to happen. Even minor stressors (e.g. someone jumping out unexpectedly) will cause screaming and cowering, while something that would normally be scary (e.g. a fire, a battle) will prompt either fainting or panicked flight.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of friendship: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected will be filled with warm, fuzzy, happy feelings, like the kind you get after three or four drinks with really good friends. Enmity or hostility will still be regarded as such, but any kind of friendly behaviour will be enthusiastically reciprocated, even when it comes from complete strangers. Those affected will also be much more trusting than they normally would be.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of guilt: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected will be consumed with guilt over every shameful thing they&#39;ve ever done. If they&#39;re &lt;i&gt;already &lt;/i&gt;feeling guilty about something, then the amplified feeling will be so powerful that it may prompt dramatic confessions, spectacular attempts at restitution, or even suicide attempts. Otherwise it will just make them really miserable and self-involved, too caught up in beating themselves up over everything they&#39;ve ever done wrong to notice much of what is going on around them, and too crippled by self-loathing to accomplish anything more than the most basic and routine tasks for the duration.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of sloth:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected is overwhelmed by feelings of laziness. Every task is carried out in the most half-assed fashion possible. Every corner that can possibly be cut will be. (Depending on exactly what they&#39;re currently doing, this may be extremely dangerous!) They will still try to protect themselves against immediate threats, but will never do more than this: they will not, for example, pursue a fleeing enemy.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of happiness: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected will feel happy. Really, really happy. Singing and dancing and laughing for no reason levels of happy. Negative emotions (e.g. fear, depression, anger) will simply vanish. Pain or exhaustion don&#39;t go away, but become nothing that can&#39;t be handled with gritted teeth or the aid of a rousing song. The effect is really, really enjoyable, and highly addictive.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of misery: &lt;/b&gt;Anyone affected sinks into utter misery and despair for the duration, unable to do anything much except sit and weep about how unhappy they are. If threatened with immediate harm they will still try to protect or defend themselves, but are unlikely to be very good at it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9hgKkZzD0LA2W8uvzOElzDrKw6ehEZJPXBYcyyDZ-puQBT8mHDISZmkNo1065rgsJ7Oh-7Jdqu4Z1M_loHWj7NgWL379MDw5Y0fPSZ-wQq_NCpkbE_l3o03UYIKL7mVHDd-VPA-5TlWgX/s1260/6256a8f34edd0734e22eec3251ff0832.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;820&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1260&quot; height=&quot;208&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9hgKkZzD0LA2W8uvzOElzDrKw6ehEZJPXBYcyyDZ-puQBT8mHDISZmkNo1065rgsJ7Oh-7Jdqu4Z1M_loHWj7NgWL379MDw5Y0fPSZ-wQq_NCpkbE_l3o03UYIKL7mVHDd-VPA-5TlWgX/s320/6256a8f34edd0734e22eec3251ff0832.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of Abstraction&amp;nbsp; (roll 1d10)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of darkness: &lt;/b&gt;Opening it a little bit is like dimming all the lights in a room, which may be handy if you&#39;re currently trying to sneak around. Opening it all the way releases a cloud of impenetrable magical darkness that persists for 1d6 hours.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of dreams: &lt;/b&gt;Opening this bag a crack will let a dream slip into your head, good for 1d3 hours of pleasantly surreal lucid dreaming. Ripping it open will force everyone within 1d6x10 feet to save or be plunged into a hallucinatory dreamworld for the next 1d6 hours, during which they can perceive reality only dimly, as though half-asleep. Suffering physical pain or damage will wrench them awake.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of energy: &lt;/b&gt;Just letting out a little bit is enough to remove the fatigue of an hour&#39;s hard labour. Opening the whole bag will cause everyone within 1d10x10 feet to race around like rabbits on speed for 1d6 hours, after which they must save or crash spectacularly for the next 2d6 hours.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of ideas: &lt;/b&gt;Just a sniff from this bag is enough to give you new ideas, allowing a reroll on Intelligence rolls or similar. If the whole bag is opened, everyone within 1d10x10 feet&amp;nbsp;must save or be overwhelmed by&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;too many ideas,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;spending the next 1d6 hours frantically trying to scribble down notes, build prototypes, etc. (Note that this doesn&#39;t grant any skills you don&#39;t already possess, just new ideas for how to use your existing ones.) They will still protect themselves if threatened, but will otherwise be lost in worlds of their own for the duration. If they have the ability to write down or otherwise record their ideas then they will each find 1d10 really good ones buried amongst all the gibberish after they finally come down from their intellectual high.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of motivation: &lt;/b&gt;Inhaling a sniff of vapour from this bag is enough to motivate someone to push forward through hours of boring, difficult, and/or exhausting labour, but watch out - if the bag ever bursts, everyone within 1d10x10 feet&amp;nbsp;must save or suddenly find the motivation to do whatever it is they&#39;ve been putting off for their whole lives, which probably means they all instantly run off to take up singing or confess their love to their childhood crush or whatever.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of pain: &lt;/b&gt;This is a nasty one - even touching it hurts a bit. You can release it onto someone a trickle at a time as a form of torture, or throw the bag to unleash a cloud of incapacitating agony, forcing everyone within 1d6x10 feet&amp;nbsp;to save or drop to the floor screaming in pain for 1d20 minutes. They can still try to defend themselves, but will do so with greatly reduced effectiveness.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of pleasure: &lt;/b&gt;Sniff a bit for an instant high, or throw it to make everyone within 1d6x10 feet&amp;nbsp;save or drop to the floor in blissed-out stupefaction for 1d20 minutes, during which time they will do nothing but smile vacantly and maybe quiver a little. Anyone who &lt;i&gt;wants &lt;/i&gt;to be affected can voluntarily fail their save.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of sickness: &lt;/b&gt;Not the airplane kind: instead, these are create by medical magicians, who pull the diseases out of their patients and place them inside these bags. If opened, everyone within 1d10x10 feet&amp;nbsp;must save&amp;nbsp;or become seriously ill, spending the next 1d20 days mostly bedridden by pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, and various other unpleasant (though not life-threatening) symptoms.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of stupidity: &lt;/b&gt;Created as a by-product of magical intelligence-enhancing rituals, during which wizards deliberately suck out their own stupidity and seal it away in enchanted bags. If the bag is opened or broken, everyone within 1d10x10 feet&amp;nbsp;must save or have their effective Intelligence and Wisdom halved for the next 1d6 hours.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bag of time: &lt;/b&gt;Who doesn&#39;t need more time? Opening it just a crack will allow a few more seconds to slip out between one minute and the next, which can be crucial when performing exacting tasks under pressure. Opening the whole bag will release a bubble of compressed time with a radius of 1d10x10 feet: from inside this bubble the world outside appears to be frozen for the next 1d6 hours, whereas from outside everything that happens in the bubble during those hours appears to occur instantaneously. Nothing from inside the bubble can leave the bubble until the compressed time has elapsed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLlchWvUqgG8j7IJttOtn1Mu7AmanDocefuPpHaiBJxc-rEabVcz7co3n4F3bmWVBce4u_orSboMRBtsfLRiq0cD7bNQGECdWrBld4A0LfO_eKkj3D-IXetHFf4nTsiYjxRmv7ZTCS5ij/s500/image.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;500&quot; data-original-width=&quot;500&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLlchWvUqgG8j7IJttOtn1Mu7AmanDocefuPpHaiBJxc-rEabVcz7co3n4F3bmWVBce4u_orSboMRBtsfLRiq0cD7bNQGECdWrBld4A0LfO_eKkj3D-IXetHFf4nTsiYjxRmv7ZTCS5ij/s320/image.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/7835511288394448515/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/09/magic-bags-and-things-inside-them.html#comment-form' title='9 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/7835511288394448515'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/7835511288394448515'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/09/magic-bags-and-things-inside-them.html' title='Magic bags and the things inside them'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlVfQIny9inUaSlpPSRIxBBBSx7EVfoqH5pj84qaGHgkoZEJJMLIId2Q3DutXat8sIxpG6KLW7oB9ydeH1fXhdxpAh_C2cnkbdrSCFqWZWumziBMNL29TLXY3_zOfGQeM6ZlxAP9EPmfZ/s72-c/51f9df7d817fca9efc59eefb14aa6f26.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>9</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-4820737802594653771</id><published>2021-08-18T07:50:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2021-08-18T07:50:17.526-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Devonshire"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="General-purpose musings"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Religion"/><title type='text'>Local gods and the spiritual technology of rulership</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;There&#39;s a legend about the Battle of Brunanburh, at which King Aethelstan confronted the allied kings of Scotland, Dublin, and Strathclyde in 937 AD. Before the battle, one of Aethelstan&#39;s soldiers was lying sick: he happened to be a Devonshire man, so in his sickness he prayed to his local saint, the martyr St Nectan, to heal him. That night he had a vision of St Nectan, and in the morning the sickness was gone and he was well enough to fight.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The interesting bit isn&#39;t the healing: it&#39;s what happened next. The Devon man told everyone about his miraculous recovery, and soon word reached King Aethelstan. Aethelstan was understandably nervous about the coming battle, so he asked the soldier which saint it was who had proven so receptive to his prayers. The soldier told him about Saint Nectan, and assured him that Nectan was always swift to intercede on behalf of those who had faith in him. Aethelstan prayed to St Nectan, won the battle, and was a generous donor to the cult of the saint thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWxib9MZLvfWzUwM4nWPp-lK2zsODg2uLf4roU5dQjQQQnK6D4pZyniz_zodFenK_v8QCQrZoDqR9DCeKZWLei8w2UWbDnOg13PpfoqAvmQcIdbVa1ZyPkCdScwniLuCH0c5p70bXaJ7RB/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;333&quot; data-original-width=&quot;250&quot; height=&quot;333&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWxib9MZLvfWzUwM4nWPp-lK2zsODg2uLf4roU5dQjQQQnK6D4pZyniz_zodFenK_v8QCQrZoDqR9DCeKZWLei8w2UWbDnOg13PpfoqAvmQcIdbVa1ZyPkCdScwniLuCH0c5p70bXaJ7RB/w250-h333/image.png&quot; width=&quot;250&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just think for a moment about what this sequence of events implies about Aethelstan&#39;s mindset. He&#39;s king of a sparsely-populated nation made up of hundreds of scattered communities, each with their own local shrines and saints and martyrs and holy wells, most of which have never been heard of by anyone outside their local area. He takes it as given that these saints are capable of interceding with God on his behalf, and that some of them are more likely to do so than others, but crucially &lt;i&gt;he doesn&#39;t know which ones. &lt;/i&gt;The obscure hermit-saint revered in some provincial village might turn out to be exactly the guy you need to pray to in order to resolve a major national crisis. Working out who to pray to under which circumstances isn&#39;t a matter of set dogma, established long ago and handed down by recognised authorities: instead, it&#39;s a work in progress, to be figured out by trial and error. Building up a working knowledge of all your national saints, and cultivating suitable relations with their respective cults, becomes a potentially important element of kingship.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a mindset that would, I think, have made intuitive sense to the Tengriist and Shamanistic cultures in the history of Central Asia, for whom the question &#39;which spirits have authority &lt;i&gt;here?&lt;/i&gt;&#39; was one that every nomadic people had to confront regularly as they roamed from place to place. It would have made sense to the Romans, for whom working out which set of local gods to buy off was an integral part of the process of conquest. It is, however, a mindset that seems to be very rare in D&amp;amp;D and associated games, where most fantasy religions seem to have completely codified understandings of the sacred rather than the more experimental approaches that have historically been so commonplace. This strikes me as a bit of a pity - there&#39;s so much more gaming potential in the latter!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Imagine if, instead of being a fully worked-out institutional religion like counter-reformation-era Catholicism, your cleric&#39;s faith was something closer to Aethelstan&#39;s version of Christianity, a hacky work-in-progress always subject to revision based on the latest discoveries. A huge amount of your adventuring could be motivated simply by the desire to learn more about different local gods or saints or spirits, which you would do by visiting lots of different shrines and making lots of different offerings &lt;i&gt;just to find out which ones work best. &lt;/i&gt;In a world where most people stick close to home, worshipping their local gods, an adventuring cleric who&#39;s been all over the place could become a real asset simply because of their breadth of spiritual experience. (&#39;Actually, my liege, over the mountains they have a saint that they pray to in &lt;i&gt;exactly &lt;/i&gt;this sort of situation...&#39;)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuyXp86C04Iue_wHFK93qwf9FZIy0kfbQ3xEWRy69Kk7rg5uDO67_gCdwsMEaBEJ5YBGr2Nx_-D13JpmELKWtUNQlKFIPVenAGv9uXhpnr_XkL2K9h2jPTlkxXDNjmVfU8W2evVs-gY6DA/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;277&quot; data-original-width=&quot;133&quot; height=&quot;344&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuyXp86C04Iue_wHFK93qwf9FZIy0kfbQ3xEWRy69Kk7rg5uDO67_gCdwsMEaBEJ5YBGr2Nx_-D13JpmELKWtUNQlKFIPVenAGv9uXhpnr_XkL2K9h2jPTlkxXDNjmVfU8W2evVs-gY6DA/w165-h344/image.png&quot; width=&quot;165&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Probably the easiest way to represent this mechanically would be to have knowledge of certain spiritual practises grant access to new cleric spells. In most cases these spells might only be available to clerics who&#39;d actually gone to the trouble of visiting whatever remote shrine they are associated with, but sometimes just knowing the name and rituals of the associated god or saint might be enough. Imagine the prestige to be gained in being the cleric who brings such knowledge back to their cult centre and thus unlocks a new spell not just for themselves, but for their entire religion!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And it works for quest-givers, too. Obviously every ruler is going to want to have the latest, sweetest spiritual technology on their side. Obviously they&#39;ll want to aggressively investigate rumours of holy sites, obscure shrines, sacred springs, and so on, in the hope of giving themselves and their clergy an edge over their rivals. Everyone knows about all the most famous gods and saints, so they just cancel out: the real advantage is to be gained from being the first one in on a hot new discovery, and they&#39;re almost always going to come from way out in the hinterlands, or someone would know about them already. Of course it&#39;s going to fall to your party to make the long, dangerous journey through the wilderness to the half-ruined shrine of some obscure local spirit or hermit, so that your cleric can check whether they have enough spiritual mojo to be worth adding to the national liturgy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just think of the adventure opportunities!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsAFVVu2_GAqK63jMGhnYA9i_xJXTIQhu6eCAGbSyU8Ixwhvv9UC94S6G5CURxFhhUY7jeqNZ_NF4WyOJZcJFGBoxRv8X1iRXDNZ5f3be755lCKIhJk8a_KwTcHE2p6bFcQ30ry8fq7pB/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;350&quot; data-original-width=&quot;230&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsAFVVu2_GAqK63jMGhnYA9i_xJXTIQhu6eCAGbSyU8Ixwhvv9UC94S6G5CURxFhhUY7jeqNZ_NF4WyOJZcJFGBoxRv8X1iRXDNZ5f3be755lCKIhJk8a_KwTcHE2p6bFcQ30ry8fq7pB/&quot; width=&quot;158&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;1d10 local god adventure opportunities&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;The king wants to develop a new industry, but because it&#39;s not been historically practiced in his kingdom he doesn&#39;t know who the appropriate gods/saints/spirits are who oversee these things. Your job is to go to some foreign land where this trade is already established and surreptitiously steal all their knowledge about how best to honour, petition, and placate the relevant spiritual beings, all without giving away the secret of the king&#39;s economic plans. You&#39;ll get a bonus if you can learn the secret rites their guildsmen carry out behind closed doors!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;In your grandfather&#39;s day there was a weird old hermit living in the mountains. Now people are claiming to see him in their dreams and there are rumours of miracles occurring near the remote cave where he once lived. Your job is to get out there, try to work out if he really has become a legitimate god/saint/spirit, and - if he has - find some way to integrate him into the local religion. (Maybe a shrine could be built in his cave? Or maybe you could find his bones and take them to the local temple as holy relics?)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The king is trying to integrate a recently-conquered frontier region into his kingdom, and he needs someone to do a spiritual survey. Your job is to roam from shrine to shrine among a resentful and rebellious population, cataloguing their local gods/saints/spirits and working out which of them, if any, might be worth adding to the national cult.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Old chronicles speak of a god/saint/spirit who once bestowed powerful blessings upon their worshippers, but its cult centre has long since fallen into ruin, and no-one remembers the rites by which it was once honoured. Might there be something out there worth salvaging? You&#39;ll have to voyage though the wilderness to its abandoned shrine and start making experimental offerings to find out!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The king has a major project planned and he needs as much sacred mojo as possible. Your job is to visit the shrines of the relevant gods/saints/spirits, obtain their sacred items and holy relics by whatever means necessary, and bring them to the capital to ensure the project&#39;s success. Naturally, you can expect the locals to violently resist the removal of their treasures.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;As 5, but from the other side. A bunch of thugs with a royal warrant just rode into your local shrine and carried off the relics of your local god/saint/spirit to the capital, claiming that the king needs them more than you do! Now your community looks to you to steal them back, and to establish a new, secret shrine where they can be safely kept in future.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The king is planning to hold a major religious festival to bring the blessings of heaven upon his newly-built navy. It&#39;s going to cost him a fortune, and he needs to be sure that he&#39;s getting the maximum bang for his buck. Your job is to roam the remote storm-wracked islands and pirate-haunted headlands where all the best gods/saints/spirits of the sea seem to have their shrines, and find out which ones are most worth honouring in the festivities. Expect every single priest you meet to try to hustle you about this.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;There&#39;s been a disaster - but all the priests insist that they&#39;ve been carrying out their ceremonies perfectly! Clearly some unknown god/saint/spirit is offended - but which one? Your job is to divine which obscure spiritual entity has been neglected, make a pilgrimage to their remote place of power, and make whatever offerings they require in order to slake their wrath before the kingdom suffers even further calamities.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sometimes the god/saint/spirit you need to pray to has their holiest shrine in a &lt;i&gt;really inconvenient place, &lt;/i&gt;like the other side of a monster-haunted wilderness or the middle of an enemy kingdom. Your job is to undertake the perilous journey there to make offerings on behalf of your king, so that he can win their favour for his latest scheme.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Out in the wilderness the remains of some forgotten shrine to a god/saint/spirit have been discovered, but no-one recognises the names carved on its ancient stone. Is it holy or unholy? Does power still reside here, and if so, is there enough of it to make it worth re-establishing whatever vanished cult once built this place? Best do your research first: trial-and-error offerings may risk causing offence that your kingdom can ill afford...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIrdEEiNgydKBoKznurClAr8a8MGTuKCR5pFvjhlkkoRzh6hMr3rhE0DDiG0mw78O80ayfN4npBY4yQAiN8y59e6Vhm5dRuDTINeJQEnnHav3jX3Xh4ly7pnW0_NSVqiGy2iSpu1-y3uUt/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;419&quot; data-original-width=&quot;334&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIrdEEiNgydKBoKznurClAr8a8MGTuKCR5pFvjhlkkoRzh6hMr3rhE0DDiG0mw78O80ayfN4npBY4yQAiN8y59e6Vhm5dRuDTINeJQEnnHav3jX3Xh4ly7pnW0_NSVqiGy2iSpu1-y3uUt/&quot; width=&quot;191&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/4820737802594653771/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/08/local-gods-and-spiritual-technology-of.html#comment-form' title='26 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/4820737802594653771'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/4820737802594653771'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/08/local-gods-and-spiritual-technology-of.html' title='Local gods and the spiritual technology of rulership'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWxib9MZLvfWzUwM4nWPp-lK2zsODg2uLf4roU5dQjQQQnK6D4pZyniz_zodFenK_v8QCQrZoDqR9DCeKZWLei8w2UWbDnOg13PpfoqAvmQcIdbVa1ZyPkCdScwniLuCH0c5p70bXaJ7RB/s72-w250-h333-c/image.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>26</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-6461418381795530684</id><published>2021-08-14T10:51:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2021-08-14T10:51:01.585-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="General-purpose musings"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Super-long"/><title type='text'>Elements of incongruity</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve written before about the dangers of simply doubling down on the same ideas&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;ad infinitum,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;leading to extremely one-note characters, settings, and situations: barbarians primarily characterised by their barbaric barbarism, rogues notable for their roguish roguery, and so on. Not only does this tend to make scenarios more boring on a conceptual level, it often also leads to less satisfying actual play. If the Pyromantic Fire Coven of the Burning Flame Witch are totally &lt;i&gt;all in &lt;/i&gt;on fire magic, then once the PCs have developed viable anti-fire-magic countermeasures they really have no reason to respond to each thing the Coven throws at them with anything other than &#39;the same again, but more&#39;. But the best play thrives on&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;complexity,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;on situations fraught with tensions and contradictions that the PCs can get their claws into and turn to their advantage.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One easy way to create this is to ensure that each creature, community, organisation, or whatever includes at least one &lt;i&gt;element of incongruity. &lt;/i&gt;This is the wrinkle in their otherwise smooth conceptual facade: the thing that not only makes them more interesting and memorable, but also provides hooks for more nuanced play, making them resistant to the overconfident and vulnerable to the well-prepared.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So here are some examples. To come up with one for your next NPC or faction, try rolling 1d3 and 1d6...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUtte98iU0m4r1NZ2_cjQD8bz1XUhA6x0Og0dfzmB2sKmlvcdlG995_prDga2_ht38CEPt4ky5ddnEyegxt6EQIYdOmzwyQoM7UMuCcI2Mx7Yrppxqu8f4xv43vInQcSIFjWs7eZ4GWcCU/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;530&quot; data-original-width=&quot;707&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUtte98iU0m4r1NZ2_cjQD8bz1XUhA6x0Og0dfzmB2sKmlvcdlG995_prDga2_ht38CEPt4ky5ddnEyegxt6EQIYdOmzwyQoM7UMuCcI2Mx7Yrppxqu8f4xv43vInQcSIFjWs7eZ4GWcCU/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruity type (roll 1d3)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Incongruous character trait.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Incongruous individual.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Incongruous nature.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous character trait. &lt;/b&gt;Children&#39;s fiction uses this sort of thing all the time. (&#39;It turned out that the dragon &lt;i&gt;secretly loved dancing!&lt;/i&gt;&#39;) This sort of thing can serve to trip up players who make over-hasty assumptions about how such characters will behave, while also providing resources for those who bother to get to know them properly, allowing them to be more easily befriended or manipulated by the PCs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Assign an incongruous trait by rolling 1d6:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous belief. &lt;/b&gt;This person has one sincere and deeply-held belief that could not easily be predicted from their general worldview or ideological position. Maybe an otherwise-rational person has one superstition they take really seriously, and cannot be argued out of; maybe an otherwise-conservative traditionalist has one topic on which they have surprisingly liberal views, or vice-versa. An important sub-type is the &lt;i&gt;incongruous moral position&lt;/i&gt;, whereby an otherwise-decent person turns out to harbour some horrible prejudice or moral blind spot, or a seemingly-wicked or amoral person turns out to have at least one moral line they genuinely will not cross.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous personality trait. &lt;/b&gt;This person has one character trait that is apparently out of keeping with their social role. Immense personal vanity is predictable among aristocrats, but perhaps more surprising in an orc raider; tremendous interpersonal aggression might be common among street thugs, but is more unexpected in a librarian. They may have found a way to make this trait work for them - maybe the librarian has terrorised all his rivals into submission! - or it may form a barrier that they need to work around in order to fulfil the role expected of them.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous interest or hobby. &lt;/b&gt;This person is fascinated by something unexpected, like an absent-minded sage turning out to be a bare-knuckle boxing enthusiast, or a brutal ogre who actually has a deep and genuine appreciation for music. They may be ashamed of this interest and keep it secret, which will only make them more eager to share it with non-judgemental fellow enthusiasts.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Incongruous background. &lt;/b&gt;This person wasn&#39;t always the way they are now. Maybe they&#39;ve experienced a massive rise or fall in social status (e.g. the street thief was actually born into a noble family, or vice versa), or maybe they&#39;ve undergone some huge cultural shift, moving into a religious, cultural, or ideological position very different from the one they originally held. They consequently possess a body of skills and knowledge incongruous with their current position - that street thief may actually have a surprising knowledge of aristocratic etiquette left over from their privileged childhood!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous relationship. &lt;/b&gt;This person maintains a relationship (personal, familial, or romantic) which connects them to a sphere of life otherwise remote from their own. Maybe the bandit chief&#39;s sister is the city archivist. Maybe this weird, smelly hermit was once the baron&#39;s childhood friend. The relationship means a lot to both parties, even though they might feel some embarrassment about it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous ambition. &lt;/b&gt;This person has always aspired to something utterly different to their current life. Maybe they wanted to pursue a very different career, like a sailor who always wanted to be an artist instead, or vice versa; or maybe they harbour a secret crush on someone from a very different social sphere, and dream of running away with them and living happily ever after. Depending on context, this ambition may be something they talk about all the time, or something they keep carefully hidden.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfpTNzcNV1aAw6vvVFf15dFImGq5JuHvLmvPtdKCo_aSt5O6vE0y7l13g9IwySuVAq0tg4W9VYm3p48MBbnFomlfjYggV7OJheiCuFlBuIQ-GlbaZS9Mkk2w5E02UsrCM_x61qlovjDzMg/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;619&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1100&quot; height=&quot;180&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfpTNzcNV1aAw6vvVFf15dFImGq5JuHvLmvPtdKCo_aSt5O6vE0y7l13g9IwySuVAq0tg4W9VYm3p48MBbnFomlfjYggV7OJheiCuFlBuIQ-GlbaZS9Mkk2w5E02UsrCM_x61qlovjDzMg/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous individual. &lt;/b&gt;When it comes to individuals in groups, lots of RPG adventures tend to go for the &#39;chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce&#39; approach: so if the group are violent savage, their leader or champion will be notable for being &lt;i&gt;even more savagely violent. &lt;/i&gt;But you can get much more mileage out of having a &lt;i&gt;difference, &lt;/i&gt;instead: something that sets them apart in kind rather than just degree, a difference which can serve as a source of strength or as a wedge to drive them apart. Assign an incongruous individual by rolling 1d6:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous ideology. &lt;/b&gt;The group all do the same things - they wouldn&#39;t be much of a group, otherwise - but one of them does them for different reasons to the rest. Maybe, in a band of outlaws otherwise motivated by greed, one actually sees their criminal activities as a way to strike back against the unjust social order. Maybe most of the soldiers are fighting because they actually want to win the war, but their commanding officer is only here to pursue a private vendetta, or out of a sense of religious obligation. Whatever the split is, it&#39;s not enough to stop them from working together on a day-to-day basis (or they&#39;d have gone their separate ways ages ago), but it might well come to the forefront in moments of crisis.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous quality. &lt;/b&gt;One person in the group is just &lt;i&gt;much better &lt;/i&gt;or &lt;i&gt;much worse &lt;/i&gt;than the rest in some significant way. Maybe the thieves are mostly mere brawlers... except for one of them, who&#39;s the best knife-fighter anyone&#39;s ever seen. Maybe the hobgoblins are hardened warriors... except for one of them, who&#39;s someone&#39;s little brother out on his first campaign. Either way around, this difference probably arouses a complicated mixture of positive and negative feelings in the others: unusually strong characters will be regarded with mingled respect and envy, while unusually weak ones may be viewed with a mixture of protectiveness and resentment.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous culture. &lt;/b&gt;One individual in the group has a very different social or cultural background to the rest. Maybe they&#39;re part of a different ethnicity (or a different species, in a fantasy setting); maybe they follow a different religion, or were born into a different culture or social class (e.g. one member of a band of aristocratic rakehells who was actually born poor, and is extremely self-conscious about it). This difference may be a source of strength, providing skills and knowledge that the group would otherwise lack, but can also be a source of tension that scheming adversaries may use to pry them apart.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous ability. &lt;/b&gt;One individual in the group has some surprising ability that the others lack: a scholar in a band of beggars, a skilled diplomat in a gang of orcish raiders, a talented huntsman in an office full of bureaucrats, etc. For fantasy games this may also take the form of a magical talent.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous virtue. &lt;/b&gt;One person in the group has some important positive quality - e.g. mercy, loyalty, tolerance, courage, compassion - that the rest of them lack. This virtue can&#39;t be something that gets in the way of the group&#39;s day-to-day activities - a pirate who refuses to steal isn&#39;t going to be a pirate for long - but may well surface at crucial junctures, when one member of the group unexpectedly breaks from the rest to take some kind of moral stand.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous vice. &lt;/b&gt;One person in the group has some important negative quality - e.g. sadism, cowardice, deceitfulness, addiction, greed - that the rest of them lack.&amp;nbsp;Depending on the context, this vice may be something they perform openly or something they try to keep secret, but it&#39;s a big enough part of their personality that anyone who observes them closely is likely to pick up on it. As with virtues, such vices are particularly likely to reveal themselves at crucial junctures, when one member of the group abandons or betrays their comrades or otherwise gives way to their worst impulses.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHxunFJNxkHbK-LVUIUny-KKlhEA2YU0e89nhrbz2-JTRERE_jAzc09R5X2k96yb3i6mAaZlcLmde4Rcx1DUzx3q-AMOJhCKHea93kGbxKLtuyfK8YGcV5O2nAbVUiOruksQeM2vezVZI/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1254&quot; data-original-width=&quot;2508&quot; height=&quot;160&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHxunFJNxkHbK-LVUIUny-KKlhEA2YU0e89nhrbz2-JTRERE_jAzc09R5X2k96yb3i6mAaZlcLmde4Rcx1DUzx3q-AMOJhCKHea93kGbxKLtuyfK8YGcV5O2nAbVUiOruksQeM2vezVZI/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruous nature. &lt;/b&gt;The character is not who they seem to be. The face they present to the world is a performance, but their true nature is very different to what they pretend, and at moments of crisis the &lt;i&gt;real &lt;/i&gt;them shines through. Their true nature could be anything as long as it&#39;s sufficiently distinct from their public facade, but to pick one that&#39;ll work for almost anyone, roll 1d6. (And, yes, these are all Natures from the old World of Darkness system...)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Covert monster. &lt;/b&gt;Whatever the person pretends to be, the reality is far worse. If they pretend to be good, it&#39;s sheer hypocrisy. If they pretend to be normal, it&#39;s protective camouflage. If they pretend to at least be loyal to their mates, then they&#39;re actually just waiting for the right time to sell them out. Everything they do is &lt;i&gt;actually &lt;/i&gt;intended to multiply their opportunities to benefit themselves at other people&#39;s expense. Even the things that seem most benevolent. &lt;i&gt;Especially &lt;/i&gt;the things that seem most benevolent.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Covert caregiver. &lt;/b&gt;Whatever this person appears to be, they&#39;re actually a real softy at heart. They might still do harmful things, but it&#39;s only because they believe in tough love, or because they hope that the ends justify the means, or because they&#39;re trying to protect their friends or to teach you a lesson. At the end of the day they will always try to nurture their allies and minimise harm to their enemies, although they might pretend otherwise for appearance&#39;s sake.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Covert conformist. &lt;/b&gt;This person only acts the way they do because they feel it&#39;s expected of them. They might appear to be cruel, or kind, or artistic, or scholarly, or shy, or whatever... but it&#39;s all just a show, a performance for other people&#39;s benefit. Put them in a different social context and they&#39;d act completely differently. Put them in &lt;i&gt;no &lt;/i&gt;social context and they might even start the long and painful process of working out what &lt;i&gt;they &lt;/i&gt;want, instead.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Covert judge. &lt;/b&gt;This person is actually a moralist at heart. They might pretend to be anarchic or forgiving or amoral or nihilistic, but secretly they are always, always &lt;i&gt;judging. &lt;/i&gt;Everything they do is secretly a test, even when it&#39;s disguised as an act of mercy or sadism or hedonism or indifference,&lt;i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;and when it comes right down to it, the way they treat you will depend on the secret score they&#39;ve been chalking up for you in their heads this whole time.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Covert child. &lt;/b&gt;This person never really grew up. They can manage a passable performance of adulthood, including pretending to have proper adult motivations, but underneath it&#39;s all just childish curiosity and clinging and tantrums and &lt;i&gt;I WANT THE THING NOW! &lt;/i&gt;Such characters will often gravitate towards substitute parent-figures, although they&#39;ll usually claim that these relationships are romantic or political or professional, instead.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Covert idealist. &lt;/b&gt;This person really, seriously believes in some kind of big ideal: Freedom, Justice, Faith, Honour, that sort of thing. They probably don&#39;t make a big deal of it, because they know most people will either laugh at them or assume they&#39;re lying, but when push comes to shove they are actually, genuinely willing to kill or die for their ideal, in a fashion that is likely to be equal parts inspiring and terrifying.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgddfp__eIinwScj1PzcPhDQeMPBVpv9yTbpgV6flOFo7y9FaImtLFdvlD-7VnO-NBgAKg-wTCFULfBm1MR-l4BN3hhFwXlm9iovKtrpb1_iobl__eBcrmMnYWSBg8NdtEaa5kWdcAH-WE/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;174&quot; data-original-width=&quot;290&quot; height=&quot;192&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgddfp__eIinwScj1PzcPhDQeMPBVpv9yTbpgV6flOFo7y9FaImtLFdvlD-7VnO-NBgAKg-wTCFULfBm1MR-l4BN3hhFwXlm9iovKtrpb1_iobl__eBcrmMnYWSBg8NdtEaa5kWdcAH-WE/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Incongruity in Action: the Backwood Bandits&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Let&#39;s apply all these possibilities to that most uninteresting of fantasy cliches, the bandit gang. Hopefully it will be clear how any or all of these could lead to more interesting actual play! (And yes, if you wanted to, you could apply all eighteen at once...)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Boring version: &lt;/b&gt;The bandits are robbers who live in the backwoods. Their leader is the biggest, meanest robber of all.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;1.1: &lt;/b&gt;The bandits are, in their own idiosyncratic way, deeply religious. They refuse to rob on holy days, and will not harm members of the clergy.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;1.2: &lt;/b&gt;The bandits hate lying. They may kill and rob you, but at least they&#39;ll be totally honest about it.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;1.3: &lt;/b&gt;The bandits love music. Their rousing sing-alongs echo through the backwoods, and they&#39;ll go out of their way to steal musical instruments and kidnap musicians.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;1.4: &lt;/b&gt;The bandits actually started out as a bunch of university drop-outs who took to robbery after being expelled. For a band of forest-dwelling robbers they&#39;re a surprisingly learned bunch.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;1.5: &lt;/b&gt;The bandit chief is in love with a local cleric, whose temple he&#39;s been surreptitiously visiting by night, though both men are deeply conflicted about the relationship.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;1.6: &lt;/b&gt;The bandits actually intended to become legitimate merchants - the robbery was just intended to raise enough capital to start a business. But one thing led to another and now they&#39;re all wanted by the authorities and stuck living in a wood...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;2.1: &lt;/b&gt;Most of the bandits are just in it for the money, but one of them really believes that robbing people is her holy duty, and that she is the instrument of heaven&#39;s vengeance upon an unjust society.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;2.2: &lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits is so much better at woodcraft and archery than the others that it&#39;s positively obnoxious. All her comrades hate her.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;2.3: &lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits is a goblin, who acts as the group&#39;s scout, but is acutely conscious that the others will never &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;regard him as one of the gang.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;2.4: &lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits has natural magical talents, though he&#39;s totally untaught and has little control over how they manifest.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;2.5: &lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits is totally committed to the gang, and would happily lay down her life for them. (They would never dream of doing the same for her.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;2.6: &lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits is an awful alcoholic, unable to resist the lure of alcohol even when he knows that he &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;should.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;3.1: &lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits is a sociopathic monster who is just biding her time, waiting for the chance to sell out her &#39;friends&#39; and escape with all the loot.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;3.2: &lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits always secretly tries to make sure that no-one on either side gets hurt during their robberies - he claims his motives are purely pragmatic, but actually he just genuinely hates cruelty and violence.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;3.3: &lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits only got roped into a life of crime because of peer pressure. He talks a lot about the love of freedom and the injustice of the law, but would happily resume a blameless life of honest labour if given half a chance.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;3.4:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits is secretly testing the rest of the gang to see if they&#39;re truly worthy of her loyalty, willing to dedicate her life to them if they pass, or to betray them to the authorities if they fail.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;3.5: &lt;/b&gt;Beneath his ferocious exterior, one of the bandits is secretly a mass of insecurities, clinging to the bandit chief for reassurance in a world he&#39;s never really learned to understand or deal with.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;3.6:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;One of the bandits is an absolute true believer in personal liberty, and would rather kill or die than accept any kind of restriction or restraint.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj77wVVfEBpjJuTq61K7024UEJ_fjychtuwI6rCBsL1b7s9nGRtaQkJfeDsVcI6QQ1v4vlE7J4uGn-hrCQcg7Mzi5xRUN8ek0d-CR19g852eZDGgm7E4dp_nDkZTnj04JPZwqsgKVNL6VO-/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;567&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1024&quot; height=&quot;177&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj77wVVfEBpjJuTq61K7024UEJ_fjychtuwI6rCBsL1b7s9nGRtaQkJfeDsVcI6QQ1v4vlE7J4uGn-hrCQcg7Mzi5xRUN8ek0d-CR19g852eZDGgm7E4dp_nDkZTnj04JPZwqsgKVNL6VO-/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/6461418381795530684/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/08/elements-of-incongruity.html#comment-form' title='8 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/6461418381795530684'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/6461418381795530684'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/08/elements-of-incongruity.html' title='Elements of incongruity'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUtte98iU0m4r1NZ2_cjQD8bz1XUhA6x0Og0dfzmB2sKmlvcdlG995_prDga2_ht38CEPt4ky5ddnEyegxt6EQIYdOmzwyQoM7UMuCcI2Mx7Yrppxqu8f4xv43vInQcSIFjWs7eZ4GWcCU/s72-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>8</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-7457268461643479124</id><published>2021-06-26T14:31:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2021-06-26T14:31:31.923-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Possibly not entirely serious"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Random tables"/><title type='text'>Publish or Perish: d100 reasons your wizard had to drop out of academia and become an adventurer instead</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;My department has been interviewing for new academic posts this week - and as I contemplated the mountain of incoming job applications, the vast majority of them inevitably doomed to failure, I found myself thinking about D&amp;amp;D wizards. Becoming a D&amp;amp;D magic-user clearly requires a specialised education, and yet many of these highly-educated wizards end up as expendable dungeon-crawling adventurers. This suggests to me that D&amp;amp;D wizarding, like modern academia, is probably a profession in which supply and demand are badly out of balance, with many aspiring magi competing over every institutional post.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In situations like these, gatekeepers proliferate like weeds. There are lots of qualified applicants for every position, so having long lists of arbitrary hoops to jump through helps to winnow them down to a manageable level. (If half of them don&#39;t even &lt;i&gt;know &lt;/i&gt;about the hoops, so much the better!) A lucky few will master all the formal and informal rules of the profession well enough to get one of the coveted seats around the high table at Wizard College. The rest have to settle for a life spent casting&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Magic Missile&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;spells on goblins, instead.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJcdpARTFI4AAM2HWLWICEE-JPdBBPOK62NNmRAt8H7AeLbScFHRdLvbErOLM9yqPJiN7RODIghaMNJ4ZGv50Cx2tdyl1IYFoisArfMuOToTuRw-j7VdlcWfMGz1anjqnqii4wnuw5UKte/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;457&quot; data-original-width=&quot;626&quot; height=&quot;234&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJcdpARTFI4AAM2HWLWICEE-JPdBBPOK62NNmRAt8H7AeLbScFHRdLvbErOLM9yqPJiN7RODIghaMNJ4ZGv50Cx2tdyl1IYFoisArfMuOToTuRw-j7VdlcWfMGz1anjqnqii4wnuw5UKte/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So where did it all go wrong for &lt;i&gt;your &lt;/i&gt;magic-user? Why are they shivering in a dungeon instead of dozing in a nice warm corner of the Senior Common Room? Why are they plotting how to sneak past a troll, when the only plotting they wanted to do was about how to get a seat on the college wine committee? Roll 1d100 to find out!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your deep and subtle knowledge turned out to be no match for your terrible exam technique.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Disastrous relationship breakdown just before finals scuppered your chances of a top grade. At the time you thought love was more important. You were wrong.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You coasted through your education, getting by on natural talent, until you finally hit a subject you couldn&#39;t master at first glance and discovered you had never acquired any actual study skills.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You joined a drinking society in your first week at college. You finally sobered up shortly after graduation, which in retrospect was probably a bit late.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You proudly declared your support for one faction in an ongoing intellectual controversy, only to discover that the people assessing your work all adhered to the other side.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You were too busy doing part-time work to pay your extortionate college fees to actually do any studying.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You foolishly prioritised mastering your subject over making the right connections while at college.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Hosting ever-more-legendary college parties seemed like a great idea until you got expelled for setting fire to the accommodation block.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A senior academic took against you and failed all your assignments out of spite.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Impenetrable university bureaucracy meant that a minor clerical error on your part somehow led to you failing on a technicality.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You unwisely took the advice of your tutors at face value and studied the subjects that you, personally, found most intellectually stimulating, not realising that you were rendering yourself unemployable until it was too late.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&amp;nbsp;You got really into student politics, and were too busy organising protests and having intense conversations with sexy young radicals to do any actual studying.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You became fascinated by &lt;i&gt;avant-garde&lt;/i&gt; theory, and denounced your tutors as a bunch of obscuratist authoritarians too old and scared to recognise the true brilliance of your ideas, which in retrospect may not have been the best way to open the first paragraph of your dissertation.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Discovered too late that you&#39;d enrolled in a low-status college whose degrees no-one really took seriously.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The one topic you&#39;d revised for most carefully didn&#39;t come up in the paper.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You suffered a massive panic attack in mid-exam, destroying your prospects in a single horrible hour.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You devoted yourself to the fearless and objective pursuit of truth and enlightenment, regardless of where it might lead you. Turns out it led you to some very, very low grades.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The exciting new theory on which you wrote your thesis was discredited shortly after you submitted it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You staked everything on making a big breakthrough, but someone else got there first.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your academic supervisor was exposed as a fraud and you were tainted by association.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your tutor stole all your ideas and took all the credit.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You unintentionally offended your tutors by turning down too many social invitations, and discovered too late that none of them would write you references.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your hazy grasp of academic referencing conventions led to your whole dissertation being failed for plagiarism.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your breezy, irreverent, informal presentation style made you stand out in all the wrong ways.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You were written off as a hopeless case when you forgot to wear full academic dress to your first formal dinner.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You didn&#39;t find the &lt;i&gt;real &lt;/i&gt;library until it was much too late.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You made the wrong friends at college, and subsequently discovered that all your applications for funding kept being mysteriously rejected.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;It turned out that scholarship you were counting on was not, in fact, a sure thing.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;How were&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;you&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;supposed to know that was a secret society handshake?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Invited to dinner with the professors, ordered the wrong wine, career dead in five minutes flat.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Fell asleep and started snoring loudly in the middle of a very boring lecture by a very famous visiting academic.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sent to a conference as a representative of your college, completely fucked up your paper, tutors loathed you for making them look bad and failed you in revenge.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Tutored by an affable drunk who gave you brilliant grades for everything. You believed you were a genius until you met the &lt;i&gt;real &lt;/i&gt;competition.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Just because the invitation to meet the Master &lt;i&gt;says &lt;/i&gt;it&#39;s optional doesn&#39;t mean it&#39;s &lt;i&gt;actually &lt;/i&gt;optional, idiot!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Went to the wrong lectures.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Used the wrong archives.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cited the wrong sources.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Spoke at the wrong conferences.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Competed for the wrong prizes.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sent manuscripts to the wrong publishers.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Collaborated with the wrong academics.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Applied for the wrong kinds of funding.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Held visiting fellowships at the wrong colleges.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Chose the wrong referees.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Wore the wrong shoes to interview.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Used the wrong honorifics when greeting the Master.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Said what you &lt;i&gt;really &lt;/i&gt;thought about the Master&#39;s taste in painting while he still wasn&#39;t &lt;i&gt;quite &lt;/i&gt;out of earshot.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Came from the wrong town.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Went to the wrong school.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Spoke with the wrong accent.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Worshipped at the wrong church.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Patronised the wrong tailor.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Had the wrong opinion about that new play everyone was talking about.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Spent too much time working.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Spent too little time working.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Didn&#39;t get the right permissions.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mentioned the wrong people in your acknowledgements.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Took the same drugs as everyone else, but made the major &lt;i&gt;faux pas &lt;/i&gt;of &lt;i&gt;admitting &lt;/i&gt;that you took them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Walked on the grass without permission.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Fought back when viciously attacked by the college cat.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Passed the port right at High Table.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Dared to complain about the food.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Using long strings of on-trend content-free buzzwords may have sufficed to get you shortlisted, but oh God it did not play well at interview.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Did so well as a poorly-paid teaching assistant with no job security that the faculty decided to just carry on exploiting you forever.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Couldn&#39;t compete with the research resources available to much better-funded rivals.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Staked everything on a brilliant job opportunity without realising it was only ever meant to go to the inside candidate.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Loyally followed your boyfriend/girlfriend to a new city, without realising that everyone at college would forget all about you the instant you left town.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Turned down a safe job to follow up a tip about a more prestigious post elsewhere. You didn&#39;t realise that you&#39;d only been invited to make up the numbers until you saw the rest of the shortlist, and by then it was too late.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Just because they say they want your &#39;honest feedback&#39; doesn&#39;t mean you should actually tell them the truth!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;All those &#39;unmissable research opportunities&#39; turned out to be unpaid, and you eventually ran out of family money.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Used as an expendable catspaw in some kind of esoteric power struggle between two senior academics.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Took a few years out and found that the field had moved on without you.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Framed for academic misconduct by an ambitious rival who wanted to remove you from the competition.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The professor you gave up your old post to work with was undoubtedly brilliant twenty years ago, but these days he&#39;s just senile.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Applying for high-status posts made you look over-ambitious.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Applying for low-status posts made you look desperate.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Application letter was much too long and nobody read it.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your interviewer was your grandfather&#39;s college rival fifty years ago and still takes the feud extremely seriously.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your work was too traditional and it made you look boring.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your work was too non-traditional and it made you look unsafe.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Panicked in the interview and just started babbling.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Couldn&#39;t think of anything clever to say when the interviewer asked: &#39;And now, do &lt;i&gt;you &lt;/i&gt;have any questions for &lt;i&gt;us?&lt;/i&gt;&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I &lt;i&gt;think &lt;/i&gt;you&#39;ll &lt;i&gt;find &lt;/i&gt;that that term is now considered &lt;i&gt;highly offensive.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No, of course &lt;i&gt;we &lt;/i&gt;don&#39;t mean anything by it when &lt;i&gt;we &lt;/i&gt;say it. Don&#39;t you have a sense of humour?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Insufficiently active in defending the college during the latest town vs. gown riots.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Failure to attend sporting fixtures shows unpardonable lack of college spirit.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Insufficiently aggressive salary negotiations meant that your &#39;dream job&#39; left you a pauper.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;Yes, I can see that your work is terribly clever. But has it had any &lt;i&gt;public impact?&lt;/i&gt;&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;Is it relevant to &lt;i&gt;current government priorities?&lt;/i&gt;&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;Does it have any &lt;i&gt;commercial applications?&lt;/i&gt;&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&#39;How does it fit into our &lt;i&gt;college strategy?&#39;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Oh God you should have researched this place more thoroughly before you said that in your interview.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;How were &lt;i&gt;you &lt;/i&gt;supposed to know they hated each other?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Citing too little existing scholarship made you look ignorant.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Citing too much existing scholarship made you look derivative.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Your first book received a devastating review in the field&#39;s leading journal and your career never recovered.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;It took you years to work out that the reader was rejecting all your articles because he wanted you to send them to&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;his&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;journal, instead!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Failed to keep pace with changing intellectual fashions.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You were stupid enough to believe them when they said that the dinner wasn&#39;t part of the interview.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Learned too late that the college tiddlywinks society was the real key to success all along.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzozXo6X1E5Op9Fyaes-FMx0gCF_TyoK0O1AjjJGJLigU5D-7dWi4NE7aaQ0SDUk5XsktC8gVLk6cTr4oN3byeILGwBFvdC-mywjtDJZde3GFXrZWARaTKfLidGllEu2WqiwjTOTF_nFX/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;376&quot; data-original-width=&quot;512&quot; height=&quot;235&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzozXo6X1E5Op9Fyaes-FMx0gCF_TyoK0O1AjjJGJLigU5D-7dWi4NE7aaQ0SDUk5XsktC8gVLk6cTr4oN3byeILGwBFvdC-mywjtDJZde3GFXrZWARaTKfLidGllEu2WqiwjTOTF_nFX/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/7457268461643479124/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/06/publish-or-perish-d100-reasons-your.html#comment-form' title='26 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/7457268461643479124'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/7457268461643479124'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/06/publish-or-perish-d100-reasons-your.html' title='Publish or Perish: d100 reasons your wizard had to drop out of academia and become an adventurer instead'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJcdpARTFI4AAM2HWLWICEE-JPdBBPOK62NNmRAt8H7AeLbScFHRdLvbErOLM9yqPJiN7RODIghaMNJ4ZGv50Cx2tdyl1IYFoisArfMuOToTuRw-j7VdlcWfMGz1anjqnqii4wnuw5UKte/s72-c" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>26</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-6182509953188240300</id><published>2021-06-21T15:12:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2022-04-08T03:33:35.417-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Actual Play"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="City of Spires"/><title type='text'>Escape from the Ghoul Queen!</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;This post is about a situation that arose in a recent session. One of my players suggested that I post it, and I thought it might be of interest as a case study of in-game problem-solving.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The situation was as follows: the party had arranged a meeting with the fearsome Ghoul Queen, in order to negotiate future trade arrangements with her people. The meeting was to take place a few miles from the ruined city she ruled over, one hour before dawn. The PCs really wanted to meet with the Queen, but they were also aware that she was very, very dangerous, and they needed to have an escape plan that would allow them to flee the meeting in case she decided to abduct or murder them, instead.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspd9RFqm7ZQQ1zYfl4kSe6S6mtCwjfs5VtaV-FUYJm0p8LEUzY4uEq9rLIAQO13NT02JQBRAox8uaX0tphVTwHG34QNcKFc_e4pyfu62-SNyaLzceCAgl2OzTHuL7ECTEKFmxHEJvkfcJ/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1626&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1280&quot; height=&quot;282&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspd9RFqm7ZQQ1zYfl4kSe6S6mtCwjfs5VtaV-FUYJm0p8LEUzY4uEq9rLIAQO13NT02JQBRAox8uaX0tphVTwHG34QNcKFc_e4pyfu62-SNyaLzceCAgl2OzTHuL7ECTEKFmxHEJvkfcJ/w222-h282/image.png&quot; width=&quot;222&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://samrkennedy.cgsociety.org/l87y/zombie-queen&quot;&gt;Image by Sam Kennedy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Problem Stated:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;The meeting takes place in a blasted, rocky desert, with quite a lot of cover.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The Ghoul Queen is accompanied by a large retinue of ghouls, numerous enough that fighting them is not a realistic option.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The Ghoul Queen is known to have hidden dozens of ghouls in concealed pits around the meeting area, so simply running is likely to be difficult - the ghouls will pop out and grab anyone who tries to flee.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Ghouls are relatively weak individually, but have paralytic claws, so anyone attacked by a whole bunch of them is going to end up paralysed. They have no effective missile weapons.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Ghouls have a sharp sense of smell, and can see in the dark.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Ghouls hate sunlight, and will retreat underground at dawn.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;The party&#39;s resources&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Two clerics, whose spells include &lt;i&gt;Detect Evil, Light, &lt;/i&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Levitation &lt;/i&gt;(self only, long duration, permits vertical movement only). One of these clerics is a crab mutant who can breathe underwater.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Three magic-users,&amp;nbsp;whose spells include&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Illusion &lt;/i&gt;(visual only, lasts as long as the caster continues to concentrate), &lt;i&gt;Ghost Sound &lt;/i&gt;(creates audio effects, lasts as long as the caster continues to concentrate), &lt;i&gt;Agility &lt;/i&gt;(boosts dexterity), &lt;i&gt;Spider Climb, Gaseous Form &lt;/i&gt;(self only, short duration), and &lt;i&gt;Gust of Wind.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Five fighters, skilled in archery, riding, tracking, stealth, camouflage, and concealment.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;One ratman, who can see in the dark and has an even better sense of smell than the ghouls.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Three trained giant rats, saddled and ready for use as mounts or pack animals.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A ring of invisibility to undead. (Does not conceal smell.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;An amulet that grants perfect night vision as long as the moon is in the sky.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A bag of half-rotten internal organs.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Quantities of rope and strong metal wire.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Survival gear: tents, bedrolls, supplies, etc.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;One spyglass.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;An animated prison block, 20&#39; cube on stompy stone legs, which the PCs can crudely steer using an undead lizard-monkey on a fishing rod, but which makes huge amounts of noise and stops dead at random and unpredictable intervals.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;One preternaturally intelligent trained raven.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;Take a look through the lists. Think about the situation.&amp;nbsp; How would &lt;i&gt;you &lt;/i&gt;solve it?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaZTCXHdHemDTtk4RYuugnCi0bsZoh3WUYsTQfTtuRYiwi9kV9pIICsdfzvJPJDG-uj9iWO2OSPRXH0U869XmTDCscj36_0JV_V_vsW0S5b6zsVZo0AAUIBXk1e51Q6yIY32K9t34rgNi/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;417&quot; data-original-width=&quot;576&quot; height=&quot;289&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaZTCXHdHemDTtk4RYuugnCi0bsZoh3WUYsTQfTtuRYiwi9kV9pIICsdfzvJPJDG-uj9iWO2OSPRXH0U869XmTDCscj36_0JV_V_vsW0S5b6zsVZo0AAUIBXk1e51Q6yIY32K9t34rgNi/w398-h289/image.png&quot; width=&quot;398&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Here&#39;s what the party did.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 1: &lt;/b&gt;Two fighters ride out stealthily on giant rats and conceal them behind rocks several hundred feet from the meeting place, well outside sniffing distance.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 2: &lt;/b&gt;Two magic-users smear themselves with offal from the bag, making themselves smell intensely distracting to ghouls. The clerics, meanwhile, wash themselves to minimise their scent as best they can.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 3: &lt;/b&gt;One of the clerics puts on the ring of invisibility to undead.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 4: &lt;/b&gt;One of the magic-users casts &lt;i&gt;Illusion &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Agility &lt;/i&gt;on the non-invisible cleric - &lt;i&gt;Illusion &lt;/i&gt;to make it seem as though there&#39;s no-one there (an illusion of empty ground), and &lt;i&gt;Agility &lt;/i&gt;to allow them to move more stealthily.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 5: &lt;/b&gt;The two clerics and two magic-users go to meet with the Ghoul Queen, although the ghouls only &lt;i&gt;see &lt;/i&gt;the two magic-users: one cleric is invisible, one is covered by illusions, and the smell on the magic-users is strong enough to distract the ghouls from the smell of the unseen clerics. Each cleric carries a blanket and a rope.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 6: &lt;/b&gt;As they reach the meeting spot, the two clerics quietly cast &lt;i&gt;Levitate. &lt;/i&gt;They then levitate straight up until they are hovering, unseen, above the meeting, holding blankets in their hands.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 7: &lt;/b&gt;One magic-user conducts the negotiations while the other concentrates on keeping the levitating clerics hidden behind an illusion of empty night sky.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 8: &lt;/b&gt;When the Ghoul Queen gives orders for them to be seized, the magic-users both cast &lt;i&gt;Gaseous Form, &lt;/i&gt;passing harmlessly through the grabbing claws of the ghouls,&lt;i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;and drift straight upwards until they reach the levitating clerics.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 9: &lt;/b&gt;The magic-users rematerialise behind/on top of the levitating clerics, clinging to their backs and shoulders. The clerics shake out the blankets so that each cleric holds the bottom of their blanket and each magic-user grabs the top, holding them vertically in front of them like sails. The ghouls swarm below, but are unable to attack them while they are airbourne.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 10: &lt;/b&gt;The magic-users cast &lt;i&gt;Gust of Wind &lt;/i&gt;spells directly into the blankets they are holding and cling on for dear life as they, and the levitating clerics they are riding on, are propelled hundreds of feet through the air until they are vertically above the spot where the fighters and the giant rats are hiding. The ghouls pursue, but the PCs have a substantial headstart.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 11: &lt;/b&gt;The fighters break cover and ride out to meet them. The clerics let go of the blankets and each drop one end of their coil of rope, which the fighters catch and tie onto the saddles of their giant rats.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 12: &lt;/b&gt;The fighters spur on their giant rats and ride away from the ghouls as fast as possible, heading east towards the rising sun, dragging the levitating clerics behind them on the ends of their ropes, each one with a magic-user still clinging onto their backs and shoulders.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 13: &lt;/b&gt;Dawn begins to break and forces the ghouls to abandon the pursuit, allowing the PCs to circle back to their main camp under the cover of daylight. By evening they are many miles away.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;The players were pretty happy with this triumph of lunatic ingenuity. I bet there were other solutions possible, though. They didn&#39;t even use the raven in this one.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Feel free to post your own solutions in the comments below!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/6182509953188240300/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/06/escape-from-ghoul-queen.html#comment-form' title='15 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/6182509953188240300'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/6182509953188240300'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/06/escape-from-ghoul-queen.html' title='Escape from the Ghoul Queen!'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspd9RFqm7ZQQ1zYfl4kSe6S6mtCwjfs5VtaV-FUYJm0p8LEUzY4uEq9rLIAQO13NT02JQBRAox8uaX0tphVTwHG34QNcKFc_e4pyfu62-SNyaLzceCAgl2OzTHuL7ECTEKFmxHEJvkfcJ/s72-w222-h282-c/image.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>15</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-30123855902860410</id><published>2021-06-17T16:50:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2021-06-18T01:21:59.311-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Hexcrawling"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Pathfinder"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Playable adventure"/><title type='text'>Condensation in Action 10: Wrath of the Righteous</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Part 10 in an irregular series where I take bloated &lt;i&gt;Pathfinder &lt;/i&gt;adventure paths and try to prune them into something more useful. Previous Condensation in Action posts can be found here:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2016/03/condensation-in-action-from-600-page-ap.html&quot;&gt;Kingmaker&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2016/11/condensation-in-action-rise-of.html&quot;&gt;Rise of the Runelords&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/01/condensation-in-action-part-3-curse-of.html&quot;&gt;Curse of the Crimson Throne&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2017/10/condensation-in-action-part-4-council.html&quot;&gt;Council of Thieves&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/01/condesation-in-action-5-cults-of.html&quot;&gt;Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/06/condensation-in-action-6-iron-gods.html&quot;&gt;Iron Gods&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2019/05/condensation-in-action-7-skull-and.html&quot;&gt;Skull and Shackles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2019/09/condensation-in-action-8-mummys-mask.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mummy&#39;s Mask&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2020/09/condensation-in-action-9-carrion-crown.html&quot;&gt;Carrion Crown&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Wrath of the Righteous &lt;/i&gt;was Paizo&#39;s attempt to write a high-level campaign. Normally their adventure paths top out at level 15, but this one goes all the way up to level 20, as well as awarding the PCs additional power boosts in the form of &#39;mythic tiers&#39; along the way. If you think this sounds like a recipe for disaster, you&#39;d be right. D&amp;amp;D has always had three basic tiers - levels 1-3 for scrappy underdogs, levels 4-8 for tough, capable fantasy heroes, and levels 9-14 for epic heroes and domain level play - and has tended to really struggle to imagine what adventures are supposed to look like beyond that point. (Tellingly, most of the original classic module series like &lt;i&gt;Dragonlance &lt;/i&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Queen of the Spiders &lt;/i&gt;topped out at level 14.) What are you meant to &lt;i&gt;do &lt;/i&gt;once you&#39;ve outleveled the dragon at the bottom of the dungeon?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;Most of &lt;i&gt;Wrath of the Righteous &lt;/i&gt;is very boring: just standard-issue dungeon crawling with much, much higher numbers. The situations quickly start to get ridiculous: the PCs are strong enough to take on dungeons full of demons by book 2, so all that books 3-6 can do is fill their dungeons with ever-bigger demons. One late-campaign dungeon has guards who are&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;fourteenth-level demonic clerics made of locusts riding ancient black dragons&lt;/i&gt;. In any other campaign, just one of these guys would be a terrifying end-boss whose dark schemes threaten entire nations. In this one whole groups of them just sit around like glorified security guards, keeping an eye out for intruders and waiting for the over-levelled PCs to wander past and kill them all.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;This hexcrawl is what I was able to salvage. About half of it comes from the appendices rather than the adventures proper!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvv756n1VDDXdWEdMDIKZL8i7THuk8D_a-3qq69z7o3JO2-U1vnCMZSAughTVGFHJqqu2ODjRlSaZibt1E2kOzlde7cHAjvQFIaGZKYmGjeFtEUb0OFj6oTIPO2eNofPaLAaIdKEU53Av/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;720&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1280&quot; height=&quot;259&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvv756n1VDDXdWEdMDIKZL8i7THuk8D_a-3qq69z7o3JO2-U1vnCMZSAughTVGFHJqqu2ODjRlSaZibt1E2kOzlde7cHAjvQFIaGZKYmGjeFtEUb0OFj6oTIPO2eNofPaLAaIdKEU53Av/w460-h259/image.png&quot; width=&quot;460&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Context: &lt;/b&gt;This adventure takes place on a militarised frontier zone, where a crusading military order maintains a string of fortified settlements along the edges of a demon-haunted region of deserts and jungles, blighted by the release of unholy energies a century ago. (The order was founded in response to this event, and has had the same leader, Queen Galfrey, ever since.) Recently, stories have been emerging from the jungles of some kind of magical and/or industrial undertaking by the region&#39;s most prominent demon-cult, the Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth. Armies fare poorly in the jungles, and Queen Galfrey is in the market for a team of disposable, deniable scouts willing to brave the warped lands of the south and work out what&#39;s going on before it&#39;s too late...&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;A Note on the Military Situation: &lt;/b&gt;The land north of the jungles is notionally controlled by Queen Galfrey, though the border is porous, and beasts and cultists from the south sometimes slip across. The jungles are inhabited mostly by monsters and cultists, too few in number to meet the crusaders on the field of battle, but amply capable of whittling down military expeditions who enter their territory. Over the last century the crusaders have several times advanced as far as the southern coast and claimed &#39;victory&#39;, but the jungles are impossible to hold and they have always ended up retreating, leaving nothing but abandoned forts and temples in their wake.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho-AiLrQQOqBqIgr42ac1h2bTl10ExoOHxk0GkbuhBDTKPJtSaYRYdbYIUyLeSsiBxB0Z1Zkg_-SD9Hrom9rYYyw4VzFImD9yIUOO2C9eA9JxXj1cnx-xgUOqHYYq63a6BMUi-3JMdq4Gt/s340/wotr+map.png&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;340&quot; data-original-width=&quot;288&quot; height=&quot;449&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho-AiLrQQOqBqIgr42ac1h2bTl10ExoOHxk0GkbuhBDTKPJtSaYRYdbYIUyLeSsiBxB0Z1Zkg_-SD9Hrom9rYYyw4VzFImD9yIUOO2C9eA9JxXj1cnx-xgUOqHYYq63a6BMUi-3JMdq4Gt/w380-h449/wotr+map.png&quot; width=&quot;380&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hexes are 12 miles across.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0000:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This broken-down old town is sinking into the swamps, and has been abandoned by all but its most misanthropic inhabitants, who are increasingly coming to resemble the toads that infest its rotting buildings. One among them is a master astrologer, an expert in predicting all kinds of ill-fortune, but the only thing he wants is to be left alone. If he could be persuaded to cooperate, his divinatory abilities would provide one way to navigate the ivory labyrinth at 0104.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0001:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This shadowy, bat-haunted town is run with psychopathic violence by its despotic governor, who has reduced its people to a state of abject terror. In truth, she, in turn, is a mere pawn of the cabal of vampires who secretly run the town, using its cowed inhabitants as food stock. The vampires are no friends to the Templars, whose victory would ruin their comfortable living arrangement, and could be convinced to ally with the PCs if they were persuaded that the threat against them was serious enough. (Such an alliance would, however, obviously need to be kept secret from the crusaders.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0002:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;In this tower lives a crazed cavalier, a defector from the crusades, who believes the victory of the demons is inevitable and hopes to win their favour and attention by committing random acts of pointless villainy. The townsfolk of 0001 hate and fear him, but their governor is in no hurry to apprehend him, as his depredations are a good excuse for all manner of restrictions and curfews.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0003:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;A succubus lairs in this desecrated chapel. She is served by a band of charmed warriors - mostly ex-crusaders - who believe her to be a holy goddess, and will gladly lay down their lives in her service.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0004:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;These mountains conceal a ruined and accursed city, among whose shattered buildings can be found an ancient library of stone tablets containing many secrets otherwise lost to the outside world, including maps of the Ivory Labyrinth at 0104 (which was built by the same vanished race who constructed this city). It has no guardians, but its curse afflicts all who discover it with psychotic and murderous jealousy, meaning that expeditions that stumble across it tend to self-destruct long before they bring word of it to the world beyond.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0005:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This blasted ash waste is the origin-point of the demonic taint that afflicts these lands. The earth here trembles with magical energy, and the air is full of demonic whispers. Anyone remaining here too long will be tainted in body, mind, and soul.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0006: &lt;/b&gt;The jungles here are roamed by a filth spirit who takes the form of a woman made of mud, rising from foul-smelling seepage of its rivers and caves. She is furious about the mining activities of the Templars in 0105, which are polluting &#39;her&#39; waters with all kinds of weird magical run-offs, and will gladly assist in any efforts to shut them down.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0100:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;These marshy hills are collectively known as the Moonbog. They are dotted with huddled settlements, who live in fear of the werebeasts who roam the moors by night.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0102:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Hidden in these hills is a trap-filled dungeon of iron and stone - the stronghold of a cruel demon, the Razor Princess. She is served by a demonic murderer with the head of a stork, who abducts victims for her and drives them through her deathtrapped mazes so that their blood might lubricate her cruel machines.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0103:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;The jungle here is roamed by a flayed, headless angel, once an ally of the crusaders, now a victim of the Templars. It attacks intruders with its still-blazing sword, its body continuously spurting gouts of boiling, sulpherous blood over anyone who comes too close.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0104:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Here stands the Ivory Labyrinth itself, a vast subterranean maze paved and walled with ancient bones. It is inhabited by primitive humanoids who have dwelt there for centuries, but who have recently been enslaved by the Templars, who have claimed the place as a site sacred to their demonic patron Baphomet. The labyrinth is &lt;i&gt;very &lt;/i&gt;confusing, mostly due to the demonic magic that infuses it, and navigating it successfully is almost impossible without very good scouts (such as the Pitlings at 0401), magical aid (such as the Stalker&#39;s Crossbow from 0205 or the divinations of the astrologer at 0000), or a map (such as the one at 0004). The Templar leadership are all demoniacs, who willingly invite demonic spirits into their bodies, and spend most of their time in states of entranced spirit-possession. Their champion wields an enchanted golden scimitar, which once belonged to the wife of the antipaladin from 0404.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0105:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Here, deep in the jungles, the Templars have begun mining enchanted crystals from the magic-saturated earth. Their mine labourers are demonic minotaurs, who use their immense strength to hack their way through the rock. The more of these crystals they mine, the more demonic spirits their leaders will be able to call down into their bodies. If left unchecked for too long, they will become powerful enough to sweep away the crusaders once Queen Galfrey finally meets her death.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0107:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Here a demonic sorcerer dwells with his herd of man-eating aurochs. He is notionally allied with the Templars, but is happy to turn a blind eye to visitors as long as they bring offerings of human flesh for his herd.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0201:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This manor house is home to a noble family, supposedly subjects of Queen Galfrey, but secretly loyal to the Templars. Building a labyrinth in their own home was a bit impractical, so instead they settled for a hedge maze, consecrated by unholy stone bull&#39;s heads buried beneath its corners. Unbelievers who try to navigate it find themselves becoming confused, their bodies growing heavy, their skin scratched by branches and opening in hundreds of tiny wounds that never,&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;ever&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;stop bleeding. By the time they reach the centre of the maze, where the family wait for them, they&#39;re ripe for slaughter.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0204:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This ruined temple is full of maggots that constantly squirm across its floor, spelling out heretical prayers with their writhing bodies. If intruders enter, the maggots twist themselves into the shape of unholy runes instead, blasting all those who gaze upon them. Beneath the temple are tunnels made from heaving, cancerous flesh, continuously fed upon by vermin. At their heart meditates an awful cleric made of locusts, the servant of an ancient demon lord of vermin. If he is still alive after the Templars are defeated, he will lay claim to their abandoned places of power and start calling forth horrible insect monsters, laying the foundations of a new demon-cult to replace them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0205:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This Templar stronghold is guarded by obese naked undead armed with scythes, who have the power to cause bloody wounds to open upon all those they gaze upon. Within dwell a nest of cultists who have amputated their own feet and replaced them with enchanted brazen hooves, the better to resemble their demonic master. If their stronghold is invaded they attack in a kicking, trampling mob. One of them wields the Stalker&#39;s Crossbow, whose wielder will always be able to find the last person wounded by it.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0302:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This frontier camp is the current base of Queen Galfrey. Galfrey swore at the very start of the crusade to vanquish the demons or die trying: she is now over 100 years old, her life prolonged at crippling expense by alchemical means. Utterly weary of her life of endless warfare, she has developed a not-so-subtle death-wish, and has begun provoking new battles mostly in order to give herself a chance to die in them. (It hasn&#39;t worked yet because people with alchemically-enhanced bodies&amp;nbsp;and a century of combat experience and are&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;very difficult to kill&lt;/i&gt;.) Morale in the camp is low, as the soldiers resent being made to risk their lives in unnecessary battles. They have been secretly infiltrated by an agent of the Templars, Hosilla, who is here posing as a knight from a minor (and fictional) noble house. If the queen actually does manage to get herself killed, Hosilla will hasten back to the Ivory Labyrinth at 0104 and tell the Templars to call down as many demons as they can and strike as soon as possible, while the crusaders are still reeling from her loss. If the mine at 0105 has not been disabled yet, they will probably win.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0304:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;The trees here exude a sticky sap into the poisonous, swampy waters below. Anyone who ascends into the canopy is set upon by monstrous bird-creatures, who attack in screeching flocks&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0307:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Here the jungle is torn open by vast rifts inhabited by warped and troglodytic humanoids, who roam ceaselessly searching for prey.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;direction: ltr;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;0401:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This massively fortified clifftop city is the stronghold of the crusaders. The cliffs beneath are riddled with caves and tunnels inhabited by the &#39;pitlings&#39;, deformed descendants of the original crusaders who found their children were born warped by the weird energies to which they had been exposed during their campaigns. The people of the city regard the pitlings with scorn, but the pitlings still revere their warrior ancestors, guarding the graves of their crusader forebears and nurturing a pathetic loyalty to the state that rejected them. They are hardy and stealthy and can see in the dark, making them perfect scouts for any attack on the Ivory Labyrinth at 0104.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0404:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;The jungles here are inhabited by giant slugs and dire crocodiles. On its poisoned rivers floats an enchanted barge, pulled by a great skeletal serpent, and manned only by a freezing undead antipaladin as cold as his own frozen heart. He wields a terrible icy halberd, which freezes the blood of all those it wounds. He will curtly question all those who pass if they have seen his wife, who vanished into the Ivory Labyrinth years ago: anyone failing to give a useful answer will receive an icy death, instead. If touched or wounded by her scimitar (see 0104), his heart melts and all his unholy powers desert him.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0405:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Deep in these jungles lies a hidden chasm, apparently bottomless, whose walls are lined by the immense fossilised bodies of dead demon kings from ages past.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0502:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;In this town, the people long ago started to adopt the talking animals that occasionally wandered from the forests, keeping them as pets and messengers. Unfortunately for them, the animals are demon-tainted and delight in defamation and slander, with the result that the whole town is now a tangle of feuds, scandals, and misplaced attempts at revenge. (In particular, everyone is convinced that their neighbours have something to do with all the children who have been going missing recently - in fact these have been taken by the inhabitants of the house at 0503, frequently with the connivance of the talking animals.) The people are highly resistant to the idea that their animal companions are anything other than loyal and adorable.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0503:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;High in these gloomy mountains stands a huge house in which kidnapped children tend to a great clockwork mechanism of obscure significance, guarded by cloaked, silent figures and clanking automata who hunt down any who try to escape. What, if anything, the machine actually &lt;i&gt;does &lt;/i&gt;is deeply unclear.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0504:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;A succubus inhabits this mansion, beset by besotted admirers longing for her favour or even acknowledgement. Most starve to death in her courtyards, or kill one another in desperate attempts to win her attention and prove their devotion. Only the most exceptional displays of talent or prowess will suffice to win an audience.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0600:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This steep mountain valley echoes with distant, half-heard songs. (These come from a tragic ghost who haunts its slopes, but finding her is extremely difficult.) It leads to a smug little town, bright with mirrors and loud with bells, whose vain inhabitants are notionally loyal to the crusade but actually care nothing for the outside world. It would be a good source of mirrors with which to torment the rat-demon at 0603.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0601:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This town is a prison-colony, to which convicts are set from throughout Queen Galfrey&#39;s domain to work as slave labourers, mining gems from the hills. (These are the kingdom&#39;s most profitable export.) Because slaves are so much more profitable than corpses, many captured low-level demon cultists have been sent here, and their teachings are spreading covertly among the convicts. If the flow of gems from the mines was disrupted then the crusaders would soon be unable to afford Queen Galfrey&#39;s ruinously expensive life-extension potions, and she would wither and die within a year.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0603:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This ruined town was built by the crusaders during one of their expansionist phases, only to be abandoned when the tides of war turned. Now it is infested by flocks of fiendish vultures, and roamed by a ghastly knife-wielding rat demon that hates and fears its own reflection. A band of mad knights camps nearby, utterly unreconciled to the town&#39;s abandonment and determined to reclaim it regardless of what it may cost them (or anyone else).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0604:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This ruined shrine is inhabited by a deeply confused demon, who unwisely preyed upon a priestess of the goddess of dreams. The priestess linked their minds as she lay dying, and now the demon has a head full of someone else&#39;s emotions and memories and is having a massive identity crisis. She still has her demonic instincts towards cruelty, but her new human feelings mean that she feels revolted by them. If her newly human side was carefully nurtured she might be guided along a path of repentance, but any kind of severe stress will cause her to have a massive breakdown and start lashing out.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0605:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;Here a boiling river pours out of the mountains and runs through the jungle to the sea, terminating at a beach of powdered bone.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0607:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This graveyard island is surrounded by shipwrecks, driven upon its shores by the regular floods and hurricanes that beset it. It is the home of a powerful ghoul, the Coffin Groom, who feasts upon the drowned dead.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0701:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This ghost town was abandoned when its well ran dry. By night it is haunted by the walking corpses of the parched and vengeful dead.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;0704:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;This desert is inhabited by gigantic scorpion-human hybrids, who know ancient spells capable of calling armies of mummified demons up from their crumbling tombs to do their bidding. They greatly predate the conflict between the crusaders and the Templars, but have been stirred up by the energies released at 0005. If the taint could be lifted from the land they would go back to sleep.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyuCGep2LW2qz9Wlk6vfg3F0nvEo8_UhViljvdpnDDssQGWEM5nzdAmCppfOF3ca8-EbSWawhMHfSfWT67BkMXz3exJ8nshjQxC_QcFuqHUtoB1QBpn1__Lt9D93o28ZXRrvQCthfn2rZR/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;842&quot; data-original-width=&quot;595&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyuCGep2LW2qz9Wlk6vfg3F0nvEo8_UhViljvdpnDDssQGWEM5nzdAmCppfOF3ca8-EbSWawhMHfSfWT67BkMXz3exJ8nshjQxC_QcFuqHUtoB1QBpn1__Lt9D93o28ZXRrvQCthfn2rZR/&quot; width=&quot;170&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/30123855902860410/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/06/condensation-in-action-10-wrath-of.html#comment-form' title='16 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/30123855902860410'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/30123855902860410'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/06/condensation-in-action-10-wrath-of.html' title='Condensation in Action 10: Wrath of the Righteous'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvv756n1VDDXdWEdMDIKZL8i7THuk8D_a-3qq69z7o3JO2-U1vnCMZSAughTVGFHJqqu2ODjRlSaZibt1E2kOzlde7cHAjvQFIaGZKYmGjeFtEUb0OFj6oTIPO2eNofPaLAaIdKEU53Av/s72-w460-h259-c/image.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>16</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-8431764009411826514</id><published>2021-05-16T06:47:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2021-05-16T09:37:17.187-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="General-purpose musings"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="OSR"/><title type='text'>Meet the new boss: some thoughts on domain-level play</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve long since lost count of the exact number, but I&#39;m pretty sure that my current &#39;City of Spires&#39; campaign has now run for almost as many sessions as the &#39;Team Tsathogga&#39; campaign that preceded it. This has prompted me to think a bit about the different shapes that the two campaigns have taken. &#39;Team Tsathogga&#39; was, from beginning to end, an extremely freewheeling, even anarchic campaign, with the PCs roaming randomly around the map getting involved in whatever seemed most interesting at the time. In &#39;City of Spires&#39;, on the other hand, the PCs took over their city twenty-odd sessions ago, and everything since then has dealt with their ongoing attempts to cement their positions as regional power players.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;This has been a new experience for me as a GM, as I&#39;ve never had to deal with this form of domain-level play before. The PCs in my long-ago AD&amp;amp;D games sometimes rose to become high priests and archmagi and whatnot, but their non-adventuring duties always remained firmly in the background. The Team Tsathogga crew regularly took over entire communities by accident, but they never stuck around long enough to actually &lt;i&gt;rule &lt;/i&gt;them: they&#39;d just appoint some viceroys and wander off. In City of Spires, by contrast, we now sometimes have whole sessions that are basically just &#39;upkeep&#39;, with the PCs checking in on all their various civic projects and trying to deal with whatever barriers they may have encountered. (One recent example saw them plotting how best to scam an ancient subway AI into lending them a digging robot through the use of rigged customer satisfaction surveys.) They&#39;ve built bridges. They&#39;ve set up trade routes.&amp;nbsp;They&#39;ve negotiated diplomatic marriages. They&#39;ve organised the planting of stands of date palms and the digging of irrigation canals. I keep worrying that they&#39;ll get bored by all this SimCity stuff, but they insist they&#39;re really enjoying it. Mysterious wildernesses on the edge of the map remain resolutely unexplored in favour of yet more civil engineering.&amp;nbsp;&lt;p&gt;Over the course of these sessions, I&#39;ve developed a set of rough-and-ready principles for running games which devote a lot of time to domain management. I don&#39;t claim that this is the best or only way to handle such situations, but this is what&#39;s worked for me, at least so far...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7H0uB6pGVjJtkHnXhXXgrzRTRJ3aGzCOiF-BdQWwVrxHbTonhFlETGC0te563M8H8n8vCOWYo3NLmIL-bnE2k-i9nkpSoD7935XEbWBKFYfTSTPzOos4d8RHE7ZuO7OJhheRQXHZ3X_0f/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;358&quot; data-original-width=&quot;236&quot; height=&quot;342&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7H0uB6pGVjJtkHnXhXXgrzRTRJ3aGzCOiF-BdQWwVrxHbTonhFlETGC0te563M8H8n8vCOWYo3NLmIL-bnE2k-i9nkpSoD7935XEbWBKFYfTSTPzOos4d8RHE7ZuO7OJhheRQXHZ3X_0f/w225-h342/image.png&quot; width=&quot;225&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;1: Keep the focus on problem-solving.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think that one reason people often shy away from domain management is because they worry it will make their games dissolve into a morass of tedious accountancy and logistics. In reality, of course, such logistics are absolutely crucial to running a successful polity. But they&#39;re also crucial to running a successful military unit or long-distance wilderness expedition, and we never let that stop us when running normal D&amp;amp;D!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you were running a wilderness trek, you probably wouldn&#39;t keep the focus on the exact logistics of pack animals, trail rations, and so on. Instead, you&#39;d focus on the moments of crisis: how are the party going to get themselves and their supplies over this raging river? How will they sneak them through this hostile territory? Running a domain is just the same. Of course, you need a general sense of what kind of resources the community does and does not possess, to keep decision-making grounded in some kind of shared imagined reality. But for the most part I&#39;ve found it helpful to assume that the day-to-day stuff just proceeds at its own pace in the background until it hits a specific problem, at which point the PCs have the option of stepping in. They&#39;re not project managers - or maybe they are, but that&#39;s a role they play off-screen. When they&#39;re &lt;i&gt;onscreen, &lt;/i&gt;it&#39;s because they&#39;re acting as troubleshooters.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEive2G0qn_Hf8vN7ZbyQmPrsxw-EjcJA1EmS2t1-LiAcMR2D8ulaj4uEgKBdFmqyRiL8GtyQqMDZVDQ5LTjEUqX-2jwJoB_3hygR_GZhcDG9Dt9WiqmHSiCP8UGR9s4yKGUBQktoa31DezI/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;224&quot; data-original-width=&quot;236&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEive2G0qn_Hf8vN7ZbyQmPrsxw-EjcJA1EmS2t1-LiAcMR2D8ulaj4uEgKBdFmqyRiL8GtyQqMDZVDQ5LTjEUqX-2jwJoB_3hygR_GZhcDG9Dt9WiqmHSiCP8UGR9s4yKGUBQktoa31DezI/&quot; width=&quot;253&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;2: Keep the problems OSR-style&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The general principles of OSR encounter design - &#39;an encounter that can be solved by simply crossing some resources off your character sheet is a &lt;i&gt;bad encounter&lt;/i&gt;&#39; - apply here, too. The problems the PCs encounter should never be the kind that can be solved by just throwing more resources at them. Instead, they need to be&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;qualitative&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;problems, the kind of things that act as potential bottlenecks for the whole project. &#39;You thought you&#39;d need X amount of lumber, but then a fire destroys some of it, so now you need Y amount of lumber instead&#39; may be a &lt;i&gt;serious &lt;/i&gt;problem, but it&#39;s not an &lt;i&gt;interesting &lt;/i&gt;problem. You can assume all these sorts of things are already &#39;priced in&#39;, and are being dealt with by the local management: that the mine foreman, for example, knows perfectly well how to deal with normal problems and setbacks involved in running a mine. It&#39;s only when his crews accidentally mine their way into a haunted subterranean city, or when a tribe of goblins cuts off the roads that the ore is carried down, or when flooding cuts off production just before a time-critical deadline, or whatever, that he&#39;ll come running back to the PCs to beg for help, because he knows that they&#39;re the kind of people who can be relied upon to come up with creative solutions to otherwise-intractable difficulties.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Important addendum: this doesn&#39;t imply that every time the PCs attempt something, no matter how routine, you should throw some kind of intractable difficulty in their way. If it&#39;s the sort of thing they have the resources to straightforwardly accomplish, then just let them have it. But if it&#39;s something more ambitious, then they &lt;i&gt;should &lt;/i&gt;have to overcome obstacles to achieve it - and the more those obstacles are qualitative rather than quantitative, the more rewarding the resulting play is likely to be.)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIqtcGPspV4YVub04jjYYZeTwMQpBVjU4Ys5yAIIblsBuM-VpPtkr-nxmxsFb0rPVB07kT-QYRFwCL5TmnIc54gND7Uzk8jR-4P4_V-84jYKNyEzljOYRjzrqyru3g101XGHCDm3XDi_u/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;325&quot; data-original-width=&quot;236&quot; height=&quot;325&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIqtcGPspV4YVub04jjYYZeTwMQpBVjU4Ys5yAIIblsBuM-VpPtkr-nxmxsFb0rPVB07kT-QYRFwCL5TmnIc54gND7Uzk8jR-4P4_V-84jYKNyEzljOYRjzrqyru3g101XGHCDm3XDi_u/w235-h325/image.png&quot; width=&quot;235&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;3: Make sure the PCs have access to lots of highly specific assets&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;So the PCs set a project in motion, and it works fine until it hits a problem that threatens to derail it, at which point they have the option of stepping in to sort it out. Again, the normal principles of OSR-style problem-solving apply: an encounter that has only one correct solution is &lt;i&gt;a bad encounter. &lt;/i&gt;Problems should be amenable to PC agency in lots of different ways, enabling plenty of out-of-the-box thinking.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I&#39;ve &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/02/when-all-you-have-is-hammer-item-based.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;written before &lt;/a&gt;about the importance of giving PCs heaps of stuff to try solving problems with, and the same principles apply here, just on a larger scale. In the same way as dungeon encounters are much more fun if PCs are trying to work out how to deal with them with the aid of a fishing rod, a wedding dress, and a box of fireworks, solving domain-level problems will be much more interesting if the PCs have non-standard tools to work with. &#39;A unit of soldiers&#39; is fine, but boring: if the problem could be straightforwardly solved by just sending in the troops, the middle management would already have sorted it out by now. But if the PCs have to solve problems with the aid of a malfunctioning robot eagle and a sleepy cannibal giant instead, they&#39;ll get &lt;i&gt;much &lt;/i&gt;more creative, and will feel much better about themselves when they come up with some loopy solution that actually works.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;You don&#39;t need to tailor specific assets to specific problems. In fact, you should actively avoid doing this. Just make sure that the PCs a bunch of random &lt;i&gt;stuff &lt;/i&gt;to work with, all with potentially powerful applications and potentially crippling limitations, and leave them to work something out. Some of these resources can pass into their hands when they take over their domain, and some can be acquired on adventures, or be given to them in tribute. However, much of it will probably already be there, waiting to be used, because...&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn3TrxXlYWdVL5o8dhFGP9FU3CK3USNZ1z6BcjJWx8At9ylG1sOJEuY48cQE2RCGtL_9GqFw-z-AYQlrP6BUezsI8b8TnfGyILE_TTv4XWD5J4bgXXzKDPou9QUaYSBZqUPHuxz4Dy2lx4/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;329&quot; data-original-width=&quot;235&quot; height=&quot;296&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn3TrxXlYWdVL5o8dhFGP9FU3CK3USNZ1z6BcjJWx8At9ylG1sOJEuY48cQE2RCGtL_9GqFw-z-AYQlrP6BUezsI8b8TnfGyILE_TTv4XWD5J4bgXXzKDPou9QUaYSBZqUPHuxz4Dy2lx4/w211-h296/image.png&quot; width=&quot;211&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;4: What were once threats are now resources&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The PCs are now the masters of their domain. The dungeons that they once fought their way through fearfully, one room at a time, have now been mapped and cleared out. And that means their resources are now available for the taking.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If your PCs are anything like mine, then by the time they acquire a domain of their own they&#39;ll already have done plenty of more traditional wilderness exploration and dungeon-crawling, encountering all sorts of weird and dangerous nonsense in ancient ruins and accursed tombs. But while, from the perspective of an adventurer, an enchanted lake of acid is a dungeoneering hazard, from the perspective of a ruler it&#39;s a &lt;i&gt;resource&lt;/i&gt;. Just think of what you could accomplish with &lt;i&gt;all that acid!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you&#39;re like me, you&#39;ll probably feel an instinctive resistance to the idea of PCs taking things that were once expressions of the Mythic Underworld and turning them into military-industrial assets. &lt;i&gt;Resist that instinct. &lt;/i&gt;The PCs earned their access to these things, access that they paid for in time and hit points and dead characters: it&#39;s only fair to let them enjoy the fruits of their exploits. Let them turn the &lt;i&gt;Heat Metal &lt;/i&gt;room into a power plant. (&#39;Hey, free energy!&#39;) Let them weaponise the monsters and traps and curses they&#39;ve long since learned to evade. (&#39;What if we kite the zombies &lt;i&gt;all the way to the frontier?&#39;&lt;/i&gt;) Let them redirect that river of screaming ghosts out of the dungeon and into the moat around their castle. (&#39;This&#39;ll keep the barbarians out!&#39;) In this way, all the weirdness they&#39;ve encountered in their adventuring career so far becomes the kind of highly specific resources that allow them to come up with creative solutions to their civic problems, solutions that would never have occurred to anyone other than a D&amp;amp;D PC.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCLJ5rrZZw1Ol17_bHgccB45y_94nfC31GLl4MR26jVTJfsTaL4t0MAl_CM29LVXbY_A4iBQyDCW-BoFsndE9f8JDKAmdX111EpFXI8pJkZccZMQXEiZy5zn8HUGRW4Hhw3lzgTXl94_t/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;386&quot; data-original-width=&quot;236&quot; height=&quot;311&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCLJ5rrZZw1Ol17_bHgccB45y_94nfC31GLl4MR26jVTJfsTaL4t0MAl_CM29LVXbY_A4iBQyDCW-BoFsndE9f8JDKAmdX111EpFXI8pJkZccZMQXEiZy5zn8HUGRW4Hhw3lzgTXl94_t/w190-h311/image.png&quot; width=&quot;190&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;5: Simplify factions&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When my PCs took over their city, the first thing they did was organise a grand council of all the other local power players to help them run the place. I tried to run a full meeting of this council, with all the dozens of NPCs involved in it, exactly once. Never again.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When PCs are on the outside of a power structure, it makes sense to play out each of their interactions with it individually. But once they &lt;i&gt;are &lt;/i&gt;the power structure, and everyone else has to come to &lt;i&gt;them, &lt;/i&gt;trying to play it all out would be madness. Logically, they&#39;ll need to talk to every single local stakeholder about each new development: but for sanity&#39;s sake it&#39;s much easier to simplify all these groups into a few main coalitions, and reduce what would actually be a long series of interactions into a handful of conversations with their spokesmen. All those weird and idiosyncratic bandit chiefs they had to negotiate with back when they were ruin-crawlers can now merge into the Bandit Coalition, with one representative who speaks on behalf of all of them. Otherwise you&#39;ll never get anything done.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(PROTIP: The representative for each coalition should be whomever the PCs have the most history with, even if they&#39;re not actually the coalition&#39;s most senior member. This both makes in-world sense - the person appointed to talk to them will be the person who knows them best - and makes interactions more meaningful, because of all the shared history they have behind them. I have &lt;i&gt;loved &lt;/i&gt;seeing relationships that began with cutthroat encounters in the ruins end up taking on institutional significance. &#39;Hey, remember when you tried to kill us with hellfire? Good times. How&#39;s the literacy project coming along?&#39;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdH1Dw8Uaot__DaFqpnswLh8dUEGHhuVwxuhiJimvRPjeFu9Aadsnwce5wdjprHHq7S6pxtkRHuCqU5NYGE-TGL_j_3_MJMsjew04lj1bpzF1gnVDI777LVBRI3jMKnG0gPfh30InpsTIK/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;357&quot; data-original-width=&quot;236&quot; height=&quot;307&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdH1Dw8Uaot__DaFqpnswLh8dUEGHhuVwxuhiJimvRPjeFu9Aadsnwce5wdjprHHq7S6pxtkRHuCqU5NYGE-TGL_j_3_MJMsjew04lj1bpzF1gnVDI777LVBRI3jMKnG0gPfh30InpsTIK/w203-h307/image.png&quot; width=&quot;203&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;6: Don&#39;t overestimate the powers of the state&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Compared to modern states, most pre-modern polities are&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;ramshackle as fuck.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;Remind your players early and often that just because they have &#39;a government&#39; doesn&#39;t mean they have anything resembling a modern bureaucracy, with a police force and a civil service and so on. They probably have a stronghold, an army, a treasury, a bunch of advisers, spies, and informers, a network of local &#39;big men&#39; who can be expected to semi-reliably enforce their edicts as long as they are kept in line with threats and bribes, and not a whole lot else. Their writ may run along the roads and the rivers and the major agrarian areas - but in between, in the woods and the swamps and the deserts and the mountains, there are going to be all kinds of places where state power barely functions, and where adventures can consequently continue to flourish. There are still &lt;i&gt;lots &lt;/i&gt;of situations in which having an army isn&#39;t actually all that useful, and where it might consequently still make sense to get the old adventuring team back together for another journey into the unknown.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-exET3Fy-2DbZF6K7DfRXvbtThycdS_xlg6w221sxZAtY17vHZn-syAYyS3pUo2YFvpGyBtrAio6C9n3a7buEre-Bi2HibKzib17JI5mUv8q1jLBv_HiIc_qThQqswcd7jNa1gwUyYC4/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;354&quot; data-original-width=&quot;236&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-exET3Fy-2DbZF6K7DfRXvbtThycdS_xlg6w221sxZAtY17vHZn-syAYyS3pUo2YFvpGyBtrAio6C9n3a7buEre-Bi2HibKzib17JI5mUv8q1jLBv_HiIc_qThQqswcd7jNa1gwUyYC4/w200-h300/image.png&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;7: Let the PCs enjoy the fruits of their success&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;If your players have gone to the trouble of building a real powerbase, it&#39;s probably because they&#39;re interested in&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;actually having and using power.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;So let them. It&#39;s &lt;i&gt;totally OK &lt;/i&gt;if the rise of the PCs to power mean that a lot of things that were previously threats for them can now be trivially dealt with. The level of power they wield in the world has just increased by an order of magnitude: 3d6 goblins in a cave just isn&#39;t going to cut it any more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;D&amp;amp;D PCs tend to be powerful, highly competent, individualistic, and more than a little crazy, so if a bunch of them have just seized hold of a domain, then that domain is probably going to be in for some &lt;i&gt;interesting times.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;Let your PCs make changes. Let them make &lt;i&gt;big &lt;/i&gt;changes. This doesn&#39;t mean that everything they attempt should succeed, but everything they attempt should have &lt;i&gt;consequences. &lt;/i&gt;If their domain has been changed beyond recognition within a few years of them taking over, then that&#39;s a &lt;i&gt;good &lt;/i&gt;thing.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You know all those crazy lords and wizards in the backstories to D&amp;amp;D scenarios, the ones who are always building weird strongholds and meddling with arcane forces and making pacts with inhuman beings and bringing about lost golden ages and magical cataclysms and so on? Well, now your PCs have the chance to &lt;i&gt;be those people. &lt;/i&gt;Let them make the most of it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After all, just think of the dungeons they&#39;ll leave behind them!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7BKX_zzD0iIA8mGPDMP65sp23t3YpH9cmS44tDn9VJkXcRuHBpCSJPwCMO7HzIO2pFjmSuuyk9hM8i2U96z-pix6KEQSCx2cy1llr2gdBluRCvSSsvOzkQZ-mLA4kqY6_2aPTv21edITd/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;314&quot; data-original-width=&quot;236&quot; height=&quot;339&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7BKX_zzD0iIA8mGPDMP65sp23t3YpH9cmS44tDn9VJkXcRuHBpCSJPwCMO7HzIO2pFjmSuuyk9hM8i2U96z-pix6KEQSCx2cy1llr2gdBluRCvSSsvOzkQZ-mLA4kqY6_2aPTv21edITd/w254-h339/image.png&quot; width=&quot;254&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/8431764009411826514/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/05/meet-new-boss-some-thoughts-on-domain.html#comment-form' title='28 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8431764009411826514'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8431764009411826514'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/05/meet-new-boss-some-thoughts-on-domain.html' title='Meet the new boss: some thoughts on domain-level play'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7H0uB6pGVjJtkHnXhXXgrzRTRJ3aGzCOiF-BdQWwVrxHbTonhFlETGC0te563M8H8n8vCOWYo3NLmIL-bnE2k-i9nkpSoD7935XEbWBKFYfTSTPzOos4d8RHE7ZuO7OJhheRQXHZ3X_0f/s72-w225-h342-c/image.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>28</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-8613022379229577163</id><published>2021-03-31T07:32:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2021-03-31T07:32:31.182-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Art"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="General-purpose musings"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Super-long"/><title type='text'>Image archaeology: Paladin Girl</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Who knoweth not of Paladin Girl?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqSr6l8o2T8a-o5tT5DvXVxYuyUvbFnn255zTeZeg4gDX1ilABixeT2u-orGPGH3XyGrXZ0vxb8tE6nz75hmZueXmC60fwYW2b-br4tcjuyfQNbUNzGsTsZaBKyiD3yTckxdtySv-fdqe/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;374&quot; data-original-width=&quot;512&quot; height=&quot;263&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqSr6l8o2T8a-o5tT5DvXVxYuyUvbFnn255zTeZeg4gDX1ilABixeT2u-orGPGH3XyGrXZ0vxb8tE6nz75hmZueXmC60fwYW2b-br4tcjuyfQNbUNzGsTsZaBKyiD3yTckxdtySv-fdqe/w359-h263/image.png&quot; width=&quot;359&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;M:tG card art for&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Knight Exemplar, &lt;/i&gt;by Jason Chan (2011). Exemplary in more ways than one!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Paladin Girl has become a cliche of modern fantasy art. She always looks the same. A young, slender woman in plate mail armour (often improbably form-fitting), no helmet, straight hair usually worn long and loose, conventionally-attractive face. On horseback, she might have a spear or lance. On foot, she usually carries a sword.&amp;nbsp;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Paladin Girl is a fairly straightforward combination of traditional masculine and feminine signifiers. Her weapons and armour convey traditionally masculine power and &#39;hardness&#39;; her face, hair, and figure convey traditionally&amp;nbsp;feminine &#39;softness&#39; and prettiness. The optimistic reading would be that strength and heroism are compatible with femininity. The pessimistic reading would be that women only get to be powerful as long as their strength remains compatible with conventional standards of female beauty. Either way, she is clearly associated with a particularly chaste and non-threatening form of sex appeal, with her armoured body symbolising her guarded sexuality. Unsurprisingly, she mostly turns up in works targeted at predominantly male audiences.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I became curious about where this image came from, and did a little digging. Here&#39;s what I came up with.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One obvious source is Joan of Arc. A sketch from her own time depicts her like this -&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0EOeRg4y8ZusJ5CrOv0dfIiUqYBkee3dPI5uMihUO-lQJYF47kb76rf6LioJ0g9s0-fpc2FfDbJU2sSN4oQ9LkWDaIii5hKsha8GBC4yHLdV97d5529hI8DbAFhfeDCWWBzfIQ_o7bFwa/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;768&quot; data-original-width=&quot;519&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0EOeRg4y8ZusJ5CrOv0dfIiUqYBkee3dPI5uMihUO-lQJYF47kb76rf6LioJ0g9s0-fpc2FfDbJU2sSN4oQ9LkWDaIii5hKsha8GBC4yHLdV97d5529hI8DbAFhfeDCWWBzfIQ_o7bFwa/&quot; width=&quot;162&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;but by the later fifteenth century she was being painted like this -&amp;nbsp;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_P262kkkA4rzdjEuFxPr1KzqDRYyFllB_rLuyu34NbqNUerKgcS1arJoZ9HGHApiUXp81IcWE_zyo0Wy5QiVFgOhWGfr5w1xkB6rbmeQ85q1eiZ8az2eysBdbOlqGYd5BYEfGRXIcsWML/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;768&quot; data-original-width=&quot;508&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_P262kkkA4rzdjEuFxPr1KzqDRYyFllB_rLuyu34NbqNUerKgcS1arJoZ9HGHApiUXp81IcWE_zyo0Wy5QiVFgOhWGfr5w1xkB6rbmeQ85q1eiZ8az2eysBdbOlqGYd5BYEfGRXIcsWML/&quot; width=&quot;159&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- and by 1505 like this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0Uf6j89e-hNSYNAk3QvZ3zta-CM8ND-ML5OEmNi4gPNpiEhwHdNX14OGGUZMZXX-UJVlj0Ipd7bB1jQoDmIIdsh2qu6XPj7yMVKu2SkfeZImyn6xtS8JFmD1KgGPgS5GjHcPIQv28qDO/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;900&quot; data-original-width=&quot;708&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0Uf6j89e-hNSYNAk3QvZ3zta-CM8ND-ML5OEmNi4gPNpiEhwHdNX14OGGUZMZXX-UJVlj0Ipd7bB1jQoDmIIdsh2qu6XPj7yMVKu2SkfeZImyn6xtS8JFmD1KgGPgS5GjHcPIQv28qDO/&quot; width=&quot;189&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then there&#39;s Bradamante and Clorinda, the original &#39;female knight&#39; characters, who appear in Arisoto&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Orlando Furioso &lt;/i&gt;(1532)&amp;nbsp;and Tasso&#39;s &lt;i&gt;Gerusalemme Liberata &lt;/i&gt;(1581), respectively. Around 1600 they were being depicted like this:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKR_z7gmB1hJfYBqagPwKBy3uwojQ3daDpEiNmOrHLdqSd7kxUUkVPYDxOD-3V6jn_4s9g50SYI_Y3oCjdPv4jPew-l5DeUBPUpZfI2K1aPiPYPu1__5MgA9aj9mktL7-rQdDOViAVKLuL/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;600&quot; data-original-width=&quot;500&quot; height=&quot;258&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKR_z7gmB1hJfYBqagPwKBy3uwojQ3daDpEiNmOrHLdqSd7kxUUkVPYDxOD-3V6jn_4s9g50SYI_Y3oCjdPv4jPew-l5DeUBPUpZfI2K1aPiPYPu1__5MgA9aj9mktL7-rQdDOViAVKLuL/w215-h258/image.png&quot; width=&quot;215&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Paolo Domenico Finoglia. Clorinda&#39;s the one on the right.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4JTcfPHUKDLYvj7EG8G7Bte8AFVsq0r9HOmwqTCfiL6waUgFzNbFDKWU6oFNpSKrkRPeLQ8jV0YVdwtKklFm52qRkFk8jsRrSvabk5lMRG6nJBN0V3d1qihzgJ-xUnBJ49wSuY6dNSkHg/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;600&quot; data-original-width=&quot;440&quot; height=&quot;278&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4JTcfPHUKDLYvj7EG8G7Bte8AFVsq0r9HOmwqTCfiL6waUgFzNbFDKWU6oFNpSKrkRPeLQ8jV0YVdwtKklFm52qRkFk8jsRrSvabk5lMRG6nJBN0V3d1qihzgJ-xUnBJ49wSuY6dNSkHg/w204-h278/image.png&quot; width=&quot;204&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Antonio Tempesta, &lt;i&gt;Bradamante Valorosa.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This, in turn, is not dissimilar to the way Joan of Arc was being depicted in the early seventeenth century:&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzOiQnF4WeDxLruYv0A6FL-EOO98-cIZPsrkAxc5GYkrhyphenhyphenJakS1ynlzQ0Cci-f_UhrS_73WBEys8gD-GjPzWI3vhN45WxdqQRB-joMCjfO8FOd8bzD0nsY3749edGpCKAWRqlc-GvaIiV/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;800&quot; data-original-width=&quot;510&quot; height=&quot;323&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzOiQnF4WeDxLruYv0A6FL-EOO98-cIZPsrkAxc5GYkrhyphenhyphenJakS1ynlzQ0Cci-f_UhrS_73WBEys8gD-GjPzWI3vhN45WxdqQRB-joMCjfO8FOd8bzD0nsY3749edGpCKAWRqlc-GvaIiV/w206-h323/image.png&quot; width=&quot;206&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Reubens, &lt;i&gt;Joan of Arc &lt;/i&gt;(1612)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIvitr94h17Ce0aJgMMJ_Q9nzBNsaiQXdj7SWVo4UkS9IQxPNLeWVQw-1hRy_PTEQz5Uf876Z9CxXCa_ed2jZhyb84rLrUYl1Lk_kwAx52XSFfRtvFfYNWLBlwjLsbLt2RAu368YNd-voZ/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;581&quot; data-original-width=&quot;490&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIvitr94h17Ce0aJgMMJ_Q9nzBNsaiQXdj7SWVo4UkS9IQxPNLeWVQw-1hRy_PTEQz5Uf876Z9CxXCa_ed2jZhyb84rLrUYl1Lk_kwAx52XSFfRtvFfYNWLBlwjLsbLt2RAu368YNd-voZ/&quot; width=&quot;202&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;William Marshall, &lt;i&gt;Joan of Arc &lt;/i&gt;(1642)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;So &#39;attractive female knight in armour&#39; is clearly not a foreign concept in Renaissance art. But the armour looks like real armour, and there&#39;s little sign yet of the extravagant hairstyles that are so much a part of contemporary Paladin Girl imagery. Reubens shows Joan with long hair, but that&#39;s because she&#39;s literally letting her hair down. In battle she&#39;s obviously going to be covered beneath the black helmet on the ground beside her, relying on her plumed crest rather than her bare head to ensure she stays visible in combat.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; direction: rtl; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Like most of modern fantasy iconography, Paladin Girl derives much more from nineteenth-century art than from anything actually medieval. As late as 1856, Delacroix was still painting Clorinda pretty much in the Renaissance style -&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwQPC6phSLTueb2DfeaYy9cVn0fqp2_pXHM5cFNEkeDg1RFQDvwzLlXb62VZbaB0zTIe6Bz-KFTIOi_1lIet1-qkd9fRMeg49ey6rmyrx5FbgV1N5F6evZHozxZAJGHFgK3jIEaaE65_VI/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;362&quot; data-original-width=&quot;418&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwQPC6phSLTueb2DfeaYy9cVn0fqp2_pXHM5cFNEkeDg1RFQDvwzLlXb62VZbaB0zTIe6Bz-KFTIOi_1lIet1-qkd9fRMeg49ey6rmyrx5FbgV1N5F6evZHozxZAJGHFgK3jIEaaE65_VI/&quot; width=&quot;277&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But three years later he also painted this image, of Ermina, also from&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Gerusalemme Liberata :&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWzHr1a2XszKqYgvYKN9q6hm9da1Y87x9vbxZirAV8PQi6fgECjZ9jGXusnBD1V07FhdrQ3nvS_Zvj63NJzbnBJWWAV4qypfE197_c34dh8UR74Nmd2Tw4uZmlTWNZDJ39FDSFQb26Fpku/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1148&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1116&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWzHr1a2XszKqYgvYKN9q6hm9da1Y87x9vbxZirAV8PQi6fgECjZ9jGXusnBD1V07FhdrQ3nvS_Zvj63NJzbnBJWWAV4qypfE197_c34dh8UR74Nmd2Tw4uZmlTWNZDJ39FDSFQb26Fpku/&quot; width=&quot;233&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Classic Paladin Girl, right? Except the whole point of this image is that Ermina &lt;i&gt;isn&#39;t &lt;/i&gt;a female knight: she&#39;s a princess &lt;i&gt;disguised &lt;/i&gt;as a knight. (More specifically she&#39;s disguised as Clorinda, whose armour she&#39;s &#39;borrowed&#39;.) Thus the long hair and the skirt: this is less wargear than cosplay. Clorinda, who&#39;s the real deal, wears full armour, has a more practical haircut, and carries a rather unfeminine bearded axe.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;The real shift comes with the Pre-Raphaelites, whose chocolate-box medievalism lies at the root of most modern fantasy art. Here&#39;s Millais 1865 painting of Joan of Arc:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinq6NykYf_fqR3pMc1FIAiNemOyb_SDzSNBUF0ePJZsk4y7_IxYxZOHwh_zeiG9TZuxulVNsrgXzKfbdLBuSth1fFZrWVbjHGlEAPA0JM1cq2OOtpWjw4ly5VWRkBeJKaYAsqZg9drwFTk/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;899&quot; data-original-width=&quot;684&quot; height=&quot;269&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinq6NykYf_fqR3pMc1FIAiNemOyb_SDzSNBUF0ePJZsk4y7_IxYxZOHwh_zeiG9TZuxulVNsrgXzKfbdLBuSth1fFZrWVbjHGlEAPA0JM1cq2OOtpWjw4ly5VWRkBeJKaYAsqZg9drwFTk/w205-h269/image.png&quot; width=&quot;205&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We&#39;re getting very close, now; and Walter Crane&#39;s Britomart, from his 1895-7 illustrations to &lt;i&gt;The Faerie Queene, &lt;/i&gt;gets us even closer. Note sword, long hair, armoured skirt, and the large rondels on her chest that give the impression that her armour has breasts.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhttXtXQfKe5r9yN55M1673jj7P3jf-9H3ey8oyfC-Jk2icX2335QhR3DYYHlzP7rU_NeppQdEpPt1LQj3Mpgrw6AcWuoBfnlsrDmJHJMYAfOmkJdkk5VV05PVEoo8okusszTPN1wOaWaut/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;809&quot; data-original-width=&quot;469&quot; height=&quot;344&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhttXtXQfKe5r9yN55M1673jj7P3jf-9H3ey8oyfC-Jk2icX2335QhR3DYYHlzP7rU_NeppQdEpPt1LQj3Mpgrw6AcWuoBfnlsrDmJHJMYAfOmkJdkk5VV05PVEoo8okusszTPN1wOaWaut/w199-h344/image.png&quot; width=&quot;199&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Leighton&#39;s 1901 painting&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;The Accolade&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;isn&#39;t a Paladin Girl image as such, but it clearly fed into the subsequent iconography.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAev_Apog1MFlHMkOHVR9ydjYO_nkVn25TIoXyCq52newA5bfYVMSgnMDmdq9HWbc9mo1l1Ez6PRRwoYRov3x406unW_b3WtrItrkfE06lz53mmAajkAXWOUBeDotqy5sinPWs3HcpSzg/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;933&quot; data-original-width=&quot;560&quot; height=&quot;335&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAev_Apog1MFlHMkOHVR9ydjYO_nkVn25TIoXyCq52newA5bfYVMSgnMDmdq9HWbc9mo1l1Ez6PRRwoYRov3x406unW_b3WtrItrkfE06lz53mmAajkAXWOUBeDotqy5sinPWs3HcpSzg/w201-h335/image.png&quot; width=&quot;201&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;There are plenty of other late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century examples:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCiSYCyyxT9VUJrmL43ty0Q15muUnKA4CQjfI3XcAKiYruGdtAWTYmZlUhatGfByNMzeXXdIxqLNxqD3JzMhERt1dMY7mfEolJWLq37DuU8WHqfjoCOZMWUYEiqOulAxE2mlBB1US3wqml/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;600&quot; data-original-width=&quot;395&quot; height=&quot;278&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCiSYCyyxT9VUJrmL43ty0Q15muUnKA4CQjfI3XcAKiYruGdtAWTYmZlUhatGfByNMzeXXdIxqLNxqD3JzMhERt1dMY7mfEolJWLq37DuU8WHqfjoCOZMWUYEiqOulAxE2mlBB1US3wqml/w183-h278/image.png&quot; width=&quot;183&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Charles-Amable Lenoir&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJcP1HFwxnrl8XDd5hUq6Wno_w4gpDjon74ikPlv2FRT4cqjqJmqksr0BvOsSaj9ZgGcSZSatWnXhNSDWZQLzip6TcOG9tEm3ev4Bgblm-xTYuiAYLO62QtPS7V7XCVsKTCFQz0KF4Enu4/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;400&quot; data-original-width=&quot;267&quot; height=&quot;276&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJcP1HFwxnrl8XDd5hUq6Wno_w4gpDjon74ikPlv2FRT4cqjqJmqksr0BvOsSaj9ZgGcSZSatWnXhNSDWZQLzip6TcOG9tEm3ev4Bgblm-xTYuiAYLO62QtPS7V7XCVsKTCFQz0KF4Enu4/w184-h276/image.png&quot; width=&quot;184&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;John Gilbert&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5NymTycBXEtIETbcxgVYCVW3lx_vDY0-iGNd310D2CpHXGJsZ5DhVSJ9BxOVE3Z3I6egNuVl7gvKffnJ14FbpHvDdNvnQosk_jDFaxVfc9EXEai9C13tHRIstHBC9_gsGQEHYQOKQdwyI/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;600&quot; data-original-width=&quot;435&quot; height=&quot;264&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5NymTycBXEtIETbcxgVYCVW3lx_vDY0-iGNd310D2CpHXGJsZ5DhVSJ9BxOVE3Z3I6egNuVl7gvKffnJ14FbpHvDdNvnQosk_jDFaxVfc9EXEai9C13tHRIstHBC9_gsGQEHYQOKQdwyI/w191-h264/image.png&quot; width=&quot;191&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Albert Lynch, 1903 - surely the secret inspiration for the haircuts used by 40K&#39;s Sisters of Battle!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX7-1TwxrR0e0zEHPSLmdpSHUIQCrAKAX_gIh0r7tWh6z0Y2vJMbVfdfRoos1oJy_mvx2BabWDslEmbCSefN_qg4KV_W8SPGJ0A5iUARBVgEH1BAmwe3he9XWY6HfBO1b8J8jAuytU6gt_/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;671&quot; data-original-width=&quot;540&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX7-1TwxrR0e0zEHPSLmdpSHUIQCrAKAX_gIh0r7tWh6z0Y2vJMbVfdfRoos1oJy_mvx2BabWDslEmbCSefN_qg4KV_W8SPGJ0A5iUARBVgEH1BAmwe3he9XWY6HfBO1b8J8jAuytU6gt_/&quot; width=&quot;193&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Paul Antoine de la Boulaye, 1909&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Note that more form-fitting armour is becoming the norm, here, with tapered waists and armoured skirts allowing these painters to display a classically feminine &#39;hourglass&#39; figure even in full armour. (Contrast this with the armour in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century images, which would mask the wearer&#39;s gender.) It&#39;s this iconography that fed into the 1948 &lt;i&gt;Joan of Arc &lt;/i&gt;film starring Ingrid Bergman, although the need to make a costume that was actually wearable clearly led to some concessions to practicality.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC64jYMsE9E6RKja2gqci8d6MeyHfpa6MyF3dyUwOPoKNmaEaQ-QXVczTWebIkRtEExs9mOeX5FRbQEygUUT96smBv-dYTDooioK9D2ntVNikIy_MFK2SP_wQOwStsmgmJDTGm13NLORv0/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;538&quot; data-original-width=&quot;650&quot; height=&quot;253&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC64jYMsE9E6RKja2gqci8d6MeyHfpa6MyF3dyUwOPoKNmaEaQ-QXVczTWebIkRtEExs9mOeX5FRbQEygUUT96smBv-dYTDooioK9D2ntVNikIy_MFK2SP_wQOwStsmgmJDTGm13NLORv0/w305-h253/image.png&quot; width=&quot;305&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Ingrid Bergman as Joan of Arc, 1948.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4TplLNX94DwVNdA73DGrXkVIjb0RUdyw58QzkuqFWNNW0aOJ23IC-cQDYzdYiaDze1_I-tQvdzl87UL4xqdwx9eXCn1kf_2Ru35MufovJzqRnqRiHaFOgVRhQK5hFgm9XXEgsXmMTv0qA/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;420&quot; data-original-width=&quot;333&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4TplLNX94DwVNdA73DGrXkVIjb0RUdyw58QzkuqFWNNW0aOJ23IC-cQDYzdYiaDze1_I-tQvdzl87UL4xqdwx9eXCn1kf_2Ru35MufovJzqRnqRiHaFOgVRhQK5hFgm9XXEgsXmMTv0qA/&quot; width=&quot;190&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Bergman again, in the 1946 play the film was based on.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Paladin Girl went into abeyance somewhat during the 1970s, when warrior women in fantasy art tended more towards the &#39;valkyrie&#39; or &#39;amazon&#39; archetypes. (E.g. Red Sonja, Valkyrie from Marvel Comics, Hildebrandt&#39;s interpretation of Eowyn, every woman Franzetta ever painted.) She only started to make her way into D&amp;amp;D via Larry Elmore&#39;s illustrations of everyone&#39;s 1983 fantasy waifu, Aleena the Cleric.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieHVsYtuMHUz5A0ImfSso0UTSincGYJrcuZjlnl6ljw4JIb7GQa1MjpCOWmit16gJlpyd4vqtLrHq6z9LW6IugQuITUnL_BpyRjcGSiDItmtvny1zxfAwdjLcNeYLNv75sXtOzTLCPhpD4/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;492&quot; data-original-width=&quot;327&quot; height=&quot;308&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieHVsYtuMHUz5A0ImfSso0UTSincGYJrcuZjlnl6ljw4JIb7GQa1MjpCOWmit16gJlpyd4vqtLrHq6z9LW6IugQuITUnL_BpyRjcGSiDItmtvny1zxfAwdjLcNeYLNv75sXtOzTLCPhpD4/w203-h308/image.png&quot; width=&quot;203&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;BARGLE YOU FUCK DON&#39;T SHOOT HER FOR SHE IS MY ONE TRUE LOVE!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBt7ntaJEOoRahXxjAhff77Bjp7zOw_FfOP8E0UuUfv8_0RJOjRIGulIvVVMJ6Y_KcsWSOTqr7wN8AuKSu8UvQ3PylGErU-TDq_cGhvdAEu1CI_4YTWBwOh0_8noIINRw2AT0nTjEzzBGg/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;429&quot; data-original-width=&quot;220&quot; height=&quot;328&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBt7ntaJEOoRahXxjAhff77Bjp7zOw_FfOP8E0UuUfv8_0RJOjRIGulIvVVMJ6Y_KcsWSOTqr7wN8AuKSu8UvQ3PylGErU-TDq_cGhvdAEu1CI_4YTWBwOh0_8noIINRw2AT0nTjEzzBGg/w168-h328/image.png&quot; width=&quot;168&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;NOW ALEENA IS DEAD AND I HAVE ONLY MY EIGHTIES HAIR TO CONSOLE ME!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;It took much longer for her to become the default, though. In the very same book, Elmore&#39;s other female cleric - an idiosyncratic reworking of the &#39;valkyrie&#39; type - looked like this:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpnYpFEdUKr4Qpcu6pVdTHrXbrQ5Nb9OQ1n_TuXmZUKLkUPFvEvHnbLPkTYgfTD6CxrF3XewZdbkKbjcbWJaarSvWTc_y5Rk3ECv0iz_oTEJdwJE4ltfUbz8zTReFtAuc3fzAYe_770sK/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;2048&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1832&quot; height=&quot;292&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpnYpFEdUKr4Qpcu6pVdTHrXbrQ5Nb9OQ1n_TuXmZUKLkUPFvEvHnbLPkTYgfTD6CxrF3XewZdbkKbjcbWJaarSvWTc_y5Rk3ECv0iz_oTEJdwJE4ltfUbz8zTReFtAuc3fzAYe_770sK/w261-h292/image.png&quot; width=&quot;261&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Most &#39;female fighter&#39; illustrations in 1980s and 1990s fantasy media tended much more towards &#39;sexy&#39; designs with lots of exposed skin, and armoured female fighters in D&amp;amp;D-adjacent media were more likely to look like this -&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnwxx_mqdNiPERv6LC__32aWO_UtgSPG4p6Q2WnTkH3LgMOZ1mHUD_1Dhc8ucmpTaomwrQ5dPVpZ5S60j0ZQc6THAz5NppODwHYUHk1Csrk0UJUvDc02tFlHYuCgMMp7tUsy5_47wHwAl/s591/Untitled.png&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;591&quot; data-original-width=&quot;351&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnwxx_mqdNiPERv6LC__32aWO_UtgSPG4p6Q2WnTkH3LgMOZ1mHUD_1Dhc8ucmpTaomwrQ5dPVpZ5S60j0ZQc6THAz5NppODwHYUHk1Csrk0UJUvDc02tFlHYuCgMMp7tUsy5_47wHwAl/s320/Untitled.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Clyde Caldwell, cover illustration to &lt;i&gt;Dark Heart &lt;/i&gt;(1992).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;When D&amp;amp;D 3rd edition came out in 2000 there was a self-conscious push against this kind of imagery, with Elmore&#39;s influence rejected wholesale in favour of the &#39;dungeon-punk&#39; iconography for which the edition is famous (or notorious). Its iconic female paladin, Alhandra, looked like this:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4FqUQRSo5El2Y86SdNOua-cmexiCQTU0wBPtL9fQ9CMkYM7lz9IUKcYHqvRlnbnpnNKSF7LiZgcRk5pfYYNgOcuVSkAh8Kzsr5YlvJBp6nT0OJN0TbY_QHRi8d3DQZEe_EyBwGxUp548A/s651/PHB35_PG43_WEB.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;651&quot; data-original-width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4FqUQRSo5El2Y86SdNOua-cmexiCQTU0wBPtL9fQ9CMkYM7lz9IUKcYHqvRlnbnpnNKSF7LiZgcRk5pfYYNgOcuVSkAh8Kzsr5YlvJBp6nT0OJN0TbY_QHRi8d3DQZEe_EyBwGxUp548A/s320/PHB35_PG43_WEB.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;However, in 2004 &lt;i&gt;World of Warcraft &lt;/i&gt;launched, and all its female paladin-types looked more or less like this:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshZo9KBDHGfZbycPfdOg6w1adqKUYiy9jLdjYMqyV6h3vPWAqZUgdHnkqA8u5wRkKyrrBa9ZcgDRkNlpuogd_Y1adUm4ORpjKQ4MOVGeUE_xldVKZGRVPgcVu2dqhi9ctUzhyI8oFAwcK/s300/789403.jpg&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;300&quot; data-original-width=&quot;228&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshZo9KBDHGfZbycPfdOg6w1adqKUYiy9jLdjYMqyV6h3vPWAqZUgdHnkqA8u5wRkKyrrBa9ZcgDRkNlpuogd_Y1adUm4ORpjKQ4MOVGeUE_xldVKZGRVPgcVu2dqhi9ctUzhyI8oFAwcK/s0/789403.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;What had happened in the interim, of course, was an explosion in the popularity of anime, manga, and JRPGs in western geek circles. Manga and anime had a long preoccupation with &#39;female knight&#39; characters, from the original &lt;i&gt;Princess Knight &lt;/i&gt;manga series in 1953-6 to the epochal &lt;i&gt;Lady Oscar &lt;/i&gt;(1972-3), and modern Japanese fantasy media is littered with &#39;cute female knight/cleric&#39; figures. From the female priest in &lt;i&gt;Dragon Quest III &lt;/i&gt;(1988), whose chainmail bodysuit, tabard, boots, mace, and haircut seem to have been directly based on Aleena five years earlier -&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH4YmCk_sgR3zRMrCDQw_DmE2qH11N05UTGMef8Xdt5nSF6EzI3Ju1EiRVipRq_DZV_iarZIjQQpWmT2JjhpTxQM8ILwb2CVqcJy4SucCcSxW0PTk2R6tZPCtX_hSusxTSXsep_KBgaWBg/&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;441&quot; data-original-width=&quot;245&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH4YmCk_sgR3zRMrCDQw_DmE2qH11N05UTGMef8Xdt5nSF6EzI3Ju1EiRVipRq_DZV_iarZIjQQpWmT2JjhpTxQM8ILwb2CVqcJy4SucCcSxW0PTk2R6tZPCtX_hSusxTSXsep_KBgaWBg/&quot; width=&quot;133&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;to the iconic figure of Saber from &lt;i&gt;Fate / Stay Night &lt;/i&gt;(2004), who basically defines the type going forwards.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR_qAHf74HvF2H3MUAB0uTv-n3DJHPFgckzoHRX93yvUM8Vlrz6Wph4o_8X_NUl3SVa9a4Nh5l8AEZxU1yw2J6j-JTYT2TNllz01kKPilIKklRJESAIZIzfRbgE4CEWA2NH_tem6vqQsIT/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;374&quot; data-original-width=&quot;266&quot; height=&quot;290&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR_qAHf74HvF2H3MUAB0uTv-n3DJHPFgckzoHRX93yvUM8Vlrz6Wph4o_8X_NUl3SVa9a4Nh5l8AEZxU1yw2J6j-JTYT2TNllz01kKPilIKklRJESAIZIzfRbgE4CEWA2NH_tem6vqQsIT/w207-h290/image.png&quot; width=&quot;207&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;These Paladin Girl types grew out of the older pre-Raphaelite Joan of Arc figure reinterpreted through a manga filter, and in the early 2000s they were reimported to the West, with immediate effect. This anime-by-way-of-World-of-Warcraft style was everywhere in the fantasy art of the period. Tellingly, the 9th Edition of &lt;i&gt;Magic: the Gathering &lt;/i&gt;(2005)&amp;nbsp;saw the art for the iconic white card Serra Angel shift from this cone-bra stripper-samurai horrorshow -&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia07oTnov-JgVo8oLn4r0HRAsHsqrgxlwDm4Z4KrBNkajwPlhZGvLNKsw_X5BpZ-12cjE5R2beas3NZuYum0_J5Yr5k4gvhFElCYIn5EPPSTSV8OXekLkqzsM6Fjvbb8yWRiOCX91HRbcH/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;192&quot; data-original-width=&quot;262&quot; height=&quot;235&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia07oTnov-JgVo8oLn4r0HRAsHsqrgxlwDm4Z4KrBNkajwPlhZGvLNKsw_X5BpZ-12cjE5R2beas3NZuYum0_J5Yr5k4gvhFElCYIn5EPPSTSV8OXekLkqzsM6Fjvbb8yWRiOCX91HRbcH/&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To this -&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOsSNzB-MaHfZcTaF3rc7_T6BorTyjlhHgGsFDaENRVJzLToP_FTza8gf7-RAeq_R75_I2gS3YcsYyFvn5febwIKM79cncWCpgMDe4X227em3ScuGDL6j9V4iz6VwUwL9A-ThJ2CcYCQAa/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;407&quot; data-original-width=&quot;218&quot; height=&quot;369&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOsSNzB-MaHfZcTaF3rc7_T6BorTyjlhHgGsFDaENRVJzLToP_FTza8gf7-RAeq_R75_I2gS3YcsYyFvn5febwIKM79cncWCpgMDe4X227em3ScuGDL6j9V4iz6VwUwL9A-ThJ2CcYCQAa/w198-h369/image.png&quot; width=&quot;198&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And that&#39;s where we&#39;ve been ever since, basically. In 2009 Pathfinder even made it quasi-official by having their actual goddess of paladins, Iomedae, look like this:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1jBELMHKbs2AWpGLyPyG74isgegVrIUqkzg7GrN0u3N1bUP6Lqi5qE3y-jV3fWg1wlLY1MMK1tyn5TF8giRdpltB_qx-9wtBvNcEvEXBRMQd0MIRRC2Fa3KPs3XXs2UrgsW_Kv1u4aOGK/&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;355&quot; data-original-width=&quot;250&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1jBELMHKbs2AWpGLyPyG74isgegVrIUqkzg7GrN0u3N1bUP6Lqi5qE3y-jV3fWg1wlLY1MMK1tyn5TF8giRdpltB_qx-9wtBvNcEvEXBRMQd0MIRRC2Fa3KPs3XXs2UrgsW_Kv1u4aOGK/&quot; width=&quot;169&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;And finally we end where we began, with Joan of Arc.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FwnyiNxC-WubryibSs9d2qiYkGJM9RJ4IsAy7hugxieOaepHxWW_j-n4m8G9PN0xXpasd5-p77GnyiShdEjz9q1xFV4SkohEoRQtoQLbK_yLb8Arr1UQnNeCGr9BDbMMpRbRUY8B63M9/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;1236&quot; data-original-width=&quot;700&quot; height=&quot;360&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FwnyiNxC-WubryibSs9d2qiYkGJM9RJ4IsAy7hugxieOaepHxWW_j-n4m8G9PN0xXpasd5-p77GnyiShdEjz9q1xFV4SkohEoRQtoQLbK_yLb8Arr1UQnNeCGr9BDbMMpRbRUY8B63M9/w204-h360/image.png&quot; width=&quot;204&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Art from the &lt;i&gt;Joan of Arc &lt;/i&gt;board game, released 2019 by Mythic Games.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So what does it all mean? Paladin Girl, I&#39;d suggest, represents a compromise between the sexualised &#39;warrior woman&#39; designs of the 1980s and 1990s, with their loincloths and armoured bikinis, and the ideals of equal-opportunities empowerment that most modern fantasy media pays at least lip service to. She&#39;s &#39;empowered&#39; - she wears full armour! She&#39;s got a sword! - but in a way that emphasises her &#39;good girl&#39; femininity, rather than clashing with it. (The armour emphasises her breasts, waist, and hips rather than hiding them, she&#39;s obviously wearing make-up, and her power is clearly wielded on behalf of the existing social order, not against it.) She stands for female empowerment in its most non-threatening, least socially-disruptive form. Probably this is what led male artists to develop the type in the first place, against the backdrop of the original women&#39;s suffrage movement of 1897-1918, which presented them with much less comfortable models of what female power might look like.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;But I wouldn&#39;t want to paint too bleak a picture of Paladin Girl. She can get pretty silly in her more fanservicey incarnations, all bare thighs and miniskirts and breastplates with cleavage windows: but, despite this, I&#39;ve known several women to whom this iconography really appealed. As I mentioned early on, the optimistic reading of the archetype is that femininity is not incompatible with martial fantasy heroics. Think of it as the &lt;i&gt;Legally Blonde &lt;/i&gt;of fantasy art cliches.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Because if Elle Woods ever played D&amp;amp;D, you know her PC would look something like this...&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg25UWVDYkiwAwi2wd0caEIlY_a0rfjx0hnvN0F9uF3M46NDuui01BeWT__nw6J-mgsY5CSEsB6qprR7ASaga2-2dNv0eK4eyIofhqlSv1nLzNFj6Ny1OuvsHR8lFMi2GowvEG5bpTMJKcJ/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; data-original-height=&quot;449&quot; data-original-width=&quot;450&quot; height=&quot;271&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg25UWVDYkiwAwi2wd0caEIlY_a0rfjx0hnvN0F9uF3M46NDuui01BeWT__nw6J-mgsY5CSEsB6qprR7ASaga2-2dNv0eK4eyIofhqlSv1nLzNFj6Ny1OuvsHR8lFMi2GowvEG5bpTMJKcJ/w272-h271/image.png&quot; width=&quot;272&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/8613022379229577163/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/03/image-archaeology-paladin-girl.html#comment-form' title='41 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8613022379229577163'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/8613022379229577163'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/03/image-archaeology-paladin-girl.html' title='Image archaeology: Paladin Girl'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqSr6l8o2T8a-o5tT5DvXVxYuyUvbFnn255zTeZeg4gDX1ilABixeT2u-orGPGH3XyGrXZ0vxb8tE6nz75hmZueXmC60fwYW2b-br4tcjuyfQNbUNzGsTsZaBKyiD3yTckxdtySv-fdqe/s72-w359-h263-c/image.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>41</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-392427526916288536.post-295212601388177318</id><published>2021-03-07T08:18:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2021-03-08T05:20:38.138-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Actual Play"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="General-purpose musings"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="self-indulgence"/><title type='text'>Failing better: a GMing retrospective</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Ever tried.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Ever failed.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;No matter.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Try again.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Fail again.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Fail better.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;- Samuel Beckett&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Learning to run an RPG, like most things, is mostly about practise. You can read all the theory and advice you like, but fundamentally you learn it by doing it. Bluntly, this means that before you run a really good campaign you&#39;re probably going to have to run lots of really bad ones, hopefully getting a little bit better each time. Luckily, the nature of RPGs is such that even a &#39;bad&#39; campaign should still be a lot of fun as long as everyone approaches it in a spirit of good humour: and each one will inevitably yield lessons for next time, even if it might require a post-mortem chat with your players in order to draw out exactly what they might be.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been GMing games for an embarrassingly long time, now: and while I wouldn&#39;t claim to be any kind of gamesmastering genius, I&#39;ve got to the point where I can run a game with little or no preparation and still be pretty confident that both I and my players are likely to have a good time. The last year has really pushed me on this, as I&#39;ve been running my City of Spires campaign weekly online, alongside a crippling increase in my professional workload that has cut my prep time virtually to zero. Every Wednesday morning I wake up with a sense of dread, remembering that on top of everything else I have to do that day I somehow have to run a game in the evening. Every Wednesday afternoon I seriously consider calling the session off. But every Wednesday night I sit down and log in and everything actually goes fine. There are a lot of reasons for this: I have great players, the campaign is friendly to low-prep play, the system is minimalistic to the point of invisibility, etc. But I think the biggest one is the simple fact that I&#39;ve had a &lt;i&gt;lot &lt;/i&gt;of practise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m not really sure how many campaigns I&#39;ve run over the years - dozens, probably - but in this post, I&#39;m going to briefly run through ten of the longer-running ones, with a few notes on what worked, what didn&#39;t, and what I learned from them. I may not have really succeeded straight away, but I carried on learning and experimenting and I got there in the end. Hopefully this can provide some reassurance to anyone out there currently contemplating the wreckage of their latest campaign: and maybe some of the lessons learned will be useful to someone else, as well!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 1: Stormbringer (Stormbringer 1st edition)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;What it was:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;/i&gt;Not the first campaign I ever ran, but the first one that lasted for more than a few sessions. I ran it as a 12-year-old high on too many Moorcock novels, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. It was terrible.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;What worked: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;In retrospect, the chargen system gave an early example of how random rolls can generate much more interesting and memorable characters than a bunch of 12-year-olds would ever have come up with unaided. I didn&#39;t really appreciate this at the time, though: I just used it because the idea of &lt;i&gt;not &lt;/i&gt;following the rules as written genuinely hadn&#39;t occurred to me yet.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;Everything. My idea of encounter design was &#39;suddenly, seven hawks attack!&#39; There was no story, no role-playing, not even any tactics beyond &#39;scream and charge and hope the dice are kind&#39;. Characters died in droves. Unsurprisingly, no-one took the whole thing particularly seriously.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;font-style: italic;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/b&gt;Even at the age of 12, it was clear to me that I&#39;d need a more consistent tone and less random character death if an RPG campaign was ever to be more than absurdist black comedy. I didn&#39;t have a clear idea of how to achieve that yet, but I &lt;i&gt;tried.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 2: Heroes of Greydawn (AD&amp;amp;D 2nd edition)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;What it was:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;The D&amp;amp;D game that my friends and I played at school as teenagers: one main campaign that ran from level 1 to level 12, plus three side campaigns set in the same world that gave everyone a chance to play different characters for a change. It remains the longest-running game I&#39;ve ever run: all told, probably well over 600 hours of actual play. Given that (a) I am no longer a teenager and (b) it is no longer the 1990s, I don&#39;t really expect to ever run a game this long again.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;What worked: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/i&gt;Quantity, as the saying goes, has a quality all of its own. This game started with primitive kill-em-all wilderness treks and dungeon bashes, but it ran for so long that it built up its own momentum: lore, narrative, recurring NPCs, and the rest. PCs who started out as blank slates gradually accumulated so much history that by the end of the campaign it was actually quite moving to say goodbye to them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;font-style: italic;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/b&gt;My early games were horrible railroads, which simply ran PCs from one scripted encounter to the next, often with heavy hints about the &#39;right&#39; way to proceed. It took me a long time to finally relax and accept that it was OK for PCs to circumvent encounters, develop creative solutions, cause meaningful change to the campaign world, etc. (A lot of this was forced on me by the levelling process: it&#39;s pretty hard to push PCs around when they can teleport, walk through walls, and raise the dead!)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;font-style: italic;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/b&gt;That the most important thing is just to keep the campaign rolling. That it&#39;s OK to let PCs be clever, and awesome, and change the world. That the best games are the ones that &lt;i&gt;don&#39;t &lt;/i&gt;go the way you expected them to. (This was something I noticed at the time, but it took me many more years to properly internalise it!)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 3: The Sign of Fourteen (WFRP 1st edition)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What it was: &lt;/i&gt;The WFRP game we moved onto after deciding we&#39;d &#39;outgrown&#39; D&amp;amp;D. (We were about 17 at the time.) Started off as an embarrassing exercise in grimdark nonsense masquerading as maturity, but improved greatly as we moved onto the published&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Enemy Within &lt;/i&gt;adventures. (Only parts 1-3, obviously - I wrote my own final chapter!)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What worked: &lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Enemy Within &lt;/i&gt;was a triumph, though I don&#39;t think I could have run it successfully if I&#39;d been any younger. (&lt;i&gt;Power Behind the Throne &lt;/i&gt;really pushed me to my limits - so many NPCs!) In retrospect I think that some of the horror imagery I came up with in my own adventures stands up pretty well, although other parts are pretty cringeworthy. (&#39;And then the skaven &lt;i&gt;eat the babies! GRIIIIIMDAAAARK!&#39;&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/i&gt;Railroading remained a vice to which I frequently succumbed, right down to forcing PCs to sit through villain monologues. I also struggled to write adventures without using combat as a crutch, meaning that players with non-combat-focussed characters were often left without much to do in the inevitable &#39;suddenly, mutants attack!&#39; scenes.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/i&gt;This campaign taught me how much could be achieved by maintaining a consistent pattern of mood and imagery, which my previous campaigns had never really had. Running &lt;i&gt;The Enemy Within &lt;/i&gt;also&amp;nbsp;served as a crash-course in running investigative adventures, although it wasn&#39;t until later that I fully understood &lt;i&gt;why &lt;/i&gt;an adventure like &lt;i&gt;Shadows Over Bogenhafen &lt;/i&gt;works as well as it does.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 4: The Arltree Campaign (Mage: the Ascension 2nd edition)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What it was: &lt;/i&gt;Like all pretentious teenage roleplayers in the late 1990s, I decided to tried my hand at running a White Wolf game. It was going to be &lt;i&gt;Deep &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;Meaningful &lt;/i&gt;and full of &lt;i&gt;Themes&lt;/i&gt;. Unfortunately I wasn&#39;t nearly as clever or sophisticated as I thought I was, so it basically ended up being a street-level superhero game, which in retrospect was probably for the best.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What worked: &lt;/i&gt;This game saw my first fumbling attempts towards character-driven drama, character development, and even PC-NPC romances, which represented quite a milestone for me at the time. The PCs and NPCs were certainly much more vivid and three-dimensional than in any of my previous campaigns.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/i&gt;Every attempt to raise the tone above the level of &#39;pulp action-horror&#39; crashed and burned on the rocks of my limited GMing skills and lack of general life experience.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/i&gt;This was the campaign that really taught me the value of having a cast of colourful NPCs for the PCs to bounce off. To the extent that it worked as a campaign, it did so largely on the strength of its supporting cast.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 5: Smoke and Mirrors (Delta Green)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What it was: &lt;/i&gt;A horribly over-ambitious attempt to run a David Lynch style game of surreal conspiracy horror. It had &lt;i&gt;symbolism.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What worked: &lt;/i&gt;The point of the campaign was to transition steadily from reality to surreal nightmare, without ever making clear at exactly which point the PCs had moved from one to the other, and in this I think I was moderately successful.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/i&gt;The actual game. I had a head full of scenes and symbols and metaphors and I was going to &lt;i&gt;use &lt;/i&gt;them, damn it, with the result that most of the campaign was a massive railroad from one symbolic set-piece to another. In retrospect I would probably have been better off just writing it as fiction, instead.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/i&gt;Your set-pieces are never going to be as cool as you think they are. If the PCs aren&#39;t making real choices then there&#39;s no point in playing an RPG!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 6: To the Ends of the Earth (Exalted 1st edition)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What it was: &lt;/i&gt;An attempt to run a properly open-world fantasy epic, with the PCs as reincarnated kung fu heroes on a mission from God to save the world. Go anywhere! Do anything! Kick people in the face!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What worked: &lt;/i&gt;Breaking away from D&amp;amp;D-style fantasy into epic-scale anime-fantasy mythic weirdness was very creatively liberating, and I&#39;m still quite proud of some of the fantasy imagery I came up with for this one.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/i&gt;I was simply not prepared for the level of power and agency the PCs brought to the campaign, meaning that most of my epic villains turned out to be paper tigers. The system was also an absolute nightmare in terms of complexity: I&#39;d spend ages statting out each NPC, only to have the PCs splatter them in a couple of combat rounds. The campaign ultimately became so unsatisfying that we abandoned it in mid-adventure - the only campaign of all those listed here to come to such an ignominious end.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/i&gt;This campaign taught me an important lesson about the limits of my tolerance for complex systems, starting me on the long slide towards minimalism that ultimately brought me to OSR D&amp;amp;D. It also taught me to recognise that giving PCs certain &lt;i&gt;kinds &lt;/i&gt;of agency over the campaign world can actually make the game less fun for everyone, pushing me towards an interest in lower-powered games.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 7: The Red Queen (Vampire: the Requiem 1st edition)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What it was: &lt;/i&gt;A tightly-contained vampire game dealing with one mystery, in one city, over the course of about fifteen sessions.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What worked: &lt;/i&gt;Almost everything. This was the first campaign where, at the end, I was able to look back and think that everything had gone pretty much the way I wanted it to.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/i&gt;There were some moments where I was over-ambitious with horror content that I wasn&#39;t really able to do justice to, emotionally, and which consequently fell a bit flat.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/i&gt;This was the campaign where I finally started to understand the power and value of sandbox play. One location, one cast of characters, one unstable situation, enter the PCs, stand back and watch the fireworks. (I &lt;i&gt;should &lt;/i&gt;have been able to work all that out from &lt;i&gt;Shadows Over Bogenhafen &lt;/i&gt;several years earlier, but I was clearly a slow learner...)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 8: Falling Towers (D&amp;amp;D 3.5)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What it was: &lt;/i&gt;A fairly tightly-scripted D&amp;amp;D campaign, running from level 3 to level 7, and dealing with a single extended plot.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What worked: &lt;/i&gt;By this point I&#39;d become pretty confident in running games. I could reliably run exciting chase scenes, heist scenes, fight scenes, exploration scenes, and so on. I was relaxed about letting the PCs have major impacts on their world, and even dabbled a bit in collaborative world-building.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/i&gt;This campaign was fine, but it didn&#39;t take risks. I kept to my comfort zone throughout, complete with balanced encounters and a mostly-linear plot. Everyone had fun, but the game as a whole was not a particularly memorable one.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/i&gt;That you can&#39;t learn any lessons if you don&#39;t try anything new!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 9: The Pale Man (D&amp;amp;D 3.5)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What it was: &lt;/i&gt;A low fantasy D&amp;amp;D game, with a setting loosely based on Dark Ages Scandinavia. Initially it was only meant to run for a few sessions, but it kept getting extended, with the result that what was originally meant to be a short and tightly-plotted adventure ended up expanding into something much more ambitious.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What worked: &lt;/i&gt;This was my first real attempt to run a game in which the players tried to take on the mindset of people from a culture very different from their own, and it sort-of worked, at least in relation to the animistic religion of the setting. It was also probably the most character-driven game I&#39;d run to date, with a plot that essentially boiled down to &#39;different people want different things, this generates conflict, enter the PCs.&#39;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/i&gt;This was a very low-key game: relatively low stakes, relatively low risks, most situations defused by diplomacy and negotiation. That&#39;s fine as far as it goes - not every game has to be about saving the world! - but I struggled to invest these purely personal stories with the energy and significance that they deserved.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/i&gt;That while I might &lt;i&gt;want &lt;/i&gt;to run deeply personal, emotionally-charged, character-driven games, I&#39;m actually much better at running action-adventure material, and I should probably play to my strengths.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Campaign 10: Team Tsathogga (B/X D&amp;amp;D)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What it was: &lt;/i&gt;The first game I ran after discovering the principles of oldschool D&amp;amp;D, and the longest one in years, with well over 200 hours of actual play. A vast, sprawling weird science fantasy sandbox, with player agency placed firmly front and centre.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What worked: &lt;/i&gt;I put the OSR principles into action and they fucking &lt;i&gt;worked. &lt;/i&gt;Having no set story, no plot armour for PCs, and no prior assumptions about what might or might not happen was incredibly liberating, both for me and my players, leading to a gloriously freewheeling campaign that surprised and delighted me at every turn.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;What didn&#39;t: &lt;/i&gt;As I discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2019/05/dissecting-frog-team-tsathogga-in.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, what was gained in breadth was lost in depth. Many of the people and places that the PCs interacted with were very lightly sketched in, mere backdrops for their latest insane adventure.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Lessons learned: &lt;/i&gt;That sometimes less is more. This is the lesson that has informed &#39;City of Spires&#39;, where, by focusing on a single ruined city, I&#39;ve been able to bring the people and places within it to life much more vividly than I ever could have in the previous campaign, where the PCs would just have wandered in, wrecked some stuff, and wandered off again...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div&gt;So. Those were the campaigns that I learned the most from running. Feel free to tell me about yours in the comments!&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/feeds/295212601388177318/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/03/failing-better-gming-retrospective.html#comment-form' title='28 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/295212601388177318'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/392427526916288536/posts/default/295212601388177318'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/03/failing-better-gming-retrospective.html' title='Failing better: a GMing retrospective'/><author><name>Joseph Manola</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05387275537008858939</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>28</thr:total></entry></feed>