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Chaosium Digest Volume 16 Number 04
Chaosium Digest Volume 16, Number 4
Date: Sunday, September 29, 1996
Number: 1 of 2
Contents:
A Childbirth Variant (Marco Fabiani) PENDRAGON
To Uphold the Law (Ward Narhi) ELRIC!
Announcement: Glorantha Con IV (Andrew Joelson) MISC
Editor's Note:
This week, a wide variety of different articles.
In this issue of the Digest, a rules variant for Pendragon, a
mini-adventure for Elric! and some more news on the upcoming Chicago
Glorantha Con.
And, over in V16.5, you'll find a new Mythos feature, "Clarifications
& Strategies". These are some articles that I've begun writing for
rec.games.trading-cards.misc. I'll be copying the most interesting and
relevent ones to this e-zine as well. (Though if you want to make sure
you read them all, watch the usenet group or Chaosium's Web page).
Shannon
RECENT RELEASES:
* Mythos - _Mythos Standard Game Set_ (Chaosium, 104 cards, $12.95) is
a set of brand-new cards for Mythos. It's non-collectible. You just
buy one set, and you have all the cards, in two ready-to-play decks.
Of course, it's totally compatible with the original Mythos as well.
Check out the Mythos section of Chaosium's web page:
http://www.sirius.com/~chaosium/chaosium.html
It includes a card list and pictures of some of the cards. MSGS goes
on sale at stores this Friday, October 4th.
RECENT BOOKS OF NOTE:
* Call of Cthulhu - _The New Lovecraft Circle_ (Fedogan & Bremer, 389
pg., $27.00) is the long awaited sequel to Robert Price's first F&B
collection, _Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos_. This one includes
stories by Campbell, Lumley, Carter, Wade, Myers and many of the
other second-generation Mythos authors who started showing up in the
1960s. Many of the stories in this book, including Lumley's "The
Kiss of Bugg-Shash", Foster's "The Horror on the Beach" and Glasby's
"The Black Mirror" are rare and hard to find.
_Beyond the Borders_ (Baen, 245 pg., $5.99) is the final book in
Baen's 7 book collection of Robert E. Howard's best non-Conan
fiction. This newest volume contains a number of stories of interest
to Mythos readers, including "The Children of the Night", "The Voice
of El-Lil", "The Haunter of the Ring", "The Fire of Asshurbanipal",
and "Dig Me No Grave". I haven't mentioned the series before, but
it's quite good. The previous volumes are _Cormac Mac Art_ (I),
_Kull_ (II), _Soloman Kane_ (III), _Bran Mak Morn_ (IV), _Eons of
the Night_ (V), and _Trails in the Darkness_ (VI). Many of these
books have been touted as the "First Complete Edition".
_The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness_ (Del Rey,
379 pg., $10.00) completes the set of three Del Rey HPL trade
paperbacks. It's just a collection of stories, nothing too terribly
exciting, but if you've been waiting to pick up the rest of
Lovecraft's stories without paying Arkham House prices, this is your
chance.
MAGAZINE SIGHTINGS:
* Call of Cthulhu - "Anatomy of a Haunting", by Justin Schmid is a
generic article on parapsychology, hauntings and more. It's a useful
resource to help flesh out that occasional non-Mythos game, Shadis
#29.
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
The Cthulhu Mythos: A Guide
http://users.deltanet.com/~lumiere/mythos/mythos.htm
A mini-encylopedia and biliography of the first generation of Cthulhu
Mythos writers.
Cthulhu Mythos Database
ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/cthulhu/sources/mythos.zip
This Mythos Database program for windows (see V15.5) has recently been
updated with several old bugs fixed. If you've been enjoying the old
version, make sure you grab ahold of this revision. (As a quick
warning, the ftp.csua site has recently been having problems with
netscape-type browsers. To access this file, you should try and use a
normal FTP client.)
--------------------
From: Marco Fabiani <mafab@nauticom.net>
Subject: A Childbirth Variant
System: Pendragon
As I ran several Pendragon campaigns, I noticed one problem kept
cropping up: my PCs perpetually continued to engender children on
their wives with seemingly no limit. To correct this problem I created
the following tables. The first is used to determine a wife's age when
a PC takes a wife from the Random Marriage Table. The second is used
to determine modifiers to the Childbirth Table, depending on the
wife's age. What this effectively does is decrease the chances for a
healthy birth the older the wife becomes until she is no longer able
to bear children.
The first table requires two rolls. The first roll determines the
"spread". The second determines the actual age. I have used many
different sided dice (d4's, d8's, & d10's). If these dice aren't
available, roll the next highest and modify the results. For example:
if you need to roll a d4, roll a d6 with results of 5 or 6 meaning to
roll again.
WIFE'S AGE TABLE
d20 2nd roll age "spread"
01-05 d4 17 to 20
06-10 d6 21 to 26
11-13 d4 27 to 30
14-15 d4 31 to 34
16 d6 35 to 40
17 d6 41 to 46
18 d6 47 to 52
19 d8 53 to 60
20 d10 61 to 70
Granted, the upper end is rather old, but there is very little chance
of getting that high. 75% of all results end up being age 34 or
younger. Look at it this way: any lord who gives you a wife that is 70
years old is probably giving you a wealthy widow (several times over)
who is sure to die soon. The outlook is morbid, but probably true.
BIRTH MODIFIER TABLE
age modifier to Childbirth Table
34 -1
35 -2
36 -3
37 -4 functional limit for poor knights
38 -5
39 -6
40 -7
41 -8
42 -9 functional limit for ordinary knights
43 -10
44 -11
45 -12 functional limit for rich knights
46 -13
47 -14 functional limit for superlative knights
Using these tables will stop the population explosion that occurred in
some of my campaigns. My PCs even treated their wives as nothing more
than an easy way to get heirs and lands. One even was "lucky" enough
to have three wives die, leaving him rich in lands and overrun with
children. He looked forward to having wives die in childbirth because
it allowed him to remarry. When I instituted these tables and his wife
passed the childbearing limit, he was very upset. All he could do was
pray for a Saxon raid, which, of course, never came.
[Note: V11.9 had some more variants for Marriage and Childbirth which
could be used well with this new system.]
--------------------
From: "Ward Narhi" <narhiw@diebold.com>
Subject: To Uphold the Law
System: Elric!
** TO UPHOLD THE LAW **
GM: This encounter can be inserted anywhere in a campaign, just to add
an element of realism and roleplaying to an evening. I suggest the
backwoods of Ilmiora or Shazaar. It is best with one character,
preferably a knight or some other PC who sees himself as noble.
Although best with one character, two or three may do as well. The
village it is set in is called Tyuleg.
THE MAIN CHARACTERS
Girope Werner: a mean son of a gun. Girope was born in Tyuleg but left
when he was 13. He travelled quite a bit and made a small fortune due
to his resourcefulness and gumption. At age 32, he returned to the
village of his youth to raise cattle and has a flock of 32. The
villagers hate him and he returns that hate. He is the orniest jerk
the PC will ever meet. He swears constantly, is condescending, has no
respect for anyone, is demanding, is ungrateful and loves to insult
and demean people. The GM should play this character to the hilt. The
mission of the GM is for the player to completely loath Girope. Some
favorite phrases are listed, but not limited by, the ones below:
"you are all just jealous of me"
"lazy, no good jerks"
"good for nothing bums"
"bugger the lot of ye"
"you pansy-wansy"
"scheming ingrates"
any swear word
(and a host of others-be imaginative and as nasty and personal
as possible)
Rufus Alsop: Girope's hired hand is a little touched in the head. He
is a hard worker, but only understands simple instructions. Girope is
very mean to him, but at least gave him a job when nobody else would.
Rufus is too dumb to be bothered by Girope's insults.
Other notables in the town are a miller, innkeep, blackmith, and a
storekeep. All are fairly nice people but they have varying levels of
antipathy for Girope. Of course there are farms all around the area.
THE INTRODUCTION
The character is riding along on a journey and comes across a small
hommlet called Tyuleg. A ramshackle inn is at the center of town,
beckoning for the weary traveller to stop and rest. Inside, a few
farmers have finished their work and are relaxing with a few ales.
There is no place to stay here but the innkeeper may offer to let them
sleep inside the bar if the party is nice about it. If not, they can
sleep in the stable outside. Have the player carouse with some of the
locals. They are a friendly bunch and will want to hear stories from
the PC.
This fun is interrupted by the entrance of Girope. He is a large male
in his 40s with unkempt brown hair and a rather heavyset frame. Girope
slams the door open and goes up the bar:
Girope: "Gimme a beer.."
The barkeep nervously goes to the tap and starts pouring him a beer.
Girope: "Do I have to wait all damn day, you lousy idiot?"
The barkeep finishes and gives him the beer which Girope immediately
quaffs.
Girope: "This swill makes me ill. Can't get a decent beer in
this town. Lousy bunch of thieves too, I tell you."
Girope glares around the tavern and screeches out, "Someone stole two
of my cows and I know it was some stinking local. You just keep quiet
for each other since you are all buggering each other."
Girope goes on for quite some time before he notices the PC. He then
will ask who they are and try and get them involved. There is no
sheriff in the town and it is four day's ride to the nearest city.
Girope will try and coerce the PC into investigating for him. If the
PC is a knight, Girope will tell him it is his duty to uphold the law.
Even during this he will be insulting and a mean cuss. But, if the PCs
balk, he will use other means to try and get help.
THE INVESTIGATION
Remember that whenever Girope is talking, it is loud, obnoxious and
replete with insults and expletives. Remeber all of this is according
to Girope.
Girope will relate that he woke up this morning and went out to check
on the cattle with Rufus. Rufus was already out there making sure the
cattle had feed. Girope happened to count and notice that two were
missing. Rufus can't count, so never knew. Girope then visited two
roads around his lands to see if he could find them but was
unsuccessful. Frustrated, he went to town to vent.
Girope suspects everyone. First he suspects the miller who charges him
an exhorbitant price for grain. Girope says the miller hates him as
sometimes he has grain shipped in just to irritate the miller and
undercut his price. Girope feels that the miller is hiding the cattle
somewhere.
He also suspects the blackmith who always was jealous of Girope's
wealth and would just love to see him Girope suffer.
Girope also knows that the storekeep's wife is hot for him and his
money so he suspects the storekeep of stealing the cattle in order to
impoverish Girope.
Obviously, Girope is just casting accusations right, left, and center,
and has no real leads.
Questioning Rufus proves quite futile in that he knows nothing of any
interest.
If the PC has TRACK ability, he can explore the ranch area and if the
roll is made, can discover where he believes the steer left the ranch.
They seemed to head northwest. The tracks get lost on a road though.
If the PCs question the townspeople they will get slightly different
stories on Girope as detailed below.
The Miller (Vargal Rintosh): Does not like Girope at all. Thinks he is
a rich bastard that would be better off dead and hopes the cattle are
never found. He is innocent of any wrongdoing.
The Blacksmith (Skiju Kanbitter): Grew up with Girope and thinks he is
ornery but a fair man. A FAST TALK roll will reveal the Blacksmith
grew up with Girope and was friends a long time ago. He wishes he had
joined him and made his fortune like Girope did.
The Storekeep (Utbar Kopr): Greatly dislikes Girope and raises his
prices for him as much as possible. His wife has no interest in Girope
whatsoever but is a kind person and Girope interprets that as
interest.
Various Farmers: Don't know anything. At one nearby farm an IDEA roll
will reveal that the man of the house seems to be absent and the wife
will quickly explain he went to the city for supplies.
Girope will harangue the PC endlessly and make his life miserable even
as the PC tries to help him. He will call him many names and
eventually give up on him and go back to the inn to drink and fume and
wait to see if the criminals are found.
When the PC gets back on the road and continues on his way, after a
day he will come across two peasants leading two steer. They are the
stolen steer and the peasants will of course give up. But, they say
Girope deserved it and their families are hungry and need the money
the steer will provide them. It has not been a good harvest lately.
They are exagerating to save their hides as they know it is death by
hanging to steal cattle. They are simple farmfolk whose greed just got
the better of them.
THE FINALE
The PC is faced with a dilemma. Does he uphold the law, even though he
despises Girope and may like the peasants? Or, does he stay true to
the law and return the cattle to Girope and bring the men to justice
(as Girope will demand and will be gravely incensed if this does not
occur)?
If brought to justice the outcome is not a happy one as the two
peasants will be hanged.
The true story behind Girope is simple. He made a fortune in his youth
and decided to bring it back to his home town. There he settled down
to raise cattle. But he did not count on the resentment of his fellow
villagers although it was easy for them since he is an obstreperous
man. Most envied him his riches and his gumption to make something of
himself. He tried to give back to the town in his own way by raising
cattle there. His presence enriches the miller, blacksmith, and
storekeep greatly although they still dislike him and he returns the
favor. Girope sees the villagers as a bunch of ingrates.
If the PC decides to attempt ORATORY, he can try two things. One, he
may try and convince the villagers that Girope is not such a bad man
and has an inner good side which they fail to see. Success means the
village accepts Girope more and slowly breaks his tough reserve down.
Or, the PC can ORATE to Girope and convince him to be less rough and
the village will be nicer to him.
EPILOGUE: A SECOND ENCOUNTER (OPTIONAL)
The moral fabric of the PC can be further tested by another encounter.
Here, he is sleeping in a farmhouse overnight when his horse is
stolen. The PC can head to town and catch up with the horsethief if he
borrows a horse from a neighboring farm (FAST TALK or some other means
to convince). A wandering peasant came across the horse late at night
and decided to steal it.
The question the PC now has is whether to turn him in or not.
NOTES
These two encounters are a test to see if the PC is consistent in
upholding the law for others as well as himself or whether he is a
hypocrite or if he flouts the law totally. The player who I ran this
for returned the cattle to Girope but let the peasants go. When his
horse was stolen, he had the thief strung up. Interesting, eh?
-
Comments, criticisms, or snide remarks about the adventure can be sent
to: narhiw@diebold.com
--------------------
From: joelsona@cpdmfg.cig.mot.com (Andrew Joelson)
Subject: Announcement: Glorantha Con IV Volunteers Needed
System: Misc
1997 is approaching, and Glorantha Con IV is approaching with it. As
chairman of the convention committee, I hope that you are going to
attend. Just as a reminder, the convention will be January 24th -
26th, 1997, at the Ramada Hotel O'Hare (just north of Chicago's O'Hare
Airport). Weekend registration is $40, with a discount for those who
volunteer to to run an event for us.
We would like to make this the best Gloranthan convention yet, but to
do this we will need some help. If you could volunteer to help for a
few hours at the convention, it would be greatly appreaciated. If you
would run a gaming event for us, that would be even better! If you are
ready to give us a hand, please let us know right away, as we are
drawing up the convention's schedule even now.
Yours in Gaming,
Andrew Joelson
Chairman, Glorantha Con IV
joelsona@cpdmfg.cig.mot.com
PS make sure you are on our mailing list; send us your Smail address!
[See Also V14.7 for the original Glorantha Con IV Announcement and
V16.2 for notes on a Pendragon LARP to be held there.]
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's
Games. In no way should it be considered representative of the views
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