Real Overland Movement

A friend of mine has been working on a series or articles on the role of beasts of burden in war. First up the camel, and now the mule. They are short and fascinating pieces, not least of all because of the game ideas they can churn up. Take, for example, this excellent chart that has been reproduced from a 19th century British military handbook.

	Animal Speed (Miles per Hour)	Pack Load (Pounds)	Draught Load (Pounds)	Work Day (Distance in Miles)
Camel	2.5	300-600	1,000	20
Elephant	3.5	800-1,200	8,000	15-20
Horse	4.0	250-400	350	15-16
Human	2.5	40-80	120-150	4-8
Mule	4.0	150-300	500	15-16
Ox	2.2	160-200	300-500	4-6
Reindeer	18~90	300	300	50-100 by sleigh

The original source for these figures is The Soldier's Pocket-Book for Field Service by Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley (a Modern Major General with an amazing bio of his own).

One thing that strikes me about this table is how different the numbers are from those given for overland movement in gaming. Take the d20 SRD for example. The mule numbers match up pretty well, but the gaming horses are way faster than the real horses, covering 40 or 48 miles in a day. Of course, Wolseley's numbers have to consider the movement of these animals as part of a large force, but I do wonder how various gaming systems came up with their overland movement rates. There's much more to be explored in this regard.

In general, gaming needs more rules for reindeer. (New York Public Library)

How's the Weather?

Any ongoing campaign inevitably has to deal with the weather. From day to day rain or shine decisions to the changing of seasons, the GM has to put some thought into a reliable system.

One basic trick is to base the weather on a particular location in the real world. Our Slaying Solomon campaign does this by referencing the historical weather in Massachusetts on the dates that the episode takes place. But what to do if your campaign isn't actually set in a real place? Recently, I came across some cool science that can help out: the Koppen climate classification. (Sorry, I can't get Blogger to do the umlaut.)

Courtesy of the University of Melbourne via Wikipedia.

As you can see on the chart, the system has 29 categories of climate, broken into various groups, based on annual temperature and precipitation averages. What's cool about it is that it groups regions from around the world into the same category, so you can see that Mexico City, Johannesburg, and Addis Ababa, for example, are all in the same category.

So let's take Markaz, the city at the center of my world. Roughly, I imagine the climate to be like Amman, Jordan. By consulting the Koppen system, I can see that Amman falls into the same category as Denver, Boise, Kabul, and Samarkand. Holy crap. Now I have not just one city to model my weather on, but an entire host of them. Maybe it would be easier to borrow Denver's weather than Amman's for a campaign.

Drawing parallels across different regions of the world can also help in developing descriptions and characteristics of locations. Maybe I'll find inspiration for something in the Samarkand countryside. I surely wouldn't have looked there before.

DC Gameday XII

Even though I keep missing it, DC Gameday is this weekend. I was lucky enough to learn about it four or five years ago, and it was a starting point for getting me back into gaming after a many-year hiatus.

It has gotten much bigger (it's so big, the day is a whole weekend!), and I'd love to go, but we've still got too much on our plates to be able to take a day off. Hell, if I can't find an hour to blog, I sure can't cut out for even half a day. I'm aiming for the fall.

But if anyone in the DC area comes across this, I encourage you to go register and enjoy. It's a great group of folks.

No-Man's Land

Here's another cool idea for an RPG setting.

I was reading this month's Strategy & Tactics article about the Reconquista. It recounts that as the Christian kingdoms collapsed and re-consolidated after the 8th century Muslim invasion, the city of Leon created a buffer zone between itself and the Muslim-controlled lands. I have always thought the idea of no-man's land was intriguing, but this provides interesting details with strategic context. This got me thinking about plot elements that could be drawn up from this scenario.

1. Before it was made into a no-man's land, the location had to be depopulated. Numerous stories can unfold as the local ruler forces people out of their villages and farms in order to relocate them. Some people may not be happy to leave their ancestral village. Some may be grateful to be evacuated, while others who wanted to be liberated now see that opportunity slipping away as they are forced into the service of a hostile lord.
2. This buffer zone was well over 100km from city (north) to frontier (south), and it stretched for several hundred klicks from east to west. That is a lot of wilderness replete with ruins of all types. That is also a lot of area to get lost in, and any remaining maps will be severely outdated.
3. Not only can there be plenty of wilderness encounters, but there are sure to be scouting parties from both great powers, coming from the north and the south. Should the PC's be trying to find them or avoid them? There will also be loners--individuals, families, tribes--that have taken to living on their own in a largely desolate space. These people probably make it a custom to be avoided.
4. What happens when the strategic utility of the no-man's land is at an end? Large armies will cross the territory. Roads will be rebuilt, trade reestablished. New populations will be relocated to the area. Will the descendants of those that were displaced press their claims or will it be forgotten? What about those loners?

It was an interesting piece that captured my imagination. The game associated with the article also seems like it would be fun. Although the more I thought about it, the more it seems like George R. R. Martin has already covered this territory pretty thoroughly. While I'm not so worried about being derivative (The horrors! A derivative RPG!), it does earn him yet another "Well played, sir."

Well played, sir.

Uncanny Navigation

There is far too much life going on this month and keeping me from blogging or doing much else in the way of relaxation. I finally was able to score a free minute to flip through this month's National Geographic. Fortunately, in my second paragraph of leisure reading this month, I came across this gem in a piece about exploration and human nature:

[Captain James] Cook granted [a Polynesian priest named] Tupaia a berth on the Endeavor in Tahiti. Soon after that, the Polynesian wowed the crew by navigating to an island unknown to Cook, some 300 miles south, without ever consulting compass, chart, clock, or sextant. In the weeks that followed, as he helped guide the Endeavor from one archipelago to another, Tupaia amazed the sailors by pointing on request, at any time, day or night, cloudy or clear, precisely toward Tahiti.

This blew my mind. I read a while back about a people who have a similar ability. The language of this people (I think it was an Amazon tribe) has no words for relative direction, such as left or right. Instead, everything is described in cardinal directions - Dan is sitting to the east of Steve, for example. Even inside buildings, they could always point north instantly.

It struck me that such an amazing human ability must be codified into gaming somehow. I always fond it exciting when I come across real world evidence that such a trait could actually exist. No doubt some games have such a thing, but I'm not about to go do any research. The closest thing that comes to mind is the Dungeoneering skill, but that falls short of this. So here's how I would describe it:

Uncanny Navigation

Because of the character's cultural familiarity with the terrain type, she simply cannot get lost. No matter where she travels, she will always be able to identify the direction to a known location. Drugs, magic or other unnatural inhibitors may temporarily disrupt it, however. The character must be from a culture that is defined by the terrain she can navigate. For example, an island people may choose the open ocean, Bedouins the desert, Dwarves underground, etc.

Inkwell Ideas Kickstarter

Not that I expect my army of bored readers to run out and support this project, but every little bit helps.

Inkwell Ideas, the folks behind Hexographer, Dungeonmorph Dice, and other goodness, have a bitchin' Kickstarter that deserves to be funded. Check it out here.

Frankly, it's an idea that should have been done years ago. I know we all get good at flipping through the monster books to find the stats of our favorite beasties, but wouldn't it be easier just to have a handy deck of cards. Not only can you carry them in your pocket (you know, to impress chicks on the subway), but you can easily cue them up ahead of your gaming session for quick reference.

Also, the fact that all the art this project sponsors will become stock art is a great boon to indie game publishers everywhere.

Spins on Elemental Magic

Many months ago, when I first brought up the issue of magic in the land of Kimatarthi, I mentioned that I wanted there to be multiple means to the same end. I would like players to have significant narrative power to use magic however they want to, even though there are existing ways to cast spells. So while the players will be able to tinker with various casting methods, I needed a base to start from. Enter the Classical Elements.

There are a ton of settings that use the Classical Elements as a basis for magic from D&D to GURPS to Codex Alera (which is past due to be made into a role-playing game). The cool thing is that, just as in real ancient history, there are different ways of interpreting the elements.

Classical Greek
The system that most people are familiar with are the Greek elements: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. There are derivations from that, but it all comes down to the four. You can find this throughout Dungeons and Dragons and all of its spin-offs.

Classical Indian
Interestingly, classical Hindu mythology came to a similar conclusion, but added one more: Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Ether. It's not so far off from the classical Greek quintessence, but including ether as a basic element should appeal to many (particularly our gang of Ethernauts). I could totally see how  or folks that want to mix a steampunk or weird science or pseudo-Enlightenment kind of vibe into a campaign might be drawn to an Ether element. Can you imagine summoning an Ether Elemental? What would that do?

What about Consciousness as an Element? Here it's represented as a King.

Classical Chinese
Another system that identifies five elements is Chinese: Fire, Earth, Water, Wood, Metal. I guess air was dropped, as it is not a substance. Interestingly enough, Jim Butcher throws Air back into the mix in Codex Alera. This kicks much ass.

Classical Bhuddism
There is a concept of seven centers of vital energy (chakras) in Bhuddism and Hinduism that is similar to the elements. These are identified as Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Ether/Sound, Light/Dark, Time/Space. This is a really cool concept. I can totally picture a Tech Level 11 Mage slinging around hexes that twist space-time.

That also brings up the point that in all of these mythologies, the elements are tied to different emotions, temperaments, body parts, planets, etc. My basic point is that there are so many different ways to parse our reality, why can't elemental magic draw upon any of those categories? What about a mage that draws upon actual elements? You know... a Carbon Mage.

Well they can. Play my game.