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Day 4 D is for Dungeons

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D – Dungeons/prison, jail

Any large city will have a means to imprison law breakers and trouble makers.

A large enough city might have district jails for local/petty crimes, and a main prison for major crimes.

A prison could be an above ground structure, such as an island in the middle of a harbor with a tower.

It could also be a dungeon under the governor’s palace.

Some prisons can be intentionally imposing structures with a design aimed at intimidation and fear. Perhaps stone lions that come to life when there is a prison break. Maybe they have gargoyles that are bound to serve the warden. Jet black stone construction of sheer walls of an unusual height, with towers and battlements, and big, mean, tough guards on patrol. Magical wards to prevent magical ingress or egress, rooms with detect lie, or perhaps just the interrogation chair has that ability, so that the interrogators can lie. Huge banners flying with the insignia of the prison.

Are there pits where the worst prisoners are just dumped and forgotten, like a series of oubliettes?

Depending on how “nice” the government is, there could be shackles on the walls, torture chambers, a gallows or chopping block.

Some types of crimes might warrant putting someone in stocks in the local square. Public shaming was a formal type of punishment that lasted into colonial times in North America.

Is there a secret police? If so, do they wear a uniform so that everyone knows who they are, and fear them and listen to them out of fear?

Is there a standard uniform for constables? Does the city guard perform all policing functions? Is there a difference between the city guard and the army? In the Wednesday night online AD&D game I play in, one city we spent time in has different districts of the town controlled by different factions. Each faction has their own city guard for their area. It is sort of a miniature confederacy in the same city.

Are there any magical items to aid in enforcement? Are there any spell casters involved in policing? Is spell casting banned?

Are their hounds or other types of creatures, perhaps magical, or other worldly used to track down fugitives?

What does the judicial system look like? Are you guilty merely by being caught, or are their judges and/or a trial? Do punishments consist of monetary fines, or cutting off body parts? Is slavery or indentured servitude part of the system?

Are there rules that “everybody” knows, unless you’re an outsider, but you are still expected to know? Is “The Law” chiseled into a monument, or kept in a large scroll somewhere?

Is exile an option? Is such exile at one’s own expense, or are you shipped off to a penal colony? The ancient Athenian version of exile was ostracism. So named because they wrote the person’s name on bits of broken pottery, an ostraka, plural ostrakon. The person was banished for ten years, and thus was “temporary”.

A city with a strong bent to lawfulness will tend to have a consistent way of handling crimes. Do racial issues come into play? Do humans and dwarves get along, for example?

Is the justice system fair for all who live there?

What about adventurers just passing through?

If this is a ruined city, what are the signs left behind of the justice system? Prisoners still on the rack? A pile of bones from the last hanging? Will undead of unjustly condemned prisoners lurk about these places?

In March, 2014 I published an article on districts or quarters of a city.

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Day 3 C is for College of Magic

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In my campaign, the ancients were more advanced in their use of magic. This was supported by the Collegium of Mages. Each ancient city had its own college of magic that was a way for weeding out the bad apples and ensuring that the wisest and most skilled wizards powers were put to good use.

When civilization collapsed, those ancient halls became a dangerous place for all but the most intrepid or foolish of adventurers. That’s where all the good stuff is!

How does a current city in a high magic setting handle the organization or lack there of of its wizards?

For a fallen city, what kinds of things might there be found in the haunts of wizards?

In addition to magical devices, like weapons, armor, wands, ring, etc. there could be rooms, statues, golems, familiars, imps, homonculi, trapped creatures, magical traps, and many other kinds of things to make going their both interesting and dangerous.

What kinds of experiments might be found there?

Would lanterns or other devices with continual light or continual darkness be common in such a place?

Would there be special devices, phrases, or other means to safely access these areas?

In my campaign, there are different levels of amulets that enable the wearer to enter such areas, in addition to showing their rank.

Would a geas be placed on the unwary to get some item needed to restore the guards and wards making it harder to get in?

All magic users and illusionists had copper or bronze medallions that were non-magical and merely showed one as a member of the Collegium. As the medallion tarnished or aged, one knew their skill level was advanced. Much like the black belt derived from the accumulation of dirt and grime on the belt.

At the level of Wizard, 11th level, the wizard received a silver amulet, gold for Mages at 16th level, and platinum for Archmages at 18th level.

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Day 2 B is for Boats

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B – Boats/docks

Further related to water are boats and docks.

If a stream or river goes through a town, there will be traffic of some kind if they are navigable. Traffic that will either use the water for a road, or traffic over the water via a bridge, causeway, or ford.

Larger bodies of water will support ships and lead to a need for docks, landings, wharves, dry docks, cranes, shipwrights, boat wrights, carpenters, sail makers, net makers for fishermen, military docks for the navy, longshoremen/dockworkers, sailors, navigators, captains, admirals, taverns, fishmongers, markets, etc.

If there is navigable water nearby, it will have some effect on a city. Even if a few days ride away, trade from some places will be quicker by water to the closest point. This will lead to a town that is the docks for the city and then there will be roads from there to the city.

Canals can be either a constructed or a natural part of a city. For example, Venice is constructed in an area of low land and the canals have been used for the benefits of defense and transport.

Constructed canals would connect rivers to each other, or perhaps the sea. An extravagant city could have canals that are part of a moat system and rely on rainwater or the sea to keep it filled.

A city with extensive canals would have lots of docks and bridges or walkways to connect buildings. Cities with canals would have lots of boats for transportation of both goods and people. Would their be gondolas for hire that are polled, rowed, or towed? Would their be only one kind of power to these boats, or a mixture? Would magic be involved in powering boats?

Boats take many different sizes and shapes, from a crude log to a kayak, canoe, rowboat, barge, raft, flatboat, galleys, longboats, and sailing ships. Sails can be found on boats and ships of all sizes.

 

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Professor Purrman Meowvilles Dice Tonic for Better Rolls

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TableTop Game & Hobby, on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro area, has a new product. ->

Professor Purrman Meowvilles Dice Tonic for Better Rolls

Check out Phil’s website, and if you live in the area or are passing through, check it out.

Phil was a couple of years behind me in high school and always said that he would open his own game store, and he did. Last year was the 20th anniversary, and I wrote about it here.

NOTE: Because I am not getting a cut of the proceeds, I am unable to recommend this product.
IANAL, YMMV, ROLMAO, IOU, FYI, SYL, TL;DR, TNTSHNMA, TANSTAAFL, etc., i.e., e.g., XYZ, PDQ BACH, ABC
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Wall of Text

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I am guilty of writing massive posts that fall under the heading of Walls of Text.

I think I have some good ideas in there, and since I tend to write stream of consciousness usually with as few notes as possible, I end up with a massive wall of text.

I came up with an idea to have fun with this.

There is a massive wall of text and the adventurers need to find the key of TL;DR to surpass it.

I first had this idea in February of last year, but did not get the graphic put together until recently. My Gimp-fu and Inkscape-fu aren’t up to executing the image in my head, but it gives the idea. My freehand drawing skills aren’t there either. I imagine a giant wall with text filling each brick/stone/block in the wall, with a big and imposing presence.

I had thought of making this my entry in the 2015 One Page Dungeon Contest, but I need a better graphic, and a better idea for the adventure, so that this could be a real submission.

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Day 1 A is for Aqueducts

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A – Aqueducts/pipes/fountains/cisterns/wells/artesian wells/water towers/flood control basins/drains/Archimedes Screw/Dippers/Reservoirs

Without water to drink, a city cannot arise. There won’t be more than a large village or small town without plentiful water.

A few collected homes can manage with a nearby stream, river, or lake that does not run dry.

More reliable sources of water to avoid the problems of drought will result in wells, cisterns, rain barrels, or other means of collecting and accessing water.

The climate will affect water supply. For a large city to arise in an arid or desert region, even more water is needed to offset evaporation, or technology is needed to minimize evaporation. Unless the desert conditions developed after the city existed, and are part of the reason the city became abandoned, some consideration for this needs to be addressed in planning your city.

Except for a bunch of clerics using create water there would need to be a consistent and reliable source of water. Assume 1 gallon per person per day. And at least one gallon per animal per day. In an arid environment, drought resistant animals, like camels would be the long-haul beast of burden.

Fountains were used to make water available to the masses in the ancient world. The people would go to the fountain to collect water in jars each day.

Public and private baths. What is the cities cleanliness culture? How much water is required?

Rain cachement from runoff from roofs to underground cisterns. Such man-made or artificially enlarged caves/caverns easily make a dungeon.

Tera cotta roof tiles with terra cota drain pipes indicate a need for an industry in or near the city or easily shipped to the city from elsewhere.

Pipes or pipelike structures to aid and direct the flow of water would be well maintained in an inhabited city.

The city watch, any military outposts/castle/barracks, and the city government and leading class would have greater and more secure access to water.

Disruption of the water supply following an earthquake or other natural disaster, war, monster incursion, or “innocent” activities of player characters would result in unrest from mere grumbling to riots or organized revolt, depending on the mindset of the populace. Could some such action be the cause for the downfall of the city?

Water in excess is also bad. If there is sufficient rainfall to result in flooding of the city, rain cachement basins and storm drains to direct flood waters away from the populace would be present. Coastal cities could be subject to storm surges, tidal waves, and hurricanes. How much excess water can a city handle? Seawater and storm debris in the drinking water is not good. Usually the underground portions of aqueducts were only a few feet high and normally the water ran about half that height. Cisterns could be simple stone or cement lined pits to massive cavernous chambers like the Basilica Cistern of Constantinople that still exists in Istanbul today.

Would a sufficiently advanced magical civilization bind water elementals or other water based creatures to ensuring the continuation of the water supply? Similarly, earth elementals could be put to use in construction of passages through mountains and hills. Also wizards could do their public service using dig, rock to mud, or mud to rock, move earth, wall of stone, etc.

My campaign is a low magic setting, that is, the heights of magical creation and invention are in the past, but such past objects can still be found.

Whether a city is abandoned or not, water weirds and other water based creatures could be trapped in fountains, wells, or cisterns, or live there voluntarily.

Wells and cisterns make a good place to hide or lose something valuable. What if the party is hired to go retrieve a lost item in one of the wells or cisterns and discovers an entire under city full of adventure.

What does the local thieves/assassins guild know about the water system and any connection to an illicit trade route or a black market ran through the under city.

The water supply is separate from the sewer system. I will deal with sewers in a later posting in this series. The water supply is “clean”. What penalties would the party incur for contaminating the water supply? What if they or another actor/group cause the sewer system to flow into the water supply?

In a desert or arid region, there would be severe penalties for compromising or adversely affecting the water supply. In a region where there is less issues keeping the supply going, it would take much more to cause a problem, unless it is an authoritarian regime, or strict bureaucracy where it matters. Of course, anything to mess with the players is always fun!

In a desert or arid region, settlements might develop near oases, and oases would guide trade routes.

Water is also a source of power for mills.

Rivers, streams, lakes, seas, and oceans are also sources of food. Swamps and marshes have a surplus of water making the ground of little utility for settlements or farming. How does water and its surplus or scarcity inform existing and abandoned settlements?

Information on various ancient water technologies for further reading below:

Roman aqueducts supplied public baths, latrines, fountains and private households. Aqueducts also provided water for mining operations, milling, farms and gardens.

Fountains were originally purely functional, connected to springs or aqueducts and used to provide drinking water and water for bathing and washing to the residents of cities, towns and villages. Until the 19th century they operated by gravity.

The Nabateans of Petra had a sophisticated collection of desert based water technology. More on Nabateans with lots of pictures.

Iran – desert water transportation – Qanat – a series of underground connected wells that transports water over a distance. Can be used for cooling and ice storage.

The reservoirs for qanats were an anbars.

Persians had ice houses (evaporative coolers)  and Wind catchers for cooling.

Ancient Water Technologies Website

Cisterns

Wells specific to fortifications are Castle Wells.

Water well

Artesian Well: A water well under positive pressure.

Irrigation tools: Shadoof

Sakia or Persian Wheel

Archimedes’ Screw

Chain Pump 

Scoop Wheel – Similar to a water wheel, but works the opposite. A water wheel is water powered, but a scoop wheel is an engine powered by a windmill.

Windmill: can be used for grinding grain or draining wetlands for agriculture.

Water Mill

A type of water mill is the tide mill that uses the flow of tides rather than a river or stream.

Horse Mill: Can be used for any milling purpose, but most often grinding grain or pumping water.

Wishing Well

Fighting fires: The ancient Romans had the vigiles. They had a fire engine that was a double action pump. Until the advent of canvass wrapped rubber hose, fire hoses were made of leather with brass fittings. The first firehoses were developed in 1673, but brass rivets and brass connectors would not be outside the technology level of a fantasy world.

Saltern – Area for making salt.

[UPDATE] – I was reading an article about using the Byzantine Empire as a model for a campaign setting, and it referenced the Valens Aqueduct. It gives some information on water storage in Constantinople that is very impressive.

Following various threads, as I am wont to do when reading Wikipedia, I read of Constantinople’s three historic open air cisterns, Cistern of Mocius, Cistern of Aetius, and Cistern of Aspar, and the millions of gallons of water they allowed. These were open air cisterns built of brick and stone, not like the underground Basilica Cistern mentioned above.

[UPDATE: April 18, 2016 – I was reading an article about the puquios of Nazca, Peru, a pre-colonial water collection system. Wind goes down a spiral hole in the ground to help raise water from the ground.]

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All My Dice

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Now that I have all my dice cleaned up and inked, as needed. I thought I should take a picture of all of them. I am sure I will be buying more dice as time goes on. I think I can go a bit longer until my next purchase, perhaps waiting until my next convention….

While getting things on the table to take pictures, I realized that the Game Science Dice I bought last year at Gen Con 2014 had not been inked, so after taking a picture of all the dice and putting them away, I inked them and include before and after pictures at the end.

I don’t jumble all my dice together. I keep some of them separated out so I can have a full set quickly. The only ones I jumble up are the ones in my leather dice bag. I don’t recall where I got that dice bag, if was at the Renaissance Festival in Bonner Springs, Kansas, or at a what ever that con was called in Kansas City. I’ve had it for over thirty years, since I got it in high school.

I just realized that this picture does not include all of my original chipping dice. Only the yellow d4, that I still use, since it doesn’t seem to chip like the others.

So I guess these are the dice that I will actually use in play.

It also does not include three other sets of Chessex dice for my two sons and my oldest son’s girlfriend.

Still, that’s a decent collection. It more than suits my needs and there are some specialty dice too. The only kind of dice I don’t have are Fate/Fudge dice. I don’t know that I’d ever use/need them. I did listen to the Drink Spin Run podcast (also on G+)of their play session with Fate, and with the right group of people and someone who understands the rules, it could be a blast.

I am sure there are those that easily have me beat, but this time last year, I did not have a d30 or more than a Game Science set I have had over 30 years, and a couple of Chessex sets, and a bunch of d6’s from WalMart.

Of the dice I can think of that I would get in the future (I will be getting some, the rest of my Inkwell Ideas DungeonMorphs 2Kickstarter.), will be additional DungeonMorph dice, and perhaps Fate/Fudge dice. If I could get a full set of dice from d3 to d30 in a matched set, I would buy that. So there’s my wishlist/future purchase list for dice.

All Dice & Bags
All Dice & Bags
All Dice
All Dice
All Dice Close
All Dice Close
Games Science from Gen Con 2014
Games Science from Gen Con 2014
Game Sciense - Inked
Game Science – Inked
Game Science Inked White Background
Game Science Inked White Background
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Ancient Anti-Biotics

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I saw this on my FB feed, and had to read the article and watch the YouTube video.

Very interesting!

Not only did they know about honey, but they knew to mix other materials together and get good results. Granted, not all ancient medicine is something I would want to try, but this one gives me hope that we can deal with MRSA and other “superbugs”. I can’t imagine putting that solution in my eye, but I bet it did the trick.

Washing wounds, and treating them with wine, vinegar, honey, and “garlic & onions” would be a good way to prevent infection. In game terms, it would also make it hard to be sneaky around creatures with a good sense of smell. Perhaps good to repel vampires. What other creatures would garlic & onions repel or attract? Garlic would attract the attention of a vampire, and it would send its minions or use long range things, such as spells to deal with the unpleasantness.

Silver is also known to have antibiotic properties, one reason the wealthy used silver tableware. Copper also has antibiotic properties and is why ships were given copper sheeting, to help repel barnacles and other critters that bore into wooden ships and affect either the speed of the ship, its structural integrity, or both

The Roman doctors who treated gladiators and soldiers were very skilled at treating flesh wounds and setting broken bones.

The importance of keeping clean was also known in medieval Europe. The image of the unwashed masses that seems to prevail in textbooks and entertainment media is not accurate.

While the ideas about how the body worked were not accurate, and the reliance on magic and strange concoctions with no modern scientific basis, some of the medicinal knowledge was effective. Some ancient ideas, such as bleeding, do have a very narrow application for a very narrow set of conditions. Leeches are used not for bleeding, but to help improve blood flow in wounds, and the right kind of fly larvae eat necrotic tissue and not healthy tissue. The heads of some kinds of ants after they bite can be used as stitches. There are many strange things that really can and do work, even in the present day.

What kind of weird ideas from the past can be put into play in an RPG?

 

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Gaming Paper Review

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I bought a roll of hex Gaming Paper a couple weekends ago. Here is a quick review and some ideas I have for using it.

I had heard of Gaming Paper a few years ago, and I like the idea. One can use it for instant terrain maps for use with miniatures. It is also useful to cut some out and use to generate a hex crawl area map and take notes.

It is designed to write in pencil and be able to erase it. I tested and dry erase markers will wipe off, just like an ink pen, if you do so right away. I drew an X with a purple dry erase marker and waited for it to dry. It mostly wiped off, but left a faded X. So if you want to write something that it not permanent, do it in pencil, a high quality eraser is key.

I like the idea of cutting out a piece big enough to generate a hex crawl area map, and use it to write notes. Rather than writing or typing a list that then has to be translated to a map, one can do the initial notes in pencil, and then use ink when plans are solidified.

A similar sized piece can be cut and given to the players and let them map things out as they go.

The FAQ states that it did not feed well through printes when they tried it. Most likely because of how thin and slick it is. The rubber rollers need to get a good grip on the paper for it to feed properly. The blue color of the lines is the kind of blue that probably won’t scan or photocopy well. If you are using pieces larger than a standard scanner, you would not be able to scan it easily.

The only time I really use miniatures at the table is for marching order and placement in combat. Gaming paper is a much less expensive option to a battle mat. The paper is generally spill resistant, and it is designed to be rolled up and re-used.

It is tear resistant, so there is not much worry about frayed edges. It tries to roll itself up, so a means to get it flat might be needed. I tried blue painter’s tape and it did not take away the surface when removed. I even put a piece of Scotch Tape on it and it did not pull away the surface.

I cut a piece about 18 inches wide, and was going to use it to re-do and clarify the peninsula where the players in my AD&D campaign are running around. I then realized, depending on the scale for each hex, I didn’t cut it wide enough. So remember, measure twice, but once….

From my experience, very sharp scissors are better. The paper resists tearing so you can’t just slide your scissors along to make a quick cut.

Below you can see the piece I cut and how well it covers my work space.

Gaming Paper
Gaming Paper

If your FLGS doesn’t have it, you can go to the Gaming Paper website and order direct. They have free shipping on orders over $50.00.

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Ramblings of an Old Gamer