Leaning on Freeform

Thanks to  Talysman telling me where to find what I sought in my last post, I now have more to think about. I want to finish my Population Mapping Experiment first before I delve too deeply into it, but for now, I will throwout my initial thoughts on the Free-form Magic System he linked to for me and how I might want to adapt it to the Ukarea setting:

• Magic will probably follow the verb-noun format commonly found in such free-form magic systems, and may include adjectives for additional oomph.
• Magic is rare and scorned in Ukarea for the most part.
• Magic will be difficult and taxing for casters. Modification of DCs, not common in OE/Basic D&D, should be addressed.
• Not sure if I want to retain separation between Mages and Clerics, or even if I want to keep a traditional Cleric in the setting at this point.
• Magic will be primarily elemental based, do to the setting history (which I realize I may not have even covered on the blog yet.) Using magic directly on 'life forces' is going to have to take mastery in the magic to do, as it is a culmination of all the elements.

More to come, once I have finished the Population Mapping Experiments,
TB

I know exactly what I am looking for....

There was once a set of rules for non-vanciant magic that was more free form and allowed you to add up modifiers based on varying difficulties for range, area, etc. and then successes were used for effects (or effect dice). The writeup, as I recall gave an example of a mage trapped in a cage near a campfire of sleeping guards and how he could escape.

If anyone knows what I am talking about, and can give me some direction where to find it, I would be forever grateful. I know it sounds kind of 'four by five' system-like, but even Googling that, I can't find what I am looking for.

Please help,
TB

Mapping Population Experiment: Part Two (found)

Found it! This and that, might make a complete Part Two! Other Part Two removed to reduce confusion.

The next phase may look confusing, but it was quite easy and intuitive. I took the preceding map, and based on the information on The 25 Mile Hex which say, "Thus, towns and cities occupy one 5 mile hex in total... In any settlement larger than a village, the entire population is considered urban and totally reliant on imported food from the country side." I filled in what I thought would be acceptable homelands for the city populace. As can be seen, I figured that 20 one mile hexes are associated with the town/city in the center 5 mile hex (I only counted half hexes as full if they were on the river, and three I deemed unsuitable based on how the river ran through it.)

Twenty, one mile hexes is 17sq miles (20x.865=17.3 rounded down for the river). I think this is where I will depart from the good, but general, ideas in The 25 Mile Hex blog and consult some data from the Bat in the Attic blog. He has some great data on pastoral and agricultural demographics that I want to play with. If I assume that the city raised up from a village to a town, to a city, as would be expected, then at least the original village population would be self sufficient. If I take a SWAG at the pastoral to agricultural ratio, then I can figure that out. If I assume 1/3 of the surrounding land is pastoral (herders) then the rest (2/3) is agricultural. Braking the land down like this gives me 5sq miles of pastoral and 12sq miles of agricultural farms and fields around the city. 12sq miles of agriculture will feed 3840 people (320x12) at 100%. I want to divide the 5sq miles between swine and other domesticated beasts; say, 2sq miles for swine which will feed 1600 people at 100% and 3sq miles of cattle, goats, and sheep which will feed 1500 people at 100%. So this land has the potential of feeding 6940 people at 100% productivity.

100% productivity is unrealistic, so... to the dice. The percentages of productivity come out like so; swine 51%, cattle, goats, and sheep 90%, and agriculture 99%. My mind is racing with potential dominion game rules at the moment. Stay focused... stay focused... So for the year; of the original 100% totals, 816 people will be fed by pork and it takes approx. 200 people to raise them (200 rural - outside the city walls feeding slop, leaves 616 urban city dwellers), 1350 will be fed with other domesticated animals which takes approx. 150 to raise (150 rural, 1200 urban), while another 3801 people will live on agricultural produce which takes 360 people to raise (360 rural, 3441 urban). That puts 710 people rural (outside the city proper) with 5257 urban (within the city proper). This seems high so far, but as I look at the map, it does seem like a rather productive area for the city. If I would have used the 13 one mile key terrain rules I used for all other five mile hexes, it probably would have limited this down quite a bit. Perhaps a redo once this is in order is called for? This, however, still only puts it squarely in the camp of a average sized Town based on S. John Ross's Medieval Demographics Made Easy. So, no worries yet.

On to surrounding Villages, which there are 7. Going back to guidance from The 25 Mile Hex, I placed villages where they had a full seven hexes to occupy without modifying the underlying terrain. It was intuitive once I started, or at least felt like it. I didn't mind delving off into the math for the core populace of the central settlement, but I don't want to go that far with the supporting settlements. So if The Hex Master says there are 350 able bodies people in a village then all I want to do is apply some randomness. To the dice bag...

d4 (1-2 minus, 3-4 add)
d20 (percent of change)


Village One: 350 minus 8% = 322 able bodies (92 urban, 184 rural, 46 surplus)
Village Two: 350 plus 17% = 410 able bodies (164 urban, 328 rural, 59 surplus)
Village Three: 350 minus 3% = 340 able bodies (97 urban, 194 rural, 49 surplus)
Village Four: 350 minus 12% = 308 able bodies (88 urban, 176 rural, 44 surplus)
Village Five: 350 minus 16% = 294 able bodies (84 urban, 168 rural, 42 surplus)
Village Six: 350 plus 15% = 402 able bodies (115 urban, 230 rural, 57 surplus)
Village Seven: 350 minus 2% = 343 able bodies (98 urban, 196 rural, 49 surplus)

Totals are divided by 3.5 to ascertain urban, double urban is rural, the difference of the total, minus urban plus rural, is the surplus in able bodies that can provide for the larger town or city. This replicates the 250 to 100 ratio he uses on the blog, though it is inverted here.

So now I know that there are a total of 346 surplus providers throughout the villages. At a 2:1 ratio, they are providing for an additional 173 productive (able bodied) people in the central settlement, above and beyond what the central settlement's core is providing for. If each able bodied person, of the 173, is supporting 5 (average number in a household) then an additional 865 people can live within the walls of the city. The original 5257 inhabitants, plus 865 more, gives us a subtotal of 6122 for the city proper.

Now to see how many additional people can be added to the central settlement with all the Manors' surplus kicked in to support them. There are 27 Manors filling the remaining usable space when adhering to the "zones of exclusion" guidelines. The 25 Mile Hex says there are 100 rural able bodies in a Manor, or 2700 in this case, which can support another 1350 at a 2:1 ration.

We are looking at a Large Town with 7472 people give or take... about the same as doing it wholey with The 25 Mile Hex rules.

That's about it for now. I will work on some tables; military forces, village merchants, key personnel... basically turn it into a Mini-Gazetteer, as time permits. I also want to try the same two different ways; strictly by The 25 Mile Hex and strictly using Bat in the Attic's figures to see which appeals more to me for Ukarea.

Best,
TB

Mapping Population Experiment: Part Three

After a horrendous Blogger meltdown in my last post I decided that, though fun, the way I was approaching it was needlessly complicated. To that end I want to see what the central settlement will turn out to be based on The 25 Mile Hex approach vs the Bat in the Attic tables.

First up: using The 25 Mile Hex.

• 7 Villages = 100 urban and 250 rural able bodies (ea. has a surplus of 50 able bodies which can support 25 others, for a total of 175 able bodies in the central settlement.) 1
• 29 Manors = 100 urban able bodies (since they are all rural, they can support 50 able bodies ea. for a total of 1450 able bodies in the central settlement.)

Total: 1625 able body adults in the central settlement. Or, a total population of 7312 (Large Town)

(1) I still have a question out to The Hex Master as to whether the numbers on his blog are inverted. He has 250 urban and 100 rural able bodies to a village, which in my mind does not make it 'self sufficient' as described if it follows the 2 rural:1 urban formula.

That took all of 5 minutes and came up with a total population of the Town close to what I had originally. I can also easily extrapolate the military force within the 25 mile hex... This method does have some potential.

Stamped: [The Bane Approved!]

Best,
TB 

Mapping Population Experiment: Part One

So, I have the Bat in the Attic: Manors vs Farms Blog and The 25 Mile Hex: Mapping and Population Blog pulled up for quick references. I also pulled up Hexographer and created a 25 mile template with sub hexes. I wanted to see what I could come up with as far as a population goes. Once I had the template made, which I can share if there is an interest, I threw in some rough terrain:

I followed the suggestion that a minimum of 13 hexes should be the overall next hex up primary terrain feature. The big hex, 25 miles, is clear so a minimum of 13 of the five mile hexes should be clear and at least 13 of the one mile hexes of its should share that same dominant feature. Assuming I counted correctly, I came up with this:

Not that inspiring I will admit, but it should give me a good random base to see what size city this 25 mile large clear hex can support. I intend to plunk a city icon in the center and start expanding out with a population. Based on how many able body rural people I can smash into the country side, I can deduce how many able bodied urban people can be supported in the city at a 2:1 ratio.

This is extremely geeky I know, but for some bizarre reason I enjoy doing this kind of stuff.

Now I now, base on what has already been done at The 25 Mile Hex, the largest population density would be supported by an arse load of Manors. But where is the fun in that? Besides, I kind of think that the city would have some form of military presents, so the populace immediately around the city wouldn't cluster into Manors or Share Cropper groups. The farther you go out, the more the commoners will need there own security, turning to share cropping and manors. I guess it will be easier to show what I mean than explain, so watch out for part two, where I start adding the masses...

Best and keep mapping,
TB

Greywulf Has Done It Again!

Greywulf, on his Blog, has introduced me to CorkBoard.Me! Awesome, had to share! Check out what he suggests you can do with it!

Best,
TB

Oh the Horror! More Ramblings...

I stayed home today and have been reading some blogs that I follow in my blog list. I have realized that I have a penchant for Dark Fantasy. This is nothing new. I have always lean toward the Gritty, life is fragile, type of D&D adventures and settings. I never subscribed to the theory that Player Characters had a right to survive and that encounters should be balanced, though I continually fight my own OCD to do so. In short, High Fantasy isn't my thing. I believe this is why I never really got into later versions of D&D, where characters are Uber and perform world shaping feats.

I mention this just so you might have some idea from where I am coming from when I read the following. Over on the Dreams in the Lich House blog, Beedo wrote about Horror in Dungeons & Dragons, and then again in Horror Revisited. I hadn't thought of Dungeons & Dragons as using horror elements, but some of the suggestions that he gave made me think that this is the type of thing that I wanted to do to make my games more 'gritty'.

Then I spun off of that, from a link in one of his posts, to the Lamenations of the Flame Princess blog where James blogged about how D&D is a Horror Game. This brought this all together for me. Earlier versions of the game were 'Horror Games!' Back in the day, we were disappointed when a character succumbed to the hazards of adventuring, but the 'death' did not diminish our fun. Several moments later, we were up and adventuring again with a new character. No fuss, no muss. With this in mind, it was the best IMHO when a character got up to 9th+ level. That one-in-many character was a true hero! It made it that much more rewarding. If someone had a 'name level' character that they advanced from 1st level it was a source of awe and admiration by others. I would argue that adventuring with such an invested character was even more of a horrific experience. Loss of such an investment was scary!

There were alot of good comments to the LotFP post. One that caught my attention was by Superhero Necromancer, who said, "... I rarely hear reports that the deadliness of (say) Call of Cthulhu just leads players to make cardboard characters they don't care about, but I do hear of it happening in D&D. I rarely hear about people reacting very poorly to their character's death in CoC, but I do hear about it in D&D. Why? I think part of it is right there: expectations." 

This is interesting and on par with what I observe when I GM. Newer generations of D&D players expect 'High Fantasy', in my definition of the phrase anyway, and are occasionally disappointed to the point of quitting when their character dies. Thinking that I "surely wouldn't put a dragon here if we can't defeat it!" is a mistake in my games.


Now, the crux of my train of thought where I hope to be brief, to-the-point, and concise:
For universal understand, let's assume my take on Gritty Fantasy as being all about individual character survival adventures while High Fantasy is about world shaping survival adventure. In very loose terms anyway.

Observations / thoughts:

• Though both earlier and later editions of D&D can be played in either a Gritty or High Fantasy setting, earlier version rules lend themselves better to Gritty Fantasy (ease of getting back into the game) and later version rules lend themselves to High Fantasy (more intricate character rules to enhance survivability, IMO)  better.
• Typically older edition players, based on various polls  that I have read around the internet, prefer lower level games. Most like 1st to 3rd, some like 1st to 6th, and less still like 1st to 9th. The majority of the polls I read, show a significant drop after 'Name Level' play. This lends credibility to, in my mind, that we favor challenging individual survival play over 'save the world' type story arcs.
• With High Fantasy play, survivability is more paramount to the success of an Epic Heroic High Fantasy adventure, hence the expansion of character rules detail, IMHO. New generation players are accustom to long survivable story arcs with 'save points'. It's more about the world changing story than simple character survival. Perhaps this is why later versions of D&D had such an impact on console and PC games?
• When an OE party got to the point of being heroic, again IMO, it was that much more rewarding due to its rarity.
• In my experience, when a character dies in a newer version game of D&D, there is a higher chance of the game concluding as opposed to earlier versions. It seems older versions were more conducive to bringing in a replacement character than later versions. You could bring in a lower level replacement character in moments and with the lack of required balance, it wasn't that much of an issue. Heck, it was even more or a 'horrifying' experience for that player. Spinning up an equal level character, to maintain balance, in later editions is time consuming requiring an extended pause, if not complete halt in play.

Well crap, I am rambling again and unable to codify my thoughts. But, I will leave you with a couple questions - considering that 'expectations', as Superhero Necromancer pointed out, may indirectly influence choice of rules, which intern supports style / type of play;

1. Are we nearing the end of Gritty Fantasy being viable? Considering the emergence of the "Entitlement Society / Generation" that has spawned recently? I believe it just might be.
2. Could this be the reason for the OSR? A form of backlash to said social changes? With that, is the OSR sustainable? Sure we can introduce new longer players to older version of the game, and they may like it, but as they develop and become aware of 'entitlements', will their desire to play world shaping level games emerge and as a result they switch to more 'modern' rules sets?
3. If #2 is correct, is this why a preponderance of older version players are either young (say < 15 or 16 years old) or old (the age where people become disheartened with 'entitlements' and expect people to survive on their own)?

Wow... Did I ever get mentally deeper than I was able to ever convey while righting this! What a rabbit whole I have found for myself!

Best,
TB