[Sea Roads] The Peoples of the Archipelago

The peoples of the Archipalego are uniformly red-brown skinned and dark haired, with the exception of the Grak, who are white skinned with blond or red hair. The average Archipalegan is between 5 foot 5 and 5 foot 9 tall and between 15 and 25 stone in weight, with women traditionally shorter and lighter than men.

The common language of the Sea Roads is Kaqe and the written text is Kaqic Runes, though the Grak speak a different language altogether. Kaqe is a bastardization of the True Speech and, while having little actual magical power, some words are suspiciously close to their original roots. Literacy is abnormally high for this technology level as both reading and writing is encouraged for all levels of society, though the majority of people are semi-literate and able to read most things slowly. Memorization is also encouraged, for the variety of songs and lays that are popular along the Sea Roads.

There is no religion in the Archipelago, with the exception of ancestor worship among the Grak, but there is veneration of few sites true to the Old Powers of the earth and the sea amongst the islands. The very concept of a god or gods is foreign to the inhabitants of the Sea Roads.

Professions range from sailor to soldier, witch to wizard, smith to carpenter, farmer to fisherman, and merchant to prince, to name a few. Most islanders are familiar with the sea, having sailed it since infancy, but a few on the larger isles have no such skill, seeing the sea from afar but never actually living or working on it, though this is rare. In every town can be found a witch or sorcerer, a head man or woman, a carpenter, a smith and a tavern keeper. The few cities have much more, while the smaller villages and hamlets have even less.

Trade is carried out by barter or with ivory or gold. The technology level of the world is early iron, with bronze still prevalent. Fashion includes tunics and hose or robes for men, women and wizards, and cloaks with hoods.

[Savage Worlds] Winter War Campaign, Session Six: Sailor On A Concrete Sea

Session six of the Winter War campaign involved naval action!

The PCs escaped the Ghoul cave and found the weapon stash from Grath. They quickly loaded their booty onto the fishing boat and made for deeper water on Lake Sri.

Soon, they spotted two sails in the distance - two larger boats approaching. They figured that the boats were faster than they were, so they tried to fool them with plague markings.

When that didn't work, they got ready to fight. One boat turned out to be from Malarky's Crew and the other was unknown. Sir Aerik in the crows nest spotted a figure on board who could only have been one of the hated Necromancers.

The two boats soon closed the distance but Captain McFee managed to get some good rolls (with the help of the rest of the crew) and found some shallows that mired the Malarky ship. With the Necromancer and his undead crew still in full pursuit, they were soon overhauled and attacked.

The battle was fierce - the Necromancer used his magic staff to blast their sail and topple their mast (unfortunately for Sir Aerik in the crows nest) but the mast fell onto the Necromancer's ship. Father Ashley used his holy power against the zombies but the evil dead were protected by the powers of the Necromancer.

With the PCs fighting for their lives against zombies, several concentrated on taking out the Necromancer - Sir Aerik, Nostro the Wizard, McPhee and Keldon the Ax all tried to take him down.

He caught Sir Aerik's sword with his left hand and Keldon's ax with his right and totally ignored McPhee's feeble attacks. Finally, Nostro the Wizard unleashed ultimate death onto the Necromancer, blowing his body to pieces into the lake waters.

The session ended with the PCs in full command of the Necromancer's ship and looking towards Malarky's ship on the shoals.

Next Session: Another boarding action!

[1938] Locations: The Howe

The Howe is the main southern base of the Manx forces, comprised of the bulk of the Ramsey Company (Captain Arthur Gride, commanding) and the Liverpool Free Staters (Lt. Colonel Arthur Havisham, commanding).

The Howe is directly west of Port St. Mary, along the Howe Road, past the intersection of the Glen Chass Road. There are a half-dozen houses and shops, including The Howe Public House, along the Howe Road. Most of the outbuildings are occupied by soldiers and the Pub is the command HQ (but is open most days to the locals). Trenches surround the hamlet as a raid early in the fighting brought the idea home that a seige doesn't always work the way you'd think.

The Manx forces regularly patrol the Glen Chass Road, down to the Fistard Road, where another Manx company is dug in. After that first raid, not much is happening along this front but that doesn't mean that the troops are lax - the opposite in fact. Gride and Havisham work well together, maintaining distinct commands while drilling their troops to support each other. Gride is more cautious while Havisham is more daring. Between the two of them, the region they control is totally theirs.

The Howe is a good place for PCs to interact with fellow Manx forces, in a bucolic setting without bullets flying. Additionally, there is some espionage work here, as several of the resistance groups in Port St. Mary send info to the Howe.

[Resources] The Polish Winged Hussars

I was reading the Book of Worlds blog and came across this post about the Winged Hussars, which included a link to a movie about them. Check out the blog, the film clip and the wikipedia article, they're well worth it.

As an aside: I first saw a drawing of them by Donna Barr in the RPG Lace and Steel, originally published by TAGG in the early 90s (and by Pharos Press for the second edition). Now Golden Elm is in charge of it (whether they actually bring it back into print remains to be seen).

[Characters] Henry Taggart

Henry Taggart was one of the main crew of the Miss de Meaner. He prefers using a Tommy Gun nicknamed "The Hammer" when in a gunfight and throwing knives as a matter of course.

Henry Taggart (WC)

Agility d10 Smarts d8 Spirit d6 Strength d10 Vigor d8
Pace 6 Parry 8 Toughness 6 Charisma -0-

Hindrances: Enemy (M), Loyal, Bloodthirsty.

Edges: Trademark Weapon, Frenzy, Block, Marksman, No Mercy.

Skills: Fighting d10, Shooting d10, Guts d4, Driving d4, Repair d4, Notice d6, Throwing d6.

[Atomic Thursday] 19

19 was an immediate and international hit in 1985, I remember playing Twilight 2000 and FGU's Aftermath! to this song.

[Sea Roads] A Brief History and Geography

The world came into being from the sea over 2000 years ago. According to legend, five wizards stood forth and called out the True Names of the lands, parting the sea and raising islands up. Who these five wizards were or where they came from is subject to mass speculation and even larger legend. Suffice it to say it was they who made the world of men possible.

The sea, however, did not give up land very easily and only a few thousand islands, some large but the majority small, dot the world in a far-flung archipelago, with plenty of water in-between.

Over the next millennia, men traveled to and inhabited most of the isles, developing skills of carpentry and ship building, smelting and smithing, magic and language, farming and fishing, trade and even war in the process. They created the Sea Roads, the travel and trade routes that wind their way through the islands, following the shores and currents, mapping the whirlpools and sargassos, marking the doldrums and the freshwater springs.

The overall world is known as the Archipalego of the Sea Roads or simply either the Archipalego or the Sea Roads. It is divided into five parts, the Inner Sea, the Middle Sea, and the three Reaches of the Outer Sea - the Widdershin Reach, the Deiseil Reach, and the Spinward Reach. The Middle Sea rings the Inner Sea and is surrounded by the Reaches. The Widdershin Reach covers an arc from the East to the Northwest, the Deiseil Reach stretches from the East to the Southwest, and the Spinward Reach is from the Southwest to the Northwest.

The largest number of islands. as well as the largest islands, are in the Inner Sea, some say over five hundred, if one was bothered enough to count. The Middle Sea holds at least as many in at least five times the area. The Reaches have most far flung islands, all told about a thousand islands.

[Blog] Red Box Blog

One of the blogs I read is Red Box Blog.

Back in January, The Red DM posted an article titled "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Cards" about the announced WOTC D&D Fortune Cards.

The Red DM came up with his own Fortune Cards, using a standard playing card deck. Each suit has a different effect, from saving throw bonuses, extra temporary hit points, bonuses to hit and increased damage dealt. The range of the effect depends on the number/face card drawn.

This is so cool, I'll be using this in the future!

For this post alone, I urge you to check out the Red Box Blog - you won't regret it.

[Resources] Fort du Portalet

The Fort du Portalet is a French fortress in the Pyrenees Mountains. Constructed between 1842 and 1870, the fort was placed to control the Somport Pass between France and Spain. Situated 100 yards above the original toll location, the fort was designed to garrison nearly 500 men.

Occupied for over 50 years by the 18th Pau Infantry Regiment, it became a summer camp from 1925 until 1939. After the start of World War II, it became a Vichy prison and, ironically, Philippe Petain, the former head of Vichy France, was imprisoned there briefly after the war.

The 18th returned to the Fort, occupying it until 1952. After mothballing the fort in 1962, the military sold it in 1966. A series of owners managed to let it slowly collapse into ruin until it finally became a national monument (2005) and a restoration project began.

A website with some cool pics of the fort is here. Many of the pictures are haunting in their simplicity. Another has just a few pics but they show better the size of the fort. A third site has a few pictures and an original sketch. Another set of photos is in Wikipedia Commons.

[1938] Up Armored Truck

With the start of the Very British Civil War, armor, and especially light armored cars, were in short supply. Many militaries, however, have solved the problem in the short-term by armoring lorries with as thick a plate as they can find.

Here's an example of one 2 ton truck, in Savage World terms:

Up Armored 2.0 Tonne Truck:
Acc/Top Speed: 5/40Toughness: 13/8(4/2)
Crew: 2 (driver, gunner) +10 passengers
Notes: Four-Wheel Drive, Soft-sided; Toughness 8 for the undercarriage.
Armament:
.30 Cal Machine Gun (Range: 30/60/120, Damage: 2d8+1, ROF 3, AP 2)

[Resources] Charles Dickens

We all read the works of Charles Dickens in high school: Great Expectations, Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, Bleak House and Nicholas Nickleby, just to name a few.

And the stories, while long and boring from a typical high school viewpoint, actually are excellent and some of the greatest pieces of literature of all time. The usefulness of these stories in any game you might run is immense - unrequited love and ironic tragedy, dastardly revenge and forlorn hope, deep despair and silly happiness, vast wealth and crushing poverty - all of it, is useful.

At the minimum, I've been using the list of Dickensian characters in my 1938 game (and several other Victorian-Era games), which, in addition to the names of the characters, provides a short description of events and situations that the character is involved in during the course of the books. Already made up NPCs? From literature? Holy Cats!

[Quotes] Ursula LeGuin

"Here lay a dead Karg with yellow hair long, loose, and bloody; there lay the village tanner, killed in battle like a king." - A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin, Chapter 1: Warriors in the Mist

[Atomic Thursday] Stand or Fall

Yet another classic 80's vid.

[Resources] Wizards Project

The Wizards Project is a research project that studies lie detection. According to the study, a "wizard" is one who can detect a lie 80% of the time, as opposed to the average person. The study tested 20,000 people and found 50 (roughly 0.25%) that could be considered wizards. One of the researchers, Paul Ekman, is the basis for the TV show Lie to Me.

Imagine throwing in this research into a game? The Wizards Project would work great in a modern or near-future Psionics based game, as either a psi protection group or a group with shady (possibly government or corporate) dealings.