Draft Disease Rules

Version one of a set of disease rules, if I ever decide to actually have mechanics for this sort of thing. These do take some elements of 4e disease rules as an influence.

Diseases are defined by the following five traits:

1. Exposure: how a character is exposed to the disease.
2. Incubation Period: how long it takes for the disease to manifest.
3. Effect: progressive effects of disease on the infected.

• Stage 1: Initial infection.
• Stage 2: Ongoing infection.
• Stage 3: Advanced infection.

4. Treatment: non-magical ways to help a person recover.
5. Recovery: any lingering aftereffects of the disease.

• On initial exposure, the character must save vs. poison or become infected.
• After the incubation period, the disease begins taking effect.
• Each day, the character must make a save vs. poison or move on to the next stage of infection.
• If the character is given treatment, each day they may also make a save to improve to a lower level of infection (stage 3 to stage 2, etc.) A successful save for patients at Stage One leads characters to the Recovery stage.

My first impression is that this may be too mechanical for regular use, but could provide a way to run a significant disease, like a plague. So in this case, let’s make up a plague to run rampant through Haven, the Red Death.

1. Exposure: contaminated drinking water or food.
2. Incubation Period: 1d6 days after exposure.
3. Effect: progressive effects of disease on the infected.
• Stage 1: Fever, stomach cramping, weakness. Cannot engage in extended physical activity and takes -1/-5% penalty to all actions.
• Stage 2: Fever, light bleeding from tear ducts, bloody stools. Cannot tolerate solid food. Cannot engage in extended physical activity and takes -3/-15% penalty to all actions. Moves at half speed.
• Stage 3: Fever, sores, light bleeding from all orifices. Not able to engage in combat or significant action. Barely able to stand or move. Cannot hold down food at all. Hallucinations. Will die in 2d6 days in absolute misery.
4. Treatment: Clean water, cold compresses, liquid diet, bed rest, bloodwort tea, leeches.
5. Recovery: After recovery, patient is still exhausted. Cannot engage in extended physical activity and takes -1/-5% penalty to all actions for 1d6 days.

This means that to recover, barring a cure disease spell, a character must be on bed rest with cold compresses, drinking soup and bloodwort tea, and getting leeches under the eye of a helpful caretaker to get better, or linger in illness -- or worse, progress closer to painful, debilitated death.


This can be a useful conundrum in a situation where time is of the essence, and a PC is needed to be on the case, but the plague is spreading at the same time. Maybe. I don't know, but I'm putting it out there in case someone else feels like tinkering or using the rules, too.

Legal Assassination in Aquila

Assassination is permitted under Aquilan law under specific circumstances. The Aquilans refer to legal assassination euphemistically as "a game of darts." Such contests must follow certain rules.

First, the games may be between nobles or between commoners (such as merchants), but cannot cross those lines.

Second, games of darts must involve guild assassins, not amateurs.

Third, games must be declared openly, allowing targets a full day to prepare, including hiring their own assassins.

Games end when targets are dead or when the assassins involved are dead. A game may only be played between particular participants once a month.

Dart games are frowned upon if used excessively or if largely focused on secondary targets, such as a rival's children. They mostly serve as a redress to slights or as an alternative to vendettas.

Haven under Aquilan law has embraced this tradition both among its nobles and its merchant and guild houses. Many Kemari, though, consider the practice unsavory or immoral.

Hassled by the Man: Bureaucrat encounters in Haven

Who they are:

1. Imperial Eye
2. Judge
3. Litigator
4. Imperial Tax Collector
5. Imperial Tax Assessor
6. Trade Guild Representative
7. Church Official
8. Con Artist
9. Academic
10. Foreign Ambassador
11. Magic User's Agent
12. Thief or Assassins' Guild

What they want:

1. To arrest the characters.
2. To hand the characters over to thugs for gentle persuasion.
3. To frame the characters for a crime.
4. To serve legal papers.
5. To demand a fee.
6. To be a bureaucratic pain in the ass.
7. To demand services.
8. To force the characters to buy something.
9. To demand goods from the characters.
10. To deliver a curse as a penalty.
11. To demand the characters sign over their souls.
12. To force characters to sign a contract.

Haven: Laws

Inspired by (and perhaps even stolen from) notes in Vornheim, as I took notes on basic ideas of crime.

•  Arms and armaments: Armor is illegal except for the Guard, Centurions and licensed bodyguards. The latter can only wear light (leather/studded leather armor). You can also try to conceal light armor. Most weapons are illegal. Daggers are fine, and nobles may carry long swords. Walking sticks (clubs) and quarterstaves are acceptable. Slings are easy to conceal, though technically controlled.
• Sumptuary Laws: Fancy hats, shoes, clothes, and even foods are restricted by social station. Thus, even if you look like a noble, you can't live like a noble without having a title or living in danger of arrest.
• Taxes and Fees: Taxes and fees can be frequent, arbitrary, and common. In addition to government taxes and fees are also allowed to guilds, universities and the like; and tithes are allowed to churches.
• Canon Law: Churches cannot enforce law on non-believers, but followers may not be held to laws about decency, morality and heresy. These cannot result in imprisonment, but may result in shunning, branding, lashing or other corporal harm, or even excommunication.
• Sedition: The Aquilans take great exception to rebels.
• Illegal Worship: The Aquilans also take great exception to demon and devil cults and liberation cults. Holy symbols to these gods, public declaration of affiliation, etc. may lead to arrest.
• Sorcery: The use of magic to create undead, summon lower-planar creatures, dominate or charm others, or cause harm or unwilling transformation of others is criminal sorcery which may be punished by imprisonment, disfigurement, or even death. Use of magic for fraud, however, is typically just a property crime.
• Property Crime: Is usually remedied by repayment, hard labor, or indenture.
• Slavery: Slavery is legal in the city. Most slaves are captured in war or are indentured servants. Nobles often keep slaves as personal servants and tutors. Goblins are commonly used as labor slaves, halflings as household slaves.
• Poison: Use of poison is illegal in the city, but surprisingly common, except by licensed members of the Assassins' Guild. Punishment is death by poison, unless the Assassins' Guild gets to you first....
• Murder: Killing a slave is a property crime. Otherwise, the penalty for murder depends on motive, victim, and killer. A commoner victim killed in the heat of the moment may result in a punishment in weregild, some murders may result in imprisonments. Only truly heinous murders or death of a nobleman or a ranking Aquilan official may very will result in death.
• Trade Crimes: Guilds license the practice of their professions an may levy fines, ban practice of a trade, or exile those who violate trade monopolies and controls under their charter.

House Rules: Healing, largely inspired by Judges' Guild

My old copy of City State of the Invincible Overlord and my PDF of the Ready Ref Sheets both have some house rules for healing that I remember having made some inway into my AD&D playing back in the early 1980s even though none of us remembered where the rule came from.

The particular rule I'm talking about is the rule on bandaging wounds. The particular rule essentially goes like this: if you spend a turn immediately after combat (before looting, disarming traps, etc.) bandaging your own or someone else' wounds immediately after combat, doing that will heal 1d3 hit points, or just 1 hit point if you are interrupted. This made sure we kept a steady supply of bandages in our packs. Oddly, my discovery of where this rule came from is only fairly recent.

So, here I am thinking about low-level play in xD&D and thinking that I do like the general vulnerability of low-level characters, but I'm less pleased with how damned long it takes to heal. I want a war of attrition, not a game in which every scratch sends the PCs crying home.

So, reiterating stuff I have hashed over in other places, I think that any xD&D game to fit the kind of pulp action I like needs a little more minor healing, not to overshadow healing potions and spells, but to make it easier for people to keep going and not depend constantly on clerical healing. Conan would have just sucked it up and gotten back to the fight, after all.

So my thoughts on healing:

• Bandaging wounds: 1d3 after 1 turn of time immediately after combat. Interrupted, heal 1.
• Healing spirits: once per day, a drink of grog/dwarven ale/etc. heals 1d6 hit points.
• Nightly rest: heals 1d3 + level hit points, twice that for full bed rest.
• Standard healing potions could be for sale, but maybe they take 1d6 rounds to take effect. They don't help as much in combat, but make good options between fights to recover.

I'll have to think about which ones I want to use if I put it all into place for my next game.

Haven: Calendar Notes

Months of the Year

1. Renewal (Spring)
2. Raintide (Spring)
3. Greentide (Spring)
4. Wandering (Summer)
5. Longdays (Summer)
6. Goldentide (Summer)
7. Harvester (Autumn)
8. Plentitude (Autumn)
9. Coldsnap (Autumn)
10. Snowfall (Winter)
11. Longnights (Winter)
12. Coldbreak (Winter)

Days of the Week

1. Sunday
2. Moonday
3. Fireday
4. Airday
5. Waterday
6. Earthday
7. Wildday
8. Godsday

Phases of the Moon

1. New
2. New
3. New
4. New
5. 1/4
6. 1/4
7. 1/4
8. 1/4
9. 1/2
10. 1/2
11. 1/2
12. 1/2
13. 3/4
14. 3/4
15. 3/4
16. 3/4
17. Full
18. Full
19. Full
20. Full
21. 3/4
22. 3/4
23. 3/4
24. 3/4
25. 1/2
26. 1/2
27. 1/2
28. 1/2
29. 1/4
30. 1/4
31. 1/4
32. 1/4

Haven: Gladiatorial Combat and Pit Fighting

These notes take their inspiration from the rules for gladiatorial combat in Empire of the Petal Throne.

Gladiatorial combat is legal in the Aquilan Empire and is a common form of public entertainment. The Aquilans built an arena in the Foreign Quarter five years ago to support their interest in the sport. Aquilan gladiator fights involve slaves of free gladiators in established ludi, though some fights involved gladiators and monsters or wild animals. To participate, you at least need an Aquilan sponsor if not a membership in or ownership by an established ludus.

Pit fights, on the other hand, are covert and illegal. They occur in The Maze or in secret underground locales, usually in basements or sewer locations.

Opponents in either case tend to be evenly matched to better facilitate gambling. Gladiatorial combats may be to the death, pit fights seldom are, but when they are, such games tend to be very high-stakes and very illegal.

Odds in matches are based on number of bouts survived. Players need to keep track of their wins if they fight in the pits or the arena. An NPC combatant has a 50% chance of having fought before. If experienced, roll 1d6 and add the character's level/hit dice over one.

If you win a fight, you earn experience as usual and win 1d100 x a multiplier based on the level of the combatants.

• Level 1 = x1
• Level 2 = x2
• Level 3 = x5
• Level 4 = x10
• Level 5 = x20
• Level 6 = x30
• Level 7 = x50
• Level 8 = x100
• Level 9+ = x200

If you bet on a fight and win, you win back your bet plus your bet multiplied by the odds ratio.

Haven: Major Magicians of the city

• Theremin Syrne. Old City. Overweight gourmand who loves comfort, decadence, and may have some unspeakable tastes. Specializes in illusions.
• The Faceless One: The Maze. Hooded, inscrutable, mysterious. Often seeks out adventurers to do unusual missions.
• Eliandra Sellorin: The Park. Female aesthete, scholar, and historian.
• Burgyn Bromad: The Foreign Quarter. Collector. Cheap, and will try to screw over anyone who works for or trades with him. Has a huge collection of spells, and very full coffers.
• Warrick Stane: The Foreign Quarter. Merchant, schemer, and con artist. Buys and sells magic items, some of which actually work.

Haven: Criminals of Haven

• Amantha Shara: Old City. Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild. Political schemer. Charming, beautiful, manipulative, cunning, ruthless.
• Marcus Hawk: The Maze. Head of the Hawkmasks, the enforcers for the Thieves' Guild. Loyal, dedicated, respects power and ruthlessness.
• Blind Rath: The Maze. Head of the Assassins' Guild. Speaks in riddles, generally unpredictable, tends to ally himself with whomever he thinks will be on top.
• Namek the Beggar King. Foreign Quarter. Organizes and trains beggars, gets a cut of their action, and uses them as a spy network. Seems doddering and old, can seem kindly and charming, but is a clever and ruthless criminal.
• Liandra Thrull: Dockside. Fence and arranger. She sets up jobs and makes sure product can move. Brusque and tight-fisted. Allied with the Guild.
• Toothless Jack: Merchant Quarter. Fence and arranger. Deals in dangerous, questionable work including work not approved by the guild. Doesn't take as big of a cut, but often undersells the danger of the work.

Haven: Sages of Haven

• Khadek Khal: Dwarf. Foreign Quarter. Major: demi-humankind (history, legends & folklore, theology and mythology, philosophy). Minor: humanoids and giantkind.
• Siobhan Lorn: Old City. Major: humankind (history, languages). Minor: demi-humankind, humanoids and giantkind.
• Timoteo Nexus: Old City. Major: physical universe (chemistry, mathematics). Minor: fauna, flora.
• Turg the Odd: Half-Orc. The Maze. Major: humanoids & giantkind (languages, law and customs), supernatural and unusual.
• Madame Sorotis: Old City. Major: supernatural & unusual (astrology & numerology, cryptography, divination). Minor: flora.
• Sillarion Rhee: Elf. The Park. Major: supernatural & unusual (dweomercraft, metaphysics, the planes). Minor: physical universe, demi-humankind

Haven: Magic-User (and Illusionist) Taboos

The first edition Oriental Adventures book included the following rule for the Wu Jen class:

Since wu jen draw their power from supernatural sources, they must operate under special taboos that do not affect other characters. Indeed, these taboos may seem silly or insignificant to other characters. However, they are vitally important to the wu jen since violating them results in the loss of spells, illness, or other evil events. At first level, a wu jen character must have one taboo. Thereafter, an additional taboo must be selected upon gaining every 5 levels. (p. 26)

While I generally have problems with the OA, the idea of wu jen taboos seems like a potentially cool way to give some flavor to magic-user types. So I think that this is worth considering as a house rule for the campaign. However, the original OA rules have only ten suggestions. To help characters have more options to build off, here is my d30-powered list of some options:

1. Can't eat meat or animal products (milk, cheese, etc.)
2. Cannot eat plant products (vegetables, fruit, grain.)
3. Cannot touch the same sex.
4. Cannot touch the opposite sex.
5. Can't sleep within 20 yards of the opposite sex.
6. Can't wear a certain color.
7. Must dress only in a certain color.
8. Must shun clothing, wearing the minimum required.
9. Must hide flesh, wearing clothing that conceals as much as possible.
10. Must cross-dress.
11. Can't carry gold or precious metals on his or her person.
12. Can't bathe (alternately, must bathe frequently.)
13. Can't cut hair or fingernails.
14. Can't drink alcoholic beverages.
15. Can't sit facing a particular cardinal direction.
16. Can't intentionally take the life of (roll d6) 1-2 = insects, 3 = arachnids, 4 = lizards, 5 = snakes, 6 = birds
17. Can't speak after sunset (except to cast spells).
18. Must remain both celibate and chaste.
19. Must speak in proverbs.
20. Must speak in rhymed couplets.
21. Cannot speak in first person.
22. Cannot touch the dead.
23. May not breathe near the dead.
24. Cannot light a fire.
25. Cannot have more treasure than is able to carry.
26. Must make a daily offering to one or more spirit powers.
27. Must exit any building the same way it was entered.
28. Cannot sit directly on earth or stone.
29. May not follow in another's footsteps.
30. May not see oneself in a mirror.

Haven: Haven's 10 Most Wanted

1. Lykan Thrace: Magic-user, scholar, physician. Conducts illegal magical experiments. Reward: 5,000 gp.
2. Zharkan Zur: Dwarf bandit leader. Ruthless, rumored to be a demon cultist. Reward: 3,000 gp.
3. Moira Connaught: Kemari rebel leader. Reward: 10,000 gp.
4. Jaga Kur: Half-orc renegade assassin. Reward: 1,000 gp from the law, 1,500 from the Assassins' Guild.
5. Sarkut: Mutated human cleric of Juiblex. Leader of a cult of lepers and mutants. Reward: 2,000 gp.
6. Thuval Morn: Leaderof the cult of Orcus. Reward 2,500 gp.
7. Andalin Nighthunter: Elven outlaw, anarchist, and elf supremacist. Wanted by both the elves and the Aquilans. Reward: 3,000 gp from the Elves,  1,500 from the Aquilans.
8. Jubal Surka: Former slaver, former gladiator, former rival of Thieves' Guild head Amantha Shara. Reward: 5,000 gp from the Guild.
9. Murdoc Mal and Vesta Nesh: Ruthless robbers who have struck many moneychangers, banks and businesses. Reward: 1,000 gp each.
10. Nesta Krell: Poisoner and serial killer. Kills the wealthy for their money, but is more than willing to poison a full room full of people to get what she wants. Reward: 10,000 gp.

Haven: Going Around Armed and Armored

Armor is illegal in the city, but you can conceal leather or studded leather armor under some sorts of heavy clothing. Of course, if your armor is exposed, that will still lead to trouble.

Legally, anyone can carry a dagger, walking stick (club), or quarterstaff. Nobles may carry longswords. Short swords, darts, and slings are illegal, but easily concealed.

Licensed bodyguards may wear armor and carry one-handed melee weapons in the execution of their work. Members of the Guard, soldiers, licensed mercenaries, pit fighters, and assassins may use armor and arms in pursuit of their work.

These laws are generally unenforced in the Necropolis, the Maze, and the sewers. They don't apply in the Salt Marsh and The Park, though the Elves do not take kindly to armed intruders.

Bans on two-handed weapons and ranged weapons are forcefully pursued since such weapons are more of a threat to the Guard. Likewise, since armor can stop someone from being harmed, it is looked on poorly, too.

Haven: Under the City

Some very old sewers run under the Old City, while some less ancient sewers run under the Grand Market and the Merchant Quarter. The sewers drain runoff from the cobbled streets in those areas under the city and into the bay.

These sewers are often connected to basements, the dungeons under the Fortress, smugglers' pairs, cisterns, and secret caches. The sewers provide enough room to move to be frequent haunts of smugglers and other criminals needing illicit travel options.

The sewers are dangerous, home to dangerous vermin, criminals, undead, wererats, and sewer monsters. These areas are best looked at as avenues of egress and ingress rather than places to spend much time.

Haven: Who's on Patrol?

• Common patrol: 1d4+1 normal men. Padded, small shield, club, dagger, whistle.
• Heavy patrol: 1d3+1 normal men. Studded, small shield, light crossbow, longsword, shield.
• Centurions: 1d6 normal men, 1 level 2 fighter. Scale, large shield, 2 javelins, spear, short sword.
• Hawkmasks (Thieves' Guild Enforcers): 1d3 normal men, 1 thief 1. Leather, sling, 2 daggers.
• Rakes: 1d3 fighters, level 1d4-1, leather, longsword, dagger.
• Racketeers: 1d3 normal men, 1 fighter or thief level 1d3. Leather, club, dagger.

Haven: Factions and VIPs

Important Factions

• Imperials
• Trade Guilds
• Thieves' Guild
• Assassins' Guild
• Priests
• Wizards (not an organized guild!)
• Beggars
• Kemari elders
• Elves of The Park

Important People

• Baroness Marketable Lucius, overlord of the city. Charming political schemer.
• Capt. Antonius Martus, commander of the Baroness' 50 imperial centurions. Stiff, by the book, young, a lot to prove. Itching for a fight.
• Regulus Plautus, treasurer/tax collector. Ruthless bureaucrat. Ambitious. Dreams of imposing Imperial order on Haven. Has own network of informants and lackeys.
• Countess Lydia Nefaria, aide to the Baroness. Also agent of the Imperial Eye with her own network of spies and assassins.
• Colonnus Meritus, high priest of Tarim. Ambitious but officious, seeks religious control of the city.
• Brianna Weaver, head of Alliance of Trade Guilds. Kemari.
• Gannoc Smith, 60 year old Kemari. Built like a bull, traditionalist, smarter than he looks.
• Alaurune Selmarin, Elven "count", de facto head of the Elves in The Park. Fickle, unpredictable, inscrutable.
• Rhiannon Wise, Kemari high priestess of Demaru. Conservative voice of peace with the Aquilans. Healer and wise woman. Secretly supports Kemari resistance.
• Azhakh Nung, wealthy Dwarf merchant. Stingy, egocentric, zealously anti-tax and vocally anti-Aquilan. Looking to sponsor expedition to reconquer lost Zharku mines.

Haven Encounter Tables

Another day, another post of stuff from my current DM notebook....

 

    Old City              Great Market         Merchant Quarter
 2  Goblin slave          Prostitute           Racketeers
 3  Street urchins        Street busker        Exotic foreigners
 4  Wizard & apprentices  Pickpocket           Porters
 5  Surly young rakes     Racketeers           Thief
 6  Pretty maidens        Street urchins       Pushy rich shoppers
 7  Guard patrol          Cryer/Hawker         Guard patrol
 8  Matron & servants     Angry customers      Snotty rich shoppers
 9  Scholar & students    Guard patrol         Beggar
10  Noble & guards        Guide                Teamsters
11  Beggar                Colorful foreigners  Street urchins
12  Halfling servant      Loose livestock      Black marketeers

    Farm Quarter          Foreign Quarter      The Maze

 2  Beggar                Goblin gang          Cheap prostitute

 3  Pack of strays        Crazed cultists      Burglars

 4  Superstitious hicks   Exotic merchant      Press gang

 5  Burly workers         Guide/translator     Black marketeers

 6  Loose livestock       Beggar               Beggars

 7  Vegetable cart        Strange procession   Hawkmasks

 8  Step in dung          Thugs/racketeers     Pickpocket

 9  Loud women            Odd food cart        Street urchins

10  Hedge witch           Con artist           Drug dealer

11  Mean ol' cat          Guard patrol         Brawl/fight

12  Street urchins        Dwarf brawlers       Murder in progress


    Waterfront            Street of Gods       The Park

 2  Crime in progress     Prophet              Giant spider

 3  Goblin slaves         Temple prostitute    Giant weasels

 4  Press gang            Religious conflict   Wolves

 5  Street urchins        Parade               Goblin slaves

 6  Teamsters             Guard patrol         Woodland critters

 7  Drunken sailors       Street preacher      Elf patrol

 8  Fishmonger            Funeral procession   Pixies

 9  Thugs/racketeers      Pickpocket           Elf citizens

10  Press gang            Idols/relic sales    Giant owl

11  Merchant & guards     Guru & students      Treant

12  Guard patrol          A god incarnate      Unicorn


    The Necropolis        Salt Marsh           Sewers

 2  Wights                Alligator            Ochre Jelly

 3  Ghouls                Wererats             Wererats

 4  Skeletons             Snakes               Cultists

 5  Temple patrol         Giant rats           Giant rats

 6  Mourners              Rats                 Thieves

 7  Funeral procession    Smugglers            Smugglers

 8  Graverobbers          Giant centipedes     Giant centipedes

 9  Necromancer & help    Goblins              Large spider

10  Zombies               Giant frog           Zombies

11  Ghouls                Undead               Ghouls

12  Ghasts                Giant swamp spider   Otyugh

Peoples of Haven

Some more notes from my current DM notebook....

Kemari are the indigenous peoples of the region. Start your basic stereotype with pre-Christian Kelts a-la-Robert E. Howard, with a little over-simplified new-age bookstore Kelt stereotype thrown in: earthy, stubborn, women and men largely equal. Men tend to be in charge of warfare, farming and labor; women in charge of scholarship, religion, and magic. However, these are not set roles.

Kemari tend to have surprisingly open sexual politics. Women may choose partners freely until married, but must remain loyal to their husbands except on certain festival days, when sexual openness for all is the rule. Men give women bangles as gifts, ranging from wood to gold. Having more bangles of more value is a mark of honor. Most bangles are marked to reflect who is the giver.

Kemari value cleverness, strength, and practicality. They love family, drink, intelligence, cunning, bravery and parties.

Aquilans conquered Haven two generations ago. Start your stereotype with Romans as depicted in sword-and-sandal films. They are rigid, officious, and snotty. They see themselves as having a superior culture, civilization among savages. They are patriarchal and patrilineal. They value the military, their religion, and their empire.

Aquilans love "exotic" cultures, even though they see them as inferior. They believe they are rightly the top of the food chain culturally. They believe in peace through domination.

Gods in Haven

Gods of the Aquilan Empire (current rulers of Haven)

• Tarim (LG): Sun, truth, justice.
• Lixius (LN): Knowledge, laws, civilization.
• Martus (LE): Strength, warfare.
• Hesta (NG): Home, hearth, childbirth, healing.
• Corbus (N): Agriculture, domestic animals.
• Nekara (NE): Death, disease, funerary rites, underworld.
• Bakrun (CG): Wine, drinking, debauchery.
• Fortuna (CN): Luck (good and ill), hopeless causes.
• Skara (CE): Assassination, lies, criminal activities, scheming.

Gods of the Kemari (the people of the Haven Region)

• Demaru (LN): Sky, rulership.
• Sturm (CG): Seas, storms, monster-fighting. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Vanya (NE): Magic, death, moon. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Killmarin (CN): Storytelling, trickery. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Jonbar (NG): Grains, agriculture, beer.

Other/Foreign Gods in Haven

• Alantha (CN): Sex, pleasure.
• Asmodeus (LE): Power, discipline, cruelty. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Baalzebul (LE): (Forbidden) knowledge, death. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Danara (N): Love, sex, War, Revenge.
• Demogorgon (CE): Power, cold-blooded creatures. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Dispater (LE): Rulership, dictatorship. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Geryon (LE): Strength, hunting, sport, cruelty. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Juiblex (CE): Filth, slime, decay. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Kalak (CN): Fire, destruction. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Moradin (LG): Dwarves, forges, social order, earth, metal.
• Orcus (CE): Undead, necromancy. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• Primus (LN): The Cosmic Machine. Mystery cult. Outlawed by the Aquilans.
• The Rat God (NE): Cunning, (surviving) disease, self-preservation, rats.
• Remarin (N): Wealth, power, enlightened self-interest.
• Shen (N): Snakes, rebirth, healing.
• The Spider God (LE): Wealth, beauty, poison, spiders.
• The Toad God (N): Survival, toads.

My Current Gaming Project: the City of Haven

I'm currently in a more Vanilla AD&D mood, though this whole enterprise remains mental masturbation while my work and personal life balance is still out of whack. But my random musings might be of interest to some of you, so here's what I have been noodling about in my notebooks.

I have been going back to my old gaming roots and thinking about an urban RPG campaign, partially inspired by recently buying myself a copy of Zak Smith's Vornheim (and getting my PDF download). I have been writing up random entries by hand in a composition book, and now am just starting to edit and think about those notes.

As always, when thinking about a city, I work on a map. However, I hate drawing city maps. It's tedious, ties you down to specifics when you don't want it, and doesn't help much in a game. So, riffing of Zak's urbancrawl rules, I decided to avoid actually drawing a city. I took some colored pens and wrote down the names of sections of the city to show their abstract relations.

Recently, I re-did the work with photoshop for some clean-up and ease of sharing whenever I potentially get my game off the ground again:

My conceptual map of Haven

While that doesn't give a strong sense of the layout of streets, the position of buildings, and the like, it does make a simple, playable idea of where neighborhoods are, how you get from one to the other, and about how big each area is -- all the stuff that I care about in my play style. Frankly, I don't see this as the Next Big Wave in Urban Campaign Setting Design, but it's enough for me to get my game on, and I think it's enough for players to work out the details they need to know.

Also building off another Zak S. idea, I have decided that I want to help myself keep this an easily ad-libbed setting rather than detailing more things to memorize and am defining as much as I can through tables and lists that can be used in game. You'll get to see those over the next couple of weeks as I type them up.

So sorry, I'm all out of Athanor inspirations right now and my attention is wandering elsewhere. But at least I will be posting again.