Taxes

In honor of the fact that I just finished my taxes for the year, and I'm annoyed as I lost my last child deduction because he has a job, not because he's financially independent.  Here's a table of taxes and fees based on those exacted in classical Rome.

Sesterius.  The standard Roman accounting SP at 10 SP to 1 GP

1. The tithes paid to the state by those who occupied the ager publicus. This amounted to 1/10th of the produce or one fifth of the wine and olives

2. The sums paid by those who kept their cattle on the public pastures. The amount was not recorded, but was apparently lucaive, so charge the higher rate - one fifth of the increase in any herd pastured on public land.

3. The harbour duties raised upon imported and exported commodities. One twentieth the value of the goods, including slaves.

4. The revenue derived from the salt-works. One denarius (a large silver piece worth four regular silver pieces (sesterius)) per 60 pecks (524 liters)

5. The revenues derived from the mines (metalla). This branch of the public revenue cannot have been very productive until the Romans had become the masters of foreign countries. Until that time the mines of Italy appear to have been worked, but this was forbidden by the senate after the conquest of foreign lands (Plin. H. N. XXXIII.4,º XXXVII.13). The mines of conquered countries were treated like the salinae, that is, they were partly left to individuals, companies, or towns on condition of a certain rent being paid (Plin. H. N. XXXIV.1; Cic. Philip. II.19), or they were worked for the direct account of the state, or were farmed by the publicani. In the last case, however, it appears always to have been fixed by the lex censoria how many labourers or slaves the publicani should be allowed to employ in a particular mine, as otherwise they would have been able to derive the most enormous profits (Plin. H. N. XXXIII.4). Among the most productive mines belonging to the republic we may mention the rich gold-mines near Aquileia (Polyb. XXXIV.10), the gold-mines of Ictimuli near Vercelli, in which 25,000 men were constantly employed (Plin. H. N. XXXIII.4;º Strab. V. p151), and lastly the silver-mines in Spain in the neighbourhood of Carthago Nova, which yielded every day 25,000 drachmas to the Roman aerarium (Polyb. XXXIV.9; cf. Liv. XXXIV.21). Macedonia, Thrace, Illyricum, Africa, Sardinia, and other places also contained very productive mines, from which Rome derived considerable income.

6. The hundredth part of the value of all things which were sold (centesima rerum venalium). This tax was not instituted at Rome until the time of the civil wars; the persons who collected it were called coactores

For slaves it was charged at two percent.

7. The vicesima hereditatium et manumissionum.  Freeing a slave costs the owner one twentieth of the slaves value as a tax.  A nice one to charge your paladins for doing good deeds.

9. A tax upon bachelors.  Not contributing to the future of the state? Five percent every census, for unmarried men, excluding widowers, over the age of twenty five.

10. A door-tax and a pillar tax. These are taxes on palaces or fancy townhouses, two percent for every door, and one percent for each external pillar. [Ed.  Value is calculated based on the total cost of the building.]

11. The octavae. In the time of Caesar all liberti living in Italy and possessing property of 200 sestertia, and above it, had to pay a tax consisting of the eighth part of their property.  The liberti were freed men (former slaves) , but this works as a tax on any novaeu riche, such as successful adventurers.

See Vectigalia for the source of the information.

Soloplay Game Report - Teuta Act II, Scene 1

As they walked down the road towards Oricum, Lucius told them of the bandit lords who had aided the Macedonians in their fight against the Romans twenty years before.  He described the battle at the gorge of the Aoos that had crushed the Macedonian army and how all of their allies had been cut down or captured and sold as slaves.
   "According to the scrolls that old Lysixenos has, they joined the Macedonians after a two day march.  In that sort of terrain it means that they were within twenty miles of the gorge."
  "So you're proposing we tramp down the Ceraunian road to Chaonia?", asked Sumakos.  "If the the Toad is after Teuta, it will be easy for him to send the Phrygian down the road on a horse and overtake us."
  "Possible", admitted Lusicus, "but unless you think we could take ship at Oricum and sail down the coast, which I can't afford, how else can we get there?"
  "I grew up in the Byllian Hills, we just cut through the fields to the East Road to Dimale and then pick up the course of the Apsus, we can follow it through the mountains and come out in Chaonia east of the gorge."¹
  With that they swung east and passed through Dimale as the afternoon faded they decided to press on into the Byllion Hills until the light faded.²  The next day they reached the mountains at the head of the valley, Lucius wanted to push on, but Sumakos and Teuta were adamant they they should camp then and start the ardouous trek in the morning.^3,4  The next day they began their trip through the mountains, Sumakos estimated that they should reach the valley of eastern Chaonia in no more than a week. 

Red indicates the group's path.  Green is the trail they meant to take.

The following morning the path forked, Sumakos confidently led them up the left hand path into the shadow of the peaks.  Three days Sumakos announced that they had reached the Candovian trail and Clausura was only a few miles to the right.  As the miles walked by and there was no sign of the valley of eastern Chaoinia, much less Clausura, they became less and less certain that they knew where they were.  Sumakos remained confident that they were on the Candovian trail, but did not try to pretend that he knew wher they might be on that trail.  One midnight Lucius arwoke the others at the sound of horses approaching.  Two riders on shaggy beasts rode into the light of the campfire, armed with scimtars.  They gave a loud whistle and the party realized that there were over a dozen of them.  The leader, wearing padded armor, cantered forward and smiled sardonically, "You shouldn't camp right on the trail, you never know who you will meet."
"We're simply travelers, on our way to Clausura.  We have nothing of value."
"Clausura?  You're on the right trail, but you're a week away."
  "A week, that's lnger than our provisions will last, can we purchase some from you?"
"See, you do have something of value, let's see what you have besides your gold.  Unfortunately, we won't be selling."
Later, as the bandit chieftain rode away in Maedus' scale armor, Teuta remarked "I see his point on who you meet on the road."

  Three days later, Maedus woke them up before dawn, saying there's something out there.  They're mvoing pretty stealthily."  Suddinely, the party was rushed by three goblins, who closed into attack.  Maedus, Teuta and Lucius all missed their attacks.  Sumakos cast Entangle and trapped all the goblins.  After dispatching the evil humanoids, they counted up what they had gained, three morning stars and shields and a handful of silver.  "At least we'll have money to buy food, if we find anyone who has any extra."
Two days later, they camped overlooking the valley and ate the last of their provisions.  The next day the marched hungry into the little hamlet of Clausura.  As the sun approached the zenith, they came up the cluster of buildings, the farmer's wife bustled up from where she was working in the garden.
"You lot look footsore and tired."
"Yes, m'am, hungry too.  Our provisions gave out last night.  Could we purchase some food from you?"
"We can talk about that later, I have some beans in a pot.  You can join us, then we'll talk about what you need to go on."
The farmer, Eucheron and his workers soon came in for the meal.  In the discussion over the food, he mentioned that he had seen Bardyllis and his gang riding north the previous week, so he wasn't surprised that they had run afoul of them.  He wasn't aware of any ruins near the farm, but had rarely ventured into the mountains east of the valley.  He did offer to sell Maedus a set of old studded leather, which he claimed he had recovered from a casualty of the battle years before.  In response to a question from Teuta, he replied that there were no healers in the valley, the closest temple being to the west south of the gorge.⁵
Game notes below the jump.

Movie Review - Oz Great and Powerful

Now I go to movies when my better half tells me I'm going to the movies.  Which means that other than LoTR, where I'm already familiar with the story, I usually don't see anything related to gaming.

Oz is simultaneously a prequel, an independent story and a homage to the original Judy Garland Wizard of Oz film.  Starting with the 'cardstock' titles, which I suspect are actually CGI, the movie tries to emulate the look and feel of the films of the 1930's.  The homage  aspect starts at the beginning where the Kansas scenes are filmed in black and white, as in the original.  Oz is the traveling magician, with an assistant name 'Frank', in the 'Baum Brothers Circus'; a nice shout out to the author.  And there is a brief scene where an old flame stops by to announce that 'John Gale' has asked her to marry him, nicely foreshadowing the heroine of it's predecessor.  I'll also say that the city Oz as imagined in this film, seems to give a tip of the hat to Fritz Lang's Metropolis; which I believe carried over to the Disney castle in the credits.

I won't spoil it with too many details, the story revolves around this sideshow magician becoming the Wizard of Oz.  The story itself may be new, I  know that Baum wrote several books set in Oz, but haven't read them.  The scenery resembles that of the original, but with all the powers of CGI behind it.  The witch is wicked, the Munchkins are munchkiny and [spoiler] the flying monkeys are (mostly) baboons.  They do a nice job of not letting the audience see the monsters the wicked witch has unleashed on the poor residents of Oz, which heightens the dramatic tension.  There was one character development that I did not foresee, but which I heartily appreciated. 

Now for the gaming aspect.  After landing in the Oz, he has an encounter with 'river faeries'; these may help roll back the  Tolkien interpretation of the fae as being wonderful enlightened beings.  These are how the fae should be played, they have the sense of humor of an eight year old and they have teeth.

Baum's works are viewed (probably correctly) as geared towards juveniles, so they neglected as a source of inspiration in RPGs.  This should be revisited by DMs, the flower orchestra is a masterful piece background that tells the characters "you're not in Kansas anymore".  I suspect similar pieces exist in his works.

Finally, if you are in a game that has the Mountebank class, James Franco gives a tutorial in how to play the class.

I give Oz Great and Powerful five skulls.  Mind you, Mila Kunis would get a high skull count for looks alone, but her performance demonstrated a range that I did not suspect that she had.

Book Review - The End of the Story

Clark Ashton Smith's The End of the Story is a a chronological compilation of his work, starting from the beginning.  There are three additional volumes in the series, which I plan on covering in due course.  It's impossible to sum up a group of stories only connected by author and date of publication.  The genre jumps from story to story, Averoigne to Hyperborea to Cthulhu to hard sci-fi and the writing quality varies, as one would expect from a beginning writer, harried by multiple editors.

CAS is considered one of the authors of the canon, despite not being explicitly named in Gygax's Appendix N, as he wrote for many of the same publications as, and was a close friend of Lovecraft.

I've linked items I've been inspired to write up from his work below.  I expect more will be added later.  Obviously, I find quite a few ideas in these stories, yet they're not an easy read.  He's one of the few authors who makes me reach for a dictionary - the last one was John Marshall in his The Life of George Washington - because of his extensive and anachronistic vocabulary.

I was tempted to recommend you find a more cohesive work, say his Averoigne stories, but then I realized how much of the inspiration is coming from the other genres he worked in.

[Ed. Forgot to put in the links!]

Treasures
Goddess of the Ebon Moon 
Portal of Eibon

Beasties
Black Rider
Cactus Viper

Beastiary - Trap Limpet

Resembling a gray-ish brown fried egg, the Trap Limpet was developed by a wizard as a variant of a homunculus, to set off and reload traps.

The Trap Limpet is capable of being taught to recognize a simple design, such as a uniform and will allow those displaying it to proceed unmolested.

Interlopers, however, will cause the Limpet to set off a trap, whether it's pulling a pin that drops rocks on their heads or loosing an arrow trap, the Limpet uses telekinesis to mechanically trigger the trap it has been assigned to.  Afterwards the Limpet uses it's telekinesis to reset the trap, whether pulling up the trap door over the pit or reloading the arrow, as long as it has the material to work with.

The Trap Limpet is created using the blood of a willing minion -(In D&D terms a henchman), and only one Trap Limpet can be created for each minion.  The Limpet has only one hit point, can not move once placed and dies if forcibly removed from it's anchor.  The minion does not suffer any damage if the Limpet is killed, but does suffer a temporary one point loss of constitution when it is created.

The Limpet's telekinetic ability is essentially unrestricted, but quite slow so that it is incable of damaging anything directly.

Gygax on Alignment

XKCD Tribute to E.G.G.

There's been some posting on alignment going on recently, Eric over at the Tavern, and Talysman at 9 and 30 Kingdoms, have been musing on the subject.  Which made a reader dig up an old post of mine that I had forgotten writing. 
 
Because of that this interesting advice about Chaotic characters caught my eye while researching a future post in Supplement I - Greyhawk from 1976.

"While there is no rule to  apply to groups of chaotic players operating in concert, referees are encouraged to formulate some rules against continuing co-operation as fits their particular situation, but consideration for concerted actions against chaotic players by lawful ones should be given."

Wow, the good guys should gang up and smack down their erstwhile party member(s) before they can backstab them.  This is one page before the paladin is introduced, with the prohibition against associating with Chaotic characters.  "They will associate only with lawful characters."  Emphasis in the original.
Essential he declared open season on any chaotic character, with no side effects even  for paladins.

Alignment in The Big Lebowski

A couple of years later he had switched to the Nine Alignment system. Which for all of the discussions it has spawned over the years, takes up two pages in the DMG and three in the PH (counting the chart as a whole page).  Yet, I've never seen discussion on why the switch was made.

One of the items in the DMG which struck me was the half column on Graphing Alignment.  It is of importance to keep track of player character behavior with respect to their alignment.... It is of utmost importance to keep rigid control of alignment behavior with respect to such characters who serve deities who will accept only certain alignments,...failure to demand strict adherence to alignment behavior is to allow a game abuse.

Wow? E.G.G. is using some pretty emphatic language here and mandating some secret meta-gaming bookkeeping on the part of the DM.  Now there's lots of bookkeeping that the DM and players are mandated to do, in terms of time and light and to some extent encumbrance.  These are all things that affect the characters.  As far as my memory serves, this is the only mechanic that he ever mandates that is aimed at controlling the players.

And it wasn't there in 0e.  It makes me speculate that the Nine Alignments, like the Grappling were someone else' idea that he was talked into.  The game was developed to allow the players to take the part of heroes; villains as said above, were to be ganged up on and defeated, even if they were party members.  However with the introduction of the Assassin as a class, obviously they couldn't be heroes - and in terms of the broader society, Clint Eastwood's anti-hero movies were dominating the decade, at least until the release of Star Wars.  Could that have influenced the change in systems? 

Treasury - Pearl of New Reality

Sometimes a wish is granted or action is taken that changes the course of history ... for awhile.  For the truth is that not all desires can with stand the pressures of Time, Space, Fate and most especially the sheer mass of History, grinding into the future.

When a wish can not stay fulfilled, History, the sages agree, will form an event horizon around the wish and slowly push in until the wish has collapsed into an opalescent  sphere, resembling an extremely large pearl.  Thus encapsulating the altered reality.

After that the sages split into various schools regarding the properties and fate of the orbs.

The Amber school claims if you take one to the space between Shadows it will expand into a whole new reality.

The Alexandrian school claims that the altered reality, complete to the edge of the universe is still within the pearl. And that if you could but pierce the event horizon you could find yourself as you would have been.

The Ankh school agrees with the Amber school, but claims that you have to wait until the end of this reality, when all of the pearls will be able to expand and grow into new realities.

The Rel Astran school says that these are not complete new realities, but seeds of new planes.  The seeds can be "planted" in the Astral plane and nurtured through complex ritual magic to grow into a new plane of existence.

The Chendl school is an offshoot of the Rel Astran and says that the seed must be taken to the Ethereal plane rather than the Astral.

The Waterdeep or Nesting school claims that our reality is contained within a Pearl and that Pearl is itself contained within a series of Pearls all the way back to the Primal Pearl.

The Greyhawk school says that it's a load of ballocks that the Pearls can contain a new reality or plane.  They like to trot out what they say are Xagyg's research notes recovered by a band of intrepid adventurers, which show that he planned to use Pearls to contain the essences of the demi-gods he captured.

The sage Lysixenos, in his scroll On Infinity, relates the apocryphal story that St Cuthbert once offered such a Pearl to Asmodeus, offering to let him escape to found his own reality and never trouble humankind again.  Asmodeus refused with a wry smile, saying "Not again".