Cross System Conversions

     I like mixing and matching between multiple systems, genres and milieus, as my various random encounter tables will show.  One of the things I have somewhere is a sheet of paper detailing my cross system AC conversions.  But I can't find it so I'm going to rebuild it with a little help.

     My basic approach for conversions has been to use armor description as the starting point, if you know what chainmail is in AD&D and Runequest, then you can figure out the rest of the armor classes from there.  And since monsters are rated on the same scale as humans (at least for all the systems I can think of); the process is to look at the table I just derived and assign the appropriate AC.

    THAC0, %to hit, attack roll - whatever you want to call is more subjective for me.  Usually, I'll look for a comparable monster in the system I'm converting to and peg the attack roll to the comparable.   Take for example, the 'Great Kommata', a gigantic Martian flying beast from Space 1889: it has two attacks Talons and Drop (rocks).  Comparable is a Roc from AD&D, two 3-18 attacks at 18HD.  Add in a rock attack like a stone giant throwing, but can only hit one character.  Presto, all I need to run a combat encounter with one.

     Converting to Chivalry & Sorcery is a bit different, as I all have to do is select the appropriately sized attack form, say 'MLB' or Monster Large Bite and it gives me the attack rolls against every armor class.  

     Magic is either a spell for spell translation to the target system or I need to define the effect in the target system.  For example, "Crumble Wall" in Warhammer FRP is  similar effects to "Transmute Rock to Mud", the stone dissolves into sand instead of collapsing into mud.  The description is different, but the effect and therefore the level is really the same. 

    This shouldn't be a surprise to the grognards, system conversion has been around since at least the AD&D DMG, right there starting on page 113 where they give conversions for Boot Hill and Gamma World to AD&D (The text mentions both Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World, even though Jame Ward wrote both, they use different armor scales).

   What I didn't realize until I was looking the the C&S Saurians book, which I was sure I'd reviewed last year, but haven't, is this little gem.

     Look at that conversion from D&D and Runequest to C&S.  Of course, the Runequest conversion is handwaving the difference between bronze and iron armor in RQ (iron is 1.5x as strong); so I'd take it with a grain of salt.  Still it's a good reason to rebuild my AC conversion table that I've misplaced.

 

Description	From	AD&D	C&S	ACKS	WFRP	MA	GW	RQ
Banded Plate	ACKS, C&S, AD&D	4	4	5	1	4	4	5
Brigantine / Brigandine	C&S, RQ	7	3	3	1	5	7	5
Chain Mail	ACKS, AD&D	5	5	4	1	4	6	5
Chain Mail Hauberk	C&S	4	7	5	1	4	5	5
Chain Mail Shirt	C&S, WFRP, RQ	5	5	4	1	4	6	5
Chain Mail Shirt & Plate Cuirass	C&S	2	9	6	1	3	6	5
Cuirbolli	RQ	8	2	2	0/1	7	8	3
Cured Hide	MA, GW	7	3	3	0/1	5	6	3
Duralloy Shield	MA	+4	+4	+4	+1	1	+4	16
Energized Armor	GW	-4	15	14	3	-6	2	14
Full Carapace	MA, GW	5	5	4	1	3	4	5
Full Plate	C&S	1	10	7	1	2	4	6
Furs or Skins	GW	8	1	1	0/1	7	8	2
Hardened Leather Cuirass	C&S	8	1	2	0/1	7	8	2
Heavy Furs or Skins	MA	8	1	1	0/1	7	8	2
Heavy Scale Armor	RQ	6	4	3	1	5	7	5
Heavy Shield	C&S	+1	+2	+1	+1	6	+1	12
Hide & Fur Armor	ACKS	8	1	1	0/1	7	8	2
Inertial Armor	GW	-4	15	14	3	-6	2	14
Lamellar Armor	ACKS	4	4	5	1	4	4	5
Leather Armor	ACKS, AD&D	8	1	2	0/1	7	8	2
Leather Jack/ Jerkin	WFRP	8	1	2	0/1	7	8	2
Light Scale Armor	RQ	6	4	3	1	5	7	4
Light Shield	C&S	+1	+1	+1	+1	6	+1	8
Linen Armor	RQ	8	1	2	0/1	7	8	2
Mail Coat & Hose	C&S, WFRP	4	7	5	1	4	5	5
None	AD&D	10	0	0	0	8	10	0
Padded Armor	AD&D	8	1	2	0/1	7	8	2
Partial Carapace	MA, GW	7	3	3	1	6	6	5
Piece Metal Armor	GW	5	5	4	1	3	4	6
Plant Fiber Armor	MA, GW	7	3	3	0/1	5	6	4
Plastic Armor	GW	0	11	9	3	-2	3	10
Plate Armor	ACKS, AD&D, RQ	2	9	6	1	2	3	6
Plate Cuirass	C&S, WFRP	3	6	5	1	4	5	6
Power Scout Armor	GW	-4	15	14	3	-6	2	14
Powered Alloy Armor	GW	-4	15	14	3	-6	2	14
Powered Assault Armor	GW	-8	19	18	4	-10	1	18
Powered Attack Armor	GW	-8	19	18	4	-10	1	18
Powered Battle Armor	GW	-4	15	14	3	-6	2	14
Powered Plate Armor	GW	0	11	9	3	-2	3	10
Ring Mail	ACKS, AD&D	7	3	3	1	5	7	4
Scale Mail	ACKS, C&S, AD&D	6	4	3	1	5	7	4
Shield	ACKS, AD&D, WFRP, GW	+1	+1	+1	+1	6	+1	12
Shield of Non-metallic Substance	MA	+1	+1	+1	+1	6	+1	8
Soft Leather	C&S, RQ	9	1	1	0/1	7	9	1
Splint Armor	C&S, AD&D	4	3	3	1	5	4	4
Studded Leather	AD&D	7	3	3	1	6	7	5
Superior Chain Mail	C&S	4	8	5	1	4	5	5
Thin Metal Armor	MA	5	5	4	1	3	5	4
None	AD&D	10	0	0	0	8	0	8
None	AD&D	10	0	0	0	8	0	8
None	AD&D	10	0	0	0	8	0	8
None	AD&D	10	0	0	0	8	0	8
None	AD&D	10	0	0	0	8	0	8
None	AD&D	10	0	0	0	8	0	8

ACKS - Adventurer, Conqueror, King:  Ascending armor class

AD&D - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Descending Armor Class 

C&S - Chivalry & Sorcery: Ascending Armor Class

GW - Gamma World: Descending Armor Class

MA - Metamorphosis Alpha: Descending Armor Class, starts at 8

RQ - Runequest: Armor absorbs damage rather than setting the target to hit.  Also the armor can vary by body part, i.e. you can wear a plate cuirass and have only soft leather on you legs.  Note, I hand waved the difference the system makes between bronze and iron armor.

WFRP - Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing: Armor absorbs damage rather than setting the target to hit.  Also, the armor only protects certain body parts. Leather is rated 0/1, as it only absorbs damage from blows where the damage is <=3.  If the damage is 4 or greater, all of the damage affects the character.

Converting RQ and WFRP armor to other systems, I'll use the highest value provided. 

 

Feudal Wilderlands: Severnais Random Encounters

   The final aid I'll develop for adventuring in the Severnais is a set of random encounter tables.  As before, I'm pulling in creatures from pretty much every game in my library to give encounters that sense of whimsy I enjoy.  

     I should also note that I have a set of Random Encounter Generation home rules that are consulted before I get to these tables.  Over the years I've moved from most of my random encounters being combat and experience point oriented to designing a system that will generate information for the players about the area.  What I have below are tables of challenges they may encounter, or they may just see evidence of and start looking over their shoulders for the monster to appear.

     Encounter areas follow natural ecosystem and movement boundaries.  Looking at the map of the Sverenais, I determined that there are four encounter areas.

     North Dearthwood  The area of the forest north of river flowing out of the Dearthwood into the Roglaroon and the tributary of the Conqueror's River as well as the Conqueror's river upstream from there.  Looking at the Wilderlands of High Fantasy booklet, there are three "Lurid Lairs" listed in the area for Wood Nypmphs, Pixies and Hippogriffs.  From that I have determined that I will use the "Fairy or Sylvan" table in AD&D and the "Elf Wood" table in Runequest when generating the appropriate encounters.  I also ended up with two encounters from Call of Cthulhu in that area, so I've decided that the entire area is subject to planar instability, where 'nexus points' to use the Empire of the Petal Throne terminology naturally appear and enable all sorts of beings to enter the Wilderlands.

     Victory Hills  Not a canonical name, but what I'm calling the hills where the Conqueror's River rises.  They extend up to the River Stillring, most of them are outside of the Severnais proper, so I can re-use them as an area when I detail the heartlands around the City State itself.

     North of Severn  and South of Severn The Severn provides a natural barrier to movement dividing the encounter areas.

     Note that I'm leaving the actual boundaries of the encounter areas rather vague.  These are all or almost all mobile creatures that can have overlapping ranges.  Also, I can roll the encounter and if there's a reasonably close boundary, decide which challenge I want the party to encounter. 

About half the challenge encounters are from AD&D and I expect are familiar to most readers, the source of others are indicated below.

Roll	North Dearthwood	Victory Hills	North of Severn	South of Severn
1	Elf War Party (RQ)	Humanoid #4 (MA)	Centisteed (GW)	Snake Python
2	Chimera	NPC Party	Halfling	Changer (MA)
3	Al'mi-raj (FF)	Giant Skunk	Orc	Ankheg
4	Wood Nymphs Lair Hex 2818 (5)	Apparition (FF)	Gnome	Wild Dogs Lair Hex 3515 (18)
5	Star Spawn of Cthulhu (CoC)	Sphinx (ACKS)	Wild Horses Lair Hex 3311 (12)	Amoeba (WFRP)
6	Men, Bandit	Weretiger (ACKS)	Patrol	Men, Merchant
7	Bearoid (MA)	Giant Ant	Merchants (EPT)	Arn (GW)
8	Patrol	Wild Boar	Fire Lizards Lair Hex 3011 (3)	Hawk (normal)
9	Cthonians (CoC)	Leprechaun	Yexil (GW)	Buzzers (MA)
10	Needlemen (FF)	Patrol	Llama (Dreamlands)	Rust Monster
11	Elf	Chénlh (EPT)	Men, Brigands	Wolves
12	Sprite	Stirge	Kobold	Cockatrice
13	Troll	Giant Stag Beetle	Basilisk	Throgrin (ACKS)
14	Hippogriffs Lair Hex 3318 (2)	Men, Berserker	Goblin	Demon, Artificer (Infernum)
15	Pineto (GW)	Men, Dervish	Elf	Giant Centipedes Lair Hex 3612 (10)
16	Harpy	Elf	Url-worm (Dreamlands)	Sun Worm (WFRP)
17	Cockatrice	Men, Brigand	Men, Bandit	Rakox (GW)
18	Pixies Lair Hex 3017 (40)	Dark Fungus (MA)	Men, Merchant	Patrol
19	Su-monster	Rényu (EPT)	Giant Toads Lair Hex 311 (11)	Men, Merchant
20	Giant Stag	Hlýss (EPT)	Small Warrior (MA)	Wolves

(ACKS) Adventurer Conqueror King,    (CoC) Call of Cthulhu,    (Dreamlands) H.P Lovecraft's Dreamlands, a CoC Supplement,    (EPT) Empire of the Petal Throne,    (FF) Fiend Folio,    (GW) Gamma World,    (Infernum) Mongoose's Infernum - Role Playing in Hell,    (MA) Metamorphosis Alpha,    (WFRP)  Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing

(#) - A number in parentheses indicates the number encountered in the lair.  All are from The WIlderlands of High Fantasy.

Creature notes:

Al'mi-raj (Fiend Folio) - Chaotic unicorn bunny

Amoeba (Warhammer FRP) - converted this one to Chivalry & Sorcery earlier

Apparition (Fiend Folio) - ethereal skeleton, can cause heart attacks

Arn (Gamma World) - a 1.3 meter bug that can be used as a riding mount by very small humanoids

Bearoid (Metamorphosis Alpha) - 12' tall golden psionic golden bear.  Uses bows and clubs.

Buzzers (Metamorphosis Alpha) - mutated bees that can blast a party with pure energy.  Enraged by psionics and magic use.

Centisteed (Gamma World) - 16 legged horse that can carry two.  Comes equipped with a force field.  No cupholders.

Change (Metamorphosis Alpha) - mutated robin with chameleon powers.  No attacks, immune to spells and psionics (too bird-brained).

Chnélh (Empire of the Petal Throne) - ape mutants.  Sharp claws and teeth.  Use spears and clubs.  Treat as cavemen, but look like Australopithecus 

Cthonian (Call of Cthulhu) - immense thing squidly worms.  Can crush with their bodies, constrict and drain blood with their tentacles.  Oh, they can cause earthquakes too. 

Dark Fungus (Metamorphosis Alpha) - psionic fungus brain.  Don't touch

Demon, Artificer (Infernum) - a squat little demon, one of the Engineers of Hell.  This one can understand and fix mechanical devices on a roll of 5+; has +3 natural armor and weeps poison tears that it uses to coat it weapons.

Elf War Party (Runequest) - 1d6 brown elves (look like deciduous trees) armed with bows and swords (bronze) .  They have a decided resemblence to the local trees, oaks, chestnuts, laurel and pine, with bark like skin, interweaving bracnhes for hair and knobby fingers like twigs.  They will be neutral or hostile to halflings and humans; friendly or neutral to 'meat elves' and down right aggressive to other races.

Hawk (normal) (Adventurer Conqueror King) - just a normal small raptor.  If a character can plausibly attract it, it can be trained to hunt small game.  Otherwise, 50% chance it attacks a wizard's familiar.

Hlýss (Empire of the Petal Throne) - six legs and a chitinous shell.  FIght with weapons and a sting, ofetn have jewels set in their shell.  Collect humans, probably for hosts for their eggs.

Humanoid #4 (Metamorphosis Alpha) - Walks on all fours, has poison claws, low intelligence.

Llama (H.P Lovecraft's Dreamlands) - all the possible monstrosities and I roll a normal llama.  Treat as a pony that climbs like a goat

Merchants (Empire of the Petal Throne) - 3 merchants, 8 guards, 23 slave bearers with merchandise.  Merchants and guards have elaborate chlen-hide armor (treat as scale mail, but less cumbersome) and weapons (have 5% chance of being broken if parried by iron/steel weapons).  They have exotic glass wear and chlen hide armor for sale - preferably will trade for iron.  The leader has an "Eye of Abominable Detestation" (treat as double strength wand of fear) and an "Eye of Incomparable Understanding" (treat as area effect Comprehend Languages spell).

Needlemen (Fiend Folio) - humanoid zombie plant.  Shoots needles at you

Patrol (Chivalry & Sorcery) - one knight, a squire and two sergeants from a local fortress.  In the Dearthwood, 75% chance that it is instead 1d4+2 Duneal foresters (treat as rangers) or elves.

Pineto (Gamma World) - ambulatory plant that can carry heavy loads.  Can be ridden, but without the proper saddle, you take damage every turn.

Rakox (Gamma World) - oxen with eight horns and a carapace.  

Rényu (Empire of the Petal Throne) - Humanoid dogs.  Can speak and use weapons, can't use magic.  Can be captured and trained, exceedingly loyal servants.  Detect secret doors like elves.

Small Warrior (Metamorphosis Alpha) - mutated ants with a mass mind that can generate a force field

Sphinx (Adventurer Conqueror King) - I called this out to remind myself to check for the differences between sphinxes in ACKS vs AD&D.  Turns out you can generate a random encounter with a sphinx in ACKS, but there is no entry in the Monster section for it.  Treat as a Criosphinx. - 

Star Spawn of Cthulhu (Call of Cthulhu) - miniature, but still gigantic copies of Great Cthulhu, 60 feet tall.  Tentacles claws to match their size.  Use magic and cause insanity.

Su-monster (AD&D) - forty years of gaming, never encountered one of these or added it to one of my adventures.  Cross between an ape and an opossum with psionic attacks.

Sun Worm (Warhammer FRP)  Shjockingly, a 6' maggot that discharges electricity.  Double damage if you're wearing metal armor. 

Throgrin (Adventurer Conqueror King) - looks like a hobgoblin, paralyzes like a ghoul, regenerates as a troll.  Nasty little buggers.

Url-worm (H.P Lovecraft's Dreamlands) - man sized worms that feed off oils secreted by the dhole.  Used by the halflings of D'haz for unspeakable practices.

Weretiger  (Adventurer Conqueror King)  - treat as AD&D weretiger, with they are naturally stealthy and have a -2 on surprise checks

Yexil (Gamma World) - big (3 meter long with 8 meter wing span) orange furred mammal.  Shoot frickin' laser beams from it's eyes.

Previous Posts in this Series

Wilderlands Trade Radius

Wilderlands Market Areas

Wilderlands Where the Barbarians Roam

Wilderlands Baronies

Wilderlands Baronies, Further Considerations

Wilderlands The Roglaroon

Feudal Wilderlands Part I

Feudal Wilderlands Part II - The Heartlands

Feudal Wilderlands Part III - The Restless North

Feudal Wilderlands Part IV - The Imperial West

Feudal Wilderlands Part V - The Changing South

Feudal Wilderlands: Fiefs - Severnais

Feudal Wilderlands Part VI - Notes on Towns and Villages

Feudal Wilderlands: Part VII - Elves

Feudal Wilderlands Part VII - Elves

   As I mentioned in an aside in my notes on towns, I needed to think through the role of elves and by extension other non-humans in the Wilderlands setting.  In Map 1 alone there are seven Elven settlements, five of which are ruled by men, conversely there's a single human settlement ruled by an elf.  Halflings, orcs, goblins live in settlements ruled by men; only gnolls seem to always have independent communities.  Despite Thunderhold being a Dwarven kingdom, according to the Wilderlands canon, it's actually a human settlement.

   That presents an appearance of dominant humanity, which coincides nicely with this non-canon deep history of the Wilderlands.  I was remembering this vaguely as I sat down to write, but it took going through the all canonical sources I've accumulated (originals, reprints, Rob Conley's revisions and some of the 3rd edition release)  and determining that it wasn't in them before I searched the internet and found the post again.  But none of them really give me a sense for how elven society is structured.

     Going back to the sources - Tolkien is the spring from which all of these flow.  He describes the Noldor (High Elves) in terms of nobility and kings, the Wood Elves of Mirkwood follow the same pattern.  But this isn't the same as the human patterns of settlement; he shows them in great cities like Gondolin, vast fortress caverns, Menegroth and the Caverns of Thrainduil that involuntarily hosted Bilbo on his journey; great halls like Rivendell and even isolated smithies as Eöl the Dark Elf labored in.  Except for the last, these are all communities with at least dozens if not thousands of individuals living in them.  In contrast to the human and hobbit lands where agricultural references are made in describing the scenery; elves do not appear to cultivate fields. (I searched every reference to Gondolin in the Silmarillion, and never once are fields mentioned, nor can I recall Rivendell or Lothlorien being mentioned as having fields.)  From this, and the persistent association of elves and forest, I deduce that the elvish diet is heavy on fruit and nuts, perhaps including some grains like wild rice that grow in water.   Given the longevity of elves, the thought of them tending large plantations of fruit and nut trees for centuries makes sense.  Even the mortal elves of AD&D can expect to raise several "crops" of oak trees in their life times, and dozens of plantings of fruit trees.  Nor do they appear to raise animals for food or clothing, game is probably the commonest form of meat.  The plantations of oak trees provide an attractive forage for wild pigs; fruit trees do the same for deer - providing an alternative agricultural cycle that humans would view as "natural", just as American settlers didn't realize the relationship between Native American's setting fires, the prairie and buffalo.  It still takes more land per calorie than grain and vegetables, so  they must usually live in relatively small groups, dozens to a few hundreds.  Gondolin and Vale of Tumladen must have been both extensive in size and exceptionally fertile.

     This tracks pretty well with the game systems.  AD&D has 20-200 male elves in an encounter, with 100% females and 5% children in lair.  Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing has 10d10 Wood Elves in a settlement.  (Noble elves tend to be lynched for their arrogance when travelling human lands.) ACKS has restrictions on where you can create a Fastness, but otherwise the same as humans for developing domains. when creating Elven Domains I'd reduce the size of the urban areas by considering them Agrarian with a Dispersed Settlement pattern, which would make the largest Elven city 5000-10,000 in population.  Chivalry & Sorcery doesn't really address Elvish realms, although they use human social patterns, less serfs.

     Runequest of course is non-Tolkien with elves being living, sentient plants bound at leats looslely to their forests.

     So, got a bit off track there, but it's useful to work through these elements when deciding how I'll run them in the Feudal Wilderlands.

     1.  I will not increase the size of Elven settlements the way I did with human settlements.

     2. I can describe the settlements now as being in the midst of groves of oak, chestnut and walnut with little undergrowth around the settlement.

     3. While the senior elven leader in the area is considered a 'king' and subordinates are styled 'dukes'; it's really humans trying to fit elvish concepts into a human framework.  Much like the Romans always referred to German 'kings', when chieftain or war leader was probably a more accurate description of the position.

     4.  Somewhat analogous to the Ottoman millet, Elves live in the boundaries of the feudal nation, but are not strictly of it.  They have their own leaders and laws, who judges depends on the offense, where it occurred and the social status of the offender and victim.  In other words, it can be a mess leading to grievances (multi-generational on the part of humans) depending on political influence.  Of course, if your a commoner - no one cares that the elves tattooed your face with blue and red stripes before they escorted you to their borders and told you to never return.

Previous Posts in this Series

Wilderlands Trade Radius

Wilderlands Market Areas

Wilderlands Where the Barbarians Roam

Wilderlands Baronies

Wilderlands Baronies, Further Considerations

Wilderlands The Roglaroon

Feudal Wilderlands Part I

Feudal Wilderlands Part II - The Heartlands

Feudal Wilderlands Part III - The Restless North

Feudal Wilderlands Part IV - The Imperial West

Feudal Wilderlands Part V - The Changing South

Feudal Wilderlands: Fiefs - Severnais

Feudal Wilderlands Part VI - Notes on Towns and Villages

Wilderlands - So how big IS a Barony?

     In my last post, I had graphically demonstrated that there was no room for nomads in Altanis, based on the patrol area of "Baronies" as listed in the canon.

     In this it follows closely with the OD&D booklet Volume 3 The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures which, in lieu of a number of hexes, gives a patrol radius.

     By time we get to AD&D, the term "Baronies" has been changed in the DMG to "Territory Development by Player Characters".  

DMG page 93

     Honestly, I find the rules opaque, the DM gives the player a map of 6 hexes, the scale isn't stated but I assume it's 30 mile campaign hexes.  Then (start) map(ping) the hexes at a 200 yard scale, so they fit nine into a one mile hex.  Once the player has mapped the central hex and six surrounding it - this is the confusing bit - which scale is he talking about, 200 yard, 1 mile or 30 miles?  It will take a LONG time to randomly roll enough 200 yard hexes to map seven 30 mile hexes.  In any case, to get back to how far the character will patrol, I interpret the final paragraph to mean once the character has cleared a thirty mile campaign hex, wandering monster checks are reduced.

     I'm going to add in one more system at this point, Adventurer, Conqueror, King includes domain level play in it's core rules and defines the territories, not only of Baron, but of a number of greater nobles also.

Time for some math!

    The Wilderlands definition of patrolling out four hexes from the center hex creates and area of no less than 61 five mile hexes.  Each file mile hex is an area of 21.65 square miles, so the area of a "Barony" in the Wilderlands is 1320 square miles or 845,216 acres or 342,047 hectares.

     OD&D defines a Barony as patrolling a twenty mile radius,   1256 square miles, or 803,840 acres or 325,303 hectares.

   AD&D is opaque, but I'm going to assume he meant a barony equaled a 30 mile campaign hex or 779 square miles or 498,831 acres, or 201,870 hectares.

    ACKS comes in a a puny six mile hex.  That give it an area of 31 square miles,  or 19,953 acres or 8,075 hectares.

Lets put it in a table and do some real world size comparisons.

Region	Description	Square Miles	Acres	Hectares
San Marino	Fifth smallest country	20	15.36	6216
ACKS	1 x Six mile hex	31	19,953	8,075
Liechtenstein	Sixth smallest country	62	39,680	1658
Rutland	40th largest Ceremonial County	152	97,500	39,457
Sao Tome and Principe	25th smallest country	386	247,040	99,974
Westmoreland	29th largest Ceremonial County	759	485,990	196,637
AD&D	1 x Thirty mile Campaign hex	779	498,831	201,870
Mauritius	26th smallest country	788	504,320	204,091
Rhode Island	Smallest US state	1033	661,120	267,546
Samoa	29th smallest country	1097	702,080	284,122
Gloucestershire	17th largest Ceremonial County	1235	790,470	319,892
OD&D	Twenty mile radius circle	1256	803,840	325,303
Wilderlands	61 x Five mile hexes	1321	845,216	342,047
Cornwall	16th largest Ceremonial County	1336	854,770	345,913
Cabo Verde	30th smallest country	1557	996,480	403,262
Delaware	Second smallest US state	1938	1,240,320	501,940

     In Real World terms,  the areas given for Wilderlands, OD&D and AD&D are simply too big, they are the size of an English County.  Now, I know that Ceremonial Counties do not represent a contiguous landholding, but while their size and boundaries have wavered over time, they do go back to the Norman Conquest where they are used as census units for the Domesday Book.  And that book shows that several barons will have holdings within the County.
    One illustration of the practical issues with the sizes given is the time it would take to patrol areas this large.  For a Wilderlands barony, it would take a single patrol over two months, at twenty miles a day, to pass through every single square mile.   Keeping monsters out of such a large area would be a frustrating game of Whack-a-Mindflayer, even with multiple patrols.

More Math Ahead!

    As long as we've reached this point, what is a reasonable size for a Barony, or any other feudal demesne?  Does ACKS have it right at a about 30 square miles?

    To answer that question, I'm going to pull out my go to system for world-building for the last 40 years - Chivalry and Sorcery.  The old red book provides a system for Designing the Feudal Nation, allowing you to generate the demesnes of the great lords, down to the landed knight.  Who isn't terribly humble even if his small manor house isn't much more impressive than the local inn.
   In this system Barons are the lowest nobles (knights being of "gentle" birth rather than "noble") however, unlike the Dukes, Earls and Counts above them, they are NEVER 'tenants-in-chief' holding their lands directly from the King.  Instead, they report up to one of the great nobles - and their fief is generated as part of generating the demesne and feudal holdings of their overlord.  In short, if when generating the fief holders of the great noble, you randomly generate a small castle or shell keep, you create a barony to hold it.  The barony itself will have fief holders dependent on it, but these will be mere landed knights.

    In the C&S Sourcebook, under Feudal Economics, are rules for calculating the amount of land to grow food for a given population.  There is a page of text, but it comes down to add up the population figures from the table, multiply by 10 to include families, beggars and bandits in the area.  This gives the total population, which is multiplied by 8 to determine the number of acres of cultivated and pasture land required to support the population.

   There is one more source I'm going to pull in, Leonard Cantor's The English Medieval Landscape.  This tome, published four years after the Sourcebook, reviews land use at the time of the Domesday Survey.  It shows that "35% of England was covered in arable land, 25% put to pasture, with 15% covered by woodlands and the remaining 25% predominantly being moorland, fens and heaths."  

     Note that the percentage of crop land to pasturage is reversed from the Sourcebook, but it's the ratios of those together to the total amount of land that I'm interested in obtaining - and that ratio is 6 acres of farm and pasture to 4 acres of wood and wasteland.  I can now calculate the average size of a "Barony".

     In doing so, I am assuming that each Barony will have the same breakdown of land use as the kingdom as a whole.  That is of course, another spherical cow of uniform density - a working approximation that meets my current level of detail.

     So, throwing the C&S tables into a spreadsheet and letting it do the math for me, based on the possible outcomes of the determining the Baron's tenants, I find that a Barony will hold between 56 and 118 square miles of territory, on our five mile hex map that is between 3 and 6 hexes (rounding up to the nearest whole hex).  Because of the distribution of possible out comes, the average size is 81 square miles or 4 hexes.  Now I can re-do the last map.

Altanis Baronies & Villages
Click to enlarge

Now, I have room for Barbarians!

100,000 Page Views - Achievement Unlocked

Over seven years and two hundred sixty three published posts.  Thank you everyone who has read my posts and a big shout out to the Russian and Ukrainian bots that trawl the web everyday!

When I started blogging in October of 2012, I wanted a place to publish my gaming based musings and had visions of building a following.  Life and work sometimes get in the way.  I still use it for my gaming musings, but realized that I don't have the creative energy - or self-discipline - to write everyday.

My high point was 2014 when I posted 117 time - forty of them in February, because I did a post a day Blog Carnival.  My low point was 2018 when I only posted three times - deaths in the family take a lot out of you.

Here's a some of my older posts that don't get looked at much, but which I think contribute to different aspects of our hobby.

Teddy Roosevelt and the Orcs - where I look at Orc society through TR's history of settler and Indian relations in the Old West (South of the Ohio, West of the Appalachians and East of the Mississippi).

The Dead Orc Scale - classifying difficulty of RPGs by how many orcs you need to kill to advance to 2nd Level. 

Using GIMP to generate campaign maps, especially the older posts where I show how to bring in Google Map screen shots and turn them into hex maps for a Roman era fantasy campaign.

Fishers - a race I created for Adventurer, Conqueror, King to replace hobbits - whom I despise in a fantasy setting.

WomGRR!

WomGRR!   

ADD 1e		ACKS
Frequency	Common	Dungeon Enc	Gang(1d6)/Warband(1d3 Gangs)
No. Appearing	2-20	Wilderness Enc	Warband(1d3 Gangs) /Village(1d10 Warbands)
Armor Class	5		4
Movement	9" / Burrow 1"		90 (30')/Burrow 5'
Hit Dice	4+1		4+1
% In Lair	20%		20%
Treasure Type	Individuals M (*10), Q, B, S in lair		L per Warband + special
No. Of Attacks	2 or 1		Claw/Claw or 1 Large Club or Weapon
Damage	2-5/2-5 or 1d10 or by weapon		1d4+1/1d4+1 or 1d10 or Weapon +3
Special Attacks	nil		nil
Special Defense	Protected back		Protected back
Magic Resistance	Standard		N/A
Save	N/A		F4
Intelligence	Semi- to Low		Semi- to Low
Alignment	Neutral or Chaotic Evil		Neutral or Chaotic
Size	Large (9+ feet tall)		Large
Psionic Ability	nil		N/A
Morale	N/A		+2
XP	130+5/hp		140

Womgrrs are a semi-successful crossbreed between wombats and ogres.  They inhabit plains and unforested hills, digging communal burrows for lairs.  While Womgrrs physically breed true, their mental capacities vary. 25% of the population are Chaotic Evil and Viscous with Low intelligence, resembling their Ogre ancestry, these fight with weapons and armor preferably.  50% of the population are Neutral with Low intelligence, they fight with their claws and rarely are given any armor.  This group makes up the bulk of the gangs and Warbands which will always be led by one of Chaotic Womgrrs.  The last 25% are Semi-intelligent vegetarians, which will only fight if cornered in their burrows.  A particularly cunning Chaotic Womgrr may use these as arrow fodder, pushing them ahead of the Warband to absorb damage and get magic users to self-identify.  These will retreat, underground if possible, in response to any damage. A DM should not award much XP for killing them unless they are used as above.

* the WomGRRs special ability is improved defense against attacks from the rear.  The thick cartilaginous back end provides improved protection, attackers do not receive any bonus for attacking from the rear.

See also: Surreptitious or Burrowing Tiger

Another Take on Stymphalian Birds

Follow Me and Die has posted his version of Stymphalian Birds for Ad&D.  I really like the shooting bronze feathers as arrows.  But I thought they were encountered in mountains rather than swamps and forests.  Well, variety is the spice of life.  My take on the little beasties is here.  You can find all of Hercules labors on Tuft's Perseus site

About That Box in the Basement

'It's in that box in the basement' is a running gag at our house; it's the answer to every question that starts 'Have you seen..?' or 'Where did we put...?'    It stems from our history of packing up and moving, as in we moved ten times in the twelve years I served.  With all the moves, some things just never got unpacked between moves, like a complete set of Depression Ware dishes or the books my father-in-law gave us when he cleaned off his bookshelves.  Now we've dropped anchor in the Twin Cities for going on fifteen years, yet we still haven't unpacked some of those boxes.

  I was looking to see if I could unearth the first D&D book I ever bought for the Day 7 Blog Hop.  I failed, but look what I did come across.

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Ogre - the original Microgame version from 1977.  I think the little cardboard pieces (this long predates the minis) are in the bottom of the bin.  There were a couple of other little booklet games too, more on the sword and sorcery side.  I'll have to look for them later.

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D&D Supplement IV.  Forgot I even had bought this.  From 1979, so I know I picked up about the same time I bought the AD&D Player's Handbook.  At Games by James, now a respectable little shop at the Mall of America.  Then it was a head shop in Stadium Village next to Stub & Herb's - by the University of Minnesota.  I bought some, ah, paraphernalia there too.   I'll have to redo my post on Deities & Demigods, adding this into the mix.

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The official D&D Monster and Treasure Assortment for Levels 7-9 in your dungeon   That Manticore on the front is a piece by Trampier, it's quite different from the Sullivan illustration in the Monster Manual.  The monsters run from 7-42 bugbears to a 10 headed hydra.  It has tables for random determination of treasure's container, guard and Hidden by.  These are the same as Tables V. H-J on page 171 of the 1e DMG.  Exactly the same for Containers and Hidden By entries.  Printed in 1978

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 Judges Guild, Judge's Guild, wherefore at thou Judges Guild? - My apologies to the Bard.  Second only to TSR for canonicalness [is that a word, it should be as it's quite cromulent] Judges Guild was a big influence on gaming in the late 70's & early 80's.  Here we have random tables for building types - by government type.  Odd in retrospect. Also random village name generator tables and no less than 47 villages laid out on hex grids.  Village Book 1 - 1978.

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Another entry from Judges Guild, the map for the City State of Tarantis.  I found the blank player's map too, but didn't see the book.  I picked up this one from a friend from college and fellow gamer, when we were both stationed in the Norfolk area  in the late '80s.  Published 1983.

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 And the only actual AD&D piece in the bunch.  T1, The Village of Hommlet.  Precursor to the Temple of Elemental Evil, this is the 1981 printing.  I must not have picked it up until fall of 1982 or early 1983.  I remember my roommate and I ran our characters through it after the rest of our original group had graduated and gotten their commissions.  This has the maps printed in the 'uncopyable' light blue of the era.

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So what treasures have you found while looking for something else?

40 Years of D&D

And I've been playing for most of them.  I started gaming in 1977 and first played D&D when I got to college two years later.  I still have my AD&D books and have been rediscovering them through my soloplay campaign.  I'm struck by how much we ended up ignoring, encounter distance, encumbrance etc.  To be fair we did use the grappling rules which didn't get fixed until Pathfinder - or 3.75e as my group calls it. I'm also struck by the disorganized strucure of the Players Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. It's not easy finding the rules in there, take Encounters, the rules start onpage 47 with encounter frequency and distance, then hare off on Movement and Getting Lost, make stops at Infravision & Ultravision, Invisibilty, Mirrors and Listening at Doors before you get to Surprise onpage 61, then Initative, finally getting Encounter Reactions on page 63. Who cares about their reaction, I'm combat at this point.

Does the O in OSR stand for Obfuscatory?

Soloplaly Game Report - Teuta Act II, Scene II

The next day , they awoke to to find their host Eucheron pensive and worried.  He informed them that his son Petoai had been hunting in the mountains to the east with some companions and they were over due in returning.  He offered them two weeks rations to search for the hunters. ¹ The party quickly agreed, as they wanted to search the mountains in any case.

Eucheron pointed them down the trail the hunters had taken, it skirted the mountains for several miles before turning left and plunging into them.  As they walked along they heard a sudden crashing and cry of a deer in pain.  Rushing forward, a troglodyte had just brought down a small doe.  Sumakos cast entangle on the creature to slow it as the others rushed in to attack.  They faltered as the creatures stench thickened and swirled about them.  It clawed  Lucius, the pain and the unfamiliar weapon making him miss his return strike as the troglodyte pulled him into it's embrace biting at him until he fell.

Throwing Lucius at the Teuta and Sumakos, making them dodge away, it lunged at Maedus but the tall grass entangling stopped it short.  Maedus' return stroke went awry.

It swiped again at Maedus, the claws whistleing past his face, but Sumakos thrust his spear into it's side and Maedus gave it a mighty buffet that stretched it on the forest floor.  Maedus and Teuta attended to Lucius, while Sumakos butchered the deer.  Lucius's wounds were too serious for him to continue, so they returned to hamlet to let him rest and have Eucheron smoke the deer meat for them.

The second day, Teuta, Maedus and Sumakos set out again, searching the mountains for  two days without finding any sign of the hunters.  They decided to head back to pick up Lucius at that point.  On the way home, during Sumakos' watch,  he saw a bear coming into camp, attracted no doubt by their careless leaving of food and garbage within the campsite. Yelling at it roused the others, but did not scare away the animal.  Sumakos cast Entangle, but the bear's great strength didn't notice.

Sumakos closed with the bear to give the others a chance to snatch up their arms; his thrust missed as the bear's claws pulled him into where it could bite his shoulder.  Sumakos fell as Maedus and Teuta ran up with flaming brands to drive the beast away.

They rigged a stretcher out their cloaks and carried Sumakos back to the hamlet of Clausura where Lucius awaited them.²

The sixth day, Lucius, Maedus and Teuta resumed the search, turning into a different mountain valley. They found a campsite where the ashes were still barely warm and made camp there.³ Pushing hard the next day further into the mountains, after noon they heard the sounds of combat and rushed forward to see the last of the hunters fall in battle with four of the foul troglodytes.  Lucius cast Dancing Lights and the troglodytes stood dazed, one swaying from it's wounds.⁴  Maedus and Teuta shot arrows and slung stones, but none of them hit the trogs, thus wasting the advantage Lucius had provided.  Shaking off their daze, the monsters closed in.  Maedus and Teuta managed to land solid, but not mortal blows.  Lucius's opponent clawed him, knocking him to the ground.  Maedus absorbed a similar attack, unfazed.  Teuta endured a savage clawing and biting but remained defiant.  The damage slowed her and the creature easily evaded her next attack, while Maedus killed his opponent.  The troglodyte that had dropped Lucius turned and clawed at Maedus.  Teuta's opponent tore into her again, dropping her to the ground.  Finally, Maedus was overwhelmed, leaving the remaining troglodytes to enjoy their grisly feast.


[TPK,is just desserts for a small party without healing on a hexcrawl]