Exploring the Wilderlands - Page 88

     Page 88 of the DMG is where Gary goes off on long exposition on Social Class and Rank in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.  rather like his later comments on unarmed combat, this feels like something he included against his will.  I have from time to time characterized his prose on this subject as a rant.  Not quite there today, but I can feel frustration ooze from the words on the page when he writes 

"how pointless it is to blindly plug in a set of "birth tables" based on some form of hereditary quasi-European nobility" 

He could have cut over a column of text just by saying - 'The society of your campaign is up to you.'  

    Conversely, my other favorite RPG from the 1970's is Chivalry & Sorcery.  A game that is explicitly built around that description of birth tables, with the specific goal of providing rules for adventuring in a quasi-European Middle Age setting.   I know Backhaus & Simbalist are recorded to have tried to show Gary their draft at an early convention, so I do wonder if he had this explicitly in mind when he wrote that section.  Of course, it works for C&S because that is a limit they place on their game milieu.   Later expansions added information for fringe societies, Viking, Celtic and Mongol as well as Saurians (Dinosaur men) and Dinosaurs, but the core was always France in the Middle Ages.

    In my Feudal Wilderlands settings, I'm doing a kitchen sink mashup with AD&D (or other mechanics) on top of a quasi-European setting.  So far, because AD&D ignores milieu and I'm not doing the C&S mechanics the sink has drained without clogging.  Now I find the water backing up a bit.

 

Ithranel of Colsith

  As I mentioned in an earlier post, Ithranel rolled up as a High Elf or Gray Elf in AD&D.  And C&S has a note in character generation 

    High Elves, unlike Wood Elves, are always of titled rank and are treated as such both in their lands and in the lands of all other races.

Titled in this parlance means they or a very near relative are Barons, Counts, Marquises, Earls or Dukes.  No mere knightly status much less <gasp> a peasant background.  So they're treated the way Galadriel is in LoTR.  They are among the rich and powerful and everyone treats them that way.

    And I just had a somewhat naive young Gray Elf wander on stage and ask to join a couple of murder hobos on a tomb robbing expedition.   All of a sudden the focus of the party has to shift from Walker and Bitirc, who actually know what's expected, to Ithranel, because everyone they meet will assume she is the leader of the expedition.  Those of lower class will suck up and do favors for her, with the hope and expectation that she can do bigger favors in return.  Titled nobles, like the Count of Zothiem will immediately assess her as either a potential enemy or ally.  There is no middle ground for them.  (Count Atius has decided on potential ally, as indicated by the gift of a riding horse and a guard detail.)

    And we're back on Page 88.

"do you really believe that that one of your player characters should be the first born son of a major noble or ruler?  If so, why is he adventuring? Where are his guards and retainers?  Does his father know his whereabouts? If so, why is he allowing the heir to his title and estates to risk his life in such a foolish manner?"

Like I said, Gary is borderline ranting in this section.  But good and inescapable questions for players and DMs in any setting with a robust milieu. 

    My answers today may not stand up in further game play, but so it goes. Elven society is different in the Feudal Wilderlands, as in C&S the elves are immortal, but almost always sail the straight path and go to the West by time the they reach venerable age in AD&D. So Ithranel is good for a couple thousand years of game play. Their society is organized differently, and their heirs are expected to pursue excellence in their skills, abilities and interests wherever that takes them. ((In LoTR the sons of Elrond often rode with the Rangers.)

    Ithranel is off gaining experience as most elves do at one point or another.  Her society (although maybe not her mother) are OK with that.   Count Atius has decided to treat her like he would a second cousin who showed up.  After all she may be very useful to his descendants in the future.  He's gifting her with equipment and guards, and has made his court wizard take her on as an apprentice.  The guards make a nice way for me to add in two more of the party I had rolled up, a human fighter and a half Orc fighter cleric.  Those are the 'lads' Ivo mentions.  And then there is Ivo.  Ivo is unexpected to me as a DM, but sometimes these NPCs are called forth by the events of the campaign and you can't see how the campaign would work without them.  Atius wants to keep Ithranel alive, so he's not just giving her muscle of her level, he's assigning a tough experienced sergeant to protect her, advise her and in many ways to lead any expeditions for her until she becomes seasoned enough to do it herself.  Ivo is at least 5th level and I'm sure has a stash of items that makes him even more lethal.  More to come as Ivo reveals what he can do.