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

Bending the Curve - Adding a Long Tail to Your Random Rolls

The Logic of Chance, 3rd edition by John Venn

   The classic 2d6 and 3d6 die roll conventions provide a normal or Gaussian distribution, commonly referred to as a Bell Curve.  This is great when we are looking to simulate an evenly distributed range of scores, such as the classic six characteristics, but what about when we would like to randomly determine an NPC level?  That presents a use where the the bulk of the results should be towards the lower bound, while the upper bound is potentially indeterminate, in other words an asymmetrical curve.

     One of the classic asymmetrical curves is the Pareto Curve, which has been popularized as the 80-20 rule, where in management 80% of your problems are caused by 20% of your people; or 20% of your people do 80% of the work.  Helpdesk ticket closure times are another good example, where the bulk of the them are closed in a fairly short range of time, but others, especially those requiring equipment replacement, extend the overall time range far to the right.  Back when I was at GE Fleet Services, I would check the 3rd quantile, or the mark at which the technician had closed 75% of their tickets, rather than their average time to close.

     Looking at a 2d6 distribution we find, 97.22% probability that you roll less than a 12; 91.66% less than an 11;  83.53% less than a 10 and 72.42% less than a 9.  We can create a reasonable long tail distribution very simply.   Whenever an 11 or 12 is rolled, roll another d6 and add it to 10, producing a 2-16 distribution.

 

     3d6 distributions give me the opportunity to illustrate that you don't need to stay with the same size die when creating a long tail.   You have a 83.8% chance of rolling less than a 14 on 3d6.   So to create the long tail, I would roll another die whenever the 3d6 is 15 or more and add it to 14.   If I use a d6, it only gives a 3-20 distribution, not much of an increase over 3-18.  By using a d10 instead, I create a 3-24 distribution range, producing a significant tail at the high end.

     I used anydice to look at the probabilities.  Their calculator will allow you to see the percentages for any combination of dice.  

     I haven't come up with as simple a way to do a long left hand tail, but I don't have a use case either.  If I get one I'll probably just flip the scale at the bottom and read from right to left.

     As I said, the use case I identified is random NPC levels, I'd be interested in hearing of any other use cases you might come up with.

CSIO - Random Encounters Sailing the Roglaroon

    Adding to the area specific Random Encounter tables I developed last year, I've updated by Cross System Source Table to read.

d20	Game System		d20	Other System
01-10	AD&D		01-10	Empire of the Petal Throne
11-15	ACKS		11-12	Call of Cthulhu
16	Gamma World		13-14	Dreamlands
17	Metamorphosis Alpha		15	Space 1889
18	(1-3) Runequest (4-6) Warhammer FRP		16	(1-3) Barsoom (4-6) Dark Eye
19-20	Other		17	Traveller
			18	Carcosa
			19-20	Infernum

    This time I'm going to use the technique from ACKS by dividing the encounters up types, in this case movement type.  Swimmers, any creature that can survive an indefinite period in the water; Flyers and Vessels, any object propelled across or under the surface of the water - these range from orcs using a log to swim across the river, to sailing ships to the Apparatus of Kwalish.  Swimmers will be 40% of the encounters, Flyers 10% and Vessels 50%.  (OK, I started here, but ended up adjusting it to take into account ocean creatures swimming further up the estuary, and the Death Tree, which tosses exploding cherries at you, couldn't resist invoking the Rule of Cool.) Any Swimmer that can dive under the water has the choice to avoid the encounter completely, so while 90% of the creatures in the estuary are Swimmers, many of them won't be seen.

  There are three encounter areas on the Roglaroon.
    Mermist Tail (Hexes 2623, 2624,2625, 2726)  From the City State to bend west of Caravan Crossing, this area dominated by the inflow of the Conqueror River and the waters leaching out of the Mermist Swamp.  The estuary changes width rapidly along this stretch. Saltwater species are rarely encountered in this area.

  Dearthwood Reach (Hexes 2825, 2925, 3024, 3124, 3223, 3323, 3422,3522)  The long straight stretch between the bend and the River Hagrost.  The water becomes increasingly saline towards the Hagrost end.  Saltwater species frequently are encountered in this area.

  Roglaroon Proper, aka The Gullet (Hexes 3522, 3521, 3520, 3519, 3518, 3517, 3516, 3615, 3614, 3613, 3713, 3712)  From the River Hagrost to the Mouth, the estuary is a body of salt water inhabited by ocean creatures.

Aquatic Creatures mentioned in The Guide to the City State of the Invincible Overlord, Booklet I, Installment J and Modron.
   Gods:
     Ran the Cruel, Goddess of Death CSIO p55
     Sea Goddess (Unnamed, so I assume Modron), CSIO p14
     Manannan - CSIO p33
     Modron, Goddess of Rivers, Modron p5

Monsters:
    Maelstrom, Giant Sea Snake works for the City State, Modron p 6
    Giant Octopus, CSIO p33
    Giant Leech, CSIO p28
    Giant Shark, Modron p26

Sophonts
    Kopoacinths, CSIO p 10
    Aquatic Elves, CSIO p17
    Mermen, CSIO p28, p36, p38
    Tritons, CSIO p28
    Sea Hag, CSIO  p38, Modron p5
    Sahuagin,  Modron p26

d20	Mermist Tail	Dearthwood Reach	Roglaroon Proper
01	AD&D Shedu	AD&D Kopoacinth	ACKS Sahuagin
02	AD&D Man, Merchant	ACKS NPC Party	AD&D Whale, Small
03	AD&D Man, Merchant	AD&D Man, Merchant	AD&D Man, Merchant
04	AD&D Man, Merchant	Gamma World Keeshin	AD&D Elasmosaurus
05	AD&D Gar, Giant	Runequest Fishermen	AD&D Man, Merchant
06	AD&D Sea Hag	AD&D Man, Merchant	AD&D Man, Pirate  (Orcs in small craft)
07	Warhammer Amoeba	Roglaroon Proper	AD&D Man, Merchant
08	AD&D Owl, Giant	Roglaroon Proper	Gamma World Menarl
09	AD&D Beaver, Giant	AD&D Man, Pirate	AD&D Triton
10	AD&D Man, Buccaneer	AD&D Otter, Giant	ACKS Pegasus
11	AD&D Nixie	AD&D Man, Warship	Dark Eye Krakenewt
12	AD&D Man, Buccaneer	ACKS Lizard Man	AD&D Octopus, Giant
13	ACKS Thief	ACKS Roc, Small	AD&D Man, Merchant
14	Warhammer Chameoleech*	AD&D Hippopotomus	AD&D Man, Buccaneer
15	Roglaroon Proper	Roglaroon Proper	Call of Cthulhu Shantak
16	AD&D Kaolinth	AD&D Man, Merchant	AD&D Shark, Giant
17	AD&D Man, Warship	Roglaroon Proper	AD&D Crocodile, Giant
18	AD&D Gar, Giant	Call of Cthulhu  Nightguants	AD&D Elf, Aquatic
19	Empire of the Petal Throne  Qu'uni	Metamorphosis Alpha Death Tree	ACKS Sea Dragon ("Maelstrom")
20	Infernum Malcubi	AD&D Merman	AD&D Man, Warship

Flyers are italicized

Roglaroon Proper - re-roll on that column for the encounter

* The Chameoleech is best described as a cross between a Giant Leech and a Mimic.

Mostly this is as I rolled it using the appropriate random tables.  Had to make some adjustments to bring the flyers in at the right numbers on the Mermist Tail, added in the Aquatic Elves, Sahuagin and Sea Hag from the canon, and I took the AD&D entry "Man, Pirate (Tribesmen with small craft)" and decided that that would represent Orcs of the Purple Claw.

Language Families of the Wilderlands

     With my post on Mordacis and languages in Chivalry and Sorcery, I decided to place him in the City State of the Invincible Overlord while running him through advancement as a Magick User.  Based on my previous post and the language rules for Chivalry and Sorcery, this requires me to know the languages and language families in the Wilderlands.
     Fortunately, as part of their reboot for d20, around 2003, there is a free download of Judges Guild languages for the Wilderlands settings available via an old Dragonsfoot link.  Unfortunately, it's languages are mostly given as linear descendants, rather than branching trees of related languages the way we view them in the real world.  Also, some of the information appears to contradict the or at least extend the original 1970's material.  With those issues, I decided to use their information to make my own, rather non-canonical, language trees using information form the download, the D&D 3.0 Players Handbook, the original Judges Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy booklet and my own whims.

Elder Tongue - the original language of the sapient creatures of the Wilderlands, whatever they were.  This language family is hypothesized by sages and the learned, rather than being certain.  While the child languages are treated as unrelated for learning, when reading the Elder Tongue, each child language that is NOT known fluently subtracts 20% from the reader's chance to comprehend the writing.

Draconic
Ancient Draconic - the language of the great wyrms who ruled the skies in the youth of the Wilderlands.  This language is believed to be the original language of magic, however it can only be taught by an ancient dragon.

Draconic  -  the language of elderly and younger dragons, spoken in a debased form by kobolds, lizardfolk and such ilk.  The primary language of magic in these lesser days.

Orichalon - Draconic for humanoids, rich in descriptive terms for minerals.  Spoken daily by a few isolated peoples, but used much for writing by Alchemists.

Tlalic - a recent (less than 1000 years old) artificial language used to teach magic.

Elvish
High Elven - the speech of the elves who invaded the Wilderlands and stole magic from the dragons.  They also taught the woodland creatures to speak.

Elvish -  the normal speech of the debased elves of modern times.

Sylvan - the simplified version of speech taught by the High Elves to the woodland creatures.

Amazon - as the High Elves taught the Centaurs, so did a group of Centaurs teach some female human foundlings.  These foundlings with their latent psionic talents became the nation of Amazons that rules the southwest.

Duneal - a lesser form of elvish spoken by the foresters of the Duneal Forest near the City State of the Invincible Overlord.

Human Languages

Western Tongues

Auld Viridian - still spoken by the remaining Viridians, otherwise restricted to the priests of Armadad Bog.

High Viridian - spoken by noble humans in the lands of the old Viridistan.  This tongue influenced the language of the conquered Tharbians.

Viridian - the language of the commoners of Viridistan, now spread from there south through the desert and Lenape.  Viridian words and a simplified grammar form the foundation of the Common tongue.

Altanian - the language of the barbarians inhabiting the Altanian peninsula, it has contributed as much as 25% of the vocabulary to the Common tongue.

Old Tharbian - the original language of the barbarians roaming the Plateau of Bendigroth and the plains west of the Cloudwall Mountains, who were conquered by the Viridians and the their human henchmen.  No written form.

Tharbian - the language of the remaining barbarians and their cousins the peasants on both sides of the Cloudwall Mountains and Majestic Mountains.    It took the Common alphabet, loan words and case structure from it's Viridian overlords.  One of the progenitors of the Common tongue.

Common - the language of the City State of the Invincible Overlord, spread as a trade language throughout the Wilderlands.

 Western Language Isolates

Ancient Antillian - the old speech of the almost vanished civilization of the Altanian peninsula.  A rich vocabulary concerning animals and plants makes this language useful for Druids and Alchemists.

Antillian - the descendant of the Ancient Antillian, this language is spoken only around the faded glories of the city of Antil.  By law, all trading in the city must be written contracts in Antillian, providing a source of income for the multi-lingual Guild of Scribes and Scriveners.

Dorin - the language of the unconquered desert nomads south of Viridistan and ranging into Lenape.

Duneal - see under Elvish

Orichalan  - see under Draconic

Northern Tongues

Gammel Skandik - Old Skandik was the unwritten language of the humans of Valon and the Great Glacier.

Avalonian - the language of Valon and it's half-elven wizards after the Aquan speaking Sea Elves conquered and imposed a tribute on the human inhabitants.

Skandik - the tongue of conquerors, the language of the sea raiders who have imposed their rule on the City State of the Invincible Overlord and many of the islands and coasts of the Wilderlands.

Southern and Eastern Languages

Kelnoran - the ancient predecessor of Ghinoran, many magical texts are believed to be written in this language, however very few magicians have been able to master it enough to decipher them.

Ghinoran - the trade language of the southern seas and coasts.  It is also used as a term to describe the (usually) mutually intelligible dialects, descended from Kelnoran, of the human inhabitants in the area.

Gishmesh  - the tribal language of the founders of Tarantis.  Used as a trade language in the northeastern Wilderlands.

Karakhan the god given language of the city of Karak.  Speakers usually learn Gishmesh as a trade language.

Amazon  see under Elvish.

Logii
Logii - was an artificial language of mathematics used to describe the physical world by the long vanquished Philosophers.  It is said certain Dwarf and Gnome clans keep it alive and use it in constructing automatons and machines of great power.

C&S Languages: A Generic System

MINE HOST ASSEMBLING
THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS.

     After the previous exercise in trying to construct a plausible list of languages used in the authors' original medieval European Chivalry and Sorcery campaign,  I'm now looking detailing a systemic way to determine the cost of learning languages that doesn't "assumes that the character is from a country with a Romance, Germanic or Celtic language that uses the Latin alphabet".

     There are three factors I will use to determine how hard it is to learn a language, relationship to the character's native language; the alphabet the language is written in and means of expression the native speakers of the language use to communicate.

Relationship - does the language being learned belong to the same family as the character's native language?
     For example, my native language is English and when I've studied Norwegian I recognize many root words and sounds, plus the grammar (for example the pronoun structure I/jeg) is very similar. 
     As a counter example, when I study Latin, while I do recognize many of the words (English being a notorious sponge of "foreign" word imports), most Latin words were not imported so they need to be learned.  Plus the grammar is different, with the pronouns being suffixes attached to the root, rather than separate words.

Alphabet - Once you have learned the symbols and sounds they make, learning to read a different language is a matter of learning which symbols are sounded differently, rather than a whole new system. 
     Taking Latin again as our example, 'r' is trilled and 'v' is pronounced like an English 'w'.
      From my long ago summer of studying Russian, Cyrillic uses a completely different set of symbols that often create sounds that would be combinations of letters in English.  And of course, Semitic languages are notorious for not writing vowels, leaving the meaning of the word up to the context within the document.

Means of Expression - as humans we share a common physical means of communicating.  We can all make sounds in the same ranges that we can hear and use our bodies to gesture to provide additional meaning or even communicate without any sound.
     However, not all fantasy races are bipedal humanoids with vocal chords and hearing that matches our human organs.  In Chivalry and Sorcery, the Saurians, including dragons are called out as having extremely difficult languages to learn because of their bodies.  In Runequest, the dragonnewt language requires a human tongue to be physically split in order to approximate it, and I recall that tailed priests (and presumably the Inhuman King) use voluntary body color changes as part of their communication.  In Empire of the Petal Throne, the Pe' Choi language includes making gestures with all four of their arms in normal speech.

Learning to Speak

For learning to speak a language, we have four possible combinations:  Same Language Family + Same Means of Expression; Different Language Family + Same Means of Expression; Same Language Family + Different Means of Expression; Different Language Family + Different Means of Expression.

Combination	Halting	Fluent	Native
Same Language Family + Same Means of Expression	1	3	5
Different Language Family + Same Means of Expression	3	5	8
Same Language Family + Different Means of Expression*	5	8	12
Different Language Family + Different Means of Expression	9	15	25

* I am not certain about this combination - if the Means of Expression are different, how can it belong to the same family?  The use case I finally decided on is for Creole or Pidgin languages - like a Pidgin Draconic, where the language is altered to be uttered by human vocal cords.  This would then be the cost a dragon would pay to learn it, whereas a human would use the cost for Different Language Family + Same Means of Expression.

Note: I'm using 'Halting' as a synonym for 'Minimal Fluency' from Saurians.

Learning to Read

Reading is then dependent on the Language Family and Alphabet.  The cost is for levels of Reading Comprehension.  Poor comprehension allows the reader to pick out individual words and common phrases, maybe work out some additional meanings by context.  Native Reading Comprehension allows the character to read common documents, menus newspapers, wanted posters, etc.  Academic allows the reader to understand the meaning of academic treatises and legal documents couched in unusual terminology or professional jargon.  Magick Reading Comprehension is required to understand the annotation systems commonly used by native speaking Magick Users to indicate pronunciation and associated gestures in that language.

Combination	Poor	Native	Academic	Magick
Same Language Family + Same Alphabet	1	3	5	6
Different Language Family +  Same Alphabet	3	5	8	12
Same Language Family + Different Alphabet	3	5	8	12
Different Language Family + Different Alphabet	5	8	12	15

All costs are cumulative, so if you spend 1 Language Point to learn to read poorly, in another level you can spend 2 more language points and learn to read like a Native.  The same holds for learning to Speak a Language.

Language Points

Saurians provides the following table for Learning Languages for d20 and 3d6 character generation systems.

Intelligence Score (d20)	Intelligence Score (3d6)	Language Points/Level	Ability to Read Well
1	3	1 spoken	none
2	4	1 spoken	none
3-4	5	1 spoken	none
5	6	1 spoken	none
6	7	1 spoken	none
7	8	1/L 1 written	40%
8	9	1/L 1 written	50%
9	10	1/L 1 written	55%
10	11	1/L 2 written	70%
11	12	1/L 3 written	85%
12	13	2/L 4 written	90%
13	14	3/L any written	90%
14	15	3/L any written	90%
15	16	4/L any written	95%
16	17	5/L any written	97%
17	18	6/L any written	98%
18		7/L any written	100%
19		8/L any written	100%
20		9/L any written	100%
21-22		10/L any written	100%
23-24		12/L any written	100%
25		15/L any written	100%

any written - The character can learn to read any number of languages.

Ability to Read Well - when reading a document, the character must roll this or less on a percentage roll to understand the document.  This assumes that the document is written at the same level as the character's reading comprehension for that language.  The DM should adjust as necessary when the levels are different.  For example, a character who reads at an Academic level should have no trouble reading a menu (although they may not be aware of what some of the dishes are); whereas a character with Poor Reading Comprehension may pick out a couple of words on a scroll written in that language (should he find one), but the inflection marks and gesture notations are just so many blots of ink to them. 

Rabbit Holes

So I've been doing some soloplay in the City State of the Invincible Overlord - and I came to a place where I need to generate a number of NPCs travelling together.  This got me wondering about the make up of the human population of the City State.  Which lead me down this rabbit hole.

In addition to the information scattered and repeated in the classic City State booklets, I found a pdf about the languages of the City State of more recent origin.  I thought at the time that it was a preview of the updated Players Handbook - now I'm not so sure, so I'm not going to link directly to it.  I did use it create a list of human languages commonly spoken in the City State, which forms the Culture/Primary Language column of my Backgrounds table.  I added an Abbreviation column for cross referencing the culture to the Hair, Skin and Eye color tables.

Besides that I wanted to add color by having each culture have their own naming style.  There are lots of random name generators on the web,  I even wrote my own for a previous campaign that I'll use for the Altanian, Viridistan and Amazon names.  For the others, I usually go to Fantasy Name Generators.

Height and Weight Adjustments refer to some character generation tables out of Chivalry & Sorcery that I use when fleshing out physical descriptions.  The adjustments don't change the range of the results, just the probabilities of a character being short, fat, tall, skinny etc.

Backgrounds

Roll	Culture/ Primary Language	Abrv	Naming Style	Height Adjust	Weight Adjust
01-36	Common	C	English Renaissance	0	0
37-61	Tharbrian	T	French Renaissance	0	-1
62-74	Altanian	Alt	Early German	+1	+1
75-83	Skandik	S	Norse	+2	+2
84-90	Duneal	D	Celtic	-1	-1
91-94	Viridian	V	Latin	-1	+1
95-97	Antillian	Ant	Spanish Renaissance	0	-1
98-99	Amazon	Am	Classical Greek	0	-1
100	Orichalan	O	Amerind	-2	-2

Hair, Eye & Skin Colors – the Ready Ref Sheets supplement has a set of tables for creating descriptions of females.   I would say is that Bob Bledsaw had a target market in mind when he wrote them up.  Inspirational, rather than something I would use out of the box.

I expanded them to apply to all humans, not just the girls and weighted them so that people with the same cultural background will tend to have similar tones - but individuals from any group can, in the end, have any combination. 

Hair

Color	C	T	Alt	S	D	V	Ant	Am	O
Black	01-14	01-20	01-10	01-05	01-12	01-10	01-25	01-20	01-50
Brunette	15-29	21-40	11-25	06-10	13-17	11-20	26-45	21-25	51-65
Brown	30-45	41-60	26-40	11-15	18-22	21-35	46-65	26-30	66-75
Chestnut	46-59	61-69	41-60	16-20	23-27	36-50	66-75	31-33	76-80
Auburn	60-65	70-72	61-65	21-30	28-30	51-60	76-79	34-35	81-85
Red	66-68	73-75	66-68	31-40	31-32	61-65	80-82	36-45	86-87
Strawberry Blonde	69-73	76-78	69-73	41-50	33-44	66-70	83-85	46-55	88-89
Blonde	74-83	79-84	74-93	51-75	45-56	71-75	86-89	56-75	90-92
Platinum Blonde	84-87	85-87	94-96	76-85	57-68	76-80	90-92	76-85	93-94
White/ Gray	88-90	88-90	97-99	86-95	69-80	81-85	93-95	86-90	95-99
Exotic	91-00	91-00	00	96-00	81-00	86-00	96-00	91-00	00

Skin

Color	C	T	Alt	S	D	V	Ant	Am	O
Pale White	01-10	01-05	01-05	01-10	01-20	01-20	01-05	01-05	01-05
Fair	11-25	06-25	06-10	11-30	21-60	21-40	06-10	06-15	06-10
Bronze	26-37	26-45	11-19	31-50	61-80	41-45	11-30	16-25	11-15
Olive	38-52	46-65	20-39	51-60	81-82	46-50	31-50	26-45	16-35
Yellow	53-57	66-70	40-44	61-68	83	51-55	51-55	46-50	36-40
Light Brown	58-67	71-75	45-64	69-73	84-85	56-60	56-65	51-60	41-49
Red	68-77	76-80	65-84	74-80	86	61-65	66-70	51-65	50-54
Brown	78-82	81-85	85-89	81-85	87	66-70	71-75	66-70	55-59
Dark Brown	83-86	86-88	90-94	86-90	88	71-75	76-85	71-80	60-79
Ebony	87-90	89-90	95-99	91-95	89-90	76-80	86-95	81-90	80-99
Exotic	91-00	91-00	00	96-00	91-00	81-00	96-00	91-00	00

Eyes

Color	C	T	Alt	S	D	V	Ant	Am	O
Light Blue	01-06	01-08	01-10	01-20	01-12	01-02	01-05	01-12	01-05
Blue	07-16	09-20	11-25	21-40	13-24	03-07	06-10	13-24	06-11
Gray	17-26	21-30	26-40	41-60	25-36	08-10	11-15	25-36	12-16
Gray-Green	27-32	31-38	41-48	61-63	37-43	11-13	16-25	37-44	17-22
Green	33-42	39-50	49-63	64-68	44-55	14-18	26-40	45-56	23-29
Green-Brown	43-53	51-62	64-71	69-78	56-65	19-33	41-55	57-63	30-49
Hazel	54-70	63-74	72-86	79-83	66-70	34-53	56-70	64-68	50-69
Dark Brown	71-82	75-86	87-91	84-88	71-76	54-73	71-85	69-73	70-90
Red	83-85	87-88	92-93	89-93	77-83	74-78	86-90	74-75	91-96
Hetero- chromia *	86-87	89-90	94-95	94-95	84-88	79-80	91-95	76-80	97-99
Exotic	88-00	91-00	96-00	96-00	89-00	81-00	96-00	81-00	00

* Heterochromia is the condition where each eye is a different color

Exotic Colors etc

Roll	Hair	Skin	Eyes
01-10	Light Blue	Pale Blue	Purple
11-20	Blue	Blue	Orange
21-30	Dark Blue	Lilac	Lilac
31-40	Olive Grab	Purple	Black
41-50	Green	Orange	Gold
51-60	Lilac	Green	Silver
61-70	Purple	Fur (Roll for color)*	Copper
71-80	Striped (Roll Twice)	Feathers (Roll twice for colors)**	Dead white, including iris and pupil
81-90	Plumes (Roll for colors)	Scales (Roll for color)***	Cat's Eye Pupils (Roll for color)
91-00	Bald	Transparent	Faceted (Roll for color)

*Has a feline tail
**Has wings
***Part mermaid

Common – the primary trade language of the City State of the Invincible Overlord and the surrounding region. Characters with this background are a plurality within the City State and receive no special bonuses.

Tharbian – one of the three languages that Common developed out of. People with this background receive Common as a free language, although if they have an intelligence penalty they really speak a horrible mishmash patois of the two. Tharbian speakers tend to be thinner than most.

Altanian – one of the three languages that Common developed out of. People with this background receive Common as a free language, although if they have an intelligence penalty they really speak a horrible mishmash patois of the two. Altanian speakers tend to be taller and larger than average.

Skandik – the native language of the Invincible Overlord himself and the pirate people he springs from. People with this background receive Common as a free language, although if they have an intelligence penalty they really speak a horrible mishmash patois of the two. Skandik speakers tend to be much taller and heavier than most.

Duneal– the language of the foresters of Dearthwood. People with this background receive Common as a free language, although if they have an intelligence penalty they really speak a horrible mishmash patois of the two. Duneal speakers tend to be smaller and thinner than most.

Viridian– one of the three languages that Common developed out of and the language of the City State of the World Emperor. People with this background receive Common as a free language, although if they have an intelligence penalty they really speak a horrible mishmash patois of the two. Viridian speakers tend to be shorter and heavier than average.

Antillian– the trade language of the south seas. People with this background receive Common as a free language, although if they have an intelligence penalty they really speak a horrible mishmash patois of the two. Antillian speakers tend to be thinner than most.

Amazon– the language of the southern Amazon tribes. People with this background receive Common as a free language, although if they have an intelligence penalty they really speak a horrible mishmash patois of the two. Amazon speakers tend to be thinner than most.

Orichalan – the language of the people of the Moonraker Moors. People with this background receive Common as a free language, although if they have an intelligence penalty they really speak a horrible mishmash patois of the two. Orichalan speakers tend to be much smaller and thinner than most.