Gender in Senes: a modest proposal

 Inspired by interesting setting details for Meg's River Kingdom and Matthias's Vrivmiya, here is a proof of concept for a perfectly normal way of slicing the classic RPG pie, with gender-as-race and (Conan-style) race-as-class.

Race

In the culture group of Senes, they recognize three genders: the feminine Chena, the masculine Phersun (or boundary-crossing Trintos), and the child Phalakros (and the abberant Canavar).

Chena

Marked out by their ability to bear children, diligence and insight, sexual aggressiveness, and long life. Cannot initiate violence, and cannot harm another chena under any circumstance. Her alignment is owed to a group--- political or social. It is proper for her to understand foreign languages, but not to speak them. She can marry a phersun, Trintos, or Canavar, and own land, but not have sex outside of marriage or lead in politics.

 

Phersun

Marked out by their ability to sire children, long hair, indolence and endurance, airy-fairy airs, and short life. Can initiate violence, deadly or non-, but can never harm a Canavar, for that is to turn violence on itself. He owes his alignment to an ideal, abstract and unchanginger. He can read a foreign language without shame, but not speak one. He marries a Chena or Canavar, has extramarital sex, and leads polities, but cannot own land.

 

Trintos

Marked out by their ability to sire children, insular sexuality and language, divine mandate, and long life. Can initiate violence, but only to kill-- never to enforce or teach. Cannot kill a Phalakros. Like the Phersum he is aligned to an ideal. He can read and listen to foreign languages without shame. He can't marry or lead but he can own land and have sex, and isn't that what life is all about?

 

Phalakros

Includes all children, but notably many other people. The stereotypical Phalakros is eight, but the second-most stereotypical Phalakros is eighty. Marked out by hairlessness, whimsy, and a constant drive to learn. Can initiate non-lethal force, but never harm a Phersun. Their alignment is to a group, and they cannot properly understand languages from outside that group. They do not marry, have sex, own land, or lead.

Canavar

Marked out by strange proportions, jagged, artificial punctures, bilateral fecundity, and agelessness. Can initiate non-lethal force, but never harm the divine Trintos. Aligned with appetites, literal and figurative. It can listen to foreign speech, but not read it. It may marry and lead to gain a connection to society, but not have sex out of wedlock and certainly not own land.

 

Class

Promachian
Wears a single woolen chiton, undyed or in cool colors, a wide-brimmed hat, and metal fingernails. Cosmetics are disdained, and jewelry or other adornments are supposed to be understated.
A: Citizenry- cannot use cosmetics, potions, or gaudy adornments. When charging a foe with deadly intent, you and any ally doing the same deal double damage. When wrestling a foe with subduing intent, take half damage from them. +2 reaction with spirits, gods, and non-carnivorous monsters.
B: Uprightness- you are an excellent judge of character; traditionally, you prefer the company of stuck-up pricks.
C: Prominence- you are an excellent rhetor, and your speeches cannot be ignored. When taking up the cudgel for a settlement to do something, you always find local friends willing to help you. You get to pay taxes when in your homeland, which for some reason thrills you.
D: Philosopher- those who work for you or owe fealty to you cannot be bribed and those you lead personally will not flee as long as you perform your gender without fail. Philosophers of any gender can initiate deadly violence; speak, read, and listen to any language; have an alignment of ideals; and lead.

Lykan
Wears tight studded leather, sometimes with a fiery scarf or more intricate cloak, one of a number of status-indicating circlets, tightly-bound hair, and comfortable sandals. Never covers their shins.
A: Hardness- +4 HP, and you can wear armor and throw boomerangs regardless of your walk of life.
B: Specialization- your society is properly ordered, and you get a specialization based on gender. See below.
C: Spare- no penalty for resting in miserable conditions or eating meager rations. You can perform feats of strength without tools as well as a normal person with tools.
D: Duogarchy- It's considered socially acceptable for you to challenge someone to a fight for their leadership positions, and they'll lose face if they say no unless you're not performing your gender accepting would go against their gender.

Specialization
Phalakros: you have to be a slave ; (
Chena: +1 MD and two of the following spells: Light, ESP, Hold Portal. Can spend HP as MD.
Phersun: +1 attack
Trintos: +1 MD and two of the following spells: Disguise Self, Thunderbolt, Reflect Spell. Can spend HP as MD.
Canavar: track scents as a bloodhound, and become expert in the crafting of poisons.

Theban
Wears a single-colored and very emotive mask, a two-piece chiton with flowy sleeves, boots, artificially darkened hair, and scandalous pants (if Chena or Trintos). Hats are taboo for Thebans, and they paint their helmets black in war because they're embarrassed of them.
A: Libation Bearer- ghosts love and fear you and will never impede you. Gods are fond of you, at least initially. +1 MD and one of the following spells: Comprehend Languages, Invisibility, Notes of Noy
B: Obligation- +1 MD and if you promise to do something, you'll never renege, even if it destroys you. People assume this is true of all Thebans, but it's only true of the ones at B template and up. When unarmored, you cannot be fully killed if you were at full health ten seconds ago. HP damage leaves you with 1 HP remaining, and failed saves vs death give you a crazy nosebleed, unconsciousness, and horror dreams.
C: God Stone- +1 MD when covered in blood, and two of the following spells: detect lies, augury, heal wounds.
D: Emptiness- +1 MD when wearing your mask. The most prominent Thebans are not better off for it. You can listen to languages, marry, and have sex regardless of gender. Who cares? You can casually do any of the following once ever, as long as no one thinks you're trying to show off: return a dead body to life, receive a true prophecy, summon a horrific monster, bring on a plague, make a guy explode.

Draconian
Wears performatively ragged clothing with a castellated neckline, short hair, and gaudy ornamentation whenever possible. Those who go barefoot show off their wealth.
A: Pronunciation- when speaking in a loud and clear voice, you inspire fear in Phalakrosi and Canavaroi. +1 MD and two of the following spells: detect magic, magic missile, magic mouth.
B: Beard- when wearing a stylized false beard called a Ravdos, get +1 MD. Learn one of the following spells: charm person, light, or sleep.
C: Condemnation- everyone is a criminal, some just haven't committed any crimes yet. Get +1 MD and two of the following spells: summon daemon, neutralize poison, poisonize neutral, phantasmal force
D: Law- when you pronounce a restriction on a space you own or have just been in for at least an hour, you remotely spy when someone breaks that restriction and can cast remote spells on them.Get +1 MD and the following spells: fireball, magic jar, teleport.

Nilean
Wears loose skins, a wide hooded coat, a dense cloud of fuzzy hair, and intricately-tied sandals. Weapons are worn openly or not at all.
A: Price- entering adulthood from Phalakrosy, you must give up an organ associated with your gender; a breast for Chenae, the right pointer finger for Phersunoi, an eye for Trintosi, or part of the genitals for Canavaroi. You can swim like a fish, climb like a monkey, and carry like a mule (+5 inventory), and kick like another mule (1d6 damage)
B: Boldness- you can initiate lethal or subduing violence; attack; and have sex regardless of gender. When your attack kills someone, go ahead and attack someone else right away.
C: Points- Chenae and Trintosi of Nileon are renowned for the use of the bow, while Phalakrosi, Phersunoi, and Canavaroi instead use darts when called on to fight. When using this weapon, +1 attack and you can attempt improbable ranged maneuvers like pinning, disarming, exc.
D: 1/year, you may meld with a creature you're riding, becoming as the centaur if you're riding a horse. If it's a human this is called either a rençper or a kamparntína, depending on configuration. This lasts until you decide to end it. 

Klymenean
Wears a Plutonian chiton (draped in a way that resembles a poncho, two-and-a-half pieces, often docked to go tits out or expose midriff) pierced with pins and gold ornaments, a cunning nightcap-shaped cap, pronounced cosmetics, and automatic tattoos (in the sense of automatic writing).
A: Coldness- you act with perfect matter-of-fact calmness which is better than stealth. When skulking around, listening at doorways, or similarly acting roguishly, there is a 3-in-6 chance someone who happens upon you will just assume you're supposed to be doing that, or perhaps that you're puckishly passing the time waiting for them to notice you. The first wound you inflict on someone deals double damage.
B: Balancing Scales- you are an expert in appraising value and workmanship. When someone deals damage to you, you can suddenly appear right behind them.
C: Snakes- +2 reaction rolls with snakes, tortoises, and other neptunian creatures. +1 MD and learn the spell Summon Snakes.
D: Privilege- like all who are wealthy in spirit, you are allowed certain leniencies. You can appear as anyone who has ever died, counterfeit coins and art objects fade away at your touch, and you do not need to pay property taxes above-ground.

Testudis (Cataphracts Setting, Hexmap, Rules)

 In describing his logistics-based army game Cataphracts, Sam Sorensen had an interesting problem. It's hard to fully describe a game in which some of the rules, the entire map, and details of the characters and factions are supposed to be hidden information from the players. Being on something of a Cataphracts kick recently, I wanted to try out the method for designing a Cataphracts setting Sorensen describes in one of his design diaries and share how it went. Unfortunately, it was so fun to work on that I like to imagine one day I might run it, so I actually fell into the exact same problem as Sorensen did. Therefore, I made a second Cataphracts setting with the precommitment to share it. I made it as ready as possible for actual play, so that you could theoretically run it right away, even though by publishing it I've introduced a major obstacle, that future players in your game may have read this very blogpost.

So, if you're considering running a Cataphracts game, just consider this a very in-depth example : )

Overview

Three hundred years ago, the empire established a colony on the coast of this rocky, wooded, rain-soaked land, naming it Testudis after the locals' term for the greater island. The people here taught the colony the way to cultivate maize, beans, and squash; methods of gentle forestry; and ways to appease and befriend the many spirits of the land. The empire taught them new ways of carpentry and architecture, brought horses, and made literacy wide-spread.

Though it did not resemble the extermination either group feared, contact was seldom all-peaceful or all-happy. After famines, disease, and several wars both in Testudis and broaching the heart of the empire, it was decided to abandon the furthest colonies to reform the empire into a nimble, sustainable whole. But not everyone wants to go.

Quastor Sabellius leads the abandoned colony, the organized and militant Reliquium towards a goal of self-sustainability, aided by the earth spirit Suibhard engineers they brought from across the sea, as well as their local allies. The agile Pine People, who have never accepted the empire's foreign hordes, calls its confederacy around it to push them into the sea, assisted by legendary humanoids and even demanding the assistance of long-time friends of the colony, the  prosperous River People and the forest-dwelling Hound People. 

The people who rise to the top in this struggle, and the confederacies they form, will radically shape the great island of Testudis and, when contact is one day re-established, the rest of the world.

Faction Sheets

Reliquium

• Client Relationships: when other factions forage, torch, recruit, or pillage in your lands, +1-in-6 chance of rebellion against them. Revolts caused by your enemies are more willing to be bought off by you. 
• Lord of Embarkations: as long as the idol remains in the temple at Parentium, your armies get +1 Morale.
• Unique unit: Peltasts. Infantry. Can make battles take 2 extra days, during which the enemy can drive you back 1 hex (excluding assaults).
• Unique Unit: Clibanarii. As heavy cavalry, +2 to compared rolls after winning a battle.

Starting Commander: Quastor Aquina Sabellius (45. Honorable, Stubborn) The daughter of a River man and an equite of the Reliquium, you have risen through careful politics and officious merit. After the governor received orders to abandon the colony, you were the highest-ranking official to choose to remain. Knowing that your lifelong enemy, the Pine People, will use this chance to rile up the other nations of the Testudis, it's that there is no one left but you who can turn the colony into an independent and dominant state, even if it must be cut off from the empire. Your goals are to:

• Capture at least two strongholds and two towns on the Great River.
• Ensure that you and your allies retain control of the four colonial cities: Basti, Falerii Novi, Reimse, and Tir Gael.
• Ensure Mologa is torched to keep the River People more dependent on you than on outsiders.

Pine People

• Inherited Hunting Paths: Pine People forces have +1 detection distance in forests and can move wagons off-road.
• Dispersed Bands: upon losing a battle, Pine People scatter in all directions and reform unpredictably (including in rout), making it difficult for a pursuing army to locate and immediately attack them.
• Unique Unit: Thunders, golden-haired half-bird men. As skirmishers, but count double in an assault and ignore penalties from weather.
• Unique Unit: Stone Giants, the remnants of a great hero's destruction. As heavy cavalry, immune to disease.

Starting Commander: Warleader Gelelemend (58. Logistician, Brutal, Storyteller) The favorite of every lodge of sachems among the Pine People, respected both north and south, you have been selected as warleader to fulfill the hope of the last seven generations, that your land may be free of barbarian invaders. Once an excellent hunter, now an excellent warrior, are tasked with finally driving the invaders' colony into the sea. Your goals are to:

• Torch the cities of Basti and Falerii Novi
• Marry an important commander from the River People or the Hound People into your confederation.
• Reclaim the White Eagle Pipe from Reimse. As an ancestral artifact of your people, it cannot be allowed to remain in their hands.

Your friend, Chepi (35, Beloved) commands the muster of the Southern Pine People. You must decide what instructions to give him as he raises his forces in Khetottug.

Gelelemend raises his forces in Otoquos while Chepi does the same in Khetottug. The DM should graciously give Gelelemend's orders to Chepi at the start of the game rather than wait for the normal duration of a messenger's travel.

Suibhards

• Stone Spirits: Suibhards cannot ford rivers except in ships. They can build fortifications, bridges, roads, and other infrastructure. 
• Morbid Humor: your people have befriended the Puk-Sukok, a clan of magic pranksters and saboteurs with cruel natures, who can make themselves invisible to anyone they point at. At the start of the game, you have the use of ten Puk-Sukok you can assign to serve as spies or send on operations, and they get +1 to related rolls.
• Unique Unit: Fomors. Heavy infantry, counts quadruple in defensive sieges. One unit can build or disassemble a bridge in two weeks, fortify a camp in two (+2 to defenders), lay out a hex of road in three, or thwart a hex of road in five.

Starting Commander: Ri Ansugaizaz (26. Raider, Siege Engineer) You are the undisputed ruler of the Suibhard, spirits of the earth and the deep, those who who sniffed out iron for the empire, dug trenches, prepared walls, and all the time subtly prepared for the inevitable. Your nature is poisonous and cruel; you must seed the land with destruction, so that sorrow will anchor you and make you true spirits of Testudis, supernaturally revitalizing all the Suibhard. Your goals are to:

• Attain a dominant position over the humans of the Reliquium (your nominal allies), either diplomatically or by seizing Basti or Falerii Novi while retaining both of your cities.
• Feed 10,000 bodies to the Fomors.
• Capture two or more waterside strongholds.

Hound People

• Arrow of Peace: While your confederation is unified, -1-in-6 chance of revolt from overforaging or recruiting in regions you control.
• Looking Back the Long Path: Dead Hound People elders and officers can communicate and make reports, when within 1 hex.
• Unique Unit: Other People, as infantry, count double in forests. Can't be seen from more than 1 hex away.

Starting Commander: Sachem Matoaka (35. Guardian, Beloved) For over a century, your people have enjoyed the friendship and confidence of the colony. You have seen firsthand how they can be led from errant ways and towards dignity and respect for all things. Told by the petty sachems of the Hound People that war is inevitable, it is your remit to secure a place for the Hound People by keeping the Reliquium strong and affording your people access to the wider waterways. Your goals are to: 

• Possess, or be granted total right of travel by, the four forts on the road to Tir Gael.
• Prevent the Reliquium from losing any coastal territory and hold on to all of yours.
• Regain the Bow of Hoennag from Khetottug. Stolen long ago by the Southern Pine People, it is one of few of the original possessions of the first Hound Person.

River People

• Trade Privileges: your settlements and strongholds start with caches loot that you can use at will. 500 for strongholds, 1000 for cities, and 1500 for cities.
• Burn and Slash: gain half a hex's forage value when you torch it.
• Unique Unit: Neeshauog. Infantry, count double on coastline or along river.
• Unique Unit: Katawam Archers: cavalry, count quadruple in advantageous position or chosen battlefield.

Starting Commander: Sachem Callidamates Emeritus/Massasoit (44. Duelist, Ironsides) A trader of great renown, you have seen colonial estates and Pine People war camps in equal measure. Expecting a storm of violent confusion, you mean to leave your people in a good place by the time the fighting is done. The other sachems of the River People have elevated you in the hopes that you could best understand the way forward, and expect quick and decisive action. You more than anyone else in the land have the freedom to decide your friends and enemies. Your goals are to:

• Pay your warriors 20,000 loot over the course of the war to set them up to dominate trade when peace comes.
• Seize two Suibhard strongholds
• Regain the Pipe of Nikkohup from Reimse. As a divine item of your people's long history, it belongs with none other than you.

Army Sheets

Army sheets for each faction can be found here.  Each faction is considered to have raised a huge block of troops in one of their cities (Basti, Reimse, Apuwok Wikun, and Mologa), except the Pine People who start with two armies, one in Nisquan and one in Khetottug. In designing factions, I tried to focus on logistics and simple, practical expressions of each side's theme, especially with supernatural units and abilities. One note for when you're designing a faction's unique units: always consider how well their abilities work when they're just one part of a mixed army. If a unit doesn't check morale for running out of supply, for instance, what happens when it's in an army largely composed of infantry? Typically an army has a single morale score and tests it as a whole. One other thing I noticed was a funny thing about unit strength-- doubling a unit's effective strength sounds really strong, but keep in kind that doubling an entire army's strength only gives it a +1 bonus in a battle against an army of the same size.

Rules

Because some aspects of the current Cataphracts ruleset are hidden from players, some of these rules are my invention to give the DM a method of handling things like weather, disease, or death and dismemberment. A couple of these rules clarify ambiguities or add something specific to the milieu.

• Canoes: Canoes, like ships, can carry people upon water. Ten canoes can carry one empty wagon or as much as one ship, but can themselves be portaged overland. If attacked within a day of having been portaging, you are out of formation. Canoes move 18 miles a day upriver, or 24 miles a day downriver or on the coast. A "forced march" of rowing increases this by 6 miles.
• Operations: Each faction has a stable of five spies, relatively irreplaceable agents willing to do the very risky and disdained work of covert operations. Commanders can always send soldiers, noncombatants, or other officers to do this work, but as for professionals they have five.
• An operation costs at least 100 Loot, in which a spy can be sent to a location or attach themselves to a camp, and begin working towards their goal They move at the rate of infantry. An operation is resolved with an opposed 2d6 roll like a battle or assault, but with the following modifiers:
• The spy gets +1 for another spy's aid, or +2 as a cell of four or more spies. They get +1 if their goal is easy, like spreading rumors or keeping an ear out. They get -3 or more for a hard goal like assassination (which they only attempt against a commander if there's a special opening).
• The target gets +1 for each spy dedicated to counter-intelligence at the location. They get the location's fortification bonus, but the spy can spend weeks of preparation to reduce this bonus. If the populace has been mistreated by the occupying force, it's reduced twice as fast
• A location can't be infiltrated from outside while actively preparing against siege.
• Weather: Every two weeks, roll 1d6 to defermine which region (or none) is affected by rain, snow, erc. This lasts for a month, so it's possible that weather will afflict the same place twice, in which case make the weather more severe and dangerous. Improvise based on the season.
• Disease: Wherever there are lots of dead bodies, or people who can't get clean, there's a 50% chance per month of disease spreading. Roll a d6-1 for each force present, and assign penalties as though they've just lost a battle by that much. Extraordinary measures can give an army a morale test to avoid the worst of it.
• Battles of Three or More Sides: Have each side make its opposed roll against every other side, then take the worst result. For each battle lost beyond the first, just add 2 to the severity of the worst battle outcome.
• Death and Dismemberment: When you're deathed and dismembered, roll 1d6:
• 1-2 simply knocked out
• 3 bad scar and a week of recovery
• 4 lose a hand, eye, or etc. and spend three weeks in recovery
• 5 dying, 50% of being revived if tended to
• 6 stone dead

Maps

Main overland map. Dark green is forests, brown steep hills. Dark brown is typically impassible. Rivers can be forded, unless it has been raining.

Settlement score. Deep red 100, red-pink 80, pink 60, purple 40, blue 20. Surpassing the master, the blue is not the same blue as my water features. 

No place names labeled

Diagetic map. The design diary suggests the creation of such a thing above and beyond what you give each faction, but I'm not really sure why.

Region Details

Cataphracts is a game with a simple chassis. All that is needed for endless variation is the introduction of some simple terrain features, roads, strongholds, and towns. However, introducing little details and hidden sites can probably go a long way to keep players on their toes. By creating unique details for most regions, local guides remain useful, and players will learn that they can't take anything for granted. If you have 40 or 45 strongholds and therefore around that many regions, you can quickly detail each region so that you have 5-8 wizards, 5-8 ways for those wizards to learn new spells, 10+ hazards, 5+ hireable neutral groups, 5-10 unique or improved fortresses, quirks for your 5-10 cities, hidden resources, hidden byways, landmarks, religious sites, and so on.

A region's mustered ships are at rest in their port of call, even though units, canoes, and wagons are all getting mustered in each faction's main city.

Reliquium

Basti

• Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 500 Peltasts, 325 Clibanarii, 60 wagons, 5 ships. 
• Feature: Overdeveloped. The empire's firstfall and symbol of tenacity, the city of Basti features a sewer system that can fill the surrounding floodplain with sewage (1-in-6 chance per week of disease among besiegers, advantageous position). A hostile Reliquite or Suibhard can lead a force up through the sewer, trading the fortification bonus for rough terrain penalty.
• Feature: Quastor Sabellius has an inheritance of 1,000 loot stored here.

Matrica- Gandava

• Muster: 600 troops. 640 heavy infantry, 200 Peltasts, 150 Clibanarii, 30 wagons, 5 ships (four in Matrica, one in Gandava)
• Feature: Scorpion Nest. Matrica stronghold has four siege engines loaded on to four ships. Operating these ships within two hexes of Matrica is free (covered by the virtuoso genius of the local adjunct).

Noviomagus

• Muster: 1,200 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 300 Clibanarii, 60 wagons, 2 ships.
• Feature: Lair of Anit— a cavern in the mountain descends into the den of an icy cannibal giant, effective strength 400, inflicts 5% greater casualties. Generally wicked but always repays good deeds. If fully redeemed, spits up his icy heart and turns back into a man.
• In the cave are strange etchings, which a wizard can study for three days to learn the spell Cold Snap, which freezes rivers and, from October to February, increases precipitation by one step. Lasts a week. Takes a week of study to recharge

Parentum- Tingi

• Muster: 1,800 troops. 1,200 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 450 Clibanarii, 80 wagons.
• Feature: Idol of Epibaterius. As long as it is still in the stronghold's temple, the Requilium gets +1 morale for all its soldiers. News of its destruction removes the bonus.
• The prophet Numeria Pictor resides here, and can be convinced to join an army (67, wizard) if she thinks it will protect the Idol. She has scrolls of the spell Augury, which lets you know what an army's 2d6 roll will be if they battle tomorrow. Takes three weeks to recharge.

Abula Pass

• Muster: 1,000 troops. 600 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 250 Clibanarii, 1 ship.
• Feature: When it rains and for a week after, battle and passage is effectively impossible along the river. Even without this, the stronghold and town have an advantageous position (+1).

Falerii Novi

• Muster: 1,400 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 200 skirmishers, 340 Clibanarii, 70 wagons, 3 ships.
• Feature: Marshlands. Travel through the woods here has a 1-in-6 chance of causing disease. The city itself has impeccable baths that have a 50% chance of healing someone suffering from illness.

Berytus

• Muster: 800 troops. 400 heavy infantry, 200 Peltasts, 200 skirmishers.
• Feature: Secret tunnel. Garrison can emerge from a secret backway a hex northwest.

Pine People

Ontoquos- Nisquan

• Muster: 3600 troops. 2,500 infantry, 500 heavy infantry, 600 Thunders, 500 Stone Giants, 400 canoes, 180 wagons.
• Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.
• Feature: The ancient Nisquan fortress Potowahoset built into the side of a cliff. Difficult terrain (-1 for attackers) and advantageous position (+1 for defenders).

Tannicke

• Muster: 1500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Thunders, 180 canoes, 30 wagons.
• Feature: The Great Wood People. If the river is followed west, you come to a great dam operated by a tribe historically hostile both to the Pine People and the Reliquium. Their chief, Tummockquauog, could be bribed to join in the war. He has 3,500 infantry and 500 skirmishers, all with their own canoes.

Anshap

• Muster: 1,500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Thunders, 300 Stone Giants, 100 canoes, 30 wagons.
• Feature: House of Father Fox, a medicine man of renown. Hater of the Reliquium and the River People, he would assent to battle either. (49, wizard). He has a scroll of the spell Animal Speech, which lets him ask questions of local wildlife as though they were guides. Recharges in two weeks.

Ottucke

• Muster: 1,100 troops. 800 infantry, 300 Thunders, 50 wagons.
• Feature: Hill of Heads. Flint arrowheads harvested here, and the hill provides advantageous terrain against attackers (+1).

Seaseap

• Muster: 3,700 troops. 3,000 infantry, 700 Thunders, 500 Stone Giants, 500 canoes, 185 wagons.
• Feature: Hidden rapids. 3-in-6 chance of sinking non-Pine People canoes and ships, killing 50% of all occupants.

Wboenuncke- Western Waacoh

• Muster: 4,800 troops. 4,000 infantry, 800 Thunders, 480 canoes.
• Feature: The True Men. A tribe due south on a great peninsula. Historical pacifists, their chief Blaknik could be convinced to lend support in supply, canoes, or noncombatants. If battle comes to them, they have an effective fighting force of about 1,000 infantry.

Pooke- Abamocho

• Muster: 2,400 troops. 2,000 infantry, 400 Thunders, 240 canoes.
• Feature: Golden Walls. The ruins of a city built long ago, before any who live here first came. It affords advantageous ground (+1), and contains etchings of an ancient spell a wizard could copy down in a week, Water from Stone. It allows the caster to squeeze and manipulate stone or wood as though it were soft white cheese for a day. Takes a week to recharge.

Khetottug- Eastern Waacoh

• Muster: 2,800 troops. 2,200 infantry, 600 Thunders, 400 Stone Giants, 300 canoes, 140 wagons
• Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.
• Feature: Bow of Hoennag— an artifact of a local hero from the golden age, the Bow never fails to find quarry. Great for a hunter, and means a commander with the bow is never surprised by an oncoming army. The Bow is jealously guarded by the southern Pine People, who will not allow a commander from any other group to carry it.

Skesicos

• Muster: 500 troops. 500 infantry, 50 canoes.
• Feature: Waters guarded by a horned serpent. Intelligent, hungry, venal, she is the equivalent of 2,000 infantry or 10 ships for naval battles if recruited.

Suibhard

Reimse

• Muster: 1,200 troops. 700 heavy infantry, 500 Fomors, 60 wagons.
• Feature: Fomor nest— Both stronghold and city get +2 extra fortification bonus.
• Feature: Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city. If an army approaches Reimse by the Hidden Ways, its fortification bonus is halved.

Domhan Orga

• Muster: 1,200 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Fomors, 60 wagons.
• Feature:  Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city.

Fhomhair- Na Ruin

• Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 500 Fomors, 65 wagons.
• Feature:  Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city.
• The road intersects with Coboldine Archive, where among records and myths can be found a spell inscribed on a stone globe— Retching Plague. It sends a wave of disease in a straight line for two days, moving at forced march pace. Recharges in four weeks.

Chroabh

• Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 infantry, 500 Fomors, 65 wagons.
• Feature: Bandit nomads. Messages that pass through here only have a 4-in-6 chance of safe delivery. If an army recruits here, they get more skirmishers than normal.

Gan Smal- Meanfach

• Muster: 1,500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Fomors, 75 wagons, 5 ships.
• Feature: Residence of Tuspaquin, an explorer and spirit-friend who has lived long among the Suibhard. For pay, can be hired to join an expedition. (36, wizard, moves as skirmisher). He has a scroll of the spell Change Size, which makes a heavy unit standard or a standard unit heavy for a week. Takes four weeks to recharge.

Maighdean- Tir Geal

• Muster: 1,400 troops. 800 infantry, 200 skirmishers, 400 Fomors, 70 wagons, 8 ships. Military stockpile of 500 loot.
• Feature: Oil of Mór-Ríoghain— stockpiled flammable fluid. Can coat a six-mile stretch of water in it and ignite it. Those slain do not fully die, but become half-dead. What is not known is that this essentially converts them into deadly draugr, witless (-3 tactics) but never routing and never needing food and never losing nerve (+2) and slowly deteriorating (5% casualties per week March-September)

Stoirmeach- Skeud

• Muster: 2,100 troops. 1,400 infantry, 700 Fomors, 100 wagons, 4 ships.
• Feature: The Ready People. Upriver off the map can be found a tribe of hunters and raiders. They traditionally view the Suibhard as evil spirits, but could be convinced to join in the fighting for loot or promises of land. They have 2,000 infantry, 1,000 heavy infantry, and 200 cavalry, as well as enough ships to carry them.

Hound People

Apuwok Wikun

• Muster: 3,300. 1,800 infantry, 1,000 Other People, 500 skirmishers, 800 cavalry, 160 wagons.
• Feature: Holy site. The city starts with +5 siege morale, and the stronghold is on a high hill, giving an advantageous position (+1).

Apukisuq

• Muster: 800 troops. 400 infantry, 200 skirmishers, 200 Other People. 200 cavalry, 40 wagons, 80 canoes.
• Feature: Ancient Totem. A revered landmark, the totem also encodes a spell which a wizard can copy down in a week. Walking Tree: allow a city, town, or stronghold to move up to one hex, as its occupants desire. Takes three weeks to recharge.

Poqah- Tayupahs

• Muster: 2,000 troops. 1,200 infantry, 400 Other People, 400 skirmishers, 500 cavalry, 100 wagons, 200 canoes.
• Feature: River Spirits— 1-in-6 chance of encountering mischievous miniature humanoids that can upset canoes (delay by 1 day) or multiply supply in their magic pot (double, then run off), based on whether the commander is upstanding and/or sporting.

Wuyitupohtam

• Muster: 800 troops. 300 infantry, 400 Other People, 300 skirmishers, 80 canoes.
• Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.

Apuskok

• Muster: 600 troops. 400 infantry, 200 skirmishers.
• Feature: Imprisoned in a deep hole is Akkompoin, a surprisingly knowledgable raider from the Ready People of the north. If freed, will offer his services, though he is shifty and untrustworthy. (20, wizard) Knows the spell Cursed Land, which poisons the forage of a particular hex. Recharges in two weeks.

Yahshawok- Quercium

• Muster: 900 troops. 600 infantry, 300 heavy infantry.
• Feature: Cedar Groves. Pleasant and well-cultivated forests, no impediment to travel. Counts as road.

River People

Mologa- Mskikok

• Muster: 5,000 troops. 4,500 Neeshauog, 500 skirmishers, 1,250 Katawam Archers, 250 wagons.
• Feature: The People of Sunken Pools. To the north, scattered bands of people have always had occasional dealings with the River People, trading furs and grain. If appealed to, 800 skirmishers can be roused, with more available in time.

Nawajiwi

• Muster: 1,400 troops. 1,000 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers, 350 Katawam Archers, 70 wagons, 180 canoes.
• Feature: Wood Slat Bridge— panels can be slid out from under the bridge to cut off travel along the river, requiring a force to take the town or stronghold, or a wide portage, to proceed.

Pakwaaki- Kokskisek

• Muster: 3,100 troops. 2,500 Neeshauog, 600 skirmishers, 700 Katawam Archers, 140 wagons, 310 canoes.
• Feature: At the northern tip of the grove of trees in the south of the region, there is a cave containing a magic scroll of the spell Golden Paddle. A wizard casting the spell sends a fleet of any number of ships or canoes airborn, allowing them to fly over land and sea both for a day. This can be used to leap over walls, but only in disarray. Takes three weeks to recharge.

Adalomamek

• Muster: 2,200 troops. 1,800 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers, 500 Katawam Archers, 120 wagons, 240 canoes.
• Feature: Bog— spirits in the woods will give off poisonous marsh gas if there is a large number of improperly buried or unburied dead in the region, creating disease.

Nanawoboigamigok

• Muster: 1,700 troops. 1,300 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers.
• Feature: Lair of Eataubana— the woods by the stronghold are home to a massive insect spirit (effective strength 500, +1 from chosen battlefield) that will attack if not placated. Can potentially be recruited (700 [10 for dueling], wizard) and knows the spell Counterspell, which cancels magic. Recharges in four weeks.

Nbowiponohodit

• Muster: 800 troops. 600 Infantry, 200 skirmishers.
• Feature: Hidden Tunnel— connects the town and stronghold.

Kinibogka

• Muster: 1,300 troops. 900 Infantry, 400 skirmishers.
• Feature: Thief Ghost— the spirit of death hangs out in the woods on the road to Pakwaaki. Plays macabre tricks on people who linger here, like twisting their feet so they are lamed or must walk backwards, or replacing medicine with poison.

So is Man Atrocious (Cloak-and-Sword Setting)

As one of the last people to jump on the cloak-and-sword bandwagon, I've decided to make myself useful and compile some of the setting details you can find dispersed elsewhere, not touching on the more complicated and remote countries like Noblessie, Inferie, and the Dragoman empire.

As far as I can tell, the presumed primary setting of a Cloak and Sword game is a Frenchish land called Manteu, rife with ruffs, black powder, swordsmen, finely bred horses, smoking clubs, Latin, wars on the continent, and the overripe flower of chivalry. When people want to disambiguate the setting from the genre which is called "cloak and sword", they call the world Manteu.

Manteu! Manteu! Called "land of earnest-speakers" and "The Only Place in the World, à l'Exception" and "A ruin without realizing it" and "the sort of place where hardly anyone knows how many wars are going on in it" and "a kingdom three weeks and two centuries across" and "150% France-per-France".

Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier

It has the influence that France had in an earlier age, when French (the language is still called French) is the language of the entire continent of Ganymed. The cultural capital of the world, En Plus Paris (tr. grand city of Paris) is home to the high king, the queen, their respective musketeers, the cardinal, his musketeers, various grand dukes, marquises, baronettes, and so-ons, and an endless war against boredom as all these armed swaggerers hit the club, flirt with people they shouldn't, and pursue schemes without end goals. Outside the great cities, political organization is more Beowulfine, with a king or a lord in a big house and usually some big problem they need a hero to solve.

The king is at war with the queen. The queen is at war with the Spanish. Everyone is at war with the Huguenots, but most especially the cardinal is. Everyone is also fighting the robbers, beggars, and wolves. The fay of the summer are at war with the fay of the channel, apostalizers who converted when French blood turned the very fish faithful. The Spanish are at war with everyone. If the hated Dragomen ever show up, it's on sight. People are generally sexist and stuffy in sufficient extent to furnish any life's ambition or true love with endless obstacles.

Heroes, as such, tend to be split in a dichotomy. Gallants include anyone who is a dramatic Player Character-like character loyal to their family, invested in fashion and both l'Action and l'Amore. Chansels (or, if men, Chansiers) seem to be an unflattering stereotype of non-cloak and sword PCs (or players who act like this is a normal dungeon setting?), derogated as unmoored and violent petit bourgeoise, greedy, "only eat one meal a day," uncaring of discomfort, romanceless freaks who take a scientific approach to killing. Damn meal-a-days.

Magicians and the magical abound, and while they are found in every scenario and great scheme I could find, it seems there's no totally politically captured institution of wizardry. Notably, the Academie Gramarie has ensured their independence by capturing the king's true name, and the Scholomance has stolen the heart of a mountain-sized black dragon, Letarrasque, so neither can be easily jerked around by standard politics.

Blogposts are always talking about whether angels can see you or not, so it seems like the default answer is "no." Basically it seems like the setting is undergoing a worldwide titanomachy, with demons, Grendelles, and horrible elves on one side and the angels, who few people can actually see, on the other side. The crowns of Ganymed all champion the angels, while their hated enemies in the Dragoman Empire side with the Grendelles.

There are gunswords, and this is what "Damascus Steel" refers to here. Apparently only manufactured in (or just invented in?) the Dragoman Empire.

Provinces of Manteu include:

• Les Lances, rich and suspicious land that was once the front-line in invasions, and before that was settled by Vikings
• Mauve, the fashionable second banana to En Plus Paris, known for growing wine and traitors. The setting of a very good introductory adventure.
• Competence, the gateway to Levol, known for its herbs and therefore its witches. Maintains a policy of non-interference with the red wolves, whoever they are.
• Angevine, where half-angels are born to unmarried volunteers.
• Boucony, a rustic land where everyone wears a beret and is very pedantic. They love pistols here.
• Nigaudy, where tits-out blood feuds are somewhat more common and somewhat less whimsical.
• Dijon, home to a city where nothing ever fucking happens until you make it happen.
• Region de Fableau, accessed only through the enchanted tapestries of Saint Cussata.

Farther afield, we find such lands as

• Spain, which is constantly invading but the source of all gold in the world
• Merica, a former rival now long-eclipsed, an island nation with some measure of refinement
• Nedde, rich city-state of clothiers, windmills, and tolerant merchants
• Levol, peninsula of robbers and priests where some secondary action often takes place. Home to an anticardinal who challenges the legitimacy of the cardinal in En Plus Paris

A commoner in Manteu has a first name and maybe an epithet. Pick Gallicized Biblical names like Marie or Emmanuel. Nobility (broadly defined, often including all PCs who aren't definitely common based on class choice) follow a different formula:

• You can be named for the place you rule or hail from, like D'Mauve or D'Lances.
• You can have an epithet, like L'Paresseux (the sluggard) or L'Joyeux (the gay)
• Each noble family has a one- or two-syllable name stem that they pass on to descendants and those who marry in. The end of each stem has an optional consonant to help avoid awkward names. Each individual's name will sound like their parents', with a different ending. There are 35 traditional endings for men, though only 20 are common, and 35 traditional endings for women.

Example stems (playable???) include

• Forti(n), the royal family of Manteu
• Fe(r), a family once prolific for their banking wealth that have recently suffered a great downfall
• Cou(l), the traditional dogsbodies of the royal family, in tension with themselves as some have declared for the king and some for the queen.
• Ma(l), the open secret wife and children of the cardinal.
• Au(r), perhaps the most cursed family which hasn't been killed off yet.
• Eo(th), a tenacious and prolific line that holds pride for its Viking blood

To give you a sense of how these names work, and because it took me like four hours to interpret all the conflicting sources, here is a name generator. Remember to decide whether to keep that optional letter, turning Ma(l)bert into either Mabert or Malbert, for instance.

Tolkenor, the Border Isle

 It is a time of concord. It is a time of discord. Peace has finally come between the thousand warring lords of Alba, but it was not won through friendship. A warlord holds the pope for a hostage, and all the great isles hold their breath. Meanwhile, hundreds of unemployed retainers and thousands of disloyal soldiers turn to brigandry on the waves or the hardscrabble life of the wanderer, as news of wealth and horror from farther and farther lands marks a new age of conquest, expansion, and misery.

Shadow Hunters (1972)

(This regioncrawl was written to accommodate the Masters of the Strait gloghack)

Click here for the regioncrawl, or read on for some reflections on it.

rare photo of Errol Flynn playing a pirate

Reflections:

• As always, I'm glad I included the little details that make the relationship between the ruleset and the world strong-- making sure to include dogs if there's a dog language PCs can learn, exc. But I could have gone a lot harder in that, and it would have gone well I think.
• As a setting, Tolkenor has plenty of danger, wonder, and political-dramatic potential, but it lacks an overarching crisis that makes everything doubly precarious and animates all the best settings. A massive invasion, or outright domestic crisis of some sort.
• Perhaps more overt risk to the life of piracy, or the end of nobility or something. Inspiration from the source material. Why isn't a snooty bureaucrat on the brink of gathering a massive fleet to shoot every outlaw in the head with a cannon?
• Glad I have those little harbor marks on the border connections between land and ocean. That's a step over previous efforts.
• There should be way more connection between regions. PCs following each lead should feel blown around.
• There should be way more interactivity. More buttons that make regions explode, or move, or something. I've done better at that before.
• If I was about to run a Tolkenor campaign, I'd put more work into making a generator for making regions on the fly. Like Josie's stocking procedure, but with a table of elements and themes particular to the setting.
• Coming up with spirits on the fly on a per-region basis is fine, but if spirits are going to be local powers, I'd like some of them to feel as present as some of the political powers. That would give priests and religious events a feeling of actuality.

GLoGhack: Masters of the Strait 🏴‍☠️

 Because some find it hard to get excited about a ruleset, I've made a regioncrawl to go with this one.

I wanted to write out a ruleset that encompassed lesson I've learned and the ways my tastes have changed since writing and running Vain the Sword.

• From playing B/X, I got more into the quadratic, simple leveled advancement (that OG GLOG also had) where you may get to level 4 relatively quickly and advance very slowly from there, but with a complete arsenal of class tools. I became fluent in the pace of gold-for-XP and other classic systems I was only discovering a few years ago.
• From playing Traveller, I fell in love with the career character creation system and skill acquisition. I wondered if I could use a similar framework to also make a procedure of the introduction of PC families and connections to the world that I had previously attempted in slapdash ways.
• From playing Lost Fable, I solidified how I wanted to do overland travel for regioncrawls.
• Looking back on Vain the Sword, I do enjoy the 8 hp maximum and the risk that the Table of Consequences gives, which can be tweaked with a custom table for every campaign.

Just as knights are the flower of chivalry, so are settings the flower of nobility. Accordingly, I have a polished version with a setting integrated and a more generic skeleton in case I want to adapt it for another campaign. I hope you enjoy!

Setting Seed Generator (Cairn 2e WIP)

Yochai Gal recently pointed me to a tool he has been working on for the warden's guide of Cairn 2e. It's a procedure for generating a setting using a combination of dice-drops and d20 tables. I noticed that I could repurpose a lot of his tables to brainstorm regions in the country-as-dungeon adventures I've been playing around with, so with his permission I made an automating tool to do a lot of the rolling for you. 

In fairness I should note that I used an early WIP of Gal's tables, so they might lack the glimmer of his later improvements. I tried to keep tweaks to a minimum, but I did go ham with some synonyms for different kinds of terrain, and I inserted a nonsense word generator for some of the names. As usual, I prioritized novelty in naming over elegance. Don't blame him if your region has a name like "Colorful Cuu" or "Ummo Rag."

Gal's original procedure asks you to make tweaks as you go, according to your taste. Please do not let the fact that my generator spits out a complete list discourage you from doing likewise.

Made with Spwack's wonderful list-to-html generator.

I trust you to decide how to connect the locations, by what paths, and including what sorts of water features and weather.