Historical Analog Gaming Society: January 2024

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Hyperborea Hexfills & Travel

Editorial Note: Hyperborea is a love letter to Appendix N mainstay Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea cycle, which is in turn a love letter to the works of Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft. In efforts to achieve that classic pulp literature feel, it often cleaves too closely to the source material - in particular the racial politics of those Appendix N authors, which borders on the phrenological. Pict Half-Blood and Esquimaux, in particular, are extraordinarily racist and not merely a "product of their time," if there is such a thing. The Historical Analog Gaming Society believes that while art and artists can be entertaining, influential and enjoyable despite having problematic or offensive content, that problematic and offensive content needs to at least be acknowledged if not discussed. We haven't changed anything in the text for our playthrough, but there are elements that give icks, so content warnings for racism apply.

The HAGS played Hyperborea 3E, and it went really well! At the end of their session, it was resolved to take passage to the City-State of Khromarium, which would require a lengthy journey by land and sea (and segue into the next module we'll be playing, The Late Trapper's Lament (with some geographical modifications). But first, they would have to get to a place where they could book aformentioned passage, which would involve an overland journey of a few days, going from their home village of Cé (the red X) to the port village of Uerteru (red circle).

The excellent if difficult to consult at times Atlas of Hyperborea puts the scale at 1 hex = 24 miles center to center. The party at this time lacks mounts and so is moving at a rate of about one hex per day. That means two encounter rolls; one in the morning and one at night, plus whatever was decided is in the hex itself. They also, of course, need to hunt and forage for food along their way, and there is the ever-present risk of becoming lost.

Their current area and destination gives me a 42-hex buffer to play with should the HAGS get lost, get intrigued by something else, and/or otherwise decide to deviate from their course to Khromarium, which in all honesty is very likely. My own approach to writing hexfills favors brevity; I lean into a "less is more" Geoffrey McKinney school of writing and the scale of this project is not to hexfill the entirety of the Atlas of Hyperborea (... yet), only those places which I find likely the PCs will actually explore. Even this is almost assuredly more hexes than I actually need, but here come Little Miss Scope Creep.

To prepare for the HAGS' wilderness journey, I consulted my usual source: Luke Gearing's Wolves Upon the Coast Hexfill Procedure. WUTC uses 6-mile hexes; I find myself defaulting to the 24-mile hex more and more frequently (as Bree and I decided upon for Wormwood). For a 6-mile hex, 50% of hexes being "empty" (and thus reliant on encounter rolls) feels about right; for a 24-mile hex I think they should all be filled. The WUTC procedure also calls for settlements to be rolled for; these are already established and so unnecessary. I made a perchance bot to do all the rolling for me and just re-rolled ones that didn't work for me. Here's what I ended up with for fill inspiration:

01.00 A monster lairs here.

02.00 Magical Component

03.00 A monster lairs here.

04.00 Magical Component and Animal Behaviour.

05.00 A monster lairs here.

06.00 Weird geography

01.01 A monster lairs here.

02.01 A village of 788 people. They have a relationship to a nearby hex.

03.01 A monster lairs here.

04.01 Strange Tutor.

05.01 A monster lairs here.

06.01 Cé, a village of 864 people.

01.02 A monster lairs here.

02.02 A monster lairs here.

03.02 Weird geography

04.02 Historical Location

05.02 A monster lairs here.

06.02 Treasure

01.03 A monster lairs here.

02.03 A monster lairs here.

03.03 A town of 1,267 people. They have a relationship to a nearby hex

04.03 A monster lairs here.

05.03 Strange Tutor

06.03 Strange Ally

01.04 Strange Merchant

02.04 Uerteru, a village of 1,190 people.

03.04 Magical Component.

04.04 Treasure

05.04 Animal Behavior

06.04 Strange Ally

00.05 Animal Behaviour

01.05 Treasure

02.05 A monster lairs here.

03.05 A monster lairs here.

04.05 A monster lairs here.

05.05 Historical Location

06.05 A monster lairs here.

02.06 Clue to Nearby Hex

03.06 Strange Merchant

04.06 A monster lairs here.

05.06 Animal Behaviour

06.06 Strange Merchant

Tying this together is a matter of looking once more at the Atlas of Hyperborea and the specific region the PCs are in currently; the Savage Boreal Coast is described as "... temperate evergreen rainforest is rich of firs, hemlocks, pines, and ancient redwood, with an understory of ferns, mosses, and shrubs. The area is perpetually foggy and presents the most precipitation in the realm." This was a region once inhabited by the Tlingit, who were conquered by the Picts to produce the Pict Half-Bloods. Villages are "high-walled affairs because of the constant threat of forest monsters" and are typically home to between 800-1,200 individuals; most venerate the spider goddess Tlakk-Nakka but some also worship Xathoqqua and, in clandestine cults, human sacrifices are offered to "The Dimensional Dweller" Khalk-Xu (Kraken). Just south are the demon-haunted forests of the Skarag Coast, a region ruled by orcs.

The next thing I do when writing hexfills is to write the region's encounter table. I like a d% table for my encounters, with a 75+ (sometimes 85+ for particularly contentious regions) as a "No Encounter" and then a good blend of those encounters that are likely to be hostile and those that are more likely to be peaceable. The key is to make them compelling, yet generic. It should always be remembered that every encounter should make use of the Reaction table, as well as a note on what Range the encounter takes place at. For these untamed borderlands of the western Hyperborean coastline, this is what I came up with for an encounter table:

Every 12 hours of wilderness travel, roll d%:

01-05: 2d20 Pict raiders from the north (as wild berserkers); if 20+ they are led by a sub-chieftain and have a camp nearby with 1d20 slaves to be taken back to Fidib.

06-10: 2d20 Pict Half-Bloods; a hunting-party. If 20+ they are led by a lieutenant.

11-13: 2d10 villagers heading to the nearest settlement.

14-16: 1 priest and 1d20 faithful, heading for a nearby religious site. 1-in-6 they are cultists of Khalk-Xu searching for sacrifices.

17-18: 1d3 traders and 2d6 guards in a carriage heading to or departing from the nearest settlement.

19-20: 1d100 heads of sheep or cattle; 1 herdsman per 20 head.

21-24: A corpse; roll 1d20 to determine its provenance.

25-30: A conflict; roll 2d20 to determine sides.

31-50: 2d30 wild deer. 2-in-6 that 3d6 wolves are stalking them.

51-55: 1d3 brown bears; if 2+ they have a cave nearby.

56-60: 2d6 wild boars. 50% are piglets. Territorial; reactions never better than Wary.

61-65: [If at night] 1d6 ghouls feeding on the aftermath of a fresh kill; roll 1d20 to determine its provenance. Otherwise, no encounter.

66-70: [If at night] 2d12 wolves. 50% are pups. If the pack numbers more than 13, they are accompanied by a mated pair of wolfweres. Otherwise, no encounter.

71-74: [If at night] 2d20 orc raiders from the south; if 20+ they are led by a lieutenant and have a camp nearby with 1d20 slaves to be taken back to Orcust. Otherwise, no encounter.

75+: No Encounter.

Now I feel like we have a pretty firm grasp of what this region looks like. There are forest monsters, Picts, Pict Half-Bloods, orcs, and few fortified towns. Lastly, and potentially very important for our down-at-heels adventurers: "in the foggy depths of the Savage Boreal Coast, where loathsome monsters lair, thrives the most potent plant species of the realm: the black lotus." Below are my finished hexfills, ready for the HAGS to explore on their journey from Cé to Uerteru.

01.00 4 Pict berserkers.

02.00 Swamp gas. Can harvest 1d4 lotus blooms per hour on the edge of the swamp.

03.00 1 Green slime.

04.00 Meteor impact crater. Can harvest 1d20 radium ingots per hour. Nearby wildlife double size/HD.

05.00 4 Fish-men.

06.00 A trail of wooden gibbets upon which hang human skeletons. Leads to Cé.

01.01 6 Stirges.

02.01 Mawre, a Pictish village of 788 people. A witch can brew decoctions if supplied with lotus blooms in the swamps to the north.

03.01 1 Spore-man.

04.01 A Pictish witch's hut by a lakeside. She teaches Pass without a Trace to any who spend the night with her, disappearing in the morning.

05.01 5 Zombies.

06.01 Cé, a Pictish village once of 864 people. Recently raided.

01.02 1 Giant toad.

02.02 2 Skeletons.

03.02 An Ixian trireme, 120' long, sitting amidst the trees. 200 skeletons sit chained to the oars.

04.02 A grove of ominous totem poles carved in spider motifs.

05.02 11 Fish-men.

06.02 Pict corpse at the foot of a cliff. His pack contains 41 sp and a Potion of Climbing.

01.03 4 Rattlesnakes.

02.03 1 Giant ogre-faced spider.

03.03 Ystwyd, a Pictish town of 1,267 people. Farmers from across the bay fled here from orc raiders.

04.03 5 Pict berserkers.

05.03 Candlelit circle of bones. A Pict Half-Blood witch (HD 3) is casting Summon Ice Daemon; her ritual nearly complete.

06.03 Viking Shieldmaiden Herfrídr Áskelsdóttir (HD 2) with an arrow-wound surrounded by dead Picts. She will join companies that delay her from Valhalla so long as they are not led by men or Picts.

01.04 A priest of Khalk-Xu drowning slaves in the sea. Will sell slaves (level-0 NPCs) for 100 gp each to any who profess their faith to Kraken.

02.04 Uerteru, a Pictish village of 1,190 people. The cog Otherworldly Obelisk awaits at harbor.

03.04 Sunken temple to Khalk-Xu 100' offshore. 23 human sacrifices in driftwood cages. 3-in-6 chance of 39 Khalk-Xu cultists performing perverse rituals.

04.04 Abandoned farmhouse and barn. 13 ep, 14 gp, 29 cp, 5 eye agates (10 gp each) under the barn floorboards.

05.04 21 red deer protected by a great white stag.

06.04 A treehouse containing a Pict madman. He offers an accurate map of the surrounding 6 hexes in exchange for 3 HP's worth of a blood sacrifice to Tlakk-Nakka.

00.05 19 horses swimming southward more than 100' offshore. They will not willingly set foot ashore for any reason.

01.05 An empty catacomb in the woods. A coffin holds 100 gp and no corpse.

02.05 3 Spore-men.

03.05 1 Green slime.

04.05 1 Grey ooze.

05.05 A shallow cave containing an abandoned altar to Tlakk-Nakka.

06.05 4 Pict bandits.

02.06 A beached Pictish war-canoe. Three headless Picts on the beach, stripped of arms and armor. Single tracks lead east.

03.06 A fallen statue's stone head, 50' tall. A Hyperborean, Zonaxun, dwells within alongside the preserved heads of three Picts to whom he speaks to frequently. Sells their arms and armor at 1/2 price.

04.06 2 Zombies.

05.06 Swamp gas. 6 crocodiles lurking in ambush.

06.06 3 merchants and 11 guards in a wagon-train; a Pictish caravan headed south. Suspicious, but willing to trade.

This, for reference, is fairly typical pre-session prep for me (and I know Bree is even more intense with her own game prep). It does seem like a lot of work, and I have been writing hexcrawls for some years, so I'm probably a little faster at it than others; however I will say start to finish this represented only about three hours' time, and a good third of that was writing this blog entry in a manner that would make sense to anyone that isn't myself, Bree, and maybe Syd or Virg. This material I consider to be as much (maybe a little more) than is necessary for a good session or three. It's tempting to further develop these ideas from a couple of sentences, but I would always lean towards allowing the play group to do that work for you through encounters and exploration.

-Concordia

Monday, January 29, 2024

Wormwood: What's In The Book?

Wormwood is now available in POD! All 82 pages of 8.5x11" DCC goodness will soon also be available from the third party section of the Goodman Games website, with those prints via Mixam. And, of course, digital files are available from DriveThruRPG.

What is Wormwood?

Wormwood is a Dungeon Crawl Classics setting guide for Late Antiquities Europe during the Worst Year in History: 536 A.D. Also known as the volcanic winter of 536 as a result of at least three simultaneous volcanic eruptions, it was the longest and most severe episode of climate cooling in the northern hemisphere in 2,000 years. During his reports on wars in North Africa against the Vandals, Roman historian Procopius wrote: "during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness... and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear". The volcanic eruptions and their resulting cooling of temperatures and dimming of the sky caused global crop failures and famine. At the same time, the outbreak of the Plague of Justinian would contribute to millions of deaths across Europe. This "Late Antique Little Ice Age" lasted from 536 to 560.

What's in the Book?

Many, many, many things!

Languages in Wormwood is of greater significance than most typical settings, where most* people will likely speak "Common." You might not necessarily share a language with every member of your own party! Additionally, languages can be "half learned," where one is able to converse in a language but not read or write it. In this way, language primers and interpreters become crucially important while traveling Late Antique Europe.

Oh so, so, so many new occupations. Demi-humans are significantly more rare, while the human occupations represent a wide swathe of potential backgrounds (and include their social standing - more on this below).

In certain situations, the PCs' social standing will be of significance - such as if they are accused of a crime or want to purchase land or join a lord's court. Recognition from the wealthy elite is a difficult affair - and costly!

Wormwood includes rules in brief on how to handle PC-level contributions to the chaos of a battlefield's swirling melee, with numerous opportunities for heroics (or at least a heroic demise).

Treasure tables and generalized annual costs/wages help determine the costs of ancilliary staff, and just how much "treasure" the average serf might be keeping in their homes, contrary to what Hommlet might lead you to believe.

Mercenaries, professionals, retainers, their differences, and costs.

So, so, so, so many trade goods.

Some interesting new additions for your weapons and armor.

An entire section on magical treasure!

Procedures for hunting and foraging while hexcrawling.

Weather and its effects in the Late Antiquities Little Ice Age.

What To Do If You Have Been Accused Of A Crime.

An expanded but non-comprehensive list of languages and dialects spoken in Late Antiquities Europe.

Medicines, poisons, and effects!

And so, so, so, so many soubriquets for your characters.

What Comes Next?

The next Wormwood releases, from 002 to 008, are all regional sections of the hex map. As the distance between two parallel sides of a hex is 24 miles, this map covers an area approximately 648 miles from the northern edge to the southern, and 912 miles from the eastern edge to the western, creating an area of some 590,976 square miles.

To aid the Judge, approximately 1,026 large hexes on the map are given a point of interest. Since the areas within each large hex can be further magnified to 16 hexes of the more traditional 6-mile hex, and since thus each large hex covers more than roughly 500 square miles of territory, these encounters are only the tiniest fraction of what might be found within this contentious region and time period.

The releases are as follows:

Wormwood 002: Francia

Wormwood 003: Duchy of Allemagne and Burgundy

Wormwood 004: Saxony, Thuringia and Bavaria

Wormwood 005: Ostrogoth Kingdoms

Wormwood 006: Visigoth Kingdoms and Vasconia

Wormwood 007: Armorica and the British Isles

Wormwood 008: Frisia, Daneland and the Obodrite Confederation

Titles with links will be added as released!

- The HAGS

Friday, January 26, 2024

The HAGS Play: Hyperborea 3E

As promised, session one of the HAGS playing Hyperborea 3E, using DCC-style level-0 character generation. GMing is Concordia (me!) and our players are Andy, Lavender, Frances and Penny. Each rolled four level-0 characters to run through Harley Stroh's Beneath the Well of Brass, which I determined was most thematically appropriate for Hyperborea as a setting. Our cast:

Andromeda: Vendalla, Common ditch digger; Meret of the Elk Clan, Lapp herder; Eulalia Eugeneidoros, Amazon bowyer, and Usekhmehi thugatêr Iôdas, Ixian snake handler.

Lavender: Adrasteia Sostratedoros, Amazon spy; Ÿaaÿ G̱ooch, Tlingit woodcutter; Rinnan thugatêr Xobas, Ixian snake handler; and Líadan Inghean Camran, Kelt outlaw.

Frances: Ch’eet G̱ooch, Pict Half-Blood gongfarmer; Tuw, Esquimaux-Ixian entrails reader; Herdís Steinsdóttir, Viking brewer; and Rhel, Common eunuch.

Penny: To-rasha, Mu scribe; Yéil G̱ooch, Pict Half-Blood gongfarmer; Endo Kijo, Lemurian mercenary; and Maniitok, Esquimaux shaman.

DCC Funnels in Hyperborea 3E

The 0-level funnel is unquestionably my favorite part of making characters for DCC, and I've been known over the last few years of gaming to (successfully or not, thematically appropriate or not) shoehorn 0-level funnel mechanisms into every other game I am allowed to run. Hyperborea 3E is no exception, and with the HAGS getting ready for a Hyperborea campaign I was excited to introduce the girls to the flat, hexagonal world adrift in the infinite Black Gulf through a good 'ole fashioned funnel (Harley Stroh's wonderful Beneath the Well of Brass, which narrowly beat out the similarly superb Sailors on a Starless Sea, also by Stroh).

There is already a (quite good!) d%/d12 table to determine racial ancestry for Hyperborea however nothing much to establish profession. My approach was to determine the percentiles of each racial background so as to assign that many professionals, then fudge the numbers a bit to account for the 0.004% chance of rolling one of the ancillary races. The trained weapons and trade goods (and indeed, the occupations themselves) are either from the DCC Core Rulebook p.22-23, or from Hubris p.10-12.

It should be noted that there are no actual mechanical effects to racial background (thank God) but I am philosophically incapable of not over-complicating things, so here we are.

Common academic; bust of a historical figure (as club), history book
Common bailiff; short sword, book of law
Common caravan guard; short sword, linen (1 yard)
Common ditch digger; shovel (as staff), fine dirt (1 lbs)
Common eunuch; club, fine clothes
Common farmer; pitchfork (as spear), hen
Common gambler; club, dice
Common healer; club, holy water (1 vial)
Common indentured servant; staff, locket
Common jeweler; dagger, gem (20 gp)
Common locksmith; dagger, fine tools
Common mercenary; longsword, studded leather
Common noble; longsword, gold ring (20 gp)
Common orphan; club, rag doll
Common porter; club, broom
Common rope maker; dagger, rope (100')
Common scribe; dart, parchment (10 sheets)
Common trapper; sling, animal hide
Common urchin; club, begging bowl
Common weaver; dagger, fine clothes
Amazon bowyer; short bow, thick string (15')
Amazon executioner; great ax, black hood
Amazon hunter; longbow, hunting dog
Amazon mystic; dagger, oracular bones
Amazon spy; short sword, poison ring
Amazon soldier; spear, studded leather
Atlantean (roll 1d20 as Common)
Atlantean (roll 1d20 as Common)
Esquimaux animal trainer; club, trained dog
Esquimaux butcher; cleaver (as hand ax), side of beef
Esquimaux corpse gatherer; shovel (as club), wheelbarrow
Esquimaux entrails reader; dagger, silver bowl (10 sp)
Esquimaux herder; staff, reindeer
Esquimaux shaman; mace, hallucinogenic mushrooms
Hyperborean (roll 1d20 as Common)
Hyperborean (roll 1d20 as Common)
Ixian alchemist; staff, oil (1 flask)
Ixian cultist; dagger, black leather cloak
Ixian heathen; bone (as club), seditious tome
Ixian physician; dagger, leeches
Ixian snake handler; tongs (as club), adder in a hempen sack
Ixian wizard's apprentice; dagger, black grimoire
Kelt astronomer; dagger, astrolabe
Kelt blacksmith; hammer (as club), steel tongs
Kelt caravan driver; crossbow, drover's whip
Kelt fortune-teller; dagger, tarot deck
Kelt gladiator; warhammer, small shield
Kelt herbalist; club, herbs (1 lbs)
Kelt miller/baker; club, flour (1 lbs)
Kelt outlaw; short sword, leather armor
Kelt wrangler; club, horse with saddle
Kimmerian armorer; hammer (as club), iron sallet
Kimmerian carpenter; hand ax, wooden stool
Kimmerian grave digger; shovel (as staff), wedding ring (10 gp)
Kimmerian ostler; staff, bridle
Kimmerian scout; short bow, pony
Kimmerian wet nurse; club, thick blanket
Kimmeri-Kelt atillator; crossbow, pavaise
Kimmeri-Kelt cutpurse; dagger, stolen purse (1d20 gp)
Kimmeri-Kelt squire; longsword, livery
Kimmeri-Kelt (roll 1d8+1 as Kelt)
Kimmeri-Kelt (roll 1d6 as Kimmerian)
Pict anarchist; shortsword, seditious pamphlets
Pict beekeeper; staff, jar of honey
Pict cheesemaker; cudgel (as staff), hunk of cheese
Pict herald; staff, speaking trumpet
Pict jester; dart, silk clothes
Pict miner; pickax (as club), helmet with candle
Pict performer; dagger, sack with 1 gp 20 sp
Pict woodcutter; hand ax, bundle of wood
Pict Half-Blood artist; dart, paint brush
Pict Half-Blood confidence artist; dagger, quality cloak
Pict Half-Blood gongfarmer; trowel (as dagger), sack of night soil
Pict Half-Blood mendicant; club, cheese dip
Pict Half-Blood monk; staff, candle and incense
Pict Half-Blood smuggler; shortsword, illicit drugs
Pict Half-Blood slave; club, strange-looking rock
Pict Half-Blood slave-taker; crossbow, net
Pict Half-Blood (roll 1d8 as Pict)
Viking barber; dagger, scissors
Viking boatman; oar (as club), nautical compass
Viking brewer; club, cask of mead
Viking cartographer; dagger, map (random area)
Viking merchant; dagger, 4 gp, 14 sp, 27 cp
Viking skald; dagger, lyre
Viking thrall; club, strange-looking rock
Viking thrall-taker; truncheon (as club), rawhide rope (100')
Viking tax collector; longsword, 100 cp
Anglo-Saxon (roll 1d20 as Common)
Carolingian Frank (roll 1d20 as Common)
Esquimaux-Ixian (roll 1d12; 1-6 as Esquimaux, 7-12 as Ixian)
Greek (roll 1d20 as Common)
Lapp (roll 1d6 as Esquimaux)
Lemurian (roll 1d20 as Common)
Moor (roll 1d20 as Common)
Mu (roll 1d20 as Common)
Oon experiment; bizarre metal pole (as spiked staff), strange small beeping metallic box
Roman (roll 1d20 as Common)
Tlingit (roll 1d8 as Pict)
Yakut (roll 1d6 as Esquimaux)

- Concordia

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Rest in Peace, Jennell Jaquays

Sad farewells to Jennell Jaquays, a pioneering artist, tabletop game writer and video game level designer who has left us at only 67 after a fight with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Jennell was a trailblazer in multiple industries where trans women are explicitly or implicitly unwelcome, particularly in the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, and as creative director for the Transgender Human Rights Institute in Seattle Jennell was tireless in the fight to outlaw conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth in the US.

If you play role-playing games, your favorite game was doubtlessly inspired by Jennell's Dark Tower and/or Caverns of Thracia. If you play video games she probably worked on your favorite game (or a game that inspired it). And as a person she was brilliant, kind-hearted, joyful, and utterly fearless.

May her memory be a blessing.

Monday, January 8, 2024

Something Wicked This Way Comes

In the wake of the release of Wormwood, an introduction:

Contained within is the accumulated critique, commentary, and assorted wool-gathering of Canada's premier tabletop adventure role-playing game society: the Historical Analog Gaming Society, or the HAGS if ya nasty.

The HAGs are a women-led tabletop adventure writing and playing group founded in Montreal, Quebec, but with members across Turtle Island. Our work focuses on the historical element of tabletop gaming, both in the literal sense of historical settings for games but also in the sense of writing, playing, researching and critiquing historic role-playing games from the seventies and eighties.

The HAGS are:

Bree Yark - Editor-in-Chief

Andromeda Yorke - Designer

Concordia Vetiver - Editor

Jasmine Lehigh - Contributing Writer

Lavender Brown - Designer

Sage St Andrews - Designer

Frances McGill - Designer

Penny Claremont - Contributing Writer

Sydney Ajwain - Designer

Mary Arbor - Designer

Virginia Birch - Contributing Writer

Historical Analog Gaming Society