Reality check

Realism, in an RPG, is mostly a mirage. Even if the dice could do more than broadly approximate probabilities in the real-world, most players – and GMs – would not want to subject their characters, for example, to the actual risks of death and injury in a medieval battle.

Some groups aim for genre emulation – heroic fantasy, anime, pulp, horror, and so on – as a touchstone. But genre is a literary and narrative construct, and so it can lead you to try and meet the expectations of the story rather than find the story by playing the world.

In the fictional worlds of the games I play, I aim for _verisimilitude_, the appearance or sense of being real, which comes through consistent and believable details that emerge from real-world experience and expectations. Verisimilitude creates the impression that things are plausible without trying to accurately simulate the precise parameters and probabilities of any given event, like a sword-swing or a hike on an icy mountain path.

So in pursuit of verisilimilitude, it's a good thing to check your expectations against the real world. Over the years, I've gone into dungeons (like the catacombs of Paris), castles, towers, and recently the bunker forts of the Atlantic Wall, and each time I'm reminded of some useful, and grounding, facts that we can apply to our fantasy adventuring sites.

Passages, chambers

Passages in fortifications tend to be narrow – and cold. In your dunqeon designs, the corridor space is often less than 5 feet across, and ceilings are low. 

In game terms, there's often no room to swing a blade. Slashing sword attacks and similar strikes will be at a severe disadvantage. Dungeons favor thrusting weapons.

And in a chamber, the roof is rarely flat. It's likely a vault or an arch. Even so, there's often not a lot of headspace, and you're unlikely to be able to manage a down strike, or shoot an arrow or thrown spear very far without hitting the ceiling.

In game, missile attacks are limited to close range.

And stairs

Towers are great settings, but stairs, especially circular stairs tend to be extremely steep and narrow. Climbing is tiring, and the risk of putting a foot wrong on the narrow steps is considerable if you're under pressure: attacked or in a hurry. 

In game, climbing stairs under pressure should require a dexterity or fatigue check. And defenders have an advantage striking down. Consider also how missiles and objects thrown down stairs can create serious hazards!

Darkness and light sources

The actual underground is absolutely dark. Without light, players are effectively blind, and almost blind a very short distance from the entrance.

In actual pre-modern contexts, lights such as lanterns, candles, lamps, rushlights, and torches, only effectively illuminate a few paces in advance, or a small chamber. And if they're knocked out of your hand, they're likely to go out instrantly.

On the other hand, even a dim light is visible to observers from a long way away – effectively in line of sight.

This means that the most effective scout will move forward in the dark towards an unknown light source, rather like Bilbo Baggins sneaking up on the trolls' bonfire.

Used well, the effects of undeground darkness and low light can help create a tense, engaging situation for players, and keep them on edge as they explore unknown spaces. But many games, including current editions of D&D, forestall these options by making many character backgrounds adept at seeing in the dark, or with magical or other options for lighting available throughout the dungeon complex. If you like your encounters to effectively play out in well-lit arenas, so be it. But to add back some of the danger and uncertainty of low-light conditions, consider restricting those "night vision" abilities to situations where there is at least minimal incidental light, or applying other restrictions (for instance, low-light vision is greyscale only).

And while we're at it, lamp oil is not the basis for some kind of medieval Molotov cocktail. Fire, on the other hand, is potentially a great hazard in structures built with wood, with many wall-hangings and flammable materials.

Getting in to Adventure

The scenario is the bridge between the characters and the world. But how do your characters find themselves gathered at the Many Ways Inn?

Roll a die:

1. Runaway: whether from a cruel or dull situation, you had to escape.
2. Landless: through conflict or other chances, you have lost all your prospects and must, perforce, begin again.
3. Summoned: whether by a letter from a patron or some other call, you are brought here to answer.
4. Commanded: a patron or lord has ordered you to join some mission or venture.
5. Happenstance: pure chance or a series of unfortunate events brings you to this juncture.
6. Choice: Perhaps worst of all, you have chosen a life of danger and uncertainty.

What the character will do and encounter (the scenario) comes before mechanics (the game system). And although every scenario needs a setting, consider not just the “where” of the adventure but the “when…”. A scenario is not just a place, it’s a challenge, a dynamic, with constraints and possibilities, that the characters approach organically.

Here’s a simple starter.

Mutton and Marauders

Two ettins, Nygel and Treffor, have crept down from the Garshaws barrens to remedy their hunger, rounding up a small flock of sheep and a shepherd for good measure. Unknown to anyone, grimlock rustlers on a similar mission have picked up the ettins’ trail, and so rescuers, trolls, and grimlocks are set to intersect near a site* at the base of the Garshaws.

Nygel, Ettin [3] - Armed with tree-root club
Towering, massively strong, dull-witted, slow

Treffor, Ettin [3] - Armed with nocked axe, heavy hides act as crude armor
Lean, strong, sly, greedy

Grimlocks [1] a troop of 13 - Armed with spears, daggers, oddments of armor
Ragged, half-starved, nasty; dangerous when cornered, or when able to surrounded and sneak-attack an opponent

* Note that the adventure site is left open, with an eye to continuing the adventure. Is it a cave, leading into greater depths; or a stone circle near a partly exposed barrow-tomb; or a ruined hill-fort, a remnant of better times for the kingdom?

Resolution

The key to play-the-world or FKR resolution (the game system or rules) is not that every action is determined by referee fiat, but that the players concentrate on their characters and the situation, and the referee is ready, through judgement and experience, to resolve their efforts with tools that are both fair and simple to use.

It’s not that there are no mechanics, but that the mechanics are compact and easy enough to generate the chance element that means that the play is not simply dictated but develops in unexpected and dramatic ways as it runs.

Of course, the right tools that are also fair and simple require some judgement or a sense of what works at the table. This might well come from one’s experience of another game, but for anyone new to this style of play, it means that some guidelines, however slight, are useful.

So, here’s a brief rundown of the Tinkerage’s current resolution toolkit.

Roll and Read

Roll and read for characters assumes that characters have a fair, but by no means certain, chance of success, based on the conditions and their own aptitudes.

• Roll 2d6 and read the outcomes, adjusting to circumstances: 2–3 (fail); 4–5 (mishap); 6–8 (standard - the expected outcome); 9–10 (good); 11–12 (great).
• Can roll opposed and read for active opponents. Resilience rank breaks ties in opposed situations.
• Modifiers of +1/-1 are very rare, for exceptional circumstances (magical gear, terrible conditions).
• For a specific aim or outcome, like shooting a bow at a distant target, also read to meet a threshold number within the basic ranges: 6-8 is within standard range of difficulty; 9+ hard, and so on.

Combat is a kind of challenge where characters attempt to inflict strikes on their opponents while maintaining their own guard. A hit of sufficient force inflicts a strike, and when strikes are greater than a character’s resilience they are struck down. A character struck down may be stunned, injured, disarmed, or even killed or in a critical condition.

Screening rolls

For the referee, a single die is often the best tool. A screening roll is a quick roll of a die to clarify a situation or filter out a range of possibilities. 

• Roll for quality or conditions: 1 is worst, 6 is best.
• Roll for questions of probability: 2+ is very likely, 6+ is very unlikely.

Play the Adventure, not the Rules

Look back and think about Mutton and Marauders. The ettins are tough — unless the characters find a way to weaken them first, they should be harder to hit even for the strongest warrior in the group. Maybe roll and read and look for 9+ to hit? What if a character is hit by Nygel’s tree-root club? Make a screening roll to see how bad that strike is. The grimlocks aren’t strong individually, but what if they get the drop on the characters during the hunt, are they then defending at -1 or worse? What is the weather like when the characters set out to track the ettins — there’s another screening roll, perhaps.

And finally, if you don’t care for 2d6, then grab a d10 or put a classic d20 on the table. Think in terms of percentages? Then roll a d100. Know the rough chances of success and failure, give the characters a decent chance when they make a decent choice, and you have the core of freeform play at hand. Sooner or later the dice will surprise you and your players, and that’s when the adventure begins.

An adventure for FF Freeform

Orzan's Twist

A scenario for SKILL 7 adventurers. For basic rules, see Fighting Fantasy for your freeform game.

1.

Orzan's Twist in a long cave that provides a winding link between two valleys in the Clattering Hills. The Twist allows passage between two villages that would otherwise be four days weary climb apart. Perhaps the characters are soldiers with an important message, carrying magical ingredients to a sorcerer, or charged by townsfolk to open the quickest path through the hills.

In addition to normal equipment, characters begin with at least one light-source each: lantern, candle, or torches.

2.

As they approach the cave mouth deep in a ravine, they encounter two HALF-WOLVES. If the adventurers are not cautious, the wolves attack with the advantage of surprise (a free attack). Although the players won't be able to see from a distance, the wolves are chained here to guard the cave entrance on behalf of the goblins lurking further within.

HALF-WOLVES, Reaction: Hostile
SKILL 6 -- STAMINA 5
SKILL 5 -- STAMINA 4

The wolves are likely to be defeated, especially if they are caught at the end of their chains. Their barking and howling will surely alert any other creatures inside the cave!

3.

After various twists and turns, the adventurers reach a clear parting of ways. One side (go to 4) seems to lead upwards, and the sandy floor is less scuffed. The other is darker and deeper, and characters who test for Skill may notice the path is well-trodden by a variety of creatures (go to 5).

4.

Eventually, the passageway leads to a pit. A narrow crack far overhead admits some light, but it is unreachable. Test Skill to climb down; 1 STAMINA damage if any adventurer slips and falls. At the bottom of the pit among the remains of small animals and other vermin are the bones of a warrior in rusted armour.

Underneath the corpse is a fine-looking wooden hunter's bow. Any adventurer may take and use the bow, but unknown and unseeable, the bow has a crack in the core and after ten uses it will break the next time it is drawn (a character who tests for LUCK on the last draw will finally notice this). Nearby is a small flask of useable lantern oil (the lantern, though, is broken).

5.

The passage opens into a large chamber with many ledges and alcoves. A goblin gang (12 GOBLINS) camps here. The goblins are unfriendly but not necessarily hostile. They are more afraid of the two dry-ghouls skulking in the heart of the caves.

GOBLINS (10)
SKILL 6 -- STAMINA 6

GOBLIN LEADER
SKILL 7 -- STAMINA 8
Tougher and brighter than the average goblin. Mainly concerned with guarding his loot and planning next raid outside.

GOBLIN WITCH
SKILL 5 -- STAMINA 4
A minor magician at best, the witch has a collection of petty spells and curses that can trip and irritate targets, but she has nothing that will seriously harm stronger monsters like the ghouls. Her main skill is fortune-telling, mainly telling the goblin leader what he wants to hear.

Clever adventurers may even find a way to persuade the goblins to gang up on their mutual foes. See 6 next.

6.

Here, the passageway simultaneously dips sharply and turns, creating a disorienting corkscrew like formation, the cave's famous "twist".

In the center of the twist lurk two noxious DRY-GHOULS, semi-mummified horrors, who have found the caverns a convenient lair and trap for wandering prey. The ghouls are nasty, intelligent, slow moving, vulnerable to fire, and any character hit three times by their claws will be paralyzed!

DRY-GHOULS, Reaction: Hostile (hungry)

Mikence
SKILL 9 -- STAMINA 10

Tromp
SKILL 9 -- STAMINA 11

These ghouls are stronger than the adventurers. Remember that the simplicity of the rules means that characters can try anything to gain an advantage, from rope traps to spear walls to throwing burning oil.

Add 2 LUCK each for defeating these vile creatures. At the bottom of the Twist, the ghouls have stashed a well-made dagger with a silver-bound handle, two fine hunting spears, and copper and silver coinage from various realms amounting 3-18 silver pieces. Feel free to add other treasures of your own devising.

Bertuhng's Tomb - a bullet scenario

Before the good part, a scenario using bullet-style annotation, a quick note about the planned demise of Google+.

The Tinkerage has shared posts to G+ in the past. Some of the broader community posts on G+ have been infested, particularly of late, with spam and and toxic political activity, but the Community groups have been ideal for integration with Blogger and supported a substantial amount of interesting content for RPGs. The Tinkerage will continue to publish to Blogger, right here, but has made no commitment to any of the alternative online communities currently being promoted.

Bertuhng's Tomb

:: Village of Devensford, on the edge of the Miring Marsh.

: Once, many ages ago, the marsh was a pleasant lowland, part of a prosperous kingdom. Then, the plains fell or the river changed course, and the pastures and groves became a sticky, disorienting collection of marshlands and bogs. Old tombs and ruins are still to be found in the trackless wastes.

> Wherever the characters stop for the night in the village, all the talk is of wandering ghosts, and in particular, the spirit of King Bertuhng, ancient steward and hero of the land. That very night, Bertuhng passes through the village in an aura of *Terror, and flourishes a massive, flickering sword before dawn breaks and banishes all restless spirits.
> The tavern talk is that the lost tomb of the old king has been disturbed, a possibility the travelling scholar Nearfis scoffs at (Scholar [2] +Learned, +Well-travelled, *Sharp). But it's certain that none shall sleep easily in the village until the matter is settled, and there's no doubt treasure or somesuch, including the long gone king's enchanted sword, to be found in the marshes. The only person who knows anything for sure about the marsh and the old kingdom is Parson Treeth.

:: The parsonage, Devensford
: A rambling house, somewhat distant from the main part of the village.
: Treeth ([2] !Local Lore, -Infirm) has, in truth, heard rumours of the old tomb, and believes it lies north in the swamp, on the east side of a lake there, but he warns that no one can find their way within the marshes.
>A scouting party of gor-rats are skulking about the parsonage, and eavesdropping if they can.
>Gor-rats will attack the parsonage with fire if they feel the occupants aren't alert.

Gor-rats, Slinking Rat-men [1]
*Sneaks
*Filthy blades
-Cowards

:: The Miring Marsh
: Vast, sodden marshlands
> Characters will meander and make little progress in the marshes. There can be suitable opportunities to become trapped, lost, exhausted, or drown. The marshes are supernaturally ! disorienting: watercourses change, the sun and stars are often shrouded, every horizon looks the same.
>Eventually, the characters will encounter the will-o-the-wisp lights of Trilits, who attempt to lure travellers into their boggy :: Trilit Hole with delicate floating lights that the Trilits fashion from a particular species of decaying reed.

Trilits, Gnarled, diminutive, bush-whacking marsh-dwellers [1]
+Silent
-Small
+Ambusher
* Bite, scratch, throttle

:: Trilit Hole. A muddy trap where Trilits mass on and hope to kill their exhausted victims. In this particular hole there is the submerged skeleton of a previous adventurer with a fabled |norther-ring on its finger.

| Norther-ring: a tin ring, that has no great value, except that it imparts on the wearer a clear sense of the direction north.

:: Berthung's Tomb
: An ancient tomb mound, partly submerged in the Miring Marsh.
: Nearfis, a scholar of somewhat darker arts than are apparent at first (+Sorcerer), is camped here with a party of gor-rats and three hobolds.
: The hobolds, capable if crude miners, have opened a simple tunnel into the side of the mound, bypassing the corridor and cursed burial chambers, and the blocked door to the east of the mound.

Hobolds [2]
! Mineworks
+ Strong
* Pick-axe

: A careful search around the side of the mound will reveal a narrow crack that provides access to one of the lesser tombs. The whole tomb is now knee deep in fetid water.

:: Outer tombs
: Four lesser tombs, arranged along the central corridor. Vengeful +Curses, and cold, incorporeal Wraiths guard this area.

Wraiths [1]
+Icy touch
- Hatred of light and flame

:: Inner tomb
: The waterlogged inner tomb is the king's last resting place, now haunted by his troubled ghost. If Bertuhng senses the characters oppose Nearfis and his vermin, he may side with them, deploying his stronger aura of +Terror.
: The king's fabled sword lies at the foot of his bier, under water. If raised to drive off the profane, it will blaze with a purging +Blue Flame, but once the battle is concluded, the badly rusted sword will crumble into fragments.
: Driving Nearfis and his minions away from the tomb, even at the cost of the destruction of the sword, will calm the spirit of Bertuhng.
: Apart from the sword, there are minor treasures recoverable from the barrow: some gold, silver, precious stones, and the like.
: If the characters defeat or capture Nearfis, he will have some (stolen) trinkets of minor value at hand.

Bullet Journal for scenarios - with a scenario

The Tinkerage has been experimenting with adapting the Bullet Journal concept to generating notes for gaming.

Bullets are a way of marking and arranging journal entries in a concise, logical fashion, and so they seem ideal for generating notes for RPG scenario planning and actual play.

These notes are not tied to any particular system, and can be used freeform as well. For example, a High difficulty (+) might read in a system as a high difficulty class (DC 15+ on d20), a Hard difficulty modifier (-30%), or even a difficulty adjustment (half skill rating).

Here are the (trial) bullets and entry formats for RPG scenario journaling.

Characters

Name, Type [Resilience]
The Name or Description of the character, type (optional), and Resilience (equivalent of hits, toughness, HD, CON, Stamina, Luck, and so on).

Examples:
Shifty, Thief [2] - a moderately tough thief
Wolf [1] - a lone wolf

(Condition) - a temporary or ongoing state

Examples:
(stormy)
(charmed)

| Equipment x/n uses

Example:
|Arrows 16/20 - a quiver of 20 arrows with 16 remaining

Level of Difficulty, Threat, or Quality 

! Very High
+ High
* Standard
- Low
? Very Low

Examples:
* Stone door - requiring a standard roll to force open
+ Locked door - a high level of difficulty to pick
? Rusty gate - easy to break open
! Swordplay - the skill of a deadly master swordsman

Locations and Scenarios

:: Location

Example:
:: Ruined crypt

: Note/Story/Background

Example:
: The crypt roof has collapsed, and a wyvern lurks inside.

Events in Play, Actions

> Event/Action

Example:

> Wyvern hides in barrel vault

A Bullet-styled Scenario: Drowned Tower

: The laird of Orfyre needs retainers (or adventurers) to call at the toll-bridge at Nystie and enquire why the tolls have stopped flowing to his lordship's treasury.

:: Nystie Bridge
: Arched stone bridge, in full view of the tollhouse tower and the archers there

2 Archers [1]
! Concealed
* Archer

:: Downriver
: Shallow crossing. The bodies of the tollkeeper and his guards are washed up here
+ Strong rushing water

:: Tollhouse, a longhouse with square tower and gate, guarding the bridge
* Barred gate (recent damage)
- Makeshift bars across the rear windows
* Rough walls, climbable

: Keiraffen, a ne'er-do'well minor noble and cousin of the laird, attempted to rob the tollhouse, killed the tollkeeper and his men, but could not find the coffers, and is camped here with his gang of brigands drinking and making a desultory search. Because he's kin, his lordship will be less than pleased if Keiraffen is killed (unless it looks like an accident, or someone else's work).

Keiraffen, a ne'er-do'well nobleman
+ Swordplay
* Gambler
* Schemer
- Drunkard

4 Brigands [1]
* Brawl
* Skirmish
* Sneak
- Undisciplined

: The tollhouse coffers with more than a month's taking are cleverly +concealed under the bridge, not that Keiraffen would ever think to look there.

Tomb of Swords - mini-scenario

The tomb is ancient, the grave, according to local legend, of a prince of the Ellfolk who was a master of the iron sword. Some folk tales say the sword was the prince's wife, one of the shape-shifting fey. If he was wounded, the sword danced above him to protect him, but she could not parry the death that found him, when he drowned crossing a river in a raid.

The place is called Tomb of Swords, and untold adventurers have gone down into the dark, seeking that enchanted blade, and few have returned. Now, the lord's youngest son has gone missing in the same place.

A pair of quarrelsome gargs are camped in the passageway under the standing stones, but they are mere vagrants, newly arrived, and have no interest in the deeps of the tomb.

Beyond them are the outer chambers. Patient adventurers, searching carefully, will find exquisite mosaics, scenes from the prince's life: the hero fighting the enemies of his clan; the hero drinking from the cup of peace when the battle is over; the hero and his sword-wife; the grieving fey laying him in the tomb with sword, helm, and shield, and a golden cup.

The horror lurks in the inner tomb. Every sword, every hero that ever perished in the tomb, takes the form of a roiling, black mass of dust and bone, grasping a hundred corroded swords. Mad, red eyes sometimes wink in the cloud. The sword-ghost cannot be harmed and will never relent. It is possible to parry the rain of blows with sword and shield, and the ghost will not pursue those who flee beyond sight to the standing stone.

The sword-ghost will not attack any mortal with empty hands.

Only one of the Druit gods could defeat this thing in battle or dismiss it by magic. But if a mortal could find the cup of peace and offer a draught from it, then perhaps the many tortured spirits trapped here could be freed.

Notes for BRP Encounters

Encounter profiles, or "stat blocks", can be a major stumbling block in scenario design for the busy GM. You're trying to ready an adventure. You have a location, you've sketched out the situation, considered the options and flow of events, and then you have to set up the details of the encounters.

RuneQuest is a fine game, but for any version of RuneQuest this would mean stopping to fill rows of characteristics, skills, and AP and HP for every hit location.

Even for BRP (without hit locations) or Magic World, if you go by the book you complete something like this:

Hill Bandit

STR 12
CON 10
SIZ 13
INT 10
POW 9
DEX 14
APP 10

Move: 8
Hit Points: 12
Damage Bonus: +1d4

Attacks: Hand Axe 35%, 1d6+1+1d4, Recurved bow 35%, 1d8+2

Skills: Hide 50%, Move Quietly 50%, Ride 75%

Armor: 1d6-1 points leather

Notice the space it takes on the page, and the need to note every detail for a bandit who might be taken down by one or two hits. Of course, you could rely on a bestiary or a published scenario, but you're still scanning and copying out details when the encounter starts.

Now, in an old issue of White Dwarf, you might come across a Stormbringer encounter profile somewhat like this:

Hill Bandit

STR 12  CON 10  SIZ 13  INT 10  POW 9 DEX 14  APP 10  HP 12

Attacks: Hand Axe 35%, 1d6+1+1d4, Recurved bow 35%, 1d8+2

Skills: Hide 50%, Move Quietly 50%, Ride 75%

Armor: 1d6-1 points leather

Which is certainly much more efficient and easier to create. We can work with this to create an encounter notation that takes a fraction of the time a full stat block requires.

The Encounter Note

Here's the format for a compressed BRP note-style encounter line:

Encounter: description

HP x, DEX x, STATS x, Mov x

Attack % (damage), Armour (x)

Skill x%

Notes

Which for the bandit above might look like:

Hill Bandit: Tough, sneaky ambusher

HP 12, DEX 14

Hand axe 35% (1d6+1d4), Bow (1d8+2), Leather (2)

Sneak & Hide 50%

Key

Encounter = basic title: description = how this encounter will be played and described

HP x = Hit Points come first; they matter most (and they also show roughly how tough this encounter is)

DEX x = DEX, because the next thing you need to know is the DEX-rank for actions in a round

STATS x = any other characteristics (STR, CON, SIZ, INT, POW, APP) that are significant in this encounter or exceptional for the character; if they're average or not likely to be used, leave out and make them up on the fly

Mov x = movement, but only if faster or slower than standard

Attack % (damage) = combat skill and (damage + damage bonus), Armour (x) = armour type (points)

Skill x% = any significant skills (don't worry about the right name; you know what they're for)

Notes = any other plays/notes that are relevant

The idea in this format is to keep the most important information foremost and minimize clutter and unnecessary detail.

The Darkness in the North

The Withered Lands in the north-east are where Arihmere takes a dark turn, a region of wilderness and ruins held by the deadly and enigmatic Fell Lords, servants of a usurper who many believe was slain decades ago and revived by his scheming wife. These lands are the perfect setting for a gritty, or gothic, adventure, oriented towards exploration, treasure-hunting, and avoiding (or stumbling upon) old evils. The terrain would fit the open-ended possibilities of a "West Marches" style campaign or sequence of joined adventures. One could even imagine a campaign to reclaim a ruined manor and surrounding lands, in the style of "Darkest Dungeon".

Begin with an outpost:

• A mere cross-roads, with a broken and enigmatic sign-post
• A ruined manor-house, haboring grim secrets, and with a view of the cursed fens
• An embattled city, the last to be recaptured may be the first to fall to the Fell Lords
• An outpost around a ramshackle keep

Then there is the terrain. Start building and detailing the campaign map, situating both perils and rare treasures among the moors, fens, overgrown pathways, and tangled woods:

• Tottering watchtowers, where sly grimelocks and lumbering grolls lurk. These monsters raid the borderlands and return to hide behind a multitude of crude traps.
• Deep ravines (ideal for hiding treasure), infested by wyrms and naggs.
• Spider-haunted woods, the perfect retreat for a half-mad witch.
• Battlefields, haunted by sorrowful wraiths, where every unbroken blade has a name and a story.
• And the decaying piles that once belonged to any one of the Fell Lords...

As the characters uncover and meet more, you might introduce one of the Fell Lords as an antagonist or hovering threat. These are powerful characters, corrupted by their service to an undead tyrant, living an unnaturally extended life and warped by their service. Their ultimate number and identities are a matter of speculation, as are their plans and true powers, but the unique nature of each of the Fell Lords subtly informs his or her domain:

• The Necromancer: a sorcerer on the threshold of life and death, served by wraiths and shadows
• The Sword: a fearsome warrior, and the tyrant's most hated enforcer, served by faceless armored warriors
• The Intriguer: a spy and informer, served by crows and traitors
• The Rider: the swiftest of the Fell Lords, served by spectral horses and their swift riders
• The Artificer: the smith and craftsman, served by strange mechanisms and guarded by subtle traps
• The Poisoner: a master of assassination and poisons, in his service are vipers and spiders of all kinds
• The Hunter: a stalking terror, relentless in pursuit, served by wolves and other predators, mistress of the wild places
• The Equivocator: the Fell Lords' spiritual advisor and preacher, master of guile and deception (you will never guess who your real enemy is)
• The Prowler: a withered dwarf, the Fell Lords' tax-collector, greedy and clever, offering bribes with one hand and stealing with the other, and served by treasure hunters and ghouls

Ready to explore? Then grab some rules of your own or try the nameless d20 adventure game, and set to it.

Adventures in Garedaron Vale

Scenario seeds for adventures in Garedaron Vale

Roll a die, or simple select an interesting scenario element for motivating a journey into the valley of tombs.

A character:

1 - A houseless, and near penniless, nobleman, seeking to restore an old property.
2 - A seemingly pious cleric with a taste for forbidden magics.
3 - An (apparently) scatter-brained antiquarian with a garbled collection of notes and maps.
4 - A pompous merchant with designs on a derelict noble title.
5-6 Any combination of the above characters and motives.

Seeking:

1- A vile heirloom, such as a blood-stained blade.
2 - A piece of massive jewellery – only a occult scholar can decode the inlaid map.
3 - A key, to another tomb: always the return to the dark.
4 - A casket of mouldering scrolls.
5 - A neglected and inaccessible shrine – did we not mention the sacrifice?
6 - Discourse with one of the dead – try to keep it civil.

Complication:

1 - Respectable tomb-robbers, whose guild rules do not permit interlopers.
2- An archaic order of guardians to a select set of tombs.
3 - Adventurers, like yourselves, led by a character, as above.
4 - Treachery: your patron has no intention of fulfilling the bargain.
5 - Terrors: you couldn't very well not expect to alert some ancient evil, could you?
6 - Vagrants, with no interest in the tombs but lurking nearby to hide or pick up easy loot: brigands, outlaws, or vermin such a gallyjaws.

Garedaron Vale - mini-scenario

No one knows which reign or empire it was began carving tombs out of the Garedaron Vale. The mouth of the vale faces West, and the setting sun strikes the end of the valley once a year, on the eve of High Winter. There's a road, also, faced with black stone, in which the weeds never grow. The hillsides are full of cracks and holes, where the cold rivers flow out from unknown paths in the dark.

Some say the first true tomb conceals a path into the mountains which leads to the realm of the dead, but what of that? Tomb-robbers have journeyed to the vale for many years. Some bring out treasures, and some come back shaken and with a dark tale; some don't come out at all, and some speak of rare finds slipping from their hands at the end of a dark hole.

Off course, there are taemsprits and parson-hawkes lurking in the scattered tombs and barrows, but the worst of it (the old thieves say) is what the vile curses of the sorcerer-priests do to living things that shelter all unknowing in an enchanted crypt. What of a spider and toad and rat all blended together, hungry and foul and half-dead?

Barrows, tombs, monuments, caverns and ossuaries, they're all there to see by daylight, but after dark, what looks down on you from the valley walls?

Perilous creatures

Arihmere, as has been mentioned, is known for its haphazard and unlikely collection of perilous beasts. Here are a few, presented for use with Sword/Play.

Grimelocks

Could be mistaken for men in the distance, for they go on two legs. But their backs are broad and shaggy and their arms are longer, and they have only four digits on each hand. Their faces are like those of goats or sheep, though they have no horns. Grimelocks are silent; no one knows if they speak, or make their thoughts known only by grunts and howls. They are not needlessly cruel or given to mischief, but rather heedless and touchy, and they will slay any being they find within their territories. They weep during battles.
They have no true smith-craft, but arm themselves with spears and axes beaten out of stolen blades.

SKILLS: Tireless, Silent, Hunter
STAMINA: 10

Naggs

Naggs fly out of darkness, from caves or deep clefts in the ground. They have leathery wings, stretching as far as the arm-span of a man, but their beaks are long and blade-sharp. They attack by diving and are very swift, but cannot fly if wounded. They hunt for blood and sport, like wolves, and are most dangerous in packs where they will harass and slash before stooping to the kill.

SKILLS: Fly, Slash
STAMINA: 5

Trillits

Diminutive vermin, little taller than a man's knee. They scamper about in wastelands, preferring fens and marshes, where they hunt and scavenge. Oftentimes, they will attach the glowing seed pods of a knafer tree to a branch, creating a tiny, greenish light that they parade to lure the curious and unwary into sinkholes and other crude traps. They are cowardly, quick, dangerous only to those they trap when they mob their prey in large numbers, armed with sticks and sharpened stones. A trillit hole can often contain unregarded treasures as well as the leavings of their victims.

SKILLS: Sneak, Hide, Quick
STAMINA: 3

Taemsprits

Ancient, vile predatory spirits, that lurk in old tombs and bury-grounds. Having no bodies of their own, they dress themselves in grave-shirts, dust and bone, creating a vague mockery of the forms of the dead with cold blue eyes. Blades cannot wound them, unless spell-bound or forged of deep-steel. Their touch burns like ice. They cannot travel in daylight, and the wind and sun will destroy them.

SKILLS: Lurk, Terrify, Freeze
STAMINA: 20

Ourgarths

Ungainly, at least half again as tall as any man, with bulbous heads and features, and bones that are often uneven or ill-shaped. Ungainly and awkward in movement, they are easy to strike, but their thick hides and dense bones make them difficult to wound, and their great strength and terrible two-handed swords are to be feared. Surly and solitary by nature, they are unusually deft metal-smiths. They forge treasures and weapons of great worth, which they guard ferociously.

SKILLS: Smith, Greatsword, Massive strength
STAMINA: 18

The Soul-bell and the Silent Village - mini-scenario

You reach the village after a long day of adventuring or travel, in high spirits. But the street is dark and cold. You think at first you see a dog rummaging through a pile of kitchen scraps; then you realise that it's a wolf, the first of many.

When you break into a house, you find everyone asleep, in a slumber that cannot be broken. Anyone with witch-sight can see the larvae, the spirit-wyrms, coiled about the bodies of the sleepers. But no common sorcery can dismiss a wyrm without destroying the mind of the sleeper.

Eventually, you might find the broken crypt in the kirk-yard and the body of the poor, damned fool (an adventurer like you) who opened it. Soul-burn is a hideous death.

There are clues scattered about the tomb and notes in the priest-house that might lead you to the legend of the soul-bell. But an interfering priest of the Narrow Faith cast that relic into the ravine a hundred years or more ago, and the ravine is haunted by grimelocks, naggs, and worse.

But it might be worth finding the bell, and letting it ring from the spire before dawn. Before the spirit-worms pupate and hatch...

Vensford [Mini-scenario]

The old man drinking at the inn in Addistown tries to pay with a gold imperial, a three-hundred year old coin worth more than the ramshackle inn and everything in it.

Where did this remnant of the Tharkish Dominions come from? If pressed, the old man claims he found it in the riverbank, near the shallows at Vensford, with a broken lance-point and a rusted helmet.

Perhaps the ford is the lost site of one of the desperate battles of the Tenth Tharkish War, where a legion at least was trapped and drowned in the crossing.

Would a few adventurers brave the wrath of ghosts and the river to loot the forgotten battlefield?

No one remembers that the slinking water-garg Nardog lurks in the ford. A powerful swimmer, Nardog prefers to pull his victims into the water and drown them in the deep pools. He is less sure on land, but still deadly when cornered.

Nardog: water-garg (slimy trollish hunter)
Skills, Abilities: Grasping strength, Powerful swimmer, Silent lurker, Watchful cunning
4 strikes

Arihmere

Arihmere, sometimes called the Wolves’ Lane, stands at the western end of The Copper Road. Falling into the Arrant Sea, with the Withered Lands of the Fell Lords to the north and the Sundering Wars simmering beyond the southern marches, it is a domain of wolf-haunted forests, wild moors, hedged manors, watchtowers and haunted tombs, ruled by grasping lords and sly wizards.

Arihmere is one of the more disreputable kingdoms of the Harrowmarch; nevertheless, its confused history of warring realms and tottering empires has left it with many respectably terrifying ruins and guarded treasures. The old heaps and pits are still inhabited by vile creatures, and only the most cunning and well prepared can meet them and survive.

About

Arihmere is a setting for fantasy gaming. It's suitable as a background, a suggestive sketch, or just a hazy collection of concepts. Future posts will begin to map it and fill in the blanks.

You can adapt it to your own fantasy adventure system, and also use it as the background for the Pick-up And Play rules on the tab above.