The Forest of Dean: An Outlaw Campaign During the Anarchy of England

To start with this campaign idea owes a lot of credit to an unusual sourcebook.  Robin Hood for the Rolemaster RPG.  The book is a resource for the Rolemaster RPG that primarily focuses on playing Outlaws during the Norman rule of England.  Covering from the rule of William the Conqueror to the death of John Lackland.  The book gives a great deal of information on running games in this time period and provides two example campaigns.  One is called Robin i' the Hood and is essentially the standard fare of the legend.  Set during the Prince John's rule while his brother Richard the Lionheart is away on crusade.  I personally didn't care for this campaign, because it has the player's playing second fiddle to Robin and his band.  What piqued my interest the most was the other setting offered. The Forest of Dean, set during the Anarchy of England.

The aforementioned book.

For those of you not familiar with English medieval History.  The Anarchy is the time during which Stephen of Blois, Count of Boulogne a powerful nobleman in France, Normandy and England.  Seized control of the English Throne from his cousin Empress Maude, daughter of King Henry the First.  Overall the time is referred to as the Anarchy, during which nobles warred with one another to either support their preferred candidate or simply to line their own pockets during the chaos.  It went on for the better part of 19 years, without anything resembling law and order.  As such the English living under their Norman oppressors suffered greatly.  (If you've ever read the Cadfael Chronicles or seen the TV show with Derek Jacobi this is the time it takes place in).  It is a time during which the common people are in great need of heroes.  That's where the players come in.

They are outlaws, men declared by the King's justice to be outside the protection of the laws of the land.  Any man may kill them and it will not be considered murder.  If they are captured they will face the very sentence that drove them into outlawry in the first place.  Only a royal pardon can remove the brand of being outlawed.  With the country embroiled in Civil War (contradiction of terms) they'll have to decide which claimant to the throne they want to back (if any).  Will they prey upon their fellow Englishman or will they fight against Norman tyranny, (wait for the cliche) by robbing from the rich to give to the poor.

Getting Down to the Brass Tacks

Ordinarily I wouldn't try to run a campaign like this using a D20 system.  Today I've been taken by a sort of madness and have decided to go against my better judgement.  This game will be using a low-magic variant of either the Pathfinder Ruleset or D&D 5E.  A lot of what I write in this post will be geared towards Pathfinder (because I actually own the Core Books for that system), but could easily be used for D&D 5E.  The reason I'm thinking of running this as low-magic campaign set in our Middle Ages (rather than a straight historical one) is to appeal to wider variety of players.  D20 systems are usually what most Role-players start out on, as such most understand the concept of rolling a d20 and adding a modifier.  Personally I've always found magic too overused and relied on in role-playing games.  The problem is you can't appeal to a wide variety of players if you remove magic entirely.  Magic (and other fantasy elements) are a big part of why people play these games.  I'll be listing below some necessary changes that will have to be made to system to run my vision of this game. 

One of the candidates for this game's system.

The other contender.

Races: Sorry to say we won't be playing anything but boring old humans in this game.  To fit in with the setting of Medieval England.  In place of Race the characters' cultures will be playing a more prominent role in this campaign.  Chances are the players will be playing one of the following three cultures.  Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Welsh.  Saxon characters will most likely be in the majority with Welsh characters being a close second.  As the campaign is set around the Forest of Dean (which in turn is close to Monmouth, Gloucester and Hereford) which is close to the Welsh Border.  Norman characters will be rare as a Norman could only be outlawed for a crime against the King.  When it comes to starting Languages the players will get their native tongue (English for Saxons, Welsh for the Welsh and French for the Normans).  If they have a high Intelligence they may get additional languages from the following list.  English, Welsh, French, Flemish, Cornish, Gaelic and Latin.  By default the characters are illiterate in any language they speak.  

Classes: The allowed classes would include.  Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue and Sorcerer.  The Barbarian, Fighter and Rogue are right at home in the setting, (Barbarians are just really a variant of Fighters that relies more on determination and emotion, rather than martial skill).  Bards, Druids, Rangers and Sorcerers will fit in with some minor adjustment.  Adjusting for a Low-Magic setting.  Paladins and Clerics would be be somewhat out of place in a band of outlaws.  (Also I don't want to even try to begin to stat up the Judeo-Christian God for this game.  On account of all the controversy that would inspire).  While the Wizard relies too much on the written word to fit into the setting.

 A Note on Currency: Instead of the GP-SP-CP scale that role-players are so used to this game will use the period appropriate currency.  Of the Penny-Shilling-Pound, which converts roughly like this.
Penny = 1 SP (Silver Piece) = 1/12th of a Shilling, 1/240th of a Pound
Shilling = 1 GP (Gold Piece) = 12 Pennies, 1/20th of a Pound
Pound = 2 PP (Platinum Piece) = 240 Pennies, 20 Shillings
As a note the Pound and Shilling don't really exist (outside of an accountants ledge).  With that out of the way let's move onto our next order of business.

A period penny minted under the rule of King Stephen.
The characters are going to be seeing a lot of these.

Available Weapons

Simple Light Melee Weapons

Dagger = 1 Shilling, a common weapon used by noble and commoner alike.  Most use it as an eating utensil.  This can also be used to represent smaller versions of the Seax knife that the Saxons get their name from.  

Mace, light = 5 Shillings

Sickle = 6 Shillings

Simple One-Handed Melee Weapons
Club = 0
Mace, heavy = 12 Shillings
Shortspear = 1 Shilling

Simple Two-Handed Melee Weapons
Longspear = 5 Shillings
Quarterstaff = 0
Spear = 2 Shillings

Grounds for excommunication.

Simple Ranged Weapons
Crossbow, heavy = 2 1/2 Pounds
Bolts, crossbow (10) = 1 Shilling
Crossbow, light = 1 3/4 Pounds, the Pope has banned the use of crossbows against fellow Christians.  The price indicates how hard it is to get your hands on one.
Javelin = 1 Shilling
Sling = 0
Bullets, sling (10) = 1 penny

Martial Light Melee Weapons
Axe, throwing = 8 shillings (throwing axes have fallen out of favour since the age of the Vikings.  Plus they're difficult to make and balance right, the price reflects this).
Hand axe = 6 Shillings, another tool turned into a weapon.
Sword short = 10 Shillings (or a long knife depending on who you ask).

Martial One-Handed Melee Weapons
Battle axe = 10 Shillings, an axe designed with intent of actually killing people.
Long Sword = 15 Shillings, a sign of status.  Anyone not of noble birth caught with one will have some explaining to do.  The only proper sword available in the time period.
Falchion = 10 Shillings, commonly used by Hunters and Foresters.  The two handed version hasn't been invented yet so use the stats for a Scimitar.

Martial Ranged Weapons
Longbow = 3 3/4 Pounds, historians are still debating whether the English Longbow existed prior the

An English Longbow, we're still not sure if they're period accurate.

14th Century.  There are several instances of the Normans in England and their Welsh neighbours using Archers in combat.  The Normans using them in the way traditionally depicted in Hollywood battles.  While the Welsh preferred to use Archers in ambush, guerrilla tactics.  It is recorded that during the Norman invasion of Wales, Welsh archers inflicted many casualties.  It is not known whether they used Bows equivalent to the later English Longbow or if it was more like the Shortbow. I've included both types, for the sake of convenience.  It is unlikely any player characters would ever purchase a bow (more likely they'd craft it themselves), if they come into possession of one they'll do their damnedest to take care of it.  The price is meant to reflect the amount of time and skill it takes to craft a good bow.
Arrows (20) = 1 Shilling
Shortbow = 1 1/2 Pounds

An example of a Norman Kite Shield, the kind used
primarily by knights.

Available Armour

Light Armour

Padded Armour = 5 Shillings 

Leather Armour = 10 Shillings 

Studded Leather Armour = 1 1/4 Pounds 

Chain Shirt = 5 Pounds, meant to represent only a hauberk.  

Medium Armour

Hide = 15 Shillings 

Scale Mail = 2 1/2 Pounds 

Chainmail = 7 1/2 Pounds, meant to represent a full suit of mail. 

Shields

Shield, light wooden = 3 Shillings 

Shield, heavy wooden = 7 Shillings 

Shield, kite = 1 1/4 Pounds

Most shields of the period are constructed of a combination of steel (in some cases iron) and wood.  Wood serves as the primary component in most cases though.  In the case of the Kite Shield it primarily constructed of leather over a wooden frame.

Combat System

To get the right feel for this campaign, there would have to be some adjustments to the combat system.  Fortunately I've found a system that works for what I'm going for.  It's called Die Stygian Jackal.  It was originally intended for D&D 3.0 games set in the Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age.  Having read it I find it works for the gritty combat (with a pinch of swashbuckling) that I'm going for.  I also like how Armour is handled under the new system, where it now serves as damage reduction.  Rather than a chance to hit, and the amount of damaged reduced is randomized.  To represent whether the attacker hits a weak spot in the armour or not.  I also like the reduced Hit Points, as it makes combat a lot more deadly.  While at the same time making it possible to one-hit a character of higher level (on a lucky crit).  One nitpick I have against the system is how it determines the Defense Class that replaces Armour Class.  They base it on Hit Dice (which makes the Barbarian the most skilled at defence) which I don't think makes sense.  So I would have to make some adjustments to that.  These rules should be easy to port over to either Pathfinder or D&D 5th Edition.  You can find the mentioned system here. 

Notes on Magic 

This is a Low-Magic campaign set in an actual historical period.  There are no dragons and users of magic are rare.  If magic appears it is very subtle (it doesn't take the form of fireballs conjured out of thin air).  Clerics can't perform minor miracles in the name of their deity.  Instances of that happening are rare (that's why they're called miracles), the same goes for Paladins who are just Fighters that've been told that God is on their side.  The means with which to craft magic items have all but vanished from this world.  If the characters ever encounter a magic item or a miracle.  It will either be very minor or a very important plot point.  

There are also no fantastic monsters, like dragons (they've been dead for centuries at this point) outside of stories.  Some notable exceptions being ghosts and fairies that haunt abandoned ruins throughout England.  Even then these creatures are more meant to be puzzles to figure out than, a source of XP for killing.  

I hear a lot of you saying "If there are no magic items, what are the players supposed to spend their ill-gotten gains on?"  Four options have presented themselves to me.  

1.  At the time the campaign takes place, there is a custom in place called Murdrum.  Essentially if a Norman is killed on a lord's land, the Lord must do everything in his power.  To bring the murderer to justice within five days, or be forced to pay a fine.  If a culprit can't be found (or arranged) the lord will have to put the squeeze on his vassals to pay the fine.  Often the peasants living on this land will bear the full brunt of this taxation.  This means that Saxons within areas where the players have killed Normans, might be less likely to aid the PCs (they might even sell them out, in hopes of abating the taxation).  The PCs would be able to get around this by doling out their spoils among the common people.  In areas where they've killed Normans, thus making it possible for the peasants to pay the taxes.  This way the peasants would be more willing to hide the PCs, than if they just kill Normans and do nothing about the consequences to the peasants.  
2. If the characters decide to back one of the claimants to the throne.  (Especially if it's Empress Maude).  They can donate the money to their preferred candidate's war fund.  (Think of it as an investment towards that pardon, that you're hoping for).  
3. In the chaos of Civil War the players might decide they like the idea of becoming nobility.  They could seize lands from their "rightful" owners.  They can then use the money they've amassed from robbing tax collectors, to invest in the infrastructure of their newfound lands.  (A ferry here, a new castle there).  
4. For those of you still itching to have a better weapon or a better suit of armour.  I present to you  the Masterwork Rules from the Black Company RPG by Green Ronin.  You can get a weapon with a little extra oomph or armour with a little bit of extra protection.  Just by paying some extra money and waiting a little longer for the blacksmith to forge it.  You can find these rules re-printed here.

On the subject of PC spell casters, I would use the limited magic rules for Pathfinder.  (Found here).  It's my understanding that D&D 5th Edition has rules for running Low-Magic Campaigns in one of their core books.  I would also probably go through the Spell List and do some pruning.  Taking out those spells that are inappropriate for the setting.  

In Conclusion

This has been an interesting post to write.  Ordinarily I don't think to use D20 systems when I run games.  It was fun to work with a system that's outside my usual tastes.  I think if handled a certain way the system could be used to run a very fun low-magic Historical Campaign.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Be sure to +1 and re-share.  Until my next post, have a nice day and may the dice be ever in your favour. 

What the campaign would like if I used the Toon System.

How I Create Characters For: Cyberpunk 2020

"Let me show you how this thing here works."

For the past few days I've been making some posts over at the Cyberpunk 2020 Google+ Community.  They really got me fired up to write something about Cyberpunk 2020 for the blog.  For a starter I decided I would do something about the house rules I use to create characters for R. Talsorian's game of the dark future.  (This is also the first post where I'll be experimenting with images in my posts).  So without further ado let's jump right into it.

The Lifepath

Now while I love Cyberpunk 2020 to pieces.  One of the things I will fault it on is this.  They put one of the most interesting parts of character creation, the Lifepath in Chapter Three of the book.  When it should be in Chapter Two.  For those of you that don't know what the Lifepath is.  The Lifepath is a series of random rolls or choices that determines your character's background.  To quote from the Core Rulebook "It's like climbing out of the clone vat.  You got this half-formed person standing, dripping with slime.  You got some stats, maybe a vague idea of where you're going with the character, but nothing else.  So how do you take this Blank and make him really Cyberpunk?"  That's what the Lifepath is for, it's meant to give you a character with "Plot Complications" built into them.  That the GM can bring up in gameplay to make the story more interesting.  An incredibly advanced story-telling concept for a RPG that was written in the late 80s to early 90s.  Through the rolls and choices on the various charts in Chapter 3 you create a character's Ethnic Origins, their style of dress, family background (including whether you have some sort of trauma in your past), how old the character is and the life events that shaped them into the Cyber-Criminal they are today (or is it tomorrow?).  When I have players create characters for Cyberpunk games (during a planned Session 0 so the players have some common consensus on what kind of story is being told) I have them roll on the Lifepath first.  I will explain my motivations for doing so further down this page.  I pretty much use the Lifepath as is in the book except for a few changes listed below.  

1.    I give my players a choice for the number and size of dice they roll to determine their character's age.  They can choose 2d6+16 or 3d10+16.  The first choice is traditional for Cyberpunk characters since they're supposed to die young (Edgerunning is a dangerous business, all you can hope for is to go out in a blaze of glory).  The second option is for players who want to play more experienced, older (and possibly washed up) characters.  Cyberpunk has a lot of genre similarities with Film Noir and characters in such films tend to be older, more cynical, less idealistic (think Deckard in Bladerunner or Armitage in Neuromancer).  
2. I skip part 3: Motivations (page 36 for those of you following along at home) and come back to it after the Life Events have been rolled.  This is a section where you can choose to roll or choose from the options listed.  Since the Life Events tend to reveal quite a bit about the character's personality.  I decided it's better to just choose Motivations after we know the character's whole life story.  
3. On the Life Events Table a result of 9-10 yields Nothing Happened That Year.  I have always hated this result, as my players in the past always seemed to roll it multiple times.  Great if you're a player who doesn't want to roll a result of Disaster Strikes!  Not so great if you're a GM that wants grist for the story-mill.  To remedy this I came up with a House Rule (more of those to come, don't worry) if you roll a 9-10, you re-roll twice and the two results are somehow related to each other.  (Example you get Romantic Involvement twice.  Rolling on the appropriate subtables you get Happy love affair and Fast Affairs and Hot Dates.  Looks like you've been having some fun on the side!)  The exception to this rule is once the character reaches 25 years old.  By that points life kind of slows down as the character matures (at least as much as cybernetic street-criminals can) and their wild oats have been sown.  Once that happens the player can choose to forgo the roll twice house rule and keep the result of Nothing Happened that Year.
4. Speaking of 25 years old, because life starts to slow down, you have to roll less Life Events.  You only roll Life Events once every two years. 
5. A word on Friends & Enemies, those subtables have players roll to determine the extent of your relationship.  As friends or enemies, one of the parts that precedes that step never quite sat well with me.  They had you roll the friends sex, which depending on the relationship rolled could have you having old lovers of the same sex.  I know it's the twenty-first century, but some players still aren't comfortable roleplaying someone attracted to the same sex.  So in my games I let the players choose, the sex of their character's ex-lovers.  Some will be totally cool with playing bi or homosexual characters, others won't and that's okay.  It's an important part of a GM's job to make sure everyone has a good time and doesn't feel outside of their comfort zone.  That's why this rule exists. 
6. Speaking of Romantic Involvement I usually interpret a Happy Love Affair as continuing over the course of the years.  Only ending when a Tragic Love Affair is rolled.  Even when a Love Affair with Problems is rolled, that doesn't mean the relationship is entirely over.  Unless the player interprets it as being over based on their interpretation of events rolled.  Love is something that people spend their entire lives searching for.  I personally imagine that the same is true even in the Dark Future of cyberpunk fiction.  It might even be more important than ever, in this cynical future.  Like the comedian George Carlin once said "Behind cynic is a disappointed idealist." love is an ideal that even the most disappointed of idealists might want to hang onto.  

A classic example of a Cyberpunk Couple.

Statting 'em Up

Now that we have an idea of what the character is like, we can get down into the mechanics of character creation.  (I can hear the Min-maxers and Power Gamers salivating already).  Now before you start going wild with spending your Attribute Points, I have to break some bad news to you.   My game usually uses the Ocelot's Alternate Character Generation System.  Under the section on Attributes the author Gary Astleford recommends a pool of 54 points to be spent on Attributes.  For a gritty, down-to-earth feel.  Since at lot of my games tend to be more gutter-punk than corporate mercenaries, it's perfect for my style of campaigns.  You might think that that's the end as far as Attributes are concerned, but there's more.

1. You remember the Lifepath?  Some results from that can lead to reduced Attributes, make sure to minus the points lost from your Pool of Attribute points.  (Example: Your character picks up a disease or drug addiction.  -1 to Reflex.  Your character gets into an accident and is horribly disfigured.  -5 to Attractiveness.  Your character picks up a mental disorder.  -1 to Cool).  
2. Did you decide to make a character older than 30 years old?  I got some more bad news for you.  According to Ocelot's Alternate Character Generation System, characters past the age of 30 have to pick a single stat from REF, MA or BODY and roll against it.  Every two years until age 40 when it becomes every year, until the age of 55 when it becomes twice a year.  The character must roll against their unmodified stat (before cyberware, drugs, etc.) if the result is equal or lower, the character loses one point in that stat.  You may not roll against the same stat consecutively, when you reach 1 point in a stat you are crippled, when you reach 0 your character is a corpse.  Tough luck punk. 
3. I also tend to have players select Mental & Social stats that reflect their Lifepath Results.  According to the essay in Interface Magazine Volume 1, Issue 2.  Characters with low empathy  (about 4 or below) having lots of enemies and failed romances, while characters with high empathy (7 or more) tend to have lots of friends and successful romances.   
4. One last thing, you no longer put points into Movement Allowance.  It is now determined by adding together Reflex and Body, then dividing them by 2, rounding down.  This house rule is the result of me having players that used Movement Allowance as dump stat.  Resulting in ridiculously slow characters, this rule is mostly a way to save players from their own stupidity (there'll be plenty of time for them screwing themselves over when the game has started, they don't need a head-start). 

Getting Skill-wise 

Now using Ocelot's Alternate Character Generation System (link here if you need a refresher) the characters get the standard pool of 40 skill points.  Pickup skills are determined by the character's age.  For those of you expecting to pick your Role's skill packages now, sorry to be the bearer of more bad news.  The Roles have been thrown out in favour of a GURPS-esque classless system.  That means that most of the Special Ability Skills are out as well.  Including the over-powered Combat Sense (which has been replaced with two separate Advantages, more on that later).  The only Special Ability Skills to remain are those that were irreplaceable.  In this case the Netrunner's Interface skill (which works a little differently) and the MedTech's MedTech skill, they are now ordinary skills that anyone can acquire with Improvement Point multipliers of x3.  Any other variations are listed below. 

1. Interface is divided into two sets of ten skills, representing the characters ability to perform different hacking.  The full rules of this way of Netrunning can be found at Run.Net 
2. While the Roles have been done away with, they still make excellent guidelines for players to create their characters from.  Much like how GURPS uses templates to guide it's character creation.  Feel free to take and add whatever skills you think your character would have.  (Within reason.  GMs it's your job to pay attention and moderate your player's skill choices). 
3. A note on Pickup Skills.  I use the Subordinate Skill Packages from Interface Magazine Volume 1 Issue 2, onward.  I find they're a good way to direct players to pick skills that are consistent with their backgrounds.  
4. I find that the skill values as listed in the Core Book make good reference points for choosing how many points to put into a particular skill.

Advantages and Disadvantages

So one of the key alterations Ocelot made in his alternate character generation system.  Was the addition of Advantages and Disadvantages along the lines of GURPS.  I largely keep these the same as listed except for a few minor alterations of my own.

1. I got rid of the Friends Advantage and the Enemies Disadvantage.  Since I made an alteration to the Lifepath system the characters are more likely to get a result of a friend or an enemy.  Making this set, somewhat redundant. 
2. I also got rid of Cyber-Affinity and Cyber-Rejection.  Since I don't use the Humanity Loss rules as written in the Core Rulebook. More on that later.  
3. The Favour Advantage is also gone, since it is also an advantage that comes up often in the Lifepath.  
4. Contacts are also out the window.  Personally I feel that the characters should have contacts equal to whatever their Streetwise Skill is.  At +2 they know people who can get them "hot" items, they can score drugs, etc.  At +5 they know professional gunmen that can be brought in for extra muscle.  Also everyone who has cyberware probably knows someone who installed it or someone that does maintenance.  It is however up to the GM to referee when the players go overboard.  Make sure that the characters aren't abusing this system.  If they treat contacts poorly, have them disappear, refuse to speak to the players, spread bad rumours about them.
5. If the character has a background where they were members of a Gang, Workgang, Nomad Pack or Pirate Fleet.  I require them to purchase the Brotherhood advantage.  The same goes for if they currently work for a Corporation, they need to put points into the Resources advantage. 

Buying Equipment & Alienation

Now we come to the part of character generation that every player loves.  Buying their characters' equipment.  Pretty much anything goes, but is subject to GM fiat.  Here are my personal rules for the acquiring of equipment. 

1.  At character creation everything is priced as listed in the book it came from.  There are no modifiers for legality, surgery cost, etc.  
2. The characters roll yearly for the money they earned and make purchases based on those funds.  The formula for yearly earnings works out roughly like this.  (Two Highest stats added together, then averaged.  The resulting number is highest earnings modifier that the character will ever have.  The player's modifier starts at 1 and goes up by 1 each year.  Until it reaches the highest it can be.  The modifier is multiplied by a roll of 1d10, which is in turn multiplied by 200.  (Example: For your first year you have a modifier of 1.  You get lucky and roll a 10 on the d10 and multiply it by 200, resulting in total earnings of 2000 [Eurodollars, NuYen, whatever you use as currency]).  You either purchase what you can afford to buy that year with that money, pay off any debts from the Lifepath or save your money for a more expensive purchase next year. 
3. Since one of the main purchases that the characters make before they buy anything else is Cyberware.  I thought it was appropriate to include how I handle humanity loss in the game in the section on Equipment.  I use Richard Balmer's Alienation rules, which I have found to be the best way of tracking Humanity Loss.  Since it encourages roleplaying and doesn't just give the characters a pool of points that slowly, but surely diminishes.  (If that's really how it worked, Cyberware would never have been allowed to be sold on the general market).  You can find those rules by pressing this link.
4. Once the characters have made all the purchases they wish, any remaining funds go into their Credcard account (or maybe not if they prefer to keep under the radar).  If they have no money left over you may use this optional rule to give them some pocket money.  Roll 1d10 times 20, they now have sufficient money to foot the bill at diner or a shady dive bar.  Better get hustling punks.

Among my player's purchases in a recent character generation for a Solo campaign.
A Mitsubishi Kaneda Motorcycle with cyber-controls.

So there you have it.  How I generate characters for R. Talsorian's classic game of the Dark Future, Cyberpunk 2020.  If there is anything that wasn't clear about this post.  Please don't hesitate to comment.  If you liked this post, be sure to show your support by +1ing and re-sharing it.  As always have a good day and may you roll many crits.