Campaign Prep - Creating a Starting Town Using ACKS

NOTE: If you're currently playing in my Adventures in the Nentir Vale campaign on RPG.net, please don't read any further.

I got my ACKS game going this week, so I figured I'd write up a blog post about creating the starting town, Nenlast. I've set the game in the Nentir Vale, the implied setting of D&D 4E, but I've changed Nenlast quite a bit from the way it was described in the Abyssal Plague novels.

So first up, I knew that Nenlast is described in the 4E DMG as a small fishing village, so I decided to run with that. It's small, so for population I decided on roughly 200 people. Large enough to warrant a wall and a militia, but small enough to keep fairly simple in terms of organizations and locations within the town. According to the ACKS rules, 200 people would make Nenlast a market class VI town and include a pretty small number of leveled NPCs.

After setting the population, I made some decisions on locations I wanted to have available: an inn, a disreputable tavern, some sort of church, a graveyard/cemetery, a place of governance, a couple of shops, and the docks. I wrote out some descriptions of these locations along with NPCs that might be found there, then moved on to the next step in the ACKS rules: criminal organizations.

Such a small town, in the ACKS rules, will have a correspondingly small criminal faction. In this case, I decided to have the town's known criminals consolidated into a gang known as the Crimson Hands. I incorporated The Drunken Boar, the disreputable tavern I'd created, and made it the gang's hangout. The tavern's owner, Belloc, became the gang's leader and that was that. Total gang membership is only 16 (8x 0^th level ruffians, 5x 1^st level, 2x 2^nd level, 1x 3^rd level boss).

I figure the Crimson Hands are small fish who think they're a lot scarier than they really are. The gang leader and a couple of his lieutenants might be a threat to some adventurers, but for the most part, the gang consists of level-0 normal people that probably won't want to get in a lethal fight with armed and armored adventurers.

Once I finished up the basics on the Crimson Hands, I wrote up a few tavern rumors for the PCs can follow up on. It's a hexcrawl/dungeon crawl game, so I won't be using many, if any, published adventures. I figured these rumors were pretty decent stuff for a low level party to be interested in taking a look at.

I'm working on a map of the town, so hopefully that'll be finished up and posted later this week.

Locations in Nenlast

Black Trout Inn

Famed around the Nentir Vale for its beer-battered trout, the Black Trout Inn is owned and run by Red Toran. Small compared to inns in larger towns such as Fallcrest, the Black Trout Inn has a core group of regular customers who like to sit and chat about the day's events during most evenings.

Chapel

Rather than having multiple churches dedicated to individual deities, Nenlast has only a small chapel with individual altars or statues for most of the pantheon: Erathis, Pelor, Avandra, Bahamut, Melora, Ioun, and Kord. The chapel is overseen by Korlas, a priest dedicated to Erathis, though there are a number of other priests of various deities. The Raven Queen is not represented at the chapel, but there is a small shrine to her at the entrance to the graveyard.

Docks

Easily the most bustling area of Nenlast on most days, the docks are where the village's small fleet of fishing boats and rafts are moored. Near the docks is a beach where the ice-fishing shacks are kept during the summer.

Erkar's General Store

Most popular for its wide selection of bait and tackle, Erkar's General Store sells just about any necessity for life on the shores of Lake Nen, including archery gear and leather products. Erkar carries some of the most basic spell components, but it's a small selection that he doesn't really cater to, as most mages prefer to buy from the Sapphire Tower

Ironheart Smithy

The Ironheart Smithy is run by the Ironhearts, a family of dwarves living in the only completely-stone building in Nenlast. The Ironhearts are known for their no-frills, high-quality craftsmanship and blades that are very durable and solid. Most iron and steel products can be bought at the Ironheart Smithy, including swords, axes, and armor. The smithy is run by Kora Ironheart, who boasts that she is the best smith in all of the Nentir Vale.

The Drunken Boar

The only competitor of the Black Trout Inn, The Drunken Boar is a tavern in a rather run-down state. Run as a front for the local thieves' guild, the Crimson Hands, The Drunken Boar is a home for the town drunks, ruffians, and other disreputable folk.

Moon Tower

Named for the silver crescent moon painted on the door, Moon Tower is where Nenlast's few mages congregate. Owned by a doddering, half-senile old mage by the name of Cromlen, Moon Tower is a combination magic shop and residence. While Cromlen's powers have waned in the last decade or so, rumors abound of arcane secrets and trinkets held within the tower.

Important NPCs

Lord Mayor Thure Karn

Red Toran, proprietor of the Black Trout Inn

Korlas, priest of Erathis
Erkar, proprietor of Erkar's General Store

Kora Ironheart, master smith at the Ironheart Smithy

Belloc, chief of the Crimson Hands and owner of The Drunken Boar

Tavern Rumors

1. Goblins have been plaguing the Old Hill Road, besieging trade caravans. The Lord Governor of Nenlast has set a bounty of five silver pieces for goblin ears, and an extra bounty of 100 gold if presented with proof that the goblins are no longer a threat.

2. Rumor has it that there's a nest of owlbears in a cave just inside Winterbole Forest, five miles out of town. Everyone knows owlbear eggs are a delicacy, and their pelts make for the best leather in the Vale.

3. An old wizard's tower has fallen into ruin outside town. It's rumored to be haunted and the wizard's treasures are said to still lay within. The tower is perpetually shrouded in mist, and none have been brave enough to enter in years.

4. Legend has it, an island known as the Fang on Lake Nen is home to an old smuggler's den that may still hold a cache of valuables left there long ago. Most sailors in Nenlast think the Fang is cursed with bad luck and won't go anywhere near it, however.

5. The teens of Nenlast insist that the local graveyard is haunted. They say that, if you spend the night in the graveyard during a full moon, a restless spirit will appear. The identity of the spirit is always changing – some say it's a half-elven woman, while some insist it's a full-blooded orc warrior (though why an orc would be buried there is another mystery altogether).

6. A local farmer, Old Man Hatchet, is willing to pay good gold to enterprising folk willing to clear any unwanted beasts from a cave on his property. Purportedly, the cave contains some sort of giant rodent or insect – Old Man Hatchet's sight is failing and his account varies from telling to telling.

Creating a Character - Adventurer, Conqueror, King System

With my Swords & Wizardry Eberron game still a ways off, I've decided to run a game of ACKS on the RPG.net forums. I haven't GMed or played ACKS yet, but I figured I'd just jump in the deep end and go for it. From what I've read, it isn't incredibly different than other OSR systems, at least at low levels. I did enact a couple basic house rules that I use for just about any Play-by-Post game I run: the biggest one is that I'll allow 1st level casters to select their first spell rather than selecting it for them as the rules suggest. Anything other than that gets rolled. But enough of that, it's time to get on with character creation.

Step One: Roll ability scores in order. For PbP I use Invisible Castle, but for this I'll just use my regular dice. I'm also only going to roll one set, as opposed to the five sets I roll and let my players choose from.

STR 12
INT 16
WIS 12
DEX 13
CON 9
CHA 12

...Huh. I think these dice might be loaded. Good thing this is just a test character. After a quick glance through the Player's Companion, I'm going to go with Warlock for a class. I like the idea of a caster aligned with hellish powers (of course, I've also been reading Erin M. Evans's Brimstone Angels, so that might be influencing my choice).

Hit Points: 4

I'm rolling awesome tonight, apparently. Next up, Proficiencies. All characters start with Adventuring, then they get one General and one Class, and extra General Proficiencies according to INT. This character has a +2 bonus from INT, so that's three General. I'm going to go with Loremastery, Knowledge (Occult), Survival, and Leadership. Loremastery and Knowledge (Occult) to explain the Warlock powers, Survival to make sure he can survive in the wilderness for a while, and Leadership because any decent Warlock is going to need minions to serve him.

Spells: He can cast one per day, but with his INT score, he can have three in his repertoire. I'm going with Sleep, Spider Climb, and Burning Hands. Sleep is, as with most OSR games, easily one of the most powerful low-level spells, as it apparently allows no save against it. Spider Climb is pretty thematic and creepy, and Burning Hands is both damaging and thematically appropriate.

It looks like alignment and gear are all that's left to choose, and I'm going to choose the easy way and just snag the gear from the Corrupt Scholar template for the Warlock. Oh, and I need to choose a name: Malevoc Infernis is a good Warlock-y name, I think.

With no further adieu, here's the final character sheet:

I also like that the whole character sheet fits on one piece of
notebook paper.

Overall, not a bad character, I think. Plus, even with having to look up the rules and flip between the PDFs of ACKS and the Player's Companion, it only took me about half an hour or so to make a character. I'm sure that time could be cut significantly with A) more familiarity with the system, and B) only using a core book rather than both.

I'll get a more comprehensive review up once I've run the game a bit and given it a more thorough read-through, but for the moment, I think that picking up the ACKS core book and Player's Companion was money well-spent.

Running Eberron Using S&W White Box

I've been pondering running an Eberron game using Swords & Wizardry White Box and I've run into a fairly big snag: racial class restrictions.

No real meaning behind this pic other than that
I really, really like this art work. Pic from WotC.

The White Box has rules for the various non-human races about what classes they can take and the levels that can be attained in those classes. The problem is, Eberron was written and published using D&D 3.5, which didn't have rules like that. It's completely normal in Eberron to have things like half-orc druids, dwarven wizards, halfling clerics, and any other odd-ball race/class combination. It's also expected that those kinds of characters should be gaining experience at the same rate as the rest of the party so that the characters can continue adventuring together without there being a big permanent power disparity.

So for this Eberron game, I'm going to be completely abolishing class and race restrictions. That's easy, but here's the problem: the only real bonus for humans in S&W is an absence of class and race restrictions. Humans can take any class and advance to any level, but that's all they get. So, the problem I'm facing is finding a way to keep humans viable characters. After all, why play a human fighter if you can play a dwarven fighter and get bonus stuff that the human characters don't get?

At first I thought dragonmarks could be a way to buff humans, but other races also get dragonmarks, albeit with less variety. But, it's a good start. Humans may be slightly more likely to manifest a dragonmark than the other races.

Here's my solution: humans get 10% bonus experience on top of bonus experience from high ability scores and an additional 10% chance to manifest a dragonmark. The XP bonus will give the humans a bit of a buff, but it won't be nearly as bad as limiting other races (like the halflings' limitation of 4th level as a fighter). It may not be perfect, but hopefully it'll be a reason to interest my players in humans.

Swords & Wizardry White Box - Druid

With my D&D Next Mines of Madness game and my Swords & Wizardry Nentir Vale campaign both dead on arrival (due to stuff coming up for players and scheduling problems), I've decided to go full steam ahead on an Eberron campaign using Swords & Wizardry White Box. The problem is, I need a ton of stuff converted over to White Box to run Eberron, so that's what I've been working on. I'll include a detailed list of stuff I need to convert and how far along I am on those conversions in my next post, but rest assured, it's a fairly long list.

Fortunately, I've got the Druid class completely finished as of today. I may be adding in an alternate Wild Shape ability that can replace Wild Empathy, but for the moment, it's ready to playtest. I've included several new spells that seemed to fit fairly well with the Druid's primal nature, most of which I've adapted from S&W SRD spells.

Image Source: Paizo

I looked at the Druid in the S&W SRD, but it was a little too complex for S&W White Box, and I wanted something a bit simpler. This is my first shot at it though, so if I can find a group to playtest it with, I may be changing it in the future. As I said earlier, I'll almost certainly be adding a Wild Shape ability to replace Wild Empathy, but I figured that the ability to command animals was appropriate for the Druid. I may also add an animal companion at some point, as I really like that feature of 3rd Edition Druids.

Druid

Intimately connected with the natural world, Druids are primal spellcasters who have taken vows to protect and defend nature.

Level	Exp. Points	Hit Dice	Save	Spells
				1	2	3	4	5
1	0	1	15	1
2	1,500	2	14	2
3	3,000	3	13	2	1
4	6,000	3+1	12	2	2	1
5	12,000	4	11	2	2	1	1
6	24,000	5	10	2	2	2	1	1
7	48,000	6	9	2	2	2	2	2
8	96,000	6+1	8	3	3	2	2	2
9	192,000	7	7	3	3	3	2	2
10	384,000	8	6	3	3	3	3	3

Druid Abilities

Spellcasting: Druids cast primal spells much like clerics do; however, they receive their spells from nature itself rather than a specific deity or deities. Each day, they spend an hour either at dawn or dusk to prepare their spells. They do not require a spellbook as they know their spells innately.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Druids may use leather armor and shields. They may use any weapon that is not primarily composed of metal, with the exception of a sickle (equivalent of a short sword).

Attacks: Druids use the Cleric attack chart for their attack rolls.

Animal Empathy: Druids have a natural affinity for animals, giving them the ability to attempt to influence an animal's behavior much in the same way that Clerics turn undead. To attempt to control an animal, roll 3d6 and consult the Animal Empathy chart. Succeeding on the check (rolling higher than the number given) results in the animal surrendering to the Druid; it will not act aggressively toward the party (unless provoked), but it will not obey commands. A result of – on the chart means that the Druid cannot attempt Animal Empathy on an animal of that HD at that level. A result of C on the chart means that the animal will obey simple commands from the Druid for 10 minutes per level. A Druid may only command a single animal in this way at any one time.

A Druid may communicate with a controlled animal (but only a controlled animal) as if under the effects of a Speak with Animals spell.

Animal HD	Druid Level
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9+
1	10	7	4	C	C	C	C	C	C
2	13	10	7	C	C	C	C	C	C
3	15	13	10	7	C	C	C	C	C
4	17	15	13	10	7	C	C	C	C
5	-	17	15	13	10	7	C	C	C
6	-	-	17	15	13	10	7	C	C
7	-	-	-	17	15	13	10	7	C
8	-	-	-	-	17	15	13	10	7
9-11	-	-	-	-	-	17	15	13	10
12-18	-	-	-	-	-	-	17	15	13

Druidic Circle: At 9^th level, a Druid who chooses establish a sacred grove or other natural feature (cave, oasis, etc.) attracts loyal followers who swear druidic oaths to uphold the Circle and the natural order. A typical Druidic Circle also includes some kind of stronghold, keep, or other defensible location.

Druid Spell List

(Spells marked with * are new spells detailed below)

Level 1

Cure (Cause) Light Wounds

Detect Chaos (Law)

Detect Magic

Faerie Fire*

Protection from Chaos (Law)

Purify (Putrefy) Food and Drink

Level 2

Bless (Curse)

Find the Path

Hold Person

Locate Plants*

Speak with Animals

Warp Wood*

Level 3

Cure (Cause) Disease

Light (Dark), Continual

Locate Object

Plant Growth

Remove Curse

Level 4

Cure (Cause) Serious Wounds

Neutralize Poison

Protection from Chaos (Law), 10' Radius

Speak with Plants

Sticks to Snakes

Level 5

Commune with Nature*

Control Winds*

Create Food and Drink

Insect Plague

Passplant*

Wall of Fire or Ice

New Druid Spells

Commune with Nature

Spell Level: D5

Range: Caster

Duration: Three questions

Commune with Nature functions as the Commune spell. However, rather than consulting a higher power, the Druid communes directly with the spirit of nature. It is inadvisable for Druids to cast this spell more than once per week. At the Referee's discretion, a Druid may cast a double-strength version of this spell allowing for six questions (with a correspondingly longer duration) once per year. Commune with Nature may only be cast outdoors.

Control Winds

Spell Level: D5

Range: Centered on caster

Duration: 5 minutes + 1 minute per level

The caster can control all wind within a radius of 240 feet. The caster can make the winds tumultuous and violent like a hurricane, or completely calm and still, or anything in between. Exceptionally strong winds may require a saving throw to avoid being knocked prone or blown around.

Faerie Fire

Spell Level: D1

Range: 60 feet

Duration: 1 hour

Faerie Fire causes an object to glow with an eerie fey light, roughly as bright as a torch. The area illuminated can be up to 10 square feet plus 2 square feet per level. The spell can be used to determine the size of a partially-hidden object or to illuminate an enemy. In areas of darkness, illuminating an enemy may grant a +1 bonus to attacks versus that enemy.

Find the Path

Spell Level: D2

Range: Caster

Duration: 10 minutes

Find the Path shows the most direct route to a specific destination that the caster knows the location of, or shows a specific direction. For example, a Druid may use Find the Path to find the most direct route to Frostfang Peak (though that route may lead through uninhabitable or inhospitable areas). Find the Path does not necessarily show the best route, only the most direct.

Locate Plants

Spell Level: D2

Range: 60ft. + 10ft. per level

Duration: 1 minute per level

Locate Plants functions as the Locate Objects spell, but only in relation to a specific type of plant. For example, the caster may choose to have the spell locate an oak tree. The caster must have seen a specimen of the plant specified at some point prior to casting the spell.

Passplant

Spell Level: D5

Range: Touch (first plant)

Duration: One hour per level or until exit

Passplant allows the caster to step into one tree or similarly-sized plant and exit from another plant of the same kind. The plant must have a girth equal to or larger than the caster's own. The caster may stay within the plants, but will be ejected from whichever plant they happen to be within when the spell's duration runs out. The type of plant determines both the maximum distance the caster can travel with a single casting of the spell, as noted in the table below. The caster may travel between multiple plants, but can only travel between plants of the same kind and only up to the maximum distance allowed for that kind of plant.

Type of Plant	Maximum Distance (feet)
Oak, Ash, Yew	3,000
Elm, Eucalyptus	2,000
Other deciduous	1,500
Any coniferous	1,000
Other plant	750

Warp Wood

Spell Level: D2

Range: 60 feet

Duration: Permanent

The spell allows the caster to warp, bend, and twist wood as if it were clay. The spell affects a volume of 2 inches by 4 inches by 5 feet per two levels – roughly the volume of a quiver of arrows or a spear. However, it is important to note that for certain tasks such as springing a leak in a boat or springing open a wooden door may only require warping of a small volume of wood.

"Tieflings, Forged, and Dragonfolk, Oh My!"

My Swords & Wizardry: Nentir Vale game fell through, so I put some time into working up preliminary versions of the Tiefling, Forged, and Dragonfolk races for Swords & Wizardry. Hopefully, I'll be running an S&W game either in meatspace or via IRC/Roll20 within the next couple of weeks, and I'm hoping to get the Shifter race, the Artificer, the Warlock, and the Paladin classes finished up before then.

These races are built for the White Box version of Swords & Wizardry, but I've included some racial ability score requirements (which I will also be hacking in for the existing non-human races). They should also work for the Core version of S&W without too much trouble. They're rough, alpha-versions and I haven't had the opportunity to playtest them yet, so I expect I'll be revising them at some point in the future.

Tiefling

Thousands of years ago, a nation of humans made a pact with a powerful demon lord. Though the terms of the pact are unknown, the humans were changed, transformed into the tieflings. Tieflings have distinctly devilish features: reddish skin, horns of varying shape, and some have a tail or hooves. They have a natural resistance to flames and an affinity for magic. It is rumored that the first warlocks were tieflings, in the days of the demon pact. Charismatic and ambitious, tieflings have a reputation of dark magic and darker deeds, though not all live up to such tavern rumors.

Ability Requirements: Charisma 9+

Character Advancement: Tieflings may advance as Fighters, Thieves, or Warlocks.

Flame Resistant: Tieflings take half-damage from fire.

Infernal Vengeance: Once per day, on being hit by a melee attack, a tiefling may deal fire damage to the enemy that hit them immediately after the attack, even if it is not the tiefling's turn. The damage dealt is 1d6 per two levels; 1d6 at 1^st level, 2d6 at 3^rd level, so on and so forth. At 4^th level, a tiefling may use this twice a day, and at 8^th level they may use it three times per day.

Darkvision: Tieflings can see in the dark as well as in normal light. However, darkvision does not allow a tiefling to discern colors in the dark, as darkvision is black-and-white only.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Tieflings follow the weapon and armor restrictions of their class as normal.

Forged

Forged are sentient, magical constructs created to act as tireless, deadly soldiers. When the wars that the Forged are created for end, sometimes these creations of steel, wood, and leather are left without a mission. Those Forged bereft of conflict sometimes turn to adventuring, either to gain enough gold to raise an army of their own or simply to stay with their organic comrades.

Ability Requirements: Constitution 9+

Character Advancement: Forged may advance as Fighters or Paladins.

Tireless: Forged do not require sleep and are not affected by the Sleep spell. In addition, they are immune to poison, disease, and fatigue effects.

Living Construct: Forged only receive half of the hit points granted by standard healing spells. They may regain hit points from rest or through binding their wounds normally. At zero hit points, a Forged does not die; instead, they go into a dormant state that they can be brought out of with sufficient healing. However, it is important to track Forged hit points below zero, as the Forged is permanently destroyed when they reach negative hit points of a value equal to half their normal hit point total. Forged also do not need to breathe, eat, or drink, though they can ingest potions normally. As Forged are constructs, they are affected normally by the Repair/Inflict Damage spells.

Armor Plating: Forged receive -2[+2] to their Armor Class due to the metal and wood their bodies are built from.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Forged are built for battle and have no restrictions on the weapons or armor they can use. However, Forged cannot use regular armor because of their bulk. Instead, they use plating specifically designed to attach to the Forged's existing armor plating. This plating is the same cost and weight as regular armor, but it means that Forged may not be able to use certain armor they find on adventures.

Dragonfolk

Dragonfolk are humanoids with distinct draconic features. Their skin is scaled, they have an affinity for arcane magic, and they possess a powerful breath weapon like their draconic forebears. According to their own myths, the Dragonfolk are descendent from true dragons, and as such, many Dragonfolk seek out true dragons in order to become their servants.

Ability Requirements: Strength 9+ or Intelligence 9+.

Character Advancement: A Dragonfolk may advance as a Fighter, Magic-User, or Warlock.

Breath Weapon: Dragonfolk, like true dragons, have a deadly breath weapon that can be fatal to their enemies. Dragonfolk choose a breath weapon at character creation. The breath weapon deals 1d6 damage every two levels, to a maximum of 5d6 damage. The Dragonfolk can use this breath weapon once per day at first level and gains another use each odd-numbered level after to a maximum of five uses per day at 9^th level. A successful Reflex save (Fortitude save for poison breath) halves the damage.

Breath Weapon

Fire	40' long, 20' wide cone
Cold	40' long, 20' wide cone
Lightning	60' long, 5' wide line
Acid	60' long, 5' wide line
Poison	40' long, 20' wide cone

Scales: A Dragonfolk's hard scales provide a -2[+2] to AC.