The King of Thieves by Michael Jecks

When Borders Bookstore was closing, I purchased many a book that looked interesting. I didn't do it when the hordes were crowding and pushing one another for 20% off. I waited until the books were well and low priced at 60% or greater. Mind you, the selection wasn't at its peak but there was more then enough that I'm still reading those books when I find the time.

I'd never heard of Michael Jecks before. I'm also NOT an armchair historian. However, I do like a good historical and I find them easier to mine for role playing purposes since most of the games I play tend to be low tech, dark ages styling. Well, magic is usually a big element too but that's another thing I'd have to add as needed.

I'll be discussing some spoilers pulled out of the book so if you want no spoilers, read no further on Michael Jecks The King of Thieves.

Let's start with terminology. I love it when the author provides us some details. Like a Crophead being slang for a priest, or a harvester a cutpurse or a picker, a thief who takes everything from his victims or a planter, a thief that makes fake jewels. Great stuff. Adds to the atmosphere of the book right away.

Another thing I enjoy is learning about real characters that were... interesting so that I can steal, I mean, borrow them or their routines for my games. I hate to say it, but I was ignorant of Hug Despenser and that's a shame because after reading some on him in this novel and on good ole Wiki, I have to say, he's a hell of a bastard and looks like he would make a great rival noble enemy for characters, one whose protection from a higher source means that the outmaneuvering must take place in the courts and not on the field of battle where character often have an advantage.

Another character mentioned in this historical, is Charles Martel, a well known warrior with his own nick name. Adding such background elements to your own campaign, famous warriors, generals, saints, and other well known figures of history, can provide more depth to the setting as it gives, say, the martial characters in the game, something to strive for, to go beyond.

"and now the King was married to his third wife..." Not a particularly grand statement in all things but one that puts out there that people, everyone suffers. One of the problems I've heard players complain about with their loved ones or NPCs close to them, is that the Game Master is always messing with them so its easier not to have any close contacts. Well, remind them that life is indeed a contact sport and kings and queens suffer the disasters of disease and death in child birth and other ravages, that its okay for them too.

"But the instability which he had assisted was now growing alarming. Robert Sapy's deputy in Wales had been attacked... There had been a time... when no man would have dared to treat such an important man in such dreadful a manner, but that time was past. Now no one was safe."

Political unrest can be a powerful tool. But it might be only part of a problem. For example, if there is famine, is there is plaque, is there is banditry, then adding to that a King whose most favorite subject is widely hated? Yeah, that might cause some problems. On the other hand, it also sets the stages for players to shine. I've mentioned it before, but if you're playing a 'standard' styling of Dungeons and Dragons where players will be in combat, then you want there to be unrest in the land, you want political factions lining up to march to war, you want bandits for the players to fight, you want church and state taking shots at each others. The more conflict, the easier it is to get the players actively involved in it.

"A large sideboard stood at one wall and upon it were many silver plates and some goblets... Large tapestries covered the bare walls on two sides...the large goblet with gilding all around it."

A quick quote about the wealth of one man of the cloth. This type of wealth, these material things that are not coins, is mentioned several times. I myself am guilty to resorted to X amount of platinum, Y amount of gold, and Z amount of silver, but it can give the setting some contrast and character when you start throwing in physical art objects. In this case, one of the objects actually turns out to be a clue later on. The physical descriptions of combs, plates, goblets, utensils, tapestries, and other non-coin wealth can say a lot about the campaign.

Of course it doesn't hurt that at lower levels it can make it difficult for the players to simply pick it all up and leave.

"Let me put it like this: the King is now moving his prisoners from one castle to another."

In terms of those uprisings, well, there really weren't any prisons in those days. You did a crime, chances are you'd get the immediate punishment, like having your ear clipped or your lip split and then be sent on your merry way. Otherwise you went into the dungeon of a castle. Not good times. In the above case, the King's forces may not be up to the task of taking care of fomenting rebellion so he keeps the prisoners on the move to prevent them from being freed.



"It was hard when speaking to someone like this to remember that he was just a man like any other. Jean was intimidated by rank. He was too aware of his own lowly background."

IN today's 'modern' D&D, for some reason we still have kings and farmers but no slaves and a social system that tries its best to mime modern times so that rank and other non-tangible values are well, meaningless. When setting up your own campaign, talk with the players about their own expectations of what they assume the setting is going to be like. If everyone is on the same page, that's great, but if you're running a dark and gritty fantasy campaign with low magic and rank is everything, well, wandering adventurers may get a  welcome they'd rather not have.

"Just the atmosphere made Jean feel chilled as he entered the place. There were marks scrawled into the walls here, the despairing words of prisoners who knew that their time was almost over..."

Here's an idea for a map. Instead of finding one in a treasure lair on a piece of paper, what if it's actually a huge map on the wall. A dragon, beholder, or other fantastical creature would have no problem defacing a granite wall and it would give the players a little something different to remember as they try to copy down the map.

"Cardinal, if is your duty to uphold God's laws, surely."
"I have many duties. I have served four Popes now. They each were different men, but the main thing was, they were practical men."

Here's an interesting one. When looking at fantasy religions that actually have deities and miracles and divine powers in the game, how does one NOT serve correctly? In Eberron, well, the gods don't necessarily take an active interest. It's far more nebulous than say the Forgotten Realms where the gods have walked the earth and even had children. ON the other hand, the Forgotten Realms has had its share of heresy and its share of deities impersonating one another. Some churches, like that of Tempus, encourage active war fare as that is the god's portfolio. Others... you kind of have a hard time seeing them not be one large brother hood under that active god. Think about the role of religion, how heavy the god's hands are, are they any clerics who've actually lost spellcasting ability, or is spellcasting ability something only players can do? It changes setting assumptions quite quickly if it is.

"It was mere good fortune that he himself was not present in the Preceptory on that day, and thus evaded the arrest and subsequent punishment."

It's a comment about the fall of the Templars. In Dungeon Siege 3, it starts off with your organization being crushed. Some might think that heavy handed but organizations come and go all the time in history. The stalwart warrior against God's foes today, is the gold laden victim to be robbed tomorrow. If the players are part of a guild, it's always good to have a few real life organizations that were taken down in order to show case that, no, you as the Game Master are not being mean to them and that these things do happen and will they please man up about it.

"He killed my boy' the cook said...

Anyone ever see New Jack City? The heroes of the tale go about finding out how to take down a very bad man. They lose friends and allies and suffer great hardships and loses and at the end, the bad guy is going to walk away free as a bird when an old man pops out of the crowd and guns him down!

The same thing happens here where the heroes find out the clues and find the murderer and that murderer is killed by another minor character.

That doesn't work too bad in a movie or in a novel but I personally would NOT be happy as a player if the Game Master were to do that. "Great game guys. You spent weeks hunting down the murderer but it's the kings brother. He laughs as you'll never be able to prove it all but then old man Fellows whose daughter was killed steps up and stabs the King's brother right in the neck!" Ugh. If you want to write a story, there's no need to drag the players into it. Write the story. Give the players their moment of glory.

On the other hand if the players are getting restless with the current crop and don't want to do the whole law and order thing and you asked them if they'r ready to move on, yeah, it might be time to New Jack that NPC.

Michael Jecks does a great job of bringing history, and Paris, to live. He makes Paris a filthy city, but one that is teeming with life of all sorts. A strong read, I hope to find more Jecks on sale or for those ebooks to come down in price.

Monsters Resurrected: Chill, Kill, or Ill?

And the use of Apex Predators continues!

The last episodes provide some more entertainment and I felt for a little while that I was watching some old show on an off station past midnight. I suspect in fifty years we'll see them do something like this for cars. "Here we see a pack of cars feasting on a train after one of the pack has sacrificed itself to slow the vehicle down." Or something along those lines. "The Hummer was the Apex of vehicle predators."

The dialog, cutting sequences, reuse of video material, and other bits are suffer greatly because apparently this was designed for small children whose parents couldn't afford a babysitter that would be filled with like ten thousand commercials so they have to continuously remind you were they left off. Ugh.

But on a more serious note, the last episode ends with who killed the mega beast? I thought it might have been Doctor Lucky in the living room with a crowbar but no, turns out there we have a whole field of experts to tell us basically that we don't know! Thankfully they do provide some entertaining options as to what could have happened and as I was watching, I kept thinking about how some of these elements would fit into a game.

For example, if we look at the chill factor. The world gets cold, and covered in ice. This in terns destroys the ecosystem that the animals, these mega-beasts, rely on. In D&D, Ice Age settings can be a one off and you get to fight against the sabertooths and mega-sloths and whatnot, but most settings don't really discuss them in terms of 'modern' history. And I'm not talking millions of years ago. Most think that the ice age 10,000 bc. In a game with liches, elves, constructs, and other forms of immortals, don't you think that would be a bit of a subject?

"So Legolas, how about that winter eh?"

"Bah, you puny humans. This is no winter. We had winter when I was a kid. It lasted a few thousand years."

If we go with that not untold time of ice age happening though, we could have things like neanderthal liches. Maybe the clerics or shamans of those dark winter gods were saw through those dark times and can now prey on modern man?

Such ice age events thought happened some would argue at least twenty times previously than the one where the mega-beasts are roughly wiped out so most of the other 'experts' tend to dismiss ice as the sole reason for death.

So how about kill? To me, this could be a no-brainer. A group of large mammals meeting humans? The animals don't know to hide? Humans tending to overhunt? Yeah, I could buy that. Hell in one instance, the Moa are essentially known to have been 'eaten' off about seven hundred years ago. That's even much closer than the old ice age. A lot of long lived races would remember humans killing off an entire species to satisfy their bellies.

The other thing about the kill factor though, is that tool using humans can be seen to be pretty smart compared to their prey. One expert was asking why would the humans overhunt so much? Another talks about how hyenas do it so yes, humans could to. But, at least in terms of mammoths, and maybe this is because I've seen too many of these shows, one theory is that to kill the big beasts with fewer risks to personal life and limb, the proto-humans would force them off the cliffs. May not be the most efficient in terms of meat and preservation of said meat, but beats going heat to heat with such a creature. Sure, you kill another five to ten of these creatures, but that's okay right? You made it!

The weird thing about Dungeons and Dragons though, is how exactly would this work out with character classes like the druid and ranger which in many instances are green peace hippy warriors? Unless these are new classes and new ideals, which with the druid, one of the older religions, would be funny, there would be clashes between humans who wanted to save the mega-beasts from extinction and those who, you know, wanted to eat them.

Druids would have a lot of formidable tools in their command of such beasts, but it gets back to what's the druid's actual role in the society? Are they priest who are for man, or are they hippies willing to kill their fellow man for hunting down wolves?

In terms of ill, the 'hyper diesease' is not found. But there are some thoughts along the line that if all of these animals started to die off at just about the time humans came around, that even if it wasn't humans that killed off the animals, that the animal companions normal people travel with, like dogs, could have contributed to the death toll.

In some cases, it could have just been bad timing for those other creatures. When you look at the dodo, one of the factors that contributed to it going out is the pigs and dogs people brought with them. Dodos are apparently very tasty to such animals and humans brought them to a new landscape where dodos had no idea what the hell was going on. Another fairly recent case of animal extinction that I can't see the old hippy elves being too cool with.

"Hey Arragon, what's up with wiping out the native species?"

"But Lego, you're eating dodo now?"

"Damn it!"




But the final theory, ah ha, they fooled you you stupid viewer you, the final theory is that it's a combination not only of all those elements, but the way man lives. See, humans have a huge tendency to make the land ours by clearing it out by slash and burn techniques. These aren't things that are no longer used by the way. We cut down forests and burn them clean so that we can farm.

If you're a nine foot tall tree dwelling mammal, well, you're finished. That's it. Game over. You're done.

Man's ability to completely change the landscape to suit his farming needs, which is still going on today if you think about things like aquatic Dead Zones caused by the run off of farming fertilizer, our powers to cause death and destruction are so advance that they might as well be magic. I can see humans finding the crypt of Cthulhu and saying that he might have been in a state of suspended animation once but all the cow shit has finished off the old boy and he never had a chance.

But in such terms, imagine what some of those things could do to aquatic civilizations if there was run off in fantasy settings? Sea Devils, Kuo-Toa, Deep Ones, and other nightmare creatures might be destroyed not through deliberate actiosn but because of rain water run off.

If you think about the potential conflicts in such elements of man versus the wilds, and assume that the wilds have protectors, most fantasy settings would be  vastly different in terms of how almost all the non-humans view humans.

Monsters Resurrected: To Hyper Specialize or Not Hyper Specialize?

So one of the stranger dinos on this show, Spinosaurus is showcased as being another of these dreaded 'apex' hunters. (Seriously guys, get a thesaurus or something.). It's one of the largest dinos in its time. It's arms actually look to have some functionality to them. They end in massive claws. It's so powerful that it's teeth aren't designed to rip meat off the bone, but rather, it shakes the prey until it is ripped apart and then repeats the process.

But... and here's that dreaded but again, when its own food source goes away, it now has to compete with another type of creature that's smaller, faster, and uses pack tactics. In some ways, sounds like the good old terror birds against the wolves.

Acrocanthosaurus aka the Great American Predator, is like a variant of the T-Rex in that its another top level predator. It's jaws are designed to pull that meat right off the bone. Its neck designed to not break. Its arms, despite their small size, having vast strength. Its downfall? Its food source goes out and all these specialized features it has aren't that handy in taking down the other types of prey about. And it too has to compete with smaller and dangerous predators. And yeah, there's the whole "my eggs are laying on the ground and easy for predators to eat thing."

And as I'm watching these shows, and they push out millions of years at a time like I would discuss waiting for a bus. "In a manner of 15 minutes, the bus had arrived." but you know, "in a mere fifteen million years, the reign of this predator was over." But no, brain, come back to the point.

Because so many of these creatures are hyper specialized, when their niche is gone, so are they.

And to be honest, as a GM, I both play to, and play against players who do that.

In terms of playing to? I'll let the players know what type of campaign I'm setting up, What I expect to be using in terms of some of the major enemies. It allows the players to theme out if they wish. If I'm going to run the Age of Worms, they know that undead are probably going to be popping up left and right for example. In such instances, I encourage the players to pick up the pace when it comes to making characters that may specialize in the field of destroying undead, even offering them some advice in terms of useful feats and Prestige Classes they may not have heard of.

But at the same time, when I see a player whose so dug into his niche, like a warrior without a single missile weapon, yeah, it's on. Kobolds have slings, goblins have short bows, gnolls and orcs have longbows, duergar and hobgoblins have crossbows and of course other such assaults.

Mind you, I give them plenty of time to shine as well, but I've got no problem hitting them with the highlights just to point out, "Uh, you might at the very least want to you know, carry a hand axe or something to throw."

The same can also be done with wizards. I've seen some get so into their theme that they refuse to work out anything that goes past that. In some cases, this can be great as its the player roleplaying their differences, their style, their choices. In others, they're just bin min-maxers. I'm not going to tell you what's going on at your table. You're already there. You'll know from the way the player acts, how he reacts, and what he does in the future as his character advances.

Just don't be reluctant to shine a little light on them.

Monsters Resurrected: Terror Birds

Walking with Dinosaurs and others are shows that I enjoy. Monsters Resurrected is in the same vein if a little less impressive and cool. For one thing, it reuses the same footage over and over again. I get it, you're going to recreate the animal and you're going to show how awesome it was! But after you see the same elements over and over again, you're like, give me a damn break about it already eh?

Anyway, the first episode is about terror birds. I've seen these in D&D with all sorts of names including Axebeaks for example and there were probably several varieties of them in 3.5 with the utility of the OGL.

One of the interesting things about fantasy campaigns, Dungeons and Dragons in particular, is that the game isn't worried about the 'real' ecology of the landscape. Sure, Dragon magazine back in the day used to have some great ecology articles, and Kobold Quarterly has taken up that mantle, and even Paizo has their various 'revisited' lines. But to think that a setting could support as many giant, super predators as the typical fantasy setting has in it's back yard? Probably not going to happen.

Even here when talking about the terror bird and how it was an apex predator and had an impressive length of time as king of the wheel, it's two main competitors for food were not things like T-Rex or tool using man, but rather, sabertooth tigers and wolves. Turns out that not having teeth, being a solitary predator and laying eggs on the ground are possibly reasons why the wolves managed to use pack tactics, use packs to keep the young alive, and well, have really good teeth that can quickly down a meal before other predators come by.

To me, I always figured it was more like cow tipping. With those tiny little arms they probably got pushed down by proto-cavemen who were bored and couldn't get up like a little turtle on its back.

But no, seriously, when looking at these monsters with their razor sharp beaks and ability to inflict tremendous damage, with great eye sight, with fantastic hearing, and with great speed and stamina, in a fantasy setting, they would make for some great mounts. As meat eaters, they could dispose of any left over orcs, or if the orcs are riding them, any left over humans. In some aspects, they might make better beasts of burden for monstrous riders as those monstrous humanoids probably wouldn't feel too squeamish about feeding them any wounded on their side either.

Still, with the sheer variety that terror birds have been visualized with, its not that difficult to see different variants of the bird serving one master while another variety serves still a different one.

Another interesting aspect of these creatures, is that like with most ancient and old entities, they are always finding or testing out this theory or that, or how the animal might have lived and fought including some impressive kicking skills and larger speciemens.

Death's Heretic by James Sutter

Death's Heretic as a novel, would make a great Gumshoe adopted Lorefinder Adventure. It's a tale about a man who comes from a nation of atheists that serves the god of death.

Note that here, the setting is using this country of atheists not as not believing in deities. They know that these entities exist. They know that the outer planes are real. They know that they have souls. However, they do not believe in giving themselves over in worship or accepting that aid in return.

That's just a touch of background on the main character. Before I move onto some of the other elements, I'm going to put the big flashing warning notice on. If you wish to avoid spoilers, read no further.

The main thrust of the book is Salim Ghadafar's quest to discover what happened to a missing soul. There are several red herrings and much exploration of the planes in the setting. There are several characters that come under investigation that interplay with Salim.

In looking at a more investigative style adventure, it's important to have a wide selection of non-player characters in your library. By having these NPCs build up before hand, you can use them as a buffer in terms not only of time, but in setting up future adventure seeds. These individuals may be offended by the manner in which they are questioned. They may see the players as potential future allies, henchemen or catspawns to be used at a later date. By providing some interesting encounters for the characters to navigate through that don't necessarily rely on combat, the Dungeon Master is setting the stage for future use if he ever needs it.

In terms of exploration,most fantasy game settings have some type of belief system that physically exist. There is often a real heaven and a real hell. These places might be able to provide a quick shot of exploration and investigation. It allows the Dungeon Master to showcase some of the unique beings and inhabitants of the setting. In this case, Salim's quest takes him to a Limbo state where he meets the pure chaotic inhabitants that run that particular aslyum. This is in addition to his association with a Marut, an agent of law, and his middle man, the black angel on the cover. These elements bring the setting to light.

One of the better written books in the Pathfinder series, Death's Heretic manages to be done in one and provides some interesting ideas for how a soul could be yanked in the first place and how someone would go about finding it again.

Winter Witch by Elaine Cunningham

Winter Witch is a fantasy novel by Elaine Cunningham set in the Pathfinder setting. It's a done in one that introduces new characters and provides some brief exploration of the setting. I'm going to hit real quick on a few things.

First, damn am I old. A paperback that runs $9.99 eh? A fantasy paperback that runs $9.99 eh? Ah well, at Amazon it's part of their 3 for 4 bit so that's not too bad. No kindle version eh? Let me get this straight, a relatively new line of fiction that is not taking advantage of every possible revenue stream and on the Paizo site, charging $6.99? Sure, it's available in PDF and you get an ePub version with it. I'm using a 3rd party app on my Toshiba Tablet to read it in ePub version. I bought my e-copy as part of a 2 for 3 deal so once again, I'm not feeling too bad but at this point, I would never pay that much for a ebook. Cheap? Stupid? Whatever. I'm the customer. I could've bought it at Half-Price for $2.50 not that long ago but I'm getting more and more into e-books.

Two, when the main character joins a caravan. He doesn't do so as a guard, but rather as a passenger. That was slightly different. What make the scene stand out to me though, was the caravan master asking him if he was worried about being killed and all his possessions taken. The caravan 'people' are the stand ins for the Gypsies of the setting so yeah, that's possible, but it struck me as something I personally haven't worked into any of my own games and something that could easily be a quick encounter.

Such a scenario could occur in a few ways. There is the unassuming method where the party is just hiring on as guards for the caravan and then once away from civilization, they get ambushed by the people they've been paid to protect.

Another scenario could occur if a relative of a former guard comes by the characters and hires them to investigate the caravan. Now the players have a reason and a potential payoff at the end of it. The players could even have a relative who is also an adventurer whose disappeared the last time this caravan went off and now have to find out what actually happened.

Another option may be that the caravan isn't actually doing the dirty work themselves. They are hiring adventurers and taking them down a path that leads to a very dangerous encounter and the caravan master sends scouts ahead that inform the monsters of what the players can do and where they're at and recommends some strategy to them based on how the players act and what they do up to that point.

The last thing (for this post!) that I thought was interesting was the Nolanders. Different tribes of barbarians get rid of the undesirables by banishing them to dark and dangerous places. So what happens when these murderers, betrayers, and most vile of the vile get together? It's like a Warhammer Marauder tribe with cannibalism and raiding becoming the norm. I thought for a second it was a weird spelling on Northlander because of where one of the characters comes from, but nope, it's No Lander and wherever they go, it makes it a no-man's land. A great bit when you want to throw real savages at the players.

Winter Witch has some good stuff to it and gives some nice details to the Pathfinder setting. Worth a read if it's in your comfortable purchase price zone.

Massacre: Clone Wars 4.19

When you watch episodes like Massacre, you know why people want to play the bad guys in role playing games. When you look at the design on the characters, on the good guy side, you have the jedi. For the most part, they have the cool, "I'm ominous and dark" thanks to their cloaks and hoods. But outside of that? They dress in rather drab colors, don't have a lot of variety to them and well, are boring visually.

Now look at some of the most iconic figures in the Star Wars setting like Darth Vader and Bobba Fett. It's hard to remember that Fett was punked like a tool in his second official appearance when you see exactly how popular his is now compared to what he actually did.

But more then that, this episode provides some interesting guidelines in how exactly an evil campaign can work and it boils down to the 'evil vs evil' camp.

One one side, we have General Grevious. Here's another character with a sharp visual design but another one who suffers the plot effect. He's a super ultra bad ass until he's not needed to be then he gets jobbed like any other mook. But the appeal of watching a cyborg run around with four light sabres is still strong.

Then we have the Night Witches. They make a nice interesting visual contrast with the reds against the background of their dark planet. While none of their designs pop out to me like Grevious does, they are still a good variant on a mystic order, like the jedi.

In terms of conflict, when Grevious and Ventress get to challenge each other, the Game Master could set different goals here.

1. Survive X amount of rounds in order for your back up to arrive. While it sounds 'cheating' and its something done in video games, having a timer to survive against lets the players know that there are tough times coming around here.

2. Steal A Tank. Who doesn't want to steal a tank eh? Once Ventress gets the tank, she's able to push through to the front and punch a hole into the enemy.

3. Engage the Enemy One on One. Now this is pretty much the simple that players normally do anyway but by adding the other two elements in there, you have some quick goals that the players have to meet and follow to survive.

Evil campaigns that pit evil characters against one another are often easier to run because at the end of the day, it's not about watching evil triumphant, it's still about watching evil getting its ass kicked one way or another.