Devlin's Luck by Patricia Bray

Devlin's Luck
The Sword of Change: Book 1
Written by Patricia Bray
Published by Spectra
434 pages
$7.99 Kindle
$7.99 Paperback

A great thing about having a Half-Price Books close by is their random and changing selection of $1 books. It's a lot easier to take a chance on an author you've never heard of when you're only out $1. Same is true of the old Kindle books when they hit the various sweet spots on sale.

Devlin's Luck is a solid fantasy book for someone just starting the genre. It uses a small cast, small kingdom, and easy missions to get the reader involved. If you're looking for 'popcorn' reading, Devlin's Luck has you covered.

At the end, the book looks to expand in size and complexity allowing the setting and scope to grow with the series.

Devlin's Luck is a perfect 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons book in many ways. The 4th edition D&D default setting was a points of light setting. A generic kingdom where things used to be better and the world was more dangerous than it should be. Devlin's Luck takes place in 'The once mighty kingdom of Jorsk is in decline, its borders beset by enemies, both worldly and otherworldly. The king has retreated to the capital, abandoning the far-flung provinces."

That's not only a 'points of light' setting, it's a fairly standard low-level setting in most instances. There are things that need to be taken care of and the heroes are the ones to do it!

The hero of the story, Devlin Stonehand, is a former farmer and metalsmith from a rugged frontier part of Jorsk, recently conquered by the superior militia of Jorsk. He's come to the capital city to become 'the Chosen One', an old institution where a champion fights for the people of the country. It's been so dangerous lately that the kingdom pays the new Chosen One and binds them with magic to only work for the safety of the kingdom.

In the 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons, the idea of the Chosen One would have worked as a 'kit'. The profession initially doesn't seem to have a lot of character enhancing powers but does have a lot of social responsibility to it and does have a lot of social perks that go with it. The kits in 2nd edition were notorious for trying to use social issues in place of game balance.

For a small setting, the book throws the deities names out immediately. Part of being the Chosen is picking a patron deity. 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons introduced new deities in part by stealing them from other settings and by adding new ones like the Raven Queen.

Here we get:

Haakron, the Lord of Death.

Lady Geyra: Healers

Lady Sonja: The War Goddess.

Lady Tea: Mother Goddess. Patroness of those who worked the land.

Kanjti: The God of luck. A God with no temples or priests. Some called him the bastard god, the only one of the seven whose origin was a subject for hot debate. A god with no family. (pg 21-22)

Heavenly Pair: Father Teo and Mother Tea.

Another thing that Patricia Bray does, is not shy away from languages. Even though the setting is small, there are a variety of languages spoken by the people including older languages like High Jorsk. Even today in countries like China that are 'one country', there are multiple languages spoken. Never underestimate the value of languages in creating the setting that you're running.

Adventure Seeds:

One of the things I enjoyed about Devlin's Luck is it doesn't pretend that it's trying to rewrite and rework the fantasy genre or some of the simple things that can be done with it.

"There are reports of a band of marauders living in Astavard forest, who prey on travelers along the King's old highway." (pg 77)

"There was no invading army, no great battle in their future. Instead the Kingdom was dying for a thousand tiny pinpricks." (pg. 90).

Another example of how a potentially long campaign can be designed. It allows the players to pick and chose what incidents and events they will investigate and so move the campaign in a direction of their choosing.

How much more classic than bandit attack can you get?

Character Actions

If you want the players to be engaged with the setting, both in the dungeon and out, make sure that others are paying attention to what they do for both good and ill.

"His self-discipline was contagious, and she noticed that her own guards trained all the harder for his example." (pg. 249)

"As he tried to read t he mage's expression he realized that for the first time in their acquaintance Master Dreng's eyes w ere clear, and the hand that clasped his was steady. A remarkable change in one who was reputed to spend his entire life deep in his cups." (pg. 256)

Humans are social animals. We try to be like others, we try to make organizations and achievements with others. Seeing someone strive to be better may encourage us to be better. Seeing someone who needs us at our best may encourage us to be at our best.

If you show that the actions the players take off the battlefield have consequences in the setting, the players may decide to go with that. If you want to encourage that type of behavior and the player's don't normally do such, have the background be influenced by others. You can either act or be acted upon. When the players see people taking after X, Y, or Z instead of them, perhaps they'll be more motivated to be part of the setting as opposed to rogue loners. 

Culture:

"I trade with many, but always with Brigia deMor, daughter of Nesta of the Mountains. She has given me the blessing of her name," the woman said proudly.

A blessing was a powerful thing indeed. In the literal sense, it meant that Brigia deMore regarded this woman as a member of her family. It was rare for any outlander to receive such an honor." (pg. 35)

When designing an adventure, a setting, a character, or a quest, what role does the background of the people play in it? What are they known for? What are their codes of conduct? What makes one valued among them?

Culture doesn't have to be a whole society. It can be a part of the society.

'A copper armband lay on the workbench. Favored by soldiers as a luck token." (pg. 59) The history of an organization, of a society, or a group of individuals, can be telling in many ways. It can be tattoos, it can be slogans, it can be art. 

Points of Light

"Devlin's foot skidded across a slippery stone, and he flailed wildly before regaining his balance. At the start of his journey, this road had been paved with interlocking stones, with a raised crown that allowed water to run off into the ditches on the side. The farther he traveled from Kingsholm, the worse the road became. The stones showed signs of wear, than cracking, and then weeds had begun to appear. By now, nearly two weeks' journey from the capital, there were many places where the stones had vanished altogether. And the drainage ditches were choked with weeds and debris so that instead of draining the water, the roads were covered with mud washed won from the fields on either side. (pg. 95) 

That's a great example of how a point of light campaign can be described. What was one mighty has tumbled. What once was great, is not even standard. It shares themes with Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales where the Viking raiders are in awe of the Roman structures left behind in England. 

Taverns and Inns:

"The Singing Fish is in the old city, near the river. It's not fancy, but they have good food and a very fine cellar." (pg. 30).

Devlin is new to the city. He's new to this part of the country. Where better to hear how the common folk act that in a tavern in the old part of the city? Where the common folk mingle? It's an old trope to be sure but it's continued use showcases that it's still a viable way to gather information and to have a gathering place.

Weather:

'But then the rains had come. For the past three, days he had slogged on, ankle deep in muck.' (pg. 94)

Never forget that the sun may rise in the east but the players don't necessarily have to see it. Clouds, fog, mist, rain, humidity, the dew point! All of these things can make the setting seem more alive than just using standard sunny days when the characters are traveling from point A to point B.

Devlin's Luck by Patricia Bray is a solid fantasy story that contains many little nods to realism from numerous languages and social structures, to the evolution of Devlin Stonehand as the Chosen One. I look forward to eventually reading the next books in the series.

Sword of State by Nigel Tranter

Sword of State
Written by Nigel Tranter
336 Pages

I'd never heard of Nigel Tranter before picking up Sword of State. It was one of my finds on the good old $1 rack in Half Price Books in Skokie.

I'm a sucker for historical fiction.

But it's really not historical fiction. It's like a history book that wants to be a fiction book.

Dialog? Minimal.

Story elements or descriptions of the times? Minimal.

Recording the events of the time as they happened? Dead on.

Not everyone has the ability of say Bernard Cornwell to put historical fiction into a rousing tale.

If you want a play by play of events as they happened, though, Sword of State is $3.99 on the kindle format right now, and even more affordable in hardcover format as it's well out of print and not rare.

Having said that, it's time to think how this could be useful for running a campaign.

Character Build. One problem I see in a lot of players is that they make their characters to be these weird self-sufficient bits that have no hooks into the campaign setting. This doesn't matter if it's a super hero setting or a fantasy setting. So many dark wolf loners that don't care about anything but vengeance.

That can be boring in that it doesn't lend itself to a campaign contribution.

What do I mean? Let's look at Patrick here.

Patrick has a father, Cospatrick. There can be only one Cospatrick at a time as a matter of tradition and culture. When Cospatrick dies, Patrick will take that mantle. This little bit of tradition is something that adds to the campaign.

There are things that happen in the setting that revolves around family.

For example, marriage.

And here's the thing, the marriage itself doesn't have to be between player characters, it can be NPC's in the background. The important thing is that it's creating a social event. This creates a gathering of characters around the event.

If it follows the ways of comics, this could be one of those times when the bad guys come around and aren't vile miscreants, but it could just as easily be a time when the villains think it's the perfect time to strike.

In a fantasy setting, the same is true. Perhaps the players need an introduction to some figure but don't have the social status to just up and approach them. Going to a wedding and doing so there could be a great time to make an impression.

Outside of marriage, we have children.

Again, in super hero comics, there are often quests to save the poor mother to be such as when Reed Richards has to delve into the Negative Zone to find a cure for his wife's ailment.

But it's also a great time to throw another social event. It's a time when rulers may provide gifts of land. It's a time when people who may be estranged come together for the sake of the children. Perhaps the characters have parents who never visit, but now with the birth of a granddaughter, they do!

And lastly, when it comes to family, there is death.

This is another social event. Depending on the nature of who died, it may be made a social holiday. It may be a time of celebration. It may be a time of celebration for some and mourning for others. Few men die perfect world round.

Even those who history tends to treat kindly such as Winston Churchill may not be fondly remembered by say, families of the French Navy.

But what else can be brought out into gaming from Sword of State?

Hunting!

In the manga Berserk, it uses the social event of hunting to great effect to allow the Band of the Hawk the seeming appearnace of saving the Princess Charlotte from assassination.

In George R. R. Martin's modern fantasy classic, A Game of Thrones, it is an off stage hunting accident that brings war to the kingdoms.

Hunting can have a social part and a combat encounter part.

Are the characters there to meet new individuals or to prove themselves?

Are the characters there as body guards?

Another element that can be brought into the campaign is that of trade.

There is a market crash of Scotland Wool that Patrick has to investigate. If this were told as it's own story, the levels of intrigue and corruption could be a book in and of itself.

Nigel Tranter treats it as "X happened, Y happened, Z happened."

But even in that, Patrick goes to find out why the price has dropped. He offers new ways of sorting out the costs, noting that not every country wool prices have fallen, he goes on to explore new markets for the wool and finds that other products, such as salted meat and stone, may be highly desirable in those other markets as well.

In a traditional campaign, the mere act of questioning why the wool was cheaper might have brought individuals out of the shadows who were seeking to create a monopoly on the product.

It might have brought out bribes and attempts at blackmail.

And that sounds crazy over wool, but man, in the real world we've seen some strange stuff involving what people want to control and regulate so no, it's not that off the wall.

I give Nigel Tranter kudos for his research into this era and the inspiration it brings forth when thinking of how these things can be taken for anyone's campaign. For those who've read other Tranter novels, are particular recommendations? I see he has a huge catalog and while I'm not impressed with his style, his substance is strong.

The Ten Thousand by Michael Curtis Ford

The Ten Thousand

A Novel of Ancient Greece

Written by Michael Curtis Ford

The cover boldly proclaims “In the ancient world, one army was feared above all others…” With such a proud figure on the cover and such loud proclamations, I gladly picked up The Ten Thousand. I was fortunate in that the cover notes that this is a worthy successor to Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, which I also managed to snag. Each book bought for a mere $1 apace.

The Ten Thousand is not filled with battle upon battle. Rather it is a well written novel of how Xenophon became a leader of the Ten Thousand, Greek Mercenaries who in this case, lost their patron half way across the world, and how Xenophon had to lead them back to safety.

The writing is highly descriptive without being overly boring. Michael Curtis Ford brings even small characters to mind with a few well placed bits, such as telling an old story that even modern readers should be familiar with. There were several sequences I initially though he was babbling, wasting pages, but they come back to fruition later on in the novel, one of the earliest sequences I thought fascinating but wasteful, nearly at the very end of the novel itself.

In short, if you want to read a historical novel of Ancient Greece, a well written, well researched novel, one based on the book Anabasis, then The Ten Thousand is a fantastic way to spend a few evenings.

For role players though, what can be gleaned?

1.       The environment must play a part in your campaigns. The initial trek to met with destiny takes the Ten Thousand away from their familiar coastal areas and through harsh desert terrain. Have you ever wanted to actually use your desert sourced theme books? Do so. On the way back from crushing defeat, the army moves through blinding, killing, snow. Want to use those winter themed books? Do so. The world is small enough that ever environment should play it’s role in your campaign.

2.       Start After a Loss: The book really picks up pace after the army that the Ten Thousand are but a small part of, meets disaster. That’s when the heroes of the book must come together and fight as one. This can be done at any level but you have to be willing to start with loss. The caravan is overrun. Waterdeep is destroyed. The Prime Material Plane is vaporized. The city of Sigil falls into the Abyss. After opening with such a crushing defeat, the players should be motivated to do what they do best!

3.       Historical Context Builds Culture: “Some three hundred years earlier, Sardis, even than a great city, had been overwhelmed by hordes of pale-skinned barbarians who had swept down from the north in endless numbers like packs of ravenous wolves, devouring all its riches and mingling their wild barbarian blood with that of the refined and delicate natives. It was said that so many men and women were killed during the barbarians brutal sweep through the city that when the carnage was over, thousands of children were left wandering the streets, homeless and wailing. The offspring of royalty mingled with those of the lowest cowherds, and the children’s identities were obliterated through the effacement of their outward customs and manners as they scrounged for scraps in the gutters. It was finally decided that no one could determine their origins with certainty, for every child claimed to have been sired by the king, and so they were simply lined up in the market like so much chattel and auctioned to the highest bidder, as slaves of the barbarians or for adoption by surviving Sardesian adults. Since that time, each baby has been imprinted with a tiny, discreet tattoo shortly after birth, usually along the hairline on the nape of the neck, depicting an identifiable family symbol such as an animal or a letter.” A few sentences of background and you’ve got a cultural bit that almost instantly identifies people from Sardis. Great stuff.

4.       Unique Characters: Description can be a boring and tedious thing but making sure that the players remember the main attractions of the event is important! “Clearchus was as terrifying an individual as Proxenus had led us to believe, and worse. His face was so homely and pockmarked as to be almost comical, but he had an evil, jagged scar running halfway down the side of his temple, which he was constantly picking at, keeping it inflamed, perhaps intentionally, for effect. His beard was so ragged and lice-infested as to raise eyebrows even for a Spartan, and he never smiled – in fact, he hardly talked except to cuss out his men, and could barely chew for the rotten blackness of his teeth.”

If you’re looking for inspiration, The Ten Thousand deals it out chapter after chapter.

Master of Devils Appendix N Edition

Note this is my 'gaming muse' edition of Master of Devils. There will be spoilers below.

The Pathfinder setting is vast. In Master of Devils, Dave Gross takes his two main characters,  Count Varian Jeggare and bodyguard Radovan, to Tian Xia.

Tian Xia is the Pathfinder equivalent to Kara-Tur from the Forgotten Realms or Rogukan from Legend of the Five Rings.



In terms of gaming ideas, a few things hit me:

Missing Players: You ever play with someone on military leave due to being a reserve or someone who got a new job? In this novel, Radovan and his boss, Jeggare are separated at the start of the novel. Radovan goes through intense training and multiple encounters that in most situations would be far too dangerous for him.

At the end of the novel, Radovan goes back to his normal form and his normal abilities.

In such a situation, it would seem to me that the GM decided to run Radovan as an NPC and have him in the action even if he wasn't in the direct action. This allows the character to keep moving and doing things even if the player isn't there.

Chaosium way back in the day used to have a Runequest Cities book with a catch-up table that provided some fun stuff.

If you're looking to keep the group together, running one of the characters as an NPC for a brief time, even if you go ahead and make them into something a bit different can be one way to do it.

Mundane Encounters: One thing I see people post about running Kara-Tur or other 'Oriental Adventure' style games, is what type of adventurers should they have?

Normal ones.

Ancient China has numerous ruins. It'd be hard to believe that the fantasy versions of said settings don't.

Heck, even mundane encounters like bandits are acceptable. The very first thing we see in Master of Devils is that the duo and their wagon and guards are under attack by bandits! Sure, they have a funky name and my be using weird attacks or a different strategy, but at the end of the day, they're bandits!

This doesn't count that in a side quest going on later, there is an introduction to a goblin possessed of a kami. But mind you, this goblin has been kicked out of his clan. Numerous companies have a lot of great visuals if you're looking for ideas on how such goblins might look. The miniature game, Confrontation for example, has numerous goblins and ogres donned in Samurai and Ashigaru. 

The Exotic: So one of the things you can do when characters move to another setting, is bring out the strange things. There are numerous named characters here ranging from Jade Tiger to Judge Fang. Play around with appropriate names to the new setting but dont' go overboard with it because if every character name, every item name, every magic item, every spell, every combat maneuver starts sounding like an episode of Samurai Sunday, it'll become harder for the players to remember what all of that means.

But if you want to introduce the 'Shadowless Sword' a blade that moves so fast the sun cannot give it a shadow, or a few unique spells to the region, now's the time do to so.

Secrets: Along the telling of the story, there is a certain criteria that must be met in order for the characters to gain access to a dragon's 'heart pearl' and to use that to make a wish. (Dragon Ball Z in the house!). One of the characters that the readers, or at least most readers, assume is X, turns out to be Y and has that very criteria needed!

Another character appears initially to be merely a humble farmer but has too much skill and dedication and knowledge to be merely a farmer and turns out, he's actually a prince!

Characters that are more than one dimensional provide a great opportunity to add to the player's role-playing experiences. It can be boring in a campaign that's not focused on merely hack-and-slash, if all of the non-player-characters are one-dimensional pieces. Give them patrons that the characters might not appreciate. Give them hobbies that the players do appreciate. Give them outlooks that challenge the player's out outlooks.

The Big Dogs: Being the 'Oriental Adventurers' of the Pathfinder setting, it's great to see famous characters used. In this case, we get to see both the avatar and the Monkey King himself. The Monkey King is a famous religious/legendary character from various parts of China, similar to say, Thor or other more familiar deities.



Having a known element make an appearance can provide the characters a touchstone in the unfamiliar. This can work against you if you as a Game Master if you make those characters the focus of the campaign though so a light touch is needed with them.

Master of Devils looks as a non-standard setting and provides a lot of inspiration for game masters who might normally not appreciate running a non-standard campaign and is worth picking up for that reason alone.

Thief's Covenant (Gaming Edition)

Thief's Covenant
Written by Air Marmell
A Widdershins Adventure

Thief's Covenant is one of those novels I picked up on sale at one point for probably $1.99-$2.99 in kindle format. It was a quick read. If I saw the other novels on sale for a similar price, I'd buy but currently they are $9.99 for the Kindle and $16.99 in hardcover, although the Amazon sale price is $11.09.

In terms of gaming ideas, the start of the book, a prologue, would make a good point for a starting adventure. Too many times I've seen the dreaded "you all meet at a tavern." It's an old trope at this point.

One of the options writers are encouraged to use, is "start at the action" or perhaps "after the action". How many times for example, has a movie started off with someone walking through a battlefield, or waking up in a battlefield after the battle itself has already ended?

Thief's Covenant starts similarly with the main character, Widdershins, hiding from a demonic entity while those she knows are slaughtered beneath her.

One quick way to start a campaign, have the characters be in a huge fight that their side lost. The giants broke through the gates. The farms have been burned to the ground by enemy soldiers. The temple has collapsed due to demonic assault.

Another interesting point the book tackles, is faith and religious evolution. I've mentioned before how you can have an apostate for a church when the church changes and what was once canon is now heresy. This can also change by location. What is standard practice in one part of the world, may be different in another part of the world.

Even official game settings like the Forgotten Realms do this with Lathander temporarily becoming Amaunator and the whole church temporarily changing its focus.

Religion can play a large role in your campaign if you'll let it. Don't be afraid to have the actions of the deities and the church itself have an actual effect on the campaign. Incorporate those actions and the results of those actions into the campaign.

Another bit worth tinkering with in your campaign, is how do the various deities of a panethon get along. Do the pantheons have clean breaks as they often seem to in fantasy role playing settings or is there a lot of mixing as there tends to be historically? Do gods and goddessess become saints and angels? Do favorite tales and myths get repackaged?

In this setting, the gods belong to one faction and a foreign god is not expressely forbidden, but has no allies, has no structure to fall back upon. Another aspect to keep in mind when world building and letting the characters explore the campaign setting.



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The Eagles' Brood (Gaming Edition)

The Eagles' Brood
Written by Jack Whyte
Book 3 of the Camulod Chronicles
Price: $25.99 ($16.04 at Amazon)
Historical Fiction/Fantasy (Arthurian)
Pages: 623 (mass paperback)

Author Jack Whyte, author's website here, http://www.jackwhyte.com/ , has a lot of great bits in volume three of the Camulod Chronicles that anyone running a role playing game, ranging from Pendragon to Dungeons and Dragons and other games, can snag for their own campaigns.

Religion: Religion can be a tricky subject in role playing games that have a historical origin. However its important to note that even now, in 2016, people living today do not believe as people living one hundred years ago did.

Expand that out to hundreds of years ago, or thousands, or in a fantasy setting where the gods are real entities, and well, the subject of using religion in and of itself should be a no-brainer.

In The Eagles' Brood, there are two separate times that religion takes center point in a manner that should be incorporated into a RPG.

1. Funeral Celebration: When Merlyn's father, the son of one of the founders of the colony, of Camulod itself, is slain by assassins, the colony's morale is damaged. Merlyn is encouraged to set his father aflame, as the old tributes to Mithras, who was the Roman god of soldiers. This burning was like the bit in the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, where the keeper of the crown calls for he and his son to be burned like the kings of old!

In doing this, Merlyn makes his father more than a leader, he makes him into a martyr. He makes him into a hero. He makes him into a legend.

This turns the funeral into one that was somber and of despair into one of joy and triumph. 

2. Religious Schism: The second scene, is when Merlyn decides to visit a gathering of priests who are set to debate religion, or at least, Christian religion itself. History is sadly full of wars waged in the name of the "right" religion. A lively debate is far easier to handle. 

In a fantasy game, this isn't as hard to do as it may seem. In the Forgotten Realms, the Sun God has two identities. During the Twilight War, written by Paul S Kemp, the religion is changing at the time. It is going from one face of the Sun God to a harsher face.

In other venues of a pantheon, there could be discussion if the gods even exist at all. While in some settings like Planescape or the Forgotten Realms, the evidence may be obvious, in others like Eberon, it may not be so obvious.

Even in deity rich settings like the Forgotten Realms, some gods like Ao, a god above gods, may not want mortal worshipers, even actively discouraging them by providing their clerics with no power and never answering prayers. 

But why use such a thing in the first place? What is it going to bring to the campaign?

If you've ever run a campaign, especially a fantasy one or a space opera one, there is an old stereotype about "the bar" as a place for all characters to be.

But what if all the characters meet at one of these events? What if there is a gathering to discuss apostates and heresy? What if certain factions are cast out of the clergy itself? Are any of the player's some odd class that might be effected? Have worshippers of the god Tempus declared that psioncis are anathema to their cause and all psionic using professions be slain on sight?

Or what if the characters are all effected in some manner, by the death of a great hero whose funeral has been declared a holiday through the city? While the background of meeting in a bar might still remain true, the background why the characters are there, can be a little more varied. One could be a grandson, proud of the sacrifices made by his grandmother. Another could be a student from a school founded by the deceased hero. Others might be drawn near to hear tales of this character's greatness and to draw strength and inspiration from it.

And as an adventure seed, perhaps others are not so pleased and decide to attack on this holiday, leaving the players the only ones in the vicinity to halt this blasphemy. 

To make it even more interesting, you can have the attack lead by another student, one who was not impressed by this "false" hero, one whose so upset that they died because it proves all of their teachings were in vain and that other methods, harsher methods, must be embraced. 

It also provides the Game Master with reasons why high powered or well placed individuals might be around. The players may have social reason to be within reach of the powerful and well placed and well, if your players are anything like mine have been, there will be many a tale from that in and of itself that could provide hours of amusement.

Another thing that you can add to the campaign setting to make it more unique, is a new "site" or a new monument to the fallen hero. Characters may recall the first time they came together as a group over that monument and spill a decanter of wine to the fallen hero. They may assemble together every year during this holiday to forgive and forget old trespasses. 

Religion has a myriad of uses in a campaign setting and the Game Master should be on the lookout for every opportunity to utilize them and make his own gaming easier. 

The Singing Sword by Jack Whyte (Appendix N Edition)

The Singing Sword
Written by Jack Whyte
Published by Tor
$17.99 paperback ($12.93 Amazon)
560 pages (mass market paperback version)

When looking at things to take as inspiration from a novel, sometimes there are things we already know. Thing's we've already used. But things we haven't used in a long time. Game 'tricks' and 'tips' are like a muscle, when a specific technique isn't used in a while, it fades.

With that in mind:

Letters: Caius Britannicus son is a military son whose off fighting in various parts of the world. He writers his father several times. This allows the reader to get a taste of who leaders are in different parts of the world, what actions of importance are happening, and acts as potential foreshadowing to things that may happens in Caius' part of the world.

When looking at your own game, do the characters know people from other parts of the world that would think enough of them to send them letters? Many games, like Call of Cthulhu, make extensive use of the written word to relay vital information to the players. The author K. J. Parker makes good use of letters as communication in his novel, The Folding Knife.

But how can you use it in a game like Dungeons and Dragons say?

Look at it from a traditional class perspective:

Warriors: Those who are in a guild, might tell the players of new enemies that they have fought. They might send word of new weapons they have discovered. They might talk of new fortresses being built. 

Clerics: Might make mention old religious icons or texts found. Might mention the rise of an opposing religion. Might mention a prophet of their own religion that has been seen all about the world and tell the players to keep an eye out for him.

Wizards: Might speak of planar disruptions. Might talk about new spells that have been discovered. If the players are very friendly, might even include new spells. Not every spell needs to be torn from a crypt and if the players have invested the time and energy to cultivate good relations with others, those relations should also have a pay out.

Rogues: Might relate if a guild war has broken out. Might speak of a new "sheriff" in town. Might speak of a wagon full of riches that are moving into the player's area and the rogues will share this information... for a price!

Historians: Not all "classes" need to of an adventuring type. The players are often looking for lost legends and lore and historians can provide that. Try to give each historian it's own feel and flavor to insure that the characters can tell them apart in letters. Maybe one always sends missives that are stained with mustard and foodstuffs while another sends only immaculately clean and pressed letters with perfect writing.

Military: I've mentioned the military before because as an organization, it has a lot of utility. But one theme I failed to mention, is stuck behind enemy lines.

Being stuck behind enemy lines is a trope It's such a trope, that there are actually movies with it as the title. 



But there are all manner of scenarios to think about. There's the short term stuck behind enemy lines where the players have to fight their way out.

There's the short term where they have to sneak their way out.

But what about the long term? What if the players are part of a military group on an island where the natives destroy the military encampments and burn the boats and it's going to take at least a year for the player's reinforcements to get there?

What happens when the player's "friendly" alliance shows up? With they think the players have gotten too chummy with the natives? Will the players have to fight former friends and allies? 

The Singing Sword is filled with great ideas ranging from "The Lady of the Lack" being an ingot of Skystone metal that "gives" the sword Excalibur to the forging of bloodlines to save the ideas of civilization itself. 

The Skystone by Jack Whyte: Appendix N Edition

The SkyStone

Book One in the Camulod Chronicles

Written by Jack Whyte

Historical Fiction

I’ve already done my book review of the SkyStone, so now I’m going to talk about what I would think about in my own campaigns in relation to the book itself. Note this will include spoilers in the book.

1.       The Military: The viewpoint character, Publius Varrus, is former military. While he didn’t take an “arrow to the knee” as so popular in internet memes, he did suffer a wound that left him with a limp and unfit for military service.

But his time in the military did provide him with skills. It did provide him with access to a powerful organization. It did provide him with numerous contacts and friends.

When looking at your own campaigns, what role is the military playing in your campaign? Is it active? Is it at peak efficiency? Do they have new technologies? Are they known for their discipline? Are they known for a certain weapon style or fighting style?

Whose in the military? Varrus’ best friend, Caius Britannicus, is the soldier’s soldier in that there is nothing he asks of his men that he himself does not know how to do. When looking at your version of the military, whose running it? Are all branches run the same?

2.       Two Sides: In the SkyStone, Rome is at a dangerous time. There are those like Caius who represented what is finest in Rome. There are those who represent what Rome is now. Rome is seen by many as a parasite, a country unable to feed itself so it keeps conquest high on its list of priorities. The people suffer but the elite are wealthy beyond measure. Corruption runs rampant but in the “country” like say, Britain, life is cleaner somehow.

When looking at your own settings, are there places that have two sides to them? Most fantasy cities have a wealthy section and a poverty stricken section. This includes fantasy cities like Waterdeep as well as Mithril, the City of the Golem, from the Scarred Lands campaign. In the latter, Mithril, the city is run by paladins. They cannot eliminate poverty. There are paladins who are so involved in their “holy” and “righteous” aspects, that they  consider themselves above things in the lower wards.

3.       Trade: Towards the end of the Skystone, a wealthy duo find that they are finished not because of anything they have done wrong, but because the country is unable to safeguard the waterways. All of their ships suffer raids and capture from pirates. The land routes don’t fare much better.

While not often touched on in most campaigns, trade is an artery of the world. Without trade, how do things get done? Does famine happen? Do certain types of weapons go out of style as the expertise to make them is no longer known?

If you’re trying to incorporate such elements, have the players enjoy something from outside of the normal reach. It could be an exotic fruit at the market. “Ah, these mangos sure do hit the spot eh?”

And then as the campaign moves on, those mangos are nowhere to be found.

Now players being players, hey, they’ll often try to jump right in and fix things. And if you want to run your campaign around the characters selling their services as  caravan guards or military strength on boat escort duty, there have been many adventurers that start that way.

It gives the Game Master a great opportunity to create characters. For example, maybe someone on the  caravan is a traitor? They’ve already sold out the location and known stops of the caravan. Perhaps one of the player’s lost his character in a previous fight and this allows the Game Master to easily allow a new character from a variety of sources.

4.       Making Your Own Legends: While Excalibur is not forged in the SkyStone, the hunt for the SkyStone itself takes place over the course of years. Given that the next book is the Singing Sword, one can only imagine that the main character, Varrus, is going to forge Excalibur in that book.

One of the fun things about the old Forgotten Realms novel, The Crystal Shard, is that the dwarf fighter in the book, makes a magical hammer, Aegis Fang, that he gives to Wulfgar as a token of his respect and fatherly love.

Often players and non-player characters move around the game board hunting down old items. Centuries old, millennia old, eons old. So ancient it came from  beyond the creation of the universe.

Don’t hesitate to allow the players to make their mark on the campaign in other ways. Having them make a brand new item with it’s own legends and lore, the gathering of the components, the gathering of the knowledge required to forge the item, the places that have to be visited, the people that must be spoken to, those things can add a lot of depth to a campaign and in the end, give it a new legend that future players and characters will come to know as opposed to “hunt down this 10,000 year old sword.”

The SkyStone is brimming with ideas if you want to apply them to your own  campaign.

While The Black Stars Burn

While The Black Stars Burn
By Lucy A. Snyder
$4.99 on Amazon
166 pages

One of the things I enjoy about short stories, is I can fit them in when I'm waiting for someone, riding the busy, or just looking to kill a few minutes.

Not too long ago, Amazon had While The Black Stars Burn on sale for 99 cents. As I am a book hoarder, I picked it up. I'd never heard of Lucy A. Snyder previously and was eager to see how I'd like her writing style.

The book includes several short stories that fit straight into the 'horror' genre. A few of them fall into the Lovecraft vein. One of them is a Doctor Who short story.

I found that the original works tended to be a little more telling for me. Her writing chops are fantastic. If anything, the thing that annoyed me most about While The Black Stars Burn, is that a lot of the stories end just when their getting "good", when my interest in them was at its peak.

If you're a Call of Cthulhu "Keeper", you should pick this up. There are several bits that fit right into a horror story right away.

The Strange Architecture of the Heart: In a war ridden society, the bonds between people may be fragile but that between mistress and robotic sex slave? Priceless! I'm not even kidding. The strain of living in a foreign land and having to work puts a woman more at home with a robot that does all it can to please the woman and her desire for a family. Solid social opinion.

Approaching Lavender: Here's a great "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" using a different medium instead of plants. Imagine you marry someone but they turn out to not be who you thought? Imagine that you sadly find out you were right as your own life is taken over by a painting.

The set up and slow build in Approaching Lavender are fantastic and it would make for a great one off, where the characters notice after a large art show opening that people have changed, or as part of an ongoing campaign where one of the character's friends exhibits vast differences in outlook and opinion.

Dura Mater: If you've ever watched the horror-science fiction movie, Event Horizon, this one shares some themes. Isolation, horror, the unknown. It goes with a more traditional "alien/outer alien" then the whole "Warp/Hell" bit of Event Horizon, but again, if you run one off's, this would be a great story to structure around.

Cthylla: Of the directly inspired Cthulhu stories, this one is the best. A young woman, the daughter of a computer scientist and a model, finds herself like neither of them and in being an outside, gets caught up with another outsider. The layers of conspiracy that get pulled back and the descriptive prose make the "switch" ending worth while and provide a great "cult" enemy for Keepers looking to add something to their campaigns. 

In terms of fantasy, there's one story that stands out, Spinwebs. A family owns spiders but the mob mentality against their ownership is  turning hostile. A young girl and a newly hatched egg are going to fight against that tide. But just when that determination is made, the story ends. Still, in the span of a few pages, the world building that happens is great. 

If you're looking for inspiration for horror one shots or direct stealing for a Call of Cthulhu RPG, While The Black Stars Burn is a well written book.

The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes

Finished off Sam Sykes' The City Stained Red.

Great stuff.

There are a few authors I'd compare Sam's style to. Might give any readers a frame of reference as to not only my preferences in terms of grouping, but how Sam compares to others.

K J Parker, author of books like the Folding Knife.

Mark Lawrence, author of series like The Broken Empire (Prince of Thorns, etc...)

Joe Abercrombie, author of books like Half A King.

These authors tend to be a little darker.

They tend to be a little... funnier. There is a fair amount of sarcasm not only in how the world acts, but in how the characters tend to see themselves.

They are also solid writers.

In the City Stained Red, a group of adventurers makes their way to the City of Silk to collect overdue pay only to wind up knee deep in the dead.

How can a game master use such a fantasy novel in their own games?

1. Steal the Setting: The City of Silk has a lot going on for it. There are numerous guilds, organizations, and tension that run underneath it all. The city is known for it's silk and all of the sudden, one of the merchants of silk starts making silk better than anyone else. His secret? Hey, feed those giant spiders people! Turns out a strong silk.

In terms of silk, anyone remember the old Arduin books? These were little fantasy books meant to be their own system as well as work with old school Dungeons and Dragons. One of the things you could get in it, was Spiga Silk. There were different types of these monsters, indicated by color, but at best, one of these types of silk had the protection of plate mail armor and hey, as a thief? Effectively wearing no armor meant a boost to your skills.

2. Blow it up: They always say you should murder your children right? By the end of the City Stained Red, the City of Silk has undergone massive change. Religious wars, guild wars, and perhaps the end of the world on the horizon. Hundreds if not thousands of people dead, whole power structures shifted. All the things that make moving forward even more entertaining.

3. Surprise! At the end of the book, the 'leader' of the group discovers that a 'friend' of his is not what he seems. Not what he seems at all. It's going to lead to some entertainment in the next book for sure.

There are other bits I could talk about. There's the world structure itself. The familiar yet different fantasy races. The icons that fit into standard fantasy given a slight tilt to make them interesting to the reader.

But really you should get yourself a copy and read it.

The City Stained Red (Bring Down Heaven) by Sam Sykes

The City Stained Red (Bring Down Heaven)
640 Pages
Published by Orbit
Written by Sam Sykes
$16.00/$14.37 at Amazon

I'm a book hoarder. If it goes on sale and I have some extra money, it goes on the shelf. This is especially true of digital books as the digital shelf has a lot more room.

Many moons ago I picked up book one of Bring Down Heaven, The City Stained Red, and thought no more of it.

A mistake I'm rectifying now. I'm still reading it, but it's highly enjoyable and very much fits into a classic Appendix N read fit for roleplaying inspiration.

The tone is highly sarcastic, a touch dark, and not shy. There is more than a little profanity and amusement to be found in Sam Sykes anti-heroes. The world is also not a pleasant one as some of his fantasy race analogs tend to be more than rough around the edges.

So what did I like about the writing? What makes it fit into some role playing modes? Here's a nice bit from the start.

"You're an adventurer." He spat the word. "Too cowardly to be a mercenary, too greedy to be a soldier, too dense to be a thief. Your profession is wedged neatly between whores and grave robbers in terms of respectability, your trade is death and carnage, and your main asset is that you're completely expendable."

There's a lot of things like that.

Now if you're looking for Lord of the Rings, Conan, or even Elric type heroics, then no, The City Stained Red is just not going to do it for you. While there are great battles and numerous factions to watch for, these characters are not necessarily cut from the same cloth as say the Twain or Hawkmoon.

But if you've enjoyed some Parker novels like The Folding Knife or the Hammer, or some Prince of Thorns... it's right up there.

In terms of little seeds you can steal and use in a RPG right away, consider the following:

1. Gang War: Often used in Samurai movies and remakes of those samurai movies, there's nothing quite like walking through town and finding yourself in the middle of a gang war as strange but distinct individuals from two clans are gunning for each other and whoever gets in their way.

2. Access Denied: The quote about adventurers occurs when one of the heroes is trying to get access to "the city" and denied. Often it's assumed that characters have free reign to go where they want. In today's highly political world, in today's highly untrusting world, in today's world looking for easy scapegoats, that might not be the case. Perhaps one of the demi-humans like elves or dwarves are wanted for crimes against the kingdom. Perhaps all Northern Men are distrusted. Whatever the cause, getting to the city in the standard fashion just isn't going to cut it.

3. Media Res: Start the campaign off after the adventure while the characters are looking to get paid. They agreed to take on a job and now their benefactor has wandered off. Was it intentional? Was it a kidnapping? Is he trying to stiff the party on the bill?

4.City Sights: There are two noted things that the reader gets to experience through the characters. One is a statue of "The Hound Mistress", a well loved figure who defeated, at least temporarily, a guild of rogues and assassins known as the Jackals. The other is a massive tower structure that looks like it couldn't have been made by humans because it wasn't. Try to give your cities their own unique personalities, especially in longer term campaigns. 

Same Sykes does a great job of bringing a lot of classic fantasy elements to the table with a modern sarcastic tone and I'm highly enjoying it and may have more to say after I finish off the novel.

Anyone else read The City Stained Red? Any favorite parts?

Is Sam Sykes follow up a solid read? His other works?

Hit me up in the comments with similar recommendations!