The Wilderness Architect

[badger2305]

The Wilderness Architect Part One:
The Interesting Wilderness

This is the first of a series of articles about constructing a wilderness setting to complement your dungeon. It was inspired by discussions here and knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4072, as well as by a series of excellent articles on dungeon design by Roger Musson in White Dwarf #25-27, entitled "The Dungeon Architect, Parts 1, 2, and 3."

The intent of this article is to examine and analyze the rules for wilderness adventures for OD&D. What is presented here is intended as only one interpretation of the rules presented in the original three booklets; referees are encouraged to develop their own understandings of how these things work. It is not intended to authoritative, but rather speculative in character.

The best beginning point for this analysis is the description given for the wilderness as presented in The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures:

“The so-called Wilderness really consists of unexplored land, cities and castles, not to mention the area immediately surrounding the castle (ruined or otherwise) which housed the dungeons. The referee must do several things in order to conduct wilderness adventure games. First he must have a ground level map of the dungeons, a map of the terrain immediately surrounding this, and a map of the town or village closest to the dungeons (where the adventurers will be most likely to base themselves)….

The terrain beyond the immediate surroundings of the dungeon area should be unknown to all but the referee. Offhand adventures in the wilderness are made on the Outdoor Survival playing board (explained below). Exploratory journeys, such as expeditions to find land suitable for a castle or in search of some legendary treasure are handled in an entirely different manner.” (emphasis added)

While the players are not expected to know about the area surrounding the dungeon, the opposite is true for the referee. A referee needs to know the “lay of the land” surrounding the dungeon, whether they use the Outdoor Survival map, or construct a wilderness from their own imagination. It’s possible that the Outdoor Survival map was something of a stand-in for the purpose of conducting wilderness adventures; it is worth noting that neither Greyhawk nor Blackmoor as campaigns used the Outdoor Survival map. Regardless of the referee’s choice, the map needs to be designed and detailed for adventures outside the dungeon. The reference to the “so-called Wilderness” – given other references to settled areas, towns and cities, etc. suggests that ‘wilderness’ as a general term– not unlike ‘level’ – has multiple meanings. In this case, it can be broken into two distinct definitions: first, the entire area outside of the dungeon, but also second, the uncivilized areas beyond settled areas (I’ll come back to this further below).

REFEREE’S MAP is a wilderness map unknown to the players. It should be for the territory around the dungeon location. When players venture into this area they should have a blank hexagon map, and as their move over each hex the referee will inform them as to what kind of terrain is in that hex. This form of exploring will eventually enable players to know the lay of the land in their immediate area and thus be able to select a site upon which to build their castles (Castle building and its attendant requirements will be covered hereafter). Exploratory adventures are likely to be the most exciting, and their incorporation into the campaign is most desirable. (emphasis added)

(part one of three)

[badger2305]

Castle Encounters:
Potential adventures in the wilderness when dealing with castle inhabitants include: jousting with Lords, being sent on treasure finding expeditions by Wizards, being sent on a Quest of some sort by a Patriarch or EHP. There are also possibilities of rumors, legends, and other information. Generally speaking, these high-level characters will have complementary characters with them, e.g. a Wizard has a 25% of a 5-8th level Fighter as a companion, as well as various additional forces – 30-180 troops manning the walls. There is also the chance of encountering wandering monsters in the wilderness, and generally speaking, these encounters are fairly dangerous.

What’s interesting is that the inhabitants of a castle will pursue a party of adventurers, 50% of the time if hostile to the party, and 1-in-6 if neutral. There are rules for pursuit, to be used by castle inhabitants as well as wandering monsters. Keep this in mind, as I’ll come back to that, further below.

Stronghold Construction
There is an expectation that eventually players will adventure outside of the dungeon and its environs, and set up strongholds. In Men and Magic it is made clear that high-level player characters are expected to build strongholds. Fighting men who reach the rank of Lord may be considered “Barons” (though no explanation of how the feudal hierarchy actually is set up or how it might work – presumably this is left to the referee to define and develop) and have some ability to tax the inhabitants of their baronies. Clerics who become Patriarchs are specifically mentioned as getting additional assistance in stronghold construction as well as the appearance of troops made up of the “faithful” who serve loyally and at no cost (!). It is implied that Magic-Users who become Wizards also have the option of building strongholds as well as constructing magical items.

At any time a player/character wishes he may select a portion of land (or a city lot) (emphasis added) upon which to build his castle, tower, or whatever….

There’s a clear distinction made between general wilderness adventures and stronghold construction, but also a clear connection, as well. Let me illustrate this with a quote:

Another advantage accruing to those who build their strongholds in the wilderness is that they will gain control over the surrounding countryside. Clearing the countryside of monsters is the first requirement. (emphasis added) Territories up to 20 miles distant from a stronghold may be kept clear of monsters once cleared – the inhabitation of the stronghold being considered as sufficient to maintain the monster-free status.

There are rules for stronghold construction costs, taxation and hiring of specialists and troops as assistants to the player/characters. This runs conceptually in parallel with the rules for determining the inhabitants of castles and their followers and assistants.

(part two of three)

[badger2305]

Some Implications
There are some fascinating implications of these rules, once examined more closely. Reading the usage of ‘wilderness’ as being entirely wild is, I would suggest, a misunderstanding. How do we resolve this? I would suggest that some hints do exist. The phrase “so-called Wilderness” and the description that followed suggests that there is a distinction made between civilized and true “wilderness” areas; the entire “Wilderness” is better read as a “blanket term,” including truly wild areas, as well as settled areas, including cities and towns.

This is one of the particular lacunae in the rules that have resulted in lasting confusion – so when and where are the wilderness encounter tables supposed to be used? An indiscriminate read would suggest “everywhere” but the suggestion that strongholds control areas that are monster-free suggest otherwise. Viewed in this light, “castle encounters” are encounters with high-level characters that have constructed their own strongholds; the area surrounding a stronghold should no longer be considered truly “wilderness.” By this token, a party of player-characters is a kind of ‘wandering monster’ as far as the local Baron might be concerned – no wonder castle inhabitants are initially either neutral or hostile. Pursuit of player-characters by castle inhabitants is part of keeping the area “monster-free.” As a consequence, the wilderness encounter tables should not be used – what encounters that take place are up to the referee to determine.

Assuming that a referee will construct their own wilderness map, a la Greyhawk or Blackmoor (and not use the Outdoor Survival map), the dungeon as a site of adventure needs to be located either in the true wilderness (but not too far away!) or within the boundaries of civilized lands. By recognizing the connection between existing strongholds and the preconditions for players to establish their own castles, it is possible to discern what can be considered ‘civilized’ areas – the existence of which would make it much easier for low-level characters to survive. One could even construct a rationale for dungeon expeditions as a kind of deeper clearing of monsters to keep a stronghold safe and secure.

All of this builds a better rationale for how the ‘wilderness’ works in an Original D&D campaign. From a mythic perspective, there is the distinction between lands inhabited by ordinary creatures and the realm of Faerie, which for D&D purposes calls for a distinction between civilized areas and true wilderness. It also provides a very real sense of marking maps with phrases such as “here there be dragons” because it would be true in the ‘wilderness’ away from settled areas. This also runs in parallel with fantasy literature that distinguishes between settled lands and the Wild – a good example may be found in The Hobbit:

At first they had passed through hobbit-lands, a wide respectable country inhabited by decent folk, with good roads, an inn or two, and now and then a dwarf or farmer ambling by on business. Then they came to lands where people spoke strangely, and sang songs Bilbo had never heard before. Now they had gone on far into the Lone-lands, where there were no people left, no inns, and the roads grew steadily worse. Not far head were dreary hills, rising higher and higher, dark with trees. On some of them were old castles with an evil look, as if they had been built by wicked people.

Other examples include the alternate Europe of Three Hearts and Three Lions, and the general distinction in Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories between the “soft” civilized lands and the more dangerous wilderness areas.

What About Cities and Towns?
Besides castles, strongholds, wilderness and dungeons, there is also mention made of cities and towns (there is even a table for “wilderness” encounters in cities). Cities and towns may also figure as the setting for adventures:

‘Blackmoor’ is a village of small size (a one-horse town), while ‘Greyhawk’ is a large city. Both have maps with streets and buildings indicated, and players can have town adventures roaming around the bazaars, inns, taverns, shops, temples, and so on. (Venture into the Thieves Quarter at your own risk!).

So the construction of the ‘Wilderness’ might encompass urban areas, as well. Given the encounter table mentioned above, and the conceptual distinction between truly wild and ‘monster-free’ areas, such ‘wilderness’ encounters in cities and town should be limited to abandoned buildings, graveyards, and other localized places of mystery. Such things are hinted at in the stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser:

But southward, linked to the desert only by the Sinking Land and the Mountains of Hunger, are the rich grainfields and walled cities of Lankhmar, eldest and chiefest of Nehwon’s lands. Dominating the Land of Lankhmar and crouching at the silty mouth of the River Hlal in a secure corner between the grainfields, the Great Salt Marsh, and the Inner Sea is the massive-walled and mazy-alleyed metropolis of Lankhmar, thick with thieves and shaven priests, lean-framed magicians and fat-bellied merchants – Lankhmar the Imperishable, the City of the Black Toga.

In the next installment of this series, I will explore how to create a “wilderness,” and then use the existing rules to provide some structure for an on-going campaign.

[coffee]

Apr 12, 2008 21:52:36 GMT -6 badger2305 said:

It’s possible that the Outdoor Survival map was something of a stand-in for the purpose of conducting wilderness adventures; it is worth noting that neither Greyhawk nor Blackmoor as campaigns used the Outdoor Survival map.

But Blackmoor did. My understanding, gleaned from something I read online somewhere (I can't remember), the Outdoor Survival map was called the Southlands and was situated directly south of the Blackmoor map from First Fantasy Campaign.

But that's neither here nor there; it was clearly mentioned in D&D for random wilderness adventures.

I very much like what you're doing here and look forward to the rest of the series! Have an exalt.

[driver]

Apr 12, 2008 22:21:26 GMT -6 coffee said:

But Blackmoor did. My understanding, gleaned from something I read online somewhere (I can't remember), the Outdoor Survival map was called the Southlands and was situated directly south of the Blackmoor map from First Fantasy Campaign.

May be thinking about this thread:

wayfarer.myfreeforum.org/ftopic232-0-asc-0.php

[coffee]

I've never seen that thread before.

Must have been someone talking about that thread, though, and maybe I got confused.

Oh, well.

(But I coulda swore somebody said something about Dave Arneson using that map...)

EDIT: Found it! It was Dave Arneson who said something about Dave Arneson using the Outdoor Survival map. See this thread:

www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=50013

[foster1941]

Dave Arneson mentions in First Fantasy Campaign that they used the OS map south of the main Blackmoor map, and that's been corroborated by one or more of the players.

The point about characters with strongholds being able to keep a 20 mile radius free of monsters (and the implication that oher strongholds and settlements do the same) is well made, and answers the question of how low-level characters in D&D can survive travel in the wilderness: they don't venture more than 20 miles (about a day's walk) from settlements except as part of large (100+ person) caravans under heavy guard (see the Vol. II descriptions of nomads and dervishes, and the AD&D MM descriptions of merchants and pilgrims). Note that in both of the original campaigns the central "megadungeon" was located well within this 20 mile radius -- Castle Blackmoor is literally right in town, and Castle Greyhawk is seemingly only a few miles away, an hour or two's walk at most.

[blackbarn]

Even though Arneson used the OS map as his Southlands, the point made in this thread stands, since he seems to have used it only as an add-on to his first original map.

Interesting read, regardless!

[korgoth]

Excellent thread! Wilderness design is a bit of a weak point for me. I'd like to see Wilderlands some time... I've never actually seen it but the approach sounds good.

Anyway, I like the idea that overland travel can be a game in itself, but I've never really done it up right and I haven't seen it done thus, either. In my experience most outdoor adventuring has been "run the gauntlet of x number of encounters the DM has decided to throw at you, and then get to the adventure location".

[John Stark]

I was recently going through the OD&D/AD&D books to work up a document of advice, topics, and tables for dungeon design, and was thinking about doing the same for wilderness adventures, so this post is timely for me!

Running wilderness adventures is the hardest part of any campaign for me, and to be honest I usually fudge it with a few encounters along the way before the party gets to the next town/city or dungeon. I've been wanting to come up with a solid system for running a wilderness exploration campaign, but given my dungeon-centric play style I haven't gotten around to it.

I look forward to more posts and input on this theme from others.

[badger2305]

Part Two will be along tomorrow, if I can get a couple of other things done. Thank you everyone for the encouragement.

[makofan]

The idea that 20 miles around a castle/settlement is "cleared land" really helps my thinking in so many ways, and explains how to run a lot of the Judges Guild stuff. I like it.

[badger2305]

The Wilderness Architect Part Two:
The Constructed Wilderness

This is the second of a series of articles about constructing a wilderness setting to complement your dungeon. It was inspired by discussions here and knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4072, as well as by a series of excellent articles on dungeon design by Roger Musson in White Dwarf #25-27, entitled "The Dungeon Architect, Parts 1, 2, and 3."

The intent of this article is to provide a set of game mechanics for constructing wilderness settings for OD&D. As I mentioned in The Wilderness Architect Part One, what is presented here is intended as only one rules interpretation; referees are encouraged to develop their own understandings of how these things work. It is not intended to authoritative, but rather speculative in character. In particular, the objective of these articles is to provide the means for creating worthwhile settings for wilderness adventure, within the framework of the original three booklets, specifically The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures.

As was previous discussed, the “wilderness” is the entire area outside of the dungeon, including both settled and wild areas. Settled areas include strongholds, cities, towns, and villages, as well as areas regularly patrolled and cleared of monsters. Given the similarities between “castle encounters” and the establishment of strongholds by player-characters, it is fairly straightforward to use both sections from The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures to design your own original wilderness. However, before proceeding to this stage, we need a system for creating the actual wilderness terrain.

Constructing the Wilderness Terrain
A starting assumption is that referees will want to create their own wilderness settings for adventure, rather than using the Outdoor Survival gameboard.

The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures provides seven kinds of wilderness terrain: clear, woods, river, swamp, mountains, desert, and city. There are also suggestions for arid plains, as well as waterbourne encounters. Leaving cities aside for the moment, the remaining terrain types may be utilized in generating the wilderness setting for a campaign. A fairly simple system for doing this is presented immediately below; to make use of this, it is suggested you use the following:

• Hexagon graph paper: I used hexagon paper generated online, from incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal, in .5” hexes, and also in .1” hexes.
  
• Colored pencils, preferably in at least 12 colors (I used a set of pencils in 24 colors; using roughly a third of them)
  
• Fine-point Sharpie or other permanent black marker
  
• Dice; six-siders will do.
  

Take a sheet of the smaller-sized hex paper, and mark off an area that is approximately 10 hexes by 10 hexes. I simply ruled the sheet into quarters, and then each quarter into four smaller quarters. Each of the smaller quarters was ten hexes wide by eleven hexes tall. Treat each hex as five miles across. For the purposes of mapping, assume your stronghold or town will be in the center of the map; placement of your dungeon comes later. At all stages of this process, you may decide on your own the character of the terrain, its inhabitants, etc., rather than rolling randomly. (Any resemblance to Traveller’s subsector maps is purely coincidental, however.)

Generate terrain type. You may do this starting either with the hex your town or stronghold is located in, or simply start in the upper left corner of your map. Use one of the following charts (or construct your own), rolling a six-sider to begin:

“European” Terrain: (this is to provide northern European-like terrain possibilities)

1:	Mountains or Hills; re-roll immediately – 1-3, mountains, 4-6, hills
2:	Desert or Steppe; re-roll immediately – 1-2, desert, 3-6, steppe (“arid plains”)
3:	Clear
4:	Woods
5:	Woods
6:	Water or Swamp; re-roll immediately – 1-2, swamp, 3-6, open water

“Arid” Terrain: (this is to provide either Middle Eastern or North African-like terrain possibilities)

1:	Mountains or Hills; re-roll immediately – 1-3, mountains, 4-6, hills
2:	Water or Swamp; re-roll immediately – 1-2, water, 3-6, swamp
3:	Woods
4:	Clear
5:	Steppe
6:	Desert

Once you have generated the terrain type, proceed to the next hex. Consult the following table, rolling a six-sider:
Terrain Change:

1:	Re-roll terrain type, using the original table.
2:	Terrain stays the same as the previous hex
3:	Terrain stays the same as the previous hex
4:	Even chance of adjacent terrain types, e.g. if a woods hex and a clear hex are adjacent to the hex in question, there is a 50/50 chance of it being either woods or clear.
5:	Terrain is one step lower than previous hex, e.g. if the previous hex was woods (roll of “4’), using the European Terrain table, the hex in question will be clear (roll of “3”).
6:	Terrain is one step higher than previous hex e.g. if the previous hex was woods (roll of “5”), using the European Terrain table, the hex in question will be water or swamp (roll of “6”).

Roll for each hex until you have determined terrain types for all hexes in question. There are, however, two exceptions to this, open water and desert. Both of these terrain types may represent relatively large areas, and so when you encounter them, you may wish to apply the following exceptions:

In the case of open water, three or more adjacent water hexes (including swamp) may constitute a shore line. Roll for adjacent hexes: 1-2, no water (roll for land terrain type; desert not possible); 3-6, water continues. Roll for succeeding hexes until the map edge is reached, or there are no more water hexes.

In the case of desert, three or more adjacent desert hexes may constitute a desert edge. Roll for adjacent hexes as for shoreline, except that the result will be: 1-2, no desert (roll for land terrain type; open water not possible), 3-6 desert continues. Roll for succeeding hexes until the map edge is reached, or there are no more desert hexes.

No particular claim is made for verisimilitude; indeed, you may come up with what seem like impossible kinds of terrain next to one another. Keep in mind this is intended to generate fantasy terrain, so consider carefully why things have been seemingly thrown together – you may find interesting adventure possibilities! But if none of it makes sense, simply re-roll or decide for yourself what kind of terrain should be present.

(Part One of Three)

[badger2305]

Constructing a Town or Stronghold
Once you have the terrain generated for your wilderness, you may then proceed to generate the town or stronghold in the center of your map. Use the following chart, rolling a six-sided die:

Town/Stronghold Type:

1-4:	Castle/Stronghold; roll as per Castle Encounters (pg. 15, in The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures)
5:	Town; re-roll immediately: 1-4, small, 5-6, large
6:	Town or City; re-roll immediately: 1-2, small town; 3-5 large town; 6, city

The population of towns varies: small towns have between 200-500 people (roll 1D4+1), making them slightly larger than villages. Large towns have 300-1,800 people (roll 3D6), and cities have 2,000 to 24,000 inhabitants (roll 2D12). (Feel free to adjust these numbers to fit your campaign; these are merely intended as a suggestion.).

For important residents of towns, roll on the Castle Encounters table, noting down if the castle resident would be a fighting man, magic-user, or cleric (NB: this roll is only to inform your next roll; no actual Lord or Wizard or Patriarch is indicated by this initial dice roll). Then roll to see if there are others in the castle’s party (as per pg. 16, The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures); once for a small town, twice for a large town, and six times for a city; the results indicate who the important residents are. If you are using Greyhawk, you may also see if there are thieves present:

10% in a small town	levels 3-6
25% in a large town	levels 4-7
50% in a city	levels 6-10

Note:The preceding is the most speculative portion of this article; the rationale for the system of generating important town residents is fairly straightforward, however. The character of town and city life is relatively more egalitarian than strongholds and castles, or so it seems to me. Therefore, I wanted a system that generated a greater number of relatively mid-level characters, particularly for cities, than for strongholds. If you feel it important to have a high level character as a town or city resident (or more than one!), simply treat the initial roll for castle resident as an actual result.

Once you have generated the stronghold, making sure to include the occupant(s), guards/retainers, others in the party, and total number of ordinary guards, proceed to generate the number of villages included in the area, as per the rules for Baronies (see pg. 24, The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures). There will be 2-8 villages, each with 100-400 people.

The location of villages is determined using the following charts, rolling a six-sided die first for direction, then for distance:

Village direction:

1:	North
2:	Northeast
3:	Southeast
4:	South
5:	Southwest
6:	Northwest

Village distance:

1:	same hex as stronghold/town
2:	5 miles away (1 hex)
3:	10 miles away (2 hexes)
4:	15 miles away (3 hexes)
5:	20 miles away (4 hexes)
6:	25 miles away (5 hexes)

You may find it worthwhile to roll for “drift” to one side or the other of the general direction given on the first table; this will avoid “straight-line” connections between strongholds and villages (the exact method is left to the discretion of the referee). Should a village be indicated in the same hex as a previous village, treat the result as a small town with the combined population of both villages.

Dungeon Location
The last step is to determine where your dungeon is located. As a place of adventure, it is assumed that the dungeon is somewhere within the boundaries of the local holding (whether it is a town or stronghold). To determine the location of the dungeon, roll on the same tables as for determining village location, applying a –2 die modifier to the distance roll, e.g. any roll of 1-3 would place the dungeon in the same hex as the stronghold/town.

By the time you have finished your general wilderness map, you may wish to keep the exact location of the dungeon hidden initially from the players – or it may be an item of local knowledge, clearly marked on the players’ map. Whatever your choice is, you may wish to use tracing paper overlays to keep track of the dungeon location, as well as the location of other places of mystery as well as powerful monster lairs. Another suggestion would be to make a copy of your map for the players before you've added in all of the detail about Things Players Were Not Meant To Know (Quite Yet).

(Part Two of Three)

[badger2305]

Wilderness Terrain Example
The following map was randomly generated, using the methods presented earlier in this article. Colors indicate the following:

• Yellow: Steppe
  
• Grey: Desert
  
• Brown: Hills
  
• Purple: Mountains
  
• Light Green: Clear
  
• Forest Green: Forest
  
• Blue Green: Swamp
  
• Blue: Water
  

picasaweb.google.com/badger2305/MyPictures/photo?authkey=g3igAjkD_7A#5188077531142965986

The terrain description is as follows: in the northwest, hills are bracketed on the north and south by rocky desert, with steppes further south. Just east, there are areas of clear land and steppe, giving way to hills and past that, forest. In the south there is a lake or sound that extends in a chevron off to the east, with mountains on the north and south sides of the water (and a swamp in the southeastern edge of shoreline). Another lake can be found in the northeast, surrounded by forest, which can also be found in the southeast. The stronghold is on the northern shore of the lake or sound, just east of the mountains and hills on the shoreline.

Generating our stronghold, we find that it is a castle, inhabited by a necromancer of neutral alignment. Our necromancer has a 7th level fighter also resident, and a 6th level magic-user apprentice. There are two chimeras and 100 soldiers. There are eight villages indicated; two combine into a town of 600 by the stronghold, and two others combine into a town of 800 on the western shore of the large body of water. The other four are located as follows: one is 15 miles north of the stronghold in the middle of forest, another is 5 miles southwest, leading up to a pass between mountains. A third is off to the southeast, almost in the land of another holding, and the last is directly across the water to the south, leading up into the mountains.

As for the dungeon, dice rolling indicates that it is in the same hex as the village across the water from the stronghold. A bit of consideration places the dungeon in the high hills above the village, probably guarded by troops of the necromancer.

In Part Three, I will detail this example further, and provide further considerations to keep in mind when generating a wilderness as a setting for adventure.

[badger2305]

I would be very interested in other tests of the system I've presented above. Please feel free to try it out and post your results here. Thank you for reading and commenting!

[robertsconley]

I made a version of the southland map in judges guild using the rules in OD&D.

home.earthlink.net/~wilderlands/southlandsm.jpg

note the scale should be 5 miles per hex not the 3 I have marked.

[jochen]

I enjoyed very much reading this thread. It deals with one of my favorite topics, fantastic medieval geography. This is why I read the part on on keeps, villages and baronies in the Underworld&Wilderness with great interest. When I studied medieval history (unfortunately not brought it to the end), these things and especially the field-trips to ruined keeps where my favorite topic. We would learn a lot of facts about medieval warfare, everyday life, and diplomacy/politics.
So why I am posting is that I like to say that you may tweak the rules on campaign world building according to how much fantasy will be in your campaign.
In D&D, for example the keeps are lead by quite high level NPCs who look after having their barony "monster-clean" in a radius of 20 miles. I guess historical lords of castles where not that powerful as D&D castle lords are considered to be. This may be the reason why you would find a bunch of castles in a 20 miles radius if you look at some actual maps.
Myself prefer more the D&D way because I find it more playable if you do not run into a keep every second to third 5-mile-hex you enter, but I felt like leaving this note for those referees whose campaign is more low fantasy.
Taking lots of fun from these kinds of considerations, I just took the area where I actually live and looked up how many keeps there are (next to all of them pretty ruined today of course). What I found is a quite nice map showing you where castles where situated, and it's a goodly number. Again, one can not expect that these keeps all existed simultaneously in the very same time, but nonetheless one can say that at least in the later middle-ages nearly all of them were there.
So here's is a link to the map if you are interested:
(NOTE: A direct link somehow does not work there, so you need to click on Burgenkarte on the left side of the screen you are displayed by this link below)
www.breisgau-burgen.de/
If you do it right, then you will be navigated to an interactive map. If you can't find it, pick this link here to get an image of the same map:
img245.imageshack.us/my.php?image=burgenkartery9.jpg


The map you hopefully see then shows is lacking a caption so I need to add that from the top north to the very south of the map it would be roughly about 70 miles or 110 kilometers. Further, not all villages and towns which are actually there are shown on the map, since it is merely about the keeps with a few towns and cities for orientation. If you like, you can check this area out in google maps or something like this, if you want to see all the towns and the physical shape of the area.

I humbly hope that this may be interesting for someone who is just building his or her campaign map.


Edit: I just found something else very cool. The city you see in the center of the map, Freiburg, has been built up as a model to show how it looked in the 13th century. You can check it out for inspiration by clicking this link to a picture of it:
img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freiburg13vg7.jpg
and another picture displaying the remains of the city center in '44 showing one of the reasons why war sucks:
fudder.de/fileadmin/media/user/david/fraib44.jpg

[badger2305]

Apr 17, 2008 5:25:29 GMT -6 jochen said:

Edit: I just found something else very cool. The city you see in the center of the map, Freiburg, has been built up as a model to show how it looked in the 13th century. You can check it out for inspiration by clicking this link to a picture of it:
img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freiburg13vg7.jpg
and another picture displaying the remains of the city center in '44 showing one of the reasons why war sucks:
fudder.de/fileadmin/media/user/david/fraib44.jpg

Thank you for the nifty real medieval stuff - I think you've hit the nail on the head about the differences between real medieval conditions, and those of D&D. All of that having been said, I have to tell you that one of my favorite computer games is Darklands (which I still play under DOS Box).
www.darklands.net/index.shtml

In the next installment of The Wilderness Architect, I'm going to go into some of the details about castle construction and taxation, and investments and what as a referee you can do to bring your wilderness to life within your campaign.

[badger2305]

The Wilderness Architect Part Three:
The Detailed Wilderness

This is the third of a series of articles about constructing a wilderness setting to complement your dungeon. It was inspired by discussions here and knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4072, as well as by a series of excellent articles on dungeon design by Roger Musson in White Dwarf #25-27, entitled "The Dungeon Architect, Parts 1, 2, and 3."

The intent of this article is to demonstrate ways of detailing wilderness settings for OD&D. As previously mentioned in The Wilderness Architect Part One, what is presented here is intended as only one rules interpretation. It is not intended to authoritative but rather speculative in character. The objective of these articles is to provide the means for creating worthwhile settings for wilderness adventure, within the framework of the original three booklets, specifically The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures.

As was previous discussed, the “wilderness” is the entire area outside of the dungeon, including both settled and wild areas. By generating your own wilderness and then establishing strongholds and towns, you can begin to flesh out the campaign beyond the initial dungeon.

Assumptions About Your Wilderness Setting
It is assumed that your initial wilderness setting is relatively small – ideally the town nearest to your first dungeon, and surrounding area, including any stronghold for the local lord. Eventually, you may want to add other strongholds and castles, as well as real wilderness – add these other elements as needed, or as adventuring warrants. The system presented in Part Two, and expanded upon here, should provide you with the means to start small and work your way outward. Conversely, you could start with a “top down” approach – establish a kingdom or kingdoms, and detail them to some degree, and then locate your initial setting for adventure, including your dungeon. We’ll begin with the “starting small” model and expand on it below.

Working From the Inside Outwards
Taxation: in both Men & Magic and The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures, it is mentioned that tax revenues have an annual base rate of 10gp per inhabitant. With 2-8 villages, each with 100-400 people, that means total annual revenue ranging from a minimum of 2,000gp to 32,000gp, with an average of roughly 12,500gp. This does not take into account investments, including but not limited to:

• Road building – which may lead to tolls being levied
  
• Canals – similar possibilities for tolls
  
• Inns – either as a business investment or as a source of tax revenue
  
• Hunting and trapping – various normal and enchanted animals may provide valuable resources (think of the “King’s deer” in Robin Hood, or more fantastically, a “game preserve” for wyverns or manticores and the like).
  
• Religion – pilgrimages and various necessary services may provide some revenue
  
• Armories – mines produce ore, which then may be smelted into metal for use in armoring
  
• Animal breeding – this goes along with the idea of “game preserve” or even farming (see below).
  
• Farming and fishing – while mundane, such activities are the basis for local economies
  
• Exploration – surveying and prospecting fall under this as potentially lucrative sources of funding
  
• Ship building and sea trade – if a stronghold is near a coast, the need for warships and merchant ships will be eventually felt. There was an excellent article in The Dragon#7, “Sea Trade in D&D,” that was excellent and well worth reading.
  
• Land trade – caravans will require protection, as well as themselves being purveyors of goods.

Why is taxation important? It provides the basis for the construction and maintenance of a stronghold. As mentioned in Part One, there is an observable relationship between castle encounters and the rules for stronghold construction for player-characters. Once you have generated the stronghold and barony in which your dungeon is located, you can then proceed to detail the stronghold, including size, number of troops, etc.

Fortification: the first step is to determine how well-established and prosperous the stronghold and area around your dungeon actually are. The following guidelines are offered as suggestions for the amount of resources available to a local lord/wizard/patriarch for their stronghold:

• Relatively recent or poor – one year’s base taxation for fortifications
  
• Fairly mature or productive – three year’s base taxation for fortifications
  
• Ancient or wealthy – seven year’s base taxation for fortifications

Once the available funds have been determined, build that fortress! A “Great Keep” is listed at a base price of 72,000gp, not including moat, gates, barbettes, doors, machicolations, etc. A simple shell keep might be as little as 5,000 to 10,000gp, and a motte-and-bailey castle would cost roughly the same; ditch, palisade, raised hill, wooden keep on top. (There are some real questions about the viability of non-stone fortifications in a world with fireballs and lightning bolts, but that is an issue for a different article).

Fortification and stronghold construction are interesting exercises for the referee, as they involve building up instead of down. Subsidiary fortifications and border keeps also require funding, and such funds should come from the same pool as for the main stronghold. One may also wish to go through successive phases of stronghold construction, as generations of inhabitants expand on the work of their ancestors. In a similar vein, the funds available for village barracks, town halls, etc. may be assessed in a similar manner as for stronghold construction, e.g. a productive village of 300 people will have 3,000gp x 3 = 9,000gp for such features, which could be used for a town palisade (180’ on a side, 6,000gp), a wooden barracks (500gp) and a town hall (stone building, 2,500gp). Funds for such construction should be treated as separate from those for stronghold construction. In all cases, funding should not be thought of as a single investment during one year, but as the culmination of several years (if not decades!) of capital investment.

Troops, Specialists, and Other Costs: the base taxation rate is also useful for determining the funding for troops, specialists, and other costs, such as funds available for investment. Use the price lists from Men & Magic and Specialist and Men-at-Arms tables from The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures.

Presence of Other Strongholds: having built the stronghold for the area where your dungeon is located, a referee should determine whether or not there are other holdings (i.e. civilized lands) nearby. Assuming the use of a hex map, one should roll for the presence of other holdings in each of the six directions away from your initial stronghold. Use the following table to determine this, rolling a six-sided die, once for direction, and then a second time for distance:

Direction (roll for each direction)

Civilized?	1-5, holding present in that direction
Provincial?	1-4, holding present in that direction
Frontier?	1-3, holding present in that direction
Wilderness?	1-2, holding present in that direction

Distance (if a holding is indicated)

1-3	Nearby	2-12 hexes away; this may result in holdings that are closer together than 40 miles apart, which might indicate potential conflicts, shared rulership, or simply closer boundaries.
4-5	Slightly apart	3-18 hexes away; this is likely to result in areas of true wilderness in-between holdings, which may serve as the basis for outdoor adventures and eventually the possible creation of new holdings.
6	Far apart	4-24 hexes; real wilderness exists between the initial holding and the holding in the direction indicated. It may even be in a different province or kingdom.

Once the direction and distance of another holding has been determined, use the “Town/Stronghold Type” table from The Wilderness Architect, Part Two, to determine the kind of holding.

Relative relationships between different strongholds. Lastly, it would be worthwhile to determine the attitudes of stronghold lords/wizards/patriarchs towards each other. Use the reaction table from Book 3 on page 12 for the relative reactions of each lord/wizard/patriarch to one another; roll for both directions, since attitudes are not always symmetrical. It may be worthwhile to add or subtract bonuses for similar/different alignments, charisma, etc., though this is completely up to the referee.

What about dwarves, elves, halflings, and other allies?
Good question. Aside from having the potential for higher-level leaders and sometimes allies, there is not much information about the settlements and society of these races. In fact, there is more information for other non-human races such as orcs, than there is for elves or dwarves, insofar as their social structure is concerned.

To remedy this, some careful interpolation of various rules should be of assistance. To begin with, these races sometimes reside in relative proximity to humans, so strongholds in civilized lands may include settlements of these races, depending on the terrain within the holding. This is particularly true of halflings, who are not listed as a monster encounter in The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures. In the case of dwarves and elves, their availability as soldiers for hire suggests that there might be settlements of these races among humans. So it is not unreasonable to assume that dwarves, elves and halflings may be found within lands ruled by humans. But this leaves out independent holdings of these races, which deserve their own consideration.

Independent holdings: probably the biggest difference between humans and dwarves and elves is the degree to which the latter races prefer specific types of terrain:

• Dwarves and gnomes reside in hills and mountains
  
• Elves in deep forests and meadowlands
  
• Halfings, however, live in conditions similar to that of humans.

Staying within the framework of The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures, independent dwarvish and elvish holdings or “kingdoms” (and possibly halfling communities) require first the appropriate terrain, and then second a wilderness encounter with that particular race, either placed there by the referee or as indicated by the random encounter tables. If one of these races is encountered in its “lair,” this may be taken as an indication of an independent holding. Determine the placement of the stronghold and any surrounding communities, with the following modifications by race:

• Dwarves and gnomes: their strongholds are almost always built underground in hills or mountains. They also tend to congregate together more than humans. Determine the total population as for a normal holding, but apply a –2 die modifier to the roll for distance of villages from the stronghold. Almost all dwarven settlements are underground, even those considered as “villages.”
  
• Elves: their strongholds are sometimes in hills, far in the forest or near alpine meadows, or in deep mountain valleys. Eschewing the overly-constructed edifices of dwarves and humans, elves prefer to take maximum advantage of natural defenses, and build their strongholds to suit. Determine the total population as for a normal holding, but the population is considered to live throughout the forest and/or meadowland of the holding, and not concentrated in villages.
  
• Halflings: their strongholds are their communities. Determine the total population as for a normal holding, but rather than having a single stronghold or castle, divide funds available for fortification equally between the various towns and villages. Keep in mind that halflings often build underground into hillsides, and these smials are part of halfling defences.

(part one of three)

[badger2305]

The Barony of Morvan
The example presented here is a detailed elaboration of what was presented in The Wilderness Architect Part Two. Starting with the original sketch map, a more detailed version is presented here:


picasaweb.google.com/badger2305/MyPictures/photo?authkey=g3igAjkD_7A#5188077531142966002

Coastline and Rivers: I drew in the coastline to reflect the geography of the area, adding a river from the northern lake to the main body of water further south. I also added a small island (which may become the setting for further adventures).

Roads: these were added to connect Morvan to villages further away as well as leading eventually to other strongholds.

Villages: there are four villages and two towns in the barony:

• Illyr: this is a village of 400, on the road leading north from Morvan into the forested pass heading into the northern wilds.
  
• Rovold: this is a village of 400, evenly split between men and gnomes, both providing miners for the mines in the hills just to the west of Morvan. Rovold is on the road leading to the stronghold of Tyrski, through the western pass.
  
• Gordet: this is a fishing village of 200, providing its catch to Morvan and the town of Poldor.
  
• Pem: this is a village of 100 fisherfolk and others; there is a road leading south-southwest towards the dungeon of Morvan, and another road leading east through the mountains to Gordet and south to the stronghold of Eshallin.
  
• Hotas: this is a town of 800 people, and is a major trading center, connecting Tyrski, Morvan and Poldor.
  
• Morvan: a town of 600 people, it sits in the intersection of the northern forest road and the east-west roads between Poldor and Tyrski, and acts as a port for water commerce.

The total population for the Barony is therefore about 2,500 people. This provides a base annual tax revenue of 25,000gp.

Morvan Stronghold: the stronghold itself is relatively recent. There is a 40’ main tower, a 15’ side tower, and a gatehouse, connected by 60’ sections of curtain wall. It was built by Melyssa the Necromancer (10th level M-U) on a promontory of rock overlooking the town of Morvan and commanding the pass to the west (therefore no need for a moat). The rough cost for the stronghold is 24,500gp, not including various elaborations, including doors, etc. (left for later)

In addition to Melyssa herself, there is her companion, the warrior Kedrik (7th level Fighter) and Melyssa’s apprentice Ulpon (6th level M-U). Checking for magic items (page 19 in The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures), we find that Melyssa has a Staff of Commanding, while Kedrik has a +3 shield, and Ulpon has no particular magic items to speak of. Depending on the prevalence of magic items in the game, this may serve as the basis for acquisition and trade of magic items by Melyssa from any player-characters rash enough to enter the dungeon across the water.

Melyssa probably used her Staff of Command to acquire two chimaeras (as per guards/retainers on castle inhabitant table, page 15 of The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures). There are also 100 castle guards, 50 light footmen with cross-bows, and 50 heavy foot; their commanders are a 5th level and 6th level fighter, respectively (this is inferred from the rules for bandits in Monsters & Treasure; possible magic weapons, armor, and items has been left for later). In addition to these, there is also an animal trainer (for the chimaeras), and three armorers and two smiths. Total cost: 13,200gp annually.

Along with this, Melyssa maintains a water patrol in the form of an armed warship. This includes 15 crew, 40 marines, and a ship captain (6th level fighter), making for 4,620gp in annual upkeep. The town of Hotas has a wooden barracks and a garrison of 50 light foot armed with crossbows, a 5th level commander, and an armorer (2,400gp). Finally, the roads of the barony are patrolled by a company of 40 light horsemen (4,800gp), usually split into two groups of 20, all commanded by a 4th level fighter. Total cost for these troops is 10,620gp. When taken together with the cost of troops and specialists for the stronghold, this leaves just over 1,000gp annually for other expenses. It is quite likely that Melyssa has made other investments and levies other taxes, as this is a rather tight budget, and she is a 10th level magic-user, after all.

Other Strongholds: there are three. One to the east, one to the southeast, and one to the west:

• Tyrski, ruled by a Patriarch commanding an order of 12 Heroes. Melyssa is neutrally inclined towards the Patriarch, although she is thought well of in return.
  
• Eshallin, ruled by a Lord, who has 3 Myrmidons acting as sub-commanders. Melyssa is also neutrally inclined towards this Lord, and that feeling is returned.
  
• Poldor, an independent town of 1,500 people. The town leadership includes a 8th level magic-user and a 5th level Cleric. There is also a 5th level thief present. Relations between Melyssa and the leaders of Poldor are cordial and there is regular trade between Morvan and Poldor.

A more detailed map would show the relative political boundaries between the various holdings, as well as the conditions to be found out in the wilds beyond civilization (see below). For absolute clarity, the areas to the northeast, northwest, and southwest are considered wilderness (see original sketch map). It is presumably the case that the area to the southwest, at least, is claimed as part of the larger kingdom of which Morvan is a part.

Adventure Ideas: Some adventure ideas suggest themselves almost immediately:

• Bandits engage in regular incursions out of the north; go do something about that.
  
• There is a colony of merfolk wishing to establish themselves in the waters between Hotas and Morvan; persuade them to recognize Melyssa as their ruler.
  
• A black dragon has been spied in the swamps to the south of Hotas; go deal with the situation.
  
• Nomads on the plains to the south of Tyrski have abducted a merchant caravan; make contact and see to the release of their prisoners.
  
• A pair of manticores have moved into the forest north of Illyr and have begun hunting the common folk living there. There is a fear that they are a mating pair and will lead to more manticores being spawned if not hunted down.
  
• Strange lights have been seen on the island between Pem and Gordet. Investigate and report back.

…and so on.

(part two of three)

[badger2305]

Out in the Wilderness
Any area that does not have a town or stronghold as a stabilizing influence should be treated as “wilderness” – the “wild area” in which wilderness encounters take place. Additionally, the “Wilds” should be seen as the areas from which monsters emerge and then move into more civilized areas. One of the strongest incentives that exists for the establishment of new strongholds in the wilderness is the desire to “roll back the frontier” – and make the world safe for civilized folk. It goes almost without saying that powerful player-characters will be encouraged to “do their part” to hold back the tide of chaos.

From a game-play perspective, it is a good idea to not have a sharply delineated boundary between civilized areas and true wilderness. Some powerful lords or wizards may have enough troops to patrol more than 20 miles away from their stronghold, or a mountain chain may present a closer barrier than 20 miles, beyond which there are orcs and goblins aplenty.

Regarding wandering monster checks, these should be rolled for in both civilized and wilderness areas. An encounter in civilized lands should be either with friendly people or creatures, but occasionally with monsters (more on this later). In addition, it should be more difficult (though not impossible!) to get lost in civilized areas; a confirming roll should be made, using the chance as shown on the table, e.g. an initial result of “lost” in the woods should be confirmed with another roll; if the second roll is “1” or “2” then the party truly is lost. At the boundaries of civilized lands, you may want to roll for wandering monsters, applying a +1 or -1 to the check for wandering monsters, depending on conditions.

Dangerous encounters in otherwise civilized territory should be treated the same as encountering wandering monsters in the dungeon. (Remember! Truly dangerous encounters should be rare!)

• Within five miles of a stronghold or a village, wandering monsters should be exceedingly rare.
  
• 6-10 miles away, roll for the encounter as if it were on the 1st level of the dungeon (page 10 of The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures).
  
• 11-15 miles away, roll as if it were on the 2nd level of the dungeon.
  
• 16-20 miles away, roll as if it were on the 3rd level of the dungeon.
  
• More than 20 miles away, roll as a normal wilderness encounter.

Beyond civilized lands, rolling for wilderness encounters should be done as listed in The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures. It is strongly suggested, however, that you detail these encounters ahead of time, so they make sense within the framework of the setting you have already developed. That having been said, if you generate an encounter that does not make immediate sense, this may be an opportunity to introduce a new and unexpected element to your game. It should also be remembered that not all encounters are hostile, even in the wilderness – make sure to check for the reactions of people and monsters encountered.

Hordes of Monsters: some monsters in the wilderness come in large numbers, and have the potential (in a few cases) for having strongholds as lairs of their own, much like the strongholds found in civilized lands. This is important to note, especially if you want to develop the monster equivalents of “civilized territory”, such as goblin or orcish kingdoms. A list of these types of monsters is as follows:

• Bandits and brigands, dervishes and nomads, buccaneers and pirates: these groups are often large in number and will have higher-level leaders and the potential for magic items of various sorts. It is important to generate these in advance as it is certain that such items will be used aggressively.
  
• Berserkers, cavemen, and mermen: although less detailed, these groups will have their own lairs and settlements (the exact nature and origin of berserkers as a monster encounter is unclear, however).
  
• Kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, and gnolls all have more powerful leaders in their lairs. While the exact nature of those lairs is unclear, it may be assumed that they are often almost always cave complexes or (very rarely) some form of village settlement.
  
• Orcs actually have the potential for constructed lairs, and also have the potential for very powerful non-orcish leaders and allies. Pay careful attention to these, as their presence suggests a great deal about alliances and the distribution of power in the Wild.
  
• Giants sometimes occupy castles; whether or not these were built by giants or others is unclear, though they must be big enough to house these large hulking brutes.

Placing monsters and treasure in the wilderness: This should be pursued initially in a similar fashion to monster placement in the dungeon (see page 6 of The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures). Briefly, a referee should thoughtfully locate places of interest and potentially monsters guarding them, in the wilderness areas beyond civilized lands. Careful consideration of geography and resulting likely monsters will help in this, so referees must generate or create the wilderness terrain before placement of monsters and treasure.

Past this initial planning stage, however, it would be tedious to roll for each 5 mile hex to see if there is a monster or treasure present. The relative danger of wilderness encounters also suggests that the number of “placed” monsters should be somewhat less, if only to avoid being overrun by a plethora of dragons, bandits, giants, banshees and other long-legged beasties that go bump in the night. Instead, divide the wilderness areas into 20 mile by 20 mile (or 25 by 25 mile) “squares”, and treat these as “rooms” for the purposes of monster and treasure placement. Roll for these as you would for random monster and treasure placement in the dungeon (as per page 7 of The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures); determine the specific terrain type and then use the wilderness encounter tables to generate the type of monster. If treasure is indicated as being present, roll 1d6 to determine which “level” should be used for generating the random amount and type of treasure. Finally, if treasure is present (with or without a monster being present), it is suggested that the referee generate a place of interest to help explain what the treasure is present (see below):

Rationale for treasure: Treasure itself ought to have some reason for being located in the wilderness; anything from a ruined shrine to an old watchtower or lost tomb provides some justification for whatever might be found. Given the relative exposure of wilderness areas, treasures in the wilderness need to be more carefully hidden and/or protected, as well as also signifying something more than just gold and silver coins (after all, there must be some object for the Quests and Geases that player-characters are subjected to by Patriarchs and Evil High Priests).

Places of interest: it may prove useful to determine different places of interest as the context for the placement of treasure and monsters in the wilderness. The following table is provided as a suggestion; roll a six-sided die to determine the result:

Places of Interest

1	Incidental encampment; roll for specific type of monster
2	Destroyed village or settlement; roll for specific type of monster
3	Ancient shrine; determine identity and alignment of god honored in this place
4	Abandoned Fortification; this may be completely empty or be worked up into a complete mini-dungeon
5	Ruined town or city; use City encounter table in Wilderness encounters for monster(s) present
6	Ancient tomb; may be nothing more than a stone marker to a complete pyramid needing further investigation

Once all of this is done, you will have a richly detailed wilderness area to explore and develop as part of a larger campaign setting. In particular, keeping track of monster lairs will help in develop area-specific encounter tables. Lastly, referees are encouraged to interpret results in light of each other, and use that to develop history and backstory for their campaign.

“Top down” approach
This is the complete opposite of working outward from the immediate area around the dungeon. Instead, a referee will need to start with a larger canvas. To help with this, using a smaller size of hexagon, e.g. .125 inches across, which gives an area of roughly 200 by 280 miles on an 8.5” by 11” sheet of paper.

Develop an outline of physical geography first. This may be done freeform through one’s own imagination, or by random rolling. If using the latter method, divide the sheet into a 4 by 5 grid, two inches on a side of each grid square. Then decide how much of the area represented should be water and how much of it should be land, e.g. mostly land – about 80%, and a little water, roughly 20%. Roll a six-sided die per grid square: 1-5, land; 6, water. Once this has been determined, sketch in coast lines. This gives a relatively quick result for the purposes of the "top-down" method. (Other methods of random terrain generation may suggest themselves; referees should use whatever system they find acceptable.)

Decide on size of the kingdom or nation. To do this, first determine the number of holdings in the kingdom or nation:

• Small, 3-12 (3d4)
  
• Moderate, 3-18 (3d6)
  
• Large, 6-36 (6d6)
  
• Huge, 10-60 (10d6)

When rolling the dice for this stage, note down the result for each die rolled, as well as for the result. The total for each die represents the number of strongholds for each of the higher nobility or leadership, e.g. a moderate sized kingdom gets results of 2, 3, and 6, for a total of 11. That would mean there would be 11 strongholds, with 3 higher leaders. One would have two holdings, another would have three, and the third would have five, and each one of these holdings would be a stronghold or a town or city.

Decide where the first major stronghold will be; this will serve as the capitol of the kingdom or nation. You may either use the highest individual die roll (which would indicate a strong monarchy), or roll randomly to see which individual die roll is used. Then determine where the other major strongholds are located, using the direction and distance tables set forth either. Once you know the relative geographic relationships between each of the major strongholds, then generate the direction and distance of the subsidiary strongholds using the methods outlined earlier. You may need to adjust their positions relative to each other to get a contiguous area of “civilized land” but that may actually be somewhat artificial – medieval kingdoms were rarely unified, and even within the wealthiest and most populous countries there were still areas of wilderness. It is quite possible to determine that some of the holdings are on another map sheet (and thus a legitimate subject for future exploration).

The “top-down” method is the sketchiest and most time-consuming, since it involves a lot of record-keeping on the part of the referee, but it also provides the greatest amount of background detail at the start of the game. It is suggested that rather than working out the details for each and every fiefdom and holding, a referee might want to sketch out the larger picture using this method, and then pick a single holding as the focus for the initial stages of their campaign.

Regardless of which method you use, please remember that everything in this system is amenable to modification by the referee. It is designed fairly loosely, and is speculative in nature – if you think there is a different way to do something, make whatever change seems appropriate. I have attempted to explore the framework of the rules for wilderness adventures as presented in The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures, and show how that framework may be used to create interesting, worthwhile campaign settings outside of dungeons. The rest is up to you – explore and enjoy!

[badger2305]

And that's that! Tell me what you think!

[coffee]

I love it. Have an exalt!

And I especially can't wait for Fight On! issue two, so I can have the whole thing in one convenient, portable place without other people's comments (such as mine!) interspersed.

[badger2305]

Apr 24, 2008 9:41:29 GMT -6 coffee said:

I love it. Have an exalt!

And I especially can't wait for Fight On! issue two, so I can have the whole thing in one convenient, portable place without other people's comments (such as mine!) interspersed.

Thanks - but if you have a chance, try it out. I'm very interested in how it works for other people.

[coffee]

Oh, I will try it out, but I'll need to do it at home (much of my computer time is here at work, where I have a fast connection).

[pjork]

This will be published in Fight On!? That's great, because I was thinking I would buy this in an instant if published.

[badger2305]

After having finished all three parts of The Wilderness Architect, I wished there had been examples from the early days of D&D that might illustrate these ideas a bit further. I was surprised to discover an interesting potential example in an unlikely place: “Sturmgeschutz and Sorcery –or– How Effective is a Panzerfaust Against a Troll, Heinz?” in The Strategic Review, Vol. 1, No. 5, from December 1975.

The date of publication is rather important, because it means that the battle was fought probably no later than the summer of 1975, shortly after the publication of Greyhawk and concurrent with the publication of Blackmoor. Thus, anything presented in this article would be relatively close to the original framework of the game, in the overall timeline of development – most importantly, pre-AD&D.

So what did I find in the article, besides a gripping after-battle report detailing the defeat of an SS reconnaissance unit on the Eastern Front? Simple – the order of battle for the defending forces:

THE SERVANTS OF THE GATHERER
12th Level EHP with +2 Armor & Shield, Snake Staff
1 Hero, +1 A & Sh, + 3 Swd
1 Hero, +1 A & Sh, +1 Spear
1 Magician
2 Mummies
3 Ogres
3 Ghouls
4 Trolls
19 Orcs
- 4 with axes
- 6 with swords
- 6 with spears
- 3 with bows (51 regular & 9 magic arrows)
1 Insectoid pet of the EHP (equal to Giant Scorpion)

SITUATION
Your able lieutenants Grustiven the Warlock (8th level) and the Lama Goocz (7th level) have failed to return from an exploration of an area of unusual nature — just west of your castle a thick fog sprang up and has been obscuring vision since then. Dispell Magic failed to affect the area, and your henchmen were ordered to investigate, for it is possible that some Lawful enemy is at work, using the mist to screen gathering troops. Unfortunately, your strongest fighters and 200 orcs are elsewhere warring with a Neutral Lord who insulted you (emphasis added), so you will have to make do with the forces on hand. An orc detailed to patrol the edge of the fog area has just reported that unusual sounds have been issuing from the area — he described them as: “low growls, the clanking of chains, and a deep humming,” but who can trust a stupid orc?

OBJECTIVE
Considering the state your forces are currently in, it is up to you what the best course to follow is. You can attempt to ambush the enemy before they reach your stronghold, or you can hole up in your castle and prepare to withstand a siege, but if the attackers are strong and not molested until they reach the castle walls, your forces might not be able to prevent an escalade, and you cannot lose your castle!

What’s interesting about this is that the description given here is a close parallel to that provided in The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures for castle encounters and baronies. The Gatherer is a fairly powerful baron, as a 12th level Evil High Priest should be, and his forces reflect that; they are somewhat more powerful than what might be generated as part of a random castle encounter. But they are not that different; consider:

• The Gatherer is a 12th level cleric – a random EHP would be 9th level at a minimum; that indicates possibly more time and experience spent on building up his stronghold.
  
• Additional powerful non-player-characters include: at least two 8th or 9th level fighters (the ones off fighting the Neutral Lord), two 4th level fighters, an 8th level magic-user, a 6th level magic-user, and a 7th level cleric. A random encounter would have a 50% chance of 1-6 assistant clerics, all between 4th and 7th level. The Gatherer has apparently attracted an entourage.
  
• The Gatherer has 3 Ogres, 3 Ghouls, 4 Trolls and 1 Insectoid pet (equal to Giant Scorpion). In a random castle encounter there would be one of the following possible outcomes: 1-10 trolls, 1-6 vampires (!), 1-20 white apes, or 1-10 spectres. So the relative power level of attendant monsters is roughly comparable.
  
• Lastly, our Evil High Priest has 220 orc soldiers, which is a bit higher than the 180 maximum “guards manning the walls” of a random castle encounter, but that doesn’t necessarily take into account any outside forces. Again, somewhat more powerful than a typical castle encounter, but not transcendently so.
  
• The distribution of magic items, while fairly complete, is not significantly different than what might be generated for companion characters for either random encounters or castle encounters.
  

It isn’t clear if Gary intended for the defender’s forces to specifically model what was written in The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures for castle encounters and baronies – but the order of battle as given would seem to indicate at least similar thinking.

What’s interesting to note as well is the relationship between holdings. The Gatherer is at war with a nearby Neutral Lord, and is concerned about Lawful enemies close enough to make his life difficult. It is also the case that this reflects the idea that D&D as a game would potentially evolve into a more strategic wargame, with conflicts between local lords, wizards, and clerics (and this may be an echo of the more traditional wargame campaigns of the Castle & Crusade Society – but this is verging into complete speculation).

What this revealed to me was that this was the stronghold of a powerful “baron,” using the terminology of The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. Gary’s phrasing of the “game objective” for this scenario is consistent with ideas presented for construction and development of baronies. In a rather indirect way, it provides an example from Gary’s own thinking about how these things might work.

[coffee]

Apr 23, 2008 23:54:25 GMT -6 badger2305 said:

Along with this, Melyssa maintains a water patrol in the form of an armed warship. This includes 15 crew, 40 marines, and a ship captain (6th level fighter), making for 4,620gp in annual upkeep. The town of Hotas has a wooden barracks and a garrison of 50 light foot armed with crossbows, a 5th level commander, and an armorer (2,400gp). Finally, the roads of the barony are patrolled by a company of 40 light horsemen (4,800gp), usually split into two groups of 20, all commanded by a 4th level fighter. Total cost for these troops is 10,620gp.

Badger, you might want to check your math here; I get 11,820. (That's just with your totals; I haven't added up the individual troops.)

[badger2305]

Apr 26, 2008 22:24:40 GMT -6 coffee said:

Badger, you might want to check your math here; I get 11,820. (That's just with your totals; I haven't added up the individual troops.)

See what happens when you do things quickly? You are indeed correct. It also means that the base tax revenue for the barony covers these expenses (just barely!) so I would bet there are other taxes - road tolls and the like.

Another set of possibilities would be specific quests to find treasure in the dungeon, with some assistance from the powers-that-be, or possibly even a "magic shop" of sorts - scrolls and potions available for dungeoneering parties (at suitably expensive prices or trades) - in Pem, and a duty placed on magic items taken from the dungeon. (Depends on how much of a bastard the referee wants to be, I guess.)