The Goblin Laws of Guns

 A lot of GLOG class are starting to use guns (like the Zouave or the Gun Priest).   I proposed the following "system" that will be both historically accurate "ish" and "balanced" for use in play.

The reason I'm doing this is because I'm going to play in a one-shot GLOG game and different players have guns of different tech level.  I am aiming to have something that is both sort of balanced, sort of easy *and* sort of fun.

I will have "elements" of a gun, and then combine them together to make a number of examples.  One thing I won't have is prices for these guns, as they would be heavily campaign and "historical" dependent - what was cutting edge in one century is old surplus in the next.

Design principles

- Guns are less reliable, but no "blow in  your face" unreliable.

- Guns are slow to reload, but advanced guns are better

- Guns do solid damage... but not *that* much damage, especially the pistols.

- Edit: - I need to make this more explicit - somewhat better vs armor

Because this is a long post, I'm going to start with the guns.   Then we'll talk about historical periods, and how guns were used.  Then we'll talk about the technical details.  The "gaming math" will follow in this post.

Pocket pistol (flintlock, smoothbore)

Usable in melee!  Very short range, better than nothing.  1d6 dmg, 10 feet, -2 per 10 feet beyond. 2 rounds to reload.

In your face Pistol (matchlock, flintlock, cap and ball, smoothbore or rifled)

The more of these you have stuffed in your sash, the more bad-ass you are.  1d8 dmg, 1d10 with Minié, base range is 20 feet, -1 per 10 feet, ( or -1 per 20 feet if rifled).  Loading time 2 rounds

Pistolet modèle 1733, By Rama, CC BY-SA 3.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58996270

Pepperbox (cap and ball, smoothbore)

The precursor to the revolver, the gun was not noted for accuracy... but hey, six shot! 1d6 dmg, range 10 feet, -1 to hit per 10 feet beyond, can attack multiple times per round if character is able to, reload time: 2 rounds/chamber

Pocket revolver (rimfire, rifled)

Six shots of anemic 1d4 damage!  The rich have them in engraved nickel plated with ivory handles. 1d4 dmg, range 10 feet, -1 to hit per 10 feet beyond. can attack multiple times per round if character is able to. Reload: 2 cartridge per round

Revolver, cap and ball  (rifled)

A great six shooter, you can depend your life on. 1d6 damage with round ball, or 1d8 with Minié ball.  Range is 20 feet, -1 to hit per 20 feet beyond can attack multiple times per round if character is able to,.  Reload time 2 rounds/chamber

Revolver, rimfire (rifled)

Another great 6-shooter.  You can reload faster now, but have less max damage.  Still hurts!  1d6 damage with .44 Henry.  Range is 20 feet, -1 to hit per 20 feet beyond.  Can attack multiple times per round if character is able to. Reload time 1 round/ two bullets

.44 Henry Colt Army 1860

Zouave Snaphance. (flintlock, smoothbore, but could be cap and ball)

Not an issued weapon, a trophy of war, plunder, booty.  A tool to defend yourself against robbers - or to rob someone.  An oversized pistol, a sawed off blunderbuss.   2d6 dmg with ball, 20 foot range, -1 penalty per 10 feet OR 3d4 damage with shot, 20 foot range, -1 1d4 dmg per 10 feet. Loading time: 3 rounds

By Worldantiques - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36709232

Arquebuse/mousqueton/carbine (matchlock, flintlock, cap and ball), smoothbore

A short handy smoothbore gun. Double barreled cap and boll shotgun were popular.  dmg 1d10,  Range 30 feet, -1 per 10 feet beyond OR 3d3 damage with shot, 20 foot range, -1 1d3 dmg per 10 feet. Loading time: 3 rounds and can fire in the 3rd round.

Musket (matchlock, flintlock, cap and ball), smooth bore

A cumbersome weapon of war.  Matchlock requires brace to fire (fork, wall, fence...).  dmg 2d6 range 40 feet, -10 per 10 feet beyond OR 4d3 damage with shot, 30 foot range, -1 1d3 dmg per 10 feet. Loading time: 3 rounds

Rifle (flintlock, cap and ball)

A potent weapon of war. dmg 2d6 or 2d8 with Minié ball, range 50 feet, -1 per 20 feet beyond. Loading time:  4 rounds, or one round less with Minié ball,

Rifle carbine (flintlock, cap and ball)

A handy weapon for travel or hunting.  1d10 dmg, or 2d6 with Minié ball, range 30 feet, -1 per 20 feet beyond, loading time 3 rounds and can fire in the third, or one round less with Minié ball.

Henry Rifle (rifled, rimfire)

.44 rimfire.  Not very hard hitting, but sooo many bullet, rapid lever action.  Handy too.  1d8 dmg, 15 cartridges - can attack multiple times per round if character is able to, range 30 feet, -1 per 20 feet, loading time 2 cartridges per round + 1 round for magazine manipulation. 

Spencer carbine. (rifled, rimfire)

.56 rimfire. A clunky lever action, slower than the Henry, but bigger bullets.  1d10 dmg, 7 cartridges - can load and attack once per round, range 30 feet, -1 per 20 feet, loading time 4 rounds for 7 cartridge.

This list is, of course, incomplete (edit, I will need to do a post about weird guns).  But I hope it will help GMs having some kind of baseline to make rulings about guns, especially in a game where there may still be bow and crossbow usage, or the possibility of multiple technological levels being present (time travel magic, ancient weapons, technological differences between countries etc).   In no way shape or form feel pressured to use all of them.  A game with just a few gun models is ok.

Older guns are best use in a fire once then close in to melee fashion, unless both sides are happy with staying far and shooting at each other.  They can provide the party with a big "push" of damage in the first round (the crossbow is good for this too).  More modern guns load faster.  The use of paper cartridges and Minié ball allowed for high damage and quick reloads (a carbine can be fired as fast as a crossbow), and revolvers and repeating long guns allowed for very fast firepower, often eclipsing what a melee weapon could do and certainly eclipsing the bow...

Guns and armor:

It's a well known fact that medieval armor didn't deal with guns... but it wasn't entirely useless either.  To avoid making guns too powerful, and to have something easy to remember, I would propose that guns "shave of" a step of defense (from plate to chain, or chain to leather, i.e. ignoring 2 AC) when trying to attack someone wearing armor.   They probably would work even without this rule, but if you want to run a campaign where guns dominate, this would do it.

So, some technical details about guns:

First we are going to talk about the "lock" - the thing that makes the gun go boom.  In historical order, you could make the following order of firearm "eras".  There was some overlap, of course.

1:  Matchlock: A very primitive form of gun, where you have a slow burning cord that ignites the powder - the match.  They fail to ignite on a fumble (see flintlock).  Furthermore, the match can go out if there is strong wind or rain, its glow and smoke can give away your position etc etc... it's a problem. Adds 1 round to loading time (if you rush too much you might ignite the powder with the match!)  Mechanically simple and thus cheaper.  They were all loaded by the muzzle (the front of the gun).  There are even more ancient models which I did not go into.

2:  Flintlock: A number of mechanisms (wheellock, snaplock, "true" flintlock) where a mechanism generates sparks.  On a fumble, the gun fails to ignite.  There is a 50% chance that it can easily be fixed (one round reloading the priming powder) and 50% chance that there is a serious problem - the gun needs to be unloaded because of wet powder and reloaded (doubles the reloading time).  Almost all were muzzle-loaded.

3:  Cap and Ball: Similar to the flintlock, but instead of a spark generator, there is a cap - a small copper device filled with a sensitive chemical - installed on a nipple that is struck with a hammer.  This mechanism is more reliable and doesn't mess up on a fumble.  Cap and Ball guns where usually muzzle loaded but a few were breech-loaded (from the back of the gun).  Also known as percussion guns.

classic percussion shotgun, double barreled.

4: Rimfire: Still used today in the .22, these were the first reliable metal cartridges.  The cartridge is loaded to the rear of the gun, and a hammer hits the rim, which is filled with primer (the sensitive chemical). They had the problem of being less reliable than the cap and ball (on a fumble, the round fails to fire and must be ejected) and low pressure (less damage).  Historical examples include the .44 Henry, the .32 rimfire and the .56 Spencer.  Rimfire guns were often used in revolvers and repeating rifles.   They weren't as powerful, but very useful.

And.... now we stop.  By the time we get to the next step, the center-fire cartridges (more reliable and sometimes more powerful), the guns have gotten "too good", and ranged fire almost completely displaces melee fighting.  We are now playing another game.

Now that we have this covered, let's talk about the "stock" - the size of the gun.  The longer the barrel, the longer the initial (no penalty) range is.  The shoulder stock also helps with aiming.

Pocket pistol:  A small thing that is easily concealed.  Short ranged, low damage.  Became possible with the flint lock - clearly you can't have a matchlock in your pocket....  size is 1/3 of a slot

Saddle pistol:   A large pistol that could be concealed.  The longer barrel and larger caliber increases the damage.  The saddle wheel-lock pistol of noble cavalry, the 6 shooter of the cowboy, the flintlock pistol tucked in the pirate's sash all fit this.  Range is not great.  Takes 1 slot.  Can be used as a club (1d4 damage) in a pinch.   Matchlock pistols did exist.

Carbine:   A small, handy rifle, favored by hunters, cavalry/dragoons, adventurers and scouts.  In earlier time this was the arquebuse or mousqueton, in later time the "Winchester gun" ie the lever gun. They do more damage and have more range than a pistol.  They can also be used as a club by bashing with the shoulder stock (1d4 dmg).

Full sized musket/rifle:  A long, cumbersome affair, had the most damage but a pain to carry (3 slots).  Could have a bayonet that allowed to do 1d6 dmg in melee.  The matchlock musket were so heavy they required something to rest the barrel against - a fence, a wall, or a fork designed specifically for that purpose. 

Now, the barrel.

Smooth bore:  If the gun is smooth-bored, they are easier to load, but they have less range.

Rifle:   Takes longer to reload when muzzled loaded, but have more range - each step beyond the initial range is longer.  Was invented in the flintlock era.

Muzzle loaded:  Cheaper but takes longer to load.

Breach loaded:  More expensive and technologically advanced, faster loading.  Developed in the cap and ball era.

Double barrel:  double the fun, double the cost. A few flintlocks, a lot of smoothbore cap and ball (shotguns). 

Length of the barrel:  Longer guns have more power and range, but are less handy/concealable and take longer to load.

But what are we shooting?

Well the Cartridge:

Loose powder.   There is no cartridge.  You have a ball, some powder, some wadding and a ramming rod.

Paper cartridge:  Everything is measured and organized in advance.  Reduces loading time.   

Cap:   Instead of putting powder in a frizen/touch hole, you could have a sensitive chemical housed in a small copper cap.  Percussion guns, also know at cap and ball, were far more reliable than the flintlocks. The precursor to the primmer.  Most were muzzle loaders, a few cap and ball were breach-locked.

Metallic cartridge:  Like a paper cartridge but even better.  Comes whit its own primer.

Lastly, the bullet.

Ball:  a big round lead ball, the default.  Used in all guns except metallic cartridges. Can be used both in smoothbore and rifled guns, although the later could be difficult to load.

Shot:  a bunch of smaller ball, rocks, nails, coins jammed in there.  Only used in smooth bore guns.  Shot does not take a range penalty, rather a *damage* penalty.  For example, a 2d6 gun loaded with shot would do 3d4.  After the first range increment, the damage would fall to 2d4, then 1d4, then the pellets have spent too much of their energy to do real harm.  Shotgun shells were not available in this era.  

Minié Ball:  A more modern form of bullet - it is easier to load and engages the rifling better, leading to higher velocities, increasing the damage by one step.  The Minié ball was available for late flintlocks, cap and ball guns, and metallic cartridges (sort of).  They weren't used in smoothbore barrels.   They, and derivatives, made firearms far deadlier, and cause war amputations to be far more common du to their tendency to shatter bones.

Magical bullets.  What are we shooting?  +2 bullets?  Homing bullets (advantage to hit)?  Fire bullets, silver bullets, poison bullets?  I don't know!  You make it up.  Have fun, it's magic!  I will note that "older" guns that don't use metallic cartridge may have more flexibility with magical bullets. 

Loading/firing time:

Paper cartridge can be used with muzzle loaded or breech loaded guns.  Reduced the loading time by 1 round.  A trained gunman with decent equipment can make about a dozen such cartridges per hour, but most preferred purchasing them.

Metallic cartridges are fast to load, and the characteristic of the gun become the defining factor in loading time.

Longer barrels take longer to load than pistol *if* the gun is muzzle loaded.

Ball takes longer to load in a muzzle-loaded rifle (but not smooth bore).  The Minié ball does not have this penalty.

Damage depends on the caliber, the length of the barrel, the type of bullet and the use of metallic cartridge - the early ones were often weakly loaded.

On the Wealth of Cities - Warhammer edition, and on the impact of low gold on a campaign

In a previous post, I made calculations on how much wealth a city had - it's GDP, based on an "economic yardsick" - the amount a laborer made.

But this was for 5e, a "wealthy" system where gold is plentiful.  What about a system that is a bit more realistic, where finding 10 gold pieces is a bit of a big deal?   Enter Warhammer - more precisely, Warhammer frpg 2nd edition.

By Arthur Rakham

The Warhammer coinage is roughly based on the medieval system, where 1 gold (crown) = 20 silver (shilling) = 240 copper (pence).  This means that one gold piece is worth more, but I also note that this system, in my experience, is about as complex as most players will tolerate - don't get too complex!

So in 5e, our laborer makes 2 silvers a day.   In Warhammer, a laborer would be making 10 pence (10 coppers), or a little less than a silver (since it takes 12 coppers to make a silver).  This means that 5e is a little more than twice as "expensive" as Warhammer - or four time if you consider that it takes *20* silver pieces to make a gold, not 10!

(Re laborer cost:  Interestingly, if you look at the yearly income of a peasant (9-15 gp per year), the unskilled laborer is being paid on the high end of the scale.  I suppose that is why the labor is available - why go work for some guy carrying stuff or digging a ditch, when you could be home peasanting instead? Because it pays more.  For those with the book, compare table 5-1 and 5-18.)

At this point, I thought about doing further calculations but... that's not fun content is it?  So I'm happy with the answer "GDP and rewards should be 1/4 than what they are in 5e" and leave it at that. 

Buuut that isn't the case in Warhammer.  Rewards in Warhammer are *small*.  A mercenary makes 20-50 GP a year... and that's the kind of gold that will motivate a PC to risk their lives.  It's a grim, grubby world.  In the introductory adventure in the main book, the PCs are escorting a small band of villagers - not for money, but because there is strength in numbers and the area is perilous.  If they are lucky, they may find a relic worth 100 gp.  So 25 gp each for a party of 4 - that would be considered a *very* successful venture by Warhammer terms - it's a year's salary!

Now at first level in D&D, (multiply by 4), PCs wouldn't be too upset at gaining 100 gp each... but the difference is that the rewards never really ramps up in Warhammer, unlike D&D where finding 10 000's worth of GPs in an adventure is likely at higher level.   Every new piece of equipment (armor and guns are particularly expensive relative to the rewards) is dearly needed and requires a lot of work to obtain.

And it's not just "I need armor to increase my chance of survival".  The Warhammer system has a "career" system that is roughly analogous to class (2nd career adventurers would be mid-level, and third career is "high levels").  To enter those new careers so you can progress, you need the career's trappings (i.e. its gear).  You can't be a knight without a horse can you?  And it has to be a destrier incidentally , which is worth 500 gp.  Even considering you may have started with a regular horse (80 gp) that you could sell to "upgrade", the costs are high.  Not all advance careers have such onerous requirements, but you get the picture - you probably need gold to "level up".

(Interestingly, once you have entered the new career, you can lose all your stuff and still be in it - it's just to make the jump that they are needed.  No renting a horse doesn't count.)

So what are the consequences of having a low-reward campaign.   Well on the good side, your PCs will almost never become jaded with getting gold (in 5e you can't buy magical items easily, so PCs can accumulate a lot of cash after a while).  Third Career PCs will probably be relatively well off - they already own most of the gear they want, they can afford that fat 5 gp bribe to a guard.  However, if a noble offers them 1 gp a day each(!) to guard them during a month-long trip through a dangerous forest, the party will most probably accept (that would be a noble splurging for the best sell-swords in the city, essentially).   I think that's a great thing...

BUT it comes at a cost.  Say the party is attacked by brigands and defeat them.  Their main treasure will not be coins and gems; it's going to be their gear.  Weapons, armor, even clothes, supplies and utility items... They are precious loot for the PC.  Even considering the loot may have to be sold for a 1/4 value to a fence that won't ask questions; it's worth doing for first-career adventurers. Third career adventurers probably won't bother anymore, but at first career.. you might not have *any* armor at all!  (a full set of leather armor is 25 gp).  Add living costs (roughly half a gold a week for decent living standards), and the PCs will most likely act like scavengers for quite some time.

(I will note that this has historical accuracy.  The word "rob" comes from the French "derober" or "disrobe" - because brigands would literally steal the clothes of traveler's back.)

I'm not speculating about this happening during play, incidentally.  I have, in the past, run a number of Warhammer campaigns, and this is what happened.

So it's a tradeoff.  A low gold campaign has added tension - the PCs are hungry for money to get equipment, or even just to pay costs of living! BUT you may end up with a lot of scrounging and scavenging.  In  the grim perilous world of Warhammer, that's not too bad.  But for some other games... this may not fit the tone you were hoping to get.   Furthermore, figuring out the cost of every salvageable item takes time, and it will be something you'll have to do as a GM.

P.S.  I can't help but note the parallels between some OSR system's XP system, which is based on gold earned, and Warhammer, where gold can (doesn't always) act as a "gate keeper) to the entry to some advanced classes.  While both systems have flaws and benefits, I note that I find the Warhammer system to be superior.  Both systems make the PCs hungry for money, not combat (combat in Warhammer is dangerous!) but it avoid adventures "having" to have money (because otherwise the PC would not advance), which bothers me to be frank.

30 years of gaming characters

Inspired by the great Throne of Salt, here is a list of some of my characters in my nearly 3 decades of playing RPGs.  I also got a comment in a previous post inquiring about my gaming history, so here we are.

This is pretty long, so you can skim, there is a conclusion at the end :)

High school and undergrad:

A fire wizard.  (Advanced Fighting Fantasy).   I don't have a sheet of this character, only some memories, and I think this was my first character.  Based on The Elves and the Otterskin, which had an interesting fire mage at the begining.  There were probably a few others (a dwaven fighter I think? Maybe that one was the first?) but it's too long ago.  Interestingly, the Advanced Fighting Fantasy is what gave birth to Troika!  We played in this system for about a year then switched to 2nd ed AD&D.

A dwarven Cleric probably named Durin  (2nd ed AD&D).  Played from level 1-5 ish.   My first D&D character.  Clerics where not great back then, but hey we have to have a healer!  After 5-6 levels I got fed up and we got a henchman to do that instead, and I switched to my next character which was:

Ajax  the wild mage - my first "really good" PC, wild mage from level 5 to 9 (when the campaign ended). 2nd ed, still fond memories.  We did some undermountain, we did some ravenloft, some underark...  Had a cloak of the arachnid and frequent user of Wall of Ice.  Gave my DMs nightmares with the "there-not there" spell.  We had a really good campaign going - 2 fighters, an invoker, a wild mage, cleric henchmen, a psionisist and a paladin.  The GM alternated between the paladin, the invoker and myself - when the party had two wizards going... we could dish out mad damage.  Once near the end, we were attacked by a pirate ship and just... obliterated the enemy ship.

hand drawn PC photos are the best no?

(looking at this image made me realize he had a toad familiar).  I'm surprised I never brought him back...


Shoshiborg :   a Gnome thief illusionist in a Ravenloft campaign, level 3-5 2nd ed.  Had a golden dagger +2.  The 2nd ed thief was weak by itself, but as a multi class it was quite good and really explanded your gaming *and* roleplaying potential. 

 Dain? Nain? A dwarven war cleric using the 2nd ed skills and powers rules, in ravenloft  *very* OP, was almost as good as a fighter with almost full cleric spellcasting.  He was the first character with "I don't want to be here, I want to go back home" problem that would cause him to find ways to shortcut adventures.  (the GM and I had to have a talk).  Level ... 3-7?

Off to gradschool!

Durin (?), a dwarven fighter, a mountain guide.  He really should have been a ranger, but this wasn't allowed in 2nd ed (good riddance on that rule!).  Short campaign but fond memories of it - first one after I left home, introduced me to new friends (who started a high level campaign).

Shoshiborg :   a Gnome thief illusionist 2.0! The abovementioned friends wanted to do a high level campaign, so I brought him back!  (level 11-14)  This guy had escaped Ravenloft and was very paranoid, but relieved to be back to the forgotten realms… and then become stuck in this temple of Helm a few hundred miles from Waterdeep, stuck because it's being sieged by a demonic (devilish?) army (probably the hordes of dragonspear castle module?).  Tons of players (8?),  but eventually fizzled out because we kept killing demons and it kept making no difference.  This ended up being our last 2nd ed campaign, and also my highest level campaign ever.

Cedric:  A human cleric in 3.0 then 3.5, level 1-9, in a *great* Greyhawk campaign.  Cleric of St-Cuthbert with memory problem.  Full on COD-zilla, but also very good roleplaying character - zealous but also pragmatic, a hard balance to navigate.

I could write a post about this campaign alone.  For a while our two main fighters had raven-lycanthropy.  So in a hard fight, they would get so hurt they would shift, the rest of the party would run away, and the 2 ware-raven would *demolish and eat* the opposition.

Ranger:  a 4rth level strenght-built human ranger, that was part of the campaign above, in a "side quest".  I don't remember too much about it, but in the list it goes!

A dwarven Evoker an a dwarven druid.  level 2-7 maybe?  We did a portion of the mega-dungeon return to the temple of elemental evil.  Eventually we had a fight with 2-3 members escaping and the rest dead or captured.  This "halfway to TPK" became an effective TPK as we discussed ways to rescue this and just gave up.  (added this in edit, completely forgot this).

A dwarven ratcatcher (in warhammer frpg 2nd ed).  Fun game, but the players wanted to stick to D&D

A Dwarven fighter/rogue (warhammer setting, 3.X system), also a sort of holy warrior of the god of death (more neutral funereal god, not kill everyone god).  Pretty brutal combo.  Low level D&D works for Warhammer but past level 5 it doesn't really work anymore.

Barracuda, A "leader/spy" in an Archer game, a d20 spy/combat system.  Very high tech system.  One of the very few female characters I have played.

My contact with this group ended a few years after gradschool

Sometimes during this time I also joined a new group, that did *not* play D&D

In the introductory part of the campaign, a modern "fey live among us" urban fantasy, I played an arms dealer.  We used the gurps system.

Rupert, the professor/hermetic mage.  Still in Gurps, still same campaign.  Human, British, an academic with a sword cane, very fun to play.  Even then, 15 years ago, I was interested in old grimoires.  His moment of glory was saving a critically injured party member on the roof by casting a short but very strong defensive spell on said member, pushing him off the roof, then doing the same to myself and jumping off too.  He then managed to drag the injured character to safety while evading police that were converging on the very *loud* battle scene.

I think we ended up blowing ourselves up?

Robert the half-japanese street samurai.  Still the same urban campaign but we are now switching to the far more complex Hero (champion?) 5e system.   He is recruited by an arm of the RCMP that keeps an eye on the fey living among us.  Very sneaky, very powerful in a melee fight.  Also very determined and disciplined.

The campaign ends in an attempt by our heroes to stop "the end of the world" but we explode because one player *didn't tell us about the bombs*.  This player, which I still play with to this day, never lost this habit of sometimes not telling the other PCs crucial bits of information.

the "saving the world" doesn't quite work.  Aliens - "angels" - come to earth and take over.  Things are very messed up, much destruction etc.  A new campaign in this world begins...

Julien Flamel.  (Hero 5e revised edition) A slightly mad, very determined and *extremely paranoid* mage.   His main shtick was beside some fairly basic magic, was, due to a summoning mishap, he could "exchange place" between his normal self and a multi tentacular being from the 5th dimension.  This thing was a combat monster and surprisingly sneaky for a 800 pound land squid.  It usually ate foes.   This was inspired in part by the Words of Changing from a Tad Williams novel.

The character evolved by having more interesting spells, like the ability to summon flying turnip golems, or turn incoming bullets into mushrooms.   Unfortunately, we came to a point where we had to gamble with the goddess of death to get a very important macguffin.  Another PC was *designed* to be a great gambler.  But the player *choked*.  He couldn't risk his precious character.  So Julien, aware of the extremely high stakes and very determined, gave the other PC a disgusted look and took the gamble and... lost (without those gambling bonuses, it was a 50/50 chance).  wan-wan-waaaaaan. 
Jacob:  The replacement character.  A gunsligner with a cyborg eye and a huge revovler, who saw the "angels" as an affront to God.  Given that this was Hero 5e, his gun hit ridiculously hard.  The GM took it away but it didn't really matter.  And that was the end of this long urban fantasy campaign - 2 systems, 4 PCs and over 5 years of gaming.

Edward the Eel Lawyer (hero 5e).  We are switching to super heroes.  My character has aquatic powers, which we all know are lame.  So I also made him a lawyer!  He once stopped a fight dead in its track by shouting "I WILL SUE YOU!!!".   Eventually he had to fight in another battle, and the other PCs (and the GM, who had forgotten), were horrified to realized that he had an inner second jaw like a Moray Eel that could bite the heck out of people.

We switch gear to a simple system and D-level superheroes.

Procyonor, ex lab assistant who gained powers after biting an activist who was bitten by a radioactive raccoon.  He can summon racoons.  LOTS of them.  But he doesn't control them!  Another PC, Cheese Lord, is *very* nervous.

A fashion police hitman:  Hitman on the run, part of a mob that was involved in the world of fashion.  Now part of a cleanup crew.   Has a carcano rifle he stole from a museum that was involved in a very famous crime.   Part of the cleanup involved tons of raccoons.  Campaign ends with world destruction.

kangaroo-like necromancer.  A time traveling game. He became his own great-great-great-grandpa

We then started playing in exalted

A solar exalt - a diplomat/swordsman/sailor.  Could attack 8 times in a round rolling 18 d10 each time.  Dear lord.

A starfish alien ("hiver") in a Traveler game that fizzled out.

brawler/coatch driver , exalted 3e this time.  Would get his clients to their destination no matter what.

At this point, my association with this group ended, after a good dozen year together :/ 

Gamil, dwarven alchemist part of a very decent Eberron campaign that went from level 3 to 8.  The character was tough as nails and fun to play.  I was using a PF class in 3.X and it sort of worked, except for alter self which turns out to be quite broken due to huge AC boost...

Meanwhile, one of the player played a bard who was pretty good at boosting the party but had middling dex, light armor, no defensive magical item, refused to use defensive magic and had *no* constitution bonus.  I built my alchemist knowing that our "fighting line" was mobile and skirmishy, so he was tough.  The bard had to be rescued *all the time*.

A civilized goblin mechanic mage:  Part of an Iron Kingdom campaign that went on for a few levels (2-6?).  It was very interesting - I think that Iron Kingdoms is better than Eberron.

A starwars clone heavy gunner:  In saga (I think?) system star wars game.  We played crammed in one guy's bedroom... not ideal.  It was a good game though, but as many campaign, it eventually fell apart.  A bit too much combat, a bit too samey... PCs... but I have to give it to the GM, there was a lot of good stuff too.

I wanted to try playing 5e, so I joined a number of Play By Post games on the EN World forums:

Darwinimar:  a great bout of collaborative world building.  I really wanted to play a gnome ranger, and we really needed a tank, so I made a sword-and board short sword wielding character.  It was fun, but campaign fizzled out.  Level 3-4

Darwinimar (made with Heroforge)

Grassnoll, a goblin warlock.  He pretended to be a dwarven wizard (mask of many faces).  He also had a patron elder god, the king in yellow, that *already had been summed back to the world*... just hadn't arrived yet, it's a long way!  Campaign fizzled out.  Level 3

Grassnoll (source?)

A Dwarven alchemist.  Nautical campaign, fizzled out fast.  Level 4?

what was your name again? Source?

Lal Kalandar.  Mystical Barbarian  I grew tired of making characters for nothing in PBP, and this guy was in *three* campaigns - one level 1-5, one level 3, and one level 11-12.  They all fizzled out, but overall it was a good experience - I wanted to show that the barbarian class had a lot more roleplaying depth than what is usually depicted (stats weren't great though).  He wasn't an ordinary barbarian, he had the hermit background - a dervish type, a mendicant.  He also was a planar traveler - it was the same person in the 3 campaigns.  The last one was an Al-Quadim campaign and I'm sad it didn't work out... although I mean it lasted almost a year and had a few very cool scenes so... that's a win?

Now Lal I remember! Hisorical documents

Udit the riverman  a thief (level 4-8) who was an NPC in my Yoon Suin campaign.  He wasn't well optimized because he was meant to duplicate the Yoon-Suin version.  In this one he was in one of two campaigns that did the same dungeon at once - I think at one point we had 3 groups going, eventually merged into one.  This was the first time I played a single class rogue, and you know what?  Bravo WotC, bravo, you nailed the rogue in 5e.  We were in a dungeon with various factions, an undead dragon etc... it was *wild*.  Great GM, feel grateful for his hard work.

Udit was a pessimist

Kalorn.  Warlock hexblade5 /eldrich knight 3.  Very tragic, hard hitting Gish.  A bitter mercenary with a "demon" leg that was grafted on him against his will.   I wanted to try something new so in a new arc he replaced Udit.  He had a bat familar - he would kill anyone who hurt it.

Now *this* is an image! by theDURRRRIAN

Rodrigo.  1-5 dex-based battle-master fighter with the spy background, fought with a rapier .  Very fun character - we all made PCs "blind" and we ended up with an archer, a ranger, a paladin, a monk and a fighter.   Played Tomb of Annihilation.

What if Aragorn was a musketeer you say? (seriously, from the Alatrise film)

At this point, after the pandemic bringing me down, and growing frustrated with the PBP method of play, I left Rodrigo and Kalorn behind.  BUT I didn't just disappear from the face of the earth like some people do - are they alive? Did they die? I don't know!  I had a farewell post.  Remember folks, if you decide to leave a PBP campaign, SAY SOMETHING.

About 2 years ago, one of my players and good friend invited me to his face to face campaign.  It's Pathfinder which... is not my favorite... but the gaming has been good.

Malbung Ikrum:   Level 7-10+ bladebound Magus.  I had been intrigued by the Magus, and my friend told me they needed more melee oomph.  So I made Malbung, the half elf half eldarian magus.  His father was a bodyguard of the now dead Eladrin Godess of war.  He hits hard, debuffs, is sneaky and has extremely high intimidate *and* the enforcer feat.  Casts no shadow and can speak with the dead.  Uses "defending bone" and claims it's Mr Magoo, the old janitor now helping him on quests. The campaign is Zeitgest and it is *very very* good.  My only wish was that it was in 5e - Malbung is already restated as a bard college of sword 6/hexblade 3, I'm ready!  :D

Update: Malbung got himself killed, but was too stubborn to die and his spirit lingered in the Bleak Gate.  Once the rest of the party showed up in the Bleak Gate with his body; Malbung's spirit just reanimated it.  He's now level 10 "+1" , where the +1 is the shadow outsider template.

The clothes are wrong but the feel is right.  By Matt136

Telchar (dwarven alchemist level 1-6, juust reached 7 I think) The same group has a rotating campaign, so I decided to bring back the dwarven alchemist, this time in a proper PF game.  We are doing the Kingmaker campaign and it's been pretty good.  Trap-breaker template

Update:  After reaching level 9, I realized I was over-comited, gaming wise, and I had to pull out of the pathfinder game. 

Mariah: Level 10 Spiritualist: The campaign where Malbung died has a "death has consequences" style, so I had to make a temporary PC.  But this was difficult because this is a game with a fair amount of "secrecy" - so the new PC was a "spirit medium" who could contact Malbung's spirit.  This way I didn't have to worry about what Mariah knew - Malbung was guiding her, and she was using the power of  his blade.  How was she able to pull that off?  Little do they know, they are half siblings!  Game design wise, I had a bit of "fun" making a PC that was very different  yet almost identical - pathfinder is strange like that (see https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/occult-adventures/occult-classes/spiritualist/archetypes/paizo-llc-spiritualist-archetypes/phantom-blade-spiritualist-archetype/ ... wow).

Doshma:  Inspired by an old starwars NPC, this was a level 7 mercenary soldier in a short Starfinder game - the "scifi" version of pathfinder.  I was not impressed with the system to be honest, but at least it was fun to game with my friends

Determined to play 5e "for real", I started looking online for a 5e game.  And I was successful!  During this time I also played in a short bastionland game (a charismatic bruiser) and a Drakenduer Glog game (an antling petty swordsman)

Hector di RundaTaurë:  Level 3 half elf hexblade warlock.  A short lived 5e game where we played as incompetent/corrupt cops trying to do good and line our pockets.  He was the "face" of the party and pretty fun.  It can be a mistake to make a hexblade *only* combat focus, and I made sure he had a few "tricks" in his arsenal.  His story was that he was a bastard son in a noble family who had been sent to military school (for Eldritch Knights) but had limited aptitude for it ... until he med a Gith traveler who showed him other ways to reach power (hexblade).  Hector thought his problems were solved, instead he got kicked out of the academy.  Now he works as a city guard in a rough part of town, but Hector plans to use this as a base to rebound and once again reach the higher levels of society!

... well that was the plan.  Alas, scheduling problems killed the campaign.

Melenvagor:  We were going to play the Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign.   As this was a "beginner" adventure, I decided to make a very "classic" concept.  I wanted a very elfy-elf - inspired in part by a line in the Hobbit (or maybe LOTR?) where an elf explains that he doesn't know what a Hobbit means by "magic" - it's just things elves do.  And I decided that the best way to do an "elfy elf" - super dextrous, fast, strange powers, excellent archer, good in the wild - was to make a Kensei monk, with the outlander background.  It worked *extremely* well.  Our party was strong with archery, and we used it to destroy many a foe.  Initially he fought with a sword or a bow, but one day we found a +1 battle-axe under the sea made from a megalodon tooth and ... he became Melenvagor, the Axe-Elf . 

Alas, scheduling also killed this campaign when we were 90% done.  

At this point, the group stabilized the scheduling, allowing us to complete the Storm King's Thunder campaign.  

Soronto:  Level 10 fighter, human, sage background.  I had a LOT of fun playing this wizened old swordsman.  He had taught himself an fighting style based on a Gyth tome he translated and became a psi warrior.  However, at level 7 he was killed and was reborn as a Rune Knight, as he had been spending more and more times studying the giants.  He was instrumental in uncovering the evil dragon's plot.  Even though a dex-build shield fighter is not a great match with the Rune Knight, it turned out to be really good - having a sunblade didn't hurt.  I did not really "optimize" him that much, taking "fun" things like Ritual Caster or Chef (reskinned as alchemy - he had tonics and healing salves!).  I did take lucky, and that's a *fine* feat indeed.

 

R.O.B.O  Level 8 warlock/fathomless, pact of the chain, far traveler background, autognome Our GM then decided to make some kind of crazy time traveling game so... I sort of made a character *very* heavily influence by Chrono Trigger.   As the party already had an artificer, and we needed a "face", I made him into a warlock instead - this patron is his creator(s), whomevere that may be.  He is programmed as a "space probe" - he doesn't need food or air.  He's part of a *very* blasty party - we have an artificer artillerist and a star druid, so a lot of pew pews (and a drow paladin and a bubear barbarian as a very stout front line... but the bugbear was disintegrated by a Trump-beholder... oh poor Goruk, we hardly knew thee!).  I am looking forward to spelljammer being published so I can update the race to an "official" version.  But it doesn't really matter, the game is so over the top :D

Chrono Trigger is *excellent* btw

Mr Butters, level 7 apothecary.  Same group, different GM. This is a playtest of a new class devised by the Dungeon Dudes, and the campaign is their *excellent* Dungeons of Drakkenheim (highly recommended 5e adventure).  Mr Butters is a serious-minded goblin alchemist, who quit the Amethyst Academy after they rejected his research proposal.  He has devised a way (his subclass is "Mutagenist") to use his magic to transform himself  into a hulking brute for a short period of time.  So the result in a small, smart caster out of combat and almost the Hulk in combat - honestly, a rather fun way to play. 

Enfteb Temang, level 5 adjurer.  Because the "different GM" from above has an unsteady schedule, we are also playing with the GM who rant the SKT and time traveling campaign - after we blew up time, we are now starting at the start of history.  My PC is the first wizard ever, and the namer of things.  But somehow, we keep finding remnants of the previous history - things are not ok!  Enfteb is essentially based on this image, and on vague ideas about an old Yoon-Suin wizard: 

Source: https://www.deviantart.com/mattrhodesart/art/We-are-NOT-taking-the-wizard-626887777

I've been finding that the comments I've heard from others about low level wizards to be a bit underwhelming to be correct... but I've been having fun with him anyway.   With this group, I've also played a spore druid and an eldritch knight in one-shot/short campaigns.  

So is that what 30+ years of gaming looks like?  Not quite!  I didn't include the games I ran as a GM... but that's for another post.  Furthermore, there are a host of one shots, trials, short games that didn't last etc that I essentially forgot about or aren't worth mentioning.  Not to mention a quite a few hundred hours of Eve Online, a smiliar amount of time on dwarf fortress or rimworld...

Conclusions

So what can learn from this:   There are definitely some commonalities in my characters:  I like playing dwarves, I like playing spellcasters (and in 5e, warlocks in particular) and/or swordsmen, I like playing characters that are tough and can fight (it's not rare for me to have high saves and AC).  Roleplaying wise there is a strong element of paranoia, determination and *discipline*.  The paranoia is natural - our PCs are under threat!  But I think that the disciplined, hard working/training PCs reflect a desire that *I* was that driven and disciplined.  Oh well.

I'm also realizing that I almost never get to *play* the specific system I want to - if I want that, I have to *run* it.  I wasn't able to play 5e until 2020 for example

Very few campaign last more than 2 years, so the GM shouldn't lollygag too much if they have plans.  My GMing technique, when I have "no plan" is to have 2 introductory adventures *max* and then take a moment to scope the land - where is this going?  Has a theme, a trend, a party goal emerged?  If so, let's go in that direction!  If it's utterly directionless, then you need to give some direction.  Use or write a module.

The last thing I'm realizing reading this is how privileged I am regarding pen and paper RPGs.  I miss the good old days where we would have a 12 hour session every week... but on the other hand, I play in one session 4 hours a week and run a 3 hour session every 2 weeks (so 6 session per month).  Edit: the pandemic increased that to 4 session run per month and play in 6 others  That's... pretty good!  It's only possible if you can make gaming a priority - and not everyone can do that.

edit:  Throne of Salt inspired others:  https://lapidaryossuary.blogspot.com/2020/08/wanna-see-all-my-d-characters.html , https://xenophonsramblings.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-short-history-of-my-characters.html , https://madqueenscourt.blogspot.com/2020/08/let-me-tell-you-about-my-d-characters.html, https://whosemeasure.blogspot.com/2020/08/i-have-been-so-many-people.html , probably others... it's trending :P

edit part deux:  this trip down memory lane made me realize that the system issues of yesterday made me appreciate some of my modern games more.  But I now have very fond memories of the old games! :)  That's why 5e does for me a little, it has echoes of 2nd ed :)

edit part three:  MOAR blogs!  https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2020/08/sofinho-and-his-heteronyms_11.html , https://blog.orphredhair.com/2020/08/my-roster-of-characters-oh-me-oh-my.html   ,  https://osrdread.blogspot.com/2020/08/25-years-of-my-gaming-history.html , https://princesses-and-pioneers.tumblr.com/post/626371173102616576/personal-player-character-compilation

edit part 4:  when I first wrote this blog I hadn't played any 5e, I've now updated it to mid 2022.  I hope you too have kept playing!

Edit part 5:  From 2023:  It's been 3 years since I've written this post, and I keep updating it.  Why?  Clearly people aren't waiting for it... it's because it turns out it's pretty handy to have such a list! I encourage you to do the same.

Zeugma, a city in Anatolia

(I've been asked by a redditor to provide them with more information about my version of Zeugma, so I thought I would clean up my notes and write a post about it.   I'll start with a few comments on Zeugma as a whole, then dive in the details about faction, layout etc etc. )

"Gipsy girl".  Zeugma was noted for its mosaics.  image source: wikipedia

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:  Zeugma was a Hellenistic city on the Euphrates, located near the current city of Gaziantep in Turkey.   It was founded by Seleucia by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander's generals.  It long pontoon bridge, for which it was named, made it an important trading and strategic location for the Romans, and had 70 000 inhabitants at one point.  It was devastated by an earthquake in the 250s and eventually abandoned a few centuries later following numerous raids.

PERSONAL/GAMING CONTEXT:  I've spoken about the campaign I ran in this world previously.  I found information about Zeugma and its mosaic in 2004, and I was so struck by it that I knew there was potential for a setting there.   The gaming system was Warhammer frpg 2nd edition, I wanted to see if the system could be divorced from the Warhammer setting for a low fantasy game (it can!!).  I also used elements of the old Dragon Warriors system (which I highly recommend for any old-school gaming fan). The setting was set in a pseudo-earth, where some cultural groups were replaced by fantasy races - the elves are ancient Egyptians, the dwarves lost their ancient homeland and really don't like the elves for some reason.  I also inspired myself heavily from Guy Gavriel Kay's novels, with some of the same terminology - the Jadites, the Asharians etc.  This was done in 2008. Would I do the same today?  I'm not sure.  The closer you cleave to history, the easier it is to be very offensive without intent; and replacing an ethnicity/culture with a fantasy race is... perhaps unwise.  If you do decide to use this setting, please feel free to not make these choices.

OVERALL THEME:   In my version of Zeugma, it remained a bridge between the East and the West, an independent city-state navigating difficult waters between great rivals - the Byzantium empire, the Sultanate of Rum, Nur-ad Din (the Attabeg of Aleppo) and the Crusader states.  It is a city there different people must live together, filled with intrigue, tension and opportunity.

Ok, now that's done, let's get down to the details:

Geography/Layout

The city of Zeugma is split by the Euphrates.  The city is crossed by a long low wooden bridge – this bridge has had a number of collapses over the year, but is normally kept in good repair.  Traffic is congested  The other way to cross the river involves hiring a small boat – this service is easily obtained as it is faster than walking across and it’s a quick way for fishermen to make a few coins.  Prices skyrocket when the bridge is closed, of course.  There is a nominal tax for people crossing the bridge, and a greater one for mercantile goods.

It should be noted that the Euphrates is not navigable for long stretches in this area.  Trade with Baghdad is done via road for a significant portion of the way.

The section on the western side of the river, Seleucia is bigger and older, and some is on higher ground – where the wealthier citizens live.   The city walls are old but respectable.  The eastern side, Apamea, is smaller, lower but has better city walls as there are more concerns from invasions from the east.  These walls have been enchanted by dwarven runic magic, increasing their resilience.  A number of narrow sewage tunnels run under the high town, and these are sometimes infested by criminals, goblins or worse.  Patrolling these tunnels is seen as punishment duty within the army.

Speaking of punishment, slightly to the north of the city the Euphrates widens and in the middle there is a long, flat island.  It is unsuitable for inhabitation, but crops can be grown there.  Petty crimes are sentenced by fines or – for those who can’t or won’t pay – periods of work in the island.  Conditions are unpleasant.  Since there aren’t always enough convicts to work the fields, some of the city’s poor are frequently hired to help out, receiving a meagre pay and some food.

The layout is based on archeological maps, although the position of the bridge roads and gates is speculative... To see the image in full size, right click, open image in new tab.

Governance

Zeugma is an independent city state and for centuries has resisted attempts by various kingdoms and empire to fully control it.  It acts as a buffer between the east and west.  That being said, the city has always been more closely aligned to the Byzantine empire (and the Romans before that, and the Greeks before that) than the Persians or Arabs.

Zeugma is ruled by five Satraps.  Each Satrap is elected for 10 years.  Zeugma is therefore a sort of democracy, but not everyone gets to vote – only landowners do (this changed following one particular adventure).  The churches also gets a certain number of votes as well.  There is an election every 2 years, giving a certain constant to the government.  Each Satrap has a specific area of control.  The Stone Satrap is in charge of public works and maintaining the walls, the Silver Satrap is in charge of taxes and the budget, the Bronze Satrap runs the military/city watch and the Paper Satrap is in charge of the legal system and the bureaucracy.  Each Satrap absolutely needs the help of the others to do stuff, ensuring that no one has too much power.  The Spirit Satrap is a “recent’ position (a few centuries only) and is both the least and most powerful Satrap – he deals with maters of religion and magic.  Keeping the various religious groups happy is a difficult challenge.  Under Zeugma law, no religion is favored over the other, a very unusual situation.

The city has a guild of mages, whose headquarters is the Zephyr Tower.  The most ancient Azyr Congregation, or the Blue Guild as the commoners call it, specializes in divination magic, and has existed as long as the city has.  Some say they are the true rulers of Zeugma, although they seemingly take no part in the day to day politics of the city – beyond regulating magic use that is.  That being said, there is no doubt that the guild’s foresight has been key in keeping the city independent over the centuries.

Crime:

The city has been plagued by a thieves’ guild for so long that’s it has almost become an accepted part of life.  Racketeering is the main activity of the guild, and almost every individual of some means (from humble shop-keeps to powerful noble) pays a fee for the privilege of being left alone.  The guild is fiercely territorial, and will aggressively keep out other criminals, going as far as investigating crimes it is not responsible for… leading to the unusual situation where the guild is almost a part of the police system.  Smuggling is also an important activity for the guild, to avoid paying the bridge tax imposed on goods.

The leader of the thieves' guild has the title of Shadow Satrap; something that seems suspicious indeed to some.  Cynics claim that the the guild organizes most burglaries, investigates them, blames their enemies, returns most (but rarely everything) of what was stolen... and perhaps are spying for the other Satraps!  But what can be done?

Demographics:

Zeugma has about 50 000 people in total, which is less than its peak of 70 000.  Several old buildings serve as warehouses.  The majority are human of Greek/Roman origins.  There are well over 5000 Arabs, and the Turks have a good 2-3 thousands present.  There are about 700 Dwarves, haflings are a bit shy of 500 (they ended up playing no role whatsoever in my campaign), half-elves are a bit under a hundred, and elves who's blood is pure enough to rightfully call themselves full blooded elves can be counted on the digit of one hand.

Institutions, customs and personalities:

-The Coliseum
This building is well over a thousand year old and can accommodate about 5000 spectators.  Although they have fallen out of favor in several areas around the world, Zeugma has found a plethora of uses for the building - not only are gladiarioral bouts still featured occasionally, but the place is also used for important public trials and executions, theatre, civic ceremonies, occasional mass auction, militia training, festivals, etc.  To the average Zeugma citizen, a city without a Coliseum is as absurd as a house without a kitchen.

-The public Baths:
Although the same cannot be said for Western Europe, personal hygiene is still seen as important in the Byzantine Empire.  As such, the old baths of roman times have been maintained.

-The Black Dwarf Of Zeugma:
This dwarf is the city's most infamous assassin, mostly because of his rather blunt mode of operation (show up, hack at the target with a sword, leave without a trace).  He's also infamous for carrying a bow - a very big no-no for dwarves due to religious reasons.  A few more recent assassinations (via a trio of arrows) have been speculated to be his doings as well.  Gossips claim he is behind baby disappearances (dwarves eat babies after all), bodies found in the river, accidental death of important people, arson, plagues, and rats. Cynics point out that it's rather convenient for the city to have someone who only actually commits a few murders a year and who can be blamed for all unsolved crimes.

-The White Dwarf of Zeugma:
Rabbi Thrain Silvertouched may be the best liked individual of the city.  Spirit Satrap for over 3 decades (he has been elected without opposition the last 2 elections), he has managed to mediate conflict betweens different churches with uncanny skill and to improve relations between the Blue Guild and the Council.  He is also a powerful runesmith, and has inscribed a Rune of Power on the eastern walls - no one seems to know what it does exactly, but those with sorcerous skills say it will be most potent in defending the city if need be.  To the common man though, the old Rabbi is a white bearded dwarf with a strong but kind voice, who often takes time to walk around the city helping various people with sound advice, a willingness to listen and sometimes either coin or actual labor.  The Rabbi had denounced the Black Dwarf as a vile felon.  This hasn't stopped some people from claiming that perhaps he actually IS the black dwarf!  To the common Zeugma, this is evidence the speaker is either stupid, looking for a fight, or both.

-The Silver Ring Brotherhood
A fairly "new" institution, the brotherhood is a semi-secret organization to which only a select few can enter.  To do so, a person must be two things:  a resident of Zeugma, and a master of the sword.  The workings of the organizations or its goals are not well known, but its membership is:  All members are entitled to wear two silver rings wrapped around the handle of their sword.  Such a swordsman is to be respected - not only has he proven himself to be an exceptional swordsman, but he has the ear of other swordsmen who are probably very well connected.  Gaining the rings is therefore a way to move up in social standing, for even the lowliest born, but carries responsibility as well - the brotherhood does not tolerate villains within its ranks for very long.
(I thought my players would be into this, but nope, not at all).

- Bhavik Singh
This small old man comes from the far reaches of India and practices a religion that is not well known in Zeugma.  He rose through the ranks of the military both through martial skill (he wields his curved blade like a whirlwind, a blade that proudly wears two silver rings) and leadership - he has the capacity to inspire the loyalty of his men and to manage large organizations.  He eventually became watch captain, then was elected as the Bronze Satrap, and is now in his second term.  He wears a colorful, elaborate turban that grows larger with time and has a tendency to attract arrows, sorcerous bolts and worse - proof that it is a very good turban indeed!  Bavik has earned the ire of some of the nobility for only promoting according to talent, not birth, but is well liked by the common man.


I think that this post has gotten long enough, and I hope you enjoyed this look back at my old game.  If people are interested, I can post more about factions, regional politics, Elven customs, conversions from Dragon Warriors to Warhammers frpg 2nd ed, and an extensive NPC list.   Otherwise, this will probably be the last post about Zeugma.

The Zeugma Campaign: Gaming in Pseudo-earth

I'm going to try something new - instead of posting a play report of a session, I'm going to post a play report of a *campaign*.  This game happened in 2008-2009, used the 2e Warhammer frpg system (modified), was set on a pseudo earth in 1150, and was centered around the city of Zeugma.  Zeugma was a city in Modern-day Turkey that bridges the Euphrates, and is at the point where the East and West meet.

I have tons of material on Zeugma but... does anyone care?  Well, let's first see what occurred in the campaign (I think some of these can be mined for adenture ideas, given that they were all adventures we ran ha.)  After that, I'll give a few comments on what I learned running this.

(Party members:  Orzad, the dwarven pit-fighter, Amandyl the elven "bounty hunter" (a runaway noble), Peklar the Armenian ex-bandit and Mahmud, the Turkish right-hand man of Jaffar the Merchant.)

1: The campaign begins. Party hired by Jaffar, an ambitious merchant, to guard a rented warehouse where some his goods are stored. It turns out the owner of the warehouse hasn't been paying protection money to the local thieves' guild.

2: Fake brigandry. The party becomes retainers of Jaffar. He asks the party to perform a delicate task - to create the illusion of a heavy brigand presence upon a certain trade route. They aren't to actually kill anyone, just scare travelers.  However, the party is forced to intervene to save pilgrims from Turkish raiders. The party encounters Hassan, a mysterious Turkish bowman, who intervenes in their favor. The party also encounters Stephanos of Trebizon and his group.

3: Lost and Found: The party hears rumors of a lost magical item within the city and starts looking for it. It turns out that this is a training exercise by the local mage guild. However, the party also learns of another, much more powerful item being smuggled in the city - a wand infused with the deadly ice magic, Omptose Phellac. The party makes the acquaintance of Valmaxian, a reclusive elven sorcerer; Agda the witch; Alcanter the Blue; Thrain Silvertouched (the Spirit Satrap) and of Feanaro Culnamo, an "elven” “shop" “owner".

4: Grave Hunt: The scribe Ophelos has found an old parchment indicating the true location of the tomb of Selecus I Nicator, founder of Zeugma (one of Alexander's generals). The city approaches the party to go on an expedition in exchange for a share of the treasure. After a few days of travel, the tomb is found inside a barrow which the locals swear is haunted. After defeating the goblins inside (who were tricking the peasants into making offerings) and the undead guardians, the tomb is secured, will with many historical artefacts and quite a lot of treasure, including the griffin's claw, an enchanted sword made of Damascus steel.

5: Liberation of Carablos: Rumors of war, as Joscelin II is captured by Nur Ad Din as they were ambushed while looking for Turkish raiders. Jaffar has report that the town of Carablos, a critical supply point on the way to Baghdad, is extorting travelers under the order of a new governor. Party investigates and is joined by a mysterious vagrant, Assad the lepper. The governor turns out to be consorting with necromancers and worse, and Assad to be a Turk not to cross. Violent confrontation ensues.

6: The Zeugma Hastildude: Party members take part in traditional martial games, demonstrating archery, riding and swordsmanship. A jousting demonstration is done and is deemed to be a silly western practice. The party does well - Orzad reaches the semi final and loses vs Christophoros, the reigning champion of the melee (Christophoros is then defeated by a newcomer, Du Hamel, a templar). Peklar wins the horse-race, and Amandil reaches the archery finals.  Mahmud is trained by Assad.

7: Property fraud: a complex scheme is unleashed upon Zeugma, where the conman sells tiny parcels of lands to commoners to give them the right to vote. As the next election will be for the Spirit Satrap, religious tensions flare. The party attempts to investigate *and* profit. The conman escapes!

8: A trip to Antep: The party pursues the conman to the nearby city of Antep, as a large bounty is on his head. On the way, meet NubZeb the goblin. Antep situation made complicated by the conman hiring local thief guild as protection, by members of the Zeugma thief guild also being after the bounty, by actual assassins being after the conman *and* by Antep being besieged by the Sultanate of Rum! Nubzeb is instrumental in gaining acess as he knows of a secret tunnel. The conman is killed, his money seized by Antep authorities, and some dwarves escape Antep and migrate to Zeugma with the party.

9: A trip to Abu Kabal: Jaffar realizes that with the disruption from the conman, the success of a Zeugma caravan on its way back from Baghdad is suddenly of grave import. The party goes south to rejoin the caravan and help escort it north back to safety. After traveling 150 leagues, the caravan is found. On the way back to Zeugma, the caravan is beset by a habboob - a sandstorm. 3 desert ogres - far more cunning than ordinary ogres and wielding magic, use the cover of the storm to attack.

10: Anti-Banditry: Antep pays tribute to the Turks of the Sultanate of Rum, who abandon their siege - for now. While the party was away, Jaffar organized a small caravan going east, which was attacked by bandits. Jaffar wants revenge, his goods back but most importantly two things:  a magical ring that "can see ahead" *and* a very valuable slave. The party dispenses justice, retrieves the ring and travels to Edessa, the fallen crusaser city, which has become a camp for slave traders and where the slave has been sent. On the way, the party meets Cengis the mule skinner, and Crius, a large mysterious being guarding a hidden door. The slave turns out to be a Circassian beauty that is highly educated in the codes of law - a bride for the Paper Satrap.

11: A trip to Aleppo: Valmaxian examines Jaffar's new ring and declares it to be not a divination tool but the ring of many parts, which can be used to retrieve an ancient magical item hidden beneath the Citadel of Aleppo - the staff of storms! The party agrees to help. What follows is *extremely* eventful, with earthquakes, the staff retrieved, Joscellin II, count of Edessa, found and rescued and the woman Le-ka, resurrected but put inside a golden automaton, who now claims to be the Avatar of Ishtar, Goddess of love and war.

12: Upward Mobility: Jaffar tries to become a council member on the merchant guild. Someone tries to assassinate "him" - but his servant is the true target. Templars are involved, and the assassin's guild is not happy someone is poaching on their turf. An arrangement is made with the templars - but Agda the witch foresees blood - BLOOOOOOODD!!! Hassan informs party that Jaffar is still in danger. While traveling on protection detail, the party is attacked by would be assassins - but the party proves to be the anvil upon which the local assassins hammer the would be interlopers. Many dead. Jaffar wins election. Amandil dreams of bloody pyramid.

13: Delaying action: Nur Ad Din is enraged by Joscelin II's escape and decides to strike Turbesell (Joscelin's forteress) before Joscelin is ready. Zeugma decides to help covertly - the party, some assassins (Hassans, Assad and *the black dwarf of zeugma!!!*), an Amber mage and other sell-swords (including Stephanos's group) are recruited to start guerrilla campaign. Party convinces goblins to help. Enemy scouts are ambushed, bridges are torched, horses are spooked, siege engines are burned down and enemy mages are furiously murdered. Eventually, Armenian relief force shows up, and Nur Ad Din withdraws.

14: Jailbreak: The Egyptian (elven) Ambassador has learned that Valmaxian has left and is a follower of Set, the imprisoned dark elf/god.  The Staff of storm is a key to release him.  The Blue guild foresees a key "fork" event and are troubled. Agda the witch flees the city. Party has doubt, as Set's imprisonment could be considered unjust. They return to the hidden valley where they previously met Crius (who is no longer present). They do not manage to stop Valmaxian in time, and Set is released at night. Set rises his hand and  blots the moon.  He and declares that there are not four elements, there are five. Once the darkness disperses and the moon returns to normal, Set and his servants are gone.

And that was it!   The campaign had a 2nd arc, where the consequences of Set's release were explored, in 2014, but that would be best kept for another post.  This text was originally a recap for the players starting the 2nd arc.

Lessons learned from this campaign:

1: The Warhammer system works well to simulate a lowish fantasy setting, such as a pseudo earth, and it doesn't have to be used exclusively for the Warhammer setting.  It takes a lot less work to run a game than in 3.X, pathfinder or even 5e, leaving the GM more time to think about more important things (who are the NPCs, what do they want etc).  One of the reason for it is that the great majority of careers ("classes" in Warhammer) are not magic users.

2:  However it is not perfect.  There is a lot of "whiffing" (fights were combatants are all missing each other) at first, some of the rules are a bit peculiar, and the career system *really* isn't for everyone.  One of my players (who later departed, not listed above) had a huge problem with not being able to design his character exactly how he wanted, and instead having to rely on a random roll to tell him what his lot in life would be.

2b:  Adding bits of Dragon Warriors to a game is always a good idea.  Although almost all the adventures were original content, A Grave Hunt heavily borrowed on a Dragon Warriors module.  Goblins and trolls were based on Dragon Warriors description, and I adapted the Dragon Warriors magical systems to Warhammer.

3:  I had a lot of fun running a city campaign, although half the action was outside the city walls.   It requires a good understanding of how the city works, what are the factions, what do they want.  Looking back, I think I should have injected a little bit more chaos in there - I think that once you have an entire city in  your mind, you can become reluctant to shake the boat too much, and that can be detrimental

4:  As I am older, I have reservations now that I did not have back then.  To weave a "pseudo-earth" and the fantasy races, I had the elves being Egyptians (and originally refugees from Atlantis), dwarves were analogous to the Jews, and the Turks were hobgoblins.  I put in a lot of effort to be realistic and not mono-dimensional.  However, I am sure that no matter how well I did it, some would find the very concept profoundly offensive.  I *really* thought Zeugma was interesting (I started taking notes on Zeugma in 2004, I let things percolate in my mind for a long time sometimes), but I'm hesitant to publish the setting.

4b:  While pseudo-earth is "easy" because there is tons of material out there (see https://www.akdn.org/publication/aga-khan-trust-culture-citadel-aleppo-description-history-site-plan-visitor-tour-Syria - I was able to turn the citadel in this crazy multi level dungeon that was historically plausible!) - there are also... links to real life situation.  Aleppo suffered terribly during the Syrian civil war, is it "cool" now to have a game there today?  :/   The second art of this campaign occurred, in part, in the Tarim basin, aka Xinjiang, where the Uighurs are currently undergoing  terrible persecutions.  When I ran the 2nd arc of campaign things were nowhere as bad, now it feels... bad... to use it as a gaming setting.

4c:  This also applies to events of *back then* that still reverberates today - things like the crusades, tensions between faiths (or between the various sects of the same faith)… I think it makes for good gaming material, but it's perilous to publish.

5:  Different groups prefer different style of play and freedom.  I don't like railroading, but on the other hand my group likes to be "pointed towards the plot".  Having a patron saying "I have a problem, take care of it please" and then letting the PCs loose really works well for my gaming group.  I knew what the problem was, who the people involved were and what they wanted, but how it played out depended on my PCs.  Sometimes they really surprised me.