Number Appearing

On the whole "close to the bones of AD&D" thing - one experiment that has always appealed to me is to treat the number appearing entry of things in the Monster Manual as absolute maximums. This is already the case with the most powerful creatures therein, they are unique. So do this with all of the monsters - since you can encounter 10-100 pilgrims according to their Men entry, that means there are but 100 pilgrims in the whole world. Ah, but wait! There's 5 alignment groups of pilgrims... so there's 500 pilgrims in the whole world! 400 elves & orcs, 4 dragons of each type (I only use green, black, red & white, so there'd be 32 dragons, 1 of each color and age...), 6 barbed devils, etc...

I know! Big deal! Still, this is a setting I would like to play with more. There's 1 lich, 100 sprites, 6 ogre magi... I'll append to this post later the total population list I culled from the MM (it's on a different computer) so I don't lose it.

The only way I'd diverge off the ridiculously strict read with a little Holmesian thing I've never been able to shake - the way that the alignment for many creatures is listed with options (dwarf LG or N, giants & dragons too... must revise my dragon # again... gah!) - more creatures in the Holmes book are listed as being possibly neutral, and I adopt that because I really like neutral! So this could boost the number of demi-humans, unless the differences are within the already established total population (are there 400 LG dwarves AND 400 neutral dwarves, or 200 of each?)...

Anyway - it makes for a small world, or creates the sense of it, because these numbers are smaller, but still not small. They do become more manageable and comprehensible to me though. And interesting points come up all over the place - in the issue of pets & guard animals. Dwarves, elves, goblins, gnolls - several demi-human and humanoid species have animals - stone giants w/cave bears, etc... Given the # Appearing for the cave bear, chances are that these are the only cave bears in the world. Another decision point comes up with the issue of the classed-types that show up with the Men groups - should these then be the only classed beings in the whole world? Should the PCs have to be drawn from this pool of pre-existing classed characters?

It definitely reinforces humanocentric AD&D, men far outnumber any other race. Again, I'll post the numbers in a minute.

EDIT:

1       aerial servant, beholder, demon prince, succubus, arch devil, 
        ice devil (11 HD), pit fiend devil (13 HD), djinni (7+3 HD), 
        dragonne (9 HD), efreeti (10 HD), elemental (8, 12, or 16 HD), 
        gelatinous cube (4 HD), ghost (10 HD), golem, homonculous (2 HD), 
        hydra (5 to 12 HD) , imp (2+2 HD), invisible stalker (8 HD), lich (11+ HD), 
        mimic (7 to 10 HD),morkoth (7 HD), neo-otyugh (9 to 12 HD), night hag (8 HD),
        nightmare (6+6 HD), pseudo-dragon (2 HD), quasit (3 HD),gynosphinx (8 HD), 
        sylph (3 HD)
1-2     cave bear (6+6), bulette (9 HD), barbed devil (8 HD), bone devil (9 HD),
        megalosaurus dinosaur (12 HD), otyugh (6 to 8 HD), purple worm (15 HD), 
        rust monster (5 HD), shambling mound (8 to 11 HD), giant constrictor 
        snake (6+1 HD), titan (17 to 22 HD)
1-3     black bear (3+3 HD), catoblepas (6+3), “typed” demon (8 to 11 HD), 
        erinyes devil (6+6), horned devil (5+5), gray ooze (3+3), medusa (6 HD), 
        spirit naga (9 to 10 HD), ochre jelly (6 HD), roper (10 to 12 HD), 
        giant amphisbaena snake (6 HD), water weird (3+3 HD), will-o-wisp (9 HD), 
        wind walker (6+3)
1-4     basilisk (6+1 HD), black pudding (10 HD), chimera (9 HD), 
        ceratosaurus dinosaur (8 HD), dragon (5 to 11 HD), ettin (10 HD), 
        storm giant (15 HD + 2-7), gorgon (8 HD), jackalwere (4 HD), 
        giant fire lizard (10 HD), werebear (7+3 HD), manticore (6+3 HD), 
        mind flayer (8+4 HD), nymph (3 HD), rakshasa (7 HD), giant scorpion (5+5 HD), 
        sea hag (3 HD), criosphinx (10 HD), hieracosphinx (9 HD), phase spider (5+5),
        umber hulk (8+8 HD), vampire (8+3 HD)
2-5     displacer beast (6 HD), giant owl (4 HD), owlbear (5+2 HD), 
        salamander (7+7 HD), giant poisonous snake (4+2 HD), giant spitting 
        snake (4+2 HD), unicorn (4+4)
1-6     anhkheg (3-8 HD), axe beak (3 HD), brown bear (5+5 HD), carrion 
        crawler (3+1), cockatrice (5 HD), dryad (2 HD) , ghast (4 HD), 
        cloud giant (12 HD + 2-7), green slime (2 HD), jackal (½ HD), giant 
        subterranean lizard (6 HD), ogre mage (5+2 HD), spectre (7+3 HD), 
        wyvern (7+7 HD), yeti (4+4 HD)
1-8     fire giant (11 HD + 2-5), frost giant (10 HD + 1-4), 
        stone giant (9 HD + 1-3), giant minotaur lizard (8 HD), minotaur (6+3 HD), 
        giant spider (4+4 HD), giant poisonous toad (2 HD)
2-8     carnivorous ape (5 HD), giant boar (7 HD), hell hound (4 to 7 HD), 
        wereboar (5+2), mummy (6+3  HD), satyr (5 HD), shrieker (3 HD), 
        winter wolf (6 HD)
1-10    hill giant (8 HD + 1-2)
1-12    wild boar (3+3 HD), huge spider (2+2 HD), giant toad (2+4 HD), troll (6+6)
2-12    griffon (7 HD), harpy (3 HD), giant lizard (3+1 HD), wraith (5+3 HD)
3-12    bombardier beetle (2+2 HD), fire beetle (1+2 HD), doppleganger (4 HD), 
        dire wolf (3+3 HD), worg wolf (4+4 HD)
2-16    gargoyle (4+4 HD) , hippogriff (3+3 HD), wight (4+3 HD)
4-16    blink dog (4 HD), brownie (½ HD), manes demon (1 HD), wild dog (1+1 HD)
3-18    boring beetle (5 HD), pteranodon (3+3 HD), giant killer frog (1+4 HD), 
        werewolf (4+3 HD)
1-20    giant eagle (4 HD), leprechaun (½ HD +1), treant (7 to 12 HD), giant wasp (4 HD)
2-20    flightless bird (1 to 3 HD), ogre (4+1 HD), shadow (3+3 HD), 
        large spider (1+1 HD), wolf (2+2 HD)
5-20    pixie (½ HD) 
2-24    giant centipede (¼ HD), ghoul (2 HD)
3-24    zombie (2 HD)
4-24    centaur (4 HD), wererat (3+1 HD)
3-30    skeleton (1 HD), stirge (1+1 HD)
5-30    lemure devil (3 HD)
6-36    bugbear (3+1 HD)
5-40    giant frog (1 to 3 HD)
10-40   larva (1 HD), lizard man (2+1 HD)
5-50    giant rat (½ HD)
10-60   triton (3 HD)
20-80   nixie (½ HD), sahuagin (2+2 HD)
1-100   giant ant (2 HD)
10-100  berserker men ((1+1 HD (d6)), cave men ((2 HD (d6)), 
        pilgrim men (1 HD (d6)), sprite (1 HD), troglodyte (2 HD)
10-120  tribe men (1 HD (d6))
20-200  elf (1+1 HD), gnoll (2 HD), hobgoblin (1+1 HD), bandit men (1 HD (d6)),
        brigand men (1 HD (d6)), merman (1+1 HD), 
30-300  nomad men (1 HD (d6)), orc (1 HD)
50-300  merchant men (1 HD (d6))
40-400  dwarf (1 HD), gnome (1 HD), goblin (1-1 HD), kobald (½ HD)

Setting Info

< OLD LINK REMOVED >
A timeline
Some history-lite
Cursory geography
A crude map (WIP!)

Still in the 'setup' phase. Players are submitting ideas and information, so it is still a work in progress. I'm trying my damnest to keep kinda quiet about what this looks like under the hood, and it's difficult because there's really cool things happening in here. Emergent patterns and such. Once the first turn starts, I'll have to start posting the words of the town criers, border edicts and travellers' stories...

One thing is certain, which seems to be much a truism in human internet-based text gaming - the initial plan never survives!

<*> I thought I'd get a couple of people, maybe a slow trickle. Nope!
<*> I was gonna randomly assign players to NPCs I already had in place. It immediately became apparent that that would not be the case across-the-board.
I am not complaining about this - the stuff being submitted is making the setting so much more interesting - so many ideas I would have never come up with. And here's where the 'emergent behavior' thing got really freaky (as in cool). Different players unaware of each other coming up with character and 'kingdom' ideas independantly, that work together very well...different hooks that seem easily related to each-other...etc

One thing that has remained pretty consistent is a sort of 'omni-game' approach. Players are using different systems for game detail of their characters as they see fit. I'm sticking to 1e AD&D as a 'lingua franca', and using it for a lot of the implementation details on my side of things, but there's 2e-isms, some T&T-isms,
and some other stuff from I don't know where!

In real world, I went to the college youngins game club this evening for their first meeting of the semester, and met with three guys that responsed to the flier I put up in a few places last week (like outside the game club's meeting room on campus for one!). One of them was somewhat aware of internet OSR stuff, they all seemed at least somewhat interested (I kinda half-assed pitched Swords & Wizardry/OSRIC aka "Old D&D" - I've never been much of a salesman...but), we're supposed to get together next week to start. In Search of the Unknown.

Quasqueton aside, they're gonna be walking into an amazing environment. Thank you overlords! I can't wait to get the internet ball rolling, so that the players can see what's going on too.

Open Call for Overlords!

I've managed to get a few people interested in some at-table gaming, and they seem initially into Swords & Wizardry, which I'm sure will be cast through a Holmes Basic lens to some extent at first.
It is entirely possible that it will mutate into T&T or something else at some point.

So the starting point is on a large, isolated island with six 'kingdoms' separated by wilderness - this wilderness (of course) dotted with ancient ruins, bandits and other baddies, and such. I am hoping that I can talk some of you online persons to run NPCs in this environment (this has been refered to as Evil Overlord somewhere on the webnet - I have lost the bookmark - it's a good read though). The gist is that these online characters are higher-level characters instead of NPCs run by the GM - so the 'background' (of the tabletop game) is formed by agencies other than just the DM's addled pate.

If you're interested, email me at lexos.gdb@gmail.com. Your character and the disposition of your resources will be randomly generated. And thank you!

EDIT: Here's a link to the page that introduced this idea to me

And a 'testimonial' from someone who implemented it

PS: the "Evil" part of Evil Overlord is tongue-in-cheek - there's no evil requirement. (for the sqeamish - there's no evil prohibition either...)

yet more alignment

Here's a quote from Gygax in Strategic Review. At this point, the system of alignments is beginning to move from the Original D&D (Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic) into that presented in Homes Basic (Lawful Good/Evil, Neutral, Chaotic Good/Evil).

Considering mythical and mythos gods in light of this system, most of the benign ones will tend towards the chaotic/good, and chaotic/evil will typify those gods which were inimical towards humanity. Some few would be completely chaotic, having no predisposition towards either good or evil — REH’s Crom perhaps falls into this category.

I find this interesting on 2 points.

• Allowing one and two term definitions of alignment to co-exist, and
• stating that evil is 'inimical towards humanity', placing the interests of humanity as the objective standard (which is probably the safest approach, maybe the only approach...)

Holmes alignment is the one I've felt most comfortable with. Not too esoteric, but of finer resolution. Continuing to use Lawful and Chaotic as independent terms does not seem a serious complication, and one that allows the existence of objective Law and objective Chaos, in the realm of deities and such.

And to maintain the humanocentric interpretation of alignment, the last paragraph of this article says:
As a final note, most of humanity falls into the lawful category, and most of lawful humanity lies near the line between good and evil. With proper leadership the majority will be prone towards lawful/good. Few humans are chaotic, and very few are chaotic and evil.

Perhaps to reinterpret the 1e AD&D alignment, removing the neutrality of each of its variations (and get rid of True, same as adding it implicitly)...nah.

This is the alignment table I use for random determination

d%	1e AD&D	Holmes Basic
01-05	Lawful Evil	Lawful Evil
06-15	Chaotic Evil	Chaotic Evil
16-20	Neutral Evil	Neutral (evil tendencies)
21-35	Chaotic Neutral	Neutral
36-55	True Neutral	Neutral
56-80	Lawful Neutral	Neutral
81-85	Neutral Good	Neutral (good tendencies)
86-95	Chaotic Good	Chaotic Good
96-00	Lawful Good	Lawful Good

So 60-70% of the aligned population falls into neutral territory, with a greater chance of lawful ethos where applicable. Boring? Realistic? Not sure. Somewhat comfortable though.

Crude PDFS

I posted a link to some small PDF files that I've made and thought I should offer an explanation.
They're beside the top post of this page.

First off, a set of tables for hex-occupant generation. I went through Holmes D&D and extracted those creatures listed with treasure types, put in a dash of personal bias, and made tables for lair generation. Each table is rolled with 2 20-siders. There's two tables, the first contains races, the second, monsters.

The second is a list of the spells I've recently been posting here. Yay! More spells!

Anyway - coming to understand how easy PDFs are - albeit, crude ones.