Article #10 in a regular series where I offer up some ideas for character backgrounds by class. I aim to collect these ideas together for a future pdf publication.
What made your character decide to become a wizard? Why did they leave their home town? Did they leave family behind or are they looking for something? These are all questions players face when generating their characters, with the best will in the world it's tempting to rely on cliché.
BARBARIAN
5. Left Behind - Last year your tribe set out on a raiding voyage and all was right with the world. You pillaged a handful of villages along the coast, and then took the river inland like you had done many times. However, when you rounded the bend near a particularly fertile spot of the countryside, to your horror the townsfolk were lining the banks of the river. They'd never done this before, usually they were compliant and played by the rules, you raided their villages for crops, livestock and the odd wife and afterwards they went about whatever it was that they had to do to make ready for your visit next year. When they started firing wave after wave if flaming arrows at the boat, the chief had had enough and ordered you to turn the boat around. The oarsmen stroked the water with a new sense of urgency but it was not enough to put you out of range of the villagers bows. When an arrow stuck you in the back you staggered to the side of the boat, slipped on the blood of your childhood friend Boggart and tumbled overboard, banging your head on the side of the boat. You came too some minutes later as you drifted downstream, luckily you hadn't drowned, but there was no sign of the boat and you were a long way from home in a strange land full of people who wanted to kill you...
CLERIC
5. Roll the bones - your god demands blood sacrifice every solstice to give thanks for the bounteous crop which will sustain it through the winter. This year however when you performed the choosing ritual and cast the bones to select a goat to sacrifice you were horrified. Instead of pointing to one of the assembled animals it indicated that this years sacrifice would be human and would be the chieftains daughter. You hastily performed the ritual three more times and each time the bones indicated that the god wanted the chieftains daughter in payment for his favours...
MONK
2. World Harmony - Your order shoulders the heavy burden of maintaining a ritual without which the world would eventually stop. Your brothers chant perpetually all day every day, this constant background tone vibrates through everything on the planet and keeps the world in a constant state of movement. People of a good nature will vibrate in harmony those of an evil disposition will vibrate dissonantly. Your job is to journey out into the unknown and detect these dissonants and either train them to resonate harmoniously or to despatch them...
ILLUSIONIST
1. Inquisitor - The king and his descendants have used your kind for hundreds of years to keep the kingdom free of dissent. Your job is to travel from town to village to sniff out signs of rebellion using your powers of persuasion and mind reading. "What happens after you write your report is not your concern" were the words of your old teacher, but you know that the people you report on are never seen or heard from again. When you returned home some months ago, your father's mind was full of rebellious thoughts about the kingdom, you planted a masking which might last a year, but if another inquisitor were to read his mind he'd be able to tell that it was your spell...
2. The Puppeteer - You can't remember when your powers awoke, you've always been able to suggest things to people and they've done what you asked. As you got older the tasks you asked people to perform for you were a means to enrich yourself and ultimately brought you to the attentions of the local sheriff and his mind was not as easy to control as the others especially when he had his mage with him. You read the guards intentions from some distance away, the night they came to arrest you and you've been on the run ever since...
Monday, 7 March 2011
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Citymorphs #013 to #016
Four more citymorphs to keep your appetite's whetted...
#013 - Parkland - 002
A small urban park surrounded by small buildings and some sort of barrack type building possibly a stables. I leave the rest up to you.
#014 - A River Runs Through It
More open spaces to keep the population healthy and happy. A river runs through this one with a sort of tunnel affair. On Sundays you just can't move for Anglers trying to land the big black pike that is rumoured to live in the river...
#015 - Crematorium
Despite all the green spaces when you shuffle of the mortal coil your relatives won't wont you cluttering up the house so they bring your corpse here. If you're rich enough they might bury you in one of the few grave plots that they've still got free, otherwise it's up the chimney like the rest of us.
#016 - Temple District
The Gods like their worshippers to build big ostentatious Temples in their honour and big wide avenues along which to process.
A small urban park surrounded by small buildings and some sort of barrack type building possibly a stables. I leave the rest up to you.
More open spaces to keep the population healthy and happy. A river runs through this one with a sort of tunnel affair. On Sundays you just can't move for Anglers trying to land the big black pike that is rumoured to live in the river...
Despite all the green spaces when you shuffle of the mortal coil your relatives won't wont you cluttering up the house so they bring your corpse here. If you're rich enough they might bury you in one of the few grave plots that they've still got free, otherwise it's up the chimney like the rest of us.
The Gods like their worshippers to build big ostentatious Temples in their honour and big wide avenues along which to process.
Monday, 28 February 2011
UPDATE: RPG Google mapping with MAPLib
In an earlier article I wrote about How to make your own Fantasy Googlemap with MapLib without needing to be a code monkey, which has consistently proved to be the most popular article on my blog despite the lack of comments. I always intended to replace the rather uninspiring "test images" I used to centre the maps with a demo map of my own creation. Well, life has a nasty habit of getting in he way and I've been too busy with my current C&C campaign and other projects like Citymorphs.
So here at last is my demo map which I am actively using in my campaign.
Observations after 6 Months Use
1. ZOOM - As you can see the map zoom isn't perfect, the placemarker images don't scale with the zoom which means when you're zoomed out fully (as above) they don't "geolocate" anymore. This is annoying but not a total disaster.
2. PLACE MARKERS - I've used the bog standard icons for everything but the Capital Cities (which is a shared marker) for fear that if an owner left the shared marker would disappear from the library.
3. PLACE NAMES - When you hover over a marker it displays the name associated with it, which is nice. However it would be really useful to be able to set a display variable for each marker which would display the name alongside the marker.
4. REGIONS - Although you can draw regions, turning them into hotspots in a client side image map fashion, there are no options for just adding text to the map.
5. LINKING - I've managed to link some of the pop-up descriptions back to my campaign blog for "Read more" links (Try clicking on the Capital icon for Sankahar City), but this requires a bit of HTML knowledge to ensur that your link target is set correctly. The editing interface is a little clunky for my tastes, for example if you don't submit an edit whilst still in HTML view it interprets and displays your HTML.
6. UPDATING YOUR IMAGE - The most annoying feature is that once you've done all the work and added your place markers, if you ever need to update your map image, you can't. This does seem like a massive oversight on the part of the developers and could ultimately limit its usability as a tool, not just for RPG mapping but any mapping. Maps have a tendency to be revised, in the real world political boundaries are redrawn on a regular basis and with regime change comes country name changing.
7. COLLABORATIVE MAPPING - I've not really explored the collaborative mapping functions but from some of the other collaborative mapping projects which feature in the MapLib gallery it seems that other users are getting on fine with them.
8. SHARING YOUR MAP - The sharing options are standard fare but irritatingly if you choose to grab the link to a static image it doesn't show any of the place markers at all!!. Again this seems like an oversight on the developers side (unless there's some overarching Intellectual Property Rights issue I'm not aware of) and this is where in RPG terms the text display of names next to markers feature would make this a KILLER APP.
Aside from the two big issues I've listed above it's still worth checking it out and I hope that any of you who've read this will drop me a comment and a link to your own maps.
Happy MAPLibing y'all
So here at last is my demo map which I am actively using in my campaign.
Observations after 6 Months Use
1. ZOOM - As you can see the map zoom isn't perfect, the placemarker images don't scale with the zoom which means when you're zoomed out fully (as above) they don't "geolocate" anymore. This is annoying but not a total disaster.
2. PLACE MARKERS - I've used the bog standard icons for everything but the Capital Cities (which is a shared marker) for fear that if an owner left the shared marker would disappear from the library.
3. PLACE NAMES - When you hover over a marker it displays the name associated with it, which is nice. However it would be really useful to be able to set a display variable for each marker which would display the name alongside the marker.
4. REGIONS - Although you can draw regions, turning them into hotspots in a client side image map fashion, there are no options for just adding text to the map.
5. LINKING - I've managed to link some of the pop-up descriptions back to my campaign blog for "Read more" links (Try clicking on the Capital icon for Sankahar City), but this requires a bit of HTML knowledge to ensur that your link target is set correctly. The editing interface is a little clunky for my tastes, for example if you don't submit an edit whilst still in HTML view it interprets and displays your HTML.
6. UPDATING YOUR IMAGE - The most annoying feature is that once you've done all the work and added your place markers, if you ever need to update your map image, you can't. This does seem like a massive oversight on the part of the developers and could ultimately limit its usability as a tool, not just for RPG mapping but any mapping. Maps have a tendency to be revised, in the real world political boundaries are redrawn on a regular basis and with regime change comes country name changing.
7. COLLABORATIVE MAPPING - I've not really explored the collaborative mapping functions but from some of the other collaborative mapping projects which feature in the MapLib gallery it seems that other users are getting on fine with them.
8. SHARING YOUR MAP - The sharing options are standard fare but irritatingly if you choose to grab the link to a static image it doesn't show any of the place markers at all!!. Again this seems like an oversight on the developers side (unless there's some overarching Intellectual Property Rights issue I'm not aware of) and this is where in RPG terms the text display of names next to markers feature would make this a KILLER APP.
Aside from the two big issues I've listed above it's still worth checking it out and I hope that any of you who've read this will drop me a comment and a link to your own maps.
Happy MAPLibing y'all
Monday Motivations #9
Article #9 in a regular series where I offer up some ideas for character backgrounds by class. I aim to collect these ideas together for a future pdf publication.
What made your character decide to become a wizard? Why did they leave their home town? Did they leave family behind or are they looking for something? These are all questions players face when generating their characters, with the best will in the world it's tempting to rely on cliché.
KNIGHT
3. Lost Crusader - You were born into a noble family trained from birth to be a knight and to fight alongside other noble sons as a knight in the kings army. The tales of honour, glory and valour which were taught to yiu as a child did not prepare you for the grim reality of war when as a young noble you were sent to fight in a foreign land on a holy crusade. Your training didn't contain lessons on how to kill women and children, or how to burn down whole towns and villages as the army roamed agross the land like some savage beast. Eventually the tides of war turned on the kings army, in one ferocious battle the defenders had the upper hand and the army was routed, you were lost far from home in a foreign land surrounded by a people that only days before you were trying to slaughter...
4. A Squire's Chance - You'd followed your knight across hill and dale, tundra and desert, forest and ocean since father entrusted you into his care. The days are long and the work never ending with never a thank you nor a coin to spend of your own. When you woke one morning to find him slumped over the table after a night's gambling and drinking in the local tavern you cursed that you would soon suffer one of his beatings if you had not completed your chores. By noon he still had not stirred, so you went to check on him, he was still slumped over the table. Gingerly you prodded him with your wooden practice sword and his lifeless body rolled off the bench and onto the floor. His face was purple and his eyes had rolled up into his skull, there was no doubt about it he was dead. Your years of hoping for a chance like this had finally paid off, and you swung your plan that you had rehearsed so many times into action. You swapped your clothes with him, packed the armour and weapons and loaded the horses. By nightfall you were 20 leagues away from your past and well on the road to fame and fortune as a true knight...
5. Country Justice - The Prelate of your monastery bestowed the honour of Marschall upon you three summers ago. Since then you have roamed the five counties tracking down bandits and thieves, defending villages from ravenous beasts which raid their homes for food and rooting out the odd band of goblins or tribe of kobolds who seem intent on setting up home in your peaceful homeland. The lifestyle suits you, and you've never been happier than when you're riding out into the wilderness to pursue some vagabond or villain intent on meting out justice from the saddle at swordpoint...
PALADIN
1. An Old Code - You were just a regular soldier in a regular army sent by your lord to burn the library of some town you can't even remember the name of. The only difference between you and the rest of your company was that you could read. You knew that setting fire to the library was a bad thing and that the gods would likely punish you for doing so, so you grabbed the first book you came across and stuffed it inside your breastplate. Back at the barracks that night you opened up the book to read what you had saved from the flames. It was the life account of a holy warrior who fought evil and injustice wherever he found it. He was noble in thought, deed and word because he lived by a holy code. The code which you committed to memory and which you have vowed you will live by from now on...
BARBARIAN
4. Slave Child - You were not born into a barbarian tribe, you were enslaved into one. You were born in a land far away, when your parents were killed in one of the tribe's pillaging raids, you were taken back to their land across the sea with the other loot. You were given to one of the barren wives cast off by the chieftain to raise as her own and look after her in her old age. Your new mother was outwardly grateful for the kindness shown to her by the chieftain, but as you found out later, secretly harboured revenge against her husband and his new wife. As you grew up in your new home you were schooled alongside the other children by the best teachers the tribe had to offer in how to fight, track, hunt, fish, sail and survive in the barabarian way and by night your surrogate mother taught you about the world, where you came from and that you had been sent to her by the gods as a weapon to strike down the Chieftain. At age 15 you took the rite of passage to manhood and became a fully fledged member of the tribe and at age 17 you took part in your first raid during which you used the confusion of battle to your advantage, slew the chieftain and faked your own death in a burning house. You have since put many leagues and years between you and your barabrian upbringing and embarked on a new quest to find your true family and true heritage...
What made your character decide to become a wizard? Why did they leave their home town? Did they leave family behind or are they looking for something? These are all questions players face when generating their characters, with the best will in the world it's tempting to rely on cliché.
KNIGHT
 |
| Paladin by Katie De Sousa |
4. A Squire's Chance - You'd followed your knight across hill and dale, tundra and desert, forest and ocean since father entrusted you into his care. The days are long and the work never ending with never a thank you nor a coin to spend of your own. When you woke one morning to find him slumped over the table after a night's gambling and drinking in the local tavern you cursed that you would soon suffer one of his beatings if you had not completed your chores. By noon he still had not stirred, so you went to check on him, he was still slumped over the table. Gingerly you prodded him with your wooden practice sword and his lifeless body rolled off the bench and onto the floor. His face was purple and his eyes had rolled up into his skull, there was no doubt about it he was dead. Your years of hoping for a chance like this had finally paid off, and you swung your plan that you had rehearsed so many times into action. You swapped your clothes with him, packed the armour and weapons and loaded the horses. By nightfall you were 20 leagues away from your past and well on the road to fame and fortune as a true knight...
5. Country Justice - The Prelate of your monastery bestowed the honour of Marschall upon you three summers ago. Since then you have roamed the five counties tracking down bandits and thieves, defending villages from ravenous beasts which raid their homes for food and rooting out the odd band of goblins or tribe of kobolds who seem intent on setting up home in your peaceful homeland. The lifestyle suits you, and you've never been happier than when you're riding out into the wilderness to pursue some vagabond or villain intent on meting out justice from the saddle at swordpoint...
PALADIN
1. An Old Code - You were just a regular soldier in a regular army sent by your lord to burn the library of some town you can't even remember the name of. The only difference between you and the rest of your company was that you could read. You knew that setting fire to the library was a bad thing and that the gods would likely punish you for doing so, so you grabbed the first book you came across and stuffed it inside your breastplate. Back at the barracks that night you opened up the book to read what you had saved from the flames. It was the life account of a holy warrior who fought evil and injustice wherever he found it. He was noble in thought, deed and word because he lived by a holy code. The code which you committed to memory and which you have vowed you will live by from now on...
BARBARIAN
4. Slave Child - You were not born into a barbarian tribe, you were enslaved into one. You were born in a land far away, when your parents were killed in one of the tribe's pillaging raids, you were taken back to their land across the sea with the other loot. You were given to one of the barren wives cast off by the chieftain to raise as her own and look after her in her old age. Your new mother was outwardly grateful for the kindness shown to her by the chieftain, but as you found out later, secretly harboured revenge against her husband and his new wife. As you grew up in your new home you were schooled alongside the other children by the best teachers the tribe had to offer in how to fight, track, hunt, fish, sail and survive in the barabarian way and by night your surrogate mother taught you about the world, where you came from and that you had been sent to her by the gods as a weapon to strike down the Chieftain. At age 15 you took the rite of passage to manhood and became a fully fledged member of the tribe and at age 17 you took part in your first raid during which you used the confusion of battle to your advantage, slew the chieftain and faked your own death in a burning house. You have since put many leagues and years between you and your barabrian upbringing and embarked on a new quest to find your true family and true heritage...
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Citymorphs #009 to #012
A big thanks to Risus for the plugging Citymorphs in the Geomorph Roundup. Here's four more:
#009 - Parkland
Too many orderly streets makes the morphians walk in straight lines, they need to feel the wind in their hair and wet grass under their toes.
#010 - Citywall Bastion
Every old city will have seen it's fair share of war and it's ruler may have built some sort of defensive wall for the people to hide behind. Notice the groundworks to elevate this section and the set of stairs to get those archers up high.
#011 - Citywall Straight
A straight section of citywall this time. When laying this tile make sure you've built the stairs and earthworks on the same side otherwise the siege will be over in minutes.
#012 - Citywall Gatehouse
The wall needed some way of keeping the riffraff out but allowing the townsfolk in, so here's a useful gatehouse.
Too many orderly streets makes the morphians walk in straight lines, they need to feel the wind in their hair and wet grass under their toes.
Every old city will have seen it's fair share of war and it's ruler may have built some sort of defensive wall for the people to hide behind. Notice the groundworks to elevate this section and the set of stairs to get those archers up high.
A straight section of citywall this time. When laying this tile make sure you've built the stairs and earthworks on the same side otherwise the siege will be over in minutes.
The wall needed some way of keeping the riffraff out but allowing the townsfolk in, so here's a useful gatehouse.
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