rust

If you wanted to reduce those types of events to a single roll, you could go with a Knowledge (Survival) skill roll and allow the 'hunter' to gather enough food for n number of people depending on how successful the roll. Course the n value is dependent on how long the hunter is engaged in hunting/gathering as well as the success of the roll.

Thank you for a good idea.

This could indeed help to make hunting an "off" or background task whenever it is not a part of

an adventure. And with different n values for different terrain, regions and seasons and some

added colour ("No, no valuable walrus tusks from hunting in the hills ...") the players would still

get some basic options to make decisions for their characters, if they want.

I assume that the supplement will include at least some of the personalities of the Age of Ar-

thur from history or legend.

Here is an incomplete list of "Arthurian Personalities" mentioned in the early sources:

Amr (Historia Brittonum)

Arthur (Y Gododdin)

Aurelius Ambrosius (Gildas)

Bedivere (Culhwch and Olwen)

Cerdic of Wessex (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)

Constantine (historical)

Culhwch (Culhwch and Olwen)

Cynric of Wessex (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)

Eliwlod (Welsh Triads)

Gawain (Culhwch and Olwen)

Guinevak (Culhwch and Olwen)

Guinevere (Culhwch and Olwen)

Hengest (Beda)

Hoel (The Dream of Rhonabwy)

Horsa (Beda)

Kay (Culhwch and Olwen)

Mabon ap Modron ((Culhwch and Olwen)

Mark of Cornwall (various)

Myrddin / Merlin (various)

Mordred (Annales Cambriae)

Olwen (Culhwch and Olwen)

Owain / Ywain (historical, Owain map Urien)

Taliesin (historical)

Urien (historical)

Uther Pendragon (Welsh Triads)

Vortigern (Beda)

Vortimer (Historia Brittonum)

I highlighted those which I think we will need as a minimum for the explanation of the

background of the setting.

That's what hunters used to do. They'd wound an animal and track it until it fell. If they had dogs they'd harry it until it dropped through exhaustion and blood loss. Not a heroic kill, but very effective.

Well, if it was good enough for the real world, it is certainly good enough for my setting ...

This is just a list of the legendary creatures (= "monsters") of the Celtic traditions from Wikipe-

dia. It does not include many of the more mythological creatures (elfs, giants, etc.), and many

of the creatures are mentioned more than once under different names and with slightly diffe-

rent descriptions.

The list also does not include creatures of the Anglo-Saxon and the Roman tradition. Should

you know any of those, please add them.

I posted the list because I thought that it could give us something to start with. We can then de-

cide which ones, or which version of one, to use, and which to delete, for example because

they appeared long after the Age of Arthur or because they would not be interesting for a role-

playing game.

Basic descriptions of all the creatures of the list can be found on Wikipedia.

Celtic:

Bauchan

Fachen

Fuath

Joint-eater

Kelpie

Merrow

Morgen

Breton:

Bugul-Noz

Iannic-an-od

Korrigan

Yan-gant-y-tan

Cornish:

Pixie

Spriggan

Irish:

Abcan

Abhartach

Airitech

Alp-luachra

Ais-si

Banshee

Caoranach

Cat Sith

Changeling

Clurichaun

Dabilla

Daoine maite

Donn Cuailnge

Dullahan

Ellen Trechend

Far darrig

Fear gorta

Finnbhennach

Gancanagh

Jasconius

Leanashe

Leprechaun

Liath Mache / Dub Sainglend

Merrow

Oillipheist

Puca

Salmon of Wisdom

Selkie

Sluagh

Manx:

Arkan Sonney

Buggane

Fenodyree

Glashtyn

Jimmy Squarefoot

Moddey Dhoo

Mooinjer veggey

Scottish:

Bodach

Boobrie

Brownie

Coo Sith

Caoineag

Ceasg

Changeling

Cu Sith

Each uisge

Ghillie Dhu

Gigelorum

Glaistig

Loch Ness Monster

Monster of Glamis

Pech

Selkie

Shellycoat

Wirry-cow

Wulver

Welsh:

Adar Llwch Gwin

Afanc

Ceffyl Dwr

Coblynau

Cwn Annwn

Cyhyraeth

Gwyllion

Water leaper

I think it is time for a general "Thank You" to the admin and users of BRP Central.

Without your advice and help my previous BRP/CoC settings as well as my current Thule set-

ting would have included at lot more blunders and would have become much less interesting

and playable.

So, thank you very much for your help, and for a great forum with a nice atmosphere.

Here we need to talk about them.

Do we want only the "original" fairies from the Age of Arthur or also the ones from later and

often better known sources ?

There seems to be a major difference between the fairies and other fantastic creatures of the

original legends and what became of them in later centuries, especially during the time of the

Romantic movement.

I would prefer to stay as close as possible to the "old" versions, but I am aware that many peo-

ple know and expect only the "modern" ones and might have problems with a different descrip-

tion of the fairies and other fantastic beings.

Another, minor problem would be to choose a specific name and description from the various

local or regional variations of a creature.

As an example the "Kelpie family" from Wikipedia:

"In Orkney a similar creature was called the nuggle, and in Shetland a similar creature

was called the shoopiltee, the njogel, or the tangi. On the Isle of Man it is known as the cabbyl-

ushtey (Manx Gaelic for "water horse," compare to Irish capall uisge) or the glashtin. In Wales,

a similar creature is known as the Ceffyl Dŵr. It also apppears in Scandinavian folklore where

in Sweden it is known by the name Bäckahästen, the brook horse. In Norway it is called nøk-

ken, where the horse shape is often used, but is not its true form. In the Faroe Islands it is

called Nykur and in Iceland it is called nykur or nennir. Another similar Scottish water horse is

the each uisge, which also appears in Ireland."

Thank you very much for the informations.

A single hunter putting a crossbow bolt into something like a muskox would be trampled into the ground and the muskox might or might not die of infection in a week or two.

It seems I have to re-evaluate musk oxen.

From the descriptions in Wikipedia and elsewhere I had got the impression that they are just

"double-sized heavy sheep", smaller than a reindeer (120 cm high, 150 cm long), but with mo-

re body mass (280 kg), and therefore I thought that they would be not much more difficult

game then reindeer.

My spot rule for hunting animals is that damage below low 1/2 the animals HP is non-fatal, start tracking and hope for a second shot. Damage above 1/2 HP is fatal, but not immediate - figure the animal will run 10m + 10m per damage/HP difference (10 points to a 18 HP animal means 90m run and the chance to loose the animal). Even a "kill shot" will see the animal run a short distance.

Thank you for this rule. The fact that the wounded animal will flee is no serious problem in

this setting, since the tundra does not offer many places to get out of sight of the hunter. Un-

less the animal flees into the water, the hunter can follow and find it.

Thank you very much for these ideas.

Long distance trading is always a problematic issue. A GM needs to think about the cost of the voyage ...

This is why I decided to use the Harnmaster rules for this, the Pilot's Almanac has all those da-

ta, down to the provisions of the crew. The system is a bit more complex than I would like, but

for the purpose of this campaign I only have to calculate the average voyage costs of one cog

and one carrack, and can then use these standard values for all of the voyages.

According to the generic "Grain to Gold" supplement the price of a commodity in a "distant city"

should be about 600 % of the price in the local market, and from my calculations so far I get

very similar figures. If the colonists sell their goods on Iceland for local market prices and buy

their imports at 600 % of their prices in Norway, the situation comes very close to what I am

aiming for - enough trade income to get by and slowly expand and improve the colony, but

luxuries require special adventures.

Don't forget, as well, that many islands and kingdoms have state-operated monopolies for different items traded.

It seems that the Hanseatic League had a kind of economic stranglehold on the Norwegian sea

trade from Bergen at the time, this is sometimes cited as a reason why the Norwegian economy

was comparatively weak during this period, and I will try to figure the "monopoly problem" into

my campaign's economy - perhaps including some adventurous "state sponsored smuggling"

by the colony.

Thank you, soltakss and kaddawang.

A single hunter does not take down a bear or walrus on his own, he needs a group of hunters to wear it down or surround it.

Yes, I was only thinking of slightly smaller prey, like reindeer and up to musk oxen. A polar

bear or a walrus would indeed require a well prepared team of hunters, they are big, dan-

gerous and (like seals) likely to flee into the water when they are wounded.

Ah, the Major Wound rules - I completely forgot about them, and the Call of Cthulhu rules I

use as the base system for this campaign do not have them.

Well, bear in mind these are harn master prices. also is iron so cheap simply because it is so plentiful at that source or geographical location. Once you've trnasported a cargo of finished weapons across 3,000 odd miles of ocean sthrough terrible storms dodging icebergs, whales and sea serpents on the way the price is going to be considerably higher when you arrive....

And of course if a bunch of traders managed a monopoly they could charge pretty much what they like....

Yep, I will modify the prices accordingly.

In the end the colony will earn just enough through trade to pay for the vital imports, for exam-

ple things like charcoal and iron. Everything beyond this will require some kind of adventure.

An example could be the find of a huge iron meteorite on a far away glacier and the task to mo-

ve it to the settlement before (or, if I am in a nasty mood, after) the natives decide that the sto-

ne that fell from heaven is something holy and protect and defend it.

The "monopoly problem" will surely become a part of the campaign, because whoever controls

the sea route from Thule via Iceland to Bergen in Norway also dictates the prices.

This could be a good opportunity for a diplomatic adventure to create an alternative trade rou-

te, for example the one from Thule to the Gaelic Lordship of the Isles - potentially with some

unexpected consequences, like a maritime trade war.

Thank you very much for the links.

Bran could be used if a wee bit of magic and otherworld journey.

Unfortunately I have a problem to understand this sentence, neither my dictionary nor Wiki-

pedia gives me any useful hint what "Bran" could mean ?

Edit.: Ah, now I got it - silly me.

Another one of those minor problems of my Thule setting ...

According to the rules I am using for this campaign, the ones from the German Call of Cthulhu

supplement "Mittelalter" ("Medieval Age"), a crossbow does a damage of 2D6, which becomes

a maximum of 24 for the best possible critical hit.

Looking at the creatures I have designed so far, this is not enough to kill some of the bigger

ones among them, from reindeer through musk oxen to the bigger species of seals, because

these often have more than 24 hit points.

However, I do not want to make a normal hunt a major affair in this campaign, and a hunter

should be able to down a reindeer or a musk oxen with a single, aimed, well placed crossbow

bolt. I seem to have missed any rule that could help with this, so I am tempted to make my

own one:

Any hit that causes more damage than 50 % of an animal's hit points will kill the animal after a

short while (bleeding, etc.), the hunter only has to follow his fleeing wounded prey until it falls

and can then give it a coup de grace.

Does this work, or did I miss something important ?

Thank you.

I was, fora while working on the Voyages of St Brendan, asa plot device to bring players to the new world, might be of interest.

Indeed, and I would be most interested in this.

As for the roleplaying system, there is not much to do for this setting, the existing rules seem

to work well enough.

I think I will only introduce two new skills, Seamanship (the skill to operate a sailing ship like

the order's cog) and Stewardship (the combination of household skills of a typical housewife of

the period), plus the Knowledge (Thule) skill mentioned in a previous post.

Knowledge (Thule) will cover the knowledge about the colony and its people, the land and the

basic survival techniques necessary in the cold North. This skill will start at 01 %, and then go

up both through simply living on Thule (+ 19 % after the first year there, + 10 % after each of

the following years, until 60 % are reached) and through experience during adventures. Once

the 60 % are reached, only experience can further improve the skill.

Later in the campaign there will be a few more new skills, for example the Languages of the va-

rious native tribes and the new technologies the colonists can learn through their contact with

these natives, for example Drive (Dog Sled) or the weapon skill Harpoon.

The professions of this campaign will be Knight of the Order, Noble Woman, Franciscan Monk,

Scholar, Peasant, Fisherman and Sailor; Tribesman will only be used for the native NPCs.

During the campaign there may well be added some additional professions, but at the beginning

this will be the entire "cast".

The only major rules system I will add to the standard rules are the seafaring rules from Harn-

master, although not in all of their detail. A minor addition will be some of the ideas from the hun-

ting, fishing, sealing and whaling rules of Harnmaster to give these activities a little more depth

and colour.

Oh, and of course the "deniable magic" (I like that term) rules mentioned in the other thread.

With the system mostly out of the way, I am currently trying to define and describe the cultures

of the colony, the special mix of German culture, Baltic culture, knightly order and monastic or-

der - everything from life stations (birth, childhood, marriage, burial customs ...) to common

technologies (architecture, crafts, transportation ...) and hobbies.

I do not want to go into a lot of detail with this, just to note what I need to describe the every-

day life in the Thule colony to the players.

The Order could own all the land itself. That way, the people could farm the land as tenants or vassals of the Order, owing feudal allegiance to the Grand Master. There's no problem with nobles grabbing the land the land would effectively be held on common, but held by the Order for the common good.

Thank you very much, a good idea.

There was also a golem for RuneQuest published in White Dwarf a long time ago.

And there is also this one:

http://runequestwilderlands.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-creature-figure-of-earth.html

I am not sure about the allegiance rules, I will have to take another look at them.

However, I think I could - at least occasionally and before especially important combats - give

a character additional hit points or additional strength if he truly believes in the setting's warrior

god and was the target of a ritual which he considered as successful. This would not reflect a

real physical change of the character, only a psychological effect, and would lead to massive

exhaustion after the combat (somewhat like a kind of berserker rage, perhaps).

Thank you for a nice idea, I have to think about it.

Looking at my notes, it seems that my Thule colony could well become a socialist realm.

Both the knights of the Pruthenic Order and the Franciscans have a vow of poverty, allowing

them to have as private property only what personal equipment they need, but keeping land

and other assets and resources as common property of their entire community. And it seems

that the Baltic settlers could well have had a somewhat similar concept, with the village com-

munity as the owner of at least some of the land, assets and resources.

I do not know if it is what you are looking for, but there is a small section in the Green about using Charms or "good luck" items together with the BRP Fate points rules.

Thank you very much, I had not yet discovered it, because The Green is a little further down my

list - I intended to take a closer look at it when I come to the design of the cultures of the nati-

ves of my setting's Thule and the Forest Coast.

Thank you very much, I will try to take a look at them.

Yep, I very much agree.

However, to make this work as intended, I think that I need at least the "facade" of a magic sy-

stem: Magic Skills with impressive names for the players to put skill points into and for the cha-

racters to gain experience in, examples of specific named rituals and "magic items" which are

considered to improve the chance of a successful ritual, and so on.

Whether and how much this really influences the campaign events - this can indeed just as well

be handwaved in this setting, without any real magic system, because far more important will

be that the players / characters believe that it will do so, and interpret the helpful events accor-

dingly, either feeling ensured that their magic works or losing trust in the deities and their po-

wers.

Just one thing is confusing me, the County of Cleve. I assume that this has nothing to do with the real, historical Cleve(s), which is located much further north, if I am not mistaken?

Many of our medieval realms were quite dispersed and "all over the map", with the original fief

that gave the name in one region and many other, usually smaller parts (gained through inhe-

ritance, as dowries, etc.) belonging to it in other regions. Parts of the County of Cleve could be

almost anywhere in the Holy Roman Empire, and even beyond.

So, while I do not know what the author of Val du Loup intended, it would in any way be quite

plausible to find a part of the County of Cleve far from Cleve itself.

Thank you very much for these ideas.

I'd make a particular magical tradition or domain a skill, and base success or failure of your "plausible deniability" magic depend on it. E.g. you might have skills for Healing, Passion, Nature, Curses (on a person), Blessings (on a person), etc.

If I would connect this to my setting's deities, taken from Crusaders of the Amber Coast, the

result could probably look like this:

Daiwas: Skill "Voice of Daiwas", rituals concerning Authority, Influence, Persuasion

Potrimpos: Skill "Blessing of Potrimpos", rituals dealing with Fertiliy, Growth, Healing

Perkunis: Skill "Might of Perkunis", rituals affecting Combat, Strength, Willpower

Patollos: Skill "Touch of Patollos", rituals related to Burial, Death, Otherworld

A character with one of these skills could have a basic chance to "cause" a helpful event or de-

velopment that falls within the skill's general domain. This chance could be slightly improved by

the knowledge of a somewhat more specific ritual (e.g. "Blessing of Potrimpos - Heal Illness"),

by some magic charm owned by the character, and of course by the willingness of the "target"

to believe in the magic.

As mentioned before, I am thinking of "low or no" magic for my Thule setting. I would like a

game where the characters do believe in magic, but never know whether it exists, and whe-

re the players also cannot be sure about its existence.

With the usual magic systems with their mostly reliable and predictable "mechanical" magic,

where the same spell almost always produces the same, expected result, this will not be pos-

sible, there would be a much too obvious connecton between cause and effect.

What I would need is a system where a magic ritual (not a simple off the shelf-spell) has ei-

ther no visible result or one that could as well be explained as a non-magical helpful event,

for example something like a "placebo effect" for healing magic, where the belief in the magic

is far more important than the magic itself.

The Harnmaster religion system works in a somewhat similar way, but in my view it does not

fit that well into BRP. My current basic idea would be a secret Luck roll for the "successful"

caster (or, with healing magic and thelike, the recipient) of the magic, and in the case of a

success a referee description of the helpful event.

Since the same ritual would have to be able to create widely different events, these rituals

would have to be rather unspecific, more like "Luck in Combat" than like "Fireball". With such

"unspecified" magic the referee could decide what exactly happens, for example one time an

enemy's sword blade could break, another time an enemy could slip on wet ground, and so

on.

Comments and ideas would be most welcome.

Take a close look here:

Thank you very much for the link.

The chess pieces are real beauties, and the website contains a lot of interesting informations.