First Review of Nameless City

Thank you Tenkar, for posting the first review of the Nameless City!
Here is the link to Tenkar's Review

The announcement and information about the Nameless City is here.

New Module: The Nameless City

Announcing the release of The Nameless City, by Alphonso Warden!

In the world there are ancient, degenerated remnants still living, survivals from unimaginable antiquity. What happens when the adventurers stumble across one of these deadly places? There must be treasure untold for those willing to brave the long-forgotten perils of ... The Nameless City. This module by Alphonso Warden is loosely based upon the eponymous short story by HP Lovecraft, and is designed for characters level 7-10. The module is available for both Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox and Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules and Freestyle (Core) Rules. If you're going to use it with another old-school system, it's obviously going to be compatible, but use the Complete/Freestyle version for this: the hit dice and other information will be closer to other systems than WhiteBox.

Core/Freestyle Version
Pdf file ($4.95): Lulu download page
RPGNow page
Softcover (40pgs, $9.95): Lulu ordering page


WhiteBox Version:
Pdf file ($4.95): Lulu Download Page
RPGNow Page
Softcover (44pgs, $9.95): Lulu Ordering Page


If you want to browse the whole store to pick up copies of the WhiteBox rules or Knockspell Magazine, or whatever, this is the link to the storefront.

The Nameless City

An image of the City of Petra, which is mentioned as a visual reference point in the upcoming Swords & Wizardry module The Nameless City, by Alphonso Warden.

In addition (and not related to the module) this image also happened to point me to the following text:

We've had a very heavy start to our section on religion as it relates to human burials, what with the massive human sacrifices and the royal tombs at Ur, and with the megalomania behind the great tomb of that first emperor of China, who was trying to express his desire to become immortal himself through his own grave and its elaborate accompaniments. So it's a relief, I think, to turn to a site that presents us with the most life-affirming, joyous funeral ritual known to me: the site of the rock-cut city of Petra in Jordan, where the people had, for several centuries, a tradition of feasting with the dead.
http://teachingcompany.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2250&sid=3c33341da9de9ed7ef43b1c294af1463

The rest of the linked post is also fascinating and worth reading.

Armored beetle-cowboys of the wastelands

Here is a preliminary write-up of the rangadillos, the beetle-herding, beer-swilling, unpredictable denizens of the barren lands near the strange village of Cho-Shen. Since the principal crop of Cho-Shen is a honey-like sap harvested from desert-growing cane, the potential for disputes and even violence between the two communities is obvious. How exactly it will play into the adventure isn't yet clear. I'm seeing a battle in the village with the characters defending a honey-warehouse from rangadillo desert-raiders, but that's still only a visual image.

Obviously, the backbone of this module is to create a spaghetti-western type of conflict without actually crossing the genres. The weird Vance-like culture of Cho-Shen, plus the R.E. Howard pict, will hopefully turn the adventure into something that's merely bizarre rather than "a Western with swords and armadillos." Unless that's what the referee wants.

The stats below are arranged for Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules, or for the Core/Freestyle rules. I was going to post some WhiteBox stats, but I realized that the only difference here would be that the rangadillos would have 1 attack for 1d6 damage instead of two. I'll write up the giant armadillo and the giant beer-beetles at some point, but that's not done yet.

RANGADILLOS

Hit Dice: 3

Armor Class: 3 [16]

Attacks: 2 claws (1d6)

Saving Throw: 14

Special: Burrow

Move: 9

Alignment: Neutrality

Challenge Level/XP: 3/60

Rangadillos are related to armadillos, but they are as large and as intelligent as humans, living in extensive, far-flung burrow complexes dug into the soil or bedrock of barren wastelands and deserts. Although they are not bipedal, rangadillos can stand on their hind legs for long periods of time when they need to use tools or reach things on tall shelves. Although rangadillos are highly independent and individualistic, their social organization follows the same pattern in virtually every settlement, evidencing the fact that at some point in time this race was tampered with in some way - or even bred into existence - by a powerful wizard or mad experimenter.

Rangadillo towns are generally isolated in wasteland areas, where the creatures maintain herds of giant fermentation beetles that produce beer in a somewhat unmentionable way. The beer – beer of any kind – is vitally important to the health of the rangadillos, for it staves off leprosy in the same way that fruit staves off scurvy in human beings. Without a supply of some sort of fermented drink, a rangadillo community will begin to contract leprosy, and eventually become a diseased, insane blight in the area, their contagious warriors raiding viciously and indiscriminately into nearby lands, seeking beer.

A rangadillo community generally consists of 4d10+10 “citizens.” The community will be led by a “Revenuer” with 5HD, and 1 or 2 “Preachers.” Rangadillo preachers have the spell-casting ability of a cleric with as many levels as the preacher has hit dice. The lead preacher of a settlement will have 1HD per 5 rangadillo citizens in the settlement, and the second preacher (if one is present) will have 1HD fewer than the lead preacher. Thus, a rangadillo town with 10-14 citizens would have a lead preacher with 2HD and a secondary preacher – again, if one is present – with 1HD. A rangadillo town with 45-49 citizens would have a lead preacher with 9HD, and a rangadillo town with maximum population would have a preacher with 10HD.

Rangadillo lairs will also contain 1d4 giant armadillos, and will have 3d10 of the giant beer-producing beetles grazing on the surface unless these have been brought into belowground stables for protection from rustlers, raiders, or bad weather.

Rangadillos are not enemies of humanity or human civilization per se, but they are inveterate raiders. Their beetle-produced beer, while it is necessary to their survival, is not particularly palatable. In consequence, they are often tempted to raid human settlements for beer, ale, mead, or the grains (or honey) required to brew these drinks. In some cases they will trade for such items, but they consider this to be unduly expensive. In general, they consider their raids to be more in the nature of a tithe or tax levied upon nearby settlements, which is the reason why their leaders bear the title of “Revenuer.”

Most rangadillo settlements will include at least one alchemist skilled in brewing beer, who will also have the ability to produce the occasional magic potion if the ingredients are available. Brewers are no different from ordinary rangadillo citizens in terms of hit dice or fighting skill.

Picts and Armadillos

In the course of various discussions on the Swords & Wizardry message boards, Jim Raggi suggested that a better way of getting out the word when a Swords & Wizardry module comes out would be to create a blog. As it turns out, I already had one, with a single post that read, in its entirety, "Testing." Apparently, this was enough data to have been carefully preserved on my behalf for more than two years. Fair enough.

I don't like the idea of using a blog purely for announcements, though, so I'll leaven the sensationalism with some gaming ideas. The most recent idea is for a module I'm planning to write as a free download either for Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox, Core/Freestyle Rules, or perhaps for both of the two.

It started simply as the idea for a new monster: the Wrangadillo. I'm not done with the write-up yet, but we're talking large and intelligent (although not brilliant) armadillos that live in sprawling, shallow, tunnel systems in wasteland areas. Much as normal armadillos do. Since armadillos are one of the only animals other than humankind that can carry leprosy, and since giant armadillos featured prominently in TV commercials for Lone Star beer some years ago, it seems axiomatic that these guys drink beer to prevent leprosy. Actually, it's going to be mead, not beer, because I invented a plant from which they can make their booze, and it's more of a mead type of drink.

They are highly territorial, and are led by two leader-types: preachers and revenuers. The preachers are basically clerics, at least, at this point in time. The revenuers are the leaders of the burrows - they got their name simply because of the connection with the booze, but it occurred to me that a good reason for giant armadillos to raid human settlements would be because the armadillos decided to tax someone other than themselves. Frankly, this motivation is well paralleled in human history as well.

We're probably talking about a critter with an excellent armor class and about 3 hit dice. They herd some kind of giant beetle on the surface around their underground warrens, and they have some (very big) giant armadillos they use as bulldozers/tanks.

On to the next part of the situation. In the grand tradition, we have a human village inconveniently close to the Wrangadillo town. To avoid simply descending into a Western, the village is not named "Tumbleweed" or something like that. It is name Cho-Shen. It's not going to be a total knockoff of Chinese culture, but enough to let it break the "Western" feel. Also, in a somewhat Jack Vance touch, there are creatures called the Yirks who live at the outskirts of the village. They aren't human, and all they seem to do is go out into the wastes to sing and make masks out of sand. This apparently sustains them without food or water. Occasionally one of them will help with the Sapcane harvesting.

Sapcane. I forgot. This is what grows in the area to support the village of Cho-Shen. Whatever mineral makes the badlands unsuitable for agriculture is what supports the Sapcane. This cane-like plant is rich with a honey-like sap. That's how you make the mead, and that's why the mead-swilling wrangadillo raiders are a problem.

Enter the picts. Savages that are coming down from the mountains, the picts are clearly planning on doing what every stouthearted fantasy barbarian tribe does best: killing everyone and probably eating them for good measure.

I think the triad of village, picts, and wrangadillos creates a nice little wilderness area that can be used for an adventure or two. I just need to work up some details on the actual adventure (unless it's just a wide open free-for-all battle against anyone who looks like they might have loot). But I've got in mind the idea that the wrangadillos might be one of those monster-forts that could be used either as allies or enemies depending on how the players choose to make their approach. It might even create an interesting home base. Especially if the picts wipe out the village of Cho-Shen at some point....