Agriculture

Agriculture is without question the fundamental technology in the creation of civilization. Like fishing, it greatly increases the food supply, the success of which is lent aid by the storage of food, the management of food and the expansion of food producing areas. Grains lead to the consolidation of population, technological discovery and empire building.

Thankfully, I don’t have to talk about all of that now. Much of what is above falls under later technologies, created as the result of agriculture, and thus can wait for another post. All I need talk about presently is the recognition that the biosphere can be manipulated.

To quote Jared Diamond from Guns, Germs and Steel, p.88,

”Most species are useless to us as food, for one or more of the following reasons: they are indigestible (like bark), poisonous (monarch butterflies and death-cap mushrooms), low in nutritional value (jellyfish), tedious to prepare (very small nuts), difficult to gather (larvae of most insects) or dangerous to hunt (rhinoceroses). Most biomass (living biological matter) on land is in the form of wood and leaves, most of which we cannot digest.

“By selecting and growing those few species of plants and animals that we can eat, so that they constitute 90 percent rather than 0.1 percent of the biomass on an acre of land, we obtain far more calories per acre. As a result, one acre can feed many more herders and farmers ... than hunter gatherers.”

Agriculture also increases the strength and health of a population, but to a greater degree than an abundant fish supply – primarily because of the variety of food produced and the benefits of a non-meat diet, but also because the effort required to harvest grain is much less than that needed to harvest fish. What physical prowess that is lost in the cultivation of non-resistant plants (fish requiring more effort), is more than made up for with free time to think or train towards other goals. Yes, it is true, harvesting grain is a tremendous effort – but it is an effort that is accomplished over a much shorter time, to give a year’s supply of food or more. Fishing requires constant year round effort, as fish cannot be preserved (the preservation of fish with salt is a later technology than what we’ve discussed here).

One last bit of background: the earliest agricultural development would be the recognition that grains produced their own seed, and that this seed was spread naturally, producing more plants. Once this was observed for what it was, cultures could affect a more widespread distribution of the seed through personal intervention – thus increasing the natural food supply. That is the understanding that resulted in what we call ‘agriculture.’ The earliest development did not include irrigation or straight plowing.



Very well, what does all this mean for D&D? First of all, agricultural societies should greatly outnumber non-agricultural societies. In cases where we are talking about food production without food storage (covered by Civ IV under ‘pottery’), a three-fold or four-fold increase is reasonable. Ten fold increases should be for reserved for more advanced societies. There are numerous reasons for this – more food, increased birthrate among a population which can afford to remain in one place year round and so on.

Thus, if you perceive a primitive tribe made up of norkers (Fiend Folio, a creature I’ve always seen as a sort of caveman-goblin), the number stumbled upon in the river valleys and deltas should be four times the number encountered in the hills. Thus, instead of 3-30 appearing (hunter/gatherers), the number should be closer to 12-120 – existing as a loosely held together culture in scattered but grouped huts, living off the domesticated plants in the area.

Whereas a group of hunters would lack social cohesion, the loose settlement would have a designated ‘leader’, who would have to power to coordinate attack. Time spent training to defend the home would allow diverse combat groups: a group throwing spears or stones, another group trained to rush in with clubs, a third group sent to circle around the enemy and attack from behind. Free time would mean the development of tactics, which as DM you should apply.

(Acknowledged that hunter/gatherers would devise different but equally effective tactics in hunting prey – but those would be offensive, while the tactics for an agricultural community would be defensive).

Also, as populations expand, they overwhelm the capacity of the immediate environment – as a result, ‘colonies’ are created of a set portion of the core population, which go out to find other, similar places in which to settle. Thus, our group of norkers would only be partially isolated. Ten or twenty miles downriver would be another similar-sized grouping, many of whom would be known to the locals encountered by the party. There might be dozens of communities strung throughout the region, which might in turn gather at certain times of year to exchange information and genetic partners (marrying outside the tribe was common). These norkers may know a great deal more about the surrounding hundred miles than may be counted upon. Thus they may be a source for information, or potentially a greater danger to a passing player character led army than might be dreamed of.

These articles are meant to be an overview, so I think I’ll leave it at that. What more there is to be said depends on the development of later technologies, so I will save it for then. But I do want to take this opportunity to talk about food.

There is very little suggestion as to what foods non-human races consume ... particularly in terms of dungeons. I suppose that dungeon edibles consist of the creatures themselves, the upper levels being prey for the lower levels, until all is eventually consumed by vast, awful creatures picking the lowest levels for every scrap imaginable.

But still, plant life is essential to a successful food chain, and I’d like the gentle reader to consider Diamond’s words. Orcs, fire newts, goblins or kobalds are not limited to human-acceptable foods. A mass migration of monarch butterflies may be a marvellous, rich time for a colony of kenku (birdmen), while a yearly infestation of death’s head mushrooms may be the singular reason the area is full to the gills with troglodytes. Ettin may grow trees in order to harvest bushels of leaves and small branches for direct consumption – who says they don’t have bellies designed to digest such matter? Very small nuts may prove as good as grain for trolls, who need not remove the shells and who might therefore have something to combine with their meat diets.

That biomass which humans and demi-humans cannot consume may sustain various other races – who in turn might intentionally destroy all the biomass consumable by humans in order to ensure a good crop of tent caterpillars (cultivated on an entire landscape of nothing but small hemlock trees) or who knows what else. Plus, those same races may despise humans for destroying hemlocks and caterpillars in order to plant inedible grain and fruit orchards. Plum trees may be poisonous to ettin.

There are many possibilities.

The Wheel

The wheel may be second on the list, but it certainly does not precede agriculture, hunting or mysticism. Though developed in southwest Asia sometime before 5000 bce, its widespread use developed as a result of transporting agricultural goods between cultures.

Not every culture developed the wheel. Inca and Olmec cultures did not, nor is there coherent evidence that the Zimbabwe culture of South Africa did. Therefore, in determining the development of a nation peoples in your world, consider that Incas were highly developed and civilized, with no wheel. Note also that the absence of the wheel would limit the development of pottery, mathematics and so on ... but would not necessarily deny the presence of these things. Natural gourds and other storage methods might replace pottery in those cultures – something to be considered.

The presence of the wheel in your devised culture is cut into two stages: the first being the solid wheel, limited in strength and in shock resistance. This wheel was the first developed, but was later replaced by the spoked wheel – coming into existence around 2000 bce and having the benefit of distributing the weight more easily upon the rim and axle (the solid wheel, made of slatted wood, did not). The use of the wheel in war, for the chariot, required that it be spoked.

If your culture has developed the solid wheel, there should exist a seasonal, bartering trade with other nearby cultures; where wide plains exist, and roads easily fashioned, such cultures may be more widespread, such as in the Middle East or in parts of Europe. The distribution of cultures (some being of different type) may allow for a wider range of weapons and treasure. It is up to you to decide, given that you will determine what the nearby trading partners might be.

Therefore, a plains culture with some agriculture may trade with a coastal culture, obtaining spears, coral and pearls, and even crushed shell as a fertilizer. A singular cult of the plains culture might include training in the trident, for purely military purpose.

Given that I mean to describe the wheel as the only advancement of the culture, extensive roads would not exist. Cart tracks, tailored to some degree with local stones, would be the height of the roads the party could expect – in overgrown areas or areas of hard packed earth and grass, the roads may disappear entirely, to be found two or three miles beyond. Locals would expect this – a travelling party might easily become lost.

The introduction of the spoked wheel, following the domestication of horses (animal husbandry), allows for the presence of the chariot. I want to make a small point here about the absence of practical, useful rules in D&D to manage combat by horseback. Clearly the creators expected players to ride up and dismount before fighting. However, the chariot was the true terror weapon of the 2nd millennia bce precisely because the riders did not dismount. At some point I mean to take all the various thoughts I’ve had on horses and chariots and produce a group of written rules – at present my offline party and I work according to agreed upon principles which remain fluid.

Since the wheel is so intrinsic to other technologies there is little to say about it beyond roads and chariots. However, note that the inclined plane, the wedge, the pulley and the lever are also basic weapons which come into existence along with the wheel, and which themselves highly influence a culture’s construction (monolithic construction in particular). The presence of these five basic tools in your culture means that the defences surrounding a tooled habitat should be stronger and more elaborate than a mere wall of boulders. A raised platform upon which cultural centers are built, split logs as well as finely cut and shaped stone, collapsing or lever-designed traps should all be present. It may not be as easy to seize a primitive village as the players think.

Next: agriculture.

Fishing

Beginning with the premise that a completely uncivilized race or culture would have minimal possibilities for levelled members, only clubs for weapons, no armor and perhaps no clothing at all beyond skins (many might not find skins necessary), how do the technologies from Civ IV expand the possibilities for defence, attack or ‘lair’? Specifically, how does fishing in particular modify Palaeolithic culture?

To begin with, fish provides a steady source of food, more reliable than vegetable gathering or random foraging or hunting (‘hunting’, further down the list, refers to systematic practices, which I’ll deal with in time). Early civilizations were at the mercy of the environment – a consistent, plentiful supply of food meant stronger, healthier societies. In D&D terms, this means a higher average hit points per die (increased constitution bonuses) and greater strength. Furthermore, the use of tools in order to fish increases dexterity for the whole population, as generation after generation learns from infancy the practice of hurling a barbed spear to obtain food. The barbed spear itself is an improvement over the club, as it is a superior short range missile weapon.

There are several methods of fishing; early societies would develop the above mentioned spearing, or the gathering of seafood by hand – clams, crab, oysters and so on. Hand gathering of abalone or lobsters would imply diving beneath the water, as well as the gathering of pearls for wealth. Hunting for oysters can include the practice of diving to depths up to 30 meters. The members of the culture would thus be very comfortable in water, and would possibly seek to combat land-conscious enemies in that environment.

While hunter/gatherers must move to seek food, fishing cultures may establish permanent settlements. The tendency is to build habitats near or onto the water, making food gathering more efficient and increasing defence. Homes might include rock dwellings on small islands offshore, dwellings built upon pilings above open water (lakes) or tidal flats (seacoasts).

A moderately greater increase in technology would mean the creation of traps, permanent or semi-permanent structures placed within a river or on a tidal area to gather fish moving past. Elaborate traps may catch unusual species, such as stone fish or eels, increasing the variety of food and possibly the toleration of the inhabitants to poison, say a +1 save against. Fish traps would also teach the method of creating elaborate traps to catch or kill humans, making such cultures more dangerous to approach.


Netting would allow for the use of nets as combat tools and a greatly increased supply of food (and thus a greater number of members in the community). The first villages, incidentally, were not dependent on pottery as suggested by Civ IV, but in fact occurred around freshwater or tidal sources where food was plentiful and good gathering technologies available.

The development of a boat by a culture allows for greater range of movement, a wider knowledge of the region and more contact with other groups, who may be themselves fishing cultures or may only have access to the water, or potentially obscure cultures living under the sea. This greater knowledge would increase the willingness of the fishing culture to accept visitors, be less fearful of strangers and be more able to identify local places the party may be seeking.

Pure fishing cultures began as early as 40,000 years ago. Unusual features include the occurrence of shell middens (piles of discarded seafood shells, particularly clam/oyster) and fishbone piles.

Greater comprehension of fish migration patterns would encourage exploration. Fish oil aids in food preservation and in the creation of a light source at night. Cultures around reefs would include corals as wealth.

That is a brief overview. I hope it gets the ball rolling.

Technologies

Having finished the fourth draft of my novel today (I wrote more than 100 pages this last two weeks, all re-writing), I’m in the mood to stretch myself out a bit. Recently I’ve had an idea for an ambitious series of articles on culture and D&D, using as a template a marvellous and familiar source: the Civilization IV tech tree.



My idea would be to consider how technological advances affect cultures and how this might be addressed within the rules and format of D&D, including suggestions for adventure, world design, potential obstacles to players and naturally arising conflicts. Obviously I would begin with the most primitive of cultures, starting from the assumption that low level players would be put up against simplistic societies with only one or a few technologies. As technologies were then considered, additional combinations could be applied to create radically different species characteristics.

Naturally, having the tech tree in front of you should itself suggest ideas, particularly when you consider that civilization builds into its tech structure buildings and units that can be introduced. I hope to add to whatever ideas that you, o gentle reader, might have, always encouraging of course comments expanding out my ideas and adding your own.

I won’t quibble about where to start: I will begin with the top of the first column, work my way to the bottom and then move on one column at a time. I don’t think I’ll worry much about the order in which Civilization IV allows technologies to be acquired. I would rather consider the whole as a list and nothing more.

I’ll begin tomorrow, I think. The first topic would be ‘fishing.’

4d6 Less One

This is going to seem simple-Simon for a lot of you out there, but I worked something out a few months ago and I’m fairly proud of it. Since I couldn’t find an example on line, I thought I’d post it here as a sort of public service.

I have always accepted the rolling method for characters of rolling 4d6 and accepting the highest three. Most that I’ve played with over the years found it quite reasonable, the results being high enough without being extraordinary. Now and then a remarkable character occurs.

In designing a character generation sequence on excel, I came across a problem. How do you create an equation which will roll four dice and eliminate the lowest one? I puzzled over that for some time, and there is a solution ... it is long and complicated and requires multiple calculations, and at some point I’ll get into that. For the moment I just want to talk about the short cut.

To begin with, consider the odds on 3d6. The chance of rolling an 18 is, fairly obviously, one in 216 (6x6x6). There are 216 possible combinations and only one will result in an 18. If we break down the die rolls by the chance of obtaining each individual result, we get the following pattern (assume the first number indicates the chance of getting a 3, the second number the chance of getting a 4 and so on):

1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 25, 27, 27, 25, 21, 15, 10, 6, 3, 1.

Thus, if you consider the chance of getting a result of 15 or better (the minimum which allows for most modifiers to dexterity, constitution and strength), there is only a 21 in 216 chance. Roughly, 1 in 10. The likeliest results are 10 and 11, the average exactly between, at 10.5.

Suppose, however, we consider 4d6. The total number of combinations are now 1,296 (216x6). I won’t list them all out, it’s unnecessary. Suppose instead that we go through the total number of combinations and determine what the result would be for each combination if we removed the lowest die in each case. This would give us the total number of combinations which would result in statistics from 3 to 18 – in effect, rolling four dice and counting only the highest three, in only one calculation.

In excel, it is possible to throw a die of any number. The formula entered into the box is simply:

=rand()*n

‘n’ being the number you wish to roll.

Thus, if you enter =rand()*1296, you will get a number from 0 to 1296 (not a natural number, as computers don’t understand natural numbers. The number must be rounded off ... and in order not to get a result of ‘0’ whenever the initially created number is less than 0.5, I suggest you add +0.5 to your formula).

But all of this is nonsense if you don’t know excel, so don’t worry about it.

The question is, how do the odds change when comparing 3d6 to 4d6 minus the lowest die?

The following pattern emerges:

1,4,10,21,38,62,91,122,148,167,172,160,131,94,54,21

Keep in mind that those are the odds in 1,216 rather than in 216. The chances of rolling a 15 or better are now 300 in 1,216, or almost 1 in 4. The most likely number to be thrown is 13, and the average is in fact 13.0502.

Interesting, no?

Zoology & Traps

In those times when I'm not writing, there is some relief from the pressure of readying for a campaign Saturday nights ... so I find myself working on my beastiary. Specifically, trying to crack the encounter tables problem.

I know that for many encounter tables are not seen as a problem. Their campaigns are a carefully designed parade of confrontations with prepared monster groups, each stage of combat culminating in an inevitable treasure-providing climax. But for those of us for whom the game is a simulation, encounter tables are an enormous headache. Because they are, in a word, shit.

I wrote about that eleven months ago, so I can skip it. Instead I want to focus on just a few problems with specific monsters, and suggestions how they might get used.

There are two groups of creatures I have found consistently annoying. The first comprises the collection of insidious grub-like killers: the ear seeker, the rot grub and the throat leech, to name three prime examples.

You have to be some kind of sadist as a DM to use these things. I presume their primary function is to wear the party down, cost them a few hit points or deplete their spell supply. Seriously, I've always had trouble using them. Now and then I've had a pile of rot grub kill the expendable NPC, but I have never actually had a party member drink a throat leech or have an ear seeker invade a sleeping character. The idea that an ear seeker would happen to be in the exact place where a player puts his ear to a door is ridiculous. The only place it occurs on the original DMG encounter tables is the Level 1 Dungeon Table ... where it has a 1 in 100 chance of being present. What happens if no one happens to lay down or press their ear to something in that room?

What it actually means is that you must reroll ... which is what we all do when these things are indicated. We reroll, and reroll, and reroll, until we get something practical like orcs.

In all honesty, the only practical use for these monsters is as a trap - the table on which these things should appear. The only way that an ear seeker is going to get shoved in your ear is if somehow there's a device that puts it there. In other words, at the bottom of the pit there are spikes, or someone has carefully collected four hundred rot grub. The same might be applied to a pool, when entering it and failing to save causes you to sleep and allows your mouth to open - at once, one of thousands of leeches immediately enters your gullet. Now, not only does the party have to save you from drowning, they must heat up some kind of wire (after pulling themselves from the wet) to keep you from choking. Nasty.

Alternately, how about a creature which specifically lives in tandem with ear-seekers or throat leeches? That is, it strikes you in the side of your head, and on a natural 20 it launches an ear seeker straight into your ear. That would make you think.

Otherwise you're creating scenarios where the ear seeker tactically drops from the ceiling, hits you dead on in the ear and scurries in before you can say boo. Not bad aim for a non-intelligent creature. It must have a sensory device that detects ears moving underneath and provides spot bombing ability.

I actually had a DM do this in a game once. The encounter table said ear seeker and damned if we didn't get one with Olympic-level vaulting capabilities.

The other creature group that I despise comprises of plants which either a) move very, very slowly, or b) not at all. There are a bunch in the Fiend Folio, but let me concentrate on the shrieker and the violet fungi, as they are older and representative to the genre.

The shrieker we all know well. Low AC, lots of hit points and hit dice, good experience for low level parties. If you're lucky, you can kill it before the "50% chance of attracting wandering monsters" kicks in.

Seriously, if there was such a creature, terrifically safe to have around (no attack, no damage), wouldn't every humanoid on the planet cultivate these things in every hallway as a natural alarm system? Assuming of course that every rat, centipede or beetle didn't make it shriek fifteen times a day, pretty much eradicating anyone's interest in coming to check out what's making the fucking thing go off this time. The creature's very presence in the monster manual suggests that somehow this dungeon must be completely unviolated by the movement of any creature except the party - effectively existing in suspended animation. Sort of a Descartian universe: nothing exists until it is detected by the party's five senses.

Again, presuppose a trap. The shrieker sits in an enclosed, dark space, completely inviolate; you feed it from time to time. The party enters a hallway, trips the trap and the shrieker drops out of its box, landing on a party member. It shrieks. Guards come a'running in force.

Alternately, imagine the following signal system: build a tight, lightless box, with a small sliding door, just two inches high, that allows in light; open the slide, the shrieker screams. Close it and the shrieker calms down and stops screaming. Provide one of these boxes at every guard entrance - alarm problem solved.

The violet fungi is another problem. The largest is described as being 7' tall and having 4' branches. Assuming the body is two feet wide, this gives it a 10' reach. Mystically, this creature is described as having a movement of 1" ... in strict AD&D terms, in the outdoors this is 10 yards per one-minute round, or six-inches a second. That is a fast-moving plant. (The shrieker moves at the same pace)

Still, its only 1/6th as fast as a fighter in plate mail, so unless you are the blunderer for all ages, this thing isn't going to touch you. I suppose it is assumed that either you aren't going to notice it (oh look, another seven-foot-tall purple mushroom - I must get one of those for the den) or its going to be in the way just when you really need to go down that hallway.

It's pretty stupid to assume this thing isn't just going to get killed by a lit bottle of oil or a barrage of arrows; so again, we're not talking about something that's an actual threat, just something to drain off the party's resources.

Which brings us back to the trap. Put four of these things at the bottom of a ten-foot pit. Screw the crocodiles - when the party is working its way along the ledge, have the huge floor below overgrown with violet fungi. Guaranteed to kill even the hardiest 20th level characters. Let's see, 2' diameter, approximately 3.14 square feet per fungi, allowing for 50% empty space between creatures, equals 21.23142 violet fungi per 10'x10' square, multiplied by an average of 2.5 branches allows 53 potential attacks per round - well, less really, as the fungi themselves get in the way, lets cut it in half and say 27 ... 3HD creatures have a THACO of 16, 14 from behind, the shield protecting against only 17% of the attacks ... could hurt.

Those are just some recent thoughts, put here for interests sake.

Campaign Suspended

As my regular visitors might know, I have been unemployed now for seven weeks. I have been feeling disconnected, disconsolate and generally down. This has affected my energy and has considerably increased my level of stress.

I have been thinking about what I need to concentrate on apart from finding work. I have recently had some encouragement on the possibility of returning to my previous position – the journal has been sold and is undergoing reorganization, with the possibility for further employment. At the same time, I’ve reviewed what commitments I’ve made and what commitments I need to fulfill ... and this has led me to think that my focus should be on completing the rewrite of my book, something I have been putting off for more than a year. I have the time. I have not had the motivation.

I’ve let my offline players know that I am suspending our game until late August or September. I am really only three to six weeks from having my novel ready to be sent to a publisher ... but that assumes I will dedicate myself wholly to that task. I want to do so.

As such, I’m saying that my online campaign must be suspended also, for the same period. It is not that this takes a lot of my time; but it does require that I think about the campaign upon waking and sitting at the computer, which is a distraction. A pleasant distraction, true, but unfortunately not a constructive one.

This will not come as good news to you fine gentlemen who have yourselves made the effort to play. Your expectation will be, no doubt, that this is it and that a promise of a few months will extend to six months until it is conveniently forgotten. This is not my nature. I have definite ideas in my head as to where a ghoul hunt, an exploration into the meaning of a glyph, a joining of the mages’ guild, or the thankful request of Hornung the Paladin might lead. I want to pursue those roads as much as you, I promise.

I know that you will wish me well. I don’t plan on going anywhere. From time to time I intend to continue to post here, as inspiration strikes me. Lately, it has not been striking much, mostly due to my state of mind as I’ve described. I’m going to write further on that for my other blog, for those who might be interested ... but as it does not directly relate to D&D, I will not continue on that subject here.

I am far too committed to this blog to ever want to stop. However, it is a good book, it has a legitimate chance of being published and I feel that is where my energy should go.

Denmark

Now, this was not easy. For reference, this is in the same scale as the Switzerland map I posted five months ago. Producing this involved some head-banging moments, I promise you.

But I feel proud of it and want to post. I also want to make the point that very rarely do self made worlds bother with multiple islands arranged in archipelagos. If your continents seem a little smooth around the edges, consider raising one.

Denmark, unlike many other island groups like Greece, Indonesia, the Philippines or the Carribean, is flat ... which accounts for much of this all being one color:

Campaign: Resting

I have heard only from Anshelm, confirming the fact, but still I thought I'd move ahead with the suggestion that the party remains where it is, at the Pig, until the following Thursday, May 14th.

The cost on the considered house, for which the floor plan was posted a few days ago, would be 165 g.p. per month. In addition to the three floors presented, there is a cellar half the floorspace of the house and a yard which extends for 60 feet in back. The property is thus altogether 90'x20'. The yard will serve for grazing animals or for growing vegetables, as this was typical for the period, thus reducing the amount of money you would need for food. Obviously, the Pig is much cheaper, but I would remind the party that on any given night any person might sleep in the common room with you (there are no individual rooms) ... so a private home would be that much more secure.

I'll hold back on other events/hearsay for the week until I hear more from the party about how they want to spend that week, resting moderately to gain back hit points.

Die

Two weeks ago I posted pictures of my Player's Handbook and DM's Guide. I mentioned my 30-year old die, and regretted that I had not had a picture taken of it.

Here it is:




This proved harder than you'd think. Ever tried to take a picture of a white die on a dismally dark day, when the die has no contrasting features whatsoever?

3-Storey Half-Timbered House

In and around being told how to behave on my blog, I spent the day designing a three-story house for one of my offline players: Stone exterior, walls 1' thick, wood interior. As it turns out, I can use this also for my online players, who have made comments about renting a particular house.

I designed the plan based upon that book I read a few months ago, The Culture of Cities, by Lewis Mumford. He describes a very different 17th century house; one in which there are no windows along the side walls, as the house is built immediately adjacent to its neighbors with no space between. For there to be light in such a house, there needed to be an open space in the middle, enabling light from the ceiling to enter. In the floorplan below, you need to know that there are three large windows above the open space depicted on the second and third floors (I didn't have time today to design it).



I should also note that the thin dark-orange lines are railings.

I really hate this stuff. Like desking for a publication. Too niggling.

A Player's Cleric

In spite of some of the comments on the previous thread, it has been my experience that unless a DM leans on the cleric, the cleric won’t behave all that piously. Pobody suggests a practical system, though in essence it is little more than the usual pressure through extortion (behave or lose spells) dressed up so that the cleric knows exactly how the extortion will work. R makes some good arguments for the motivations of gods to test and shape their followers. Since, however, the ‘gods’ are really just me, I can’t fool myself that I’m playing out the parameters of the game rather than flatly invoking my will (and my perception of the cleric) upon the player.

I have made no secret of the fact that I’m opposed to such things philosophically.

Wouldn’t it be preferential for the cleric to seek out their god for reasons of their own? Because there were positive gains to be had? In other words, can we drop the whip and invoke the carrot?

I have three proposals, all of which I think depend on the player’s conception of their cleric and how best to participate in the campaign. None rely remotely upon my action as the DM. For the record, as far as I know there have been no other suggestions along these lines.

1. Helpful Spells.

First of all, consider the helpful nature of the clerical spells. That is nothing profound, it is immediately obvious to any player – the clerical spells are not offensive, they’re defensive.

From the point of view of the NPC, particularly the impoverished NPC, even a first level cleric’s spells are a magnificent god-send. Why is it that a cleric, who has the time and the power, never thinks to turn their spells into goodwill from the local peasants or whomever else the cleric chooses? Why not wander about the countryside, purifying the local wells, healing the odd individual who has fallen from a roof or cut themselves with an axe? Why not aid a huntsman for the day? Or put a glyph, free of charge, on the front door of a poor man’s hovel, one who has eight children and who worries about their safety? These things are cheap and simple for the cleric. For the individual, to purchase such a spell is completely beyond their means. The DM’s Guide recommends 100 g.p. for a cure light wounds. Attempting to give it an economic basis, in my online world I’ve given the price as 17 g.p. Do you think a cotter with an injured child can afford such a thing?

Yet what will that cotter say when that 1st level cleric appeared and healed their child – for free? Do you think they will be distrustful? If so, you know little of human behavior, particularly among the poor. In reality, a local village will love a cleric because he will sit at their bedsides and hear their stories or confessions. Add to that the improved safety and survival of the community through magical means. To say that this could be returned practically is putting it mildly. Need a ditch dug or a barn raised? Need a horse for the day from one of the local freeholders? Short on food? Don’t you see that the merest word that Good Father Jakob is going on a journey would encourage the entire community to show up, make sure he has enough to eat, encourage him to look up their relatives if he needs a place to stay, travel along with him a few miles on the road to see that he’s safely on his way and so on. Such a cleric would never need a bed in an inn, would never want for helpful friends, would never lack character witnesses – and would even gain the goodwill of the local lord when his healthy tenants managed their rent or produced their quotas more efficiently.

Does the party need men-at-arms? Why would you need to advertise? Peasant Theobald’s sister’s first cousin has been training with weapons since age five and has four friends – he’d love the work. And when those five guardsmen show up, they may admire the fighter in the party or be amazed by the mage, but they will adore the cleric whom they’ve heard so much about. And they will be of the cleric’s religion. They will follow the fighter’s instructions because the cleric says so. In case you don’t realize, this has been the manner of armies since, well, ever.

You understand, the mage can’t work this way. He may dazzle with a dancing lights spell or ease someone’s burden for a few hours with a Tenser’s floating disc, but most of the time his offensive spells are going to frighten ordinary people rather than help them. The cleric, on the other hand, is seen as a go-between between themselves and a terrifying god – having the cleric on their side offers a tremendous comfort. Do not underestimate the practical aspect of that comfort.

Of course, many DMs will resist this sort of influence by a cleric in their campaigns, seeing it as anathema to the restrictions or limitations they insist must be a player’s lot. I prefer to let the players find ways to make their lives easier ... if they will do so intelligently.

2. Helpful Church

All too often, the player cleric’s church is seen as a wart on the player’s free will. The church tells them what to do, the church tells them where to do it, the church is full of rules and pushy masters dictating this and that to the player. This is how DMs typically run a church. They see it as an impenetrable hierarchy, testy and exploitive, an iron hand micro-managing every cleric’s specific activity from day to day. Partly this is due to the influence of films and stories which depend upon a villainous entity opposing the virtuous and ultimately successful loner. Partly this is due to most D&D players instinctive dislike for any kind of authority, bred in them occasionally by a particular church when they were young.

In actual fact, no successful entity can function if abuse of authority or petty manipulation are the order of the day. Some of this might go on, yes ... but the normal order of events would be that of a club of individuals who are anxious to create success though mutual aid and service. A cleric who is in good standing with his church, who collects for it a reasonable tithe (10% of the cleric’s personal income), should receive back in kind very much the sort of goodwill discussed earlier among local peasants and landholders. A cleric should never want for lodging in any city of the world where there is a church, nor for want of information, short-term financial support, equipment (any equipment, not just weapons and armor), political influence or military aid (even if the cleric’s level only merits a bodyguard). Obviously a church might limit the cleric from borrowing a war galley ‘just to pop off across the gulf for a few days,’ but should the cleric need to get across the gulf for good reason, the church might quickly work out a passage with some good captain who is well known to the church and is going there anyway. At possibly no immediate cost to the cleric. They might tell him, “Just add a bit more to the coffer next time around,” saying nothing else about it.

The more cynical of my gentle readers may see immediately how this would impose reverse limitations on the cleric – other clerics showing up to impose for money, aid, and that standard ‘mission for the church’ to which I’m opposed. You will note, however, that I didn’t suggest the cleric show up in an odd town and insist on the local priest’s personal intervention in the cleric’s activities. Only for the sort of aid which can be quickly put off onto clerks, stewards and the like. “Get him passage to Oslo. See that he gets a chance to look over the armoury. And he needs a cure light wounds scroll.”

Would a player, I wonder, be willing to provide a stranger of the same religion a scroll on a moment’s notice, expecting never to see it again? I think probably a player would rather commit his or herself to the adventure personally rather than do such a thing. But that is wrong thinking. What goes around comes around ... and once a cleric has gained a reputation, quite a lot can come around.

Players usually, in my experience, insist on choosing obscure religions from which there can never be any help (nor any imposition). They would rather be alone. In my online campaign, having given his assent to starting in Germany and being well aware that Catholicism and Protestantism would be the norm, he chose an obscure Polish paganistic sect. In my offline campaign, where the party started in Russia, the cleric chose to follow Buddhism and the druid chose Celtism. The latter was at least a little closer to the norm – but rather than move closer to the Celtic orbit, and into Scandinavia, the party instead chose to travel south and east, ostensibly towards China. In other words, farther from their church – one may presume for various reasons. Because religion wasn’t important and because organized religion is a fucking pain in the ass.

Every organized religion has a traditional portion of its holy persons acting according to their own personal relationship with God. Francis of Assisi or Benedict, founding unique monastic orders; Jesus or John, itinerant preachers who considered themselves wholly Jewish (and who were killed for preaching outside the established order and from political expedience, NOT because they were loners); Confucius, who spent most of his life being kicked from one court to another, who followed the traditional religion ‘religiously’ but whose personal ideas were tolerated; Laozi who proposed the Daoist school; Mozi who proposed Mohism; Zoroaster; the Brahmin priests who wrote the Upanishads long after the founding of Hinduism; Mahavira who founded the Jain sect. We have a tendency to think of these things as ‘heresies’ due to our western catholic perceptions ... when in fact these advances were widely embraced improvements on earlier systems of thought and worship. Churches know that there must be a unique, barely influenced group seeking personal religion because they creates vitality in what would otherwise become a stale and declining religion. The ‘gods’ would know this also, and would know enough to keep their hands off clerics who might someday prove greater than their predecessors.

A cleric should never be a ‘follower’. Yet this is the word most commonly used: a cleric ‘follows’ his religion. But a cleric should be a LEADER. Like the mage and the fighter, the player cleric is not an ordinary individual ... and should NOT be bound by ordinary concerns.

3. Money.

In spite of what the book suggests, gods, rituals and practices do NOT underlay the fabric of the church. The gods can’t be bothered (it would be a stupid world where the gods intervened constantly, more so if that was the experience of every person dwelling in that world as well as the players), while rituals and practices are just a dumb-show to impress the locals. Churches run on money. Money pays the army, it builds the churches, it greases the local nobility, it provides for maintenance and for research, it promotes influence and it motivates. A church will last very little time without money to do all of that.

The manner in which this money is gathered is called the ‘collect.’ It is the vast sum of money that a frightened populace is prepared to hand over in order to keep the gods from getting more involved. Lots of money keeps the gods content and happy. A God that showed up every five minutes might awe those immediately present, but the successful cleric is going to be the one who represents another god and who says, “give me money and my god will kick that god’s ass.” In D&D, since all the gods are real, this is probably true.

Gods do not make themselves more welcome by hanging around.

Why would a cleric build a church? For the money. A church is a factory ... and the bigger the church, the more money it makes. Throughout the centuries various religious leaders have understood very clearly that a BIG, BIG church will pour money into the religion’s empty coffers. That is the reason why St. Peter’s was built in Rome during the counter-Reformation, why the Mezquita was built in Cordoba, Spain, and why the Hagia Sofia was built by Justinian in Constantinople. This are unbelievably immense structures, encouraging people to travel thousands of miles to see them and to leave their money.

Think of your player’s church as a money-making entrepreneurial venture. I propose that for every 100 g.p. spent on the structure, it should earn 4 g.p. per month: 2 g.p. to be paid to the religious organization as a tithe, 1 g.p. for maintenance and 1 g.p. to go into the cleric’s pocket, to do with as he or she sees fit. The bigger the church, the bigger the return. This is not very far from the reality. During the 30 Years War in Germany, the Protestants and Catholics vied to destroy one another’s churches (and thus their potential revenue) while defending and building more of their own. Tithes paid for that war ... and virtually for every war preceding it, as governments had not quite mastered the method of running on a deficit (which was standardized during the Baroque effort) and free money is the easiest to pay back.

No doubt this last will be the hardest to swallow – for anyone who has not actually worked within a religious entity, or who has not had experience with their bookkeeping. I would note that the Catholic church continues to be the largest landlord in the world, a condition which was created through the spreading of religion and the gathering of the collect. Very often the Catholic church as been able to put its own army in the field, a circumstance reflected very definitely by the gathering of men-at-arms as described in the Player’s Handbook.

Did you think the player was supposed to pay those troops out of his own pocket? Or maybe that they would graciously fight for free. That could be ... but what would they eat?