tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post8992617171302561115..comments2023-10-14T03:58:59.333-06:00Comments on The Tao of D&D: Technology 11Alexis Smolenskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-13368899031862991952015-12-03T06:42:26.305-07:002015-12-03T06:42:26.305-07:00We're on the same page, Maxwell. I was thinki...We're on the same page, Maxwell. I was thinking something like that myself.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-88445866431591050062015-12-03T01:21:02.022-07:002015-12-03T01:21:02.022-07:00Rubberduck beat me to the mention, but I've be...Rubberduck beat me to the mention, but I've been wondering what your ideas are on the intersection of your infrastructure numbers and the tech levels.<br /><br />Correct if I'm wrong: they are both based on population, but infrastructure is derived directly from the exact population of a market town, while tech levels come in 18 broad slices of the population density figure (between A and B density is tech such and such, between B and C density is the next one, etc).<br /><br />You originally proposed infrastructure to determine features of a hex -- perhaps useable as a target number for a percentage roll for presence of an inn, tavern, fishery, sewers, etc.<br /><br />Now with the advent of tech levels there is clear delineation on what technological and social features will exist in each area, so it seems infrastructure's focus could shift, since it no longer has to determine available/not-available. Perhaps the infrastructure number could represent the strength/quality of the features of the tech level, or the tightness of the grip of the local lord. Or perhaps this is a way to limit availability of items/services: for example, tech 11 means siege weapons with better accuracy than tech 10, but even in a tech 11 region you can only hire siege engineers with tech-11 skills in the parts of the region which have highest infrastructure.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-32481328301878916202015-11-26T05:28:43.477-07:002015-11-26T05:28:43.477-07:00I'm thinking you might be able to use a varian...I'm thinking you might be able to use a variant of the infrastructure system number system. Assign the non-human cities a number based on their population, and then watch how far the influence spreads. Natural features that block authority would lower the influence number. It could even potentially define which cities belong to the same region, based on whether/how the cities' influence overlap.<br /><br />For adjusting the numbers to fit, you could look at some of the human areas, and see which numbers those cities would have had to form the regions that they have. Some tweaking would probably be necessary to account for cities lying near the border and other edge cases.The Rubberduckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12585052552943070379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-28275943864467817132015-11-25T17:19:07.656-07:002015-11-25T17:19:07.656-07:00Ah, but Harnia, too, is comprised of the relativel...Ah, but Harnia, too, is comprised of the relatively sparsely inhabited Mordovian Republic (that I call Seraphina) and the Penza Oblast (that I call Harn). Both are well populated now, but not so much in 1650; so the same rule applies to them that applied to Khath. Arguably, they could be split up randomly also.<br /><br />The main question is, how does that random table that divides up provinces work? Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-37959092976005975962015-11-25T17:08:15.580-07:002015-11-25T17:08:15.580-07:00Carving them up into territories based on geograph...Carving them up into territories based on geography seems about as fair as it gets in terms of granting subdivisions where historically there were none, and of special note here is that this would actually increase the number of hexes that are 100% pure wilderness, since the territorial divides would stop any influence from those bastions of civilisation (however small) right off.<br /><br />Someplace like Khath might jump a tech level or three, only to be immediately adjacent to an area lacking any tech at all. That could be neat. Doesn't solve anything for poor Harn, given that it's wedged delicately between Mosovy and the Jagatai, but I suppose somebody has to get the shaft in the whole arrangement.Pandredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03917809464727878157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-18878584691090909212015-11-25T16:45:57.626-07:002015-11-25T16:45:57.626-07:00For example, a part of Altslok, the Dwarven kingdo...For example, a part of Altslok, the Dwarven kingdom, is called Khath. This region corresponds to the most southern quarter of the huge Russian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnoyarsk_Krai" rel="nofollow">Krasnoyarsk Krai</a> (the same that includes Lungos Nad and it's compliment state, Lungos Sog) plus the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khakassia" rel="nofollow">Republic of Khakassia</a>. I awarded that part of Krasnoyarsk to Khakassia because I wanted to combine both parts of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minusinsk_Hollow" rel="nofollow">Minusinsk Hollow</a> to the Dwarves. I did this way, way back around 1998, at a time I wasn't running any campaign.<br /><br />The reason is that the Hollow (I call the river through it the more dwarven name of 'Moth') is a mining and agricultural basin, with gold, coal and iron, supported by pig iron foundries. In the mountains. It just seemed to fit.<br /><br />I've defined Khath as tech 8, with 152,269 dwarves and 138 hexes. But the basin is only about 20 of those hexes and easily 90 percent of the dwarves live in it. That would make the whole basin tech 10 (6,852 per hex). A random border-defining table might split the basin into two, even three territories - the Fergana basin in Uzbekistan is divided into five entities, though it has a much higher population.<br /><br />That would also solve Gilkask and a lot of other non-human kingdoms, all of which suffer from the same issue (no small territories such as those found in human areas).<br /><br />This is as far as my thinking goes, at present. One thing I really don't want to do is cut every one of those territories into pieces that award all or most of them with a certainty of higher tech areas. As I said, "sucks to be non-human" sounds good to me.<br /><br />But it is clear the situation needs addressing. Perhaps even the Don Cossacks - though human - can be carved up in a way that will give some of them swords.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-5014697147100623772015-11-25T16:16:41.982-07:002015-11-25T16:16:41.982-07:00I was thinking this very thing as I was coming hom...I was thinking this very thing as I was coming home these last 30 minutes, Arduin. Well spotted.<br /><br />In AD&D, elves are exempt from being rangers - page 14, Player's Handbook. Unfortunately for me, my daughter started an elven ranger 8 years ago and ran it for four years before either of us had a reason to look at that page - when as a group we agreed to eliminate race level limits. As such, by precedent, I do have elven rangers. But I digress.<br /><br />I was thinking specifically of the gnome illusionist problem - and you're right, like the Don Cossacks, the illusionist school was put there before the tech level design. And I admit, I'm a lot less willing to let go of that school than I am of Don Cossack swordsmen.<br /><br />So what indeed do I do?<br /><br />A big part of me wants to embrace the 'sucks to be non-human' argument. That certainly works for orcs, trolls, hobgoblins and most of the gnome and dwarf cultures I've developed. I'm even good with the elves taking it in the teeth because I hate <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CantArgueWithElves" rel="nofollow">the smarmy elf pontificating superiority ideology</a>. And I really, really hate when people fetishize that shit.<br /><br />A big part of the creative problem comes from the origin of non-human territories in the first place. They're all based on human-made regions of the 18th-20th century that were empty of people. As such, all these non-human areas are HUGE. Note the post I wrote today about Agra.<br /><br />As such, kingdoms like Harnia, Altslok (dwarven), Vostoch (hobgoblin), Magloshkagok (goblin), Jagatai (orc), Ilistan (githyank) and so on have borders that were defined because with so few people in those parts of the real world, management per sq.m. is comparatively easy.<br /><br />Perhaps the solution would be to build a random table that randomly carves up such regions into chunks based upon geographical features.<br /><br />(to be continued)<br />Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-54005259388405999192015-11-25T15:49:37.454-07:002015-11-25T15:49:37.454-07:00You have, on your Wiki, a writup of Harn, both the...You have, on your Wiki, a writup of Harn, both the Thane and it's Archthane Seraphis, owned by gnomes and possessed of, importantly, a college of Illusionists.<br /><br />Your intention here is no doubt to tweak that in recognition of your new knowledge, importantly, that neither Thane is of high enough intelligence to possess Illusionsts as a proper class. My question then is, how do you intend to go about this, and naturally any similar "retcons" that might crop up?<br /><br />At tech 10 and 11 respectively, a Mage school isn't out of the question, even if the specific class of Illusionist isn't available, but since Gnomes can't become regular Mages, that raises other questions. There are a handful of other areas where things seem counter-intuitive, like the Elves of low-tech Norway being unable to become Rangers and so on.<br /><br />I'm very interested in your thoughts here on how non-human races handle tech and their otherwise quite limited available classes, even if those thoughts boil down to "sucks being a low-tech non-human; them's the breaks".Pandredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03917809464727878157noreply@blogger.com