My Five-Points

At last, regarding the placement of eggs, improvement and sacrifice.

When I last spoke about this, I ended by saying that I was disinterested in becoming a better DM, as I felt I had reached a level of acceptability.  That may change; there's always a chance of returning again to things once we have applied ourselves elsewhere.  Eggs can be moved.  For the moment, however, it is true.  My motives lie elsewhere.

Here are five things - or ways - I would like to improve about myself, generally.  They're not directly about role-playing, no; however, since most of them will affect this blog and my intentions towards D&D generally, I thought the gentle reader might like to read them.  The reader may also find some wisdom here, some further reflection upon how sacrifices might be made.

1.  I wish to get a better handle on how much time I spend working on D&D.  That is, I'd like to work less on the number crunching, the mapmaking, the process-content behind the world.  That isn't to say I don't love this - I do.  It is addictive.  But I would like to manage my time a little better - particularly since I now have a great deal less time, 44 hours a week less I'm calculating.  This isn't a job where I can poke about much on the company dime and spend an hour writing - I have to be 'on.'  Therefore, when I'm off, I'd like to not spend all my time whittling away at game things that will take months to finish.  I need to put that time elsewhere.  I know that for many the trouble is to find time to work on the game; in my case, I've organized my life so that my free time is almost entirely my own.  I'm at the disposal of my family, but my non-gaming friends are all insanely busy like me and we see each other maybe once every three months.  I don't make commitments, I don't volunteer and I don't seek overtime or reasons to fret about work.  My partner gets intense quality time, every day, as I cook and cuddle and recreate with her - but she lets me disappear whenever I wish.

The Sacrifice: this means not seeing my world grow, not feeding my addiction, not vanishing into my space for five hours at a time to listen to music, hear a podcast and turn my brain off while I draw lines or calculate numbers together.  It means a lot of the ambitious plans I have for changing my world will be stalled.  Not forever, I hope; just until my circumstances change, until I have more time or possibly more resources.  It doesn't mean not working on my world at all - I'm hoping that I can dedicated a morning, say, or an hour, before shutting down the work and moving onto something more fruitful.  It means, basically, not doing my favorite thing - well, at least not for the purpose of making a fanciful game setting.

2.  Getting myself more directed in the process of marketing myself.  At present, I do a fair job, I understand the concept, but I wouldn't describe my efforts as 'fervent.'  It's still very much catch as catch can; I see an opportunity, I follow up on it (sometimes) and something occasionally happens.  However, I'm not making opportunities.  I'm letting things I should be doing fall lax and undone, unpursued or ignored, mostly due to perceived stress, self-doubts and a general malaise.  Working on D&D a lot does not actually help with this; it provides too much avoidance, actually.  I need to put myself on the line more; to take risks more; to acknowledge that a potential for looking like a fool isn't the end of the world.

The Sacrifice: I really hate looking foolish.  This is probably the deepest discontent that I have - and in spite of it I have acted on stage and chosen a career for myself that is necessarily public.  When I look at these pics I'm putting up every day, I mostly hate them.  I mostly think I look dumb.  I think every day about taking them down and quitting.  But I know that working at this, pushing it, makes me different from thousands of other bloggers who aren't brave enough to look dumb.  So I keep at it.

It's the same with rousting myself out of my room where I'm working and forcing myself to meet people in shops, stores, game set-ups and so on; even though I 'hate' to meet people for the purpose of promoting myself, as I hate being judged.  I was recently hired, so I was told, for my "charisma" - because I know how to smile, I know how to make others feel comfortable and I am utterly fearless in speaking directly about anything.  This post, for instance, where I making a platter of my sleeve.  So the sacrifice here is not sitting comfortably at home; not finding a reason not to step forward and take a hit.  Come September, I'm in Edmonton at the Comic Expo there; that's going to be followed by others, all I can afford to attend.  Even if it means not being comfortable.

3.  While writing more non-fiction material for RPGs and gaming is certainly in the works, the real effort must be spent towards teaching myself to write fantasy fiction.  I have to confess here; I am not a fan of fantasy fiction.  I liked the old stuff when I was younger, most of Appendix N, but it absolutely did not define me as a thinker and a writer.  From a writer's point of view, most of it is painfully weak; if I go back to reading someone like Leiber, Zelazny or Anthony, I find myself wanting to correct the grammar between wincing at the author's hacking exposition.  I have wanted to rip out and burn the last three chapters of any Orson Scott Card book that I've read.  What's worse is all the new stuff - I haven't the patience for piling up of words to describe emo-contrived, idiot-ball carrying characters who angst and angst and angst about what to do or who to love or what they've done.  I can take a straight story, but this exorbitant over-investigated consciousness is just more than I can take.  I don't want to be these people, I want to smack these people with a rake.

But when I sit down to write my own fiction, the text expresses itself in dry, trope-driven chapters that trod along the same paths as everyone else.  I'm quite convinced that it isn't the author that's responsible for the problems I find in the above paragraph, but the subject material itself - and I have to convince myself to the contrary.

The Sacrifice:  I'm going to have to write a lot of shit for a while.  A lot of shit.  That's the reality.  I'm not going to become a better fantasy-fiction writer without first writing an awful pile of dreck - in short, making the same mistakes that others have made, falling into the same pitfalls and writing bad, bad fiction.  See, as I criticize above, I'm not deluded to think at this point that I can do any better.  Before I have any chance of that, I'm going to have to do much, much worse.  But that's how we get good at things.  We throw a lot of time at it.  We swing that hammer until we know how.  In the beginning, yes, we hurt ourselves; but that's how we get smarter.

Working less on D&D should give me the time I need to write badly.

4.  I need to DM less.  That's going to sound fairly insane to some readers, since I work so hard on my world - but the truth is, DMing is becoming a physical trial weekly.  I mean, I love it, but to get through four to six hours of play I'm jacking myself up on coffee, pop, other sources of sugar and salt, followed by gallons of water and a wrecked mental state after the fact that belies the fact that the mental requirement slurps up huge amounts of my weekly energy supply, so that over time I feel the symptoms of chronic mental fatigue.  Setting up and carrying through the process at the rate that I'm going at is burning me out.  With two campaigns off-line, I've been running every week since last July.

This last Friday we were set to play and we simply didn't.  We spent the whole evening on the deck, chatting and letting the sun go down.  After my first week at work, the energy wasn't there.

Note that the word above is less.  I'm not quitting.  There are options - shorter sessions, less than once a week, running an easier campaign than the complex worldbuilding adventuring that I run now (though my players would be terribly, terribly disappointed).

The Sacrifice: this is obvious.  I wouldn't be running.  Running is a high and it regularly produces a house full of people who praise me to the skies.  That's nothing I want to lose.  Moreover, it is a sacrifice for my players, too - that makes me feel beholden to them, since they have graciously allowed me to run them all this time.

And still, I have run a lot in my life.  Those first five years, twice a week; once a week, at least, for the next ten.  Then a six-year lull, as my life was sorted out, and about once every two weeks since.   That's somewhere around 1,430 runnings - all of them at least four hours, as I have never run a planned game for just two.  The average is closer to five.  So that's 7,000 hours of this game, just running.  Gawd knows how much time I've spent working on this game.  It's time to ease my foot off the pedal.  Not all at once . . . but set designated non-playing weekends, spaced throughout the year, is getting to be a must.

5.  Find someone else to DM.  This is the real solution for point 4.  Take a turn at playing instead of always having to run.  Only, I don't know how I'm going to do that.  Last year I sat in on a few 4e and 5e games and the set-up, campaign and player-to-DM interaction was a fucking joke.  I've just been told that two of my players are quitting their other campaign because it simply fails them as players.  That's been my experience since, oh, 1984 . . . and I'm not seeing any change.

Hell, maybe I'm going to have to start a class or something, offer it free through the library and see if I can't train someone to grasp what's really going on.  My players, unfortunately, do not feel like taking the wheel and Jesus isn't available.

The Sacrifice:  Hell if I know.  I can make time and space and get myself out there in the world more and see what there is to see.  I can write and hope it inspires someone within the city here to take a crack at a game that would actually interest me.  I can encourage my friends more or lower my standards to the point where I'd rather be watching DC Comics' new Supergirl TV show than playing my favorite game.  I don't know, not at this time.  It's hard to take the egg out of the basket and put it somewhere else when I can't find the goddamn basket the egg needs to go in.

 Still, there must be a way to step aside and attack this issue.  Anything can be learned.  Someone must be out there that can be taught.

The Grand Principality of Kiyev

I'm just relaxing on my first day off after my first week at the new job, so not digging into the depth of yesterday's post at this time.  Instead, I managed to finish the eight subdivisions of Hungary - be sure and check out the one for Guns on the wiki.  True story - the reader can find it listed in Wikipedia under Koszeg.

To that I'll add a map here and a link to Kiyev.  It's done too, so I can now move off to the Grand Duchy of Moscovy.  26 divisions.  Will take a long time.  In fact, I will probably quit somewhere in the middle of it, come back in a year or so and continue.  But we'll see.

Remember that a clearer image can be found by clicking the map on
the wiki,following the link to Kiyev.

A Dozen Eggs

I'm not surprised that no one stepped forward to take me up on Tuesday's challenge.

(Connor Mackay updated his blog since I wrote this line for this post, so I have to include his effort.  Well done, Connor)

I'm equally certain, however, that people stopped and thought about it, finding almost immediately that it is nearly impossible to express some way to "be better" as a DM without using a meaningless phrase like, "I'd like to handle my players better" or "I'd like my game to be more interesting."  The reality is, beyond vague and altogether useless gestures, most of us haven't a clue how to even express wanting to be a DM.

The 'sacrifice' is worse.  Sacrifice?  For a game?  What am I talking about?

I wrote the post as 'an exercise' primarily to lend dimension to the problem.  I wrote a book on How to Run that is full of useful advice and insight and perspective . . . but it isn't the sort of thing where you'll come out the other side transformed.  That's because - as the book itself says - the transformation is something that takes time, work and experience.  That is without question the book's theme.

And this is what I mean by 'sacrifice' . . . and to make it clearer I'll torture a metaphor.  Let us suppose that all the energy we have, all the time, all the skill, all the knowledge, all the power we personally have amounts to, oh, three dozen eggs.  Let's further conjecture that we have thousands of empty baskets into which we could put those eggs - professions, arts, family, offspring, invention, innovation, what have you.  Let's say that each basket will hold up to our total number of eggs.

Now, it doesn't matter that someone else has more ability than us - the eggs are not expressions of the amount of our energy, they are divisions of that energy.  We have 36 divisions.  This isn't a question of our supply, this is a question of our application.

It's up to us.  We can put 36 eggs into 36 individual, different baskets - but we have to know that each basket is going to look pretty pathetic with one egg rolling around inside.  Even if we put two eggs in 18 different baskets, that's still going to be a little sad - and worse, two eggs rolling around in our sized basket have a greater chance of breaking than one egg.

Fact is, as we add eggs into a basket, we actually increase the chance of an egg breaking . . . that is, until we get to the point where there are enough eggs that the number actually disallows rolling around and the basket is stable.

Let's call this moment of stability "experienced."

It's going to take at least ten eggs to reach that point.  Effectively, that's going to limit the number of baskets you can stabilize to three.  Four if you're willing to allow some risk.  Five baskets, however . . . well, you're going to risk a lot.

Well, what is all this risk I'm talking about?  Think of it this way.  We're of almost no value to anyone until you're experienced at something.  Until then, we're actually more dangerous than a person who knows jack shit - that's because we think we're experienced when in fact we're just an asshole with seven eggs rolling around in our basket, waiting for an accident.  We all know these people - they manage to get work at construction sites or they're given driver's licenses; some of them even manage to convince themselves to run for president.  We call them 'dumbasses.'  They're people who have spread themselves too damn thin where it comes to getting good at anything.  They've put their eggs into too many baskets.

Through history, there has been a sort of celebration of people who spread their eggs around - we all know the term: "jack-of-all-trades"; "Renaissance man."  Only thing is, virtually all historical examples (and those are rare indeed) are people who still excel at only one or two things.  Leonardo da Vinci, the most famous Renaissance man (at least, for having a lot of different baskets), actually spent most of his time wallowing around like an idiot, living off the grace of his friends and starting projects that went nowhere.  Virtually everything he "did" was theoretical and in fact inevitable, followed up and perfected by people who put MOST of their eggs in one basket.  A fantastic painter, we don't in fact have many paintings to Da Vinci's credit.  Of what else he did, we have mostly models, notes, whatever we could save.  Not much finished work.

We have to realize that in our lives, every decision we make is an egg put somewhere.  Get married, that's a basket; have a child, that's another.  Decide to spend one night of your week getting drunk or watching live basketball, that's another egg.  Nothing wrong with that; everyone's entitled.  But it's an egg and when it is put in that basket, it can't be in another basket, too.  You've only got so many eggs.

Now, if we try to put too many of your eggs into a basket that no one considers useful, if we are an expert it isn't going to do us a lot of good.  In How to Run, I talked about applications that D&D has taught me . . . things that made it possible to get a good job.  Not a great job, mind you; but reasonable, somewhat interesting, worth the trip.  'Course, getting a job means putting eggs into that basket - and taking them out of some other basket.

We have kids and they grow up and we get those eggs back.  We do well at work and we need to work less and we get some of those eggs back.  Mostly, though, we're always a little too thin, always short on eggs and long on baskets - and something is always on the edge of breaking.

If we're going to get better at DMing - for this was the point - we're going to have to take an egg from somewhere.  Sorry, that's just how it is.  If we're not willing to sacrifice that basket, make it a little shakier, risk a little or give up one of the little pleasures some other basket offers, then we're not going to be better DMs.  We're not actually going to be better at ANYTHING, where it comes to that, because everything asks for eggs and there are never enough . . . but for the moment, this being a D&D blog, we're talking about DMing.

That's the sacrifice.  Where are we willing to take eggs from?  Our family?  Our job?  Our opportunities for a better education?  The night we play hockey and the day after we need to recover?  From where?

Me, I've been taking it from virtually everywhere from the beginning.  Yes my job and my opportunities for a better education.  I could have been a professor, I could have gone the route of ambition and marketing, I could have applied my maths and my rigor to things that would have made me more money.  Instead I put a lot of my eggs into my family and my circumstances - and far, far too many eggs into D&D.

Oh, don't worry.  My bed is made.  I'm just saying, to now, this has been the practice.  This ludicrous world that is outlined on the wiki and the blog represents a sacrifice that - let's face it - the mass majority of you will never, ever make.  Good on you!  It takes a true idiot to get this deep into something this useless.

But don't pretend that you're not depriving your DMing basket for things that are equally useless or equally damning after it happens you've done those things for 35 years.  Most of you reading this haven't lived 35 years; you don't know yet what prices you're going to have to pay for keeping your favorite baskets rolling with eggs for almost four decades.  But you will.  If you're lucky enough to live that long.

Oh, and here's a truth on that to think about - it always seems like a good idea at the time.  Always.

But all this and I'm not answering the question.  Well, I will.  I'll describe my five changes and my five sacrifices or eggs . . . but not, I'm afraid, to be a better DM.  I've already done that.  I'm more or less feeling that I'm as good a DM as I ever need to be.  Rest assured, however.  I'll never take all the eggs out of this basket.  This basket will always have at least a dozen.

Working in the Hard Stuff

All right, I don't have time to write a proper post, so instead let's try some homework.

1.  Name five skills you wish you possessed that would make you a better DM.

Be specific.  Be very specific.  If you can express the skill - as it applies to YOU, personally - in a sentence or less, then you're not thinking hard enough about the question!  You're tossing off a trite phrase that you've tossed off a hundred times without it meaning anything.  You are a complicated person, with complicated needs and complicated motives.  Describe five skills you want that apply to those motives.

2.  Name five sacrifices you'd be willing to make to gain any of those skills.

Again, be specific.  Think about the sacrifice.  Be honest about it.  Name something you actually think you'd be able to do . . . even if it is a very small sacrifice.  A tiny sacrifice that has the potential of actually happening is a million times better than a great, fake sacrifice you'll never make.

That's it.  That's more work than you'll do this year - if you'll apply yourself.

As for me?

I can do express this easily.

Read this blog.  There are at least five skills I've named.  In insane levels of detail.  There are at least five sacrifices I've made and described myself willing to make.  In insane levels of detail.

But I'll work on it and have five more of each . . . as soon as I can.

The title of this post: this is something I used to say when gearing up to talk over something that truly mattered with someone that mattered to me.

Conspiracy Infancy

A conspiracy theory before enough time has happened to allow the conspiracy to theoretically occur:

Step 1:  Stop tracking American phone use.

Step 2:  Blow up something HUGE.

Step 3:  Justify enslavement of Americans.

The government has a plan.

An Infringement on Time

Being that I am now managed under a new schedule, this blog is bound to suffer.  But not to worry, yes?  Surely by now, the gentle reader knows everything there is for me to prattle about how to dungeon master or make a world.  I can't imagine that there's anything left for me to say, any insights left for me to give, any new ideas to promote or old battles worthy of further campaigning.  After all this time, I must be done, no?  I must be dried out, due for pasture, empty of fruitful essence.

How could it be true that, after all this time, I still had things left to dig apart and spread out?  Without a doubt I am at least right in this: the reader is ready to move on.  The reader must be anxious to admit that old Alexis, that tired old bugger, has served his purpose.  The reader must be already making his or her own world, scribing out the maps, filling those hexes - or squares, if so desired - and sketching all the entities and relationships that go towards making a vibrant, sustained world full of shock and awe.  How . . . truly, how . . . could I further contribute to that?

Oh well.  I suppose I can sneak a moment or two to talk about something.  Nothing important.  Nothing far reaching.  Nothing that could conceivably redirect anyone's thinking on role-playing or D&D.  Ah, those halcyon days are past.  I'm a working soul now, caught in the grind, vested in the necessity of coin collection.  Anything I could hope to contribute now would be a vagary, a slip of sport, a tangential bit of tomfoolery, easily ignored and overlooked.

No, no, it's all right.  I'm fine.  I'm better than fine, I'm busy.  Oh, sure, there's a bit of melancholy - but that's just a snag, just a stumbling block, nothing to bother about.  Nothing to speak of.  I'll still be around, furtively scratching out a line or two and calling it Burgenland or the Dneiper Bank.  Adding a number here and there and calling it trade.  Kind of sad and wretched, really.  Kind of tragic.  Dramatic pathos at best.  Nothing the reader should notice.

Please, feel free to move along.  Nothing to see here.  No worldbuilding.  I'll be working . . . except when, in the evenings, I'll have a moment or two to hinge words together.  Trust me - it's not something you should feel is worth stopping by to see.

No More Dragons

My party last night managed to make their way to their goal.  This was after getting into a fight with several hundred orcs.  These included a number of high-level leaders, 4th through 9th level . . . and the average 7th level party had to give ground and escape.  This took them into the lair of several carrion crawlers.

After all this, last night, it was one ancient black dragon, with one sub-adult and one young dragon as babies.

The party had eleven members, including lower level henchmen.  All but two were at 3/4 hit points or less.

The battle lasted approximately 8 rounds.  The ancient dragon employed its breath weapon twice. The young dragon did once.  Before going down, the dragons succeeded in causing 300 points of damage.

The 1st level cleric (a new player, started about three months ago) managed to do 12 damage and survive the battle.  One 4th level druid, one 6th level fighter and one 7th level fighter did not survive. Though two speed potions and one super-heroism potion were in play, they had no effect whatsoever, as the users were either killed or knocked unconscious before they could employ their three attacks per round.

It was hell.

The total haul in X.P. was around 110,000. (exact numbers unavailable, as I did not add up all the treasure plus what the party got for actually fighting.

The party has agreed, no more dragons for awhile.

The Kingdom of Hungary

Sorry I haven't more than this to offer right now; I've only just completed the map and added it to the wiki.  I'll be working on a description (and breakdown of the individual divisions) for some days, perhaps for a week, depending on how detailed I get and how my new position goes.

Pretty, ain't it?  A sharp, close-up image can be seen by following this link to the wiki and then clicking the image.  As I say, keep an eye on the page (and links thereof), I'll be updating it steadily.

Hungary in 1650 is such an interesting shape; it is best to view it's plight as a shield that Europe used against the Ottoman Empire, controlling the lands inside the crescent - in effect, Hungary bent back on itself after the Turks drove the people back and back and back.  This line was a battleground for nearly 173 years (thereabouts), made defensible by the mountain ranges that formed the spine of the northern Carpathians and the eastern Alps.

Anyway, just posting it here to keep the blog alive another day.  I'll be working on the wiki until I have to quit it in order to set up for tonight's running.

UPDATE*:

Finished the front Hungary page.  I'll be working on the eight divisions now.

* Actually, I'd utterly forgotten that some 13-14 years ago I had written out an extensive history of Hungary; I had been on a jag of doing that before joining the internet.  I was only just reminded that I'd created that - took me about half an hour to unearth the old computer tower that had that data.  So I'm updating the Hungarian history considerably.

Meritocracy

Having a conversation about meritocracies, I admitted that I prefer them.  For an old Liberal who is a step away from Socialism, that probably doesn't sound right . . . but like I defended earlier today, I will try to explain.

The traditional meritocracy is founded on the position that, being individuals that have proven their world, entitlement follows.  For those who haven't or cannot show their value to society, nothing.  "If you want it, then do something to deserve it," goes the usual reply to anyone who complains about this system - because meritocracies are almost always founded on the bootstrap principle.

I feel this is a lot of self-sustaining crap, particularly popular with people who do not pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, having been born into extraordinary wealth or at the very least, upper middle class.  Bootstrappism is very popular with the Republican party, particularly those who own farms left by their ancestors who choose to think of themselves as "poor."  But I'm going to stop myself there before I go into a tirade about how much of the population that considers themselves poor are really just people living on a narrow profit margin (of their own making).

A proper meritocracy should not be based upon what an individual has done, but upon what an individual is willing to do.  The answer should not be, "Go get it yourself," it should be, "What can you do, I'll help you do it."  If it comes back that the individual can do nothing, I firmly feel that the answer should then be, "What would you like to do, I'll give you the chance."

Thus, my meritocracy includes loans for students in order to give them skills.  It includes finding people work in their field and in providing money to ensure that companies in that field are able to hire employees.  It means that if I encounter someone who has no ability to DM, it is not part of my philosophy to send them away with, "Well, go learn how."  I would rather teach them.  And if they don't get it?  Well, teach them some more.  And keep teaching them until they do get it . . . or they decide to go learn something else.

There will always be a part of society that won't learn, won't improve, won't take the next step, won't consider their future and won't see anyone's offer to help as desirable.  Many of these people live awful lives right now . . . and yet the society I live in still tries to help these people.  I see that as right and proper.  There is always the chance that anyone will see the light and step up.  We've got to ensure, daily, that these people have a welcome mat to step onto when they're ready.

People who make the argument that "some people are born to be DMs and some are not" are merely absolving themselves of responsibility.  They don't know what they do that makes them 'good' and they can't be bothered to know.  They have no desire to share.  They enjoy their entitled positions . . . and they are very threatened when it's suggested that anyone could do what they are doing.

Far too often we make more of our circumstance than is deserved.  We translate "Mommy and Daddy left me money" into "we come from a superior stock" and ignore the sheer chance of it all.  We translate seeing an opportunity to improve our position as a clear indication of our superior intelligence, not evidence of being in the right place at the right time.  We translate "I kept at the job and got better" as evidence that anyone who fell by the wayside deserved to fall by the wayside.  And we self-identify our value by virtue of what happened to happen to us, arguing that we made it happen.

There's no rule that says everybody's Mommy and Daddy and leave their money to everybody, except the one we've made ourselves.  Having found our opportunity, it is up to us to help others find theirs.  Having kept our shoulders to the wheel and kept our jobs, it is our responsibility to lend support to others who are struggling to do the same.  No one deserves to fall by the wayside . . . and if they do, we're all at fault.  Our value comes from what we make happen for everyone.  We are all in this together.

It occurs to me that this is a good time to say that my favorite book is the Fountainhead.  And then not to explain why.

One of my best qualities is the ability to explain things.  Moreover, I like doing it.  I wrote a book that explains how to be a good DM.  I wrote another explaining how to be a good player.  I wrote a third explaining what works and what does not work about dungeons.  I suggest the reader look for these books, if the reader wants some help at their own particular wheel.

In the meantime, I'll be here, writing.  More than happily.  For that, I intend to get all the entitlement that I'm able to earn . . . recognizing that it won't all be mine when I've got it.

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The Gnome Queendom of Harnia

I'm having great fun with these.

It's a great opportunity to hunt up things I've written randomly on the blog and try to consolidate them into one single story.  Harnia is another area that, like Cumana, did not have enough population density to pass the 1 person per square mile rule I employ.  That's because the modern city of Penza, which corresponds to Harn, wasn't founded until 1652.  Most of the other centers in this area were also post the mid-17th century.

While Russia did explore through Siberia throughout the 16th and 17th centuries (Yakutsk, on the Lena River, which is way the hell and gone east of the Urals, was founded in 1625), most of the territory itself remained unexploited for centuries.  The Penza Oblast is rich!  It makes one wonder at the rational that sent explorers across the whole of Asia when territories like modern Penza or Kharkov were ignored.  But that's Russians for you.  We do have a tendency to overlook the obvious in favor of the most difficult things possible.

I trust the reader isn't getting bored with these posts.  I have three and a half days before I start my job (Monday), after which all this glorious time spent working extravagantly on my world is going to be considerably reduced.  So it goes.  Unemployment is fun; I'd like to have a successful book that permits me control of my own time.

If it seems that I spend too much time cooking up schemes to make my D&D world pay a living for me, this is why.  I love working on my world and writing more than anything else in the world; it would be nice if either provided a living.  I've been on that quest (with either one) for quite a long time now.  I haven't given up hope yet.

I doubt I'll have more time to work on the wiki today . . . I'm due to create individual pages for the thane of Harn and the archthane of Seraphina.  After that it is the Kingdom of Hungary - which will be nice, as it's a human kingdom in a part of the world where people actually write details about geography on wikipedia.

The Half-orc Sanjak of Cumana

This sort of thing is an awful lot of detailed, niggling work.  With repetition brought on through missing small details.

While this map isn't exactly a dream, I don't mind.  I have figured out the secret for getting highest quality maps reproduced through the wiki (it involves linking the map to itself, which never occurred to me).  Thus, if the reader will follow the link shown above to the wiki page - and the links at the bottom of that page to 'sheet maps,' as I am calling them, the first perfectly clear maps of my world can be seen online.  For example, this one.  Click the map itself and a big version should appear.

This is wonderful.  Over the next few weeks I will be moving most of my big sheet maps onto the wiki.  I kept from doing it because I had not yet worked out the weird linking system.

In reference to an earlier discussion, Cumana represents the part of the Ukraine that did not measure up to 1 person per square mile - which some will find surprising, since this is one of the most populated parts of present-day Eastern Europe.  The region I'm calling 'Cumana' corresponds to the Kharkov Oblast - but Kharkov was not founded until 1654, four years after my world takes place.  Additionally, virtually every city in the Donets Basin (an industrialized area that compares with Silesia, the Ruhr and Lorraine) was founded after the start of the Industrial Revolution - many were founded by the Soviets.

Once all these places are removed, the population on the ground gets pretty thin.  This country was always pretty piss-poor farmland . . . subsistence at best, one of the reasons why Stalin made the attempt was move them off the land and into cities.  Hey, I hate Stalin as much as the next guy, but one of the things that gets forgotten when the millions that starved to death are counted against him is that millions had been starving in this part of the world for centuries.  Every seven or eight years there would be a gruesome famine that would devastate the country, encouraging the formation of groups like the Zaporizhians and the Don Cossacks, who would raid into every other region to compensate for having no food at home.

But . . . we're supposed to pretend that history in the region started in 1925.

It was a good place, for me, to settle as a half-orc kingdom, to explain where half-orc player characters came from.  If players are given free rein to pick, there are always an unusual number of half-orc characters chosen.  This is because of the bonus strength and constitution from AD&D. Elves are picked in the same way for sword bonuses and dexterity. I don't mind, even if my parties seem to end up being at least 75% either elves or half-orcs.  Dwarves don't seem too popular, nor halflings or gnomes.

Anyway, I'll be working on the provinces for Cumana next and then transferring details about the tribes from the blog to the wiki.  After that, looks like I'll be working on the gnome Kingdom of Harnia and the Kingdom of Hungary.  I'm going to concentrate on Eastern Europe for awhile.

UPDATE:

I've finished the tribes page and a detailed description of the Cumana Het.  Keep an eye out on links that previously had no content - I'm continuing to work on the page.

Dearth Over

Ah, good.  I'm employed again.  As of minutes ago.

UPDATE.  Damn it, no I'm not.  Job didn't work out.  Thank you for the well-wishing, however.  I'll save it over until I get something that lasts.