Balazar: Mapping

In a previous post I wrote how it is assumed the expedition forages and does opportunistic hunting as it travels the wilderness. But...to actually increase food stores, the expedition, or a part of it, must stop and hunt.

Similarly, it is assumed that that the areas adjoining the expedition's path are minimally scouted and surveyed for mapping. For example, high grounds are usually found to get a view of the surrounding wilderness. But...to effectively map surrounding areas, the expedition, or a part of it, must stop and survey into those areas. Often, hunting and surveying can be done simultaneously.

For game purposes, this means the entire 5-mile hex being traversed while in a travel mode will be revealed on the campaign map, unless circumstances dictate otherwise. It does not mean that all encounters or encounter areas located in that hex are found. "Search Mode" travel increases the chances of finding these things.


The campaign starts in the Balazaran citadel of Elkoi. The Lunar Empire maintains a garrison there, even though it is not officially part of the empire. The natives in Elkoi tolerate the Lunar presence due to the trade and wealth it brings, especially metal weaponry. This incites a measure of jealousy and anger from the other clans towards the Elkoins.

A major decision to be made near the beginning of the campaign is which way does expedition go from Elkoi...

To the north via boat, through the Elf Sea and beyond?

To the east on the trail through the plains, towards the other Balazaran citadels of Trilus and Dykene?

To the southeast through dangerous wilderness, towards the mountains and the dwarves?

The terrain of this western edge of Balazar is well known to the Lunars. Determining what lies to the east is one charge of this expedition. (click to enlarge slightly)

Fifteen years...thirty decks: Jokulhaups

Random deck from the Vault:

3x Jokulhaups
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Pyrokinesis
4x Wildfire Emissary
1x Orgg
1x Ihsan's Shade
2x Animate Dead
1x Necromancy
1x Abandon Hope
1x Hymn to Tourach
1x Demonic Consultation
4x Soul Burn
4x Paralyze
4x Dark Ritual
3x Mana Vault
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
4x Sulfurous Springs
1x Thawing Glaciers
2x Ebon Stronghold
2x Dwarven Ruins
6x Mountain
9x Swamp

Ah yeah. Here it is. This is the deck I most commonly played in tournaments at the height of the Grand Forks competitive Magic scene in my first year of college. I don't recall ever winning a tourney with this deck, but it did okay against top competition.

Sadly, this is a watered-down version of the deck. The Abandon Hope used to be a Mind Twist before I sold it. The most glaring deficiency of this version is the lack of creatures. It used to have 4x Hypnotic Specter, but I moved my only playset of them to the Zur's Weirding deck, which I coincidentally just posted about recently. I really should move the Specters back to this deck.

Jokulhaups was my favorite card for a long time...maybe still is.

My brother and I had a catchy phrase for when we were the first to use an awesome card in the GF scene: "Pioneered it." To boost our egos occasionally, we still remind each other of the cards we pioneered.

Pyrokinesis? Pioneered it.

Next deck in the series: d30 = 5, Mark of Eviction #1

Balazar: Wizards & Warriors

Around midnight last night, I got the urge to roll some dice through my dice tower. So I rolled up thirty Tunnels & Trolls characters to serve as the Balazar campaign's expedition.

View the entire list here.

Some interesting attribute sets there. Let me know which one you'd like to be your main character.

For the player's convenience and my own curiosity, I've identified the top attribute sets for potential warrior and wizard character types, in my opinion. Feel free to ignore my recommendations.

could be a fine…		Str	Int	Luck	Con	Dex	Cha	Adds
warrior		23	5	15	12	6	7	11
warrior		17	10	14	13	10	15	7
warrior	wizard	12	14	17	9	13	11	6
warrior	wizard	17	12	9	11	12	11	5
warrior		12	6	9	12	16	13	4
	wizard	10	13	9	11	13	10	1
	wizard	11	24	7	22	10	5	-2
	wizard	7	15	5	16	15	12	-3

In T&T, beginning attributes for humans are TARO (Triples Add and Roll Over), which explains why some scores are higher than 18. I should point out that attribute scores in T&T are "relative" and with no maximum. For example, a 50 Strength character isn't necessarily five times as strong as a 10 Strength character. Instead, a higher score simply gives greater chance of success when performing actions: approaching infinity but still at the mercy of a botch.

The top warriors are generally those with the highest Combat Adds. Combat Adds are a measure of the character's combat ability, before considering what weapons or armor are used. They are calculated:

+1 Combat Add for each Str, Luck, or Dex point above 12.
-1 Combat Add for each Str, Luck, or Dex point below 9.

Constitution is also somewhat important for warriors, since the character's "hit points" are equal to their Constitution score. Also, Strength and Dexterity together determine what kind of weapon and armor the character is able to use.

Is this the 23 Strength character? Mongo the Mighty?

Is this the 24 IQ, 5 Charisma wizard? He must have ensorcelled those two babes by casting Yassa-Massa on them.

The top attribute sets for wizards are a little more difficult to determine. Intelligence and Dexterity determine what level of spells the wizard can learn. (A beginning wizard must at least have an Intelligence of 10 and a Dexterity of 8.)

Strength is essentially "mana points". Therefore, Strength is obviously important, but I tend to favor Intelligence and Dexterity for beginning wizards, because Strength is easier to increase as the character rises in levels. Furthermore, there are other ways to reduce the Strength casting cost of spells, such as by wielding an enchanted staff (which are relatively easy to acquire or create).

For the Balazar campaign, the main PCs will start at level 3. This means that the players will immediately raise their PC's attributes twice (going from level 1 to level 2, and then from level 2 to level 3) according to the chart in section 2.14 in the T&T 5th Edition rulebook.

Warriors can start with any weapons and armor allowed by their Strength and Dexterity. Wizards start with all 1st Level spells, and then will receive an allowance with which they can buy higher level spells, an enchanted staff, and other weapons and armor.

Wizard's beginning allowance of gold = 5000 + (100 x 3d6) [That 3d6 roll is TARO]

Some useful info from section 2.2:
Level 2 spells cost 500gp each.
Level 3 spells cost 1000gp each.
A standard enchanted staff costs 100gp.
A Deluxe enchanted staff costs 5000gp. A Deluxe staff "has a name, is semi-sentient, and is almost indestructible."

Fifteen years...thirty decks: Zur's Weirding

My brother and I often discussed the possibility of using Zur's Weirding as the centerpiece of a tourney-quality deck. We always came to the same conclusion:

Any great deck with Zur's Weirding in it would probably be better without Zur's Weirding in it.

Nonetheless, we built various decks around the card. One of my favorites featured discard effects and creature recursion. Around the same time period, I built a creature control and recursion deck based around Necroplasm. Neither deck was super great, but they used many of the same cards so I combined them to create this "fun" deck.

3x Zur's Weirding
4x Elves of Deep Shadow
3x Birds of Paradise
3x Spike Feeder
1x Golgari Grave-Troll
3x Putrefy
4x Shambling Shell
4x Last Gasp
4x Brain Pry
4x Hypnotic Specter
3x Necroplasm
2x Plague Boiler
2x Simic Growth Chamber
2x Dimir Aqueduct
10x Swamp
8x Forest

Balazar: Travel and Weather

For some fantasy rpg campaigns I would just handwave, improvise, or summarize overland travel and weather (e.g. the Zanzer Campaign). Such factors were supremely important in the narrative of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Therefore, I think the Balazar campaign can be enriched by using a consistent system for determining how far the party travels in a day and what weather greets them.

Like with provisions management, I'd prefer such systems to be simple and abstract. Conveniently and coincidentally, the Griffin Mountain setting book describes simple systems for determining weather and overland travel rates. I've transcribed the travel rules here, nearly verbatim:

Three modes of movement are available to any party moving through the wilderness: search, travel, and pursuit.

Search mode involves a slow an methodical checking of the entire hex area. Use this mode for hunting or treasure seeking, and occasionally for mapping.

Travel mode is normal movement through the terrain, making a good, but not strained, speed. Travel mode always follows paths when available.

Pursuit mode is fast movement. It is exhausting, and can only be maintained for two days. Pursuit mode maybe used by both the pursued and the pursuers.

Each party traveling through a wilderness has a number of movement points equal to the movement class of its slowest member. This number, which will range from 1 to 12, will also be the number of movement points available to a party per day.

(An unmounted and unencumbered party has 8 movement points per day. A mounted and unencumbered party has 12 movement points per day.)


The Movement table gives the movement point cost per hex (5 miles) depending on the terrain and movement mode.

(Essentially, one movement point equals the ability to travel five miles at top speed on a path in clear terrain. The table extrapolates that base value to other terrain and modes.)

Movement point cost per hex (5 miles)

Terrain	Pursuit	Travel	Search
Clear	2	4	6
Forest	4	8	12
Hills	6	12	18
Mountains	8	16	24

Modifiers:
Along Path x.5
Boat upriver x1.5
Boat downriver x.5
Short Portage +4
Long Portage +8
Cross Minor River +1 (Assumes no boat. Has risk of accident.)
Cross Major River +2 (Assumes no boat. Has risk of accident.)

The modifiers are guidelines. Specific situations may affect travel less or more severely. Especially when dealing with rivers, the weather and season have a major effect on travel difficulty. The weather system is simply a large table to randomly determine general weather conditions each day, based upon the previous day's weather and which season it currently is.

The setting has five seasons, four of which correspond to the real world seasons, and a fifth season that is exceptionally stormy, with mythical origins and implications. More info here.

Truck Mix Disc: The Dubliners

The pride of my cassette tape trove has long been a collection of Irish pub songs by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Earlier this summer I decided I wanted something like that on CD, so I picked up a three-disc set by The Dubliners. I've condensed those down to this one disc of my favorites.

Back in the 1960's popular folk music came to be dominated by lily-throated minstrels lamenting the cruelty of man. The Dubliners went the other direction: grunting folk songs primarily about drinking and wenching.

1. Seven Drunken Nights

2. Rising of the Moon
3. Wish I was back in Liverpool
4. The Fairmoye Lasses and Sporting Paddy
5. Molly Maguires (live)
6. Biddy Mulligan
7. The Musical Priest/Blackthorn Stick
8. I'm a Rover
9. Maids When You're Young Never Wed An Old Man
10. Nancy Whiskey
11. A Pub With No Beer
12. Seven Deadly Sins
13. The Parting Glass
14. Poor Paddy on the Railway
15. Kelly, The Boy from Killan
16. The Breeze (live)
17. Cork Hornpipe (live)
18. Whiskey on a Sunday

19. Dirty Old Town
20. Whiskey in the Jar (live)
21. The Old Triangle
22. The Galway Races
23. Battle of the Somme/Freedom Come All Ye
24. Smith of Bristol
25. The Beggar Man
26. School Days Over