Anti-Canon

I don't plan to include a full 'History' section in Legends of Alba. Currently this is about as much as I want to include: 

Before ever there was Alba…

There were The Ancient Great Wyrms. 

They claimed the realms of Sky, Sea & Earth from the elemental chaos.

Aeons ago,

Beira The Giant shaped these isles from the bare rock with her great hammer. 

So began a hundred thousand and more Winters.

Generations ago,

Uamhasach, that grim hero of mortal kind, broke the rule of The Foo’ar. 

Only the stones recall how the tyrant giants were bound in slumber beneath the hills.

A hundred years ago,

The invasion of The Lizard Legion was answered by Aoife The Radiant. 

It was She who found The Hammer of Beira and, under it, united the Clans.

Today...

The Hags gather. 

The Covens Call.

And The Legends come again.

It's meant to be just enough to provide inspiration but not so much that you'd trip yourself up trying to remember it. Yes: This is throwing it onto the Ref/GM and their group to fill in the blanks, but I tend to do this anyway. It's not only one of the things I enjoy most about RPG's, it's also better for me personally and the way I prep and run games. I'm more likely to remember something I've made up myself or that a player has come up with at the table than the 'canon' for someone else's imaginary world history.

But just because I don't plan to include it in the book doesn't mean I don't think about it. I think about it A LOT! In my version of the setting, the Ancient Great Wyrms are still about as strange dragons. I like the idea that Beira's origin actually lies in our own modern world, which she somehow escaped. Personally, I suspect that Uamhasach has more blood on his hands than the term 'hero' perhaps allows for. And more recently, I've been imagining a sort of timeline for the invasion of The Lizard Legion in which Aoife actually starts out in allegiance with them. 

Some of these have made it to my table, others might never, but thinking about them brings the setting to life for me and ensures it's a place that I'm interested in and keep wanting to come back to. In a long running game, that's essential for the Ref/GM. So that's why I like to keep it vague when it comes to setting, because making it your own is what will make it stick.

-Till next time!

The Clans of Alba

The word clan carries a lot of unwelcome baggage. Historically, in Scotland, it's a better metric for dividing people than uniting them. Nowadays they're a cultural relic, with as much fiction remembered as fact, if anything is remembered at all. So I want to talk about what I'm talking about when I talk about Clans in Legends of Alba.

This is All Made Up

Before I ever started working on Legends of Alba, I was on a sustained deep dive into Scottish folklore, trying to get to the roots that surely lay beneath the Christianised tales that made it into the books. After a year or so I started to realise that this is an almost impossible task. Or at least, it's certainly one that sits more appropriately in the realm of academia than the kind of armchair archaeology I'm up to here. So I put this fixation on finding "The Source" to one side and tried instead to pull what I liked from I'd learned and write about that. 

For the folklore side of it, the actual "Legends" of the Legends of Alba, this has already provided many hours of fun, suspenseful and silly gameplay in my games. For that alone it's already been a huge success.

So I've stayed with this approach, doing enough research to get inspiration, then using that as a jumping off point, when it came to the Clans. So this is not by any means how I think it actually was. This is all fiction inspired by how I imagine it could have been.

Bound by Oath, Not by Blood

This is probably the most important thing - so important I put it second in the list. Clans are not families, they are communities. They exist because Alba is a harsh and dangerous place to live and folk survive more successfully if they work together. And folk work together more effectively if they share common values. These are the virtues that bind the members of a clan together. Concepts like honesty, justice, generosity, courage, wisdom, integrity: Ideals that facilitate community. Each Clan holds one of these as sacred, and this forms the basis of the oath that new members swear to join the Clan. 

Birth does not guarantee a place in a Clan, commitment must be demonstrated and the place must be earned. If a person is born into a Clan whose ideology does not match their own, that's a strong motivation to set out on their own and find their people, with no ill will on either side. So if the Clans are any sort of family, they're found family.

Chiefs Are Not Born

Each Clan is ruled by a Chief. The process of appointing a Chief varies from Clan to Clan but just as above, where being born into a Clan does not guarantee your position therein, being born to a Chief does not give you right to rule.

Chiefs Do Not Rule Alone

While the Chief has final say on all matters of Clan business, there's a common wisdom that a Chief is only as good as the Council they keep. Amongst the Chief's advisors might be found:

Clan Nobility (with titles varying between Kingdoms), living and working among the folk of the Clan, ensuring the Chief stays well in touch with their needs, and that the folk in turn feel safe, heard and valued.

The Archdruid, leading the Clan's Druidic Circle, providing spiritual guidance, acting as a conduit between the folk and the land on which they live, and upholding the unwritten Law of The Land.

The Storyteller, responsible for promoting the bardic arts, by which the Clan's deeds are immortalised for future generations. They speak with authority on Clan history, as well their standing and relations with other Clans. 

The Storemaster, linking hunters, farmers, miners, loggers and anyone else who brings resources into the Clan. They ensure that there's always enough to go round, and enough put away to see folk through the hard Winters.

The Warlord, leading The Chief's warband in battle. In peaceful times they are devoted to improving the stronghold's defences, training warriors, and co-ordinating scouting missions to stay one step ahead of approaching threats. 

The Clans Are Just Folk

Well, if everybody holds the same values and agrees on everything, and there's no nepotism, and the Chiefs always keep and listen to good council, then this must be a utopian society where nothing bad ever happens, right? Wrong! Everybody in the Clan, whatever their role, is a person. Everybody is capable of greatness, of upholding and exemplifying the virtues of their people. By the same token, everybody is also susceptible to ambition, corruption, cowardice, hubris, or any of the many vices that make life messy, that make a story interesting, and that make the Clans of Alba an essential part of the game. Against the surreal backdrop of The Otherworld and The Legends, it's the mundane dramas between people make the thing feel real.

At least, that's the hope.

-Till next time!

I can forge weapons for you...

Brightsmiths

Smiths who learned their trade in The Otherworld can imbue mortal weapons with power. Bring them a Smithing Stone and they'll do it for the love of the craft.

Smithing Stones

Found in The Barrowdeeps, the power of these stones can enhance mortal weaponry. Seek a Brightsmith to fortify a weapon with a Smithing Stone.

Example Stones and their effects on a fortified weapon:

• Hardstone: Add MIG to Attack Bonus
• Sharpstone: Add AGI to Attack Bonus
• Clearstone: Add AWA to Attack Bonus
• Spiritstone: Add CHA to Attack Bonus
• Flamestone: On causing a Wound, all nearby enemies suffer a Wound as well.
• Brightstone: On causing a Wound, also blinds enemies who saw it for one Round.
• Coldstone: The attacked enemy can’t move for one Round.
• Venomstone: On causing a Wound, the target suffers an additional Wound next Round.
• Lightningstone: On causing a Wound, make a Ranged Attack against an enemy you can see.
• Thunderstone: On causing a Wound, enemies next to you are flung in a direction you choose. 
• Bloodstone: Attack with help, then take one fatigue.
• Thornstone: Attack an enemy, gain +1 to Attack Bonus vs the same enemy next Round (stacks).
• Moonstone: Weapon gains the Ranged [R] property.
• Shadowstone: Wounds cannot be avoided using Armour.

Building a Kingdom of Alba

I've been working on a guide for referees to build their own Kingdom of Alba, which is now in a state that I can share it here! Check it out and discover how to go about Building The Kingdom for a game of Legends of Alba.

There's a couple of dependant documents which I've not written up properly yet (the pages for Crossings and Cairns refer to separate guidelines for creating an Otherworld Realm and a Barrowdeep Delve - I have some WIP for creating Otherworld Realms but haven't covered the Barrowdeeps yet) but there's enough to produce the map and background details.

Here are the results I came up with following the procedure myself. This is the player facing map for The Storm Isles (since we've got full Character Creation and Legends for that Kingdom)!

The player-facing map shows just the terrain and Settlements (the numbered towers). The ref's map shows the locations of Legends and Features

Here's some accompanying notes for the keyed locations:

Settlements

1: Fort Stormbreak, the Capital, held by Clan Wavesplitter
2: Reivers' Return, stronghold of Clan Seawolf

3: Deepharbour, stronghold of Clan Darkwater
4: Dun Firinn, smallholding, held by Clan Arrowmender
5: Mirthall, smallholding, held by Clan Greenmoor
6: Windvale, smallholding, held Clan Thunderhawk

Legends

(Marked in Red)

L1: The Fire Fish

L2: The Grey Neighbours

L3: The Master Wyrm

L4: The Mound Dweller

L5: The Seal Hunter

L6: The Silver Tower

Strangers

(Marked in Blue)

    Hags

    H1: The Ossuary, home to The Bright Shell Hag

    H2: Grave of Whispers, home to The Doom Spear Hag

    H3: The Crystal Hollows, home to The Silver Horn Hag

    Abhainn

    A1: The Cold One's waterfall

    A2: The Nourishing One's shore

    A3: The Salmon River delta

    Shellcoats

    S1: Eyecoat, collector of heart whelks

    S2: Shinycoat, adorned with painted periwinkles

    S3: Smoothcoat, connoiseur of purple urchins

Sites

(Marked in Green)

    Crossings

    X1: Unicorn Falls

    X2: The Warrior's Stack

    X3: The Giant's Ford

    Cairns

    C1: Cairn of The Gloom Lord

    C2: Cairn of The Red Champion

    C3: Cairn of The Kelp Prophet

    Wasteland

    (Lands spoiled by the Blight of the dreaded Nuckelavee)

    W1: Reclaimed tower where mortals are stricken by The Hollowing Blight

    W2: Dead forest where trees have fallen to The Liquefying Blight

    W3: Dismantled bridge where the soil is tainted by The Blackening Blight

That's it for this one, We might take a look at expanding some of these basic notes next time!

Legends of The Storm Isles

This is quite an exciting post as it marks a big step towards being able to run games of Legends of Alba using the rules and tools I've been working on through this blog!

My aim is to have a ruleset that will allow players and a GM to run games set in The Storm Isles. This is Northernmost Kingdom of Alba, inspired predominantly by the geography and folklore of The Orkney Isles, but with an eye further North to Shetland and South to Caithness as well. If the rules work for The Storm Isles, I'll then look at fleshing out the other Kingdoms of Alba.

The Character Creation preview allows players to create characters from The Storm Isles. The Legends meanwhile are the GM's primary tool for bringing the game to life. Each Legend is centred around a folk tale or mythical creature, and contains a set of encounters (called Augurs) for the players to discover as they explore the Kingdom, which they must resolve in answer to The Covens' Call. I'll be sharing the procedure for this in another post but it's pretty much the same as for encountering Omens of the Myths from Mythic Bastionland.

You can read the first draft of The Legends of The Storm Isles here! Keep reading for some summary notes on the tales that inspired them.

A Shetland Fishing Boat in Stormy Weather North of the Orkney Islands,
Anton Melbye 1842, public domain from Picryl

The Fire Fish - inspired by The Marool from Shetland, this was a giant many eyed fish with flaming fins, feared for its hunting of ships during stormy weather. I thought it would be interesting for my take on it to have this sea-monster pitted against an angler, obsessed with landing it, and see what the players make of it.

The Grey Neighbours - The Trow are faerie-folk that feature prominently in Orcadian folklore. They're known for their love of music, and were attributed as sources of inspiration for musicians. I wanted this one to be a less adversarial Legend, but not without teeth. Could there be some unforeseen consequences to The Otherworldly inspiration of The Trow? The sleepless poet in this Legend might think so.

The Master Wyrm - Asipattle and The Stoor Wyrm is one of the most famous Orkney tales. Here I've put the Mester Stoor Wyrm as the first of the Ancient Great Wyrms (the Legends of Alba versions of dragons) and Asipattle is only hinted at as a dimly recalled ancestor of The Cindersift Clan.

The Mound Dweller - A take on the hog-boon by way of the film It Follows. The Mound Dwellers could be kindly spirits, but they were also guardians of the mounds they tended. Little kindness to be found here: Woe betide the witless thief that steals from a cairn protected by Haugbui!

The Seal Hunter - The actual story of The Seal Hunter ends quite amicably after a seal hunter unwittingly wounds the Queen of The Selkies. I wondered what it might look like if she wasn't quite so cool with it. There's also a gang of Orca in here (since Killer Whales are excellent seal hunters!) based on the story of the Law of The Tongue. That story is actually from Australia but it's too good not to include.

The Silver Tower - This started off as my take on the Finfolk. They were Storm Wizards who paddled around the seas in sealskin boats. I got an uncomfortable sense from the tales however that they originated from xenophobia towards the actual Fins and/or the Sami people. So stepping swiftly off that, I took the bare fiction as a jumping off point and now this is a weird Legend about metamorphosis. Enjoy!

The Storm Kelpies - For each of The Kingdoms I want to feature a big overarching Legend that will play out over the top of the others, a "Big Bad" as opposed to a "Monster of The Week". For The Storm Isles this had to be The Nuckelavee, the skinless cyclopean sea centaurs, truly nightmarish creatures! As the players encounter the damage wrought by these horrors from the depths, they'll also encounter a Dark Prince of the Sith on a bizarre quest of his own to try and control the abyssal beasts. The resolution of this Legend will reveal The One Who Dreams of Storms. The one who, it is said, will be able to control the dreaded Nuckelavee...

That's it for now, till next time!

Monstrous Capitalism

I've had a setting brewing in the back of my mind for a while which is kind of Industrial Fantasy, maybe more about it another time, but I've been thinking about how some 'D&D' style monster types would fit into that sort of vibe. Ideas that came early on were for a Rakshasa who talks like Jeremy Irons and runs an Oil Refinery, a neurotic Beholder in charge of the Rail Network, a Dragon that owns a casino... what about an Treant? Or a coven of hags? I started writing up some stuff for some monstrous characters who would be big players in this world, oligarchs essentially, so here's a few of them:

Rail Master Shroder

Early in their career as Rail Master, Shroder's great fear was that the trains simply could not run on time without their oversight. Pursuing this neurosis to its natural conclusion, Shroder began to question whether an unobserved train could even exist, let alone reach it's destination on schedule.  This precipitated the appointment of the Rail Witnesses, now aboard every service. Under total superveillance, not only do the trains remain extant across appropriate realities, they run on time.

The Lendies

In ancient times, a Hag's value lay in her knowledge of The Truth. What place is there for such a creature in a world in which the only truth that matters is how much money you have? A hag might point out that money is not really a truth but more of a promise. She might add, however, that promises have pasts, presents and futures, themselves truths and thus known to her and her sisters. She might ask if there is value in knowing how money was acquired? In knowing where money might end up? She might then offer you a cup of tea while you peruse her consultation fees.

Mister Mulch

If a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody around, what is it worth? To whom is it worth whatever it is worth? If If a tree belongs to anyone, surely it belongs to the forest? Is it not reasonable, then, for the forest to be compensated if it's dead are repurposed for timber or firewood? Are not reparations due if tree murder is perpetrated purposefully, on an industrial scale? This was the general thrust of the argument put before the Big Log Firm by the Ambulant Pines of the ancient woods. Being the first discussion of any sort between these two parties, the thing most clearly brought to light was how poorly prepared for one another they were: The Lumberjacks and -Jills awed by the expressive limbs, creaking baritones and questing roots of the Ambulant Pines; the Pines themselves bedazzled by the champagne lifestyle of The Big Log Execs. Such meetings have a tendency to create an excitable and unstable energy, with the potential for outcomes as innovative as they are regrettable. It's exactly the sort of scenario that can result in a sentient tree, such as the Ambulant Pine who would later come to be known as Mister Mulch, getting the office with the big windows and the drinks cabinet and the fitted humidor, as Operations Director of the Big Log Firm.

That's it for this one, till next time!

Creating an Otherworld Realm

One of my Legends of Alba groups has just started their second foray into one of the realms of The Otherworld. I’ve been refining my process for creating these realms since their first one, so I’ve recently had the opportunity to put the latest version to use. I quite like where it has ended up, so thought I’d share it here, and walk through the process to create a brand new realm in this very post!

Here is the Otherworld Creation process I’m following.  Let’s get started!

Step 1. Name and Describe the Realm

Results: Hope, Decay*, Whispering, River

OK this is quite interesting. I like having hope and decay both in there, those are quite contrasting ideas. Is this place the River of Whispering Hope? Maybe the Whispering River of Decay? I think I’m going to go with The Whispering River of Hope. Though it runs through a dying land, those souls who have lost hope might seek the river to hear a whisper of the truth, so their journey may continue.

* I originally rolled Roots for the nature element, but chose to re-roll this result because the realm I’ve just created for my players is called The Heath of Hateful Roots. I'd like to have something with a different natural element. It’s totally fine to re-roll or ignore results from these tables in pursuit of a spark of inspiration.

Step 2: Create Locations

Results: The Reaper’s Table, Mossy Stairs, Afflicted Tunnel, Infested Tower, Speaker’s Court, Pristine Barracks

The Reaper’s Table - how sinister! A place for a gathering or a feast? A rotten banquet laid out on this table would certainly emphasise the decay aspect! Perhaps the Reaper is willing to impart information to anyone who joins them in their disgusting feast.

The Mossy Stairs - I’d change the name to The Green Stair, but keep the fact that they are covered in moss. That suggests they are very old and seldom trod, so it’d be a challenge to climb them and claim the treasure that lies at the top.

Afflicted Tunnel - Probably a dangerous place, maybe the source of the affliction is a real problem in this realm?

Infested Tower - Another dangerous one I'd say! Is the owner of the tower still around? Maybe they are stuck inside, or they could even be the cause of the infestation.

Speaker’s Court - A source of power in the realm. What sort of proclamations does this Speaker make? Being known as a Speaker contrasts nicely with the river being said to whisper.

Pristine Barracks - This is a decaying land, so the presence of an order of warriors at a pristine barracks is interesting. Why are they pristine? Is it a mark of strict discipline? Are they magically so? Or perhaps they’ve never actually seen combat… I think these are good candidates for a wildcard faction, so whether they're enemies or allies would be up to the characters.

Step 3: Populate the Realm

Results:

• Beast - jaded goose
• Fuath - lizard, loch, laughter, strangling roots
• Sith - merry princess, stardust, must marry a mortal

Jaded Goose - I normally think of geese as being noisy and aggressive, so the idea of a fed up, sulking goose plays against this expectation. A couple of things to think about though - like why are they so jaded? And is this one goose or a flock?

The Loch Lizard - Fuaths make great adversaries because they are driven by hatred, so they can be manipulated by the characters, or fought without inviting too much of a moral quandary. This giant reptile has scales like sodden bark, and claws that are gnarled and twisted like tree roots. It lives in a loch, perhaps a corrupted offshoot of the River that runs through this realm. If it hears so much of a hint of merriment it attacks the source, choking the life of it with its strangling root claws.

The Merry Princess - I’ll admit I had to have a little think about this one. ‘The merry princess’ gives a clear description of a character but sounds lame as a title. I googled the etymology of merry, which led me to the old English word ‘myrige’, which sounded like it could be a name. So this character is instead known as Princess Myrige, The Unburdened Heart. Her skin is as the night sky glittering with starlight, and she seeks a mortal spouse.

4) Create Magic Items

Results: Vagabond’s, barbed, bow, wisdom

Mashing these around I came up with: 

The Barbed Bow  - arrows fired from this bow sprout barbed vines to entangle their target; and

Vagabond’s Wisdom - bottle of strong, magic liquor, consume it to get drunk but you are guaranteed to find your way to a warm bed tonight.

I made another round of rolls to get a third item:

Results: Thief’s, whispering, flute, sight. 

That led me to:

The Flute of Whispering Insight - appears to make no sound, no matter how hard you blow. But play it somewhere you’ve never been before to have it whisper a truth about your surroundings that only you can hear.

5) Make Connections

This is the “Draw the rest of the f***ing owl” step of the process where everything magically fits together. I like to start by writing a heading for the realm. Then the locations beneath it. Then I can start placing inhabitants and magic items in the locations based on a combination of idea fragments, intuition and (if all else fails) randomness. So I get something like this:

The Whispering River of Hope

• The Speaker’s Court
• Jaded Goose - why not have a goose in charge?
• The Pristine Barracks
• The Tunnel of the Afflicted
• Princess Myrige, The Unburdened Heart - maybe the afflicted are sort of a cult that worships her?
• The Infested Tower
• The Loch Lizard - this is a tower on an island in the middle of the loch
• The Barbed Bow - the barbs sort of tie in with the Lizard's strangling roots
• The Green Stair
• The Flute of Whispering Insight - not sure what this is doing here but I'll think of something
• The Reaper’s Table
• Vagabond’s Wisdom - it's liquor, so goes with the feast

From here it gets a bit harder to walk through the process. I jump around between locations, characters, factions, zoom in and out to consider locales and the realm as a whole. The aim is to get to the point where the realm ‘emerges’. I should be able to picture it clearly when I think about it. Everywhere should at the very least have something interesting going on for the player characters to get involved with. You should feel free to make changes to your results, discard results or generate extra ones to help you reach something you can imagine more clearly.

Here's where it got to when I decided to call it done.

The Whispering River of Hope

A wide, deep river runs through a stinking bog. Folk cower in waterlogged shanties, half-sunken amongst rotten trees and spongy moss. The river itself is clear and pure, and said to whisper truths that inspire hope in those who need it most.

The Speaker’s Court

Once a power in this realm, the old goose has gone deaf. Many years have passed since she last heard the river. Much of her time is given to silent sulking, indifferent to the tawdry depths of scandal and intrigue into which her once-proud court has sunk.

• Her Eloquence The Speaker, jaded giant goose, wants to be left alone.
• Vapid goose courtiers, want to know what everyone else is up to.

The Immaculate Barracks

A fortress of white stone. Knights in white plate mail practise archery and swordplay. They await orders from The Speaker. They have been waiting for some time.

• The Immaculate Knight-Captain Arnol, forgetful, wants the best for his Knights
• Immaculate Knights, constantly fussing over their weapons and armour, want to be in a real fight
• Erudite squires, not enough to do, convinced this will change when they finally become knights

The Tunnel of the Afflicted

The Afflicted are those blessed by Princess Myrige, whose beautiful laughter issues from the bowels of her dank tunnel city. Her subjects are immortal beyond the bounds of flesh, their rotting bodies host to myriad invertebrate life and mycelia.

• Princess Myrige, The Unburdened Heart. Her skin is as the night sky glittering with starlight. Light hearted, laughs easily and often. Refused her coronation and never looked back, wants to bless as many as she can so others can share in her freedom.
• The Afflicted. Content in their loyal service, tenacious in their search for a mortal spouse for their beloved Princess.

The Infested Tower

Long ago the island sanctum of a forgotten druid was swallowed by the loch that once protected it. Now it is the lair of The Loch Lizard, infested with its filth. The vile Fuath offers The Barbed Bow to whoever puts an end to the Princesses insufferable mirth.

• The Loch Lizard, Strangleclaw. Scales of sodden bark, claws gnarled and twisted like tree roots. Hates the sound of laughter.
• The Lizard’s Filth, reeking mud clumps, vaguely sentient, hungry for mortal flesh.
• The Barbed Bow - arrows fired from this bow sprout barbed vines that entangle the target.

The Green Stair

These stone steps once led to the seat of coronation, where the Kings and Queens of the realm were crowned. Forgotten by most and engulfed by moss, the seat at its peak lies empty, a strange flute is all that remains of the crown jewels.

• Engulfing moss - deadly hazard to anyone climbing the stair
• The Flute of Whispering Insight - appears to make no sound, no matter how hard you blow. Play it somewhere you’ve never been before to have it whisper a truth about your surroundings that only you can hear.

The Reapers’ Table

A spoiled banquet moulders on a great rectangular table. There are some empty seats, the rest filled by Reapers. Stymied by the longevity of The Afflicted, they recoup what they can from the souls of the bog folk. They offer a bottle of Vagabond’s Wisdom if their gratitude is earned.

• Reapers, tall crow-headed soul collectors. Having grown tired of one another, the only thing they love more than their rancid grub is sharing it with good company. 
• Vagabond’s Wisdom - strong, magic liquor, consume to get drunk but you are guaranteed to find your way to a warm bed tonight.

Map Locations

In this post I wrote about some strengths of Elden Ring’s map. Since then I’ve started a new Legends of Alba campaign (bringing us up to 3!), so I had a chance to revisit what goes into the hex map. This new game, like the others, is being run as a D&D 5E game. But the map doesn’t know that. So my hope is that this can inform the ref’s advice for creating a map for running their own games, as part of the Legends of Alba game rules.

For this post I’m just going to write about the types of locations that go on the map.

Legends

Pretty important in a game named Legends of Alba, these are the source of The Legends. When the players have a random encounter while travelling, the closest Legend Hex determines what this is. So if the players are closest to the Kelpie’s hex, they might encounter a rough river crossing with a white horse drinking there. The horse kneels, inviting them onto its back…

Settlements

1 Capital, a fortress city where the Kingdom monarch reigns. 2-3 Strongholds, hill forts of the Great Clans. And 2-3 Smallholdings, humbler homes to minor Clans. Settlements are places for the Characters to seek hospitality, local information and lore, and trade. They are also political hotbeds as there is always drama between and within the Clans - there’s plenty of opportunity here for the players to get involved to start making and breaking alliances to their advantage.

Elden Ring Has a Good Map

I’m not normally a big fan of exploration in computer games. So why am I still having a blast exploring the open world of Elden Ring? A big part of it is down to the map and specifically how the map is populated.

Progression in Elden Ring is gated by challenging Legacy Dungeons. Each of these are unique and packed with visual storytelling, setting the tone for a memorable Boss battle at the end. This is the content that the game is pushing you towards, and for good reason: These sections should seem very familiar to anyone who’s played the Dark Souls games. FromSoftware has a proven track record of getting this stuff right.

But unlike Dark Souls, Elden Ring is open world. Often there is nothing whatsoever preventing you from galloping between Legacy Dungeons. You don’t need to explore the open world, so why bother?

Because the Legacy Dungeons are very difficult and, unless you’re a very skilled player, you’ll need all the help you can get. This is where the exploration element reveals itself as core to the Elden Ring experience. By exploring, your character will become more powerful, you’ll get better gear and that will help you in the Legacy Dungeons. As you explore, you’ll also start to recognise ‘types’ of location, each of which serves a purpose. All of this together elevates the exploration from being a grind or worse, a pointless activity, to being something that sparks imagination and curiosity.

Limgrave

Let’s look at what sorts of locations you can find in Elden Ring:

Legacy Dungeons are usually huge castles in a prominent location. They’re large and challenging areas culminating in a significant Boss fight. These are your road-block Boss areas discussed above. Certain very powerful Bosses yield a Great Rune on defeat, a fragment of the titular Elden Ring whose power can be unlocked at Divine Towers.

Divine Towers are drawn as star-shaped towers on the map. They have strong connections to The Two Fingers - a major religious presence in the game. Each tower is linked to a Boss whose Great Rune can be unlocked at these locations to gain access to their unique weapons, armour or spells.

Minor Erdtrees show as large stylised trees on the map. They’re lesser versions of the Great Erdtree, that one gold tree that’s so big that you can usually see it if you can see the sky. Each Minor Erdtree is guarded by a stalwart Erdtree Avatar, a mini-boss made of roots. Defeating this guardian grants you a Crystal Tear: Items which you can combine in your Flask of Wondrous Physik to give your character a powerful buff.

Catacombs are not marked on the map but are normally found near Minor Erdtrees, signposted by a statue bearing the message “Guide and gatekeeper for those returning to the roots”. Following the direction indicated by these statues leads to a Catacomb - so maybe the statues are placed there to help lost souls find their way to the afterlife. The Catacombs themselves are tricksy mini-dungeons: Traps and ambushes abound. Usually you have to find a lever hidden within the dungeon to open the door to the boss. These areas are rich in Grave Gloveworts, an upgrade material for your Spirit Ashes (helpful allies you can summon during Boss fights)

Caves/Tunnels have their entrances marked as glowing pits on the map. Usually they present as mines, many of the enemies here are just working away and not hostile unless you go right up to them and start fighting them. These also usually have a mini-boss at the end. These are the best places to find Smithing Stones, the upgrade materials for your Weapons.

Wandering Mausoleums are bizarre huge tombs that walk around on four stone pillar-like legs. They are not marked on the map but you know when they are near when you hear their dolorous bell ringing. You can also hear them stomping around if you’re close enough. You can knock these over to duplicate Remembrances, providing some good utility in giving you a second chance with a powerful single-use item. They also serve the important role of reminding you that the world of Elden Ring is weird AF.

Evergaols are marked on the map by concentric circles. They are stone-floored circles which can be activated to transport your Character to a sort of pocket dimension where you fight a Boss who is imprisoned there. You’ll be rewarded with runes to help you level up, and a potentially useful item.

Ruins hint at a forgotten past and are usually populated by enemies. They often conceal a basement with a helpful item.

Churches enforce the presence of Marika, the missing ruler of The Lands Between. They are a good place to look for NPCs and grant the rare Sacred Tears, which help your character regain health.

Rises are wizard’s towers, though more often than not the owner is absent. They will usually present a puzzle such as “find 3 sacred beasts” (which in Elden Ring are, of course, turtles) to grant access. Your reward is a memory stone, which allows spellcasters to memorise more spells.

Forts are usually intact, well guarded strongholds. A direct approach will normally be met with a hail of fire or arrows from unseen assailants. So caution and knowledge of the layout is advised. You’ll normally face one or more difficult 'commander' type enemies, such as Knights, with a weapon or other useful item as your reward.

Villages tend to be places where something awful has happened. You are invariably much too late to save anyone but you can learn something about what happened (and when a place is named “Frenzied Flame Village” that can be a big motivator), meet NPCs and find items here.

Shacks are humble dwellings dotted around the world. Sometimes they are shelters for NPCs, they are also likely to contain spells or upgrade materials. These are fairly minor, sometimes almost incidental, locations but I think go a long way towards making the world like real people lived here.

That’s not even an exhaustive list of all the types, but hopefully more than enough to convey the strength of Elden Ring’s open world and why I love to explore it. Everywhere has a purpose, everywhere has a story. Exploration in Elden Ring is never a waste of time.

A Hundred Thousand Hags

Last time I talked about hags in RPGs and how cool it would be to see a hag that wasn't just another wicked witch. This time I'm putting my money where my mouth is and sharing my take on hags! Generally I wanted my hags to be ancient and strange, to know useful things, and to be having a fantastic time themselves. So this is what I came up with and am using in my games, which are set in a sort of mythical version of Scotland. So far the players have only met one, but she left such a strong impression that the quest to find another hag is one of the main threads driving the characters forward.

The Hags

These venerable wise women are a law unto themselves. They are not beholden to clans, monarchs or even one another. Even Kings listen when they speak. 

Each hag has achieved, through decades of questing, planning and ritual, a sublime and unique self-actualisation. Changed beyond the bounds of mortality, it is the bold, the foolhardy and the desperate who seek them in their distant sanctuaries. For the hags know how all that is will be lost, how all that was will be again, and how all that is to come may yet be changed.

Creating a Hag

Roll 2D10 on the tables below and combine the results to generate a name for this hag.  

D10	Element	Aspect
1	Blind	Bone
2	Bloom	Eye
3	Frost	Fire
4	Moss	Horn
5	Prism	Moon
6	Salt	Shroud
7	Shadow	Skin
8	Thistle	Stone
9	Thunder	Water
10	Wither	Wind

Next roll 3D10 on the tables below to answer the following questions about this hag:

• How has she chosen to express her physical form?
• What does she surround herself with?
• What is her manner towards visitors?

D10	Feature	Surroundings	Manner
1	Animated hair	Animals	Cheery
2	Astounding age	Carvings	Cryptic
3	Distributed form	Crystals	Direct
4	Round body	Insects	Excitable
5	Magnificent wings	Mushrooms	Flustered
6	Many eyes	Rags	Grim
7	Many limbs	Roots	Prickly
8	Menacing size	Skeletons	Relaxed
9	Terrible beauty	Whispers	Tender
10	Unashamed decoration	Wisps	Weary

Example

I roll a 5 and a 3 for the hag's name, conjuring forth The Prism Fire Hag.  Haha! She sounds pretty cool already! I'm immediately getting a mental picture of some crystalline glass or rock formations with multi-coloured fires dancing inside.

For her physical feature I get a 3 on the D10: She has a distributed form.  Now we're talking - this hag lives as a gestalt network of crystals that pulse and glow with magic fire from within when she speaks.

For her surroundings it's a 2, she has lots of carvings around her.  This fits well with her distributed, mineral-based form: I was already thinking she probably dwells in a cave. As to what the carvings are, this seems like the ideal way for her to answer the important questions the players surely have for her: The truth is revealed in a new carving! And the carvings that are here already tell the stories of the people who've sought the hag's guidance before, so this is also a good place to reveal some unexpected info that could be useful to the players when they visit. I'd probably leave this undefined until the last possible moment, so whatever is written here is relevant to the characters' current situation.

(I pause briefly to find a d10 because I realise I've actually been rolling a d12 so far...)

Finally a roll of 8 tells me this hag is relaxed when she has guests.  Amazing: She's super-chill.  You feel right at home in her warm, crystal caves.

So here's our hag:

The Prism Fire Hag

• Her essence is contained within an extensive crystal network that glitters in the depths of her subterranean home.
• The crystals glow and pulse with chromatic inner fire to the calming warmth of her voice.
• She bestows her wisdom in the form of carvings that form on the surrounding cave walls.

I'd be pretty excited for my players to meet this hag!

What's Next?

Ideally the description of a significant NPC should include something they want. What can the characters do for the hag in return for her council? I've left this out here as this is usually the sort of thing I'd base on the state of the game and the characters.  Here are some examples of things the hag might want though:

• An agreement sealed
• A debt collected
• An event witnessed
• A message delivered
• An ingredient found
  
• A prophecy fulfilled

Other than that I would like to expand these tables to be D20-based for even more unique hag variations, but I'm pleased with the results from the D10 tables.  And a hundred thousand hags seems like plenty for the time being!

Hag Quest

When we encounter hags in RPGs, they are invariably villainous. They're cruel, manipulative and selfish creatures. We see so much of this archetype that I think it has become the prevailing conception of what a hag is. It's tempting to shrug this off as a symptom of the gameplay requirement for opposition in RPGs: The child-eating crone in the woods makes for an engaging adversary for heroic player characters after all. 

But this issue isn't particular to RPGs. In films, TV, books and games it's hard to escape the sinister hag. Which leads me to think the real reason for this is societal. A hag is not just an old woman, she is a powerful old woman. As such, she's been historically side-lined and vilified to the extent that her negative aspect is all that survives. Which sucks.

So what can we do about this in our RPGs? One thing for starters is to find a representation of the hag as something other than yet another flavour of "nasty old witch who does curses". 

I'm running some D&D games based in my own setting which is inspired by Scottish folklore. Hags are a big feature and yes, in the old tales, sometimes they are antagonists. But the pre-Christian myths and legends, where these stories have their roots, are seldom so clear-cut. There's another side to the hag that we seldom see. The wise-woman. The supernatural guide. The Goddess.

So this was one of the things I wanted to explore with my game setting. A hag inspired by the writing of Sharon Blackie and Lucy H Pearce, and the art of Red K Elders. I wanted to prominently feature hags who are powerful, ancient, and have a meaningful connection to The Otherworld. Hags whose wisdom and experience is honoured and respected, rather than feared and reviled.

As I was planning the campaign, I was also reading the preview for Chris McDowell's Mythic Bastionland. I love the treatment of Seers in this game: Cryptic oracles dwelling in distant sanctums, who know the past, present and future. Players are mechanically and thematically motivated to seek them out for advice and guidance. The Seers are also weird, each changed by their unique gift of Sight. In the presence of a Seer, players will be aware they are in the presence of something not quite of their world.

All of this has led me to a version of the hag I'm having a lot of fun with in my games, and I look forward to sharing this in a future post!