Ulflandia Campaign: Introduction and Overview

Index

1. Introduction and Overview (this post)

2. Ulflandia B/X House Rules
3. Influences, Yoinking and Appendix N

4. Solo Romping

5. Weather, Time, Rumors and Other Minutiae

...

What is this?

A summary on how I've been using the NOD magazines by John Stater. Specifically issues #26 and #27, and the land of Ulflandia therein. Dense and numerous, they are! Any of these NOD mags fill about 60% of what I want to have at the table, but then I need to fill in the gaps and tighten things up a bit to run the game. I added some content and modules to spice things up and sustain the campaign, details will be in other posts linked below.

We are using Old School Essentials (Classic! not Advanced) with pre-generated characters, so B/X rules*. House rules to follow in a future post. Players are level 2 right now. This group, my regulars of the Calaveras, has recently been playing Knave, Macchiato Monsters, LotFP. But we settled on "better layout terse B/X" for this romp, lest I finally nauseate them with all this system hoppery.

TL;DR: NOD magazines are a trove of good content. Any of the hexcrawls will give you years of gaming if you are willing to put the extra effort and fill the gaps.

With that said, I have no idea going in if using Ulflandia as a whole is going to work, or not. I can already say it would be an infinitely better product with an additional 5-10 page overview.

This post serves as a "how I got the sausage done". Going down the rabbit hole. Or rather "don't fall on the same traps as I did" when making and running a campaign out of the pre-made expansive hexcrawls of NOD magazine. Given the disparate range of topics, and that this is almost a conscious stream of thoughts, I decided to split it in several posts (will be linked at the top).

Overview

Ulflandia is an island region in the land of Nod (detailed in issues #26 and #27). Former elven and fey stronghold, still contains a significant presence of various fey factions, intermingled with orders of humanoids, orders of knights, pirates, sea monsters, giants, dragons, and more. Ripe for adventure!

 

We get a concise but helpful overview on NOD#26 pg1-6. Good starting point, but too concise, I would have liked to see more of it, as well as other topics covered (weather, rumors, highlighted locations, etc).

 

It clearly draws from classical fairy tale mythology, as well as Arthurian fantasy. Even if I don't own Dolmenwood, as we are all awaiting the release, its similarities with Wormskin zine make the intermingling of both materials a clever idea. Anecdotally, these 2 issues of NOD magazine predate Wormskin by just a few months (released July/October 2015 vs December 2015 of the first Wormskin issue). More on influences and other modules in a later post.

The main island is roughly 25'000 mi2, so the size of Ireland or Georgia, if we assume 6-mile hexes. This is apparently a fine assumption (I consulted with Stater in this matter), even if not explicitly written in the material.

Furthermore, a splitting in different regions is provided (see below), with enough variety to accommodate for lots of campaign starts. Each region gets a couple paragraphs of general description, a 3d6 random encounter table (with the occasional new monster, but no variety or encounter spicing), and a few major settlements listed (and their hex number).

I decided to start my group right between Coblyns and Greenwood at [4626], dropping a starter dungeon there.

Ulflandia regions

Luckily we get a "spheres of influence" overview, with the different factions that shape the land:

• 3 religious orders (Black, Grey and White Friars), with a polytheistic pantheon**
  
• 2 knightly orders (Knights of the Cauldron and Order of the Red Crosse)
  
• 3 magical societies (Blue, Yellow, and Red Mages)
  
• an overview of the ruler, Queen Gloriana of Ulflandia

It seems like enough, but is it? I would have liked to see a more thorough breakdown, with smaller factions thrown in, so that low-level PCs can get involved.

There are also numerous new monsters (in the overview and hexes), and spells (mainly in the hexes themselves). Many of the hexes are also an open invitation to flesh them out. Most of the city-states and towns need more detail and personalities, presented they are but a sketch. Another example is [6608], a wizard's tower, which even if with enough details, I would have to map and significantly flesh out in order to run in the game. This in my view is acceptable, otherwise this would be a brick 400 pager, at the very least.

We also get a map of the different kingdoms.

Ulflandia kingdoms

If we combine the relevant sections ins issues #26 and #27, we arrive at 112 pages of content, and 214 and 184, so 398, keyed hexes. This sounds like a lot, and it is! BUT keep in mind that the hex map is 81 x 50 hexes, so 4050 total, meaning that less than 10% of hexes are keyed (!).

I will caveat that by stating that the majority of the map is water from the Tepid Sea and Mother Ocean, so overland the ratio is definitely higher (still in the low double digit percents, for sure). And the numerous online advice is clear in holding back in adding more material or hex locations. Sparse is perfectly fine! We are interested in adventuring locales, not every little minutiae in between, and best not to overwhelm our players.

Why Ulflandia?

• Ulflandia is an island. It is more constrained than other hexcrawls offerings, but still has a massive size. Surrounding waters promise a romp into the underused sea-faring rules.
  
• Classic Medieval terms. Knights, fey, dragons, mythical beings. It has a lot of what we could call the vanilla elements of fantasy, and is fairly grounded. It is easier to gonzo up a setting than to hold it and tame it back, in my experience.
• Easy to expand. I will have to refrain in this regard, but there are enough empty hexes and blanks to fill to make it our own through play. More importantly, many keyed hexes are an invitation to flesh them out. I'm also looking forward to domain play, hoping we reach that.

One very valid question to throw at this point is why bother with Ulflandia? Isn't it easier to roll your own hexcrawl? (and as a consequence of being both producer and consumer, knowing it inside out). Get to play Patchland would be a great exercise to finally move on with the Gygax75 challenge. Don't get me wrong, NOD is great material, there's a lot to riff of and pilfer for your own games. But here is my reasoning:

1. Using a published setting I have a safety net, in case my creative muscles fail me, or time is scarce. Something happening a lot these days!
2. The material ought to be more cohesive and tied up in a particular flavor of fantasy (medieval, Arthurian). My tendencies err to classic D&D-isms, and gonzo sword and sorcery instead.
   
3. As an exercise, I want to see how my experiment goes when running one of these products as the back-bone of a campaign. Is it possible? Worth the effort? What would I do differently? And I couldn't find any example online of NOD being used this way (if you have a blog post, video, podcast talking about it, please comment below!)

Conclusion

I think that is all for now. Other posts in this series will come as inspiration strikes, or gaps are filled as play in the campaign demands. Hopefully someone gets some else other than me get use out of these. If nothing else, it will be valuable to document things for future reflection.

Because session-to-session play reports are something I don't have time for these days, I will only write a bare bones recap with highlights every five to ten sessions played.

...

* Initial NOD issues are written for Swords & Wizardry, but these ones are written for Blood & Treasure (I think?). Still, compact and fairly trivial to convert, they have the three saves from 3rd edition.
** Even if this is embedded in the tradition of D&D (see the OD&D Cleric), tonally it is a sore point in such a heavily Christianity-inspired setting, with a polytheistic pantheon. In this I echo the general sentiment of deltasdnd, and have mixed them with a class option in-lieu of a Zealot/Acolyte class with skill based abilities (Turn Undead, Healing, Remove Disease, etc.). I haven't done any such drastic changes as to wipe the pantheon and several factions in one swift move, I want to stay closer to the source if possible.

d10 Takes on Halflings

1. Naturalistic natives. Vassals of the Elfs, yet more reliable than goblin servants. Feral. Guerilla warfare constrasts with communion and a great respect with the Wilderness.

2. They are just shaven dwarfs.

3. Halflings and Goblins are two sides of the same coin. Anger a halfling enough, and you just get a goblin. That's why halflings are pestering you with their jovial attitude, and everyone behaves so politely around them.

4. A failed reduction spell by the wizard Ralagazzam spawned the first couple, centuries ago. Copious inter-breading and incest in the generations since then.

5. Halflings are just unattended children. The orphans of wars past. Rascals with an impulse to run away from home in search of equal doses of nourishment and excitement. Of course they've got no shoes and their feet are covered in muck and worse!

6. Halflings are just utopic delusionals. Too much of the right sentiment makes them appear. Maybe they come from a different dimension? Regardless, if you leave your (fairly) peaceful community to go adventuring die in a hole, you are a contrarian moron.

7. Halflings are just beings stranded from the stars. There, they are a species of giants. At their arrival they were utterly terrified and confused. Time and its fading memory meant acceptance.

8. Halflings are born as humans. When in adulthood, solitude is bliss and curse. But Community, that's when things get interesting. As a human gets more and more involved in their Community (church attendance, clubs, social gatherings, etc), their physique morphs and shrinks. Being a Halfling is both a sign of tossed individualism and adopted Community.

9. As medieval pechts (see this post).

10. Dark Sun also has a decent take.

Halfling Ranting

Halflings. Part of the original trifecta (dwarves, elves), but with a lot less historical roots, and a weaker reason to BE. I sometimes feel we are all sequestered by Tolkien's fixation with his view of the British burgueoise, and everyone is too busy riffing off similar concepts to talk up and show the middle finger to this bland concept. Name change? No problem. Interesting update? Nah.

But we already have at least three recognizable lawful character options. Dwarfs? And toss in the gnomes. Do we really need three small-folk races/ancestries/species that blend together, and get confused all the time?

Halflings are something that in my experience a lot of players like to bring to the table. And I like them myself! The jovial attitude and small folk are charming. But I see no real justification to have them as a separate option on the menu. They are just too damn close to humans. Or at least an aspect of them that I would expect in a LOT of adventurers.

My point here is not to encourage you make your halflings shoot eye-lasers and have ballsacks filled with singing gems. Just take them in a slightly different direction. Or drop them and play youngsters and children humans instead. The Urchin. The Lazarillo! It's right there, literally the dawn of the picaresque!

I'm just sad we are at a point where these little suckers are so expected in the DnD vanilla mileau, they are ingrained in our fantasies. And we didn't do anything to let them go. Or invigorate them into something more pallatable and rich. I suppose they are just too damn likeable as they are.

OSR: Znapkakka

Sweat trickles down Ned's brow. The air is filled with dust, mold, and decay in this underground hellhole. Every breath is a desperate sob. The thief's tired muscles scream for a recess, back heavily bent under the weight of the rolls of expensive silk.

Sir Edgar the Lion's Heart. Mightiest sword this side of the Vale. Pffft. Foolish prick with a silver spoon up his arse, that's what he was. Won't be having any share of this textile treasure. Didn't Ralagazzam the wizard tell him to drop the plate before delving to the bowels of the former dungeon? Those fucking roaches turned out to be more than the senile fantasy of the dreaming wizard.

Real vermin, big as plump rats from the City. Air around them smells of ozone, sweet and pungent. But oh, Sir Knight knows no fear, let's charge and slice those beasts. Snapped Edgar with lightning from the sky (or their bowels) before his first war-cry was over. His plate all charred and blackened, and the pungent smell of baked flesh to boot. Despite their rat-like size, the roaches bled green ichor as any other critter would, after a taste of Ned's sling.

"Ok, right, left, straight corridor with the scintillating blades where t' porters were turned to mince, and we're out o' here, ya?"

"Hmm according to my notes it should be right, RIGHT, straight, and out. See?"

The wizened magician points on a soaked and stained joke of parchment with tiny scribbled notes all over it. Crap. Why hadn't they used chalk to mark the way? Or caltrops? Crap. Crap. Crap.

"Ok, quick then mage, ma back's gonna snap!"

The pair makes their way back, quick, much quicker than the way they came in. Gone are the meticulous examinations done to every flagstone, every stain on the walls. Right, right, and... where are the blades? Instead, a circular chamber opens, onyx columns sustaining the ceiling up high, wherever that is.

The mage's torch flickers, suggesting a... throne? seat? at the edge of its light. A hulking figure with arms like logs, over sized head like an inverted pear, fangs like daggers menacing in the shadows.

"Fuck your map, mage" - Ned whispers.

"Ah the mighty Bürokraken. Not all is lost, my dear Ned!"

Znapkakka

HD: 1/2 (2HP)
Omen: ozone smell, sweet and pungent. Barely audible rapid taps of their legs against the cobblestone.
Appearance: big bloody roach, zaps of lightning around them.
Number Appearing: 3d6
Wants: a meal! metal!
Armour: as Leather.
Movement: Normal speed as unencumbered 120' (40').
Morale: 7 (unimpressed of fire)
Save As: as Fighter 1 (D: 12 W: 13 P: 14 B: 15 S: 16)
Attacks: +0 to hit. Bite as dagger (d4) and Electric Shock, if applicable.
Special:

• Electric Shock: d4 extra damage to those within melee range wearing chain, plate, or other significant metallic armor (or more than 200 coins).
• Despise Clean Water: accustomed to putrid humidity in dank undegrounds, will flee at contact with pure (holy) water, and heavily avoid it.
  

OSR: Fuck Water

From now on, I officially declare that I forego the tracking of water from my games!

Or rather, we assume that Rations come with water (or cider, weak ale, watered-down wine, or similar). Why?

• Food is a resource to be taxed by the perils of wilderness travel or the claustrophobic dungeoneering. That's it.
  
• Nobody tracks water in my games anyways. My players just don't care about it. If tracking it becomes relevant (plenty of horses, trasversing barren plains or a desert) we can always reintroduce it.
  
• We streamline the hunger and starving resource to just one currency to track for the players. Simpler for them, they will do that.
• The B/X rule of rest 1-in-6 turns or -1 to all rolls is very often ignored. I've also ignored its existence on occasion. We could rely on the more abstract and popular overloaded encounter die. The point is, we can add a tiny addendum to the rule, as follows:

You can forego the need to rest in the dungeon every hour if a Ration per individual is quickly consumed.

This achieves yet another significant choice for the players, another push your luck decision. Attack the character sheet and all that. This is a low-hanging-fruit addition to an otherwise dry rule. And it's a lot more palatable if you think about knaves needing water and a nervous bite when crawling through cramped tunnels, instead of stuffing their faces.

PS1: Of course, alcohols and spirits still remain as they are. Precious lubricant when parlaying with humanoid factions is very much appreciated. Ah, and also as treasure if found and expensive or frivolous enough (bottles of elven wines, dwarven rum, etc.).

PS2: I know this tampers the fourth level Cleric's Create Water spell. If you use Clerics, just replace it with a better option, it was a lame spell anyway. Problem solved.

Jackalope 2022: Virboko

Killerklown#1256 requests: "A creature and it's ecology from which a substance for precise oracles can be "harvested" "

A Failed Test

"Does the Moon fit inside the Sun? Or is it the other way around?"

"Does it matter? Are not the skies the domain of the indomitable Virbokos, anyways?"

"Give an answer, practical. Or your tongue will turn to ash and blow in the morning wind across the yellowed plains."

"Not the Silence! I implore! The other way it is then, Master." - sobs and wails and weeps and stomps.

"Bite back your tears, Juvens, for this is known. You are wrong.
People die. And so do books. When great Euk blessed us his words on papyrus, we protected them from fire, floods, worms, and the whims of tyrants. For failing would mean his memory dying a second time.
You will look up and observe the sacred Virbokos for a month. If your progress is as meager as your temper, practical, Silence it will be."

Virboko, the Indomitable and the Librarians of Euk

The Virboko: A flying bull with wings that creates thunder when charging forward to its prey. Catching one is like catching lightning in a bottle. Fool adventurers and mercenaries try their stab at the task, for a hefty bounty provided by the Librarians of Euk (known as the Cult of the Soaring Bull).

The Cult of the Soaring Bull are a collection of monks centered on the study of the words of Euk, a local sage long dead. Sky and firmament also take a center stage in their studies, as does the reverence to the mighty Verboko. Contrary to popular belief, however, the monks are somewhat pacific and discrete.

After years of thorough training and apprenticeship, those monks able to get the corpse of a Virboko (by ANY means possible) get promoted from practicals to the title of Master. At that point, a series of events ensue.

The tip of the bovine horns are filed and sniffed in a ritual at the light of the full Moon. This produces hallucinations, that are portentous and accurate (5:6) but worryingly dangerous when consumed (save vs poison). Upon survival, the Master is allowed to wear the bovine horns as a helmet, and the pelt is treated and tanned for use as a mantle. From that point on, Masters tend to have sporadic violent and vindictive behavior, sometimes forced into their wise teachings.

As celebration, the Virboko's tail is prepared in a stew with carrots onions and potatoes. Wineskins flow as a crimson lubricant, a celebratory feast ensuing for three days and three nights.

But before all of that, we have to understand the indomitable Virboko. Native to the vast and arid golden plains of the Krelp plateau, they roam this relatively flat land as kings and masters of the territory. Their origin lost in time, many claim them a distant cousin to the famed Owl-bears, another failed biological experiment in Wizards' shameful history. Regardless, Virboko can see the color of magic, the sight of which makes them furious and violent, wanting to destroy its source.

Lastly, fear their rampaging stomp! It breaks a trail on the soil if they fly as high as fifty feet high, its sound echoing as an ill omen through the barren Kelp. It could see you squashed like an ant.

Virboko HD: 7 Omen: stomping echoes resonates through the plains; earth starts to shake as with a mild earthquake Appearance: hulking bull with green-dark hide, and ebony wings as a corvid's Number Appearing: d3 Wants: protect its vast territory and offspring at all costs Armour: as Chain (5 [14]) Movement: unencumbered 120' (40') on ground / 240' (90') if flying Morale: 10 (assuming 12 will never give up combat) Saves: as Fighter (D: 8 W: 9 P: 10 B: 10 S: 12) Attacks: 2 x push (1d8), 1 x horns (2d6, 3d6 if it charged) Special:  Magical Attraction: attracted to and infuriated by the color of magic, will charge at the sight of it whenever possible. Rampage Stomp: anyone caught under the trajectory where the Virboko is flying (at 50 feet or less altitude) muss save vs paralysis or suffer d6 damage and fall to the ground.

New Magic Items

Viboko's Horn Essence
One use, has to be sniffed.
Hallucinations cloud the ecstatic mind of the consumer, which are premonitorily accurate (5:6). This produces visions of the future, up to 1 year ahead, filled with symbolism. There is, however, a serious chance of serious consequences when consumed (save vs poison or fail into catatonic fits for 2d6 weeks).

Mantle of the Flying Bull
The wearer's alignment can't be Lawful from whilst wearing the mantle. Once per day they can enter a crazed rage, which increases their HP, saves, and to-hit bonus as if they were 4 Levels higher. If they want to calm themselves down before that, they have a 4:6 chance of failure, to which they would attack allies and anyone or anything within sight.