A tale of adventure and death in the caves

A play report from my Middle-Earth campaign, by one of the players, of Pru the Hobbit:

The Wizards along with their animals, pony and cat, stayed in town while we trekked to the caves. Armidia was feeling restless, and thirsty for Orc Blood as usual. Shotey was drunk.

We decided to continue sweeping the caves on the left. The first beings we encountered were goblins. Luck was not in the hobbit's favor, and Prudence was of little help. Armidia, Shotey, Elidon, Gilliad massacred most those goblins and Armidia added some teeth to her ever growing collection.

As we walked further into the cave, Shotey was able to use his "stone sense" and find a trick door that led to a secret room and hallway. More goblins met us on the other side of the door. We got most of them, but a couple escaped down a curvy hallway. As we advance down the hallway that was once filled with the sound of what was perceived to be 15 goblins is now eerily quiet. Pru used her spear to carry a goblin body down the hall that she then set on fire and stuck around the corner, it was immediately hit by 3 arrows. Armidia quickly peaked around the last curve where she sees 15 goblins, 5 in front with shields and 10 above with bows and arrows. Using the corner as cover, Shotey and Armidia were able to take a couple of the bowmen out. We then get into a very scrappy fight with the goblins where we all take a number of hit points and become injured. Some used our second wind, some were healed by Armidia's once a day ability to heal each of us.

Behind the goblins is a room that opens up. We see a few goblins speking through a hole in the wall to the left, and as we come through they flee through the opening which we now recognize as a big boulder blocking a passageway. The room is now deserted and we cautiously approach the opening which is five feet up, so Armidia looks through. See surveys a large lumbering creature about 9 feet tall. She throws a Molotov cocktail through which the creature shies away from. Pru tries to stone it, but it's thick hide causes the rock to bounce off. We all decided to jump through the opening and engage the Troll in battle. Early on in the skirmish, Gillian take a critical blow from the troll's club and dies. Enraged by her companion's death Pru is able to cut an Achilles tendon, and Armidia cuts the other. After the troll falls, Pru climbs up his back and stabbs it with her dagger in the head, then Armidia landed a critical hit and cut off the troll's head. Behind the dead troll there is an opening out into the night cloaked valley.

As we are all injured and tired we decide we need to head back to town to rest and recover. As we emerge from the cave we encounter a shady bunch of men/beings that do not seem friendly, but do not attack. For part of the way back to town they follow us a distance. We made friends with the wall guards so they'll stop giing us a hard time when we come back to town. We break into the tavern and demands a room to sleep in. Over the next two weeks Armidia learned how to use light of valinor (sp?), Shotey bought a wolf warrior dog that he bonded with and cleverly named Wolfie, while this was happening Pru was making friends at the local tavern and hired a new human companion. I think Elidon was getting it on with Ent Moon the Green the whole time and Ezria was trying to find a wife. Before leaving the town, we decide to buy a chest with a lock on it and place most of our valuables locked in side and place it in the room  we pre pay for a month. We also visit the shops to buy supplies like oil and slings and spears that were damaged or used up.

We head back to the caves after saying our goodbyes to the wizards. We keep an eye out for the shady men, and finally come upon them when we decide to explore the small wooded area at the end of the valley. We throw them some money and head into a new cave hoping they will take our peace offering and not pursue us. We notice that the cave is damp and seems to have been created naturally over time by some water source. we take every fork to the left and come upon a gigantic bear that is snarling and vicious and 15ft tall on its hind legs. In this battle Pru is having little effect and keeps out of the way. Shotey, Armidia, Elidon, and Wilborne take down the beast with minimal hits as Wolfie flees the cave. Shotey takes his trophy by turning the bear's claws into fight gloves and Pru skins it and sets it to dry for a bear pelt that we suspect may be worth a full crown. 

While the pelt is drying we venture into the closest fork to the right and are overcome by an unfamiliar acrid scent. We come to a pond filled with white fish. As Pru is about to dip her fishing net into the pond the group notices that the water is begging to move and a jellyfish type blob is coming toward them. Before we can retreat Pru's leg is touched and burned by the acid. After getting away down the corridor, Armidia takes a role for her lore knowledge and learns that the blod eats metal and flesh, and it susceptible to stone and wooden weapons. As we walk past the bear cave we grab the pelt, but something doesn't feel right. Armidia perceives that the shady group of beast men are preparing to ambush us outside the mouth of this cave. At the same time, the blob is slowly making it way towards us. The hobbit has dexterity and a a sling with rocks, so she quickly head back toward the blob and hits it several times, weakening it, but it is Armidia with a spear that finally kills the blob.

As we approach the entrance to the cave Pru throws caution to wind and charges out throwing a a Molotov cocktail setting 3 of the 7 men on fire that were waiting to ambush the tribe of adventurers. She and Willborne go after the the two on the left while Elidon and Armidia take the two on the right. Shotey and Wolfie stay back to help whoever gets in trouble. Willborne gets hit, Pru goes after her man with an ax and does some damage. Shotey comes to help Willborne while Armidia and Eldion engaged their counterparts. At one point Armidia turns to assist on the left after she cuts the heads off of the two savages on the right. We notice that the man opposite Willborne has a horn that he's trying to reach for. Armidia immediately focuses her energy on stopping him for fear that the horn has magical powers or that he may call for help. She acquires to horn and adds it to her collection of  trophies while the rest of us finish off the barbarians.

As soon as the last beast man falls we looed up to see a shield wall of 5 more beast men advancing toward us from about 60ft away, with an even more stout looking leader trailing by about 7ft. Pru and Willborne jog out about halfway and try to throw a stone and a spear at the leader. Armidia and Elidon follow and try to hit using either their bows or spears, but neither hit for much damage. The group of men is now upon us; Pru and Willborne are the first to be attacked. Willborne is hit and Pru counters by going under the large men's round shields and critically injuring the 3 men at the right side of the armor shield by slashing their Achilles, stabbing them in the groin, and killing them. She also brings a fourth man to within only 2 hit points. Armidia follows up by beating the men into unconsciousness. We tie the two lowly men up together and the chief seperately while we try to decide if we should execute them or use them for some type of reward or knowledge. Shotey feels strongly that we should at least execute the two men, and proceeds to do so, cementing the trait of cruelty in his heart. We drag the leader back to his horse and slump him, and an unconscious Willborne, over the back of the horse he rode in on before we started to make the trip back to town to recover and see what kind of reward we might get for this warlord.

Drearily we head back to town. About half way there we detect a large group of Orcs before they see us. We tie the horse with Wilborne and the chief to a tree that Elidon climbs up into while Pru, Armidia, Shotey, and Wolfie hunker down in the tall grass. We exchange a few arrows and rocks before Armidia and Pru stand and move closer while preparing the last 4 bottles of oil at hand for Molotov cocktails. We throw the first two and kill 5 of the Orcs but begin to come under major fire. Pru is it hit hard and falls to the ground injured and unconscious  Shotey jumps out from the grass to throw another of our makeshift bombs. This bombs is less successful, but Armidia manages to kill a few orcs with her bow before she too is injured to the point of unconsciousness. Shotey does little more before he is also overwhelmed by the forces coming at us....

About the D&D I'm running now

After finding out that some friends I have in the city I moved to a few months ago would be up for playing some D&D when they've never played before, I figured I wanted to try a new system of D&D I had been eyeing.

Adventurer Conqueror King, while an awesome version of D&D overall, had a few flaws.  Most importantly, it's based on Basic D&D and so starting character are pretty fragile. That can lead to some cool moments of "run away! run away!" But people who've never played before, whose ideas of D&D are movies and kicking ass, generally seem to dislike being as weak as a goblin or modern man, and want some more heroics. The usual solutions of lots of henchmen is counterintuitive to them, so I wanted some more highly powered first-level characters. Starting at slightly higher level, like 3 say, is also unappealing because I still wanted a system where they move up.  ACKS also has problems with a number of proficiencies I don't like, and I didn't want to mess with the list of those before starting a new group on a new campaign. I wanted to just be able to point at a book and say, "Pick from these."  Finally, I wanted to use a Middle-Earth setting, for reasons I'll probably explain later, and ACKS would require alot of other modifications and house-rules to make me comfortable with that.

So, I decided to use a version of AD&D I found on the internet specifically modded to play Tolkienish Middle-Earth campaigns. I could have used one of the various Middle-Earth RPGs, like One Ring, but I after play-testing those in the past, I was highly disatisfied with all non-D&D (d20 if you will) based systems for gaming, especially for new gamers.  The version of D&D I picked is called Balrogs & Bagginses, a homebrew, fantasy heartbreaker (for the unitiated: some dude's pen-and-paper fantasy rp game system, generally based on D&D) by this guy over on rpg.net. I messaged him once, but he never responded. Here's the basics of his system, and what I like about it.

1. It takes AD&D as a baseline so you can use your AD&D first edition or second edition materials with it. Including descending AC.  I like using 2e stuff cuz it's what I played as a kid, and the spells are alittle more forgiving at first level (I'm looking at you Flaming Hands).

2. The classes are loose. In fact, in the rules as written, there are no classes, only roles. The way the mechanic works is that characters get 6 "abilities" that are things like Tracking or Divination. If you have an ability, you get to add your ability score bonus (say Intelligence for Tracking) and add your level to it.  This mechanic is dead simple, easy to explain, allows creation of totally different "fighters" while retaining the "few simple choices" benefit of a class system. So, if you pick a Elven Fighter, like 5 of your "ability" choices are made for you by your race (generally requiring 2 picks) and class (3-4 default picks).  Because many of the nifty class/race choices, like Ranger or Dwarf, simply require you to start with XYZ abilities, it allows the creation of unique archetypical characters, while giving those who want to create their own style alot of options (a man thief, for instance, has plenty of abilities to choose from). Abilities like Swords or Axes & Hammers allow for the use of an easily understandable group of weapons, add the level bonus like normal, and the use of associated armor types. It makes things a snap.

One thing I did to "improve" the game for new players was to force them to choose a role like warrior, thief, or wizard with certain restrictions I added in the game. For instance, Wizards can be men in my version of Tolkien's middle-earth, but they have to be like D&D wizards: no armor, no weapon abilities. Elves on the other hand, as naturally magical, could pick certain Elvish magic abilities (like charm and illusion) even if they pick a main class like Warrior, since, you know, elves have that shit. It's all intuitive and yet I get some of the benefits of class-as-race.

3. There's a nifty trait system ala Pendragon. Basically, all characters start with a couple of traits like Courageous, Greedy, etc. You roll a Wisdom/willpower save, which like all saves in the game is just ability score modifier plus d20 versus target number 12 (or 15 or 20 if rare high-difficulty saves).  If you succeed, you can gain an advantage for the rest of the scene or combat.  An advantage is to roll two d20's and take the better.  The players loved this when we played it, it gave their guys alot of life. I added to the game a few set racial traits I felt appropriate, like Keen-eyed and Sorrowful for elves. When you don't want something to happen, like your Greed to cause you to get into deadly danger, you can see if your willpower will stop you.  The trait system is also not too min-maxing, because its freeform and depends on what's going on in your game.  It's like the best of The One Ring and Pendragon, but works with D&D.

4. There's slight fiddle on the combat rules. Weapons have some set qualities, like Hacking or Charge or Balanced, that let them do extra stuff. Like Hacking allows a +1 attack bonus versus enemies using shields. It's like a weapon versus armor type that's actually simple enough to use in game.  Similarly, the coin rules in the game are awesome and irregular, like the there's four farthings (copper) to one pence (silver and the main currency), and 240 pence to one gold crown (a pony is like 3 crowns for point of comparison).

5. Experience points are at 500 XP intervals for all classes. I find this the best interval. I like simple experience rules, and like Zak S over at dndwithpornstars, I find that players just "go where the action is" anyway. I also like the scale of that threshold: I can dole out 10 XP here and there for stuff I think is cool without it breaking the system and without it being a meaninglessly small amount for the PCs. 100 XP for a major quest completion, like bringing back the head of an orc warlord from the wasteland, is also a big f'ing deal. I like the idea of cash for XP in theory, but in practice, it causes too much inflation for my tastes.

6. Magic rules. The author of the rules split everything into micoschools rather than Wizard/Cleric. So there's a Beast school, a Light of Valinor school and a Weather school. The schools he picked are very Tolkien-evocative, and although they're D&D spells, because of how they're broken down, the spells all seem to "fit" in a Middle-Earth setting. Sorcery, for instance, covers alot of the flash-bang overtly magical spells of D&D, but is reserved for villains and those under the sway of the evil enemy- a very Tolkien-reminiscent idea. Instead of slots, you roll to cast, and lose 1 hp/spell level, whether you fail or succeed. But you still need to go find new spell books and scrolls to actually learn a spell to which you have access because you "know" the spell school. So, I get to put in all the cool stuff from vanilla D&D where PCs hunt out old libraries and try to extract secrets from evil sorcerers and dragons. Yes please.

Now that I've got a regular face-to-face group again, the utility of blogging has returned in force. Expect to see some play reports, some reviews, and other musings coming in the next few weeks.

Dark Ages: Of Monsters & Men

Notables in Normandy
Duke Ricard II - This is the Duke, he travels between his various estates and brings court with him. Ricard is known to be good and kind, but fearless in battle. He has several sisters and two brothers, Mauger of Mortain and William of Eu.
Count Radulf of Ivry - Radulf is the Duke's main advisor, he rules Ivry, a town south of Hralfsburg.
Jarl Harvald of Kjarsburg - Harvald is loyal man to the Duke, but many of the raiders and shipmen in his town resist the imposition of the Christian ways from the south.
Count Odo of St. Lo, Count Ademar of Bayeux - these christian lords are descended from the shieldmen of the first Duke.

Neighboring Lords
Frankia - King Robert II
Brittany - Geoffrey I (suitor of Richard’s sister Hewisse)
Anglo-Saxons - Aethelred the Unready (suitor of Richard’s sister Emma)
London - Thorkell the Tall
Danes - Sven Forkbeard
Alba/Scotland - Mael Colum, King of Alba
Orkneys and Caithness - Jarl Sigurd Hladvisson
Moray - Mormaer Mac Bethad

Reward & Rumors
+ Jarl Harvald offers 200 silver for any information about the Saxon ships or raiders seen in the waters and lands near Kjarsburg. He offers 500 silver for definitive proof.

+ Sailors in Kjarsburg spotted a ghostly ship near an island west of the pennisula. It is rumored to be an old viking raider, some say with a great treasure. Two longships sailing from the west heading to Kjarsburg have been missing.

+ Count Odo offers 200 silver for any word from one of his vassal villages. The four knights he sent to collect tribute disappeared. The village is located in the hills south of St. Lo.

+ Men and cattle have been disappearing from the woods around the town of Bayeux. Some whisper that evil spirits are at work.

+ Strange noises and shapes have been seen at night in Bayeux. It is rumored a long dead Roman noble left treasure beneath the town.

+ The Duke saw a dragon in flight south of Falaise. Shepards report missing sheep from the hills nearby. The Duke offers a reward of 500 sp from any token of the beasts proving its existence, more for trophies from a dragon like claws or its head.

Outside Normandy:
+ King Sweyn Forkbeard will always take on warriors for his many raids against his enemies in Norway and England.
+ King Robert of the Franks  brings Duke Richard and hires other normans for his wars against the Burgundians.
+ The Emperor of Byzantium, Basil the Bulgarslayer, always seeks mercenaries and fierce warriors for his Varangian Guard.

Random encounters
these are the sorts of encounters characters should expect to run into in Normandy:
1. Landless Norman knights looking for trouble or fun.
2. Restive band of peasants, looking for easy pickings or revenge against oppressive lords.
3. Ogres in hunting band, hungry but intimidated by numbers or strong prey.
4. Trickster brownies or dwarves, carrying off precious item or child.
5. Pack of wolves
6. Territorial bear or boar.
7. Deer
8. Troll crashing through forest.
9. Dragon or wyvern.
10. Banshee or ghouls
11. Wild hunt deer men
12. Enemy raiders, Viking, Breton, or Frankish.
13. Pilgrims or clerics.
14. Merchant with guards or tinkerers.

Places of Dark Ages Normandy

Hralfsburg, or Rouen, is the seat of the sons of Hralfr, or Rollo, the conqueror of Normandy. Sites include an old roman amphitheater, a baths, and the Duke has a large stone keep in center of city. Sits on River Seine. Fecamp is an abbey recently built, attached to the Duke's keep. Most of the buildings in the town are half-timber constructions. A bishop has his seat in a church in the city.

Ivry - this is the holding of Count Radulf, the bastard half-uncle of the Duke Ricard. Ivry has a large stone church that is the seat for a bishop. The bishopric dates back to the days of the Romans. There is also a Jewish community in Ivry.

Honnsflow - this is a small docks and wharf, and port for Hralfsburg and the upper Seine, and viking culture still runs strong here. A man favored by Odin is said to get a discount if he builds a ship here.

Cadum - The Norman dukes have built up another of their large stone keeps in the center of this town, and it is displacing Bayeux as the regional center. There is also an old stone church to St. Stephen.

Falaise - this is the Duke's castle. There's no town, but it is strategically important and the Dukes enjoy hunting near here.

Bayeux - This old roman legionary town was sacked in the days of Hralfr, but then the town was rebuilt by the Breton Duke Berengar, father-in-law of Hralfr, to take advantage of the still-standing roman walls. The Dukes inherited the town. The old legion fort is still used to house knights, and an overgrown roman road, although basically unuseable except as a landmark, connects Bayeux to Cadum in the east.

St. Lo - also called St. Lothar, is an old hill fort town named after a Frankish saint and still holds an abbey built by Charlemagne. The Duke has decided to fortify the town and is building stone walls. It stands as a more christian bastion in the otherwise fairly viking-customed Constantine pennisula.

Kjarsburg - built by the Hiberno-Norse who settled here during the early days of Norman settlement, this is basically the strongest holdout of the "old ways." There is a large port and harbor. Recently, Saxon ships have been seen landing on beaches near Kjarsburg. The ruler of Kjarsburg still calls himself Jarl, and is descended from one of Hralfr's more loyal hearthsmen.

St. Michael's Rock - this fortified abbey sits on a high granite hill in the center of a tidal mud bay on the border with Breton lands. The Duke normally sends Christian zealots here, and it fortifies the Duchy's western border.

Dark Ages Normandy

So I came up with some maps of Normandy. These are loosely based on history, I've altered names based on 900s-1000s pre-francophone Nordic names for some of the Norman towns. I've also made the terrain more rugged.

Thematic hex map: scale is approximately 10 miles per hex.

This is at the usual 6 mile hexes.

AD 1000 House Rules

Here's the Dark Ages D&D house rules I'm thinking of:

Literacy: because of the oral tradition and rarity of books and writing, all characters are illiterate unless they take a certain proficiency: Theology or Language (Latin). Other proficiencies might allow the character to read ancient writings or write in the vulgate, in the DM's discretion. Additionally, all clerics can read the vulgate whether or not they have the literacy proficiencies, but not all clerics can write in Latin.

Spell preparation: Clerics prepare and cast spells as normal. For wizards and mages, they can cast a number of spells per level as determined by their class level plus their Intelligence bonus. So, a wizard that can cast 2 level 1 spells, 2 level 2 spells and 1 level 3 spell with a +1 Int bonus can cast 3 level 1 and level 2 spells and 2 level 3 spells (i.e. cast daily = spells + int bonus). Every day the wizard needs a few hours to gather spell components, practice reciting magic words, and so on to restore the spells. Additionally, the wizard must sleep for at least 6 hours to recover the magical energies he expends casting spells (as the wizard increases in power, so does his ability to channel magical energies on the same amount of sleep). A wizard can attempt to cast 1 more than the usual number of spells per day with a successful Loremastery check, but this ages him 4+spell level years (the aging rules apply to wizards if no one else).

However, wizards are limited by what spells they have in their repertoire (usually in the form of a spellbook).  A starting wizard begins with Read Languages and two spells given by the wizard's master or trainer (roll or pick at DM's choice). Additional spells must be physically added to the repetoire by writing them down, or carving them on a wyrdstone or staff, after deciphering them. Magic spells are jealously guarded and kept secret, so even after a spell is found it must be comprehended and "translated" into a personalized form.  This requires a week of research for each spell and a successful Loremastery check. The spell is lost if the check is failed, and another source must be found to acquire the spell. No check is required if the wizard is taught the spell for the week by a master of it, like a senior wizard.

Wizards in the Dark Ages: Arcane spellcasters come in two types, wizards and the Hermetic/Neo-Platonic/Egyptian mages of the south. Wizards, which includes druids, generally derive their power from the spirits and places of power of the natural world, worship the old gods like Odin or Kereneos, and are often illiterate, as compared to the educated Hermetic wizards of the Mediterranean.  Sometimes though wizards have their own scripts or secret lores from their own homelands, like Ogham. Both keep their magical knowledge secret, and it requires sacrifice and a mystical connection to cast spells. Both are often relied upon by pagan rulers or rich pagans for advice, fortune telling, and knowledge of monsters, fairies and gods. Rather than always enchanting items themselves, wizards often seek out spirits or dwarves who do the work for them, with the wizard serving as a middle man. Additionally, wizards often keep their spell knowledge stored on different items than books like seeing stones, carved into their staves, or in secret places like the hollow of a tree. A wizard can hold up to 5 spells on a staff or through the combinations found on a small bag of stones, or 3 on a wand or stick.  Standing stones or trees can basically hold 15-20 spells.

HP: all characters start with maximum first level hp (e.g. 8 hp + Con bonus for fighters). All the thief-based classes have d6 for hit die rather than d4.

Ability score damage: In addition to the effects of the Mortal Wounds table, a character brought to 0 hp through a critical hit must roll on the body parts die to determine ability score damage taken.  Hands or legs reduce Dex by 1, Belly reduces Con by 1, Head reduces Int, Chest and arms Str. Additionally, any permanent affect on a character's sanity or faith reduces Wisdom.

Cleave: anytime a character kills an enemy in hand to hand combat, he can roll again to attack any foe within a step's distance (approximately 5 feet). The number of cleaves is not limited by the character's level.

Shields: A regular round shield can guard against up to 2 enemies' melee attacks a round. A kite shield can protect against any number.  A regular shield can be strapped to the back to add +1 AC to any attack coming from behind the character (no regular AC bonus).

Weapons: Unless a masterwork or magical weapon, all weapons except for swords break on a natural roll of 1. When rolling a critical, the weapons have different effects:
Axes - Choose to destroy an item on the target, like a shield, piece of armor (armor perm. reduced by 1 pt AC), or a held item. the victim must also save or be stunned from impact for 1 round. This does not apply to enemy weapons.
Hammers and maces - the target is stunned and, if failing a save, knocked prone, for their next round.
Spears - the victim is impaled with the spear. If still fighting the same victim next round, the warrior can attack the victim by ripping the spear back out with their attack, automatically hitting and rolling damage.
Swords and daggers - The attacker can disarm or break the victim's weapon (not natural weapons though) or impale the victim with the weapon as a spear, attacker's choice.
Bows - criticals with a bow immediately allow another attack to the same or different target in the same trajectory. Generally, bows can be fired into melee at a -2 penalty, Precision shot proficiency removes the penalty. A miss when firing into melee has a 50% chance to hit a friendly attacker, determined at DM discretion.

Healing: Usual healing is 1 hp per night with good rest. Drinking a draught off a meadhorn or wineskin during a short rest will heal 1d4 hp, usuable once a day. After one week good rest, all hp are restored no matter what. Faeries and spirits, in addition to clerics, offer healing, but they exact a price, generally a geas.

Silver standard: the silver penny or denarius is equivalent to the D&D gold piece. An actual gold piece or solidius is worth 100 silver pennies (100 gp). XP progession is normal, with acquiring 1 sp equal to 1 XP. Spending on feasting or gift-giving is worth an addition XP per sp spent. Magic items, although usually not sellable, are worth their price/xp when found (this includes healing poultices and so on).

Communication: everyone is presumed to speak a germanic pidgin that allows them to communicate, although not understand complicated matters in a non-native tongue (i.e. a Gaelic speaker trying to understand a viking king's speech).

forgot a couple
Fighting from Horseback: When charging with a spear (there are no lances), the warrior uses the horse's strength rather than his own. This amounts to a +4 damage bonus, or a +5 from a heavy warhorse. Additionally, mounted warriors enjoy a +1 AC against attackers from foot.

Reaction & Morale Rolls Use a 1d12 rather than 2d6. The bell curve on 2d6 makes reaction and morale checks too boring. Having bonuses from charisma or discipline should actually matter.

AD 1000 D&D

So, because Google Plus may not be the totally best format for something as beautifully engineered as Pendragon, especially when players have no familiarity with Pendragon before, I have come up with this little idea for another D&D. I want to want to DM something sword and sorcery like D&D Egypt-Athas, but I'm also not totally feeling it. Vikings and chainmail and raiding parties on the other hand, well, that's the shit for D&D, and especially appeals to me. So I bring you: D&D 1000 AD!!

I figure I'll set it in Normandy proper, because the Dukes there are Christian converts but related to all the Viking kings, with recently settled vikings forming most of the rulers. So, I figure I'll have some old ruins, pagan issues, and rivalries between the various kings. Also, it provides an opportunity for the PCs to be mercenaries in both Normandy and elsewhere if they choose. The idea is to be historical based, but with to max out the action adventure. Monsters and overt magic will exist in "mythic areas" like forests, old ruins, and coasts.

Character Creation rules - as Adventurer Conqueror King, with these differences:

1. Stats, 3d6, reroll all 1s, assign to taste.

2. Pick Class (templates from Comnpanion 49)
Fighter: Guard, Mercenary, Knight (Lancer) (christian only), and barbarian templates
Cleric: Priest or Hermit
Thief: Outlaw (Skulking and pick one: Trap Finding or Lockpicking)
Barbarian (Jutland-style only): Berserker, Huskarl, Viking (Sea Rover), Death Dealer
Mage: Wizard (pick three: Familiar, Loremastery, Healing, Naturalism, Alchemy) (as Magical Scholar equip)
Paladin: Scholae Palatine (Vanguard) (christian only)
Bard: Skald (as Minstril with Performance (Epic Poetry))
Explorer: Pathfinder, Scout
Witch: Village Witch (pagan only)
Venturer: Merchant Traveler
Changeling (Elf Nightblade): Deceiver

3. Pick Culture  - determines starting language, bonuses
Northman: +1 Str, +2 fear saves
Saxon/German:: +1 Con, +2 paralysis saves
Frank: +1 Cha, +1 initiative
Greek: +1 Int, pick bonus knowledge proficiency
Gael: +1 Dex, +1 bonus on mortal wounds chart

4. Pick Religion - Christian (Lawful or Neutral) or Pagan (Neutral or Chaotic)

Armor
In order to represent the increased import of something protecting you in battle in the dark ages and make armor more desirable to scavenge, I have revised the armors available as follows.
Furs  AC 1  (10 sp)
Leather  AC 2  (20 sp)
Scale Armor  AC 3  (50 sp)
Chain Mail Shirt (Haubergeon)  AC 4  (100 sp)
Chain Mail Hauberk  AC 5 [-1 Initiative] (300 sp)
Reinforced Chain Hauberk  AC 6 [-2 Initiative] (450 sp)
- chain hauberks also do not allow for dexterity bonuses to AC.


Combat
Combat rules are as normal in ACKS, with the option of adding Critical Hits. More on this to come.