Diegetic Classes [Wilderland]

 Cavegirl introduced me to the term diegesis last year. In this past year, I’ve seen amazing content come out of the indie/OSR space, aligning tons of rules to the fictional world. 

I am super into this. I have sensed that my preferences lie with the diegetic since before I learned the word. Way back in my LARPing days, I knew it was better to roleplay with bloody bandages than say “I heal you 1, I heal you 2, I heal you 3.”

The Future of Wilderlands

This is tagged as Wilderlands content because I have plans to collate and collect as much of this content as I can into a zine called Errantry. 

Errantry will be a zine, a new DIY/SWORDDREAM/OSR game, a hexcrawl setting, and a campaign. It will have lots of blanks for people to build it out and adapt it to their table. 

That’s the plan anyway. More on this later. 

A Class on Classes

D&D has never been super clear whether its class paradigm is diegetic or non-diegetic. Is a monk an ascetic martial artist from Kara-Tur or a generic template for someone who fights unarmed? The more editions that passed, the less specific it seemed.

On the other hand, 3E’s prestige classes always seemed very specific and diegetic. You weren’t just a fighter, you were one of the Cormyrian army’s Purple Dragon Knights. This was fun in theory but wasn’t successful. It never mattered what your character did or said in the game, only that their Intimidation and Rope Handling were 9+ or whatever. 

When I discovered OSR-style play in G+, I was thankful to get away from builds, level planning, feat acquisition and such. If I gained a knighthood during play, I was excited for whatever the GM said that meant. 

But what if...

Diegetic Classes for the Wilderland

“That would be no good,” said the wizard, “not without a mighty Warrior, even a Hero. I tried to find one; but warriors are busy fighting one another in distant lands, and in this neighbourhood heroes are scarce, or simply not to be found. Swords in these parts are mostly blunt, and axes are used for trees, and shields as cradles or dish-covers; and dragons are comfortably far-off (and therefore legendary). That is why I settled on burglary —especially when I remembered the existence of a Side-door. And here is our little Bilbo Baggins, the burglar, the chosen and selected burglar. So now let’s get on and make some plans.” 

• The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

Levels aren’t diegetic. Get rid of them. 

Traditional classes aren’t particularly useful either. Get rid of those, too. 

In the Wilderlands, there are various organizations, tribes, cults, and sects. Membership in these organizations grants certain benefits. These are called classes. 

When you speak to a member of an organization, they will (almost always) tell you what you what quest you need to complete to join their ranks. This is never tied to your statistics; this is always some thing your character must do in the world. 

If you join a class, you gain some boon. This is some discrete and useful ability. 

(This may be thought as being roughly analogous to a single template in the GLOG.)

Some classes are mutually exclusive. For example, you may never be both a Knight of the Grail and a Blackguard.

You begin your career as an adventurer with no classes. Adventure and earn them in play.

The classes listed below are explicitly appropriate for the Wilderlands setting. Your game world should probably have different ones. Write some up and let your players discover them. (Hint: Look at the level titles and concoct a few based on those.)

Berserk

Quest: You must slay, skin, tan, and create a coat from the hide of a dire animal. 

Boon: If you wear your dire coat, but no actual armor, you may choose to fly into a berserker fit.  While in this fit, you may only perform Melee attacks, but you gain damage resistance 2. This fit only ends when every creature who has attacked you is dead or you are. 

Bravo

Quest: You must challenge and best another bravo in a fair duel.Thereafter, as a bravo, you must accept any fair challenge from any duelist. 

Boon: You gain +2 to hit. 

Burglar

Quest: You must join the Burglar’s Guild, whose membership dues cost 1 Treasure. 

You cannot be both a Burglar and have Knightly vows. 

Boon: At any point, you may declare that you go sneaking. This allows you to go dramatically off-stage. Later, if you are not present in a scene and it’s at least somewhat plausible that you could have snuck there, take 1d4 damage to arrive on the scene dramatically. 

If you go sneaking and all tension evaporates, you may rejoin the scene by slinking out of the shadows. This does not cost HP.

Champion

Quest: You must make an oath of service to a lord from your realm and hold them as your liege. 

Boon: You gain 1d8 additional HP. 

Druid

Quest: You must make an appropriate sacrifice to Green Gods at the Tree of Faces inside the Myrkvith Forest. The Tree of Faces hungers for many strange things, but nothing more than the decapitated heads of orcs, who despoil trees. Thereafter, you may not carry works of iron.

Boon: When you apply one of the nine sacred herbs for healing, your ministrations heal 1d4+1 points of damage (instead of 1).

Knight Errant

Quest: You must slay a monster and present its head to the Folkmoot. If they accept your offering, they will dub you a Knight Errant. 

You may not be a member of two orders of knighthood at the same time. 

Boon: If you have not told a lie since the last new moon, you may ask “Is what they just said true?” in response to any statement from an NPC. The GM will answer you honestly. You may do this once per day.

Knight of the Green

Quest: If you drop to exactly 0 HP and recover, you may thank the Green Gods for their blessing and dedicate yourself to their cause.
You may not be a member of two orders of knighthood at the same time. You may not worship two pantheons at the same time.

Boon: You (and everyone you are with) may travel through forest hexes as if they had a road.

Loremaster

Quest: If you find an ancient book of lore, the GM presents you with a sudoku puzzle with runes instead of numbers. You must solve this puzzle out of character.

Boon: You may now spend a dungeon turn to read any runes you encounter.

Ranger

Quest: Write an in-character field journal documenting 15 hexes

Boon: You may use a Camp Action to scout nearby. You investigate a specific location in your hex or an adjacent one. Thereafter, you may ask the GM three specific yes or no questions about something you’d know having infiltrated that location, e.g., “Is this door trapped?” “Is this room guarded?” “Is the wizard’s bedroom on this level?” “Do the bandits have bows?” “Were the orcs green-skinned?” 

Shieldthane

Quest:

Boon: As a maneuver, you may create a shield wall if you have at least two other companions who also carry shields. 

• The shieldthane “leads” the shield wall. They gain a +2 bonus to their attack roll by being in the shield wall. Other players in the shield wall cannot attack. 

• Damage done to a shield wall may be split up in any way between the participants. For example, a troll’s hammer dealing 12 damage may be split up as 6 damage to one participant, 3 damage to a second, and 3 damage to a third. 

Skald

Quest: Best a supernatural creature in a riddling contest

Boon: When you bid lore, you may ask a follow up question for free.

Skinchanger

Quest: Skinchangers put on a cloak of hide from the animal whose shape they wish to take. The ritual needed to create this magical cloak is known to few, but you know a rumor of at least two: Grimbold the Berserk of Northmark and Alianora of Svanlindale. Seek either of them out to learn this art. 

Boon: If you don your cloak of hide, you may take on the shape of an animal. In this form, you gain no new stats, but you may leap, climb, slither, bite, swim, or fly as a beast. 

Sorcerer

Quest: On a night of the new moon, open one of the barrows of Northmark and plunder the Treasure you find there. If you survive the encounter, you will surely be called a sorcerer.

Boon: A sorcerer may cast one the spells of wilderlands for each item of enchantment they hold.

Wizard

Quest: You must pay 1 Treasure and spend a Downtime Action to take classes at the Tower of Grammarye. Each time you do this, you learn the lore of one of the noble herbs. 

Boon: Each time you gain this class (which may be done up to nine times), you are shown a row in the chart which represents the combinations of herbs into magical reagents. You may prepare these reagents as a Camp action. 

Further Reading:

Unbeknownst to me, my cohort Chris at Wayspell posted a very similar system a few hours back. We didn’t collaborate on this...but now we’re going to (and by that, I mean I’m going to steal his content). Give his system a read too.

Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting

I had an idea for a combat system while out for a jog. I've also been rereading Kill 6 Billion Demons. I sat down and barfed this out.

REACH HEAVEN THROUGH VIOLENCE

This is obviously unfinished and a first draft. There are no character creation rules, as such. You can test it out by giving everybody any 3 techniques they want and seeing what happens. 

I think there's something salvagable here. I'd love some feedback. 

Bull in a Teahouse

I made up this little d66 table for a tiny project I'm making about kung fu.

If battle breaks out and you need to know quickly what sort of epic location you’re in, roll twice on this d66 table and combine the two entries.

I. 

1. A colossal buddha-like statue of Prim Ysma, opener of doorways, meditating

2. Thundering waterfall

3. Garden pond covered by a blanket of lotuses 

4. Many storied teahouse and brothel

5. Guild-run opium house, choked with foul smokes

6. Ruined temple, overrun with goki monkeys 

II. 

1. Small shrine set near the skull Sivran, god of iron, tended by single saffron-robed monk

2. Graveyard of swords, some sized for men and some sized for titans

3. The Bank Unerring, where coins beyond count are stacked in lofty vaults

4. The Shrine of the Chalice, where a blessed grail issues forth a fountain of blood into a sanguine pool

5. The Eidelwood, a forest of white trees who were once men - they bleed and groan if cut

6. A dumpling cart pulled by one of the Gentle Race

III.

1. The neon-bright Casino of Hanuman, the monkey-faced demigod of luck

2. Underground gambling den

3. The 11th Cesspool of the Lower Sewer of Hell

4. The bone-white colossal throne of a forgotten and unnamed archangel

5. Red-lacquered torii guarding a hot spring

6. A crumbling staircase of 777,777 stairs, leading up into nothingness

IV. 

1. The Dreaming Pearl, the finest house of pleasure in the Red City

2. Bamboo grove 

3. Panopticon to the First King, lit by a thousand thousand butter candles

4. Laundry-laden clothes lines between two tenements

5. Public fountain tended by an un-dragon doing penitence; will stand in this manner for six-thousand more years

6. The smoking chimneys of the furnaces of Koss the forge god

V.

1. Palatial river barge of Mun-et-Mun, the God-Eater

2. Graveyard of angels, whose broken bodies of stone still seem in the midst of struggle

3. Noodle District, home to a thousand ramen stands and carts

4. The Hall of Mummified Bodhisattvas, who still sit among the incense smoke 

5. The glass Triumphal Arch of the Universal Wars

6. Tumbled-down lighthouse

VI

1. Terraced fields of rice patties 

2. Two koi ponds shaped like yin and yang

3. Bathhouse of the Red Devils

4. Parade of the Paper Lanterns, signifying a minor god’s birthday

5. Training yard littered with partially animate wooden training dummies

6. Peach tree garden

Example:

I get I-1 and I-2. The combat stage is set in the middle of a thundering waterfall, under which the colossal statue of Prim Ysma sits meditating among the spray. Combatants climb her divine body of stone, leap across the pool fed by the waterfall, or stand on the pillar-like stones at the base of the falls as they battle.

Tolkien Would Have Hated the Lord of the Rings Movies

In June of 1958, Tolkien wrote a detailed response to a screenplay of a potential film treatment of The Lord of the Rings (Letter 210, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien). He begins the letter by noting: "If Z[immerman] and/or others do so, they may be irritated or aggrieved by the tone of many of my criticisms. If so, I am sorry (though not surprised). But I would ask them to make an effort of imagination sufficient to understand the irritation (and on occasion the resentment) of an author, who finds, increasingly as he proceeds, his work treated as it would seem carelessly in general, in places recklessly, and with no evident signs of any appreciation of what it is all about. ..."

Tolkien proceeds to complete eviscerate the screenplay down to the most minute detail, objecting to literally any deviation from the text. Any amendment, contraction, exaggeration, or flourish was met with Tolkien's acerbic rejection. 

Here are a few of my favorites:

"I deeply regret this handling of the 'Treebeard' chapter, whether necessary or not. I have already suspected Z of not being interested in trees: unfortunate, since the story is so largely concerned with them."

"Why on earth should Z say that the hobbits 'were munching ridiculously long sandwiches'? Ridiculous indeed. I do not see how any author could be expected to be 'pleased' by such silly alterations. One hobbit was sleeping, the other smoking."

"The Balrog never speaks or makes any vocal sound at all. Above all he does not laugh or sneer. .... Z may think that he knows more about Balrogs than I do, but he cannot expect me to agree with him."

As you can see, Tolkien has strong opinions about even minor deviations from the text. Balrog laughing? I think not. Hobbits eating sandwiches instead of smoking? Ridiculous. 

The Lord of the Rings Film Series, Newline Cinema, 2001-2003

Consider, then, Jackson's treatment of the trilogy. 

Film adaptations are notoriously bad, but Jackson's is generally well received. What makes a film adaptation "good" or "bad"? Enjoyment of a film is pretty subjective. But here--in this RPG blog that has nothing with film criticism at all--I would actually argue that Jackson's treatment of the trilogy is "bad," in so much as it unfortunately mishandles the core themes of heroism and virtue present in the novels. 

Let's talk through the ways that the director adapts the text to film. Jackson's adaptation is done through addition, omission, translation and more unfortunately, subversion. 

I'll talk through these techniques. 

Addition

At times, a 1-to-1 rendition of a book into film would leave the audience confused or unsatisfied. Tolkien's text was notoriously scant on a lot of details later filled in by long talks with Gandalf (or the appendices, or by pouring over the letters of Tolkien). In these cases, Jackson has (usually wisely) added in connecting scenes to fill in the gaps. 

Sometimes this is done successfully. When successful, the tone of the books is maintained, but additional context is added for the audience:

• Galadriel's introduction gets a new audience up to speed, more or less, with the events of Isildur and Bilbo's adventure in only 8 minutes. 
• The treason of Isengard is shown with a pretty cool wizard duel (my favorite "addition" in the films).
• Various flashback scenes where Aragorn and Arwen make eyes at each other, and her whole backstory is explained. 

When unsuccessful, scenes or story points are added that do not advance the story. For example:

• The elves show up at the Battle of Helm's Deep. Why? The Rohirrim already have a narrative out (the huorns--the same as the books) and the elves pull their weight elsewhere in the movies. 
• Aragorn crosses swords with a CGI army of the undead. Why? In the books, invoking himself as Isildur's heir is enough--and comes across all the stronger for it.

Omission

The films are already long. If Jackson had included absolutely everything, they would have been unfit for a film treatment. 

• Tom Bombadil, a puzzle piece that never quite fits, is removed from the story entirely. 
• Various minor characters, like Fatty Bolger or Beregond or Imrahil, aren't mentioned. 
• The Scouring of the Shire never happens. 

This is usually where people tease me about being a stickler ("You're just sad because there's no Tom Bombadil"), but this is perhaps the most "pure" form of adaptation. I agree with almost all of Jackson's calls here. 

Translation

Sometimes Jackson keeps a particular story beat in the film but translates the character or the circumstance. In general, this is done successfully. 

• Arwen, not Glorfindel, rescues Frodo at the ford. This introduces her character before literally the last book, which is fine because you really never see Glorfindel again.
• Elrond, instead of his sons, tells Aragorn that he must take the Paths of the Dead.

Subversion

Of all the techniques used to translate the trilogy into film, this is the one that proves to be most onerous. If Tolkien was nitpicky about small changes, these would have been intolerable. 

Subversion is where a character says or does the literal opposite of what it is stated in the text. 

• Movie Faramir: "The ring will go to Gondor."
• Book Faramir: "But fear no more! I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory."
  
  
• Movie Aragorn: *Aragorn just straight up kills the Mouth of Sauron*
• Movie Mouth of Sauron: "I am a herald and ambassador, and may not be assailed!"
  Movie Aragorn: *Abides by this because that's what heroes do.* 
  
  
• Movie Aragorn: "Do not let him speak! He will put a spell on us! Let us be quick"
  
• Book Aragorn: "We may not shoot an old man so, at unawares and unchallenged, whatever fear or doubt be on us. Watch and wait!"

You will see a trend here. There is a sense, I think, for American audiences that might makes right. The heroes are being heroic by taking bold action, drawing their swords, rushing in to fight the bad guys. But this is not the morality found inside the text. Quite the opposite. The heroes are heroes because they do not use their might. Almost every villain--Saruman, Wormtongue, Gollum--are offered a chance to go peacefully, or stay and put right what they've made wrong. They are villains because they refuse, but nobody compels them to do anything through force of arms.

In conclusion: If Tolkien objected to Pippin and Merry eating sandwiches (something in line with their character), he would have objected more strongly to characters acting in a manner completely in opposition to their core values. The film has "no evident signs of any appreciation of what it is all about."

Under Hill, By Water - Form Fillable Character Sheet and Village Map

Everybody has been very kind about Under Hill, By Water. Thanks so much! 

I made form-fillable sheets for the character sheet and the village map. Download them or save them to your own Google Drive to access their form-fillable-ness. 

Click on the picture

Click on the picture

Also, during the process of creating the game, I talked to my friends and playtesters about what the skills should be named. Chris at Wayspell pitched a particular suite of skills. I ended up not going in that direction, but I did make an alternate character sheet just for him. 

Wayspell Version of the Under Hill, By Water Character Sheet

Honestly, creating these character sheets was a stretch for me. Would love feedback. But in the meantime, hope these are helpful! 

Under Hill, By Water - a real game that I made

Adventures? No thank you.

The OSR is pretty metal. And metal rules. But it’s fairly far away from the source material of Tolkien and the eclectic, rustic, anachronistic little British gentry that were the center of his stories. 

This is an OSR(ish) game that’s about living in the cozy under-hill homes of the halflings.

What do you do in Under Hill, By Water?

• This game is about capturing your aunt’s escaped ornery goat. 
• This game is about growing the biggest turnip for the Harvest Festival.
• This game is about gathering rare ingredients for a birthday feast. 
• This game is about being simple and silly. 

What's the game like?

The book is split into three parts:

• Chapter 1 covers the basics of being a tiny little gentle person. Players use this chapter to create their characters and GMs use this chapter to create the characters’ home village.
• Chapter 2 covers the rules for ambling around the countryside, getting into nasty business, and cozying up to your fire at the end of the day. GMs and players use this chapter to understand the basic mechanics of the game. 
• Chapter 3 details the flow of the four seasons and the random events that trouble your peaceful pastoral life. The GM uses this chapter to randomly create scenarios for the players.

Wait, this sounds familiar

You might remember that about three years ago I made a series of posts of a LotFP hack about playing a halfling in a peaceful, pastoral, quiet land called the Commonwealth. It was essentially a what-if game about what fantasy RPGs would be about if Bilbo had stuck to his guns and said, "Get out, you stupid dwarves, and take this conjurer of cheap tricks with you!" 

During quarantine this year, I blew the dust off of this project and gussied it up real nice. It's no longer a hack but a standalone game. Its parts and procedures should be familiar to fans of old-school TTRPGs. It's explicitly a game about the quiet pastoral life of halflings so a lot of fat from dragons and/or dungeons has been trimmed off. There are tons of flavorful randomizers to make sure your halfling's life is quiet, but never boring. Additionally, Evlyn Moreau and Isaac Podyma very generously donated the use of their art to the project. 

2020 Special

2020 has put a lot of people in a tough place. Playing games can be a breath of fresh air, but you might be hesitant to spend money on them. If this is the case for you, please feel free to reach out for a complimentary copy.

 

If you have enjoyed my content in the past or would like to buy me a beer, I very much hope you'll check it out!

Wizards Wagons Taverns & Flagons: An Actual Play Podcast

One of my friends had never played RPGs. We finally convinced him to play, but he had a (bizarre but true) caveat: he wanted to leverage his hobby of sound design and playing music while we did it. So we made a podcast. 

By my estimation, we're the very first D&D podcast ever and the first one to have a "WTF" acronym in our podcast title. 

What else do we have going for us?

• Hotsprings Island Actual Play: Hotsprings Island is an amazing adventure by Jacob Hurst et al that hands the players an in-character gazetteer. We're having a lot of fun with it. Check out our actual play before you run it yourself. 
• A Range of Experience: The podcast features players who have been playing 20+ years and players who literally are sitting down for their first session. 
• An Actual Bard: Our bard takes his job very, very seriously. There's all sorts of musical numbers. 

Plus you can hear how I put a lot of the RPG theory I talk about on this blog into practice. It's messy, but we're having genuine fun. 

I hope you'll check it out! If you do, leave me your adoring praise. 

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