Book of Vile Randomness

Hey, just a quick note that Ian from Magician's Manse is creating a free book of random tables if you are interested. I have already submitted my old d100 chart of character backgrounds.

Spread the word! Submit tables!

Books of Sorcery

Right now I'm listening to some Social Distortion while going through my old rpg stuff and filing it away in my new binder.

While doing this, I came across a small table of b/x 1st level spells organised into six books of sorcery. I picked the idea up from some blog or other a while ago, and decided to make the tables.

So, for the tables: When a new magic-user is created, roll 1d6 to find out which common sorcery book they start out with:

1d6 Result

1. The Adventures of Hurgh

2. The Tome of Common Sorcery

3. Encyclopedia of Easy Magic

4. Compendium of Wondrous Wizardry

5. Rhialto's Easy Instructions on Magic, Volume I

6. Collected Works of Thersin, Volume II

The books themselves:

The Adventures of Hurgh

1. Charm Person

2. Ventruiloquism

3. Sleep

4. Light

5. Magic Missile

Tome of Common Sorcery

1. Magic Missile

2. Sleep

3. Protection from Evil

Encyclopedia of Easy Magic

1. Read Magic

2. Detect Magic

Compendium of Wondrous Wizardry

1. Light

2. Hold Portal

3. Read Languages

Rhialto's Easy Instructions on Magic, Volume I

1. Charm Person

2. Read Magic

3. Ventriloquism

4. Floating Disc

Collected Works of Thersin, Volume II

1. Magic Missile

2. Protection from Evil

3. Shield

4. Hold Portal

5. Read Magic

6. Web (Note: level 2 spell)

If you're wondering how I did these, I just rolled 1d6 to see how many spells they had, and then just rolled d12s to find what spells they had.

Blah

Well, as the title of this post suggests, I'm feeling sort of, well, 'blah' about roleplaying right now, which stems from the fact that I haven't bought anything new, and I haven't gamed for about a year now (and no, I don't mean from the start of this year,I mean for 365 days of not gaming, possibly a bit longer), so I;m not really sure how the blog's going to work.

If I get a cool idea, or get something from rolling on random tables, I'll post it on here. Otherwise, this blog is probably going to be a bit out, although I will continue reading, and commenting on, other blogs.

So, hopefully this blog will still chug along, though even slower than it is right now.

Sorry and Quick Update

So, sorry I have not posted in a while, as I've been busy moving, having brothers over for Christmas, going down to Melbourne, etc.

Anyway, just a quick update that now I'm more settled in, I should be able to post on this sad little blog more than before.

Well, I shall hopefully be sticking to this : )

Mesopotamian Currency

I've been doing a very brief bit of research on the money that was used by the Mesopotamians, and have become pretty sure of what they used.

(sorry about that sentence, it reads rather strangely)

So, the Mesopotamians used the silver shekel, and (I believe) silver mina, with their value based on the amount of grain. Using a base sixty (?) system, I'm pretty sure I read that 1 shekel equalled about sixty mina, and each mina had a 'base price' of about 10 grains I think?

So yeah, not 100% sure, but my players won't know any better, so everything's cool.

I'll post about the Mesopotamian pantheon soon, as I've got it all sorted out (i.e. who was descended from who, their domains, for lack of a better word, and which cities that they're patrons of).

I'm also finishing off a not-quite-accurate-but-good-enough-for-me hexmap of Mesopotamia.

Weapons & Armour in Mesopotamia

I've been researching the weapons used in mesopotamia, and looking at the list of weapons and armour in my copies of B\X, to see what I need to get rid of.

As a note, it turns out the Mesopotamians were very advanced in terms of military. I mean, there is evidence of them forming shield walls, phalanxes, and squares in battle!

So, onto the list of what weapons are allowed:

Battle Axe

Hand Axe

Short Bow

Dagger

Short Sword

Sword

Two-Handed Sword

Mace

Club

Javelin

Lance

Pole Arm (specifically pikes, or at least their equivalent)

Sling

Spear

Staff

So, for those reading along with their B\X books, that means every weapon except for the long bow, crossbow, and war hammer.

The new weapons are two in number, being the Egyptian bladed mace, and spearbreaker.

The Egyptian bladed mace is, quite simply, a normal mace with a large blade stuck on the back of it. Costs 16 gp (or rough equivalent, I'll post about money later) and deals 1d8 damage, and, if using weapon vs. armour class tables from AD&D, uses whichever is better: broadsword or mace (light or heavy, you decide).

The spearbreaker is essentially a handle with two sharp prongs, in which you catch a spear and proceed to snap it. Costs maybe 20 gp, and requires a roll to break the spear?

Now, onto armour in Mesopotamia.

Looking at the B\X list, we find shield, leather, mail, and plate.

Here is where I'm torn. The Mesopotamians had shields, leather, copper studded leather, and bronze or iron breastplates and other such armour. My initial thought is to keep the B\X armour list as is, but swap mail for studded leather and just note that plate is essentially a breastplate and maybe greaves, over some leather armour.

That's it for now, next up: Money in Mesopotamia

Mesopotamian Setting

So, I've decided to start work on a fantasy Mesopotamian setting for D&D, although I might end up running it under a different system.

For the purpose of the blog, I will post the setting information on this blog.

So, I am stuck with a few things, and as I hate making decisions, I've put up two polls.

The first one is for the era in which to set it:

1. The Empire of Sargon the Great. About early 2000 BC, Sumerians have fairly recently been conquered, so, while Akkaddian is still the common tongue, a large amount of people will speak

Sumerian.

2. The 'middle age'. There are several empires: The Hittite Empire, Babylonian Empire, Assyrian Empire, and the Egyptian Empire, so a lot of food for conflict.

3. The Assyrian Empire at its height, in 650 BC. This also has the advantage of a more civilised Europe and western Africa, allowing the players to go to more familiar waters if they want.

So that's the first one, and the last one, the level of fantasy:

1. Normal D&D level, with magic and monsters everywhere.

2. 'Historical' level, with all their beliefs being real (ruins infested with demons, etc.)

3. Somewhere in between the two.

Cool, hope you make the decision for me!