Welcome

Shadow Over Sojenka - An Old-School Campaign

 Welcome to Shadow Over Sojenka, an old-school D&D campaign designed to explore the second oldest dungeon of all, Tonisborg! We will be ...

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

1:1 Time and Downtime Play

 Last time we discussed Faction Play in the Sojenka Campaign.

Time in the Campaign

Healing takes time.
Recruiting hirelings and henchmen takes time.
Magic Users can scribe spells onto scrolls, which takes time.
All these and more can be done between sessions, in Downtime.

1:1 Timekeeping allows characters to do things when they aren't actually adventuring. This helps create a realistic world-in-motion.

Session Time

Time in the Campaign passes at a flexible rate during a play session. It's possible for a party to spend a day gathering supplies (for example, April 1st), three days traveling, and April fifth & sixth exploring a dungeon or ruin. On the seventh day, they will need to spend the day resting. Then they spend three more days getting back home, for a total elapsed time of 10 days. The party will be available to start adventuring again on April 11th.

If the next session is scheduled for April 8th, this party of characters will be "in the future", and the Players will need to run a different set of characters. These "new" characters become part of each player's troupe of PCs.

While the new PCs are having an adventure session, the original group is returning from their expedition. After returning home, they will have four days, April 11-14, for Downtime activities.
If the second group makes it home again before the 14th, the Players will be able to choose how to team up the various characters for the next adventure session.

Campaign Time & Downtime

As the Campaign progresses, players will likely have characters in different places on the map, and at different times in the calendar. Players can use these time differences to their advantage by having characters that are not in active play work on assorted activities. 
Characters in downtime may pursue actions like writing scrolls, rumor-mongering, recruiting, or treasure-hunting.
Characters can extend their reach even further by sending their various henchmen to work these Hijinks as well.

The henchman network in Downtime is the true power of Faction play.

Downtime Activities: Hijinks


Spying

Spying is the clandestine retrieval of secrets from powerful and influential figures. For spying to succeed, the perpetrator must make a successful Intelligence TR roll. If the TR roll is successful, the perpetrator learns advanced intelligence, secret facts, or other highly valuable information from the perpetrator's area of operation. The boss earns 2d12x100 GP per level of the perpetrator exploiting the valuable secret. (If desired, the Referee can provide specific secrets valuable within the ongoing campaign instead of money). If the (skill check) TR roll is a Basic Failure, the perpetrator learns nothing. If the (skill check) TR roll is a Terrible Failure, the perpetrator has been caught. If caught, determine charges with a 1d6 roll: eavesdropping (1-3), sedition (4-5), or treason (6). If the (skill check) TR roll is a Catastrophic Failure, the perpetrator has been caught for Treason and the penalty is likely Death.


Treasure-Hunting

Treasure-hunting covers all manner of skulking and scavenging for treasure maps and rumors of hidden wealth. For treasure-hunting to succeed, the perpetrator must make a successful Wisdom TR roll. If the TR roll is successful, the perpetrator finds a treasure map to a random hoard worth 1d6 x 1,000 GP per level of the perpetrator. The Referee determines the exact location of the hoard; hoards will generally be 6 miles away from the boss’s hideout for each 1,000 GP value. If the (skill check) TR roll fails, the perpetrator finds nothing. If caught, determine charges with a 1d6 roll (add +2 for Catastrophic Failure):  trespassing (1-3), theft (4-5), or burglary (6).


Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Spears Over Sojenka - How to Play Factions

 Introducing Spears Over Sojenka

This supplement is designed to familiarize Players of the Shadow Over SojenkaTM Campaign with the Wargame Perspective of Campaign play.

Role playing games, the Dragon game in particular, evolved from wargame campaigns. The inventors of the game were familiar with fighting battles on the tabletop using miniature soldiers. These were not typically one-off battles, rather, they were often historical battles played in succession as part of exploring a historical campaign.

The wargame clubs would also run series of games that were not particularly historical, but followed the same linked trajectory. We might call them “What If?” Scenarios, where the winner of a historical battle might lose this game on the tabletop, and the loss would have repercussions for future battles.

Through the innovation of the Braunstein game, this type of what if gaming spread across genres, from European history, to the Old West (“Brownstone”), and on to the realm of Fantasy (Blackmoor).

This evolution from an Army-scale POV to a Character-scale POV was an important inflection point in gaming history. This innovation made a large paradigm shift possible, creating an entirely new style and format of wargaming.

The referee was still responsible for creating or outlining a set of starting conditions for a game, but once the Players starting moving and interacting, those Players drove the narrative direction of the game.

With the creation of Braunstein, Blackmoor and Greyhawk, the narrative of the game became emergent, rather than pre-determined.

Instead of getting together to trace the steps of, say, Napoleon’s generals in the Iberian Peninsula, the referee would tell the Players something like, “Spain falls into civil war. England and Portugal support one side, and France supports the other. What do you want to do?”

The Shadow Over SojenkaTM

At the beginning of the campaign each Player and Patron controls a Faction. For the Players and some of the Patrons, this means a single character, troupe of characters, or NPC.

Players are the participants in the Campaign that attend the game sessions.

Patrons participate behind the scenes in a Braunstein game, controlling various important NPCs. The Patrons bring these NPCs to life, giving them direction and responding to events as they unfold. Patrons play the game as though in perpetual Downtime.

To win the Campaign your Faction simply needs to achieve its objective. These can be great or small, and may or may not be completed at the expense of another Faction. You are allowed to ally with or oppose other Factions as you see fit. The task of the Referee will be to adjudicate any conflicts as they arise.

The overarching theme of the Campaign is for the Player Factions to plumb the depths of the Lost Dungeon of Tonisborg in order to gain control of the treasures and secrets it contains. The power and glory this brings can lead to control of the city of Sojenka and even the Province of Kordun!

How you and your Faction decide to achieve this goal is up to you!

Factions

The Shadow Over SojenkaTM Campaign setting includes many lands, with their rulers and vassals. Some cities are controlled by powerful, leveled individuals, others by councils or clergy. Guilds manage the various tasks that support the pillars of civilization. NPCs and powerful monsters have their agendas, free from the confines of an urban area.

What is a Faction

Faction – noun – a small, organized dissenting group within a larger group, especially in politics

In the Shadow Over SojenkaTM, a Faction is a group of people, Humans or Humanoids, that share a common goal. This goal could be anything from the worship of a particular god/pantheon, the cheesemakers in a town or Barony, or simply the citizens of a nation. Any given person may be a member of multiple Factions.

Faction membership can be public, as in the case of a merchant guild, or secret, like a thief’s syndicate.

Membership in a Faction usually confers various benefits or disadvantages compared to those outside the group. Some Factions will have uniforms, a common language or trade, religion, Patron, or culture.

In the SojenkaTM Campaign Setting Factions are an important part of maintaining the verisimilitude of the greater world. This greater world exists independently of the PC adventurers. While the PCs can and will have an impact on the world and setting, the Campaign will move and develop outside of session play, through the individual activities of the various Factions. At this level, we mean kingdoms, nations, tribes and religions.

The finest level of granularity is the Adventuring Party itself. This consists of your character and those of the other players, but also Hirelings, Henchmen, Retainers, and Entourage.

From time to time the PCs may find themselves needing to ally with one or more factions against another group or find themselves the targets of a Faction’s ire. Some Factions and their leaders are universally known, like the Swords of the Red Prince, or The Brethren of the Order of the All-Seeing Eye. Other Factions are secret, or of lesser renown, such as the Prophets of the Chosen or the Vigilant of Xattok, consisting of only a handful of individuals.

The Domain Game Begins with Session One

In the Old School style of play, the world is a very dangerous place. A small group of 3-5 men and women can easily be swallowed up by the dangers of the howling wilderness between settlements. Historically the solution is to bring some hired help on these expeditions.

PCs who hire people to assist them to survive and overcome the dangers of the wilderness are creating the seed of their very own Faction.

In so-called “modern” play styles, the concept of these hirelings and henchmen has been discarded in favor of making the PCs more capable and powerful on their own.

I believe the “modern” style is a truncated and inferior mode of play. The combination of 1:1 time, multiple characters per player, and establishing a personal Faction encourages a deeper, richer, more involved gaming experience.

Why Create a Faction

The primary reason to create a Faction for your PC is that you dream of rising in power & reputation, all the way up to your own Barony or Kingdom. Your PC is much more likely to survive to higher levels if they have a cadre of trusted companions and troops of men at arms. The AD&D Monster Manual suggests a random wilderness encounter could be with as many as 300 Orcs! Few adventuring parties can go toe-to-toe with an actual army.

Building & maintaining an organization is an expanded concept of the fantasy role-playing game concept. It opens more possibilities for play, more scenarios, and session ideas. Faction play means your PC can go beyond the dungeon crawl, the hex crawl, and the urban murder mystery. You can free the village from the raiding humanoids with your army. You can join a military campaign with your liege to protect the kingdom from invaders. You can get involved in regional & national-level politics.

All these methods of play provide skills useful to your PC, not to mention Contacts and Allies when the time comes to establish your domain.

How to Build a Faction

The first step in establishing a Faction is to recruit some hirelings, people to join you in your adventures. A group of beginning PCs with average starting funds can afford to hire a few men-at-arms to act as guards and combatants. With Magic Users being so ineffective in combat, it becomes imperative for them to create a personal guard. A first-level Fighter PC has the experience and know-how to act as a Serjeant for up to ten men.

A troop of ten men, kitted out as Light Infantry, is enough to prevent a dangerous encounter from becoming deadly, or fatal.

What Does a Faction Do

Over time your PC and the adventuring party will be able to afford to hire more men, more Specialist or Expert Hirelings, and dedicated officers to lead them. By the second or third level, it will be time for your PC to establish a Homestead. This will attract more skilled NPCs to join your group. These trusted companions are very useful for guarding your accumulated loot, treasures, and the safety of your person & home.

Your Homestead attracts hirelings who form your Entourage. These retainers should be put to work at Hijinks like Swaggering & Treasure Hunting between sessions or while your PC is away training or on long-term adventures. Successful hijinks generate new Contacts, Rumors of adventure, and possible maps to lost hoards!

Your PC will need the results of these Hijinks, Contacts, and loot, to build or refurbish a Stronghold.

The Braunstein Game

A Faction or Domain Turn occurs over the course of one month (Calendar days). Barring unusual events, the Faction/Domain morale is adjusted every Quarter.

The Domain Growth phase occurs automatically for PCs of the appropriate level, as listed in the character class description. Wilderness Domains do not automatically draw families to settle.

Factions grow by recruiting new members and/or promoting Hirelings to Member status (if appicable).

The Congregant Growth phase is only applicable to PCs/NPCs that have built and staffed a religious structure.

The Revenue Collection phase must be performed by the Master of the Domain, or an officer of the court called a Bailiff. In larger Domains, the Bailiff will have deputies to assist in collection.

For Factions involved in mercantile or trade ventures, the revenue is collected as rent, trade goods exchanged, etc.

Campaign Activities include a wide range of actions. These include adjusting garrison levels, patrol frequency, trade issues, domain infrastructure, issuing decrees, and so on. 

Braunstein Patrons may engage in, or have Faction members engage in, the various Downtime hijinks or other time-consuming activities such as making scrolls/potions, etc. These activities may influence Faction/Domain morale.

The Braunstein Turn

1.    Faction/Domain Growth

2.    Congregant Growth

3.    Revenue Collection

4.    Campaign Activities: Complete responses to the previous month’s events. Write orders to NPCs/PCs for the coming month.

a.    Random Events

b.    Week One – DM Resolution

c.    Week Two - DM Resolution

d.    Week Three - DM Resolution

e.    Week Four - DM Resolution

5.    Expense Payments

6.    Faction/Domain Morale

Next we'll go over how to make all this work with 1:1 Time.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Languages of Kordun

Each of the species of Humanoid in Kordun Province speaks their own language and the Common Tongue, a simple trade language of the Empire. It is composed mostly of signs, motions, and short sounds for simple commands.

Most Humans speak Vernac, the language of middle-to-lower class individuals.

Some, more educated Humans, speak a more difficult language called High Imperial.

Very few individuals in Kordun Province speak Old Jacinth, the lost tongue of the First Men to live on this shore. The mighty sorcerers who raised the Jacinth Tower, that still stands today.

The Amazons and Berzerkers have their own, highly accented and idiosyncratic versions of Vernac. They can be very difficult to understand when speaking quickly to each other in their native dialect.

Species Languages

Dagonite 

Dreenoi 

Dwarf 

Elf 

Halfling 

Human - Amazon - Berzerker - High Imperial - Old Jacinth

NPC Humanoids

Cyclopian

Deep One

Gnoll

Goblin

Hobgoblin

Lizard Folk

Ogre

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Shadow Over Sojenka - An Old-School Campaign

 Welcome to Shadow Over Sojenka, an old-school D&D campaign designed to explore the second oldest dungeon of all, Tonisborg!



We will be using the Blueholme rules for the campaign, Rules As Written (for the most part). There will be a few small, cosmetic changes to fit the setting. You can download a free copy of the rules from DriveThru here - Blueholme Prentice.

BLUEHOLME™ Prentice Rules is a table top fantasy roleplaying game that emulates the game play of the original basic rule book, popularly known as the Holmes Edition or simply the Blue Book.



The campaign will be more than just the Tonisborg dungeon. There will be a complete region to explore, with lost tombs, buried treasure, haunted forests, and more.



Filling in the Blanks by Todd Leback will be used for designing the hexcrawl area.

I reserve the right to create new monsters, re-skin old ones, and change things up from time to time to keep things exciting. Expect Cosmic horror, a little Body horror, and lots of counting arrows.

Dungeons and Dragons is based on a miniature wargame, there could very well be some massed combat! If so, we'll use the Chainmail rules.

We'll be playing weekly, using Discord voice. The Campaign will use 1:1 Timekeeping, multiple characters for each player, and other Old-School play techniques.

Philosophy of Old-School Play



As Dungeon Master I will be utilizing all of the classic play methods to establish and reinforce these underlying concepts:

  • Alignment as Worldbuilding and Game Mechanic
  • Encumbrance
  • Morale
  • Reaction Rolls
  • Time in the Campaign – 1:1 Time
  • Level Training
  • Spell Research
  • Factions
    • NPCs ruling Domains
    • NPCs in charge of Guilds or Trading Houses
    • Tribes of Bandits, Nomads or Humanoids
    • Various Religious Cults
    • Adventuring Companies
    • Powerful Individuals without Domains and 
  • Henchmen/Hirelings

Be sure to subscribe for session reports and other updates!

(I'll be setting up a yootoob channel later)