Lost Fable Character Generator

 I recently had the pleasure of looking over a draft of Hilander's OSR game Lost Fable in preparation of running an adventure with that system, and thought that making a PC generator would be a quick way to come to grips with the system. Turns out it was! The names are a combination of "medieval" examples from baby name websites or modified Gygaxian gibberish names. Epithets and personality traits are pulled from lists I've previously used in other generators. Everything else is straight from the book.

Wildernesscrawl Notes: Fellowship of the Ring

I recently had the joy of listening to Fellowship of the Ring in audiobook format, and took the opportunity to take notes about the journey the characters took as they traveled from the Shire to Tol Brandir, where the book ends. Specifically, I wanted to compare the journey to my country-as-dungeon idea and see how a tale famous for its description of adventurous travel differs from the experience I have been setting up. At the end of this post I'll reproduce the notes I made, but I expect them to be only of passing interest.

Instead, here are the observations I made.

1. Middle Earth is big! Using my ad hoc and approximate standard for converting a continuous journey into distinct regions, the party saw 20-25 areas while trying to efficiently cover ground in a long journey. If they were trying to fully explore each region like a party "clearing" a dungeon, the full Fellowship countrycrawl could easily be 100-200 keyed areas, ignoring true dungeons and adventure locations like Moria that would want to be keyed themselves. My "megawildernesscrawl" is probably as small as possible to try to recreate this feel, and it feels notably smaller than Middle Earth.

2. Tolkien makes many of the "doors" between regions distinct landmarks in their own right. Passes, gates, and rapids see love. This is probably something worth emulating.

3. There are a good mix of regions we would categorize as being of the empty, monster, treasure, trap, and special types. Most of the traps serve to confound and challenge travel through the wildernesscrawl, cutting off routes or requiring some expertise or preparation to overcome.  

 4. Gandalf and Aragorn understand the lands they travel through. They can distill their reasoning for the routes they take to relatively simple considerations that are easy to follow, avoiding dangerous places and choosing which obstacles they want to risk. There are enough dangers that it is clear there is no totally safe path to pick.

5. There is pressure on the party. They face many hostile random encounters, and there is a strong, well-framed reason that so much threatens them. A malevolent force is actively attempting to impede them, giving the wildernesscrawl  a "mythic underworld" hostility.

Click for full-size.

Route Notes

I'm certain this is not all accurate, but I believe it is accurate enough for me to learn principles from. Indented entries are mentioned routes or routes the Fellowship intended to take, but ultimately did not.

For connections between regions, I use D ("door") for normal connections, S for secret connections, R for connections that require a ranger or elf, X for blocked connections, and L for locked ones.

Hobbiton

D

Buckland

D: east gate

S: brandybuck hedge gate to West Old Wood

West Old Wood

X: due east (old man willow’s choice)

X: due north (old man willow’s choice)

D

Barrow Downs

D

Bree

D

outlying villages

D

main road

And

D

Wooded country

R

Midgewater Marshes - slows travel

D

Line of hills (Weathertop)

D

Main road again

D

Wilderness - slows travel

D Last Bridge

Hills - slows travel

D

Troll country

X hills and passages 

Old path (cliffside troll hole)

L ford of Bruhenan (forbids evil)

Rivendell 

End book 1

Rivendell

D

Wooded country (routes not commonly known)

D

Treacherous swamps

D Holly Ridge

Hollin

D

Caradhras mountain

D Redhorn gate pass

Dindril Stair (deepvale)

D

Silverlode river

D

Great river

D

Secretwood

D

Siranon, the Gate Stream

L

Moria

D

Dimril Dale and (Mirrormere) (also accessed by Dimril stair from the Torrent river)

D

Northern Lothlorien

D South-facing gate

Caras Galadhon

D Mouth of Anduin 

(Western Side)

Depopulated Borderlands

D

bleak wolds

D

Barren country of stony vales 

D Amon hen

(Eastern Side)

D

The Brown Lands

D

Barren country of stony vales

D Amon Lhaw

D

Bleak hills (Rohan)

D 

Bleak marshes 

Mordor 

(Route for Delaying their Choice)

Anduin the Great River

D

River past the brownlands

D

Gravel shoals

D Rapids of Sarn Gebir (also leads to western shore with Open Doors roll)

More river

D Argonath, the pillars of the kings

Tindrock/Tol brandir/

D

More river

D Great falls of rauros

The Nindalf/The Wetwang

D

The entwash (to Fangorn)

Alternate Moralities

The use of loyalty and morale in adventure games is well-trod ground. I like to introduce slight variations. An example rule for standard loyalty might be something like

"Each creature has a Morale score between 2 and 12. The average is 5 for peasants and animals, and  7 for veteran fighters. When put in peril, or when a fight turns against them, or when something freaky happens, roll 2d6. If it exceeds their Morale they flee or otherwise desist from their course."

(I like to keep Morale scores a bit lower than the average retroclone.) This kind of rule is a mainstay for a reason, but introducing little twists is a good way to suggest behavior that makes sense for more kinds of creature, and if such creatures ever become available to PCs as potential retainers, the player will have a better sense of the kind of choice they're making when choosing between different kinds of followers.

d10 Alternate Loyalties

1. Regret: the ethos of those who live too long, both forgetting what it is to be part of the world and cherishing the last good things of the dying age. When they're likely to die, or when annihilation seems possible, or when they must destroy something irreplaceable, elves and angels test Regret or flee, taking any beautiful objects or innocent creatures they can and forsaking tainted items or ugly creatures.

2. Pride: the resort of those who believe their life station confers metaphysical significance. When they consider doing something ignominious or subtle, or when something freaky happens, marquises and samurai test Pride or double-down, taking on the problem in the most head-on, gallant, and daredevil way.

3. Restraint: the necessity of the those who understand the thick veins of blood and of gold that determine how society really works. When they're offended, or mercy is called for, or when a fight turns against them, mercenaries and demons test Restraint or attempt to use rank violence to get out of the situation. This may involve massacring impudent villeins or shooting their patron in the leg so they can outrun whatever's chasing them. 

4. Fugue: the quality of illucidity, acting in harmony with dream-logic and narrative convenience. When cognitive dissonance hits them, or when things get real, or when long periods of mundanity happen, charmed creatures and fairies test Fugue or reconsider their actions, turning on those who've exploited them or fucking off home.

5. Grudge: the observance of justice by those who don't really know what it is, whose sense of history is exclusively personal and whose sense of impartiality is partial. When put in peril, or considering bygones, or greatly embarrassed, dwarves and orc test Grudge or deviate from their mission, blaming others and acting out of short-sighted hurt.

6. Rage: the comfort of those who forswear deviation, soporific in its simplifying ease.  When surprised with peril, or when a fight turns against them, or when something freaky happens, berserkers and angry mobs test Rage or see red and run headlong into danger.

7. Brotherhood: the affinity of those who know their natural inclination is to be covered in chagrin, and binds themselves in love as a wolfman binds himself in chains. When shirking peril their companions undertake, or about to dominate a fight, or when something freaky happens, knights and elementals test their Brotherhood or flee, or otherwise desist in their course.

8. Function: the rubric of those who cannot understand what cannot be measured. When hurt or damaged, or when leaders and masters stop making sense, or when something freaky happens, machinos and gnomes test Function or become confused, introducing eccentricity into their actions such as the inability to tell friend from foe, numbness to their own harm, or acting as though the task at hand is something else they're more familiar with.

9. Portent: the commission of those who have lost such things as fear, warmth, growth, and personal desire. When hurt or damaged, or when proven to be ill-led, or when something freaky happens, undead and zealots test their Portent or begin prognosticating, malingering, giving account, or enacting familiar mundane behaviors.

10. Bravado: the honor of those who consider personal virtues to only exist in the form of reputation and winner-takes-all myth-making. When put in peril, or when something freaky happens, or when there's a good opportunity for a double-cross, pirates and thieves test their Bravado or sell out their loyalties for the more certain payday, taking any valuable items or easy hostages they can and forsaking all responsibility to previous commitments.