TEXT: The Silven
  Trumpeter
  The Official Magazine of       Silven Crossroads
  Silven Trumpeter 04 - November 2003 Edition
  http://www.silven.com
  COVER STORY:
  Antipodean Adventures : Ned Kelly
  by Shane Cubis
  page 39
  Todd Lockwood Interview
  We interview a leading fantasy artist
  who contributed to the Core Rule 
  books for D&D 3e
  page 13
  Through the lens of 
  history
  We introduce a new monthly
  column by Sean Holland
  page 22
  
  From the Editor
  Welcome to the fourth edition of the Silven Trumpeter.  This month 
  marks a very important time at Silven Crossroads—the celebration 
  of our one-year anniversary!  Several special events are planned at 
  various times throughout the month, including a birthday chat and 
  prize giveaways.
  While we are only on the 4th edition of the Silven Trumpeter, the 
  online version of the zine itself has been around since the conception 
  of the site.  While the number of writers and topics has expanded 
  significantly, the zine has always maintained the same standards of 
  high quality and reaching out to a broad audience.
  This month our feature comes from Shane Cubis, our resident 
  Australian loremaster.  Along with our regular regiment of your 
  favorite authors, we are premiering three new columns: Player 
  Characterization, Faith Based Initiative, and Through The Lens of 
  History.  
  As always, feel free to contact me with your rants, comments, or 
  suggestions.
  Best Regards,
  Dana Driscoll
          Dn Drsc
  Editor In Chief
  Silven Crossroads E-zine
  Sound off!
  Got an urge to send a note to our 
  editor? Would you like to volunteer 
  as a writer? Have comments about 
  an article?
  Write to Dana at :
  adriayna@yahoo.com
  
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  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Top Industry News
  Exit Blizzard, Enter Flagship Studios
  Flagship Studios, the new software development firm formed by a 
  group of key figures who recently left Blizzard Entertainment, has 
  launched their official website and revealed some details about the 
  mission of the company. While their first game has not yet been 
  announced, you can check out who they are and what they hope 
  to accomplish as a new and innovative force in the interactive 
  entertainment industry.
  http://www.silven.com/pcmac.asp?case=show&id=166
  Wizards of the Coast sues Nintendo 
  WoTC is suing Nintendo over patent infringement. 
  ICV2 has the scoop.
  http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/3675.html
  Humanhead Games has Released a Free Adventure
  Following in the wake of their successful Redhurst 
  Academy d20 accessory, Humanhead Games have now 
  released a free adventure to compliment the Redhurst 
  Academy title. Download it here:
  http://www.humanhead.com/hhgames/RAM/
  ram.html#ramadv01
  Wizards of the Coast Cancels Upcoming Miniatures 
  Lines 
  “Wizards of the Coast today announced that it 
  will not be releasing the two Dungeons & Dragons 
  nonrandomized miniatures products: Orc War Party 
  and Outlaw War Party. The decision was both a 
  business-related one, as well as one based on player 
  feedback. Both products were scheduled to release in 
  February 2004. For more information on their other 
  D&D miniatures products and the miniatures skirmish 
  game, visit the Miniatures section of the Dungeons & 
  Dragons website or the miniatures product information 
  listings.”
  http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/minis
  EnWorld Saved by the Community
  EnWorld, one of the premiere d20 portals on the 
  Internet announced earlier this week that it may have 
  to shut down due to major financial problems.  In a 
  phenomenal show of support, the site-wide community 
  raised a massive $16,000 USD, in just 24 hours, to 
  pay of the site’s debts.
  Read all about it here:
  http://www.enworld.org
  Paradigm Press Announces Two New Products for its 
  Spacebuckler d20 Line
  Twisted Paradigm Press announces three new titles 
  for its 2004 product line in support of its upcoming 
  d20 System role-playing game Spacebuckler, a unique 
  space opera set in an alternate Age of Sail. 
  The three new titles are: 
  • 
  Spacebuckler: Blades and Broadsides, a 
  supplement for soldiers and sailors with new 
  rules for swashbuckling swordplay and a 
  wealth of setting information, to be released 
  Spring 2004 
  • 
  Spacebuckler: The Great Work, the definitive 
  d20 System supplement for alchemy and 
  alchemists with a grounding in the real-world 
  Western Mystery Tradition, due out in early 
  Summer 2004 
  • 
  Spacebuckler: Mysteries of Venus, the first 
  of many “planetbooks” featuring in-depth 
  descriptions of the jungle planet and the 
  surprisingly complex culture of its primitive 
  reptilian denizens, due out in late Summer 
  2004 
  All three titles will be published in .PDF format and 
  made available for sale on RPGnow.com.
  Details are at the company website below:
  http://www.spacebuckler.com/pressrelease2.html
  General RPG
  
  The Contents Page
  Features
  Top Industry News...........................3
  Gaming Tips....................................5
  by Scott Fitz
  Earl Munster on the Glorious Nature of 
  Curses...........................................7
  by Kosala Ubayasekara
  Interview with Todd Lockwood.........13
  by Kosala Ubayasekara
  d20 Reviews..................................17
  by assorted writers
  PvP, Is it for You.............................18
  by Magnus Kaliptic
  Shirts or Skins.. ............................19
  by Raymond Huling
  d20 Monster : The Bridge Wight.......33
  by Eric Runyan
  Monthly Columns
  Through the Lens of History.............22
  by Sean Holland
  Chatting with Gary Gygax................28
  by Kosala Ubayasekara & Gary Gygax
  Faith Based Initiative......................30
  by Eyton Bernstein
  Player Characterization : The Organic 
  Method.........................................34
  by Pike Stephenson
  Polyglot........................................36
  by Dana Driscoll
  Antipodean Adventures...................39
  by Shane Cubis
  Fiction
  Will, the Word and the Way.............09
  by Edward Kopp
  Rebels in the Dungeon, Part 1..........25
  by Raymond Huling
  Star’s Night - Part 3.......................42
  by Aaron Todd
  Maps and Gaming Aids
  The Cartographer’s Corner ..............45
  This month we bring you the first part of a 
  tutorial on mapmaking
  Humor
  RPG Wars......................................12
  by Kou and Ali
  The Fodder Canon..........................47
  Monthly news from the City of Silven
  Publisher Details and Legal
  Legal notice and contact info...........49
  image by Florin Badita
  
  5
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  If you are a GM, no matter what genre or game you play, you will frequently find yourself in need of quality allies 
  and enemies for your campaign and simultaneously find yourself pressed for time. Just any old NPC will often not 
  do. You want someone with a full conception and a good personal history.  The problem of creating quality NPCs 
  is a problem every GM can appreciate. 
  This problem takes on a whole new level for the GMs of certain genres or games.  Take super-hero GMs for 
  example. The additional mechanics required make ”throwing together” an NPC at the last moment much, much, 
  more difficult. There is an entire layer of mechanics beyond the conventional stats/skill/archetype-class bit. The 
  difficulty of creating a good NPC is one of the reasons why GM’s constantly recycle the same old staid villains.  
  Games with complicated background and mechanic systems make creating characters a time consuming process.
  Yet, there is a solution. And you don’t have to call in the next five minutes in response to an infomercial.  
  While I was running a super-hero campaign, the solution presented itself in the comic book source material: 
  Mirror characters. For example, the Squadron Supreme and the Imperial Guard are skewed copies of the Justice 
  League and Legion of Superheroes (of their time). Even though the characters were new, we the fans knew 
  what to expect from them because of the characters they were based upon. It was both fan homage and a great 
  writing tool that allowed great characterization on brand new characters.  
  And you are asking yourself... ”SO!?! What is he rambling about and how is this applicable to gaming?” 
  You can mirror characters and use them in your game. Choose a character you know well. These characters can 
  come from any source: books, television, movies, comics, or videogames. Historical figures will work as well.  
  Use the character as the inspiration for filling in the blanks of the character history, conception, and personal 
  information. The character you find is also used as a template for the type of skills and special abilities the 
  created character should have.  The new character is reflection of the original.  
  A direct or true reflection is simply copying the character directly into your game. The problem with true 
  reflections, besides being lame most of the time, is that the other players may argue with you about what the 
  ”true” stats/skills/level/class/etc and history of each character are that you copied. If your players are fans, 
  you will have the old adage, ”Get three fans together and you will have four opinions.” Perfect reflections of 
  characters cause problems, where NPCs only based on a character allow you most of the advantages and none of 
  the drawbacks. 
  Taking the analogy a bit further, there are many kinds of mirrors, most of them the fun-house kind. There are 
  three main variations, Distorted, Dark/Tinted, and Combined.
  Distorted characters are characters based on existing character. You change one or two things, and you have a 
  brand new character. For example: The Night: An acrobat with a radar sense, who is a blind judge by day and a 
  vigilante for justice at night, is basically DareDevil. Quantum, Blond Mega-Hero from another planet, fighting for 
  truth justice and peace is basically Superman (or the Martian Manhunter) with a different costume and different 
  weakness. Chance, a beautiful, red-headed mutant probability shifter with an evil villain for a father (Speedster) 
  and brother (Sonics) is the Scarlet Witch with the serial numbers filed off and stuffed in a new costume. Captain 
  Dorshan, an experienced, bald, submarine captain, with a Shakespearian actor’s English accent, is obviously 
  Captain Picard of STNG fame. 
  Try the ”mirror character” technique and see how this makes things much easier. You know the characters, 
  their skills, powers, abilities, and their stories. Someone else has done all the hard work for you, creating 
  and developing the character. You can adapt every aspect you need for your game and ignore the rest of the 
  character’s continuity. If any questions come up, you can think about the character’s original continuity and 
  make a decision based on it. These adaptations allow you to ignore the problems you will have if you copy the 
  characters directly. 
  Dark or tinted mirror characters are just that, they are darker reflections—usually turning heroes into villains and 
  vise-versa. The hero’s conception becomes twisted so he becomes a villain. Here are some examples: Blaster, 
  a political activist and master of tactics with an optical blast is Cyclops. Hint: you can adapt the entire x-team if 
  you need villains. The Black Widow, a female acrobat with the proportional strength of a spider who does what 
  ever she wants without responsibility for her actions, is a female Spiderman. Agent Unknown, a female super-spy 
  whose Modus Operandi has to do with wigs and disguises, is Jennifer Gardner’s character on Alias with a different 
  allegiance. And this technique does work in reverse. The Punster, whose sanity snaps after being dunked in 
  chemicals to be permanently turned into a clown and fights crime with gadgets and a punch line, is a heroic 
  version of the Joker. His Nemesis is obviously The Bat, a psychotic killer who kills those who offend his sense of 
  justice. Dark mirror characters work well when you need a villain team in a pinch. 
  Gaming Tips by Scott Fitz 
            See it my way : Mirror Characters as a
              Tool for Quick, Quality NPCs
  DMing Advice
  
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
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  Combined characters are much like the amalgam characters, taking two heroes or villains and combining 
  elements from both of them, thus creating a mix.  The elements can be a combination from their personality, 
  history, skills, or abilities.  Imagine the changes in their world.  Imagine Clark (of Superman fame) being found 
  by the Wayne family, and not yet having his powers when his parents were shot down.  Take your favorite 
  detective character and place them in the body of a golem or other animate. That character might be the first 
  non-human detective or might become the leader of an animate revolt.  Imagine a Flash-like character that 
  shoots arrows like Green Arrow. Imagine the bad guys from Die Hard as the goblin minions in your campaign. 
  You see where this can be handy, but possibly more time consuming as there are more decisions to be made. 
  Groups are just as applicable to mirror. I was hard pressed for a heroic pirate and crew in a fantasy game, so 
  I pulled the Star Trek Original crew and came up with Captain Tiberius, a handsome, womanizing adventurer; 
  Vullan, a logical half-elven mage and first officer; Helmsman Su, a Samurai-esk adventurer; SKA-Ti, a 
  highlander half-orc as master of the sails; and The Bones, the creepy old medic. With one or two quick 
  decisions, I had a full crew, with a deep history, in a fraction of the time it would of taken for me to do it from 
  scratch. 
  Television or movies are another great source for finding single or group mirror characters.  Imagine the 
  characters like the ones from the TV show CSI, developing or being given powersuits and became superheroes 
  or being the crew of an exploratory vessel (”Captain Grisham to the bridge”). Take the characters from The 
  Sopranos and see them as the ”thieves guild” for your fantasy city or their developing powers after being 
  exposed to toxic waste. Bidda boom.. bidda bing... super Mafiosos. Your favorite movie bad guys become 
  the powerful nobles and henchmen your players are interacting with.  Using the mirror technique, you allow 
  someone to do most of the work; you just need to adapt that character to your needs.
  Fictional characters are not required. You can mirror the characters in your own campaign.  If you want to 
  truly challenge the players, make copies of their character sheets and throw them against themselves (with 
  the serial numbers and appearances changed). Using previous copies of the characters, you can create generic 
  bad minion, or a younger and less experienced hero in training who looks up to the original character as a role 
  model.  This situation can be flattering, but can lead to awkward situations, especially if you change the gender. 
  In my Nippon game, our superior warrior, a ronin, was constantly challenged to do better and work harder by an 
  ex-ronin sohi (temple guard) who was the same character, but of a higher level.  
  Mirror characters are a great tool for the busy GM.  They allow characters with depth and history to be created 
  almost instantly. These grand characters become a good reflection upon you, as your players appreciate the new 
  NPCs. And if they find out your secret, they will have fun trying to figure out who was the source character while 
  playing with the ”hauntingly familiar” characters.  All in all, mirror characters are excellent resource.  
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=65
  http://www.silven.com/print.asp?case=article&camefrom=ezine&id=65
  DMing Advice
  
  7
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  It was going to be another long night of campaign planning. 
  Armed with the traditional bag of chips and a pot of coffee, I was 
  seated in front of my computer, viewing the latest modifications 
  of my campaign map. I had been flooded with ideas all day and 
  my fingers were itching to put it down on paper before I forgot. 
  The fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard...but wait. What 
  was this? Everything on the screen was funny. The words were 
  being written backwards!  I tried typing in a few more sentences. 
  There was no doubt about it. It was as if the screen knew what I 
  was going to type in advance and was printing it backwards. 
  I got up with a start, consummately annoyed at this interruption 
  to my creative flux. I gave it another try for several more 
  minutes, attempting every possible variation, before giving up 
  with a flurry of gesticulations and banging my head off of the 
  keyboard. Suddenly, I heard a quiet chuckle behind me and 
  whirled just in time to see a shimmering in the air in my room, 
  heralding the occasional arrival of my otherworldly visitor. The 
  short, stout figure that materialised was wearing a familiar blue 
  cloak, but the face was different. Great, wild strands of hair shot 
  of his head at every angle and a white moustache covered the 
  upper lip. 
  “Gveetings my young earthly fvend!” said the figure.  
  The voice was unmistakably that of Earl Munster, renowned 
  mage and robed crusader. The face and accent however were 
  different...though strangely familiar. 
  “It is I,” he continued, “Earl Munster. I am merely tvying to 
  emulate that vonderous human specimen Halibut Einstein. Ze 
  only human vit enuf intelligence to hav become a magus!” 
  It all suddenly fell in place. The hair, the moustache...I slapped 
  myself on the forehead. Rushing over to give the little mage a 
  hug I whispered, “Its Albert. Albert Einstein.”  
  “Vatever,” came the inevitable reply.   “I have come to further 
  enlighten you modern age Dungeon Masters on a very handy 
  teknique that is not being utilised to its full potential.” 
  Seeing my blank look, he continued, “Ze curse my boy, ze curse. You DMs 
  curse far too little!” 
  Clapping his hands, the great Earl Munster prepared for yet another of his renowned lessons. The room 
  shimmered and darkness enveloped me, but I could still hear his voice, “Let me give you a demonstration of vat 
  I mean.” 
  The new surroundings were that of a typical, rush-hour common room. The last rays of a fast sinking sun 
  danced on metal goblets and serving wenches whirled around crowded tables and singing patrons. They seemed 
  not to notice Earl Munster and myself as we levitated slightly below the rafters. 
  Earl Munster on the Glorious Nature of Curses
  By Kosala Ubayasekara
  Author’s note:
  It is recommended that readers familiarize themselves with other articles featuring Earl Munster by checking out our 
  archives below:
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=11
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=16
  DMing Advice
  
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
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  “Take note, my boy, zat many a DM thinks of curses only in the terms of cursed weapons and items. But vat is 
  a curse actually? It is a hindrance to one’s preferred activity. Ze inability to achieve a particular goal or realise 
  ze conclusion to an endeavour, eventually driving ze cursed individual to a point of fvustration and apathy. 
  Therefore a cursed item zat merely inhibits your quality of combat is not zat effective in ze way of cursing ze 
  individual.” 
  I wasn’t actually quite with it, but I nodded politely anyway. The Albert Einstein of medieval fantasy continued, 
  “So, vat is vastly more effective is to give ze recipient of a curse ze inability to accomplish his or her most 
  pressing task. For example, see ze barbarian standing over zhere.” He was pointing at a largish brute of a man. 
  “Zat man has just zis evening stolen from a blind beggar, who has silently cursed him. Little is the barbarian 
  aware zat he is alveady paying his penance for his crime.” 
  As we watched, the barbarian took a loving look at the mug of dwarven ale in front of him, and swallowed 
  heartily. Astonishingly enough, it went into his mouth, poured out the back of his neck, and right onto the 
  floor! The astounded barbarian whirled around to stare at the pool of ale on the floor in amazement. The other 
  patrons seemed not to notice. The barbarian ordered another round and drank deeply. Once again the liquid 
  went into his mouth but poured right out again from the back of his neck. 
  “You see my boy, as a DM you could have punished ze barbarian’s act of thievery by giving him a cursed 
  weapon and inhibiting his combat skills for a time. However he would have found a way around it. But zis curse 
  enables him to taste his favourite drink in his mouth, but never to feel ze liquid in his belly, thereby denying 
  him his most favoured satisfaction. Ultimately it will drive him to madness or to a life of drinking milk. Both vill 
  be equally distressing to ze warrior” 
  “Creativity is of ze essence in finding ze right curse for a given individual. One zat proved tragic to one man 
  may be dealt with easily by another. So show some imagination as a DM when cursing your players.” 
  Clapping his hands, the little mage brought us back swiftly to my attic. “Now my boy, I must be off. I 
  apologise for the shortness of zis visit but I have zis pressing engagement earlier in your timeline with zis fool 
  Englishman who vishes to exchange his kingdom for a horze.” And that being said he faded away, still talking 
  to himself on how much help we humans needed.
  http://www.silven.com/print.asp?case=article&camefrom=ezine&id=60
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=60
  DMing Advice
  
  9
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Will, the Word and the Way
  by Edward J Kopp
  Awareness of the phenomenal world is stretched thin and is reluctant to come back to me. My heart and 
  respiration rate are so slow I appear perfectly motionless, my body folded into contortions that take years of 
  training to perfect. In this position, I am able to immerse myself in the Word and the Way, which allows me to 
  reach the noumena of the Holy Ancestors. As my sense of I returns the sounds of the jungle fill my ears. The 
  screams of predator and prey ring loud, a jungle cat takes one of the members of the troop of monkeys living 
  in the trees. I can smell the blood on the heavy, humid air. I blink once, twice, and the last golden rays of a 
  fiery orange sunset reflect off of the clear ocean surface. My breathing and heartbeat are back to normal and 
  the python I find coiled in my lap, soaking in the last of the sun’s warmth, slides away, as what it thought was 
  a warm stone becomes a living man. I’ve always wondered what it is about my meditative form that attracts all 
  form of snake.
  With slow deliberate movements I unfold my limbs. My body thrums with the energy I’ve been channeling from 
  the noumenal universal consciousness that is the Holy Ancestors. The will of the Holy Ancestors is with my 
  course of action; their approval made evident during today’s fast and meditation. As one of the Learned I have 
  been taught the Wisdom of the Holy Ancestors, unlike our brethren the Descended, who are born with Blood 
  Knowledge and direct descent from the Holy Ancestors. I have spent years of tutelage learning the Word and 
  the Way, which makes me the lesser half of our clerisy, one of the Learned. The Holy Ancestors revealed to me 
  during my meditations today that no living member of the Descended is more capable in the practice of the 
  Word and the Way than me. That can only mean our Honorable Father is dead.
  The Honorable Father has been in the decadent nation of Avyan with a mission of emissaries to bring the 
  Wisdom of the Holy Ancestors to the High Council of Avyan. I’m sure there were many secular reasons having 
  to do with trade and politics for going to Avyan, but the Honorable Father is considered the direct conduit 
  to the Holy Ancestors for the people of our island nation of Redin. His actions must always uphold the Word 
  and the Way. Today that conduit became me. The will of the Holy Ancestors filled the noumena and it was 
  revealed that my destiny is to lead our people. To do that I’ll have to break centuries of tradition that states 
  the Honorable Father is only raised from among the Descended. In breaking that tradition I may well break the 
  people of Redin.
  The recently departed Honorable Father had exiled me and my brother Learned to an ancient monastery on 
  a remote side of the main island, exiled because of the stirrings of militancy in our rhetoric. It takes news 
  two weeks to travel by our nations finest ship, one week less than any other sailing vessel. Yet it only takes 
  the Avyan flying vessel hours if they should lend one to bring the body and news back to Redin. Relations 
  between our two nations have been prickly at best for decades so I’m counting on the two-week advantage 
  of information to gather my brothers, throw out the Descended from power and step into the position of 
  Honorable Father to lead our people to a greater destiny. We have been training for such an opportunity for 
  generations. The Learned have discovered new ways to use the Word and the Way to give us a powerful 
  advantage, the ability to channel vast amounts of the energy that is the noumena of the Holy Ancestors 
  increasing our vitality, our strength and our prowess. And those few of us who are nearly as powerful as I have 
  become Warriors of the Word and the Way, channeling the universal will of the Holy Ancestors.
  As I prepare to leave my meditation clearing I feel something old and powerful nearby. I have felt this a 
  number of times before since arriving at the monastery three years ago. I had hoped not to leave the mystery 
  unanswered before seizing control of the Temple of Unity and the congregation of worshipful Redin. This will 
  be my last chance; for once I am Honorable Father I will have to focus on worship, not fanciful feelings of 
  antiquity. I concentrate and slow my breathing to the pulse of the night, feeling out into the dark with near 
  tangible will of the universal noumena. I snake a tendril out, weaving it in between the trees at the edge of 
  the clearing, casting about carefully for the power and great age I sensed. As I am getting closer a large form 
  moves out of the dark forest, lumbering on long limb it emerges out of the deeper darkness of the tree line.
  ”Do not waste your time or effort looking for me, you know I am here because I will it to be so,” it says in a 
  deep bestial basso.
  Before me stands one of the reclusive Ornus, a species of Ursava, the ancient bear brothers of the Dwarves. 
  They inhabit the deep inner jungles of our islands, far from the habitable coasts. This one must be old indeed 
  as grey hairs cover its snout and pepper the black mask that marks all Ornus. They are masters of cunning 
  and charm and find themselves at home in the shadows as well as the deep jungle. What brings this elder 
  representative to abandon the dark to speak with me is a mystery.
  Fiction
  
  10
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  All Rights Reserved.
  ”I do not find it a waste of my time to find myself in the company of one as ancient and wise as yourself, 
  Grandfather.”
  The Ornus is six feet at the shoulder when walking on all fours and stands upright to his full fourteen feet, then 
  sits down on his haunches. Folding his hand over what becomes a large round stomach, he looks at me with 
  serene intelligence and wisdom. The aura of great age and power emanate from him.
  ”You are still filled with the energy you channel from your Holy Ancestors. Your senses are heightened so now 
  is the time to tell you the truth about the death of your Honorable Father. You will know I am not deceiving 
  you,” he rumbles like a distant storm.
  ”How do you know the Honorable Father is dead? There has been no such news to the people of Redin. We 
  would be in mourning,” I say. I’m surprised that this Ornus knows what the Holy Ancestors have just revealed 
  to me.
  ”Your Holy Ancestors aren’t the only ones who can divine the truth about things that are far away. And you are 
  not the only one who knows he has died. It was by ritual suicide, after being disgraced before the Avyan High 
  Council by his elder daughter and the murder of his precious younger. But even then he was reacting to the 
  strings being pulled by a puppet master. Just as you are about to.”
  ”I am about to act out the will of the Holy Ancestors, not reacting to the jerk of some string. I will be the next 
  Honorable Father.” 
  ”And lead your people into a bloody civil war. Do you hunger for power so much you will shed the blood of your 
  people?”
  His comment is meant to dissuade me from the path that the Holy Ancestors have brought me to. If I had 
  not experienced the direct knowledge of the Holy Ancestors will meditating this very day, I might have been 
  persuaded to alter my course. But I am alive with energy of their divine will and know that the fire that burns 
  in my heart and soul cannot be false.
  ”My path is clear,” I say. ”It is the will of the Holy Ancestors that I become the Honorable Father and I cannot 
  ignore the will of my gods.”
  The ancient Ornus stares at me, reading deeply into my soul. I feel a struggle between our wills taking place 
  on a plane I travel through to visit the Holy Ancestors on the way to the noumena. For a moment his words 
  sound wise and I begin to trust his elder knowledge but I quickly feel the force of the Holy Ancestors flow 
  through me bringing me to my senses.
  ”What witchery do you try, Grandfather. Are your words not so truthful to be accepted on their own merit? Do 
  you need to persuade me with means other than truth and logic?”
  ”You do not understand what draconic labyrinth of subterfuge and lies awaits you. I had hoped it wouldn’t 
  come to forcing your will, but you force my need. I cannot cut the strings that pull you to this bloody 
  destination, but I can change how you walk the path.”
  The ursine elder stands to his full height, dwarfing my long and lean form. I feel true fear strike me as the 
  immensity of his power emanates in powerful waves of antiquity. Waving his hands in complicated patterns 
  he creates a vortex of power that swirls like a vermilion cyclone in front of him. Suddenly from some deep 
  powerful realm a burst of energy expands out in a rush, enveloping me briefly in ruby red clouds, which leave 
  me powerless to react. I felt the strength of the elder seep into every orifice filling me with an unnatural urge 
  to do something…I fight it, but he’s so powerful… 
  ”No! Stop what you’re doing… I must save my people; I must do the will of the Holy Ancestors! What are you 
  doing to me?”
  ”I would never interfere with the will of your Holy Ancestors for it was they who allowed my ancestors to live 
  here in secret many thousands of years ago. I have only changed the method by which you can achieve that 
  will. I have made it impossible for you or anything you say or do to lead to the bloodshed of your people. 
  Violence is never the best way.”
  I stand in shocked disbelief. ”What do you mean? The Descended will defy me and the will of the Holy 
  Ancestors because it breaks with tradition that has kept them in power and the Learned subjugated, even 
  though we are as Touched by the Holy Ancestors as any of them. They will not hesitate to shed our blood to 
  keep control and raise the next Honorable Father.”
  ”This I do not doubt. That is why it will be a great and worthy struggle to use peaceful means of passive 
  resistance to overcome their oppression. To stain your hands with the blood of your own people is in opposition 
  to everything your Holy Ancestors intended for the Redin. Blood begets blood. Your rule will be tainted with 
  Fiction
  
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  All Rights Reserved.
  blood and bloodshed will continue after you have taken the position of Honorable Father.”
  ”Many will follow you willingly. There is no denying the Learned have been wronged for many generations 
  and you know that you already have a great deal of support among the lay folk. But what of the Merchant 
  Cooperative? Will they willingly support your claims?”
  ”No,” I say. ”The soulless Merchants Cooperative is a front for the decadent and gold loving Avyan. They do not 
  understand matters of the clerisy and salvation. They support the Descended to maintain the status quo.”
  I can feel the ancient ones Geas upon me like a second skin, only tight, constricting and ill fitting. I know that 
  without my choosing I cannot use, promote nor condone violence in my bid for Honorable Father. How will I 
  ever bring my people into accordance with the will of the Holy Ancestors if we cannot even raise our hands in 
  defense? And yet how can I deny the will of the Holy Ancestors when it has been made so clear to me that it is 
  I who must lead us through these dangerous times.
  ”You have doomed my people Grandfather. I cannot see how we can protect ourselves, force the Descended to 
  allow me to become Honorable Father and save our island nation from what ever calamity the Holy Ancestors 
  are warning me about,” I say.
  ”You are still trying to fight. Conflict will not bring you to the seat of Honorable Father. Your enemies must 
  come to love you for your courage. Your strength will be there for all to see as you stay your hand, do not 
  gather the power given you by your Holy Ancestors, do not strike out in anger. Caress in loving-kindness. Cure 
  the afflicted and praise the Holy Ancestors for their wisdom. If what you have learned is true you cannot help 
  but win out. Love is always greater than Hate or Fear. You will rule with love from love freely given. Then you 
  will lead your people into a time of peace and prosperity.”
  ”This cannot be happening. I have become the head of the most powerful militant sect of Learned. We are 
  prepared and able to remove the Descended from positions of authority, by force if need be, and you have 
  destroyed all. I feel myself sicken inside just thinking about all the plans we have already made. Now I must 
  put a stop to them before it literally kills me. How is this just? My free will has been taken from me and why? 
  What care is it of the Ornus how the humans rule themselves? I thought you wanted us extinct, or at least 
  culled to a manageable number.”
  ”You understanding of me and my brethren is partial and fragmented at best. Yes, there are cousins of mine 
  among the Ursava who will happily devour this island filled of you humans. But the Arctos live far to the north 
  and sleep for long months at a time, sometimes years or decades. We Ornus are more interested in how you 
  interact with each other and with the Avyan in particular. They are not what they seem and draconic minds 
  more convoluted then yours or mine rule in that land of metals.”
  From deep in the shadows a dark featureless form emerges carrying a wooden chest bound with brass. This 
  shadow form places the chest before the ancient Ornus and withdraws into the stygian blackness under the 
  trees. Opening the chest with exquisite care the Ornus motions me forward to view the contents. Inside is 
  white bread in a peaked loaf as if pinched up into a point. I gasp as I recognize those funny shapes for Sha-
  man-na, food of the Gods.
  Reaching in and grasping a loaf of Sha-ma-na the Ornus breaks it in two. ”I break this bread with you to 
  journey inside the mind of the universe and discover the truths hidden there. Will you join me?”
  Stunned at what is being offered me, I’m almost without the capacity to speak. Some how I mumble out the 
  words, ”The honor is mine to share in knowing the universe with you ,old one. Are you here to guide me, 
  Grandfather?”
  ”We all journey our own path. I am just here to see you off on all the paths not taken. I will show you the 
  paths as we leave this place for many others but you will be on your own choosing from the vast multiverse 
  the path to universal peace.”
  Amazingly the Ornus then began to fold himself into permutations of positions of enlightenment I had never 
  seen before. Slowly I folded myself into the same form. The Ornus then handed me my half of the Sha-ma-
  na, which I placed on my crossed lap. Opening myself to the will of the Holy Ancestors I could feel the shiver 
  of energy slide into me telling me the Holy Ancestors are guiding my actions. I eat of the Sha-ma-na. It is 
  tasteless, without substance, yet slides down my throat like a liquid to fire through my stomach into my blood, 
  which thrums with power. I eat the rest in a single swallow. The Holy Ancestors burst through my brain and the 
  brilliance of their perfection blinds me with terror. All senses become one as the fear tastes like things sound 
  and the feel of the universe smells like knowledge. It is overwhelming and just as I think I can take no more I 
  rise to a higher level of truth and universal understanding.
  I feel the fear pass, leaving love. The all-pervasive love of the universe for itself is left. I feel that love growing 
  inside me, filling me with understanding. It is not a love of just the Holy Ancestors, though they are part 
  of that love. It’s love of the universe because it is a UNI-verse. A single entity composed of the parts that I 
  Fiction
  
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
  D&D / d20
  call reality and many more parts that I don’t have names for. The place I travel through to reach the Holy 
  Ancestors is part, the people of Redin are part, Kumari Kundun and Hanuman the Monkey King are part, 
  but there is something wrong with the Avyan. They are not entirely of this universe. There is a dark, winged 
  presence looming over them. It isn’t evil. It just doesn’t belong in this universe. 
  I pass over that for now, overwhelmed by the universe and how it is everything. It is part of me as I am made 
  of it. And the same phenomenal existence that is made of me shares some of phenomenal existence with the 
  old Grandfather sitting across from me in a pose that shows a high degree of understanding of the Ways and 
  we are the same. I can feel that what is me is him. We are the same, universal. I understand my Geas and 
  what it means.
  As one, I let the Ornus know I understand and that understanding is universal. I see my path with a new 
  strength of conviction and direction of purpose. The universal Truths have been revealed to me and it is my 
  purpose to teach the Learned and the Descended and bring us together in love of the Holy Ancestors, the 
  whole greater than it’s parts.
  Fiction
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  Humor
  by Kou and Ali
  
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  All Rights Reserved.
  Interview
  After much debate at 
  Silven Crossroads on 
  the thoughts behind the 
  kinds of art that go into 
  RPG books, we decided 
  we should dig further. 
  Todd Lockwood, one of 
  the artists that worked on 
  the D&D Core Rule books 
  was generous enough 
  to sit down with us and 
  answer some questions.
  Q1: To get us started 
  off, why don’t you tell 
  us a little about yourself 
  and how you got into art 
  as a career. 
  I was born and grew up in Boulder, Colorado. I had the 
  Rocky Mountains in my    backyard, and I got to see 
  the ”summer of love” through the eyes of an eleven 
  year old in a college town.  I watched Lost in Space in 
  the third grade, when G.I. Joe was new, and Star Trek 
  after that. Needless to say, science fiction consumed 
  my childhood. Later, in my teens, I discovered Tolkien’s 
  Lord of the Rings, and fantasy came to sit side by side 
  with science fiction in my heart. As an adult, I became 
  fascinated with mythology, particularly transformative 
  mythology and the hidden meanings of myth.  Joseph    
  Campbell is a hero of mine for his thoughtful and 
  thorough exploration of the world’s myths. 
  My first artistic influence, like so many in my field, was 
  Frank Frazetta. Later came Michael Whelan, though I 
  had some ad-world influences, too, particularly after I 
  started art school including David Wilcox, Peter Lloyd, 
  Boris, and Jeff Jones. But I really wanted to be Michael 
  Whelan.  I studied at the Colorado Institute of Art, 
  which is primarily a design school.  The quarter after I 
  graduated, they started conferring Associates Degrees 
  for the coursework I had finished, so I claim to have 
  an associates degree, though I technically don’t. I got 
  a good job in a hot design shop in Denver right out 
  of school, and won a bunch of awards—even a silver 
  medal in the Art Directors    Club of New York annual 
  show—but after a year and a half, I had had enough. 
  I left to pursue illustration.  I spent fifteen years doing 
  ad work. Coors was one of my biggest clients; I have 
  painted a lot of beer cans. I could do dew drops in my 
  sleep. At one point I had some covers that I had done 
  for Satellite Orbit Magazine in the CA Annual; for years 
  after that I was the ”satellite dish guy”. I came to really 
  hate satellite dishes.  If I had    ever had a painting 
  with both a beer can and a satellite dish in it, my ad 
  career would have been complete. 
  Throughout those years, I was an avid Dungeons 
  and Dragons player. My friends and I were still active 
  gamers when I left Colorado to work with TSR, though 
  we were playing a game called Earthdawn by then. I 
  flipped when TSR started having really good art on their 
  products.  Jeff Easley’s stuff particularly interested me: 
  so moody and fluid, so deft.  Then Brom came along 
  and really blew my doors off. I started to get more 
  and more frustrated with the work I was doing, stuck 
  in the wrong market. I had agents in New York—very 
  high-profile, reputable agents—who were simply not 
  interested in marketing me to the book companies. Or, 
  in doing their job.  I was doing work I hated, for people 
  without a clue. 
  Then Terry Czezcko at Asimov’s gave me a couple 
  of magazine covers. That was the    beginning. I felt 
  revived; I was painting things that interested me!  I 
  told her that I wanted more of that kind of work, 
  and she suggested that I hang a show at one of the 
  sci-fi/fantasy conventions, preferably WorldCon. I 
  said, ”hang a show at a what?” I had never heard of 
  sci-fi conventions.  I was that naive. I had heard of 
  GenCon, the premier gaming convention, but it was 
  in Milwaukee.  I wasn’t so rabid a D&D player that I 
  wanted to got that far for a game. I had no idea. But I 
  took my Asimov covers and some personal work    to 
  the WorldCon in Winnipeg. 
  It was a revelation!  I met other artists and saw 
  so much amazing work.  I wanted to hide my own 
  paintings—or burn them. But then I met Michael 
  Whelan, who responded very    favorably to the black 
  and white work I had done, particularly ”Cerberus”.  I 
  went home inspired, and determined to do more and 
  better work.  From Winnipeg I got some interior work 
  for Carl Gnam, at Realms of Fantasy and Science 
  Fiction Age magazines. With those two magazines and 
  my Asimov and Analog covers, I was starting to build 
  a portfolio of published work in the field I had always 
  wanted to be a part of. I fired my agents in New York. 
  My first work in the gaming industry was some cards 
  for Chaosium, and for Phil Foglio’s naughty deck. Then 
  a friend I made at a convention—a very good friend 
  and a talented, wonderful guy—David Martin, who has 
  been around the convention/gaming/sci-fi/fantasy block 
  more than a few times suggested me to an art director 
  at TSR.   I had sent TSR portfolios in the past, but they 
  didn’t want to look at ad work, and weren’t going to 
  give covers to someone who couldn’t show them what 
  they wanted to see. But now I had the beginnings 
  of a real portfolio. The art director, Stephen Daniele, 
  gave me a bunch of character portraits for one of the 
  Spellfire decks. Then he gave me some book covers for 
  TSR. Then, when Fred Fields and Robh Ruppel both quit 
  within a month of each other, a magical door opened. 
  It was very much a matter of being the right person in 
  the right place at the right time. I knew the games, had 
  done some work for them that they were happy with, 
  and they needed someone quickly. TSR had burned 
  some bridges with some    of their other prospects, but 
  that worked for me. I was happy to jump. 
  Silven Crossroads Interviews
  Fantasy Artist : Todd Lockwood
  U
  
  14
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  All Rights Reserved.
  Q2: How does the process of becoming a 
  professional artist work? How would a newbie 
  artist go about making his hobby a profession? 
  What advice would you give to artists aspiring for 
  their big break? 
  It’s not something you can be casual about. If you are 
  not passionate about pursuing a career in art, I can 
  guarantee you that your competition will be. Study, 
  draw, network, draw, paint, study, draw, visit museums, 
  get schooling, draw, paint, and go to art shows. And 
  draw. 
  I learned to draw by drawing from my head, observing 
  everything around me. My guess is that you did too. At 
  some point you realize that what’s in your head isn’t 
  sharp enough. I do the gesture sketches to get the 
  action and movement that I want, then shoot photos 
  of models as close to that as I can get (without forcing 
  them to do something unnatural) to provide details and 
  nuance of light and shadow. There are artists who do 
  everything    out of their heads; Jeff Easley for one, 
  but you can tell. He gets away with it because he has a 
  real sense of action and a distinctive style. I don’t think 
  most artists should try. I do it from time to time when 
  the characters aren’t really big and the lighting is fairly 
  simple, but I wouldn’t advise it until you’ve had a few 
  years of figure painting under your belt. Rick Berry is 
  another, and his figures are amazing. I swear I thought 
  he had a model that he used regularly... the guy just 
  has an incredible understanding of form and texture, 
  and the dynamics of light. I hate him. :o) 
  I also have an extensive ”scrap” or ”swipe” file that I’ve 
  built up over the years. I kept    every magazine that 
  ever came by me, and eventually cut all the pictures 
  out and organized them by category. I seldom find 
  exactly what I need, but I can always find enough 
  stuff close to what I need—a sky, a texture of tree-
  trunk, stone formations—to fake it believably. I also 
  ordered the Wildlife Fact File a few years back: every 
  month they send eight or so ”Fact File Cards” with 
  several photos each of different animal species. Right 
  now it comprises over five hundred file cards, and is 
  something I go to all the time to find a wing from the 
  right angle, or a cat’s leg that will help me see muscle 
  forms beneath, etc. They have started a new line of 
  cards now that I am starting to get; basically the same 
  thing, but bigger and with more pics—invaluable. 
  Fashion magazines can be a great place to go for 
  clothing inspiration or a good photo of a woman 
  when you need something basic in a pinch. Swimsuit 
  magazines can be good too: the poses are frequently 
  less weird    than in some venues. Porn mags—even 
  soft-core, like Playboy—are almost never useful. 
  I use the mirror, too, all the time, especially to check 
  my artwork. It’s a good trick for catching yourself 
  before you commit to a big mistake. When you see it 
  backwards, you bypass your preconceived notions of 
  what you are doing and see it as it is. Very useful. Also 
  look at it upside down and sideways; as it is especially 
  good for checking balance and composition.  Another 
  good trick I got from a book called ”Drawing From 
  the Right Side of Your Brain”: an exercise, really. You 
  take a magazine photo, any photo will do, and tack it 
  up upside down. Then draw it upside down. Or draw 
  it upside down, but reversed. Also draw with your left 
  hand from time to time. I do this when I am stuck on 
  something, and it just won’t look right. Set it aside, 
  do these exercises, and come back to it. Bang! Nail it 
  every time. It awakens that part of your brain that sees 
  forms as they are, not as you have taught yourself that 
  they are. 
  Do you have an art education? If not, get one. 
  It needn’t be fancy or expensive, but it needs to 
  accomplish some important things. The most important 
  thing for this genre, at least as you start your 
  education, is to get some basics right up front. Know 
  your anatomy, understand the color wheel, light and 
  shadow, perspective, and composition.    Basic design 
  matters an awful lot (look at Brom’s work). Don’t think 
  you can fake a human body unless you understand it 
  inside out—literally. Most artists shouldn’t try to fake it 
  ever. 
  Pay attention to everything, and I mean everything. 
  Biology, anatomy, engineering, math, astronomy, 
  meteorology, physics, religion, mythology—it all 
  comes into play at one time or another.  Computers 
  are changing everything, so it wouldn’t hurt to learn 
  computer    skills. More and more artwork is being 
  done for computer games, and the applications are 
  starting to get truly awesome. I suspect that 3D 
  computer art will be the best market for years to come. 
  A good concept artist is hard to come by, though, 
  and all the computer shops need ’em. That said, you 
  have to know your art skills, and never assume that 
  you have anything down ”well enough.” I can’t stress 
  this enough, even if you intend to work mostly on 
  computers. You can’t depend on computer applications 
  to do your lighting and    effects for you; you can’t 
  tell when the computer is getting it wrong if you are 
  letting it think for you. Learn what things really look 
  like by painting or drawing them. You have to know 
  your anatomy, composition, color theory—all the art 
  school basics. Learn to draw before you start to paint; 
  you can’t make a good painting from a bad drawing. 
  Find an art school that teaches the basics and is serious 
  about it. I’m afraid I don’t know of any myself- it’s been 
  too long, and I went to a design school.  I am my own 
  teacher, which    means that my teacher had no idea 
  what he was doing most of the time. ;-) 
  A friend of mine, Donato, had this to say about Art 
  Schools once, when asked a similar question in an 
  email discussion: 
  ”I’m not a big fan of ’pure art’ schools (School of 
  Visual Arts, FIT, RISD, Ringling School of Art....), 
  after teaching at two of them and being a practicing 
  professional, I wonder where all the THOUSANDS of 
  art students go each year after graduation. I am not 
  exaggerating about that number either. With each 
  passing year I have begun to appreciate the ’liberal 
  arts’ education I had partaken before, and the few 
  classes I had,    during my art training at Syracuse. 
  Technique helps a lot, but having a brain that works 
  on new ideas can carry you further. I am more a fan 
  of apprenticeship with an established pro. With that 
  all said, I recommend schools that are not purely art 
  schools, so that the curriculum is structured for a more 
  rounded education. 
  Syracuse and RISD (with the option to take classes at 
  Brown University next door) are the only ones I am 
  familiar with first hand. It’s a tough balance to strike 
  Interview
  
  15
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  All Rights Reserved.
  because most schools have horrible art programs. 
  I spent 6.5 years getting my bachelors, and those    
  extra 2.5 years of classes made a HUGE difference. The 
  biggest factor in picking a school for art is not about the 
  school, but whether the person wants to be an artist.” 
  It’s true: attitude is far more important than anything 
  else. You must be willing to learn, *and never stop 
  learning.* I have seen a lot of artists with sterling 
  educations, who could    not ignite any passion in their 
  viewers. And I’ve seen artists with no formal training 
  that could blow your doors off. 
  Then, go where the artists doing the work you want 
  to do go to hang out. For science fiction and fantasy, 
  that would be science fiction and fantasy conventions. 
  Almost all of them have art shows, but some of the 
  better ones are World Con, Dragon Con, Gen Con, and 
  Luna Con (Search the web for more info on these). 
  Network, get critiques, observe and learn. Attend the 
  Artist Guest of Honor’s slide presentations. Talk to 
  them. It will energize you and inspire you. 
  Never stop learning. 
  Q3: What is your process for creating a piece 
  for an RPG book?   And Q9: How does WotC or 
  a contractor approach you with core rulebook 
  art projects? In essence, art is a major factor in 
  determining setting. A picture tells a thousand 
  words, and it is imperative that the art reflect the 
  intentions of the product. So with this in mind, 
  how is an artist approached and what is the 
  communication that goes on between parties to 
  get things right? 
  It generally starts with the Art Order. The people 
  who decide what products will be, and when they will 
  release, give me a rough idea what the product will 
  be about. Ideally, I’ll    get a manuscript or outline 
  to read, and I always have a long discussion with 
  the writers.  Sometimes the Art Order is good, but 
  more often it is what a writer thinks will make a good 
  picture—not always on target. For example, for the 
  Book of Golems (Creatures of the Night; Ravenloft), 
  the Art Order suggested a mad wizard fighting off 
  his creation, a Wax Golem. Unfortunately, the Wax 
  Golem looked ”just like its creator, and completely 
  human.” That doesn’t make for a very telling picture 
  of what a golem is.  It doesn’t capture the essence of 
  ”golem”.  So I asked them to read the different golem 
  entries from the book to me. It seemed like each one 
  had the same lead-in: ”looking just like a human” or 
  ”almost indistinguishable from a human.” I didn’t like 
  any of them, until we got to the Spell Rune Golem 
  (which you can view on my website, in the Illustrations, 
  Gallery II section) a self-created golem made from 
  the chopped and gathered remains of an evil treant. It 
  looked almost completely inhuman, apart from walking 
  upright.   
  ----
  I was very fortunate at TSR and WotC in that I was 
  given a great deal of trust by the writers and editors. 
  They give me a lot of leeway to create what I think 
  is right.  Books tend to be a little more restrictive, 
  because they often are derived from real times and    
  places, and the character and monster descriptions can 
  be limited by the author’s creativity or visual skill. In 
  those cases, I have to work a little harder to bend the 
  framework into a direction that I find more interesting. 
  Once the image has been decided upon, I do very small 
  sketches called ”thumbnails” (because they’re typically 
  as small as a large man’s thumbnail!) to explore 
  composition; the arrangement of dark and light masses, 
  and character explorations of any new monsters or 
  characters. When I have some of each that I like, 
  then I do them again larger, with more focus on the 
  movement and details. You can see the ones I did for 
  Spell Rune    Golem in my art book, next to the finished 
  painting. When I am comfortable that I have what I 
  want, I do a half-sized rendering (these days, usually 
  in Corel Painter or Adobe Photoshop) to present to the 
  client, often coloring it up first.  When that is approved, 
  I start the final drawing. This I do in pencil or Painter, 
  to the size of the finished painting. If I am working 
  traditionally in oils, I then take that drawing to the 
  local copy shop and use their giant document 
  copier to transfer it 
  to 
  Interview
  
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  Text only version here:
  watercolor paper, which I mount to hardboard    with 
  acrylic medium, seal with more medium, and paint over 
  in oils. If it is going to be a digital painting, I do 90% or 
  more in Painter, with some touch-up in Photoshop. 
  Q4: What medium do you normally use? 
  I prefer to paint in oils when I can take that much time, 
  but computers have changed the marketplace so much 
  that it is hard to pull off. Corel Painter 6 is my favorite 
  digital medium, with Photoshop to do some color 
  balancing or effects here and there, but mostly just to 
  turn my RGB files into CMYK for the printers. 
  Q5: When doing your drawings, do you value 
  realism over stereotypes? 
  Absolutely, even if I’m painting a stereotype. One of the 
  joys of designing the look of D&D was that I got to turn 
  stereotypes on their ear from time to time; making the 
  archetypal monk a black woman, for example, instead 
  of an Asian male, or drawing a paladin that was a half-
  orc.  How much fun is that!??   :o)   The heroes will still 
  be more muscular than anyone you or I know, and the 
  women will be more beautiful and sexy, but I don’t like 
  comic-book extremes, personally. A guy with forearms 
  or a woman with breasts bigger than her head is simply 
  not believable. Realism keeps you in the story, makes 
  it a possibility. That’s important when selling fantasy: 
  striking that balance    between super-reality and 
  realism. 
  Q6: Do you paint and/or sculpt miniatures? 
  I don’t, actually. We used Steve Jackson’s excellent 
  cardboard miniatures when we played-- it’s what we 
  could afford in time and money.  I made a couple of 
  clay miniatures for my own characters, but it’s time 
  consuming, and I couldn’t do one for everybody, so 
  I    never used them.  These days, my close-up vision 
  had been so destroyed by working on the computer 
  (and age) that I can barely see the detail on miniatures 
  even with my glasses on, so I’m not likely to start on 
  miniatures now. Which is a shame, because there are 
  so many good ones out there, many of which were 
  based on my drawings!  Oh well... 
  Q7: What is your creative environment like? 
  There are toys, books, and cool visual props like skulls 
  and stuffed animals everywhere. At Wizards of the 
  Coast, there were also creative people everywhere, 
  which is simply amazing if you can find it.  I’m working 
  at home these days, freelancing once again, and I do 
  miss the people most.  Music helps, but I sometimes 
  prefer to work in complete silence, too. 
  Q8: What are your favorite art books? 
  Any of Whelan’s books figure prominently. I also 
  absorbed all of Frazetta’s work.  The Spectrum annuals 
  are astounding, because they come at you from so 
  many angles at once. Brom’s books are good, of course. 
  I like Bouguereau (and Rembrandt and DaVinci, too. 
  The Art Techniques of Tim Hildebrandt is a good one for 
  technique. 
  Q10: What are your feelings about gender-
  equality in gaming in general? How should 
  gender-equality be reflected in artwork? 
  That’s a tough topic, because, as we know, fantasy 
  is loaded with stereotypes. The two biggest are that 
  women are scantily clad and drop-dead-gorgeous, and 
  men are gigantic, muscular killing machines.  They are 
  stereotypes that play more to men’s fantasies than    
  women’s. Being a man, I understand them. But I also 
  tire of them. As I mentioned, I don’t like to see a bicep 
  bigger than the guy’s head, or breasts so huge that the 
  woman could not possibly walk upright.  I admit, I like 
  my fantasy heroines scantily clad. But I also want the 
  costume to make sense.  If scanty is impractical, then 
  it can’t be scanty. Mailee was a nice balance of the two, 
  and could get away with it because she’s a magic-User 
  and doesn’t need armor, whereas Lidda is practical in 
  armor. Scanty isn’t the only way to    make an outfit 
  sexy, either. The female fighters I designed had armor 
  that would actually protect them-- no chain mail bikinis, 
  certainly none so light and flexible that their nipples 
  showed through! That may work to stimulate puerile 
  fantasies, but it doesn’t tell a believable story. It is a 
  tricky balance to mix sex and action. One thing I really 
  despise is the ”come-hither” look on fantasy women, 
  as if women are really only interested in seducing 
  men.  Puh-lease...When it’s appropriate, like on a lady 
  vampire, that’s one thing. But when it isn’t, it just isn’t. 
  Of more concern to me, personally, in fantasy art 
  is racial equality. I intended Regdar as    racially 
  unidentifiable. That worked better in the drawings 
  than in the paintings, but it was my intention. I 
  had to work to get any races other than white past 
  certain individuals at WotC.  Lidda should look a little 
  Mediterranean, Ember is black, and Hennet and Naull 
  are Asian.  I failed to get racial varieties into the demi-
  human line-ups. Apart from the    dark-skinned Drow, 
  they are all more-or less Caucasian/Mediterranean.  It 
  is something that still needs to be fixed, IMHO.
  -----------------
  We want to thank Todd Lockwood for taking the time 
  to share with us.  For more information on Todd 
  and his artwork, you can visit his website at: http:
  //www.toddlockwood.com.  Another place to find Todd 
  on the ‘net is at www.asfa-art.org.  Here  you can view 
  his latest art awards for 2003: best hardcover book 
  jacket illustration; best gaming-related illustration; and 
  best magazine cover illustration.   If you are looking for 
  print sources, besides his numerous artwork found in 
  Wizards of the Coast publications, you can also locate 
  him in Spectrum, an annual compendium of the year’s 
  best sci-fi/fantasy artwork. 
  Artwork featured in this article are copyright Todd 
  Lockwood. All Rights Reserved.
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=63
  http://www.silven.com/print.asp?case=article&camefrom=ezine&id=63
  Interview
  
  17
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  D&D / d20
  d20 Reviews
                           at Silven Crossroads
  Scoring definitions
  18 = Superior. Best of the best.
  16 = Very Good. Part of a Baker’s Dozen.
  14 = Good. Most gamers would like this.
  12 = Fair. Some gamers would like this.
  10 = Average. Most gamers would be indifferent.
  8 = Subpar. Flawed, but not without promise.
  6 = Bad. Most gamers would dislike this.
  4 = Very Bad. Among the Dirty Dozen.
  2 = Inferior. Worst of the worst.
  “Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed: DM’s Screen 
  and Player’s Guide”
  Authors: Monte Cook
  Publisher: Malhavoc Press
  Reviewed by: Bradford Ferguson
  Review date: 10/08/2003
  CLASS: Arcana Unearthed Accessory
  STR: 10 (Physical). Screen is thick stock but flimsy. 
  Guide is staple bound.
  DEX: 14 (Organization). Screen flows from category to 
  category. Guide is organized well.
  CON: 12 (Quantity of the Content). Accomplishes what 
  it sets out to do, but material is skimpy for the price.
  INT: 14 (Quality of Content). Pretty good. Some hints 
  in the guide are very basic.
  WIS: 14 (Options & Adaptability). Conversion notes for 
  D&D to AU, character sheets for each class.
  CHA: 12 (Look & Feel). Cover art recycled from other 
  AU. Interior art of guide is concept art.
  For the full review see:
  http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=163
  “Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook v3.5”
  Authors: 3.5 revision by Andy Collins based on original 
  work by Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, Skip Williams
  Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
  Reviewed by: Kosala Ubayasekara
  Review date: 10/19/2003
  CLASS: Core Rule Book
  STR: 16 (Physical). Excellent, tough, laminated cover.
  DEX: 17 (Organization). Fabulously organized and laid 
  out.
  CON: 15 (Quantity of the Content). Provides all the 
  information you need and then some in most areas. 
  One or two sections lacking in detail.
  INT: 15 (Quality of Content). Gaming ideas and hints 
  are provided throughout the book.
  WIS: 15 (Options & Adaptability). Lots of options 
  and clear descriptions of how to integrate them are 
  provided. More variant rules would have been nice.
  CHA: 17 (Look & Feel). Excellent artwork, good layout 
  and cover.
  For the full review see:
  http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=162
  “Campaign Planner”
  Author: Philip J. Reed
  Publisher: Mystic Eye Games
  Reviewed by: Bradford Ferguson
  Review date: 10/13/2003
  CLASS: Preparation Supplement
  STR: NA (Physical). Product is electronic. It is ethereal 
  and has no physical form.
  DEX: 12 (Organization). Forms follow eachother in a 
  logical fashion.
  CON: 16 (Quantity of the Content). Nearly every 
  possible form is covered.
  INT: 16 (Quality of Content). Forms cover the 
  essentials.
  WIS: 14 (Options & Adaptability). This product was 
  made to notate the options that you use. Great for 
  homebrews.
  CHA: 14 (Look & Feel). Forms are clean, simple, and 
  look nice. Printer friendly.
  For the full review see:
  http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=159
  “e-Adventure Tiles - Wilderness Ruins” and 
  “e-Adventure Tiles - Cave Passages”
  Artist: Edward Bourelle
  Maker: SkeletonKey Games
  Review by: Bradford Ferguson
  Review date: 10/12/2003
  CLASS: 2D Terrain
  STR: NA (Physical). These are electronic (.PDF) 
  supplements. They are incorporeal and have no physical 
  form.
  DEX: 14 (Organization). Product is organized into 3 
  different .PDFs within each .ZIP file.
  CON: 12 (Quantity of the Content). Both e-books are 
  short for the price. Lots of free content on the website.
  INT: 18 (Quality of Content). Great art. Each tile has 
  handy thin black and white scissor lines.
  WIS: 16 (Options & Adaptability). You can arrange the 
  tiles how you want or print out extras.
  CHA: 18 (Look & Feel). Did I mention great art?
  For the full review see:
  http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp?case=show&id=158
  For all d20 reviews we did during the month 
  of October, see our main site at
  http://www.silven.com/adnd.asp
  what to buy...what to buy?
  
  18
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
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  Text only version here:
  Player versus player (also known as PvP) an interesting twist in both game play and role-playing in computer/
  console RPG games. Games in the industry today have come and gone, some have been successful and some have 
  been a flop. What makes these games a success or a bomb?  Many things actually, far too many to list. In my own 
  opinion, I would say one deciding factor would be how well PvP is implemented into the game. Most games these 
  days have its own system for this, most try new ideas and some use those ideas already implemented by other 
  gaming companies. PvP affects everything in the game from the economy in-game to the resources the developers 
  work with to the players themselves. 
  PvP is still a work in progress; no game on the market today has a real well made system for it. This is changing 
  ever so rapidly as more and more of the player base flock to PvP though. Many games these days are being 
  made specifically for the PvP fan base. I must say though, it is a heated debate on forums and such, so many 
  people dislike PvP in its entirety. This has caused a division among us gamers of late. There are three types of 
  communities—the community who loves PvP, the community who casually PvP, and the community who despises 
  it. So what community do you yourself fall into? Can’t decide? Do you not know enough about PvP to really make a 
  decision? What can you as a player expect from PvP’ing?
  Well first off I must warn you, most PvP worlds are very dangerous and very different. Even though games differ 
  in the way PvP is implemented, you must always be careful. Some games have zones or sections of the world that 
  are PvP only and in some you are always in a PvP area. Trash talk is a very common thing that goes on in these 
  types of environments. Since PvP draws in a very diversified crowd you do have your share of immature players. 
  This does not only apply to young people but everyone. You do also though have your share of honorable players. 
  Things happen on the fly and certain words are said that may offend some people. I suggest if you have young 
  children to watch carefully if you do not want them exposed to such things.  While some of you could care less, I 
  am just giving you parents and certain people a heads up of what to expect.
  On the upside there are many rewards if you are in the PvP world and/or scene. I do find for the most part that 
  PvP is very exciting and a test of how good you really are. PvP is all about alignment really. You, as a player, can 
  make a name for yourself very fast in certain situations depending on how you conduct yourself. I personally have 
  been playing CRPG games for many years and the alignment system that AD&D uses can apply to everyone who 
  plays. It applies to individuals and guilds alike. 
  Speaking of guilds, you will find as wide of an assortment as you would without being into the PvP scene. From 
  my own personal experience, I have found that guilds associated with PvP are actually more closely nit than those 
  not. There are guilds for everyone, but if you are more a defender type player, then there are guilds for you. If you 
  are more of an attacker, than there are guilds for you. If you cannot find a guild you like or cannot get along with 
  others, then by all means make your own. PvP is about one on one fighting just as much as it is about guild vs. 
  guild or nation vs. nation. 
  PvP is still a minority compared to regular game play. I suggest if you want to get into PvP or try it out to ask 
  around for games that your friends feel you would like. Find a game that is focused on PvP, which is limited since 
  not many games are at the moment. You have to realize since PvP is still considered a minority in the gaming 
  world, most games are not going to have a perfect system worked out. Nor will PvP get the proper attention it 
  deserves from the developers. This is not to say there are not games out there that do not have an excellent 
  system for PvP. This is just a reminder that while PvP is on the rise it is still not in demand.
  So we are back to the question, what can you expect from PvP today? This all depends on two things. The first 
  thing is you and your style. The second is the game itself. So go ahead, ask around, do your research. Find out if 
  PvP is for you or not; I just hope this helped at least a little bit in your decision and outlook on the PvP community.
  PvP, Is it for you?
   
  By Magnus Kaliptic  
  CRPG
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=61
  http://www.silven.com/print.asp?case=article&camefrom=ezine&id=61
  
  19
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  All Rights Reserved.
  Here’s a question—does it bother you that our d20 community, diverse 
  and independent as it is, expects good and evil to play for mutually-
  exclusive, clearly identifiable teams?  Does it seem less than quite right?  
  I’m not talking about shades of grey here. I’m asking whether we ought 
  to consider throwing black and white together, allowing them to interact 
  while maintaining their differences—full contrast in full cooperation, in other words.  Think this impossible? It has 
  happened before in our own history:
  On Sunday, May 8, 1429, Joan of Arc, a maid from the village of Domerémy, achieved the relief of Orléans.  When 
  she arrived, the siege had lasted for seven months; nine days later, the English quit.  At the Bastide des Tourelles, 
  Joan had taken a bolt from an arbalest between her neck and shoulder; she needed to be carried from the field.  
  She drew out the projectile herself and spent a few hours in rest.  In the late afternoon, somewhat recovered, she 
  demanded the progress from John the Bastard, commander of the defenders.  He had just ordered the retreat.  
  She begged him to wait and having obtained his consent, went off to pray in a vineyard.  Ten minutes of this and 
  she rode back, took up her standard, and stormed the walls.  The French soldiers, whom Joan constantly berated 
  for their swearing and whoring, inspired by their beloved champion, took Les Tourelles on May the seventh.
  On returning from her victory at Orléans, Joan urged Charles VII and his court to ride immediately to Reims, deep 
  in English territory, so that he receive his coronation.  Her voices had chosen this place and would accept no other.  
  The group fought their way through to the city and the ceremony took place.  A corner had been turned in French 
  history; they would, slowly, regain their nation.  The court, however, had had enough of Joan, for they feared her 
  popularity among the people.  They withdrew their support from her endeavors, resulting in her capture before 
  Campiègne.   The Catholic Church, under the sway of the English, burned her alive at Rouen on Wednesday, May 
  30, 1430.
  This same church executed Gilles de Rais on October 25, 1440.  Gilles de Laval, Baron de Rais, had killed and 
  tortured over a hundred and fifty children so horribly that for years after his death, the peasants of the region 
  would, on the 25th of October, beat their children to the blood, in order that they remember just what evil exists in 
  this world.
  What makes this all so very interesting is that it was Gilles de Rais who had carried Joan of Arc from the walls at 
  Les Tourelles; he had been her bodyguard—and at the coronation of Charles VII, Gilles had been named Maréshal 
  de France, at 25, the youngest ever to have received this honor.
  It was this specific, historical example that brought me to ask, what’s with this "party alignment" business? Why, 
  while knocking together a choice adventuring party for the Temple of Elemental Evil video game, why do I have to 
  deal with a proscription against my throwing a paladin in with some CE necromancers and barbarians? 
  For those who haven’t forked over the fifty bucks, Atari, Troika, Wizards of the Coast, Gary Gygax, and who knows 
  who else entered daringly into a byzantine arrangement that has resulted in the ToEE computer RPG, a beautifully 
  detailed, horribly buggy, and amazingly conservative adaptation and conversion into 3.5 rules of the most famous 
  of mega-adventures.  No question it’s the best CRPG of the year, but, buggery aside, it has its faults, the most 
  insidious of which is that the game forces its players, in the very first step of party creation, to choose for their 
  groups one of the famous nine alignments, lawful good to chaotic evil, with respect to which each character must 
  remain within one step.  At first blush, this makes sense:  the plot, they tell us in the enormous but admirably 
  clear instruction manual, responds to this choice; morality determines the sequence of events.  Each alignment—
  or, more accurately, alignment radius—has its own version of the game, fitted out in accord with its proper 
  motivations.  And this is true:  the game does indeed feature nine different introductions, it continues this brand of 
  distinctiveness in some of the dialogue, and, presumably (I haven’t won it all nine ways), finishes enneadically as 
  well.
  Two questions:  what does this really mean game-play-wise, and why only one step?  First, this set-up may 
  change the order in which you kill subordinates and underlings on the way to confronting the boss.  This 
  "switching around" routine enjoys a certain vogue these days, as quite a number of D20 modules that employ 
  the same sort of half-juggled structure announce themselves as ‘non-linear.’  Let’s take Necromancer Games’ 
  Aberrations, as an example of this—it’s a fairly new, fairly well-received pen-and-paper module, published by a 
  multiple award-winning press. Here is how it presents itself on page two of the instruction manual:  "Aberrations is 
  arranged in five parts, although these parts are playable in any order they are encountered by the PCs.  Similar to 
  an absurdist play[!], the first part is the beginning and the fifth part may be considered an end.  The middle parts, 
  however, can be run in any order."  We’ll ignore the contradiction and instead marvel at the multiplicity of choices 
  that the jumbling of three segments gives us—perhaps not even that—since the players’ whimsy determines the 
  order, and, as part five takes place in the basement of the manor explored in part four, it stands as pretty unlikely 
  that, as they make their way down the stairwell, any caprice will turn their feet toward that unexplored mine miles 
  off in the hills.  Players usually can discern which actions a module approves of and which it doesn’t.  DMs always 
  can:  in the present case, if the players don’t check out the town right away, giant moths come around and wreck 
  the joint.
  Shirts or Skins?
  By Raymond Huling
  CRPG
  
  20
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  All Rights Reserved.
  Film-flam, then, but as such it’s representative, because, despite its origin in alignment choice, which is an 
  important difference and one which we’ll talk about shortly, the variation in The Temple of Elemental Evil amounts 
  to the same thing: it is a cosmetic difference.  I did as well to outfit my party with pink mohawks as to click on a 
  morality for them—which, sincerely now, wouldn’t bother me so much, if not for the fact that I’m restricted by this 
  costumery.  Yes; I enjoy the vignettes and the minor changes of the schedule of destruction—but why not let me 
  play it with the guys I want?
  Maybe the alignment restrictions are due to programming considerations?  Not at all—I understand that space 
  allows for only so many permutations and that this game can’t exceed the limitations that it honestly and even 
  proudly announces for itself.  It is no more than an elaborate series of tactical situations.  I accept that.  Leave 
  it at nine possible paths, then—I don’t care.  Call my company of a paladin and four slavering devil-worshippers 
  neutral or whatever, I’ll play that game and happily go about my day.  Why should this bother anyone?  Certainly, 
  no in-game logic conflicts with this:  I rolled up a party of full-on LGers and proceeded slaughterously to pillage 
  poor ol’ Hommlet.  Interestingly, the good citizens of said village continued to relate to me, tediously, their barn 
  disputes and so on.  Also, the Cuthbertists had no compunctions about healing me of the wounds that I’d received 
  from Burne’s Badgers as they tried to prevent me from butchering unarmed peasants.  Further, do I really need 
  to adhere to an artificial and frankly naïve notion of alignment, in order to suspend myself in disbelief as I plow 
  through the game’s universally despised dialogue?  I’ve come to kill things in interesting ways and look at cool 
  graphics.  I’ve come to test my mettle as a 3.5 tactician in a nostalgic setting.  Right?
  Now, none of this means to say that I don’t appreciate the accomplishment here. The Temple of Elemental Evil 
  video game marks the best presentation of alignment in twenty years, possibly ever.  It actually gives full weight 
  to the entire spectrum of the D&D moralities.  Thus the difference between its illusion of variegated lots and 
  Aberrations.  Tabletop modules that rip off Call of Cthulhu always appropriate one of two aspects, investigative 
  (ex.:  Death, Terror, and Madness in Freeport) or slimy (ex.:  Aberrations, The Tomb of Abysthor), and they 
  always leave behind any of the moral ambiguity for which that game is justly praised.  Even beyond its structural 
  shortfall, Aberrations can’t deliver the ‘free-form’ quality it promises, because the morality it expects the 
  characters to display draws a line through its encounters, as with all D20 adventures—they encourage the players 
  to do the right thing, either on principle or on credit, because, otherwise, the story doesn’t work.
  It doesn’t surprise me that The Temple of Elemental Evil bucks this practice of intending itself exclusively for 
  play by a neutral good party, particularly in this format and at this time, for three reasons:  1)  The hottest video 
  games today owe their status entirely to the opportunities to pursue evil or at least criminal story lines.  2)  Gygax 
  had some involvement in the conversion, and evil characters occupied a standard role in the early days.  3)  For 
  quite some time, game designers have offered up evil in their products like a handful of dirty magazines pulled 
  from under a mattress.  I think that some of them took this opportunity to—within their point of view—get away 
  with it.
  With regard to this last remark, I want to add that, yes, somewhere in the eighties, certain RPGs did enjoy a single 
  glorious moment of pseudo-satanic infamy, and the resultant culture of childproofing has given a certain outré air 
  to what once would have been commonplaces.  Having been plushed, it now excites the industry inordinately when 
  it tries on a little leather.
  But we have some genuine moral diversity again, and this is good—but it in no way good enough, for even in ToEE 
  the use of alignment remains weak.  What precisely does that mean?  If alignment amounts to no more than just 
  another factor that determines the dynamic between elements in a tactical situation, if it totals, in other words, to 
  pluses and minuses, if it translates from paper to play as a mechanic, rather than a quality of the game, then it is 
  weak.  
  I have no problem with this:  I like arithmetic; I like poker; I like chess; I like the tactical game.  This is not 
  power-gaming.  It is a striving against luck and another person’s skill within clearly-defined formal constraints.  
  The most often-sounded praise of the ToEE video game rings true:  as a number of tactical encounters strung on a 
  thin plot, it does accurately represent the d20 experience.
  We ought not to kid ourselves, however.  For the weak game, the means and ends of all alignments are the same—
  color for the tactical environment—and this comes nigh to meaning nothing.  In the strong game, the game with 
  plots truly driven by alignment, it also happens—and quite often—that the desires of good and evil adequate to the 
  same means and the same ends, but this has profound significance.  What does it say that Joan of Arc and Gilles 
  de Rais fought side by side—and, further, that the same church executed them both?
  Alignments, when played strongly and in all their diversity, bring meaning to a succession of encounters.  It isn’t 
  too much to say that even a d20 game has the capacity to support genuine ethical inquiry.  For those interested, 
  the development of these games can have actual stakes—as much as any philosophical dilemma.  As a corollary, 
  for those, such as myself, more interested in fun, this unbounded exploration of alignment eliminates linear plots—
  any attempt to anticipate all acts of conscience, which every encounter in this sort of game must be, confounds 
  the usual concatenations of fight scenes.  By-the-numbers adventures simply cease to exist.
  CRPG
  
  21
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
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  This doesn’t come easy; in fact, I’ve never yet seen a publication that even approaches an intelligent handling 
  of the strong use of morality in an RPG, much less a d20 product.  Without question, all recent supplements and 
  adventures have failed miserably, even in the extraordinarily limited parameters they’ve set for themselves.  Look 
  at the Book of Vile Darkness.  Does it help us to introduce compelling moral confrontations in our games or does 
  it help us to dress up a villain?  The latter, of course, and not even all that well!  It seems clear upon a reading 
  of this book that Monte Cook has never run an evil campaign, and, to be perfectly frank, that whole sections of 
  the work can only have been arrived at through a certain innocence, one maybe a bit blind to its own prejudices 
  (seriously, the section on drug trafficking comes off like a straight-up conversion of a ‘just say no’ pamphlet).  I 
  don’t want to get down on this one too much, either, as the book does offer some new scary monster make-
  up, but it no way constitutes a mature exposition of the possibilities a deeper use of evil may provide.  I’m not 
  referring to mal-aligned PCs here—even within the nerfous confines of Cook and Coast, even if evil remains, 
  perversely, within the purview of the DM, we don’t have to confine its form to purple-lotus-munching foot 
  fetishists. 
  It’s much more serious of a prospect—and much more compelling of a scenario—to confront wrongdoing that 
  doesn’t obviously declare itself as such.  Or, even more, to find it difficult even to determine where or if it occurs.  
  The argument against relativism in these games comes easily to hand—and I agree with it, but only to the extent 
  that it demonstrates precisely why game designers refuse (or fail) to write modules intended for use with evil 
  characters:  they wouldn’t be any different.  Written in the same spirit as standard adventures, these inversions 
  would only show that the morality current publications display has always been only a veneer.  Evil campaigns 
  just strip away any moral pretense; they allow players to forego the ritual heroism and skip right to the fighting.  
  The D20 game needs to paint itself as anti-relativist, because only in this way can it maintain the illusion that 
  alignment exists at all.
  That’s screwy.  Let me pose a challenge—toss alignment in every mechanical form.  No spell descriptors, no 
  detections, no weaknesses, no protections—none of it.  Then, forget all party restrictions; anybody can play on 
  any team—in fact, let’s say that religions no longer have any alignment.  The clergy of any church may be of 
  any morality.  Wouldn’t that be interesting?  This would even answer the question, implied above, of smiting.  
  Everybody likes to smite, but how would it function without a conversion of morality into math?  Well, try allowing 
  the righteous to punish anyone who actively opposes their belief system.  This is reasonable, balanced, and yet 
  allows for genuine moral conflict:  the paladin cannot smite the cruel vicar who worships the same gods he does, 
  but he can certainly wale away at the unfortunate peasants who riot against the oppressions enforced by this evil 
  clergyman.  How’s that for a test of faith?
  Finally, invest your adventures with moral quandaries—not so tough, given the times we live in—and turn a full-
  spectrum party loose on it.  Let them debate and conflict and compromise over the course of action.  This entails 
  complications, but who needs a simple game?  Once players have gotten the hang of tactical mastery, they’ll begin 
  to look for other purposes in the game.  Strongly-played alignment is one of those purposes.
  CRPG
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=64
  http://www.silven.com/print.asp?case=article&camefrom=ezine&id=64
  
  22
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Vision 1: By the Gods!  The Faiths of Ancient 
  Greece and Rome
  Ave and well met.  Welcome to the first installment of 
  Through the Lens of History where I will take various 
  pieces of history and show how they can be used to 
  make compelling settings and scenarios for games.  
  Now, who am I to take on this task?  My name is Sean 
  Holland, I have been a gamer for 26 years.  I currently 
  DM one D&D campaign and play in two others.  I have a 
  BA in History (minor in Philosophy) from the University 
  of Portland, Oregon, and I am working on my MA in 
  History at the University of Georgia.  I do some writing 
  and playtesting for the game industry.  If you look at 
  any of AEG’s recent ”One Word” series of books for the 
  D20 system you will find my name in there somewhere 
  and I have had other writings published over the years 
  as well.
  The subject of this installment is Ancient Religion; 
  focusing on those of Greece and Rome.  Modern religion 
  in the West is heavily shaped by the success in the 
  Western world of the various Christian denominations 
  and the prevalent separation of Church and State but it 
  was not always so . . .
  Part I - The History
  The Ancient Greeks and Romans paid respect to a 
  wide pantheon of gods and goddesses, in both public 
  and private ways.  The Romans admired Greek culture 
  and adopted a great extent of Greek religion, even 
  incorporating many of their own gods within the Greek 
  myths creating a continuity of faith and belief between 
  the two societies.  The civic religion of the city-states 
  was a public celebration, sanctioned by the authorities, 
  to please the gods and benefit the city.  Private religion 
  was the personal faith of the individual and ranged from 
  the universal acknowledging of the household gods to 
  enthusiastically joining cults of various types.
  Religion and authority have been intertwined for as 
  long as there have been recognizable versions of either.  
  Priests acted as advisors, scribes, and scholars, keeping 
  the early empires running while the kings provided 
  leadership and the military power needed to protect 
  the empire.  Vast religious ceremonies and pageantry 
  featured rulers as divine representatives of the gods 
  to awe and inspire the people.  Here in Ancient Greece 
  and Rome, religion supported the state and the state 
  returned the favor making it very difficult to tell where 
  one ended and the other began.
  The polis or city-states of Ancient Greece and Italy 
  readily mixed religion and the state.  Each of the Greek 
  polis had its own patron god or goddess, such as 
  wise Athena for the city of Athens.  The divine patron 
  symbolized their city and they and their associated 
  symbols were used in art and coinage representing the 
  city.  The gods were thanked for their patronage during 
  great festivals which adored the gods through parades, 
  songs and sacrifices.
  Among the festivals was the celebration of the first 
  fruits, at the beginning of the harvest to thank the gods 
  for their generosity.  Athletic games and contests of 
  drama and poetry were often parts of the festivals; this 
  was how the Olympic Games began and were dedicated 
  to the gods.  Greek religious beliefs held that the 
  Olympians enjoyed the same pleasures as their mortal 
  followers.
  Religion was a public occasion, even among the mystery 
  cults (more about them later), with many open displays 
  of piety.  Worshipers prayed standing proudly before 
  the gods, speaking loudly so that all could hear.  Both 
  the Greeks and Romans believed in the dignity of 
  humanity, not prostrating themselves before the gods 
  but approaching them as one seeking aid from a trusted 
  superior would, with confidence.  Festivals were religion 
  were large, an occasion for the entire community to 
  thank and beseech the gods, to publicly show both the 
  piety and wealth of the city.
  Public religion was very important to the people of the 
  polis, as a unifying force of tradition and civic pride, it 
  represented the very soul of the city.  It was an aspect 
  of civil society, joining religion and politics, as well as a 
  chance to see and be seen. Following the public religion 
  was expected of all who lived there, it was a sign of 
  being part of the city, but people were also welcome 
  to follow whatever other gods they wished (as long as 
  they were not a threat to the state).  But there was 
  private religion as well. 
  One such private religion was the mystery cult, defined 
  as such because the members learned greater religious 
  mysteries (or secrets) as they gained greater levels 
  of initiation within the cult.  Membership and even 
  initiate rank was something that was usually openly 
  and proudly proclaimed.  It was just the actual religious 
  mysteries that were kept secret.  Mystery cults can 
  be viewed more as exclusive clubs rather than secret 
  societies.  They certainly supported their members’ 
  ambitions and helped one another to advance but 
  they did not seem (as a general rule) to be seeking 
  to change or overthrow the governments they lived 
  under.  Most of the mystery cults came from either the 
  fringes of the Greco-Roman World or from outside of 
  it.  Because of this they were sometimes called ‘Eastern 
  Cults’ and occasionaly provoked official suspicion and 
  backlash against their members.
  For the ancient Greeks and Romans, sacrifices were an 
  important way to thank the gods for their patronage 
  and assistance (and to demonstrate one’s wealth and 
  piety).  Typical sacrifices were animals; large animals 
  for major festivals, smaller ones for lesser occasions (or 
  smaller budgets).  Since the temples were places for 
  the gods to keep their belongings, the sacrifices were 
  performed in public at altars in open places where the 
  smoke of the offering could make its way up to the gods 
  The animal was killed before the altar; it was ritually 
  butchered by a priest or priestess.  The inedible parts 
  were burned for the god, hence ”burnt offerings,” while 
  the remainder was cooked and shared by the priests 
  and worshipers.
  Through the Lens of History: Using History 
  for Better Gaming
  a monthly column by Sean Holland
  General RPG
  
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  A common small sacrifice was the libation  When 
  drinking wine, a small portion was first poured out upon 
  the ground to thank the gods.  Other sacrifices given 
  were tokens inscribed with thanks, decorations for the 
  temples and shrines, and, for the wealthy, new buildings 
  and land for the temples.  These sacrifices were often 
  lavishly decorated and openly inscribed with the name 
  of the giver and the reason for the gift.  These offerings 
  were given in thanks for such things as returning safely 
  from a dangerous trip or success in some endeavor.  In 
  the household shrines, simple sacrifices were made, 
  incense was burned, and the gods were given a small 
  share of each meal as libations.
  Just as there were gods of the city, there were gods of 
  the household as well.  The Romans had the lares that 
  protected their homes and occupants.  Sacrifices were 
  made to them throughout the month by the household.  
  Gods abounded in the polytheistic system, from the 
  small gods of the house to major deities that guided 
  cities.  Nothing was so unimportant that it did not to 
  have its own god to whom a sacrifice could be made.
  Sacrifice was important as a symbol that joined god and 
  worshiper.  The worshiper sacrificed in thanks for aid 
  that the god had given and with the expectation that 
  the god would continue to look kindly upon him or her.  
  If things went wrong, then the worshiper either had 
  not sacrificed enough or had made some mistake in the 
  rites.
  The Romans were great sticklers for ”the right rites,” 
  expecting them to be performed exactly as they had 
  been done in the past, and attributing any misfortune 
  to failing to properly perform the ritual.  Indeed Rome 
  possessed an entire class of religious specialists, called 
  a pontifex (pl. pontiffs), who possessed their own 
  college and advised worshipers on what rites were 
  needed and how to perform them.  The head of this 
  college, the pontifex maximus, became an important 
  political post and was held by Julius Caesar, by later 
  Roman Emperors, and, even today, if one of the titles of 
  the Pope.
  In Rome, and to a lesser extent in Greece, important 
  rituals were performed by civic officers who acted in a 
  priestly role as part of their official duties.  For example, 
  a senator might undertake a ritual sacrifice to Mars, god 
  of war, before sending the army to fight.  A pontifex 
  would direct the senator in the proper ritual and the 
  senator would undertake it, acting as a priest for the 
  duration of the rite.  This often made the line between 
  civic officials and civic priests very thin.  Though 
  professional priests and other religious specialists did 
  exist and performed rituals for both the public religion 
  and for private citizens.
  As is evidenced, religion and civil society had a 
  complex interplay in the Ancient Greek and Roman 
  cultures and this article did not even touch upon 
  oracles and divinations.  For the city-states, religion 
  and government walked hand in hand, one supporting 
  the other.  While private citizens supported the gods of 
  their city, they often sought out more for themselves, 
  a private religion that appealed to their own sense of 
  faith.   In a pantheistic societies, worshiping several 
  gods was not only acceptable, it was expected.
  Part II- Breaking it apart and putting it back together
  Now, this is all well and good but how does it affect a 
  game?
  Most game worlds, like the Ancient Greek and Roman 
  states, are based on pantheistic religious structures.  By 
  looking at them we can gather some idea of how game 
  worlds may treat religion and faith.  What ideas can we 
  use?
  Public Gods.  Each city is likely to have its patron god 
  or goddess and a devoted civic cult.  People who stay 
  in the city, especially if they are wealthy and influential, 
  will be expected to support the civic cult, or, at the 
  very least, not interfere with it even if their patron is 
  a different god.  This is not a betrayal of a pantheistic 
  god, just an acknowledgment that you are in someone 
  else’s territory and that you show respect for them.
  Faith is not binary in pantheistic system, you may have 
  one god as your patron deity, but you ask another 
  appropriate god or goddess for help as needed.  For 
  example, Ares, god of war, will not help you get a 
  good crop.  For that you appeal to Demeter, goddess 
  of grains.  The city and its people are going to be 
  suspicious of those who will not join in and support the 
  civic religion.  After all, the government and the religion 
  are allied and if you do not respect their god, you are 
  not showing respect to the city.
  Festivals.  Everyone likes a celebration!  It is a chance 
  to unwind, to have some fun and thank the gods as 
  well.  Everyone is happy, right?  All sorts of things can 
  go wrong at a festival:
      4  A rival power might wish to sabotage the 
  festival to offend the gods and make the city 
  vulnerable to attack.  Perhaps the prize sacrifice 
  has been stolen and must be recovered…in a 
  few short hours before the parade starts.
      4 There are shady dealings at a contest and 
  the characters are asked to help one of the 
  factions who have been suffering mysterious 
  accidents.  This would be especially effective if 
  the characters are foreigners—then they could 
  be asked to help fellow countrymen who are 
  competing.
      4 The characters may wish to compete in the 
  contests of a festival themselves.  Be it a 
  festival of sports, like the Olympics, or of 
  dramas or poetry.  It will give the characters 
  a taste of something different.  However, their 
  rivals are very intent on winning, as it is a 
  great honor.  Will the competition stoop to 
  dishonorable means to insure their victory?  Will 
  the characters?
      4 An impartial judge is needed for one of the 
  contests and one of the player characters is 
  chosen.  Everyone wants to win this year and 
  offers of bribes and threats soon start pouring 
  in.  As the character is tempted, remind them 
  that the gods may be watching as well.  Is it 
  better to offend mortal or divine powers? 
   
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  Mystery Cults  Something is up with one of the 
  mystery cults and it may represent a threat to the social 
  order.  The characters are asked to investigate the cult 
  and spy on the secret religious ceremonies to see if the 
  cultists are planning anything illegal.  The activities of 
  the cult may or may not be entirely innocent, but in 
  either case they will be upset to find people spying on 
  private ceremonies.
  The character may find the idea of a mystery cult 
  intriguing and join.  This could put them on the opposite 
  side of the equation, trying to convince the city that 
  they do not have any ill intentions toward the city, but 
  at the same time being unable to reveal any of the 
  secrets of the cult.
  Pontifex Politics. One of the characters want to seek 
  office as a pontifex and the college of pontiff plans a 
  rigorous set of task to test the characters worth.  The 
  pontifex’s post carries status and influence, making it 
  valuable to the rival political factions making it much 
  sought after.  The character is likely to face considerable 
  difficulties in his or her tests from both expected and 
  unexpected quarters.
  ”The Right Rite.”  Something is going very wrong for 
  one of the cities and it is discovered that it is because 
  an important rite has not been performed.  But they 
  are not sure which one it is because it has been lost!  
  Earthquakes, fire or war, or even the humble rat, may 
  have destroyed the needed information in the temple’s 
  archive.  Now the city’s priests and agents are scouring 
  libraries and temples far and wide to try and regain the 
  missing ritual.
  As things keep going from bad to worse in the city, 
  a great reward is offered for the missing ritual.  This 
  causes charlatans and fakes of all stripes to come 
  pouring into the city offering false hope and ineffective 
  rites.  Can the characters find the right rite and save 
  the city?
  Supplemental d20 Material: New Feats
      4 Civic Priest [General]
  You are authorized to oversee religious rites and rituals 
  in your home city and are afforded respect and honor 
  because of it.
  Prerequisites: Citizen of the city, Diplomacy 2 ranks, 
  Knowledge (religion) 2 ranks.
  Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks.  
  When dealing with others in your city you receive a 
  +2 circumstance bonus to Bluff, Intimidate and Gather 
  Information checks as long as you are acting in an 
  official capacity.  Most citizens of your city will offer you 
  reasonable aid if requested.
  Special: As a civic priest, you will be expected to 
  attend festivals, oversee rites and other such duties for 
  your city.
  Note that this feat does not require any actual ability to 
  cast divine spells, the DM may change that to suit the 
  campaign.
      4 Pontifex [General]
  You are recognized and skilled in the proper instruction 
  of religious rites and proper rituals. 
    Those who 
  follow your instructions exactly can gain greater results 
  from their faith.
  Prerequisites: Citizen of the city, acceptance into the 
  college of Pontiffs, Concentration, Diplomacy 2 ranks, 
  Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks, Wis 11.
  Benefit: You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to 
  Diplomacy checks involving anyone who lives in your 
  city or who is pious towards your city’s gods and a +1 
  bonus to Knowledge (religion) checks.
  By working with a divine spell caster, you can increase 
  the power of their spells.  The divine spell caster must 
  follow your instructions exactly.  This increases the 
  casting time of the spell by one minute per level of the 
  spell and requires sacrifices worth 50 gold per level of 
  spell being cast.  The Pontifex must make a Knowledge 
  (religion) check with a Difficulty Class of 10 + the level 
  of the spell and the caster must make a Concentration 
  check with the same DC.  If either check is failed, the 
  spell is unsuccessful and is lost without effect.  If both 
  are successful, the spell is cast as if the caster were 
  two levels higher.  Only one pontifex can advise on any 
  ritual.
  Special: As a pontifex you will be expected to advise 
  and direct religious rites and rituals for the city.
  Note that this feat does not require any actual ability to 
  cast divine spells, the DM may change that to suit the 
  campaign.
  The mechanics of both of the above feats are adapted 
  from Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed book, from the 
  feats Priest and Aid Spellcasting respectively.
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  Rebels in the Dungeon, Part 1
  by Raymond Huling
  If it hadn’t been for the Skullards, four black-haired women heavily and darkly robed and hooded, standing 
  naked in the formation of a square, around a fifth, all of them by their stillness observing and, to a degree, 
  imposing a solemn quietude, then the other group gathered in the husk of the ancient cathedral, a dozen or 
  co cloaked figures, unevenly dispersed near the aisles, most of them huddled in the dust, would have been 
  much more interesting.  A fifteen year-old boy had gathered them together, these others who shunned the 
  voiceless women.  He was a swart whelp, his skin a mark of south-lander bloodlines or, at least, those of the 
  middle islands; his name evinced his origin further:  Qamus, son of Qamar.  He’d sought them out, each on 
  the word of the one he’d found just before, and contracted them, paid them up front in strange black coins, 
  their flan a gemstone that suffered not the slightest patina, nor scratches from curious knives, not the slightest 
  indication of wear, though their legends, not carved, but somehow punched in the stone, had been written in 
  a crude cuneiform, impenetrably alien to modern literacy, but obviously, even to the most ignorant eye, of an 
  unsettling antiquity.  But they lay dense with wealth in the hand, unquestionably worth the risk of one’s whole 
  and entire expendable life.  His bodyguards had come first, his troop of killers next, and his guide at the very 
  last, a rigid vector of decreasing trust, extending outward on the promise of rare deeds implied by the face of 
  the boy’s sombre treasure.
  Under the watch of his second hire, a tall and rangy woman, her ash-blond hair bound into braids, he knelt 
  to the earthen floor of the great nave. The old folk of the city called the gaping structure the Basilica Grave; 
  it stood awkwardly, seeming almost frozen in its place, near the center of an unevenly circular quarter of 
  abandoned buildings.  Its recesses had been sacked barren. Engineers had directed laborers in the salvage of 
  the place:  everything had been taken; glass, wood, statuary, furniture, masonry right to the point where to 
  remove a single brick more would have been to draw down the rest in a massive and final cascade.  He tugged 
  a curved chunk of stone from the bare ground, a feature snapped off the head of gargoyle—ay haf fahnd ahn 
  eer—his heavily accented words intoned richly in the enormous hollow.  His guard smiled thinly as he brushed 
  it clean; she adjusted a strap on her armor and glanced at the Skullards—for they did keep the eye:  shaven 
  marmoreally smooth everywhere but their scalps, the hair of which hung past their hips, even to their thighs, 
  and, indeed, their skin, in the eglisian shadows, gloamed as marble does, except a little left of center on their 
  chests, where there set like the sun of melancholy a stylised black tattoo of a skull.  One would almost have 
  failed to notice, in this light, that their eyes rested deeply uprolled in their heads, that their mouths slacked 
  open a little, and that the width of this rictus measured exactly the same as the collar inked around each of 
  their necks.
  I thought the’like the quiet, Harra Kemis—the speaker was another of his guards, the first of them, actually, 
  and the one he trusted most.  They’d met through argument.  The boy had, mostly through his ignorance of 
  the language, disparaged the man’s horse, at the docks of a minor port.  Ghlaf stood exactly the same height 
  as the blonde woman, four or five inches taller than their young employer, but he seemed shorter:  he’d been 
  bald but for a strip of bristles that ran from ear to ear since he reached his full growth; born ugly, he grew 
  uglier every day; his knotted limbs and weathered skin aggravating this dispulchritude.  Had a pig been pulled 
  and pounded down man-wise, enormous, rugose hands hands and feet welded to it, and its nose shoved under 
  a bit, we’d have a second Ghlaf in this world—so long as this re-molding included the infusion of the cheeriest 
  and most gravelly-voiced of good humors:  get ready to meet yer maker, kiddy—he’d told the boy, intending 
  only to provide him with an instructive thrashing.  Qamus had simply looked at him oddly, his head turned at 
  a slight angle—thayr ahr nau maykars—That drew up the soldier’s mangy eyebrows, but slowed neither his wit 
  nor his step—then get ready to meet nobody—The boy laughed.  
  Thay daunt leef weeth ahs—This response from their young Harra turned the eyes of the two warriors to each 
  other.  The constant otherworldliness of this business had begun to wear on them.  Ghlaf scratched at the 
  wiry stubble on the back of his head, then rubbed his hand over that face all broken with the ruts of wrinkles.  
  Young master Qamus stared openly:  fascinated by the man’s physiognomy, he admired the way in which his 
  great fingernails—not long, but hugely square and thick, like shingles—accentuated the horribleness of the 
  features they caressed.  Sedis, the woman, threaded her fingers with her sword-hilt.  The boy liked her face, 
  too:  an inelegant mass of scar tissue splayed out under her left eye, contrasting sharply with her otherwise 
  smooth, golden skin.  Harra Kemis…has anyone ever done this before?—It took a moment for the question to 
  disturb the boy’s rude reverie, and then he seemed not to understand the reference—This Harra, the whole 
  thing…has anyone ever crossed the Brogældor?—yays…eet hahs hahbend…baht ay daunt nau thah foolnays…
  ahf thah tayl—he gestured a round emptiness between his hands.  
  Fiction
  
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  We’d best ask the gui’then—they all of them looked to a darker stretch of the vast chamber, near to where 
  Qamus’s group of assassins huddled.  The last of these assassins whose service he’d bought stood apart from 
  the rest, as befitted her role:  by far the worst of them, the most brutal, the foulest, and the only one dressed 
  exclusively in white.  She kept it in tatters, at least, the virgin’s cloth she wore, raggedly shorn halfway up her 
  thighs.  Their guide, who lay then at her feet, having found within himself the admirable capacity for sleeping even 
  in this most harrowing of environments, had told them some weeks before that in the north, in the lake country, 
  they called her picioare murdare—dirty legs.  One would have wondered why they’d been so selective or why 
  they’d selected that aspect out from the rest:  almost her whole skin crusted with filth, most of it blood.  Even 
  at that moment, it blackened her limbs into indistinction:  her back to them, they could see only the spare, pale 
  length of her shift and the patches of her long auburn hair not clotted black.
  None of them called to her; the boy and his two guards stepped softly to her side, the scent of the dust giving way 
  to that of her ichorous lamina.  With her right hand she worried at the hilt of a butcher’s knife, about eight inches 
  long in the blade, forged from a single wedge of steel.  They didn’t look directly at her; very few people did:  in 
  all the world, there may have existed not a single creature exceeding her in raw beauty, a condition she enjoyed 
  disguising with gruesomeness.  Among the mortal exceptions to this aversion, counted the young man laid out 
  at her feet:  he’d grown up in the kingdom of the fey, and he’d jaded there as well—which didn’t at all mean that 
  he’d neglected to notice the extremity of her charms; no; he’d told her a long, long time before then, that if he 
  could he’d pay her homage by turning her hair into snakes.  This, among other courtesies, had endeared him to 
  her.  Streambryd—the soldier addressed her—does he sleep there, streambryd?—before she deigned to answer, 
  he rustled himself sedentary.  She knelt silently beside him.  The curls of his hair showed a little under the brim 
  of his straw hat.  He looked up—strumpet?—rhoticising the word to lightly mock Ghlaf’s coastal burr.  Ghlaf smiled 
  his few large yellow teeth, but he watched the fey-girl carefully, as the mockery had been intended mostly for her.  
  Even with so small a weapon, she could have cloven through her man’s neck in a single blow, rolled his head right 
  down his back, before he could have twitched his fingers in his lap, and he knew that, in front of her love—to say 
  nothing of her loyalty to the boy’s pay, came the reflex to murder.  He chuckled.
  It’s happened twice…once a thousand years ago and again seven hundred years later—this man, their path-finder, 
  their guide for place and for lore, who’d been stolen from his cradle by goblins and elves, a changeling left for 
  his mother’s arms, he had tuned his ears to the subtleties of fairy harps—very few whispers escaped him—the 
  first was the first of the guthweardes, as you call them, min freond…the brogæaldor were in a way still very 
  young back then. They didn’t have the purpose they do now. They sought conquest; they drove inland over the 
  isthmus and took the southern rim in a month—he paused to pat for his wineskin; he caught it up and pulled 
  from it—unfortunately for their purpose, they hadn’t been observing the rise of the woodland tribes, nor that of 
  the lake-folk. Chieftains had become lords and one of them rose and drew the people together…they broke the 
  onrush of the brogældor—with a breath of laughter, he put his hand over hers, the one that held the knife—they 
  were very young then—he wore clothes of burlap over sack-cloth; no one knew why.  A few thick strands from 
  his tunic twined at his neck; he tugged at his collar—then, many years later, when the guthweardes enjoyed the 
  fullest extent of their power, a peasant girl came out of the east to the border country. She came with the mission 
  of liberating the lands that the enemies still held from their incursion.  She claimed divine purpose and flyted the 
  guthweardes to return these holdings, to reunite the people.  Somehow this came to pass—she convinced them of 
  her holiness.  One lord in particular played a key role here, the evilest tyrant of them all, a child-eater, a raper, a 
  pious and superstitious man.  He took her side and the rest eventually followed.  She began to fulfill the destiny 
  established by the first king—you know they even say that she found his sword, lost for an age.  On the march 
  westward, she held the army at the last great crossroads for three days, while she conferred with her spirits, then 
  she sent out her pages to dig in a nearby kurgan and bring back the sword that they would find there, a huge 
  weapon with five trees etched into its blade.  They came back with it, and she wore it throughout the campaign—
  he took off his hat and the fey ran her slender, spiny black hands, like compass needles, through his hair—they 
  won of course…they beat back the occupying forces of the brogældor, but this peasant maid, they lost her to 
  them in one of the last battles and they couldn’t get her back—really, they didn’t want to—they’d already won; 
  they didn’t need her anymore.  They had a peace to divide up, and she would have interfered with that—what 
  happened to her? They burned her alive…funny, though…the same end waited for the guthweardes.  When they 
  people rose against them, they got the stake as well—Qamus smiled, his teeth almost glittering in contrast with 
  his dusky skin and ink-black hair—yays…ahll ahf oos boorn—Sedis fixed her yellow eyes on the reposeful guide—
  what happened to the sword?
  An impact on the floor spun them all around before he could even look up at her.  Someone had leapt or fallen 
  from one of the paneless lancets that pierced the wall some thirty feet above them, and the boy’s whole group 
  rushed with remarkable grace past the immobile Skullards to the intruding figure.  Meoleas!—Ghlaf reached out 
  to bring him to his feet, the sailor who’d been sent out alone to retrieve the barter for this deal with the strange 
  women—Nau—Qamus ordered him back.  The man, Meoleas, had made it to his hands and knees; he wore only 
  breeches, carried a small sack and clutched a large, thick-bladed knife; his bare toes dug into the ground; sweat 
  rolled from him in fat droplets.  With gestures alone, Qamus directed Sedis and Ghlaf; the assassins formed into 
  ranks behind them, and from their formation came the last of his bodyguards, a mestiza, her skin browner than 
  the boy’s.  She held a curved sword of mottled alloy.  At her approach, the other two each stepped a foot onto one 
  of the struggling man’s hands.  She touched the estoc of her blade against his neck, taking the hilt with both of 
  her hands.  The boy bent down and caught a few drops of the sailor’s thick perspirings:  he smeared it between 
  Fiction
  
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  his fingers:  he saw tiny specks of white suspended in the fluid—prautayct me—of all of them, only he had the 
  chance to move back even one step, before a terrible blow struck the cathedral, higher than the window Meoleas 
  had fallen from.  
  Vast and white and crystalline, a colossal shape pounded through the stones and came upon them.  They 
  sickened instantly in its presence, stumbled or writhed in vertigo, as its radiations fired their nerves, as if all flesh 
  became eyes to its sun.  It sundered the nets of the vault as it gathered itself into a clearer form, stretching up 
  more than seventy feet.  The thief now fairly bathed in a milky exudate; his companions had fallen away from 
  him—but something of his plague had infected them. They began to drown in their own filth and blood, and none 
  of them had been touched by or even so much as looked directly at the thing; they had no idea at all what was 
  killing them.  For its own part, the monster had difficulty perceiving them, except as aberrations in the order 
  it knew.  The trace it had left on poor Meoleas had drawn it here, and it had come to restore everything to its 
  place.  Unaware of itself or the others or of pain or anger, it began to vibrate with a song of loss and the justice 
  that would negate it, until a much harsher discordance unbalanced its perceptions.  It whirled on the Skullards, 
  slashing away half the head and an entire shoulder of one of them, before they caught it.  The boy and his 
  companions found themselves suddenly reprieved.  They looked through their tears to see it kneel before the five 
  women.  The nearest one, the one it had touched stepped to it, blood gushing from the spring of her wounds; she 
  laid a hand to the crystal skull of the giant.  It whimpered once, as the central figure raised her arm and made a 
  slight, flicking gesture.  Beneath the fingers of her proxy, a great crack sundered the swaying head, silencing it 
  and extinguishing its light.  This dullness traveled swiftly through its corpse; it became ash-grey within its shell 
  in scant moments.  One of the uninjured women stepped forward, turned to the boy and let her mouth fall open; 
  he wiped his lips and stood, though he trembled.  Her jaw remained perfectly still as a voice sounded from deep 
  within her throat—they saw a demon chase a thief into the cathedral…they saw it fall—Qamus hobbled to the half-
  naked, bootless man, who had, incredibly, maintained his grip throughout the ordeal, and loosened his fingers 
  from the bag.  Halting only a little, he laid it at the feet of the Skullard.
  Master Kahmus, we can clean ourselves and rest at a house not far from here…I know this city well; I will lead 
  the way—he nodded his assent to his second guard.  As they wound their way deeper into the alleys, pursued 
  now only by the roar of the falling church, the auburn-haired assassin, Simo, looked askance at the boy—she 
  pronounces your name differently than the man…who says it right?—she says eet clahsahr, baht naht rayt—why 
  don’t you correct them?—ay dahnt hayr fahr nayms—she smiled.
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=showreview&id=26
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  Fiction
  
  28
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Chatting with Gary Gygax
  Q1: Troika Games recently released their 
  computer adaptation of your immensely 
  popular Temple of Elemental Evil module. Did 
  the developers confer with you during the 
  development of the game, and if so, in what 
  capacity did you influence the game.
  Troika did indeed contact me before the ToEE 
  computer game was released.  They had about a 
  half-dozen questions as to intent and their initial 
  understanding was absolutely in agreement with what 
  I had originally meant in the paper version of the 
  adventure.  In short, they really didn’t need anything 
  from me but confirmation that they had the whole 
  module down pat.  Even their new dual approach, 
  players having the ability to play through with evil 
  aligned PCs absolutely fits the spirit of the original.  
  It is no wonder to me that the product is so well 
  received.  Troika has real gamers there converting the 
  paper game to electronic format.
  Q2: Turbine and Atari are working together 
  to develop a Massively Multiplayer Online 
  (MMORPG) version of the D&D game set in 
  WoTC’s new game world - Eberron. The game 
  has a release date set for 2005. Do you think 
  this will conflict with the upcoming LA game 
  MMORPG? Are both these games targeted at the 
  same user base?
  It is certain that the target audience for all MMORPGs 
  is the same, so yes. Any new entry in the field 
  competes with all others.  If the D&D game makes 
  the 2005 release date, the likely one for the LA MMO 
  game’s release, the competition for players will be 
  rough, for the D&D title is the best known, of course.  
  What LAO has going for it is that it isn’t yet another 
  D&D-type game online, and has many technical 
  features that I don’t believe the competition will have. 
  So it will be a matter of publicity 
  and advertising, where word of 
  mouth will likely be a big factor.
  Q3: Some of the most popular gaming modules 
  of the early years in D&D were written by you, 
  yet I have not seen much work done in the 
  way of modules for your Lejendary Adventure 
  product. Have I simply missed them or have you 
  decided not to do set modules for the game?
  You have missed a bit, then;) While it is true that I 
  have had to spend the majority of my creative time 
  working on new RPG systems over the last 10 or so 
  years, the Necropolis adventure module originally 
  done for my Dangerous Journeys system Mythus 
  FRPG made quite a splash when Necromancer 
  games released it in d20 format.  Last spring, Troll 
  Lord Games published another module of mine, The 
  Hermit, both in dual system d20 and LA game format.
  The Trolls are currently working on a huge module 
  I wrote, the Hall of Many Panes. It should take an 
  average group about a year to play through if they 
  have regular weekly game sessions lasting three 
  to four hours each.  The last I heard the HoMP was 
  slated for release as a boxed set with two books 
  and who knows what else in it.  The release date 
  was projected to be December, but that might have 
  slipped.
  Also in the works at Troll Lord Games will soon be an 
  LA game primer version campaign-setting module 
  named Living the Lejend.  It has a hamlet base 
  setting and then various adventure scenarios for role-
  playing and combat, the latter including a lengthy 
  dungeon crawl at the conclusion, so the module 
  should provide at least 10 to 14 game sessions with 
  Welcome to the ninth edition 
  of our regular monthly debate 
  and informational pieces done 
  in collaboration with Mr. Gary 
  Gygax, the original creative 
  mind behind the Dungeons and 
  Dragons role-playing game. 
  Today we ask the gaming guru 
  more questions put forward by 
  our members on the site.
  by Kosala Ubayasekara
     & Gary Gygax
  Answers to questions ©2003 Gary Gygax. All Rights Reserved. 
  Interview
  
  29
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
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  the fully written-out adventures provided. Of course, there are many adventure hooks and other suggestions 
  so as to facilitate use as a campaign base. I am lobbying for the book to have a large color fold-out map of 
  the village area, but the Author proposes, the Publisher disposes...
  Q4: On the Lejendary Adventure website, there is a notice about Dreamcadence Productions 
  producing a series of accessories for the LA game line in their Incredibook format. Can you tell us 
  a little more about what this is and what we can look forward to in this new venture?
  About all I can say in this regard is that it isn’t likely to happen. The LA game system is not an open license, 
  and anything produced using it as a basis is a derivative work that Trigee Enterprises must own in order 
  to protect its copyrights. Evidentially, that was not understood by Dreamcadence when they posted their 
  announcement.  They had no contract, and when one was sent, the matter of IP ownership ended their plan. 
  From our perspective, the idea of producing and owning deravitive material is quite unusual, shall I say. To 
  the best of my knowledge and belief, the terms and conditions offered otherwise were professionally fair and 
  on the generous side.
  I must add that by no means will Trigee ever offer any open licenses to the LA game system.  The mess that 
  the OGL and d20 license have produced should be a red flag to all IP owners.
  Q5: Troll Lord Games has announced on your forums that they are going to publish an introductory 
  boxed set for the LA game RPG as well as support material. Can you expound on what kind of 
  support material they are referring to?
  While the contract isn’t signed and sealed, we have what is essentially a done deal with Troll Lord Games. 
  Next year, they will indeed be publishing an LA game primer (lighter still) version in a boxed set--core 
  rules, monsters and magic items, and a short adventure module, possible more, such as dice, included--
  followed closely by the campaign module mentioned above, Living the Lejend.
  Also likely to appear from TLG in 2004 will be two core rules supplements to the LA game (Tomb of 
  Knowledge supplementing the Lejendary Rules for all Players and the Lejend Master’s Lore books plus More 
  Beasts of Lejend), done in paperback, and possibly a hardbound book or two--one on Shamanism & Witchery, 
  the other the Lejendary Pantheons book.  If all goes as planned, in 2005 they will publish revised LA game 
  core rules in hardback versions, thus replacing five paperback books with three hardbound ones, and one or 
  more sourcebooks.
  What is contemplated here is that Troll Lord Games will gradually assume the role of lead publisher for the 
  LA game system, while Hekaforge Productions becomes the principle publisher of support material--modules 
  mainly.
  Finally, Trigee is pleased to announce that Sentient Storm will be producing official LA game miniatures soon. 
  That agreement is being executed by all parties concerned.
  Answers to questions ©2003 Gary Gygax. All Rights Reserved. 
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=show&id=62
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  Interview
  
  30
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Most gamers cringe when they think of Sunday school.  The same goes for Hebrew school, bar mitzvahs, 
  confirmation and other so-called wonderful events that go on in the life of someone raised in a religious tradition.  
  Most of us have nothing but bad memories and mental (if not physical) scarring from our religious upbringing.  
  So perhaps you are thinking--why is someone I’ve never met talking to me about how religion and gaming might 
  mix?  I’ve finally moved away from home and no one is making me go to church or say any stupid prayers.   I 
  hope that by the end of this article, you will feel a little bit more interested in how gaming and religion are related 
  and a little less peeved about me bringing it up in the first place.
  Perhaps I should tell you a bit more about myself so you can see why this subject interests me.  I am 23 years old, 
  a grad student in secondary social studies education program (which means being a middle or high school social 
  studies teacher), a musician, a Jew, a gay male, and an American.   Like many of you, my religious experiences 
  growing up were sometimes rocky.  I found that the intricacies of ancient cultures were interesting, but the dogma, 
  traditions, and requirements were inflexible and intolerant.  Around the age of 14, I began to discover that I had 
  feelings that were anathema to my religious tradition.  Over the next few years, I defined my sexual identity as gay 
  and realized that my religion had absolutely no place for me.  Homosexuality simply wasn’t talked about and most 
  gay people left the religious community.  That’s exactly what I decided to do as well.
  My initial coming out experience was actually more accepting than most.  When I was away at college, my sister 
  announced that she was getting married.  She had found a nice, handsome, successful, and rich Jewish boy.  When 
  my mother told me, it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from my chest.  Now, there was someone else in the 
  family who would grant grandchildren.  Someone else would raise good little Jewish kids who would go to services 
  and have bar mitzvahs.  That someone no longer had to be me.  So, I nonchalantly told my mother the following, 
  ”Mom, I am never getting married.”  She looked at me incredulously and said, ”what does that mean?  What do you 
  mean you’re never getting married?  Oh... I guess I should have known.  It just never occurred to me.”  In other 
  words, you’re gay, I guess I should have known sooner, but I wanted to live in a fantasy. My mother and father 
  adjusted relatively easily.  They took an interest, albeit distantly in my love life and wanted to be a part of my world 
  as a whole.  They came to realize that certain tenets of Judaism simply were not going to continue in my life at that 
  point. 
  So, you might ask, how does this all relate to gaming?  Throughout my teenage years, gaming was always an escape 
  from stress and inner turmoil.  I was dealing with something in which I had no support network and gaming was 
  a way of relieving tension.  Over time though, it grew to be so much more. Gaming grew to be a passion of mine.  
  I enjoyed seeing stories played out and characters developed. I liked being able to do the impossible in a setting 
  where the rules were all different, yet human nature remained essentially the same.  What always seemed lacking to 
  me was a sense that the worlds and characters had complex spiritualities and moral frameworks.  Gaming so often 
  painted pictures of fairly sanitary religious traditions.  In some games, it was as if Christianity was converted into a 
  polytheistic tradition without changing many of its basic functions.  It simply didn’t make sense.  Most people used 
  the Greyhawk gods as filler in Dungeons and Dragons because they don’t feel like doing anything more with it.  But 
  I ask this—why go to the trouble of defining every aspect of a character’s life, but skimp out on their beliefs.  
  Because of many peoples aversion or ignoring of religion, we end up with a lot of atheist D&D characters.  If they 
  are not atheists, they simply don’t follow a god.  I hate to break it to most gamers, but there is no such thing as an 
  atheist or an agnostic in a medieval setting.  That mindset simply doesn’t exist.  We could vastly enrich our gaming 
  experience by finding a set of beliefs for our characters that reflect who they are.  Maybe you were tormented by 
  your religious upbringing.  It’s entirely likely that some characters might have been also.  Characters often have 
  as much if not more baggage than their players.  If hack and slash is what you are about then this article probably 
  doesn’t interest you anyway.  But if you are hoping to enhance your gaming experience, take a few minutes to think 
  about what your character’s religious motivations are.  I did just that in my gaming experiences in Montreal.
  I can say emphatically that Montreal is one of the best cities in the world to be a gamer.  McGill University has such a 
  large variety of people with so many different gaming interests.  It was here that I really broadened my horizons and 
  began to create truly 3 dimensional characters.  It was also here that I picked up an interest in comparative religion. 
  I started to learn how the different religious traditions were constructed.  I researched how different cultures came 
  to believe in magic, curses, gods, and monsters.  Comparative religion was not studying the dogma of a religion, but 
  rather, it was learning about how cultures came to be the way they are.  I frequently wrote papers concerning things 
  Faith Based Initiative: A Gamer’s 
  Guide to Religion: Oil and Water??
  By Eytan Bernstein
  General RPG
  
  31
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  that interested me in gaming.  I did a cross-cultural thesis on how magic developed in different religions.  I came 
  to realize that a people’s worldview – the way they see the events of their existence – is their religion.  Whether or 
  not we attach a label to a tradition or god is almost irrelevant.  
  I took this notion with me when I finished my degree and moved back to New York.  A few months ago, I came in 
  contact with the Silven editor and chief.  She was moving to my area and was interested in setting up a game.  We 
  corresponded for a while and she mentioned how she was interested in getting people to contribute to her fantasy 
  setting.  I looked at the website and thought it was really great stuff, but what seemed most lacking was a religious 
  framework.  I mentioned this and she said that it never occurred to her to really think about it.  They had been using 
  preexisting gods for their world.  So, I decided to write up my own.  I took a couple of months (due to a variety 
  of other commitments), but eventually came up with a set of gods.  I tied them into the world as it existed and 
  the calendar.  After we began instituting them in our new game, it became apparent that a unique set of gods and 
  religious traditions in a world greatly enhanced the setting.  We are still working on how all of this will play out, but 
  I think it has added a great deal.  
  So where does all of this lead?  I would hope that at the very least, people might start to think about how they can 
  improve their gaming experiences by more fully considering their character’s religious beliefs.  Those beliefs don’t 
  have to have anything to do with the player’s upbringing, but can if so desired.  We all bring something of ourselves 
  into gaming.  No one but the best actors (or role-players) truly disappears completely into their characters.  Why 
  fight your natural inclinations? Take a little time to think about why you like playing the characters you do.   Maybe 
  then, you can more fully flesh out your characters into three-dimensional people.  
  I’ve created an informal checklist to help flesh out your character’s religion (if you don’t already have an idea).  This 
  is primarily for fantasy based systems, but I will write a bit about how to deal with modern characters as well.  
  First, think about where the character originates.  If she is from a rural area, it is unlikely she will worship 
  a god of thieves or inventions.  Think about what the region was like in which she grew 
  up and whether this lends itself to many gods or just one.  An area that is very 
  secluded might only have one god that is directly tied to the land.  An area with 
  many neighbors is more likely to have many gods.  Next, determine a brief 
  sketch of the character’s life up until this point.  I think this is a good idea 
  for most characters anyway, though it does not work for all.  Decide where 
  your character has been, what kind of people he met, what his stance on 
  crime is, and what organizations he might have joined.  This should lead 
  directly into the third question – alignment.  Many people debate what it 
  means and whether or not it even has a place in role-playing.  For the 
  time being, most of us still use it, so it’s best to determine it for your 
  character rather than having it forced on you.  The previous questions 
  you have answered should help make part four pretty simple, but some 
  people may wish to deviate.  Perhaps you were a simply country farm 
  girl who lived in a remote region, but happened to come across a ruin 
  that introduced you to a dark god.  You could be an urbane city dweller 
  who became one with nature when he got lost in the forest and met a 
  bunch of druids.  Your religion might also be something you inherited 
  from family, though you may not relate to it very much (much like many 
  of us today).  Your beliefs may have even caused you to make some 
  enemies.   Religion in fantasy settings tends to be circumstantial. It is 
  based on where you group up, your family, who you met along the way, 
  and/or just pure happenstance.  
  We’ve seen what you might do with a fantasy character, but what about a 
  modern character?  Modern characters cannot attribute their religion as much 
  to where they grew up.  Sure, there are some places in the world where religion 
  is a given, but in many settings where we play – such as D20 modern, Shadowrun, 
  Palladium, or GURPS – there are many more complicated factors.  First, consider your 
  character’s location even if you don’t think it is a definite determining factor.  If you grew up in 
  the US, you are most likely to be Protestant, though there are minorities of Catholics, Jews, Buddhists 
  etc. Next, consider what your character’s childhood and upbringing were like.  Did you go to Church or Synagogue?  
  Was religion an emphasis in your family?  Did you resent or embrace this?  Third, consider your character’s 
  occupation.  Today, occupation has less do with religion than it did in the past.  We have religious mobsters and 
  atheist humanitarians.  Unlike a fantasy setting where morality and religion are often directly linked, this is not so 
  for modern settings.  Despite this, your occupation may clash with your religious beliefs.  You may need to be a bit 
  more creative than in fantasy as we are often trying to simulate realism in modern characters.  Your character could 
  be an atheist, though this is often an easy way out.  But, that is up to you.  Even if you choose to make an atheist 
  character, it is a good idea to decide how your character came to that decision.  It is never something that popped 
  out of nowhere.  It is almost always a result of either conscious thought or negative religious experiences.
  General RPG
  
  32
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
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  The following two checklists should help when you create a character.  Keep in mind, these are meant as a guide. 
  The ultimate idea here is to just to create a character that is fully fleshed out.  
  Fantasy Checklist
  - 
  Upbringing: Where did the character grow up? (include region, religions of the area,  history, etc..)
  - 
  Influences: Who did the character meet along the way (family, organizations, religions)
  - 
  Alignment: What is the character’s moral framework (alignment, feelings on killing, issues of property).  
  - 
  Religion:  how do your upbringing, influences, and morality lead you to a religion? How does this religion 
  affect your character’s choices, goals, etc.?  Did this religion lead you to make enemies, friends, allies? Are 
  you at odds with your religion or do you have problems with it? 
  Modern Checklist   
  - 
  Upbringing: Was religion dominant in your home country?  Were you a minority or were you part of the 
  major group?  Did your family go to services?  
  - 
  Occupation: Do your occupation and beliefs clash?  Is your job in any way related to your religious 
  upbringing? 
  - 
  Atheism/Agnostic/Non-practicing: There are legitimate reasons for modern characters to be atheists.  
  If you are, is this something you struggled with for a long time?  Or are you an agnostic who simply doubts 
  the existence of God?  If you are non-practicing, think of the reasons why you choose not to practice.  Is it 
  because of your upbringing or is it an active choice?  
  - 
  Religion: Your religion should be a composite of upbringing, personal choice, lifestyle, occupation, personal 
  experiences.  If you are non-practicing, there should be reasons for it.  Most people who don’t practice were 
  turned off by something.  This should reflect in your character – it certainly reflects in the people we know.  
  This article has served as an introduction and discussion of how you might relate religion to your character.  Here is 
  a quick rundown of  of some of the other issues you’ll see in the upcoming articles.  First, I’ll be tackling religious 
  fundamentalism and its crusade against gaming.  The ultimate question here is whether or not there is anything in 
  gaming that actually violates anyone’s religious convictions. Other topics may include the construction of pantheons 
  - a discussion both of existing ones and how you might create your own.  I will be examining how you might 
  incorporate various preexisting world mythologies into your home game. If you have any questions or topics you’d 
  like to discuss or see in a column, you can always contact the Ezine via comments or simply post on the Silven 
  boards.  For now, don’t forget that gaming should always be about fun and that whatever you take from these 
  articles is ultimately for your own further enjoyment of the gaming experience.  
  General RPG
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=showreview&id=22
  http://www.silven.com/print.asp?case=monthlycolumn&camefrom=ezine&id=22
  
  33
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  D&D / d20
  This summer Silven Crossroads hosted 
  a d20 monster contest. We are proud to 
  present our winning entry here, sent to 
  us from Eric Runyan.
  Bridge Wight
   medium undead          
  Hit Dice: 6d12 (39hp)
  Initiative: +5 (+1 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative) 
  Speed: 30ft
  AC: 15 (+1Dex, +4 Natural) 
  Base Attack/Grapple: 
  Attacks: 2claws +6 melee
  Damage: claw 1d6+4
  Face/Reach: 5ft by 5ft/ 5ft
  Special Attacks: improved grab, strangle, create spawn
  Special Qualities: fast healing, turn resistant, spider climb, bridge 
  bound
  Saves: Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +7
  Abilities: Str 17, Dex 13 , Con - , Int 6 , Wis 14, Cha 15
  Skills: Listen +9, Tumble +10, Intimidate +11, Spot +9
  Feats: Improved Initiative, Alertness
  Climate/Terrain: any (bridges)
  Organization: Solitary, Packs(2-6)
  Challenge Rating: 3
  Treasure: 1/4 standard
  Alignment: Chaotic Evil
  Advancement: 7-12hd(medium size), 13-18hd(large size)
  Level Advancement: 
  Description:
  Bridge Wights resemble what they were in life, guardians of a bridge 
  or similar span. That resemblance is only superficial, as upon closer 
  inspection these desicated looking creatures are revealed for what 
  they truly are, undead mockeries of what they represented in life. 
  They are always dressed in the uniform they wore in life, though it is 
  torn and dirty. There bodies are nearly skeletal and there arms end 
  in terrible claws. The peer out at the world with baleful glowing green 
  eyes.
  Campaign Hooks:
  The Bridge Wight can be encounterd on a long unused bridge, or 
  could be the first indication that a keep or town that your group 
  frequents has been infiltrated due to the actions of a lazy or deceitfull 
  bridge guard.
  Combat:
  The Bridge Wight is a cunning combatant. It will use it’s unassuming 
  appearance to its advantage, outside of 30 ft it takes a spot check 
  DC 20 to tell that a Bridge Wight is an undead creature. It usually 
  attacks spellcasters or missile shooters first, attempting to use its 
  very disturbing strangle attack aginst them. it will use its spider climb 
  ability to crawl around the bridge and attack from various directions. 
  If fired upon from a distance it will send its spawn out to try to deal 
  with the attackers while it crawls under the bridge for cover.
  Improved Grab (Ex): To use this Ability the Bridge Wight must 
  hit with a claw attack. If it succesfully grapples an opponent it will 
  attempt to use its strangle attack on the next round.
  Strangle (Ex): This disgusting attack is unique to the Bridge Wight. 
  It will cough up some of its own entrails and tie them around an 
  enemies neck. To do this it must succeed in making a grapple attack 
  against an already grappled opponent, you then use the drowning 
  rules in the dmg to track strangulation. The Bridge Wight can move 
  on to a new opponent when this attack is succesfull, and it takes 
  either a strength check DC 24 or escape artist check DC 22 to get 
  out of. You cannot cut someone free of this without slitting their 
  throat, so this is not an option.
  Create Spawn (Su): Anyone killed by the Bridge Wights 
  Strangle attack rised as a Zombie 24 hours later unless 
  raised before then or consecrated. Destroying the body 
  with fire also prevents the transformation.
  Fast Healing (Ex): Bridge Wights heal 2 hp a round
  Turn Resistance(Ex): Bridge Wights turn as an undead 
  4hd higher, and can never be foced to leave there bridge.
  Spider Climb (Su): Bridge Wights act as if always under 
  the effect of a Spider Climb spell.
  Bridge Bound: If a Bridge Wight is ever removed from its 
  bridge it is instantly destroyed
  Undead: Immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, 
  sleep, paralysis, stunning and disease. Not subject to 
  critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, energy 
  drain, or death from massive damage.
  Habitat/Society:
  Bridge Wights are created when guards assigned to a 
  certain bridge either are killed while being extremely lax in 
  there duties or are traitors who purposefully betray there 
  duty. They are often encountered on the bridge to ruined 
  castle that was sacked because of there innatentiveness 
  or betrayal. They are then cursed to do what they failed to 
  do in life, guard the bridge.
  
  34
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Welcome to the first issue of Player Characterization in 
  what I hope to be a long run of informative pieces to 
  aide in character development and playability. I chose 
  the title Player Characterization because it is the key 
  emphasis of these articles; focusing on the character 
  as an individual and how your portrayal of her can 
  enhance gaming sessions for all involved.
  Let’s start with something I call “the Organic Method”. 
  How many times has the following scenerio happened 
  to you? 
  Your Game Master is starting a new campaign and 
  has asked you to create new characters for the next 
  gaming session. With what little information the GM 
  provides, you spend countless hours working out a 
  detailed genealogy going back seventeen generations. 
  Then, you develop a complex personality matrix full 
  of likes/ dislikes, favored color combinations and food 
  tolerances. Finally, just to round her out, you write out 
  your character’s personal history from conception up 
  to the last five minutes just in time for the first game. 
  You are SO ready to play her because you know this 
  character inside and out, yet…
  By the end of the first session your masterpiece felt 
  lifeless, devoid of personality and flatter than three 
  month old road kill, so flat that you turn the entire 
  biography into confetti. What went wrong? Why didn’t 
  she spring to life and dazzle the other players, or you? 
  Everything felt right prior to the game but within the 
  confines of the new campaign world, many details 
  or her personality just didn’t fit or some role-playing 
  aspects came up at the table that you wished you 
  would have included. Now what?
  Take a moment to sweep up your mess and try an 
  alternative approach called the Organic Method. No, 
  this is not about modern gardening but rather a method 
  of character development that starts with the basics 
  and uses the fertile environment of a gaming session to 
  create a fun and exciting character persona!
  Step #1: The Skeleton (You and a Blank Piece of 
  Paper)
  When you start a game cold, trying to make your 
  character fit can be complicated or disruptive. Even 
  if you think you know her intimately (as in the above 
  example), you could be forcing her to react or over-
  react during the game, which is worse than not 
  reacting at all. Since this is all new, there isn’t any 
  real drive or motivation to force your character into 
  the maw of danger. This lack of a deeper connection 
  with the setting is to be expected and should be taken 
  advantage of.
  The first session is always a learning experience 
  for both the GM and players. While the GM is trying 
  to establish the new environment with powerful 
  descriptions and engaging story hooks, the players 
  attempt to absorb the world they have thrust their 
  characters into. The basic question is: where to start?
  The simplest thing to do at the opening session is 
  play to a stereotype. I’m aware that this goes against 
  everything most role-players live for. We so often try to 
  develop characters that stand apart from the rest and 
  not some worn-out cliché. Trust me; this method will 
  help lead you and your character towards that goal.
  By stereotype, I refer to three key components: 
  genre, profession, and race. Each has its own built-in 
  precepts you can quickly adapt and utilize for building 
  a mock personality. With genre, you borrow from the 
  wonder of the setting. Fantasy offers realms of ringing 
  steel and dazzling magic. Sci-fi rockets you from one 
  bizarre universe to the next. A Superhero setting pits 
  you outside the law fighting mad men bent on world 
  domination. Each of these provides an identifiable 
  concept to slip into and play.
  Genre is by far the easiest of the three to pull ideas 
  from. Any one of us can look back to novels, television 
  programs, or movies that have drawn us into different 
  worlds full of colorful characters that stand out from 
  the crowd. If you think back, many of these stories 
  would be dry and lifeless if it wasn’t for the diverse 
  personalities running amuck. Would Star Wars have 
  been half as fun if Han Solo wasn’t such a risk taker 
  haunted by his numerous mistakes? Finding inspiration 
  through these mediums should not be difficult. Think 
  about all you have seen or read and find one character 
  you enjoyed the most that fits, or at least comes close 
  to, your current character. Chances are your GM has 
  filled his campaign with many familiar non-player 
  characters the same way.  
  Next, your character’s profession lends more basic 
  ideas to work from. Whether you are playing an up 
  front fighting type, armed to the teeth and ready for 
  battle, or a healer of mind and body, your character’s 
  “job” defines her. Within each genre, character classes/ 
  professions/ archetypes provide clues as to what makes 
  this person do what they do. Read through your game 
  book descriptions as most of these provide colorful 
  summaries of the jobs or classes and the kind of 
  individuals who perform them.
  In most RPGs, players have a list of races outside of 
  human to choose from. Many of these races have a 
  predefined attitude or trait that sets them apart and 
  you can use. Most of these traits were designed to help 
  the player get into the minds of the unique perspective 
  of an alternative race. It would be just as difficult to 
  pretend that you were from Russia as it would to be an 
  elf without some knowledge of the culture and definable 
  attitudes. Again, these can feel extremely stereotypical 
  but they are also a necessary crutch to ground your 
  character within her world.
  PC (Player Characterization) : The Organic 
  Method
  By Pike Stephenson
  Player Advice
  
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  From these three elements, borrow what you need to 
  play and prepare to move towards the second stage of 
  development.
  Step #2: Adding Meat to the Bones (Taking a Cue 
  from the Game Master)  
  Paying attention to the details presented by the GM 
  is a tremendous aide in crafting your character. A 
  good campaign combines tone (dark, epic, or farce), 
  plot (defining elements that act like a lodestone 
  pointing towards a specific goal) and player character 
  involvement. Unless you have a strong grasp of the first 
  two ingredients, the third will often fall short. 
  If your GM hasn’t provided you with a brief write up 
  about the campaign, take some time during the first 
  session to jot down a few game notes. Is there an 
  obvious theme that exists throughout the game? Are 
  there any social concepts that the non player characters 
  convey, such as class perceptions, racial tolerances or 
  common fears of magic and power? Often, it’s the NPCs 
  that act as a “looking glass” for the players. Getting a 
  sense of where the NPCs are coming from can open a 
  whole new world of characterization ideas.
  Keep track of the NPCs that you feel would have the 
  greatest impact on your character. Later, after the 
  session, ask your GM more about them. He will most 
  likely have plot twists and hidden agendas he’s not 
  ready to divulge but remind him of this: your character 
  did not grow up in a vacuum. She witnessed nations 
  grow and crumble, monumental discoveries in science 
  and history or may have even participated in the 
  coming of a new age. Your character existed before 
  taking flight in this bold new adventure and you GM 
  should help provide you with the details to breathe 
  some life into her.
  Also, by emphasizing some choice pieces of campaign 
  material, you will directly involve your character in 
  the thick of it. Guilds, secret societies, underground 
  movements or interplanetary coalitions are general 
  examples that could offer role-playing potential and an 
  agenda that may parallel your maturing character. Many 
  causes or fights have a tone all their own and would 
  greatly define your character’s personality and give her 
  some serious drive when it comes time for character 
  interaction!
  Now there is one last place to help cultivate your 
  character’s personality- the other players.
  Step #3: Fleshing it out (Taking a Cue from the 
  Group)
  Within every gaming group there seems to be a player 
  or two that have little to no trouble slipping into a 
  character. They put on a game face with practiced ease 
  and magically enhance the feel of the session. Whether 
  it’s a gift, talent or a fluke, these folks thrive on the 
  challenges of role-playing. Others tend not to worry 
  about the play acting and focus on the game at hand. 
  They’re steadfast and true to themselves and play off of 
  some aspects of their characters, just enough to get by. 
  Sitting amongst this ensemble, you can gain another 
  avenue to play your character and fill in any gaps left 
  by the group.
  Watch for the emerging personalities of the other 
  characters. Sneak, vengeful, compassionate or 
  boisterous are some examples of common personalities 
  that players grant their PCs. Too many of one type 
  can make the game a competition and those involved 
  may lose sight of the direction of the campaign. The 
  wrong types, those that go against the grain of the 
  campaign tone, will certainly cause ample friction and 
  propel your Game Master into a hair pulling frenzy. 
  As the game progresses, make a list of the other PCs 
  ethnic backgrounds, professions, and personalities. 
  If another player has a character similar to yours, 
  list their similarities and their differences. Are there 
  some personality quirks that you can exploit that they 
  haven’t? Does your character’s strength(s) mirror the 
  other characters? How about weaknesses? Flaws and 
  weaknesses offer wonderful opportunities to shape a 
  character.  
  Another suggestion is to ask the players why they are 
  portraying their characters in a particular way. A brief 
  description lets you know their general demeanor and 
  could help them find areas of their character they may 
  want to build upon or others they might wish to change. 
  As you establish who these other “people” are you will 
  be able to get a deeper connection with this person you 
  are pretending to be. 
  In the end, you should have plenty 
  of material with which to build or 
  rebuild your character. Take only the 
  information that you feel strongest 
  about. Don’t think that you have 
  to include everything you have 
  seen or heard because too 
  much detail could turn your 
  character into the dreaded 
  cliché. With any luck, you will 
  be playing this character for 
  a long time so make sure 
  that you find her fun and 
  interesting. If you don’t 
  like her then what’s the 
  use of playing her? Don’t 
  squeeze her personality 
  out, let it grow. It 
  may take a couple of 
  gaming sessions but in 
  the end, she will be 
  someone you know 
  and love.
  Player Advice
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    Polyglot :
                A monthly column by Dana Driscoll
  Gathering Information
  Welcome back to Polyglot, your source for RPG language insight.  Last time we discussed 
  language down to the most basic of levels—naming.  This month, we tackle the rather overlooked 
  subject of language-based information sources—including the media, the town gossip, local 
  newspapers, and word-of-mouth.  
  Information is a central driving force in any campaign, and as a DM, you have to figure out how 
  to give your player characters the information they need for the session to work (or perhaps more 
  accurately stated, the way you want it to work.)  So how do you accomplish this task?  Do you 
  find yourself always resorting to a summons, an event, or simply a call for adventurers?  There 
  are multitudes of ways that PCs can find out the necessary information.  This article will detail 
  both classic methods and a few little-used alternatives in information gathering.
  Information Basics
  Basic information is essentially the same, regardless of what type of campaign you are running.  The following 
  list of interrogative questions all apply to the information you will be providing to your players—Who? 
  What? Where? When? Why? How?  All of these questions may not need addressed depending on the type of 
  information and what it is being used for in the campaign.  Remember, however, your PCs still might ask, so be 
  prepared to answer each of these if necessary.  For some types of sessions, the lack knowledge about one or 
  more of these questions can be a motivating force, as in the case of solving a mystery. 
  Your campaign setting will have a major impact on the way information is used and how fast it travels.  If you 
  are playing in a modern or futuristic setting, the ways of gaining information and the speed of information 
  travel is enhanced when compared with your standard fantasy setting.  Without powerful technology or magic, 
  information will be slow to spread and when passed on by word of mouth, often plagued with inaccuracies.  
  An important thing to remember about information in general is that there is no completely accurate fact.  
  Each individual will see a situation from a different angle and/or interpret what he or she sees a different 
  way.  This also means that while there can be individual truth, there is no completely accurate way to view an 
  event—each person, bringing his or her experiences and motivations will interpret what he or she hears and 
  sees in a slightly different way.  
  Method #1: Word of Mouth
  Quite easily the most basic of information sources, the ”word of mouth” method, also known as town gossip, 
  usually works only for the most basic information types.  While the common folk might not know much, 
  they are usually very attentive to happenings in the town and, therefore, have a wealth of information not 
  provided by other sources.   I have observed that in my campaigns, PCs tend to believe whatever townsfolk tell 
  them, making word-of-mouth a rather prominent tool.  Consider that in many cases, the piece of information 
  known has been spread entirely too thin, and the original meaning lost, distorted, or changed by one or more 
  individuals.  
  Keeping those things in mind, word of mouth can be a very useful tool—and is often one of the first PCs will 
  attempt to utilize.  How can you use word-of-mouth to further your campaign?  Here are some suggestions:
   
  Remember that what the townsfolk observe is only a fraction of what is really going on. While 
  townsfolk may be a good source of general information based on what they overhear or see, they 
  usually only know bits and pieces of the truth.  A normal individual who is uninvolved in local activity 
  but sees something suspicious will speculate, which can lead to false rumors.
   
  Most rumors are false.  How can the PCs be sure that the information they learn or the rumors they 
  overhear are the truth?  Is it possible that the rumor has, in actuality, been started by an individual 
  to further some plan?  Has someone spread the rumor to cause a stir to shift the town’s attention 
  elsewhere?  There are all sorts of reasons that the information the PCs find out from the townsfolk is 
  twisted, constructed, or downright false. 
   
  The town gossip can be a very effective tool.  There are usually one or two individuals in a town (many 
  more in a city), who stand out as the ”know-it-alls.”  These people are like collectors, but instead of 
  collecting antiques, magic items, or coins—they collect gossip.  The town gossip may have his or her 
  General RPG
  
  37
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  own agenda when conveying information to the 
  PCs.  The town gossip may even be paid off to 
  mislead the PCs when providing information.  
   
  The townsfolk can lie to cover up facts.  Just like 
  the town gossip, who might be coerced in some 
  way to mislead the party, entire towns can be 
  paid off or blackmailed to keep their lips sealed 
  or convey inaccurate facts to lead the party 
  astray.  
  Method #2: The Local Bard or Scop
  Often more well-versed and well-traveled 
  than the town gossip, the local storyteller, 
  traveling scop, or bard, can be a wealth 
  of information—but usually at a price.  A 
  bard is an information-dealer by trade, 
  collecting information and then selling it 
  at a profit.   Some scops may even trade 
  information—if you can give her a good 
  tale, she may give you the information you are 
  looking for in return.  The sale can be in the form of 
  a conversation or limeric, but bards are also known for 
  their songs, dances, and general (but often fact-filled) 
  entertainment.  And just like everyone else, be sure to 
  develop wants, desires, and motives for your local scop.
  Method #3: Local Authorities
  Similar to the town gossip, the local authorities, 
  government, merchants, land owners, and other involved 
  parties will have their own agendas and/or political 
  struggles to deal with.  How much they will say or the 
  validity of what they say can be called into question.  
  Just like a town gossip, local authorities can be coerced 
  or bribed into keeping their mouths shut, giving false 
  information, or misleading the party to further their own 
  schemes.  
  Method #4: Seers and Fortune 
  Tellers
  Seers and fortune tellers are an 
  interesting but sometimes dangerous 
  element to add into your game.  Before 
  considering using them, you have to decide whether the 
  power to see into the future and the past is a real gift or 
  simply moneymaking scheme in your campaign world.  
  Once you have decided this, you can plan accordingly.  
  Perhaps in your world there are both types, and it is 
  difficult for the two to be told apart.
  If you are dealing with an NPC scam artist set up as a 
  fortuneteller, remember to make it as believable for the 
  PC as possible.  How does the scam artist operate?  Does 
  he have a crystal ball, perfume, and use illusions to help 
  gain the coins from the travelers purse?  Usually, scam 
  artists will speak in riddles and keep things very general.  
  They never will give specific dates, times, or descriptions.   
  Their ”predictions” and ”insights” into an individual’s 
  life are usually so general that they can be applied to 
  just about everybody.  Also, a false prophet will most 
  likely never tell the party that their future is full of trials, 
  tribulation, and death.  After all, people are more likely 
  to pay for a good fortune than a bad one.  Examples of 
  possible fortunes include:
  • You have recently fallen into some trouble.
  • While you wish you had more money now, 
  the future will bring wealth. 
  • 
  While your past is troubled, your future 
  is bright.
  • 
  I see a man in your future who will 
  hold your destiny.
  • 
  You are in control of your own fate.  
   
  Scam artists can also be a way to bait the PCs for 
  trouble.  If a adversary has a vendetta against the 
  PCs, what better way than to hire a pseudo-fortune 
  teller to lead the PCs astray. 
  True visionaries can be a powerful enemy or ally.  If 
  divination spells or powers are part of your game, 
  consider placing a diviner in a town to either bait 
  your PCs or provide them valuable information that 
  could help their quest in the future.
  Method #5: Publications and Media
  Have you ever considered using newspapers, flyers, 
  broadcasts, or other forms of media to convey 
  information?  The media can be an amazing source 
  of game-enriching news for your PCs to learn.  
  Before creating or developing any type of media, 
  several questions need to be considered.  The same 
  types of considerations that are given to the town 
  gossip and authorities can be given to local media—
  who owns it?  Who runs it?  Who pays them?  Who 
  bribes them?  Where do their interests lie?  What are 
  the freedom of speech laws in the area?  Knowing 
  the ”players” on the local and national scene can 
  help you create a believable bias.
  Different types of media usually take a bit more 
  time to prepare, but can be well worth it.  For the 
  best results, newspapers and other forms of media 
  need to be prepared in advance.  Actually creating 
  the documents in question will give you the best 
  in-game results, but if that is not possible, at least 
  writing down what the documents might contain 
  is a good idea.  A simple set of ”wanted” ads 
  posted on the wall when your players walk in the 
  door for the session can add depth to a campaign  
  (especially if the posters have one or more of the 
  PCs faces.)  When you know your PCs are looking for 
  an adventuring job, creating a classified/job board 
  (such as one that would be found at the local inn or 
  eatery) can give them an interactive way to choose 
  a new adventure.  You can use a particle board and 
  tacks, or simple sticky notes on the wall to achieve 
  this purpose.  
  The web can be a great resource to keep your 
  campaign going between sessions by creating a 
  ”local” newspaper where the players can read the 
  latest events of the world.  Depending on how broad 
  General RPG
  
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  your campaign is, you can make it a local paper or a more 
  general regional newspaper.  While most DMs simply do 
  not have the time to create entire newspapers for a town, 
  creating a few headlines or one story is a quick way to 
  achieve the illusion of a real paper without all of the work.
  If your game is set in a modern or futuristic setting, other 
  media methods may be available—radio and television 
  broadcasts, a regional or galactic information sharing 
  network, or data capsules.  Be creative within the confines 
  of the setting you use. 
  Method #6: Letters and Correspondence
  Do not ignore the power of messenger and mail systems 
  within your campaign.  How is the mail handled in your 
  campaign setting?  Is there a regular service or do 
  private individuals act as messengers and couriers?  Is 
  information digital and therefore instantaneous?  Are 
  there powerful magic users who will send instantaneous 
  messages for a high price?  Does the party need to 
  contact an individual?  How important is the message?  
  Can they intercept messages from others?  Can others 
  intercept their messages?
  If you are using messages and mail within your campaign, 
  again, creating the actual documents can add a level of 
  depth for your players.   And as always, keep in mind that 
  couriers, messengers, or message senders may all have 
  their own agenda. 
  Information Sources: The Players Perspective
  While the majority of this article is devoted to a DMs 
  handling of information, players also need to understand 
  how to interpret and use information sources within a 
  campaign.  Here are some tips and questions to ask to 
  help you along:
   
  Who are you getting the information from? 
   
  How reliable does this person appear?  Do you 
  have reason to trust the information provider?
   
  Can you collaborate the information with multiple, 
  varied sources?  If sources differ, does one side 
  seem more predominant than the other?
   
  Remember that some information can be found 
  from sources you do not expect.  If you are 
  searching for information on an individual, their 
  enemies or adversaries may know more and be 
  willing to share more than anyone else.  
   
  Look for information in the most unlikely of places.  
   
  While some information may be misleading, 
  other information is correct.  Be sure to take all 
  information into consideration, however unlikely it 
  may seem. 
  Remember when distributing or seeking information 
  and sources, consider validity, trustworthiness of 
  speaker, and possible motives. I also look forward 
  to addressing any questions or comments you may 
  have, so feel free to contact me. 
  General RPG
  
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  Antipodean
        Adventures
  A monthly column by
  Shane Cubis
  this month with the able assistance
  of Marnie Landrigan
  NED KELLY
  G’Day all. This month, as promised, I want to focus on 
  the most famous of Australian bushrangers – Ned Kelly. 
  Kelly has a special place in the heart of Australians. He 
  is an icon, and his image can be found on everything 
  in Australia from signs that warn against shoplifting to 
  sliced bread. Kelly, and his accompanying gang, were the 
  last of the bushrangers. They have inspired innumerable 
  stories and many films. The first feature length movie 
  ever made was about the man himself, filmed here in 
  Australia. First, let’s take a look at why Ned has become 
  such a hero to the people of this broad, brown land.
  Background, or What Happened?
  Ned Kelly was born in 1854 of Irish, Catholic convict stock, 
  which did not leave him held in very high esteem among 
  the rulers of the colony. At fifteen, he was arrested for 
  his part in two robberies alongside infamous bushranger 
  Harry Power. The Kelly family was routinely harassed. 
  A notable instance of this harassment occurred when a 
  trooper by the name of Constable Fitzpatrick came to the 
  Kelly homestead, attempting to drunkenly court Ned’s 
  sister Kate. Dan (Ned’s younger brother) knocked him 
  down and the trooper’s pistol fired. Fitzpatrick somehow 
  cut his hand in the scuffle. Ned, who claimed to have 
  been miles away at the time of the incident, was later 
  accused of shooting the trooper through the hand. In 
  the aftermath of this affair, Mrs Kelly was sentenced to 
  three years jail for assisting in the attempted murder of 
  a policeman. Ned evaded capture, and swore revenge on 
  Fitzpatrick and the establishment he represented.
  Kelly’s most infamous run-in with the police, beyond his 
  final showdown at Glenrowan, occurred at Stringybark 
  Creek. Four policemen – Constables Scanlon, Lonigan, 
  McIntyre and Sergeant Kennedy, on the hunt for Ned 
  and his gang, made camp at the creek. Unbeknownst 
  to them, the Kelly Gang were camped less than a mile 
  away. Ned spotted the troopers on one of his regular 
  reconnaissance trips, and headed back to camp to warn 
  his comrades, knowing that as outlaws he and Dan would 
  be shot on sight.
  The next day, when Kennedy and Scanlon were away 
  from their camp, the gang snuck up and demanded the 
  surrender of Lonigan and McIntyre. Lonigan jumped up, 
  and was immediately shot dead. McIntyre threw down 
  his arms. When Kennedy and Scanlon returned, Ned 
  demanded their surrender as well. A gunfight ensued, 
  as both parties dodged through the bush, exchanging 
  fire. Ned, an expert marksman, shot Kennedy and Joe 
  (another member of the Kelly Gang) killed Scanlon. 
  McIntyre fled on horseback. The gang covered the 
  remains of their fallen foes with blankets – a curiously 
  honourable gesture – before taking their weapons and 
  leaving the area.
  McIntyre’s 
  report, 
  wherein 
  he 
  painted 
  the 
  altercation 
  as 
  a 
  cowardly ambush, sparked an area-wide search for the 
  Kelly Gang. They lost much public support, but as the 
  police grew more tyrannous in their search – holding 
  suspected allies of the gang for months and raiding 
  homesteads without warrants – this grassroots support 
  once again began to grow.
  Euroa was the gang’s next big haul. They robbed the 
  National Bank in that town, relieving the establishment 
  of 2000 pounds in coins and notes. They also burnt a 
  number of records (probably saving some poor farmers 
  from having to pay back their debts!) 
  During the next bank robbery, in which the gang stole 
  some police uniforms in order to hold up the Bank of New 
  South Wales, Ned set out his political agenda in a famous 
  document now known as the Jerilderie Letter (named 
  after the town in which it was written). In this 10,000 
  word document, which was more of a manifesto than 
  anything else, he referred to his enemies as “a parcel of 
  big ugly fat-necked wombat-headed big-bellied magpie 
  legged narrow-hipped splay-footed sons of Irish Bailiffs 
  or English landlords which is better known as officers of 
  Justice or Victoria police...” He also outlined the reasons 
  for his life of crime – he aimed to create a self image that 
  reflected a revolutionary rather than a common thief and 
  murderer. Ned passed the Jeriderie Letter on to a local 
  newspaper editor, understanding the importance of the 
  media in drumming up popular support.
  Glenrowan was the place where Kelly fell. He and his gang 
  took over the stationmaster’s office. Knowing that a train 
  full of troopers was probably headed their way, the Kellys 
  had ripped up the train tracks, hoping that the ensuing 
  wreck would take out a significant proportion of their 
  opposition. Ned planned to pick off any survivors as they 
  emerged from the wreckage. The gang, with townsfolk 
  as hostages in tow, moved over to the Glenrowan Inn, 
  where they threw a party. Most of the ‘hostages’ were 
  Kelly supporters, who amused themselves with drinking, 
  dancing and long-jump competitions. A school teacher 
  by the name of Curnow, who taught history, convinced 
  Ned to let him take his wife and children home. After 
  gaining Kelly’s trust, Curnow ran to the track and flagged 
  down the train with a lantern wrapped in a red silk 
  handkerchief. He did so because he wanted to be a part 
  of the history he taught. 
  The police, numbering around fifty, left the halted train 
  and quickly made their way to the area around the 
  Glenrowan hotel, moving quietly through the trees. By 
  Cover Story
  
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  3am they had the place surrounded. They called out to 
  the Kellys to surrender, and received a response as the 
  gang emerged from the hotel with guns blazing. After 
  the first exchange, Dan, Steve, and Joe (who had been 
  shot in the leg) retreated back into the structure. Dan 
  ordered the townsfolk trapped in the hotel to lie flat, so 
  as to avoid being shot. Ned did not return to the hotel, 
  but stayed among the trees, dressed in a suit of armor 
  and a helmet crafted from iron.
  Women and children who attempted 
  to flee the hotel were fired upon by 
  police, who kept up a steady rate. 
  Around dawn, Joe Byrne stood up 
  during the gunplay and drank a toast 
  to the gang from a bottle of whiskey. 
  Halfway through, a bullet pierced his 
  groin and he fell, dead. Kelly had 
  made his way back to the hotel to 
  rescue his companions, and arrived 
  just in time to see Joe fall. Dazed, 
  and losing blood, he stumbled out the 
  back and passed out in a ditch. He 
  woke up two hours later, loaded three 
  guns and staggered to his feet.
  Kelly emerged from early morning 
  mist, still dressed in his ninety pound 
  suit of armor. The bullets of the police 
  could not penetrate the metal, and it 
  seemed that Ned was invincible as 
  he took the lives of his foes one by 
  one. Alas, one of the troopers noticed 
  that Kelly’s legs were unprotected. 
  Shots were aimed squarely at these 
  extremities, and Ned was swiftly 
  brought down.
  Later that day, the police wished to 
  flush out the remaining members of 
  the gang, who they believed were 
  still holed up in Glenrowan Hotel. They attempted to 
  do so by setting fire to the western side of the building 
  with kerosene-soaked straw. As the fire blazed, a priest 
  named Father Gibney rushed inside when he heard that 
  a townsman could possibly  still be trapped inside. He 
  found the dead bodies of Steve Hart and Dan Kelly, who 
  appeared to have committed suicide in the realization 
  that their battle was futile.
  Kelly was nursed back to health before being tried and 
  hanged, in the same prison which still held his mother. 
  Her final words to him were “Mind you die like a Kelly, 
  son.” He was 25 years old.
  Principal Characters or NPCs
  Ned Kelly (1854 – 1880): Ned tended to be a man 
  of action rather than thought. He was a fierce Irish 
  nationalist, and a hater of police. Articulate and loyal to 
  his friends and family, Ned saw his life of crime as more 
  of a rebellion against the English state than a simple 
  matter of robbing people for money. After being brought 
  down in a blaze of gunfire at Glenrowan, he was hanged 
  on November 11th, 1880.
  Dan Kelly (1861 – 1880): The loyal younger brother 
  of Ned, he was more of a thinker than his brother. His 
  sensible advice was often ignored by the gang’s leader. 
  Dan was extremely loyal to his family, and would do 
  anything for them. At Glenrowan, his body was burned 
  beyond recognition.
  Steve Hart (1859 – 1880): Hart was a former jockey, and 
  was aged only 21 when he was killed. He had a public 
  argument with Ned during the Jeriderie raid, in which 
  Steve took a clergyman’s fob watch and Ned demanded 
  he return it. He was once heard to say to Dan, “A short 
  life and a merry one.” The first part of this statement was 
  certainly true. His body, like Dan’s, was burned beyond 
  recognition in the fire of Glenrowan.
  Joe Byrne (1857 – 1880): Byrne was a wise, patient 
  man and a friend of Ned and Dan for almost all their 
  lives. Legend goes that he enjoyed a regular appetite 
  for opium and women. He was present at Stringybark, 
  and was from that moment on a full member of the 
  gang. Joe was killed by a bullet to the groin. In the 
  end his scorched body was tied to a door in a lifelike 
  position so that photographs could be taken of it by local 
  journalists.
  Aaron Sherritt (18?? – 1880): Sherritt was a friend of the 
  gang, who betrayed the gang by informing the police of 
  their activities. If he had been present at Stringybark, it 
  is likely that he would have been a member of the gang 
  alongside the others. He was threatened and cajoled 
  by the police, and inadvertently implicated Byrne as a 
  member by asking that Joe be spared punishment (in 
  return for Sherritt’s information). Byrne heard about 
  Sherritt’s betrayal of the Kellys, and in a fury he went to 
  Aaron’s house and shot him dead. This murder, in part, 
  led to the events at Glenrowan.
  Harry Power (1819 – 1891): Power was of a generation 
  of bushrangers that led the way for the likes of Kelly and 
  his gang. He courted Mrs. Kelly for a number of years, 
  and it was during this time that Ned was shown (rumored 
  reluctantly) the life of crime that he was later to embrace, 
  through an apprenticeship with the old outlaw.
  Basic Adventure Ideas
  1. The Kelly gang have been arrested, and it is up 
  to the PCs, who are local to the region, to bust 
  them out of jail before they are executed.
  2. The PCs are guarding a mail coach, which is held 
  up by the Kelly Gang. They may fight them off, 
  or join them – sparking off a whole bushranger 
  campaign (as seen in last month’s Antipodean 
  Adventures column).
  3. The PCs are policemen and detectives brought 
  over from Europe, and they have been charged 
  with the task of bringing the Kellys to justice. 
  They must track the gang down in the bush (a 
  task which will be made harder due to the fact 
  that the Kellys know it like the back of their 
  collective hands) and bring them back to town, 
  dead or alive.
  4. The PCs take on roles within the Kelly Gang, 
  or play a rival bushranging gang that meets up 
  with and helps/hinders the Kelly Gang with their 
  adventures.
  Cover Story
  
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
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  Text only version here:
  Other Genres
  Space Fantasy/Science Fiction: Captain Ned Kelly of the 
  Starship Glenrown gathers together a band of followers 
  (the PCs) and travels to the planet of Cubisia-6 to seek 
  revenge on the corrupt, tentacled space-police officer 
  who kidnapped his sister and framed his mother for 
  attempted murder. Along the way, they gain the help of 
  a number of steadfast supporters including an antiques 
  dealer who knows a great deal about anachronistic 
  armor, a infamous bare hands boxer who Ned defeats in 
  a bout and subsequently befriends Ned, and a league of 
  beautiful women who will go to all kinds of crazy lengths 
  to help their heroes succeed.
  Fantasy: A half-orc family in a primarily human 
  settlement is being mercilessly picked on and accused 
  of horrendous crimes by the local, allegedly paladin-like 
  constabulary. Now the eldest son, a hotheaded half-orc 
  named N’red, has been arrested for the murder of a local 
  guard. He will be beheaded unless the PCs can prove his 
  innocence.
  Modern: The government intends to sell off a bundle 
  of land to overseas investors, ignoring the fact that 
  it is currently inhabited by the PCs and their brethren 
  – who have been offered nothing in compensation and 
  issued with a notice demanded they vacate the area 
  immediately. The PCs must turn to a life of crime and 
  rebellion to stop these nefarious plans and save their 
  community.
  Horror: The Kelly Gang rise up from the dead, flanked 
  by the remains of all who opposed them. The whole 
  bunch look like wraiths trapped in a twisted mockery of 
  the armor he wore during his last stand at Glenrowan. 
  They will stop at nothing to bring down the government 
  and make Australia an Irish Republic. Or, if this is too 
  political for your gaming group, they need to kill all the 
  descendants of the men who killed them.
  Humour: Turn Ned’s helmet into a garbage can. Hilarity 
  will ensue.
  Pulp: A young hothead has taken it upon himself to 
  recreate the Kelly legend. Wearing armor that masks 
  his face, this anonymous character has embarked on a 
  life of crime, aided by high tech gadgets and an almost 
  supernatural dexterity. The PCs have to track him down 
  and bring him to justice. His true identity will be a shock 
  for all involved.
  Conclusion and Resources
  The image of Ned’s helmet is a powerful symbol in 
  Australia. “As game as Ned Kelly” used to be a widespread 
  simile, and his life has been the subject of many different 
  books, artworks, songs and movies. The popularity of 
  the recently released film starring Heath Ledger is a 
  tribute to power his story still holds for us today. I have 
  included the names of some resources below, which offer 
  more information and flavour on the Kelly gang.
  Books: There are a multitude of books on Ned and 
  his gang, but I have chosen a select few of quality and 
  merit.
  Peter Carey, The True History of the Kelly Gang (2000): 
  This first person narrative allows readers to feel complete 
  empathy for Kelly and attempts to draw conclusions as 
  to what really motivated his actions. The style of the 
  writing is taken from the largely unpunctuated flow of 
  the Jerilderie Letter, to give a sense of authenticity.
  Ian Jones, Ned Kelly: A Short Life (1995). This academic 
  history ‘textbook’ provides detailed facts on every 
  important aspect of the Kelly Gang. Ian Jones is regarded 
  as the leading spokesman on Kelly history and has been 
  called upon by many film makers, authors, and artists to 
  verify facts.
  Brian Ridden, Whistleman (2000). This recent fictional 
  text centers on a young boy whose life crosses paths 
  with the Kelly gang. It views Ned Kelly favorably, as 
  somewhat of a saint or hero and poignantly reveals 
  how obsessed the Australian nation is with this part of 
  our history, all through the metaphor of a young boy’s 
  journey.
  Movies: Most of these movies are titled the same way 
  – with an imaginative twist on the protagonist’s name. 
  Hence I have added the year of release and a bit about 
  each film so they can be differentiated.
  Ned Kelly (1970): Stars Mick Jagger as Kelly. This film 
  is terrible, and avoids any acquaintance with historical 
  truth. Still, it may be useful for some flavor or a good 
  laugh.
  Reckless Kelly (1993): A ridiculous Yahoo Serious vehicle 
  – a follow up to ‘Young Einstein’. Ned is a modern-day 
  video store owner and motorbike rider who travels to 
  Hollywood for some reason. His helmet is a garbage 
  can.
  Ned Kelly (2003): An excellent retelling, with an 
  emphasis on realism and empathy for the character.
  Ned (2003): A comedy version of the legend, 
  coincidentally made at the same time as the film above. 
  Ned’s helmet is once again swapped for a garbage can.
  Artworks: The most well known pieces of ‘Kelly’ art 
  were created by Sidney Nolan in the 1940s. These 
  artworks have simplified the Kelly legend into one 
  unforgettable symbol – the black helmet. Such is the 
  power of this artwork that it has become living symbols 
  of the Australian identity, famous in its own right, and 
  applauded in events such as our 2000 Olympic Games 
  opening ceremony.
  Websites: This is the ideal place for international readers 
  to find out more about Ned Kelly and bushrangers in 
  general. Some of my research for this article came 
  from the sites below. In these sites you can find maps 
  of the region, pictures of the gang and armor, and more 
  information for your Ned Kelly campaign.
  www.ironoutlaw.com, http://www.nedkellysworld.com.a
  u, www.nedkellythemovie.com
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=showreview&id=21
  http://www.silven.com/print.asp?case=monthlycolumn&camefrom=ezine&id=21
  Cover Story
  
  42
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Star’s Night Part 3
  By Aaron Todd
  Ynara had been a patient woman.  She had been waiting for five years to get a solid lead.  She was certain that 
  this Bollen could tell her something.  So, when she lost the hand, she would stick around long enough to let the 
  dealer finish for the day and then follow it.  She would have been right behind the unknowing messenger if she 
  hadn’t been detained by a low-life hustler who thought he could muscle his money from her.
  Once outside, Ynara quickly looked around, hoping beyond reason that the Bollen had not already disappeared.  
  Down the somewhat busy street to her right about a hundred yards away, she saw it turning a corner.  There 
  may have been seventy or eighty people between her and the corner, but she did not see any of them as she 
  broke into a brisk run towards the spot.
  Reaching the corner, she slowed, not wanting to alert it in any way or raise any suspicion.  She looked around 
  the corner and noticed that this street was significantly less crowded.  She could see the fat man and his 
  mechanized assistant about a hundred feet away.  She could walk quickly enough without causing a stir and 
  catch up to them in a minute or two.
  The Bollen actually moved much better than she would have thought for a being his size.  He waddled his way 
  along the road with his pudgy little legs moving as though they were much longer than they were.  The ART 
  appeared labored by the slowness of the pace and the suitcase that it carried, but it was not likely bothered by 
  it.
  This street was mostly residential.  There were many single-story homes which would provide her less cover for 
  her intended activities, but there might just be enough going on so as not to draw too much attention to her 
  when she made her move.
  There was a local security enforcer a few houses down and on the opposite side.  She had only seen a couple of 
  them since she had landed and knew that they were not very aggressive in these parts.  They were used more 
  to prevent riots and large-scale activity than deal with petty commotion.
  Still, she would have to keep at least a peripheral perspective on him.  She had drawn enough attention from 
  security personnel in other sectors.  She didn’t need to add this one.  She would move along the street as 
  quickly as she could without breaking into a run.  She couldn’t lose the Bollen as slowly as it went, so she felt 
  pretty good about her chances.
  As she got closer, she reached into the pouch on her left leg to remove the portable circuit scanner she carried 
  with her at all times.  Besides being a great diagnostic tool for her ship, it was a very useful in many other 
  ways, including slicing into locks and blocking scanners when she didn’t want someone to know what she was 
  carrying.
  It was also rumored to be good at blocking some of the neuro-electrical synapses in the brain of an ART.  She 
  had not yet had to try it out herself, and she hated to trust rumors, but it seemed like a good time to see if 
  there was any validity to the rumors.
  The enforcer went into one of the local merchant’s shops just seconds before a man riding on his hover-bike 
  came flying around the corner behind her. Making a fair amount of noise, it kicked up all kinds of dirt on the 
  road.  Nearly hitting her as he passed, Ynara found herself diving for cover into the front door of a house on her 
  right.
  As the man continued on down the street, still kicking up dust, he got the attention of the Bollen and his aide.  
  They turned around just in time to get out of the way of the speeding vehicle.  The Bollen knocked over the 
  ART with his considerable girth as he stumbled for his own safety.
  Ynara came back out of the door ignoring the shouts of whoever was inside.  She hadn’t bothered to look 
  deeper within to see who the resident was, but they were obviously offended by her abrupt intrusion into their 
  home.  Ynara ignored the sounds as she cautiously scanned the unnaturally hazy street.  She saw the Bollen 
  struggling to get back up.  Apparently, during the disturbance, she had missed the fact that the Bollen had 
  buried his assistant underneath the force and size of his own body.
  The Bollen worked at getting to his feet, struggling to right himself from the awkward position of lying down.  
  Once standing, he began to kick at the ART, trying to get it to get off the ground.
  Fiction
  
  43
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  In seeing this, Ynara figured the fat man must have somehow knocked it out or jarred one of the ART’s 
  computer components loose.  Either way, it was down, and seemingly not getting up anytime soon.  Ynara had 
  her chance, and she was not about to pass it up.  Whether or not the circuit scanner would really have worked, 
  she would have to find out another time. 
  She ran towards the fat man as he kicked at his baggage-handler.  She was only about fifty feet away now. 
  She’d be there in seconds.  She pulled her pistol out of its holster at her left leg, knowing that she’d need it 
  very soon.  She hoped that he would not look up.
  Arriving at her target, the Bollen had not noticed her approach.   He was too busily distracted by his task at 
  hand.  He continued to yell and kick at the man on the ground, but the ART did not move.  This is what she 
  wanted to see.  The ART was not getting up.  She had her best chance.
  ”All right, fat man, turn around, real slow,” she stayed back a few feet from him, pointing her gun right at the 
  Bollen’s head.
  ”What are you talking ab…,” as he turned around, quicker than she thought he might be able to.  He found 
  himself staring down the barrel of her gun.
  ”You really don’t listen very well, do you?”  She raised her voice.
  ”What is this about?” The rumble in his voice could have curdled milk.  It really irritated her.  
  ”You’re the one from the card game.  What do you want?”
  ”We’ll find out in a minute.  Now shut up and get moving.  Around the corner, now.  Go!”  Keeping the pistol 
  aimed at his face, she waved towards an alley just behind him and to the left.
  ”Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not going anywhere.  Go away now girl.  You might get hurt,” he said with indignant 
  pride.
  Without hesitating, she lowered her pistol to his side and just slightly grazed his big stomach with a shot that 
  would just barely burn him.  That should get his attention.
  ”Owwww!” What sounded somewhere between a scream and a burp escaped his mouth as he leaned slightly 
  forward and to the side where the new hole in his shirt was.  He was sweating, now.  ”What do you think you 
  are doing little girl?”
  ”I said move,” she motioned again with her free hand.
  ”Do you who I am, I’m….”
  ”Just shut up and move, or the next time I shoot you it will hurt a lot more, I promise you.”
  ”Very well,” he said regrettably.  He turned slowly and walked towards the alley.
  She followed close behind, but not so close as to let him touch her if he turned around.  While they walked, she 
  looked around the street for anyone that was paying attention.  She knew she might only have a few minutes 
  before security arrived.  Even the single guard she saw may have heard the commotion and was possibly 
  heading out right now.  She hoped he wasn’t concerned with writing out a speeding ticket.
  There were people watching her escort the Bollen into the alley, so she had no doubt that the moment she was 
  out of sight, someone would call.  Someone may have even called already, fleeing the scene the moment that 
  it began.  Taking one last glance, she confirmed that the ART was still not moving.
  The alley was as typical as they get.  Poorly lit with some small trash containers strewn about.  It carried a 
  smell with it that churned her stomach just enough to bring a small amount of bile back into her throat.  In 
  her mind, the Bollen should feel right at home.  His own smell was bad enough.  But as they got about halfway 
  down the alley she stopped him.
  ”Alright, that’s far enough.  Turn around, back against the wall.”  She positioned herself in a way that she could 
  see out the alley, just in case anything would come along, such as the ART.  ”Now, I need some information 
  that I think you have.  You ready to talk?”
  ”That all depends on the information you seek.  All information has a price.”  He was trying to bargain with her.
  ”What!”  She shot him again, with another glance on his other side.  ”I didn’t come here to deal, unless it’s 
  with your life.  Got me?”
  Fiction
  
  44
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  All Rights Reserved. This article is the copyright of the author(s).
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  Text only version here:
  ”Yes, I think I understand now,” clearly in pain, he put 
  his hand on his side, neglecting the first wound.  This 
  one obviously hurt more.  ”What is it that you want?”
  ”I need some information.  About a boy.  Around 
  eighteen standard years.  One of you dealers took him 
  from me five years ago.  Anything ring a bell?”  She 
  was very angry.
  ”Yes, I think I know the boy.  You lost him in a game, 
  didn’t you?”  He was really sweating now.  He was 
  hurt and she was enjoying this.  What she didn’t know 
  is that this one was a birth-mate to her prey.
  ”That’s the one.  He’s my son.  Where is he?”  She 
  leaned in a bit towards him, moving the barrel of the 
  gun slightly closer to his face.  She wanted answers.
  ”I don’t know,” he looked a bit scared.
  ”Don’t lie to me!”  She was yelling now.  She shot 
  again, but this time, the bolt flashed past his ear; 
  not striking it, but certainly close enough to where he 
  knew that she had intended to miss.
  ”I mean I don’t know exactly where.”  He was 
  definitely shaking now.  His body trembling, his fat 
  rolling, and his shirt quivering like waves on a pond 
  broken by a stone.
  ”I’m listening,” she got instantly quieter.
  ”I don’t know exactly where he is, but I can tell you 
  where they took him.  The one you lost him to.”  He 
  was calming down some now.  He would talk nicely 
  after this.  The sweat-soaked shirt clung to him like 
  loose skin.
  ”Well, get talking.  I’ll run out of time before I run out 
  of charge on this gun.”
  ”The one that you are looking for, the Bollen, I 
  mean.  His name is Danuno.  He told me you would 
  come looking someday.”  Whoever this thing was, he 
  actually remembered her.  She didn’t know how she 
  had warranted the attention and wasn’t sure if she 
  liked the idea.
  ”His name means ‘Tyrant One’ in your tongue,” the 
  Bollen continued as he relaxed a little more.  He must 
  have been feeling more confident now that he was 
  talking.  ”He took your boy to become a miner.  He 
  owns several mining colonies in our sector, but he 
  likes to take the younger ones to Centrix.”
  ”Centrix!”  She tried not to show her revulsion at the 
  idea of knowing her son had gone to such a place, but 
  her instinctual reaction belied her intention.
  ”Please, let me explain.  Danuno does many things 
  illegal.  Many of us heard about what he had done 
  with your son, but he is very powerful,” It was trying 
  to play at her emotions towards her son, now.  ”He 
  has done this many times to many people.  Your 
  losing him in a card game was most unusual, though.  
  You are not the first and certainly not the last that 
  he has done this to.  He likes to use stolen labor, or 
  criminals, because he doesn’t have to pay them, just 
  keep them alive and under guard so they don’t try to 
  escape or kill each other.
  ”He takes them to Centrix because no one there will 
  bother him.  And it is a very hostile planet.  If he loses 
  someone he did not pay for, it is of no great loss.  He 
  will just go out and find some more.  There are many 
  lost souls in the casinos above the planet.  It is very 
  economical.” He was beginning to relax a bit as he 
  was nearly hypnotizing her with his knowledge of her 
  son.
  ”And as I am sure you well know, the authorities have 
  banned the planet, so most are afraid to go near it 
  except the religious fanatics, and they worship the 
  planet as a temple.   The planet is very rich in ore, 
  though, and he mines this ore for his own.  No taxes, 
  you see.”
  ”But how does he get on and off the planet?  Security 
  patrols that place like a government warehouse.”  
  More importantly, she was hoping to find out was how 
  was she going to get on and off the planet.
  ”He pays them.  Everyone has a price,” He begins to 
  snicker a bit.
  ”You know, you’re right.  What’s your life worth,” 
  She put the barrel of the pistol right up against his 
  forehead.  ”I’m waiting.”
  ”What do you want, anything.  I’ll give it to you.”
  ”Let’s start by emptying your pockets and keep talking 
  while you do.  I’m sure you still have lots more to tell 
  me.
  He had little choice but to listen to her.  He had 
  already figured out that she could just as easily 
  kill him as wait for him to empty his pockets.  So, 
  to save his skin, he gave her nearly everything he 
  had.  He was not about to giver her everything, but 
  he had given her a substantial amount, that should 
  make her go away, while he was still only somewhat 
  discomforted.
  To be continued……
  http://www.silven.com/articles.asp?case=showreview&id=25
  http://www.silven.com/print.asp?case=monthlycolumn&camefrom=ezine&id=25
  Fiction
  
  45
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Do you make maps?
  If you have been busy with some 
  home made cartography, then 
  consider showcasing it for our 
  readers to see.
  Silven Crossroads will happily 
  publish your home grown maps 
  for use by other gamers. Naturally 
  you will retain full copyright of all 
  the work that is originally yours.
  Here are the requirements:
  4It needs to in a print quality. 
  Minimum 72 dpi, preferably higher.
  4It needs to be of a high quality 
  and have a professional look and 
  feel to it. If in doubt, look at our 
  past issues and see the kind of 
  maps we have published.
  4It should preferably be a full A4 
  page in size and have a clear grid, 
  scale and compass printed on it.
  Send any maps you think qualify 
  to kosala@silven.com.
            About this section
  The Cartographer’s Corner is your 
  source for free, high quality color 
  maps.
  Each map that follows is a full 
  page, in color and contains 
  numbered areas so that a DM can 
  easily make notes and keep track 
  of what he or she wants where.
  On this page we will present some 
  adventure hook ideas that go 
  with each map. These are usable 
  in any fantasy based RPG and 
  are presented only to give your 
  imagination a kick start. We are 
  very interested in hearing your 
  feedback about how you use our 
  maps. Head over to our forums 
  and tell us.
  http://www.silven.com/forums.asp
  ?case=threads&forumgroupid=1&f
  orumsubsectionid=56
  Cartographer’s Corner
  Mapmaking 101: The Basics
  Part 1 of a two part tutorial on making your own maps
  Is there a simple way to make maps?  Depending on what you want to 
  do, the answer is both yes and no.  If you want professional quality maps, 
  you are going to need artistic talent, a steady hand, and/or professional 
  computer programs to make those maps.  If you only need simple maps for 
  your own use, you can explore the various mapmaking programs available 
  to the RPG mapmaker.  This article does not address specific mapmaking 
  programs, but rather professional quality mapmaking techniques in two 
  major categories: hand drawn and digital. 
  Hand drawn and digital represent the two major categories in mapmaking.  
  Since one can scan a hand-drawn map at any point, some mapmakers will 
  use both techniques, while others focus on exclusively one or the other.  
  This article gives an overview both techniques.
  Hand-Drawn Maps
  Hand drawing your maps is a time-tested, excellent way to create a large 
  variety of maps.  I especially recommend using this technique to beginner 
  mapmakers, those of you who do not have access to programs like Adobe 
  Photoshop or Illustrator, or for those of you who do not own a digital 
  drawing pad.  Some mapmakers may choose to finish their maps by hand 
  as well—using watercolors, pencils, or markers—while others choose to scan 
  their map into a computer and finish it with a program.    
  To begin a hand-drawn map, be sure you have good supplies.  First, get 
  yourself some high-quality paper.  I bought a 9 x 13 spiral bound drawing 
  tablet with extra-thick sheets at a local art store.  You will also want to get 
  a good pencil (I recommend using a normal wooden pencil, drafting pencil, 
  or drawing pencil, as the pencils with refillable lead can leave indentations 
  on your paper).  Other supplies include a precise black ink pen, a good 
  eraser (I recommend going with the Kneaded brand erasers, also available 
  from an art supply store), a t-square, a ruler, and a compass.  If you are 
  planning on finishing the map by hand, you will need one or more of the 
  following: thin-point markers, acrylic paint, watercolor paint, pastels, 
  colored pencils, or watercolor pencils.  
  I begin by using a light pencil to sketch the map, using the t-square, rulers, 
  and compass as needed.  This is usually the longest part of the process.  
  Once I confirm that the lines are in the right place and I like the look of the 
  sketch, I go over the pencil lines with the black pen.   Going over everything 
  with pen is especially useful for scanning purposes, because it allows you 
  to get cleaner, crisper scans with fewer smudges and bad spots.  Always be 
  sure to thoroughly erase your underlying pencil marks before moving on 
  to other steps, otherwise, your map may end up looking messy.  Once you 
  have your initial inking done, you have a choice: finish the map by hand or 
  scan it into a computer and use a photo-editing program to finish the map.  
  One nice thing about scanning in a map is that if you have made mistakes 
  with inking or drawing, you can correct those mistakes in digital format. 
  I have only done several maps completely by hand.  Techniques include 
  using watercolors, allowing the map to dry, and then adding accents with 
  colored pencils.  Another excellent finish for a map is to use watercolor 
  pencils, which produce a neat effect. Depending on the map, hand-finishing 
  may be faster than applying effects in a photo-editing program. I would 
  suggest experimenting and finding what technique works for you.  Hand-
  finishing a map with colored pencils, or watercolors, for example, creates a 
  very unique look that is difficult to duplicate in a program like Photoshop.
  by Dana Driscoll and Kosala Ubayasekara
  {!
  Gaming Aids
  
  46
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  A few problems are associated with hand-drawn maps 
  when transferring them into digital format. First, your 
  scan may pick up every little spot of dirt or smudge 
  that your hand-drawn map included.  This will lead to 
  increased cleanup time, up to several hours, before 
  your map can be finished.  Another thing that happens 
  is that your scan may be too light, causing lines or 
  spots to be lost from the map.  This again causes a 
  problem because you end up having to re-draw those 
  lines with a mouse or digital drawing pad, which can 
  be very tricky.  A third problem that occurs is that your 
  image is ”flat”, so when you bring it into Photoshop, you 
  will have to get rid of the white around the lines before 
  you can begin to apply many of the neat Photoshop 
  effects to the map.  
  I have found that there are simply types of maps that 
  are much easier to draw by hand and scan in rather 
  than to attempt to create in Photoshop or Illustrator.  
  At the same time, however, hand-drawing a map can 
  create you additional steps when you do go to finish the 
  map digitally. 
  Digitally Created Maps
  The program of choice of both our 
  resident mapmakers is Adobe 
  Photoshop.  Before getting into 
  specific mapmaking techniques 
  in Photoshop, a word of caution.  
  Photoshop is a very complex 
  program to operate.  If you 
  are new to Photoshop, it 
  is strongly suggested 
  that you work 
  through the tutorials 
  that came with the 
  program and keep the 
  Photoshop manual on 
  hand. 
  There are many ways to 
  begin to create a map.  
  Some mapmakers draw 
  maps in a CAD program  
  such as AutoCad, a drawing 
  program like Illustrator, or a 
  photo editing program such 
  as Photoshop.  I usually begin 
  to create maps in Photoshop 
  by manipulating the selection 
  tools.  I select an area, expand, 
  contract, stroke or fill it and get the 
  beginnings of a map.   From there, 
  it is more selection, lines, and fill manipulation to 
  get the desired results.
  Layers are really the key to mapmaking.  Keep 
  everything in separate layers and remember to use 
  your history if you mess up.  Don’t flatten your layers 
  until you are completely finished with the map (and I 
  advise keeping a file with the layers intact just in case).    
  Your three best friends when creating maps in 
  Photoshop are fill options, layer effects, and filters.  
  You can create custom patterns and fill your areas 
  to create totally unique effects.  These patterns will 
  stay defined in your program so you can easily use 
  them over and over.  Layer effects are an integral 
  part of my own mapmaking technique.  If you keep 
  everything in separate layers, you can 
  take full advantage of layer 
  effects ranging from 
  pillow embossing and 
  overlaying a pattern 
  to shadows and strokes.  
  The third important 
  technique is the 
  use of the 
  array of 
  Photoshop 
  filters 
  at your 
  disposal.  
  Even if you 
  only have the 
  standard ones (i.e. 
  you haven’t purchased 
  additional filters like 
  Kai’s Power Tools), there 
  is still an amazing amount 
  of flexibility.  Feel free to 
  experiment to get neat 
  results.
  Replication and repetition is a 
  way to save time while creating 
  maps.  If you create one object 
  you can repeat it, turn it, or alter 
  it and end up with many objects.  
  I usually create objects in a separate 
  file, flatten them, and drag them into my working 
  document.  Feel free to apply your layer effects and 
  filters to your imported objects.  
  This section served as a brief introduction to what you 
  can do in Photoshop with a digital map.  Next month, 
  Kosala and I will take you through a step-by-step 
  process of creating a simple outdoor map in Photoshop. 
  Other Useful Programs:
  Three-dimensional programs are great for additional 
  graphics to add to maps.  I personally have the most 
  experience with Byrce 3d, but have also used Infini-
  D and Poser.  Bryce is great for overhead outdoor 
  scenes, but is of very limited use for indoor maps.  I 
  have mostly used Bryce to create additional graphics 
  for a map (i.e., a side view of a building, or front of a 
  landscape).  
  Wrapping things up:
  Next month we will tackle a step-by-step approach to 
  creating a simple outdoor map in Photoshop.  In the 
  future, we may also cover techniques for transferring 
  hand-drawn maps into Photoshop and getting a map 
  ready to edit.  
  When starting to make your own maps, it is important 
  to remember three things.  First—look at what 
  other mapmakers are doing for ideas to get started.  
  Second—be creative!  Brainstorm about different 
  maps you are interested in creating, but keep things 
  small and simple when you are just starting out.  And 
  finally—mapmaking, like many other skills, takes 
  practice.  Your first maps may not look perfect, but the 
  more you work at it, the better your maps will be!
  Selection tools
  History Palette
  Layers Palette
  Gaming Aids
  
  47
  Serving the City of Silven for over 1,000 Scribes!
  The Fodder Cannon is a monthly humour sec-
  tion by Lance Kepner and Dana Driscoll. Readers 
  are encouraged to contribute their own amusing 
  shorts. Send to adriayna@yahoo.com.
  Mayor’s Daughter Kidnapped Again. Mayor 
  Gives Up
  A report by Dak Tamble
  Last Tuesday at roughly 5:45 in the evening, Griselda  
  Shroderer, Mayor Silas Shroderer’s daughter was kidnapped.  
  She disappeared from the flower grove outside of town.
    A ransom note was found that night by peasant farmer Turkis.
    The ransom note demanded 1000 gold pieces for the safe 
  return of the maiden.
    ”This is the fifth time they’ve kidnapped her.  I am fed up.  
  First it was 100 gold pieces and then 300.  Now they’re up 
  to a thousand.  Well, I hate to tell them but she’s not worth it 
  anymore,” says Mayor Shroderer.
    ”This is getting rather annoying. You’d think the lady would 
  learn not roam about in flowerbeds near sunset.  But what do 
  we peasant farmers know,” says Turkis, hoeing.
  Local Fish Market Opening A Flop
  by Poot Fenbottle
   
  Last week, “Freddies Fish Market” opened its door for 
  business.  Denizens of Silven flocked to attend the opening and 
  pick up some seafood for dinner.  Patrons soon discovered a 
  problem—no fish!  
     Salvia Sheen, a Silven resident, comments, ”The sign says 
  Fish Market!  Where’s the fish?” 
      According to Frederick Freizerbern, owner of the market, 
  stocking the store takes time and funds
     ”It’s a fish market alright.”  Freddie says, ”But paying 
  fishermen and buying fish takes money, which I was hoping to 
  get by opening the store!  It appears people aren’t buying.”     
     Onlookers threw a few coppers at Freddie for good measure, 
  but otherwise left empty-handed.  Freddie has announced that 
  he will keep the market closed until his ”Grand-Re-Opening” 
  next month.
  New Boats to Use Wind.  Oarsmen Outraged.
  by Pelas Prigalum
   
  In a fantastic advance of modern science, SilvenSea 
  Boat factory announced that it would begin production of 
  boats with sails.  These sails would capture the wind of the sea 
  granting boats access to an almost infinite power supply at a 
  fraction of the cost of conventional oarsmen.
    Oarsmen across the land and here in Silven are outraged.
    ”How arr we suppoz’d ta make uh livun, if ze new boatz dun’t 
  uze oarsman?,” asks Yuri Blisterhands, local oarsmen.
    The new boats would sail faster, more efficiently and cost far 
  less per nautical mile than conventional oar powered boats.
    ”Me handz arr full o’ blizterz frum yearz o’ hurd work,” Yuri 
  says, ”und ull be damned if ze wind ull take dat away frum 
  me.” 
  Awakened Owl Not Wise or Old
    Local Arch Druid and gardener Kamiya was seen tacking up 
  signs to buildings (and people which she occasionally thinks is 
  ironic) last week, stating that, in fact, owls are neither wise nor 
  old.
   The flyer explains that she awakened one such animal a 
  fortnight past, expecting sage advice from the loft bird.  Instead 
  she received the coos and caws of juvenile barn owl interested 
  in small field mice.
    When asked what she hoped to accomplish by the task, 
  she responded, ”Had I known it would be as stupid as the 
  commoners in town, I wouldn’t have bothered.  All it would 
  ask was who? Who? Who? Over and over again.”
    Subsequently, as of this writing, the owl is considered missing 
  and annoying. Anyone finding such a creature should back 
  away slowly, and resist the urge to ask ‘who who?’ as it only 
  incites rage.
  Local Witch Outraged Over Cackling Birds
    Last Thursday resident witch and swamp homemaker Delila 
  Hagmonger, was arrested.  She was charged with slaughtering 
  and maiming birds, crows specifically.  At her sentencing she 
  was given 2 years community service by the DSS (Druidic 
  Society of Silven).
    Arch Druid Kamiya responded, ”It is a disgrace and a horror 
  that such an incident happened in our own town.  One wasn’t 
  an annoying owl was it? No? Damn. Please don’t print that.”
    When asked for comments, Witch Hagmonger responded, 
  ”Those damn birds.  Always with their cackling.  Don’t they 
  know they took away my job?  Don’t they know what pain 
  they’ve caused me?”
  Humor
  
  48
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Serving the City of Silven for over 1,000 Scribes!
    Two months ago Witch Hagmonger was laid off by the 
  Cacklers of Silven.  The reason was unknown until now.  An 
  investigation is underway.
  Town Crier Fired Over Lost Voice
    Monday Town Crier Floyd Phlegm was fired from his 30 year 
  standing position.  
    Crier Phlegm’s illustrious career cried such memorable events 
  as Silven’s Quintesentenial, the annual Undead Bash, and the 
  End of the World Event of 3 years ago.
    Crier Phlegm recently contracted a rare form of 
  speechlessness which prevents all manners and forms 
  of speech.  The last few weeks on the job, Phlegm tried 
  everything from miming, to charades, but the Criers Union 
  would not have any of it.
    Commenting from the Union is spokesperson Crier 
  Haggardly, ”Hear ye, Hear Ye! A crier, acting like a mime? 
  Insolence!”
    Crier Phlegm was unable to comment.
  From the community:
  Write Barbarian Self Read and Teaches To
    To write GuNtHer hard study tIme long.
    Hand pEn break time often, me but trY again.
    Think hArd tO try write and.
    Oops. DrOOl paper On again.
    Break pen again me Do.
    StUpiD Pen FeaTher! It nose make SneezE WitH TicKle! 
  SmasH Me Do.
    <Edited due to graphic content>
    Editor: We thank Gunther for his or her effort, and wish them 
  the best of luck in their endeavors. 
  Obituaries
  Burial Consultant dies of fright
  Our beloved town burial consultant, Coffin Woodchuck, 
  has died of fright whilst emblaming Barbarian Fighter, 
  Ogrebreath. Ogrebreath, who died in bar room brawl 
  the week before, apparently stood up in the middle of 
  the embalming procedure due to the effects of a Ring of 
  Regeneration that he was wearing. Coffin Woodchuck, 
  having had a mortal fear of all things that return from the 
  dead due to a childhood trauma, promptly had a heart attack.
  Classifieds:
  Wanted: Adventurers! Lucrative opportunity, wealth, and 
  potential hazards await you in the goblin caves to the northeast.  
  Contact Silas Swahank for more information.
  Help Wanted: Bar Wench.  Bar Wenches needed.  Good pay, 
  great benefits.   Missing teeth a plus! All inquires should be 
  directed to Gerrik at the Rusty Bolt Inn.  
  For Sale: Magic Beans! Ever wanted to grow your own 
  beanstalk?  Well, now you can!  Mariangle’s Magic Beans are 
  guaranteed!  Now being sold at Helga’s Herb Shoppe near the 
  town square.
  Need help?  The Magnificent Peaprick Peersbelly is offering 
  services to deprived adventuring groups.  In need of a fighter? 
  Rogue? Magician?  Healer?  Look no more---Peaprick is 
  YOUR man!
  Suicidal Gnomes needed! The famous adventuring party, 
  The Brothers Grimm, are badly in need of some enterprising 
  Gnomes for a once in a lifetime suicide mission to storm the 
  cave of an Elder White Dragon. The job requires a small stature 
  and genuine lack of interest in preserving your own life. Only 
  serious applicants need apply.
  Public Poll: Feast Day: Turkey or Ham?
  Orph Maloney, Wizard Extraordinaire
  ”A fine slow roasted duck”
  Yuri Blisterhands, Upset Oarsman
  ”Hickory, or maple. No oak.”
  Falia Bluemoon, Druid
  ”Domesticated animals scare me.”
  Gunther Smashalot, Barbarian Poet
  ”DirE BoAr.”
  Poles Turkis, Peasant Farmer
  ”Gruel.  And you’d eat it too if you knew what was good for 
  ya.”
  Humour
  
  49
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trademarks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara
  All Rights Reserved.
  Don’t miss our special 
  winter issue next month 
  when we delve into the 
  cold and wintery side 
  of gaming, featuring 
  a short story written 
  specifically for us by 
  Edward Kopp.
              Printing Tips
  Printing out the entire e-zine can 
  be very demanding on your printer 
  and use a lot of ink. If you are 
  concious about the amount of ink 
  you use in printing then we advise 
  you not to print the entire e-zine.
  Article pages and excerpts that we 
  assume will be printed the most 
  have been purposefully illustrated 
  using light colors to conserve 
  printer ink reserves. Printing out 
  only the pages that you need will 
  make it easier for you manage 
  your ink usage.
  Its recommened that you print 
  the maps on glossy paper if you 
  can. Glossy paper is available from 
  most stationery or office supply 
  stores and is more expensive than 
  regular printing paper, but the 
  quality difference in the print is 
  worth it.
  Silven Trumpeter Magazine
  The Silven Trumpeter is a monthly publication produced by the Silven Crossroads 
  community (www.silven.com). Articles and fiction appearing in the Silven Trumpeter  
  are drawn from the various content areas of the Silven Crossroads site.  Because of 
  this, if you are interested in having a piece of writing published in the Silven Trumpeter, 
  it must first be submitted for inclusion in a specific content area on the site. For more 
  information, please contact the editor at adriayna@yahoo.com
  Publisher
  Silven Crossroads. attn: Kosala Ubayasekara
  kosala@silven.com
  c/o Lidström; Skyttevägen 17, 1tr; 19258 Sollentuna; Sweden.
  Editor in Chief
  Dana Driscoll
  Contributing Authors
  Gary Gygax, Sean Holland, Shane Cubis, Kosala Ubayasekara, Edward Kopp, Raymond 
  Huling, Aaron Todd, Pike Stephenson, Eytan Bernstein, Scott Fitz, Magnus Kaliptic, 
  Lance Kepner, and Dana Driscoll
  Contributing Artists
  Veli-Matti Joutsen
  Contributing Artists
  Kou and Ali
  http://www.fantasywars.org/
  Florin Badita
  http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/loth/f/l/florin/florin.html
  Todd Lockwood
  http://www.toddlockwood.com
  Vshane SF/F Fantasy Studio
  http://www.vshane.com/
  Veli-Matti Joutsen
  Layout, and design
  Kosala Ubayasekara
  {!
  Legal Notice
  Trademarks and Copyright
  Silven Crossroads and the Silven Crossroads logo are trade-
  marks ©2003 Kosala Ubayasekara. All Rights Reserved.
  All text and artwork are copyright their respective authors 
  and creators as noted in the text, images, or below.
  Distribution
  This document may be distributed in its entirety on any web-
  site for non-commercial purposes.
  In the event of this occuring, the owner of the website must 
  refer to our free syndication guidelines at:
  http://www.silven.com/syndication.asp
  Usage of this document
  No changes of any kind are to be made in this document 
  including, but not limited to, editing or changing the text or 
  images, saving and distributing parts of this document with-
  out the whole, and copying and pasting portions or excerpts 
  of any content found herein on any site or document.
  Printing
  You may print out pages and content in this document for 
  your own personal, non-commercial use only.
  }
  Next issue
  December 
  01, 2003
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/Books/3p/Silven/Silven - Trumpeter - 04 - Nov 2003.pdf