Enchanted Nimbus #8

November 2024 Issue: Warrior Titles, Holiday Sales and Reading Recommendations!

Nov 27, 2024

Welcome back aboard the Enchanted Nimbus! I hope everyone has had a good November! At the end of the month the Earthmote Channel will have turned one year old! It is hard to believe that a whole year has gone by. It’s been a lot of fun and plenty of learnings. I look forward to year two!

This month’s newsletter has a blog on Warrior Titles. A round-up of latest OSR-style news, blogs articles and videos from other creators. And lastly the continuation of my recent reads & listens!

Feature: Warrior Titles

When it comes to OSR style systems, fighters are on the simpler side of character complexity. But, they are good at their namesake: fighting. When it comes to figures (both historical and literary) nothing evokes renown and fear like the reputation of a fierce warrior. Richard the Lionheart. The Mountain. Vlad the Impaler. The Bloody Nine. Those are all names that stir emotion because of their martial prowess.

I wanted to capture that essence in my games for my fighter player characters. How can we make it so they gain reputation as they become more skilled within our campaign worlds? I am experimenting in tackling this problem through two main avenues: reputation and mechanics.

Reputation

Reputation is ultimately something the GM will control. This isn’t something that is written down on a character sheet, at least not directly. But when your fighters defeat difficult foes then its time to have their exploits be heard around the land.

The “benefits” of this reputation come in the form of social contacts. The fighter will meet nearby patrons that could use the strong sword arm for their own cause. Or they hear of dangerous monsters that lair nearby with possible treasures. This is a way for your PC that is “just a fighter” to get involved in the social machinations of the campaign world around them.

Now, you may wonder how that information would be distributed to the wider world. How would the village know the party killed a pair of Frost Giants? How would Harald become known as Harald the Giantsbane? Well, again we have options. First, you can explicitly tell your player about the renown benefits, in which case they might be eager to speak of their exploits in the local taverns. You could also encourage your party by using a carousing rules system.

But if your party isn’t keen on directly speaking of their exploits, then you can have NPCs spread the word. If the party employs retainers or hirelings, they might be eager to share their party’s exploits for free drinks at the local tavern. If its a hostage situation, any rescue survivors will probably share the story they witnessed. Or maybe the party was traveling with allies. You get the idea.

Mechanics

When it comes to mechanical benefits of being a fierce warrior, you have lots of options. If the fighter gains renown for defeating a type of foe (such as Harald the Giantsbane) then perhaps they become more proficient at defeating similarly typed for in the future (+1 attack & damage vs. Giants). For these, I’ve only been rewarding titles under certain conditions:

Fighter must be of a certain level (3rd, 5th, etc.)
Monster is >= X HD (X can be 6 HD, 7+ HD, etc.)
Must defeat a certain number of the monster type (2 dragons, 3 giants, etc.) OR defeat a named monster (Glarg, the Ogre Chieftain).

The second option we have is to mechanically apply the fighter’s reputation through ‘social rolls’. This is done through two ways: reaction rolls and morale rolls. Skilled fighters might gain a bonus to reaction rolls. If the other side recognizes a skilled fighter, they might be less eager to get into combat with them. Or they could get a penalty; being known as the Giantsbane is unlikely to gain you favors with giant folk.

Secondly, being a fearsome warrior should strike fear in the hearts of foes that dare cross blades with you. When the fighter is engaged in combat you could apply a penalty to enemy morale rolls. Likewise, allies of the fighter might feel better about having the badass fighter on their side offering a bonus to retainer morale rolls. I would keep the bonus/penalty to a +1, maybe +2 for something extraordinary. But those are pretty strong modifiers to a 2d6 dice roll (assuming B/X style rules).

Wrap-Up

So that is a system I’m tinkering with to better integrate fighter-types into my campaign worlds. Being a fearsome warrior should have some benefits beyond just being good at one aspect of gameplay (combat). I like having ways to integrate the party’s past exploits into shaping the future. It also helps create that sense of verisimilitude when their adventures become known to the wider world. Some things we can codify as mechanics and others we cannot. But I think both are worth exploring to make a richer game experience based on the already established narrative by the party.

Articles

W.F. Smith talks about using democracies in your medieval fantasy.
Over at d4 Caltrops ktrey shared d100 Magical Bludgeons and d100 Mercenary Minutiae.
Arnold K. over at Goblin Punch is working on a bestiary titled The Monstrome.
David McGrogan shares the method of “Small Worldism” for inspiration in campaign building.

Holiday Sales

The holidays are here and that means some strong sales! If you’ve saved any RPG budget, now is the time to pick up the goods.

Lulu.com is running 30% off their Print Products with the code: 2024LULUVIP30
- DISCOUNT NOTE: Make sure you click through “Continue to Shipping” before entering the code. If you try to apply the code before hitting that button, it will say the code is invalid for some reason.
- I’m a fan of the D30 products. (D30 Sandbox Companion, D30 DM Companion)
- Stonehell is a great megadungeon. (Part 1, Part 2)
- Anthony Huso makes great AD&D adventure products.
- Yochai Gal has a nice list of Lulu recommended products on his website. It might be missing some newer materials.
DriveThruRPG is having a massive sale:
- 30% off the Sandbox Generator
- The massive megadungeon Halls of Arden Vul (PDF)
- 30% off the deluxe version of Worlds Without Number, Atlas of Latter Earth, An Echo Resounding and more from Kevin Crawford as Sine Nomine Publishing
- Mythic Game Master Emulator by Word Mill Games is on sale for all your solo rpg needs.
- The majority of Necrotic Gnome’s Old School Essentials line is on sale.
  - Advanced Players Tome, Advanced Referees Tome, The Incandescent Grottos, Halls of the Blood King, All issues of Carcass Crawler and more!
- Gods of the Forbidden North Vol 2 by Pulp Hammock Press
- Raging Swan Press’s Dungeon Dressing and Wilderness Dressing
Exalted Funeral is have sales:
- 30% OFF Storewide
- 50% OFF Exalted Funeral Published Zines,
- 40% OFF Exalted Funeral Published Books
Over on Amazon you can get Andrew Kolb’s setting books: Neverland, Oz and the new Wonderland.

Recent Reads & Listens

Fiction:

Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames (Audiobook)
- Bloody Rose is the sequel to Eames’ The Kings of the Wyld book (I had a review in issue #7 on that one). This story follows a second generation adventuring party. Bloody Rose, the daughter of Gabriel tries to step outside her father’s shadow. In doing so, the party gets caught up dangerous battles, and threats looming to civilized lands.
- Like its predecessor, the book is filled with tons of references to D&D monsters (Owlbears, Grimlocks, Orcs, Goblins, Manticores, Dragons and so on).
- Its action-packed. It has its funny moments. The story was a bit “more of the same” from the first book. I recommend.
- Audiobook note: I felt the audiobook narrator wasn’t as good as the one that did Kings of the Wyld, but that is probably more a nod to how good that narration was, rather than this one being bad.
- Rating: 8/10
Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay (Audiobook)
- Crispin, is a mosaicist headed east by imperial summons to the great city of Sarantium. He goes, bearing with him a Queen’s secret mission and a strange artifice bird from an alchemist. While his voyage is fraught with some danger, the true troubles start when he realizes he is caught up in a much larger political game in the world’s greatest empire.
- I only learned about Guy Gavriel Kay a little more than a year ago, and I must say, I absolutely love the world building he does in all the books he writes. Often modeled after real world examples his “historical fantasy” is still fresh and unique. The story's setting is based on the 6th-century Mediterranean world, and the looming conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy.
- Sailing to Sarantium is book 1 of 2 in the series.
- Rating: 9/10
Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore (Audiobook)
- Jirel of Joiry is one of the first Heroine’s of Sword and Sorcery. While C.L. Moore is not mentioned in the famous Appendix N, in my opinion her work stands along side those that are included.
- Jirel, the famed red-haired warrior of medieval France finds herself pitched against strange magics and supernatural beings. Using her wits and her strength she does what she can to survive.
- The book is a collection of short stories (about 45-2 hours listening time per story) covering C.L. Moore’s work with the character. It does have some of the dated aspects that befall a lot of the sword and sorcery stories of old. But I think its a good read if you are trying to understand influential works from that time period.
- Rating: 7/10