Night of the Walking Dead in Averoigne Part 4

This is Part Four in my series on adapting the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead into Averoigne — the fictional province created by Clark Ashton Smith, a founding member of the Lovecraft Circle as well as the world of Cormac Fitzgeoffrey as written by Robert E. Howard.

In Part One, I explained why I am doing this as well as a bit about the first time I ran this adventure. In Part Two, I examined the introductory section of the module in detail. In Part Three, I examined the stories of the Averoigne cycle in an attempt to place Averoigne in historical France.

This post is Part Four and I shall do some analysis of the Averoigne stories and generate some ideas on what D&D rules should change to better fit not only the Night of the Walking Dead adventures but future adventures as well. The versions of D&D I will be adapting are AD&D 2nd Edition and D&D 3rd Edition as depicted in the Neverwinter Nights videogame.

RECAP OF PARTS 1, 2, & 3

I am taking Night of the Walking Dead out of Ravenloft and placing it in the pseudo-historical Earth of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard, specifically October of 1347 AD. Geographically, this adventure will take place in “Lower Averoigne” which for the time being is being modeled on the Ile de Camargue which is the largest river delta in France. I am also changing the name of Marais d’Tarascon (lit. swamp of Tarascon) to Le Village des Hiboux (the Village of the Owls) which is mentioned by Smith as being on the edge of a great marsh. The stories The Mandrake and The Mother of Toads occur in and around Les Hiboux. I intend to somehow tie this adventure into the Black Death which will become the “Black Undeath,” that is to say a plague of “zombies” instead of the bubonic plague. Some other ideas I need to flesh out are riz sang, the ‘blood rice’ grown in Les Hiboux and the mal aria (Lit. ‘bad air’) instead of malaria-infested mosquitos of the 14th C. Camargue. Shaman Brucian will be parson or vicar of The Church, the ju-ju zombie will be something else, and I may or may not allow Jean le Ripper (which I think is stupid & detracts from the story but I’m willing to be convinced otherswise). I also resolve to flesh out the NPCs by giving them Gothic motivations and conflicts.

ADAPTING D&D TO AVEROIGNE

Wherever possible, I will adapt the D&D ruleset to better fit Averoigne and Mediæval folk beliefs rather than vice versa.

Races

In Smith’s stories, the protagonists are all Human. The antagonists are Human, dwarf Human, Tiefling or Half-Elven, as well as monsters (Fairy, Vampire, &c.). I think that half-orcs could be allowed if you follow the AD&D Monster Manual’s rule that PC half-orcs pass for Human. Dwarf-Humans are small Humans rather than Tolkeinesque dwarves. I suggest a -2 strength and a +2 intelligence.  Remember that it is imperative that the half-Humans do their best to pass for Human otherwise they will be hunted down as monsters.

Religion and D&D style Clerics

The proverbial “elephant in the room.” The conventional wisdom is that it is impossible to discuss the Middle Ages or to describe a Mediæval setting without addressing religion. Although the counter argument is ‘what about Fairy Tales, Dietrich of Bern, Arthur, et alia’? But since some of the Averoigne stories have priest and monk supporting characters, we have to deal with it.

In The Colossus of Ylourgne, a pair of monks armed with holy water and crosses are unable to affect the demons and crossbows. Likewise the archbishop of Vyones is notably absent. The colossal zombie can only be stopped by Gaspard du Nord, a former pupil of the necromancer Naithaire who assembled the colossus. In The Beast of Averoigne, the bishop of Ximes and the archbishop of Vyones together send an agent to Luc le Chaudronnier, a known sorcerer, to convince him to stop the beast. Likewise none of the monks and nuns of the province are able to stop the colossus or the beast. In The Holiness of Azédarac, we learn that Azédarac while a bishop of Ximes is also a necromancer and a sorcerer which enabled his rise in the church.

What do these three stories tell us? There is a Roman Catholic Church replete with cathedrals, churches, monasteries, et cetera. Holy water and crosses in and of themselves have no effect on demonic spirits but this does not rule out D&D style turn udead which is level-dependent rather than available to everyone (as is the case in the Gothic genre). Priests, monks, and nuns are not D&D style clerics. They do not wear armour, carry maces, nor cast spells. They can turn undead but in the stories are too low-level to affect demonic spirits or colossal zombies. The Inquisition however, has a power strong enough to strike fear in the heart of sorcerers and necromancers. Smith never explains why that is though.

What then to do about D&D style clerics? First off, there is no record of ‘armoured saints’ in the history of world literature. So clerics do not wear armour nor bear arms. There are of course, a number of stories of “saints” in many religions. I am inclined to speculate that Smith thought poorly of religion and would dismiss saints of having worked actual miracles. However, I do not believe that it breaks Averoigne to allow them to either. So for now, Saints can be Lawful/Good Clerics with no weapon or armour proficiencies. To make up for the loss of arms & armour, they could be given paladin abilities (see below).

What about D&D style paladins? Just like the D&D style cleric, there is no literary record of pious warriors performing miracles. There are former warriors-turned-saints who performed miracles but only after foreswearing violence. Likewise there have and always will be pious warriors but their prayers are not more likely to be granted than any other pious person. In other words, no D&D style paladins.

How about in actual play? As a matter of fact, I did have a player who played a pacifist priest quite successfully. I will post the rules for a Culdean sometime in the future. In the meantime, I recommend the saint from the Medieval Player’s Handbook.

 

Arcane Magic

If religion is the elephant in the room, then is arcane magic the rhino?!? The magic-users (ususally referred to as “sorcerers”) of Averoigne include Gilies Grenier (The Mandrakes), Luc le Chaudronnier (The Beast of Averoigne), Azédarac Bishop of Ximes & Moriamis (The Holiness of Azédarac), Nathaire & Gaspard du Nord (The Colossus of Ylourgne), Mere Antoinette (Mother of Toads), and Sephora & Malachie (The Enchantress of Sylaire). What strikes me is that none of those spellcasters actually cast spells in the D&D sense. They all possess occult knowledge, craft potions & golems, and possess magical items if not ancient artefacts. The texts suggest that most of them know various magical ceremonies and rituals as well. This is actually an excellent design decision on Smith’s part because this is what Mediæval and Renaissance folk thought how magic works. Again I recommend the Medieval Player’s Manual by David Chart for its Cunning Man, Natural Magician, and Theurge core classes.

If you do not want to go as far as Chart did, you can do what I did: Arcane spellcasters get “0” spells per day and instead cast spells based on their prime requisite bonus. For example a wizard with an Intelligence ability score of 15 normally gets a bonus of one additional first level, one additional second level spell, and no additional cantrips. Under this system, a wizard will never get to cast more than a single 1st level spell each day regardless of level unless they raise their Intelligence. Likewise, starting at 3rd level they may cast a single second level spell each day. I also extend the spell bonus to include cantrips, e.g. 1 for Int 10, 2 at 18, etc. Now before you start howling, I give the arcane spellcasters all meta-magic and item creation feats at 1st level! So while our example 1st level wizard with a 15 Int can only cast a single cantrip and a single 1st level spell each day, they can brew potions, scribe scrolls, and craft wands. So these pseudo-historical wizards are packed to the gills with wands, scrolls, and potions. I also removed the XP cost from these items but also removed all ‘magick shoppes.’

Does this work with sorcerers and bards? Eh, not really. Sorcerers are probably best represented as with the class as is but requiring the race to be Tiefling or Cambion. Fairies would also be sorcerers but fairy PCs? Perhaps as a half-fairy (treat as a D&D Elf). However, the tiefling, cambion, or half-fairy PC is going to have trouble interacting with most people. Perhaps tieflings and half-fairies can pass for Human most of the time provided that they are not subject to close inspection. In other words, rather than horns or pointed ears, perhaps they have cloven hooves or a tail that they keep hidden. Or then again, perhaps they wear their hair long and always wear a hat. Also, since sorcerers are natural talent spellcasters they should not be able to read scrolls nor use wands and staves.

For Bards, I think it is best to remove their spells entirely but give them a bonus (+3) to their Use Magic Device skill (and make that skill exclusive to Bards) or at least given them bonus spells only.

AD&D 2nd Edition

The Medieval Player’s Manual is for the d20 System (D&D 3rd Ed.). How would we go about adapting the AD&D 2nd Edition ruleset for Averoigne?

Priests: Most priest kits will work with the following provisions — Lawful/Good, no weapons or armour, d12 hit die, and no multi-classing. Obviously certain kits like the Amazon make no sense at all.

Wizards: The Scholarly Mage from HR4 A Mighty Fortress is the best fit in my opinion.

Divine & Arcane Spells: Based on the Historical Reference Campaign Series of books, all spells take longer to cast. 1 segment takes 1 full round, 1 round takes 1 turn, 1 turn takes 1 hour et cetera. Somatic and material components are required rather than optional. PCs may only cast spells of 5th level or lower. Higher level spells are available on magic items (e.g. scrolls & artefacts) but may never be learned. The fantastic news is that the durations likewise last one step greater. A 1 round duration lasts for 1 turn, 1 turn lasts for 1 hour, et cetera.

Curing Spells: The HR books state that spells like Cure Disease give the victim a new saving throw versus poison rather than automaticaly curing the disease. Furthermore only a single affliction of that type can be cured in the victim’s lifetime. If you are going to restrict your priests to be Lawful/Good pacifists then I would not enforce this rule.

Healing Spells: The HR books state that healing spells are only 50% effective. The heal spell is not subject to this retriction because it is 6th level and only available as a miracle or as part of a holy relic.

Spectacular Spells: The HR books strongly discourage the use of spells like fireball and lightning bolt since there is no literary precedent for them. Spells should be subtle.

Other Classes

For D&D 3rd edition, the barbarian class can be used if it is renamed the Gallowglass, fighters are called Men-at-Arms, rangers are called Foresters and have no spells, but paladins are straight out. For the AD&D 2nd Edition rules see the following:

Inappropriate Classes: Barbarian (use Clansman kit instead), Druid, Monk, Paladin (see above), and Ranger (use Forester kit instead).

The Complete Bard’s Handbook: Gallant, Herald, Jester, Thespian

The Complete Fighter’s Handbook: Cavalier, Myrmidon, Noble Warrior, Peasant Hero, Pirate/Outlaw

The Complete Priest’s Handbook: Pacifist Priest & Scholar Priest only

The Complete Thief’s Handbook: Bandit, Beggar, Buccaneer, Scout, Spy

The Crusades: Monastic Warrior, Pardoner

A Mighty Fortress: Clansman, Courtier, Forester, Picaro, Scholarly Mage, Vagabond

ACTUAL PLAY

From 1994 to 2001, I used these rules for my Grymwurld™ 2nd Edition campaign. It was the most enjoyable campaign I ever ran and the players enjoyed it as much. There were some minor differences from these rules (pacifist priests were N/G, implicit rather than explicit Christianity, &c.) but for the most part as detailed above.

What emerged from play is that spellcasters who carefully planned ahead could be quite powerful provided that they were well-protected at all times. Casting a spell in mêlée was almost impossible due to the long casting times so there were always shield-men to protect them.

There were no dungeon expeditions per se but there were a lot of undead-infested crypts and tombs as well as werewolf-haunted woods.

Since 2007, I have been designing and playing adventures for the Neverwinter Nights videogame which is based on D&D 3rd editions rules. I have not used any of the rules from the Medieval Player’s Manual but I have used my house rules for wizards, sorcerers, and bards. So far it is working out just fine. The bard is functioning as an alternative to the rogue so as to give us a choice between a striker (rogue) or a buffer (bard) who also removes traps and picks locks. I have not played the pacificst priest much nor have had anyone try it in NWN. I think for it to work properly in a videogame requires a lot more work on the part of the designer. Because when I ran the tabletop campaign I had no issues whatsoever.

Designing videogame adventures is an order of magnitude or more greater than running a tabletop campaign for GMs like me who make up most things on the fly.

IN SUMMATION

The following what I did to adapt D&D (3e & AD&D 2e) to Averoigne. Note that I have not yet tried the Medieval Player’s Manual but it looks very promising, especially the way it handles divine and arcane magic.

Races: Human, dwarf Human, or Changeling (Half-Elf, Half-Orc, or Tiefling)

Classes (3e): Gallowglass (Barbarian), Man-at-Arms (Fighter), Forester (Ranger; no spells), Rogue, Saint (Cleric with healing, good, or sun domains), Sorcerer (Non-Human; no scrolls or wands), Troubadour (Bard with bonus spell only), and Wizard (Bonus spell only; Free meta-magic feats & item creation feats).

Classes & Kits (AD&D 2e): Bard (Courtier, Gallant, Herald, Jester, & Thespian), Cleric (Pacifist Priest),  Thief (Bandit, Buccaneer, Beggar, Merchant-Rogue, Pardoner, Picaro, Scout, Spy, & Vagabond), Warrior (Cavalier, Clansman, Forester, Myrmidon, Noble Warrior, Peasant Hero, Pirate/Outlaw, & Monastic Warrior), and Wizard (Scholarly Mage).

Magic: 5th level spells maximum. Healing spells are only 50% effective.

Spells: Avoid spells with spectacular effects such as fireball and lightning bolt. In AD&D 2nd Edition, this is actually quite easier because there are literally hundreds of spells to be found in the Wizard’s Spell Compendium volumes I – IV (2,174 spells in toto) and the Priest’s Spell Compendium volumes I – III.

Click here for Part V.