Garhelm - The Map

This is Garhelm:

If you want a better look, trying downloading the PDF: link

Yep, as you can tell from the scan, I banged it out on some old notebook paper.  I make no claims to be a cartographer, so I have no clue if such a landmass is even feasible.  I think it looks pretty cool, though, so I don't really care.  There is no scale as I wasn't really sure what I wanted it to be and figured I'd tackle that as needed.  I just wanted a rough idea of the campaign world so I could place important locations, namely cities and dungeons.  You'll note names from the standard Necromancer Games (NG) heavy hitters (the Stoneheart Mountains from Tomb of Abysthor, Fairhill from the Crucible of Freya, Bard's Gate, the Vault of Larin Karr, and, of course, Rappan Athuk) as well as The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth coming out of retirement. Yep, that is Green Ronin's Freeport way to the south. 

I had big plans for the campaign, but they weren't realized after the deaths in the Vault of Larin Karr.  My general plan was for a sandbox campaign once the party had finished up there. I planned to include a world map with the loot at some point and then let the players have at it. Since I had never shown the map before, I was hoping that would be kind of a neat surprise (i.e., the idea being that few people in Garhelm have much sense of what their world actually looked like). 

I started the face-to-face campaign in Fairhill, which is the setting of NG's The Crucible of Freya.  I don't own that module (although I did play it as a player under Sam's DMing), but I used the free maps from NG's site [link (you’ll need to scroll down a bit)] and added my own NPCs and descriptions.  That worked out quite well and allowed me to impart the flavor of Garhelm right from the start.  I might write those up if I have a chance (unfortunately, I don't have those as electronic files, so no easy cutting and pasting).  I don't think I used Fairhill for the online campaign, likely because Sam was playing as a character.

Anyhow, here is a key of sorts to help you decipher things (I left off anything I thought was self-explanatory):

• Barbegazi lands: Barbegazi are a neat, semi-evil race ice gnomes from the Tome of Horrors II (and, I just realized, actual Swiss mythology: link).  You can check them out in the ToH II free sample: link
• ToA: Tomb of Abysthor
• Volk: Vault of Larin Karr
• The Pass of Dulane-Far: An underground, underwater tunnel connecting the mainland to a severed peninsula. Tunnels also connected this island to other nearby islands.  I believe I envisioned this pass having been closed off to contain the horrors of the island and the tunnels, but I’m not sure.  I do think it is one of the cooler things on the map.

So, there you have it.  Garhlem.  Some time in the future, I’ll put up my version of Fairhill and perhaps some of the home brew adventures I had for this campaign.

Garhelm - The Blood of the Einherjar

I had hoped that allowing any race to freely multi-class with Barbarian would encourage hearty PCs (see the "Classes" section of this post link).  However, it pushed players to take a level of Barbarian at first level, whether they really wanted it or not.  Besides perhaps ending up with a party solely composed of Barbarians (which seems bad-ass to me, actually), it also meant that if a player took Barbarian at first level simply to have a beefy hit point base (mmm… beefy), he’d miss out on the initial first level perks of the actual desired class (e.g., Wizard, Rogue, etc.).  On the other hand, if he didn’t take the Barbarian class at first level, the rule sort of punished him by not giving him that nice 12 hit point base.

This didn’t occur to me until a player voiced his frustration after a TPK.  So I created “The Blood of the Einherjar” rule.  Unfortunately, player interest was completely nil at that point (can’t say I blame them), so this rule was never really enacted or tested because the campaign had dissolved. 

The Blood of the Einherjar

The Einherjar are the heroes who have died with great bravery on the battle fields and have been taken by the Valkyries to Valhalla. When Valhalla emptied to purge Garhelm of the Demons and Devils, Odin and Thor led the Einherjar into battle. Some of these warriors found companionship with the natives of Garhelm during this time. Although the Einherjar departed once Garhelm was cleansed, their children remain. These lucky few have the blood of the Einherjar flowing through their veins. These fortunate ones are destined for great deeds. They are the heroes of the Third Age.

What does this mean in game terms? This means that any PC, whether he knows it or not, has the blood of the Einherjar coursing through him. As such, he is born for battle. All PCs, in effect, start off at 2^nd level, but in a particular fashion. Every PC begins with a complimentary Barbarian level to implement as he wishes. In practice this means you can use the Barbarian level as your first level or as your second. This will mainly be determined by what you actually want to play. If you plan to play a Wizard, you would most likely take your first level in Wizard to make the most of the skill points and such, and then add on the Barbarian level afterwards. However, regardless of which class is technically your first class, you will start with 12 HP + Con bonus. For example, if you decide to play a Wizard, you will begin with 12 HP + Con bonus + 1d4 HP + Con bonus. The second HD will be rolled as normal (i.e., with the DM present). [As cool as I think it would be to have an entire party with the Rage ability, if I revive Garhelm, I will give the players the option of selecting a level of Fighter or Barbarian (and they’d get the standard Fighter 10 HP + Con bonus instead of the Barbarian's 12 HP + Con bonus to start). This fits the theme and purpose just as well and gives a bit more variety to the concept.]

Garhelm – More Setting-Specific Rules

I’ve been digging through my old files (both paper and electronic) and have realized at some point I revised my initial rule-set.  Both of the Garhelm campaigns were played over four years ago (egad, time flies), so I’m not certain when certain rules were in effect.  I am fairly certain those in my first rules post were used consistently.  I’m not sure about the following ones, unless otherwise noted below.  In any event, here are a few more rules, again with annotation.

Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law

• The detect chaos/evil/good/law spell and similar spell-like abilities do not function in regard to sentient beings. What is evil to one may be not be evil to another. However, the spell does function for insentient entities, such as magic weapons or locations, because such effects are typically a function of magic.
• From a gaming standpoint, detect chaos/evil/good/law and similar spells and abilities often rob role-playing encounters of their worth. 
• [I believe this rule was used throughout both campaigns. I have never liked the problems that result from this spell. On one hand, it makes things easier: “If it’s evil, we kill it.” On the other hand, it makes things more complex:“Is it really a good action to kill an evilly aligned orc child?” or “Is it really a good action to harry any NPC in the bar that detects as evil?” 
• Given that I did not mention *protection* from chaos/evil/good/law spells in the rules, I likely let them work normally.  I might tweak that and let such spells work only for outsiders or other beings that are inherently tied to their alignment.  For example, a demon is in a sense Chaotic Evil incarnate, so it seems logical that wards against a demon should work.  A gnoll, on the other hand, is more of a natural being and not inherently evil from birth.
• Quite frankly, I’m ready to pitch alignment altogether.  It feels too forced and it seems players and DMs always find a rationale for a character’s/NPC’s action, regardless of his alignment. Polymythic Steve and I had an interesting IM chat a few weeks back about alignment.  One of these days I’ll get around to blogging about it, but it started from this question: “In a democracy, if you can detect evil, should evil people be allowed to vote?”]

Raise Dead [I had two versions of this rule, both are included below.]

• [Version 1] The raise dead spell is available, but has been modified.  A raised character does not lose a character level, but instead, as with previous editions, loses a point of Constitution.  If the character’s Constitution reaches zero, he cannot be raised.  The material component for raise dead is no longer a 1000 gp diamond. Instead, the caster must sacrifice a quantity of magic items relative to the strength of the character’s soul (i.e., his level).  There is not a hard and fast rule regarding the proper sacrificial amount.  The DM will use his discretion in such matter.
• [Version 2] The raise dead functions as described in the 3.5 Player’s Handbook except for the material component. Instead of a 5000 gp diamond, one or more willing participants much sacrifice some of their life force to restore the life of the recipient. In game terms, they must sacrifice a total of XPs equal to the minimum XP for the recipient’s former level (i.e., before the level loss of being raised). For example, to raise a 2^nd level character, four PCs would lose 500 XP each. Note: each participant must sacrifice an equal share. The caster can choose to participate in the sacrifice, but can only do so if the XP loss would not cause him to lose access to the raise dead spell.
• [At the time I believed players weren’t sufficiently penalized for PC death and I didn’t like the whole concept of buying back your dead. Version 1 also doubled as a handy way to ensure the party didn’t become overly loaded with magic loot.  I quite like the role-play concept of Version 2: the party giving of its own life to bring back the dead makes more sense (in a fantastical way) and is a much greater sacrifice than loot.  On the other hand, it sort of feels like that scene in Full Metal Jacket where the rest of the troop is punished for Private Pile’s actions (NSFW link).  I’ve come full circle on raise dead and now make it fairly easy for players to bring back the fallen (see my current house rules).  I’ve embraced the “game” part of “role-playing game” and don’t sweat it.]

PC Death

• If a PC dies and cannot be raised or resurrected, the player must roll a new PC. To ease matters for the gaming group (DM and players alike), the new PC will start at 2nd level. The PC will receive the standard HP for first level (i.e., maximum), but must roll his 2^nd level hit die in the DM’s presence. The PC will begin with the standard 1^st level starting money for his class.
• [I’m not sure what this was about because I can’t remember what level the PCs started at.]

Dice Rolling

• All die rolls that fall off the table must be re-rolled on the table. No exceptions.
• If a rolled die comes to rest without a discernable result (e.g., the die lands in a crack on the table, etc.), the die is to be re-rolled. No exceptions.
• [This might seem like overkill, but I include this in my house rules to this date.]

Action Points (from the d20 Modern SRD)

• [I don’t remember anyone actually using these points.  It seems like the players kept saving them for a rainy day that never happened. Again, although I originally had some house rule luck points in mind, I opted for what I now consider overly complex official rules. If I ever wanted something like this again, I’d just let the players earn luck points for good game play and let them use it to re-roll a die roll.]
• Characters gain a number of action points equal to 2 + one-half their character level, rounded down, at 1st level and every time they attain a new level.
• Action points provide characters with the means to affect game play in significant ways. A character can spend 1 action point to alter a single d20 roll used to make an attack, a skill check, an ability check, a level check, or a saving throw.
• When a character spends 1 action point to improve a d20 roll, add 1d6 to the d20 roll to help meet or exceed the target number. A character can declare the use of 1 action point to alter a d20 roll after the roll is made—but only before the DM reveals the result of that roll (whether the attack or check or saving throw suc­ceeded or failed) [I find this bit particularly lame. It turns into a game of How Well Can the Players Read the DM’s Reaction]. When possible, the player should state his intention to spend an action point before the die is rolled.  For example, “I may use an action point on this attack roll.”
• A character can’t use an action point on a skill check or ability check when he or she is taking 10 or taking 20.
• A character can only spend 1 action point in a round.
• Depending on the character level (see the table below), he or she may be able to roll more than one d6 when spending 1 action point. If the character does so, apply the highest result and disregard the other rolls.

Character Level	Action Point Dice Rolled
1st – 7th	1d6
8th – 14th	2d6
15th – 20th	3d6

Garhelm - Setting-Specific Rules

Here are the setting-specific rules I provided to the players.  This is kind of a hodge-podge listing and isn’t in any particular order.  I’ve added a few editorial comments about things that did or did not work well.

General Overview

• The general feel of the setting is Nordic mixed with the works of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Lieber and H.P. Lovecraft.

Deities

• The Norse Pantheon now rules the world of Garhelm. However, there are those who still worship the Dark Ones, the Demon and Devil Lords of the prior age. They see the Gods of Asgard as unwelcome usurpers. Although few in number, there are those who practice the ancient rites of the Elder Gods. 

Divine Magic

• Like the majority of humanity, most clerics worship the entire Norse pantheon, rather than a select deity. However, some priests do worship particular deities, with Thor, Odin  and Freya being the most common. Those few who worship the Demons and Devils still find their unholy prayers answered. As for the Elder Gods, they have all but left Garhelm. Only a few dedicated soles seek to return them to their former glory. [I used the 3rd edition Deities & Demigods for the Norse deities. If a character wanted to worship the entire pantheon, he’d just use the default cleric rules.  As needed, I would also supplement this with Necromancer Games’ free Gods & Demons document, but that really would have only come into play with evil PCs or PCs wishing to worship an Elder God.].

Arcane Magic

• Wizards and Sorcerers exist, but are not common and there are no large academies of magic.
• All arcane magic is based on runes, thus all magic items have runes etched on them. In the case of potions, the containers must have these runes to retain the potion’s magic. Note: not everything with a rune etching on it is magic. [The whole “rune magic” concept was really done more for flavor than anything.]

Races

• All standard player races exist, but demi-humans are rare. Only two allowed per party. However, Orc is considered a playable race. As a general rule, humans and demi-humans are distrustful of one another. Demi-humans blame the humans for the Age of Pains and humans resent that the demi-humans, for the most part, have isolated themselves from the outside world.
• Unlike on most prime material planes, the Orcs of Garhelm are not inherently evil. Indeed, Orcs, more than any other demi-human race, aided the humans in the battles of the Age of Pains. [I started to find it odd that half-orcs were in the Player’s Handbook, but not full-blooded orcs. On a side-note, I think Wizards of the Coast would have solved the “half-orc dilemma" a lot more eloquently by simply bringing full-blooded orcs into the Player’s Handbook and not making them inherently evil.]
• Halflings are “Furchins” (Nordic Halflings) and are known for their fierce riding dogs. Many are masters of mounted archery. [I stole that concept from the 2nd Edition The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings.]
• Dwarves and Gnomes are standard D&D fare.
• Elves are standard D&D fare, but lean more toward sorcery than wizardry. As such, they receive no experience penalty when multi-classing in Sorcerer (however, the penalty does apply to Wizard). [Given that elves are typically portrayed as forest dwellers, the Sorcerer class seemed more appropriate to me.  I just find it odd that folks who are normally seen as being one-with-nature also loved to pour over old tomes for their arcane magic.]
• Gnolls are the most populous evil humanoid race and are seen as a plague by all good races. They are demon and devil worshippers and were the Darks Lords foot soldiers during the Age of Pains.  [I really like me some gnolls and wanted something a bit different for the generic bad guys.]

Classes

• All standard player classes are allowed. However, due to the harsh nature of Garhelm and the savage life that most lead, any race can multi-class with barbarian without experience point penalty. [I did this because I wanted the PCs to be a bit beefier than normal. In part because of the weapon restrictions (see below) and also because I wasn’t planning on pulling any punches.  Plus, barbarians are cool.  This rule didn’t quite work, and I later amended it.  That will likely be in the next post.]

Settlements

• There are no large nations in Garhelm; most are city-states at best, separated by great expanses of wilderness. [Now known as a “points of light” style setting. I always liked the scenes in Conan the Barbarian of the heroes running across the land to get to a city and the wonders they found once they got there.]
  

Godmetal [a.k.a. my “Riddle of Steel” concept rip off]

• During the Second Age, amongst the chaos, metal became a rare commodity, even more so those who are skilled in crafting it. The same holds true in the Third Age.
• Bronze is the only metal moderately available, but is very precious. All bronze weapons and armor cost twice the listed book price. Bronze weapons suffer a –1 penalty to both attack and damage rolls. See The Arms and Equipment Guide for more rules concerning weapons and armor. [This is one of the “small tweaks” that came back to haunt me. It made things unnecessarily complex (although it seemed simple enough at the time). Perhaps “complex” isn’t the right term, but in hindsight, it’s not much fun to have the default campaign weapons give you a penalty. My initial thought was to simply give steel weapons a +1, etc. and that way they would sort of be the equivalent of a magic weapon. That is, I was going to give bonuses for steel weapon rather than penalties for non-steel weapons.  Then I cracked open the A & E Guide and decided to go by the book, figuring wiser men than I had made the rule for a reason. This was part of my learning to trust my own insight over an official rulebook.  Years later, I picked up Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia, which handled this much better than the A & E Guide.  In a little side blurb entitled “The Riddle of Steel” (I kid you not), the author suggests the following adjustments for weapons in this kind of setting: Wood, bone, or stone: –1, copper +0,  bronze +1, iron +2, steel +3.  Any masterwork or magic bonuses simply stacked with those.  If I revive Garhlem, that is how I will handle it.] 
• Steel, called Godmetal, is considered priceless and steel items are not normally for sale. Items of steel, particularly weapons and armor, are considered great treasures and signify wealth and status.
• Blacksmiths are held in high regard and are treated as elders in villages, towns, and cities. They are seen as priests who work the Godmetal. Finding metal, particularly steel, is considered a blessing from the gods.

Reputation

• Each character has a Reputation score, based upon the article “Fantasy Reputation” in ENWorld Player’s Journal #3.
• A character gains a +1 Reputation bonus at each level and may earn extra bonuses to Reputation for specific actions that are widely publicized. Such awards are special occasions given at the DM’s discretion, and should be noted on the character’s sheet under the Reputation section and in the List of Deeds. [The ENworld Player’s Journal article was neat and all (basically taking a d20 Modern concept and making it work in traditional D&D), but in general it was kind of a pain to track and never really amounted to much.  Perhaps it would have if the campaigns lasted longer, but in hindsight, this kind of thing is best left to role-playing rather than mechanics.]

Miscellaneous

• Although the world of Garhelm has recovered a great deal, it is still somewhat primitive. No item above the Bronze Age category listed in The Arms and Equipment Guide is normally available. [The A & E Guide was helpful in this regard.]
• The people of Garhelm do employ coinage, but barter is also often used.

Garhelm – The Background

I distributed this background to my players to set the tone of the campaign.  When creating this back-story, I had three goals in mind: 

1. Work in all the stuff I love (e.g., Norse mythology, Fraz-Urb’ Luu, etc.).
2. Embed a rationale that made all of it work together.  Why is the Norse Pantheon worshipped in this world?  Why are there gods outside the Norse Pantheon? Where did the demons come from? 
3. Ensure there is a rationale for the existence of dungeons to explore. As Jeff Rients has pointed out, default D&D is post-apocalyptic in nature. I wasn’t thinking of it in quite those terms at the time, but in hindsight, I realize it’s the same point.

The Story Garhelm

Garhelm’s history is a tale of betrayal and salvation. Most scholars divide the history of Garhelm  into Three Ages. The particulars of the First, or Elder, Age, are all but forgotten now by Man (the elves and dwarves may know much about this time, but are not forthcoming with information). It is said that the Elder Age was a time of relative peace. Man and Elf and Dwarf and Orc, Halfling and Gnome lived, worked, and fought side by side.

However, Man impatient and rash, grew restless with this calm. Seeking power and might that their own gods would not grant, many men turned to other, more sinister forces. The Book of Delbal-La states that it was Fraz-Urb’ Luu, the Deceiver, who first answered their call. He was soon followed by more Demons and Devils, quick to grant power to would-be followers. The old gods (now known as the Elder Gods), turned from those who turned from them and left Garhelm. But the foolish Men, rash and overconfident, realized too late the price of their power. And thus came the Second Age, the Age of Pains. The very sun was blotted out by the evil of the Dark Lords. Fiends and Undead walked openly, raping the land of its vitality and life. The Giants, whom had long lain dormant, awoke and ravaged the land. Great nations were brought to ruin as weak-minded kings and hell-bent priests led armies into pointless battles. Friend turned against friend and the hearts of most turned as black as the sky. The other races realized too late the evil that Men had brought to the world. They forsake Men, withdrawing to great holds and protected enclaves within the mountains, forests, and hills.

Yet, not all Men had been corrupted, not all had forgotten that there were other powers besides the Lords of the Hells and the Dukes of the Abyss. The Seven Travelers sought aid and aid they found. Mystics spoke of strong gods, hungry for battle and they set out on a quest for these deities. Who these Travelers were has been lost. Some say the band was composed of brave Men seeking to correct the mistakes of their race; others claim the band consisted of representatives of all the races. Whatever the case, they set out on a quest to find those whom would rescue their dying world. After years of searching, they at last reached Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge and crossed over into Asgard and besieged the deities they found there to save Garhelm. The gods answered the call.

Led by Thor, the forces of Asgard made war against the Dark Ones. Valhalla emptied its warriors eager for battle and carnage. Slowly but surely, Men awoke from their nightmare and turned against the Dark Ones. Battle upon battle was fought, entire nations laid to waste, for the New Gods sought to wipe Garhelm clean and saw little need to spare the world of old. Seeing that there was now hope, many of the other races joined in the fight, reviving old alliances and forging new ones. The might of Asgard could not be quelled and the Dark Ones fled, many abandoning Garhelm, seeking to find lower hanging fruit from other realms. However, some could not be driven out entirely. These were driven underground and under the sea, locked in wards and sealed off from humanity. Thus ended the Age of Pains.

Hundreds of years of later, the Third Age is at hand. The sun shines again and Garhelm grows. Yet even while the sun shines, so too do shadows grow.

Garhelm - My Homebrew Campaign Setting

My next few posts will detail a campaign setting I created a few years back for D&D 3.5.  I named the world “Garhelm.”  Why?  Because it sounded cool.  (To this day, I’m waiting for someone to tell me that it means “small scrotum” or something in a foreign dialect.)  I designed the kind of game world in which I would want to play.  It unabashedly borrows from several cliché sources, such as Howard’s Conan stories, the Conan the Barbarian movie, Norse mythology, Lovecraft, classic D&D demons, and more. I also designed the world so I could fit just about every Necromancer Games module I owned into it.

   I ran two short-lived campaigns in Garhlem, both of which ended for various reasons.  One was a face-to-face game that involved players from different states.  We didn’t meet often, so we had only about three sessions.  The other campaign was played online via ScreenMonkey.  This was before the days of Skype, so everything was chat-based.  Suffice it to say, it was very slow.  So, both of those campaigns had logistic obstacles, but, in both cases, lethality was the final campaign ender.   It’s frustrating enough when your PC dies, but even more so when you seldom get to play and/or the play format (i.e., online) is sort of inherently frustrating to begin with.

I learned a couple things from these campaigns:

• Be upfront about the death rate in the campaign. If there is going to be a high body count, let your players know from the start.  Then they can pass on the campaign from the get-go and irritation can be spared by one and all.  I made sure to do this with my Rappan Athuk campaign.
• Seemingly small mechanic adjustments added for campaign flavor can come back to haunt you.

I no longer use this setting, opting instead for the game world sparsely alluded to in Bard’s  Gate and the Rappan Athuk module.  I would like to revive Garhelm one of these days (with a few tweaks), but who knows if that will happen.