Lohwand: Umbar in Detail - Part 1

 

Hannibal

from Mommsen's "Römische Geschichte"

(as found on Wikipedia)

I've started to think in detail about Umbar, my proxy Carthage. Not just historical Carthage, of course, but also Tolkien's Corsairs of Umbar, and Moorcock's Sea Kings of the Purple Towns. Both the Isles of the Purple Towns and Umbar were founded by Dara Happa during its "Golden Age" but have long since won their independence. The Sea Kings of Menii are not actually subject to Umbar, but are more like close cousins.

Following Tony Bath's ideas from his Hyboria Campaign, as detailed in "How to Set up a Wargame's Campaign", I am starting my detailing by setting up some Noble families. I haven't divided up Umbar's holdings into provinces as of yet, but I have the names of the cities from my map, shown again below:

Umbarite Provinces and Cities, in blue

The principal provinces and cities shown are:

1) Umbar;

2) The Isles of the Purple Towns;

3) Menii;

4) Milii;

5) Uqbara;

6) Shekar;

7) Zoat;

8) Zuzzbur;

9) Bazzur;

10) The Isles of the Green Gables;

11) Azbar (on the Island of Cirith Ungol);

12) Aza Island (the small island south-west of Cirith Ungol);

13) Bakaz Island (the small island south-east of Cirith Ungol);

14) Menaz Island (in the Straits of Blades).

For each of those I need to come up with noble families and a hierarchy of command. My Umbar is ruled by an elected King, who rules for his life time or until impeached by the High Council. The High Council of Nobles forms a senate-like body that makes laws and enacts the will of the King. Beneath the "Primarchs" of the High Council are the Provincial Governors (called "Boetharchs") and beneath them are the Chief Magistrates (known as "Suffetes"). 

The King of Umbar

x

The High Council of Nobles

[Primarchs]

x

Provincial Governors 

[Boetharchs]

x

Chief Magistrates

[Suffetes]

I haven't worked out all the details yet. What I have decided is that I need at least thirty family names, plus a table of given names, male and female, so that not all my characters are called "Hannibal"! This I have done, using Wikipedia, Tolkien and Moorcock as primary sources; also Chaosium's "Sea Kings of the Purple Towns" Stormbringer supplement; and finally just making some things up myself.

The following tables use a D66. That is, roll 1d6 followed by a second d6 to get a range between 1 and 36. Notice that there is only a 1 in 36 chance each of getting "Hannibal", "Hasdrubal", or "Barca"! ;-)

Table of Surnames (D66):

1/1) Gisgon;

1/2) Magon;

1/3) Barca;

1/4) Cabrala;

1/5) Barkeno;

1/6) Bagradas;

2/1) Gisco;

2/2) Machus;

2/3) Huss;

2/4) Bojador;

2/5) Mogador;

2/6) Kariss;

3/1) Karisan;

3/2) Edox;

3/3) Gestrani;

3/4) Lorkar;

3/5) Shascil;

3/6) Uthel;

4/1) Inkel;

4/2) Belrain;

4/3) Salkan;

4/4) Anguzz;

4/5) Kymar;

4/6) Killaraz;

5/1) Danit;

5/2) Telhak;

5/3) Temoraz;

5/4) Nazhan;

5/5) Agril-Maren;

5/6) Maren;

6/1) Zzar;

6/2) Telamar;

6/3) Bellaz;

6/4) Zorlas;

6/5) Zzolir;

6/6) Zork;

Table of First Names (Male) (D66):

1/1) Carthalo;

1/2) Melqar;

1/3) Adherbal;

1/4) Atarbas;

1/5) Gadir;

1/6) Mago;

2/1) Mattan;

2/2) Nolfo;

2/3) Fantar;

2/4) Penatar;

2/5) Hamilcar;

2/6) Hanno;

3/1) Gisgo;

3/2) Hasdrubal;

3/3) Hannibal;

3/4) Fazzur;

3/5) Khandive;

3/6) Manno;

4/1) Matho;

4/2) Bomilcar;

4/3) Navaras;

4/4) Suniatus;

4/5) Timoleon;

4/6) Gersakkun;

5/1) Himilco;

5/2) Phameas;

5/3) Marhabal;

5/4) Eldacar;

5/5) Castamir;

5/6) Calimentar;

6/1) Romendacil;

6/2) Orendil;

6/3) Zzabur;

6/4) Smiorgan;

6/5) Orgon;

6/6) Kargan;

Table of First Names (Female) (D66):

1/1) Dido; 

1/2) Alyssa;

1/3) Elissa; 

1/4) Della; 

1/5) Salammbo; 

1/6) Sophonisba;

2/1) Salome;

2/2) Sunna;

2/3) Menna;

2/4) Navia;

2/5) Mara;

2/6) Calla;

3/1) Dida;

3/2) Narisba;

3/3) Gada;

3/4) Gallas;

3/5) Gaya;

3/6) Hara;

4/1) Harissa;

4/2) Gayssa;

4/3) Galissa;

4/4) Harome;

4/5) Didara;

4/6) Kaya;

5/1) Kalissa;

5/2) Kalyssa;

5/3) Nayenna;

5/4) Nayella;

5/5) Nanba;

5/6) Islamora;

6/1) Berka;

6/2) Amaree;

6/3) Karina;

6/4) Makavee;

6/5) Osolly;

6/6) Samarda;

Nest Step: Work out those family trees!

Lohwand: Using the Everway Fortune Deck 2

Lohwand Campaign - The Northlands

Here is the latest iteration of my campaign map, showing the "Northlands". I've almost finished the "Southlands" map but it still has some tweaking to do so I won't show it yet. I've also started "zooming in" and showing areas close up with borders, minor rivers, and eventually cities, towns and a road network. The latter depends upon how I want to handle things; I might just stick to area movement, and not try to get too tactical.

Last post I went on about the Everway Deck, and how I was using it. I now see that I've repeated myself. Follow the "Everway" tags to find my previous posts on the subject. I had looked for those before, at least I thought I had, but I guess I must be blind or I was looking on a different blog, my Heroes of the Age blog, probably. Anyway, my earlier posts say the same thing, only different words.

Moving forward, the next step is to use the Everway Deck to generate a result for each Nation or Faction. Or any entity, really. If you scanned my previous Everway posts, you will have seen what I mean.

Basically, for each entity, the Everway deck is used to generate a "Past", a "Present"  and a "Future", as well as a "Virtue", a "Flaw" and a "Fate". As I put it previously:

The Past, Present and Future results serve to describe the overall tone for each of those time periods for each entity. 

The Virtue and Fault results describe strong characteristics about the entity. 

The Fate result describes the end result for the entity in very general terms.

Example:

The Kingdom of Olokand
Past: 3-1 = The Griffin, Valour
Present: 4-2, reversed = Nature, Energy Sapped
Future: 2-6 = The Fool, Freedom
Virtue: 5-2 = The Smith, Productivity
Fault: 3-4, reversed = The King, Tyranny
Fate: 6-2 = Trickery, Deceit
Result: The Kingdom of Olokand has long stood as a bulwark against the forces of darkness. Its people are strong, brave and industrious but the long struggle has left the nation spent and the coffers empty. The current ruler is a ruthless tyrant who is squeezing the people dry. In the future a rival within his court will rebel and release the people from his oppression.

(Note that this is not the result for the Kingdom of Olokand in this current iteration of Lohwand.)

 The next step was to set up a spreadsheet to record the data. That ended up looking like this:

As you can see, the headings list the Past/Present/Future, Virtue/Flaw and Fate characteristics with the Entity listed down the left hand column.

The numbers, shown 3 - 2 - 1 for example, are the D66 roll (3 - 2) followed by the even/odd roll. Instead of rolling all the dice myself, I used Random.org to generate a row of 18 6-sided dice results at a time which I then read off in order and filled in the table that way. I then went back and added the Everway meanings for the numbers.

3D6 in Order

About this point I also realize that there were 6 categories and by using 3D6 I had essentially a means to generate D&D stats for the leaders of each nation or faction. This I have also added to the spreadsheet. By leaders I mean starting i.e. current leaders.

I have had a lot of inspiration from Tony Bath's book "Setting up a Wargames Campaign" in which he describes his famous "Hyboria Campaign", an iconic part of wargaming history if there ever was one.

His book provides other ways for detailing rulers, and the Pendragon RPG will yield other ways. I think having D&D style stats will complement those methods.

I might, for example, be able to use INT or WIS tests to determine what a ruler does, and a CON test to see how effective that poisoned ale was...and so on. Maybe some sort of opposed CHA test, ruler vs Ambassador when doing diplomacy?

Lots to think about!

Hyborian Wars!

Hyborian Wars Map, by RSI

This map is from a PBEM game run by Reality Simulations Inc (RSI). I'm not certain if they are still running games, but I found it Here via this site.

Even if they are not still running, the map is of interest as is the zipped "Set up" file for all the 36 "Player Kingdoms". This lists the starting forces and characters, along with their abilities and the composition of  the starting armies. The troop ratings are very generic - ie. Missile ability: POOR, Melee ability: EXCELLENT, Morale: ADEQUATE, etc. The cost to maintain the troops is given in similar fashion with Amazonian Javelin troops having LOW maintenance costs whereas those of the Black Dragons are VERY HIGH.

It is of interest to me for several reasons:

1) I have always enjoyed and admired Tony Bath's Hyboria Campaign as chronicled in "Battle" and later "Military Modelling". I have his book "How to Run a Wargames Campaign" but have never yet run a Hyborian campaign myself.

2) The map could be used for a "Barbarians of Lemuria" campaign.

3) The map has far eastern nations and so the "Garden of Kama" setting might be introduced into the game.