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!

Lohwand: Using the Everway Fortune Deck

Fantasia

If you are familiar with the Everway RPG then you will know it used tarot cards, or something very similar to a tarot deck, to enable game play. I can't say exactly which because I am not that knowledgeable on tarot, though I do know people were using tarot decks in D&D long before Everway came along. There is more to Everway than that, of course, but this post is not about the RPG but about using its Fortune Deck to aid in wargame campaign design. Specifically the current iteration of my Lohwand Campaign that I am building, albeit slowly.

The Everway Fortune Deck consists of 36 gorgeously illustrated cards, each with a name and a descriptive phrase, and like a tarot each has a reversed meaning as well. I've always liked the deck because it such a pretty little thing, and the magpie in me is just drawn to it. I've used it before to generate previous Lohwand campaigns. Now I find that the actual deck is on walkabout, that is, not lost as such, but somewhere - in a box, or pile of stuff, or down behind the radiator - somewhere where I cannot lay my hands on it. Somewhere Else.

So, what to do? I'm stymied. I went online and the only references I could find were scribid sources, and I avoid that place. Then I remembered that I still knew where the box was, and maybe there was a list or something in there. Sure enough, in the Everway box - high graphic arts value all round was Everway - I found the handy little "Guide to the Fortune Deck".

From the guide I was able to get the names of the cards, their meanings and the reversed meanings. Not having the deck I decided to use a D66 table to generate the results. Actually a modified D666 table in the end result, to account for the reversed values.

For those that are unfamiliar with the term D66, it refers to the use of two 6-sided dice to generate numbers from 1-36. The dice are rolled consecutively, the first die being a control and the second the place-holder. (Not sure about those terms, but them's the ones I'm going with!) So one gets 1, 1-6; 2, 1-6; 3, 1-6; etc. giving 36 permutations. My so-called modified D666 table adds a third die which I just read as even/odd, with 'odd' indicating the Reversed meaning of a particular card. 

My final table looks like this:

Everway Cards

Even:
1/1 Autumn: Plenty;
1/2 The Cockatrice: Corruption;
1/3 The Creator: Nurture;
1/4 Death: Change;
1/5 The Defender: Safety;
1/6 The Dragon: Cunning;

2/1 Drowning in Armour: Protective Measures Turn Dangerous;
2/2 The Eagle: The Mind Prevails;
2/3 Fearing Shadows: Unnecessary Fear;
2/4 Fertility: Growth;
2/5 The Fish: The Soul Prevails;
2/6 The Fool: Freedom;

3/1 The Griffin: Valour;
3/2 The Hermit: Wisdom;
3/3 Inspiration: Creativity;
3/4 The King: Authority;
3/5 Knowledge: Truth;
3/6 Law: Order;

4/1 The Lion: The Body Prevails;
4/2 Nature: Life Energy;
4/3 Overlooking the Diamond: Failing to See Opportunity;
4/4 The Peasant: Simple Strength;
4/5 The Phoenix: Rebirth;
4/6 The Priestess: Understanding Mysteries;

5/1 The Satyr: Indulgence;
5/2 The Smith: Productivity;
5/3 The Soldier: Duty;
5/4 Sowing Stones: Fruitless Labour;
5/5 Spring: New Growth;
5/6 Striking the Dragon's Tail: Underestimating the Challenge

6/1 Summer: Energy;
6/2 Trickery: Deceit;
6/3 The Unicorn: Purity;
6/4 The Usurper: War with Honour;
6/5 War: Great Effort;
6/6 Winter: Maturity;

Odd:
1/1 Autumn (Reversed): Want;
1/2 The Cockatrice (Reversed): Recovery;
1/3 The Creator (Reversed): Abandonment;
1/4 Death (Reversed): Stasis;
1/5 The Defender (Reversed): Peril;
1/6 The Dragon (Reversed): Blind Fury;

2/1 Drowning in Armour (Reversed): True Prudence;
2/2 The Eagle (Reversed): Thoughtlessness;
2/3 Fearing Shadows (Reversed): Recognizing Safety;
2/4 Fertility (Reversed): Decline;
2/5 The Fish (Reversed): Shallowness;
2/6 The Fool (Reversed): Lack of Connection;

3/1 The Griffon (Reversed): Cowardice;
3/2 The Hermit (Reversed): Isolation;
3/3 Inspiration (Reversed): Lack of Imagination;
3/4 The King (Reversed): Tyranny;
3/5 Knowledge (Reversed): Falsehood;
3/6 Law (Reversed): Treachery;

4/1 The Lion (Reversed): Weakness;
4/2 Nature (Reversed): Energy Sapped;
4/3 Overlooking the Diamond (Reversed): Recognizing Opportunity;
4/4 The Peasant (Reversed): Lack of Vision;
4/5 The Phoenix (Reversed): Destruction;
4/6 The Priestess (Reversed): Impracticality;

5/1 The Satyr (Reversed): Moderation;
5/2 The Smith (Reversed): Evil Effort;
5/3 The Soldier (Reversed): Blind Obedience;
5/4 Sowing Stones (Reversed): Ceasing Fruitless Labour;
5/5 Spring (Reversed): Stagnation;
5/6 Striking the Dragon's Tail (Reversed): Recognizing the Larger Problem;

6/1 Summer (Reversed): Exhaustion;
6/2 Trickery (Reversed): Subterfuge Revealed;
6/3 The Unicorn (Reversed): Temptation;
6/4 The Usurper (Reversed): War without End;
6/5 War (Reversed): Effort Misspent;
6/6 Winter (Reversed): Inexperience;

So, that's that. What does one do with it?

More on that next post...

Lohwand Updated

Lohwand Map

(updated June 28, 2020 - twice!)

I realized almost immediately that the map I posted yesterday was not the most current, and I've just been making changes again, so here is the latest version of Lohwand.

Latest update at 20:26 today. 

My Lohwand Campaign Map: Created in PowerPoint

Lohwand

A friend used to always say that PowerPoint was "the poor man's graphic program" and he was right! This is a map of Lohwand, or at least its current iteration. I've decided to give 54mm Toy Soldiers a go, and have decided to do something akin to Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign from way-back-when.

As you can see by glancing at the place names, I've shamelessly stolen from a great many sources, be they Fantasy and Sci/Fi writers or role-playing games: Tolkien's "Middle Earth", MAR Barker's "Tekumel", Burrough's "John Carter of Mars", the "World of Greyhawk", Greg Stafford's "Glorantha", Michael Moorcock's Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon sagas, plus others. Some are from authors whose names I forget, and a few are even my own invention.

What is All Mine is the map, which as you can see, looks vaguely like Europe and the Mediterranean, only I didn't want to bother with a few thousand miles of Asia so I cut right through to the Far East. Its got "goodies" and "baddies", Law and Chaos, major protagonists and minor.

The map is made in PowerPoint. I sized the page to be 34" tall by 54" wide to give me plenty of space and went to work with the freehand drawing tool. I built it up in bits that are layered over one another. Using the fill tool I worked out a colour palette to show the major terrain types: generic open country, deserts, marshes, plains/steppes, dense forests or jungle, hills, high mountains, lakes, rivers and sea, plus active volcanoes.

I used the draw order tools to put things on top or in back as needed. The main background is a full sized rectangle set to be the very back/bottom of everything else. I added the red border to allow me to hide rough edges and give me something to align the edge bits against. Using edit shapes and selecting the edit points I could alter the freehand shapes as I needed, zooming in to 100% to make the task easier. Then checking how things looked by playing a slideshow. And not forgetting to Save Often. Nor the undo button, especially if I accidentally moved something. A proper graphics program would have a way to "lock" items in place, and maybe PowerPoint does, but I haven't figured it out yet.

This is still a work in progress, but I think the next step is to start detailing various areas. Maybe make a copy of the slide and focus on one area, deleting the rest and enlarging it to the size of the whole slide. Or perhaps take a screen cap of an area and use it as a background to layer more detailed information on top of.

If I tell you that the Tharkallan Empire is some sort of Dark Fantasy Roman Empire then there are enough clues on the map to work out most of the other protagonists. They "Celts", "Germans", "Greeks", "Persians", etc. Not everything is straight forward, of course, and I'm playing somewhat loose with timelines and "tech levels". I've always had an idea to play a campaign with the same areas and/or countries through all the various eras of history. Of course the details of the regions change but broadly speaking the landscape would remain roughly the same. So for this project I am thinking four or five  "Ages" - apologies to Tolkien!

First Age - The Age of Magic (with early gunpowder counting as "magic");
Second Age - The Age of Gunpowder (Pike & Shot);
Third Age - The Age of Reason (Horse & Musket);
Fourth Age - The Age of Invention (19th Century);
Fifth Age - The Age of Destruction (early 20th Century).
Sixth Age - The Age of Science (Sci/fi);
Seventh Age - The Age of Apocalypse (Mad Max or similar).

OK, that's Seven "Ages", but really they are all theoretical seeing as I am at the very start of number one.

For rules, I am thinking something with smallish unit sizes, so Studio Tomahawk's "Saga: Age of Magic", or Warlord Games' "Warlords of Erewhon", or one of the "Lion/Dragon Rampant" or "Pikeman's Lament" series of rules from Osprey. Or any of a dozen other less well known options. Its likely to be a solo affair, so I might cobble together my own set of rules as well. I need to look at my various Peter Pig rules again; they have a lot of good ideas in those rules, regardless of era!

At the moment, however, I'm more-or-less settled on "Saga: Age of Magic" and have been planning my factions based on those rules for fighting the battles. With modifications, of course! I've already been tinkering with the factions lists. I'll be ignoring some of the restrictions and adding some things of my own.

The "Tharkallan Empire" is being set up to be my main "evil" protagonist with the "Atlan Confederacy" (Amazons) as the main "good" protagonist. Tharkalla is patterned after Rome and I intend to use the Expeditionary Force figures, despite them being 60mm. I reckon they are just taller folk; obviously they are not patterned that closely on Ancient Rome! Ilmiora and Vilmar, and the others close by, are all going to be "Greek City State" proxies. Nemedia is, in my backstory, the first of the city states to be incorporated into the Empire. I decided to use the name "Nemedia" mainly so I could have my own "Nemedian Chronicle" as a sort of "Campaign Diary".

Anyway, that's where I got to so far. Lots more to do.

Armour of the Trigan Empire - Part 2

Progress so far...

Here is the progress so far on my camo scheme (see previous) along side some Crooked Dice female minions, their spiffy infantry caps newly attached. (That required a magnifier and a good light, but then my eyes aren't what they used to be!)

Still much more to do. Still haven't figured out the pea dots yet and want to add green, dark blue - but not too dark - and maybe some sort of red, terracotta, perhaps. There will have to be black pea dots as well, of course.

Wako part of Tekumel Club sale - 40% off until Jan 19th!

I have limited supplies of Wako on hand. ex-Forlorn Hope, ex-Cavalcade miniatures.

I am selling them @ $40 per 10 - a standard "Horde" pack per my Tekumel Club range.

The Tekumel Club discount applies and currently I am running a sale...see my posts elsewhere on this forum.

The range consists of 4 or 5 armoured Wako, well partial armour, really: some swordsmen, a spearman and an archer. These are, I think, intended as "command", or at least, senior warriors.

Then there are several poses of spearmen, swordsmen w. katana and archers with that distinctive Japanese style of bow. These latter are my favourite, esp. the guys drawing back the bow in classic fashion!



There are IIRC one or possibly two other armoured poses that for some reason I failed to get a picture of.

Email me if interested at green27 -at- sympatico -dot- ca

Armour of the Trigan Empire

Solido Patton tank. 

I've already ditched the decals.

WW1 German fighter "lozenge" camouflage.

WW2 German Waffen SS "Pea" camouflage.

My Trigan army forces are being done with a Germanic look, using early WW2 German uniforms, so as to have the boots. But for armour I managed to find a Solido/Verem 1:50 scale Patton tank. It is not from one of their special anniversary collections and so is a plain dark green colour.

Now the debate is whether I should try and paint it in camo or leave it plain. The options are:

1) plain green - as is - just add some sort of insignia. (I've already rubbed the original decals off with my thumb.)

2) camo inspired by WW1 German fighter camoflage. I particularly like the lozenge patterns and the colours used.

3) camo based on German WW2 Waffen SS "pea" patterns, like the one shown above. Again, I like the colours, but it might be too complex. And it also looks a bit too much like it would work, and the Trigan stories were a bit more fantastical than that.

4) the last option I am considering is something based on WW1 Naval "Dazzle" camouflage. It would likely use colours based on either of the others shown above.

What I might do, if I paint it at all, is a combination of dazzle, lozenge and the "pea" pattern. Hmm...