Two Kinds of Wilderness Maps in Original D&D

It's well-known among old school gamers that original D&D calls for using the game board from the Outdoor Survival board game for wilderness adventures. Outdoor Survival is listed under "Recommended Equipment" on page 5 of the Men & Magic booklet, and on page 15 of The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, it states "OUTDOOR SURVIVAL has a playing board perfect for general adventures. Catch basins are castles, buldings are towns, and the balance of the terrain is as indicated." 

What seems to be much less well-known is that there is an entirely different method for mapping the wilderness called for in original D&D. This method is also used by old school gamers, but for whatever reason it has received much less attention and commentary. On page 15 of The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, immediately above the previous quotation, it also states:

The terrain beyond the immediate surroundings of the dungeon area should be unknown to all but the referee. Off-hand adventures in the wilderness are made on the OUTDOOR SURVIVAL playing board (explained below). Exploratory journeys, such as expeditions to find land suitable for a castle or in search of some legendary treasure are handled in an entirely different manner.

This passage shows that there are actually two fundamentally distinct kinds of wilderness maps for use with D&D. The first is a map created by the referee, which is unseen by the players: "The terrain beyond the immediate surroundings of the dungeon area should be unknown to all but the referee." This is indeed "entirely different" from the Outdoor Survival board, which shows all the terrain and main locations (towns and castles) to the players as soon as it is placed on the gaming surface. 

This passage also specifies that the Outdoor Survival board is for use with "off-hand adventures in the wilderness"; the other passage on the same page of U&WA refers instead to using the Outdoor Survival board for "general adventures." The meaning of these phrases is not entirely clear, but they might refer to using the Outdoor Survival board for "one-shot" wilderness adventures that are not part of a DM's ongoing campaign, or perhaps for adventures which are treated as "side quests" or branches off the main campaign.

Page 16 of U&WA provides some additional clarity about the other type of map to be used for wilderness adventures:

REFEREE'S MAP is a wilderness map unknown to the players. It should be for the territory around the dungeon location. When players venture into this area they should have a blank hexagon map, and as they move over each hex the referee will inform them as to what kind of terrain is in that hex. This form of exploring will eventually enable players to know the lay of the land in their immediate area and thus to be able to select a site upon which to build their castles. (Castle buliding and its attendant requirements will be covered hereafter.) Exploratory adventures are likely to be the most exciting, and their incorporation into the campaign is most desirable.    

What follows is a set of rules for determining the rate of movement in the wilderness, based on terrain type and the type of creature or vehicle moving.

Using a referee's map unknown to the players sets up the possibility of "exploratory adventures," where much or all of the terrain and special locations are initially unknown to the players. The wilderness map is "for the territory around the dungeon location," which indicates the use of a dungeon as the central starting point for a campaign. The text calls for the players' use of a blank hex map which they fill in as they explore. It also specifically mentions that wilderness exploration will "eventually" enable players to find suitable sites "upon which to build their castles." The "eventually" indicates that building a castle is seen as appropriate for higher level characters. It's noteworthy that part of the value of a wilderness map is that it supports this "end game" of D&D, where the characters build strongholds and become lords of the surrounding area.

The second type of wilderness map itself consists of two maps, one for the referee and one for the player. The text itself calls for players to be given a completely blank hex map, which they only fill in as they explore. Actual early D&D products with wilderness maps often soften this, giving players a partially filled in map, and giving the referee the completed map. We can see this in the City State of the Invincible Overlord and other Judges Guild Wilderlands products, and also in the player's map from the D&D Expert module X1 The Isle of Dread. 

The overall picture presented by the actual text of original D&D is that the use of a special map created by the referee (and unknown to the players), rather than use of the Outdoor Survival board, is actually the primary intended form of wilderness play. The Outdoor Survival board is said to be for "off-hand avdentures," while the "exploratory adventures" enabled by the use of a secret referee's map are "likely to be the most exciting, and their incorporation into the campaign is most desirable." Given what the text itself says, it's interesting that the use of the Outdoor Survival board for wilderness adventures has become so much more well-known and salient among latter-day fans of original D&D.

In addition to the fact that the Outdoor Survival board does not support the same kind of exploratory play as a referee's map, since the main features on the board are immediately visible, another important difference between the two is that the Outdoor Survival board has hexes that are not numbered, while hex maps of the sort used in the 1970s for wargames usually had numbered hexes. Numbered hexes are quite handy (I would say essential--perhaps more on that in a later post) for campaign play, in that the referee can keep a separate document for the wilderness map which contains details of locations and events keyed to each hex. With the Outdoor Survival board, it is much more difficult to record information that can be localized to a hex, and so it is more difficult to keep and record data on special locations (such as monster lairs discovered by the players) that can be referred to in later sessions of the game. This makes the Outdoor Survival board better for "off-hand" adventures, rather than adventures that are part of an extended campaign set in a well-developed world.

Addendum: The excellent YouTube channel Geek Gamers has a video discussing Jon Peterson's new book, The Elusive Shift, which covers the history of what are now called tabletop RPGs from around 1975 to 1980. At around 9:06, the creator of the video discusses their particular copy of the Outdoor Survival board, which has custom features added to it by a previous owner, including an alphanumeric key written in by hand to help identify each hex. It seems that early players of D&D understood the importance of using numbered hexes to support wilderness play, even when using the Outdoor Survival board. 

D&D Alignments as Meta-Factions of Religious Allegiance

Paul Siegel and Dan Collins, who host the YouTube channel Wandering DMs, recently aired an episode on Alignment in D&D. Paul is skeptical of using alignment at all, but around 38:08 he states that his previous best attempt to understand alignment was to interpret it as allegiance to a side in a cosmic battle, rather than regarding it as having anything to do with personal morality. Dan states that he conceives of alignment in terms of a character's basic response to the existence of a being like Cthulhu: a Lawful character fights against Cthulhu, a Neutral character runs away, and a Chaotic character furthers the ends of Cthulhu. (Presumably, any Great Old One, demon lord, or similar being of cosmic evil could stand in for Cthulhu here.)

Paul has several criticisms of alignment as found in original D&D and its successors:

• The existence and mechanics of alignment languages make little sense; for example, why would a character forget their old alignment language upon switching alignment? 
• In OD&D, alignment languages have the side effect of reducing the value in learning multiple languages; there are only three alignment languages spoken by all creatures, and the rules only prohibited learning 'opposing' alignment languages. In Gary Gygax's original Greyhawk campaign, this was interpreted as permitting Lawful and Chaotic characters to learn the Neutral alignment language, and as permitting Neutral characters to learn any alignment language--at least, according to Mike Mornard, one of the original members of the Lake Geneva Greyhawk campaign.
• Equating alignment with personal morality requires either forbidding certain actions for player characters, as being inconsistent with their alignment, or carefully tracking PC actions with some putatively objective criteria that could then force an alignment change after a sufficient number and intensity of violations of the original alignment's values--all of which are impractical or at least very tricky to implement.
• It is either impossible or impractical to define an objective list of values and actions for each alignment.
• Having an alignment rule adds nothing to the game, and it is not necessary to have an alignment rule even if a campaign features a cosmic conflict between good and evil.
• Alignment would have no meaning or application in Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age. Since Conan is such an important source of inspiration for D&D, this means that D&D does not need alignment, either.

I agree with many of Paul's points, but I still think that a three-value alignment system (Law, Neutrality, Chaos) is useful for most D&D campaigns. 

It may seem strange that Paul leaned so heavily on the one example of Conan (and I may have exaggerated the weight he was trying to place on this one point in my summary of it here). But considering the example of Conan and the Hyborian Age is very important when evaluating and interpreting the rules for OD&D. Conan was one of the main inspirations for D&D, for both Gygax and Arneson. If a rule like alignment would be useless in attempting to adapt the Hyborian Age, or similar worlds of pulp and weird fiction (such as Fritz Leiber's Nehwon) to D&D, then that would be an important piece of evidence against the necessity or the utility of alignment in D&D.

However, I think that alignment does have a use in D&D, and it is precisely that suggested by Dan and Paul in their best attempt to define alignment in a maximally clear and concise way: alignment indicates allegiance to a cosmic force or a group of gods or other similarly powerful beings. The main function of the alignment rule is just to serve as a marker for which cosmic faction a character belongs to and identifies with. 

The exact beings or forces that a person is aligned with or against can vary from campaign to campaign, but the general three-value alignment system is likely to be useful in many if not most OD&D worlds. Chaos aligns with a big bad or cosmic threat, Law with the forces that oppose it, and Neutrality with neither, or with forces that are orthogonal to the central cosmic conflict.

Defining alignment in this way neatly sidesteps the interminable issues surrounding morality, much less how to quantify these in game terms. It also sidesteps the puzzles surrounding alignment languages, because alignments can be conceived of as factions without having to introduce the notion that aligned creatures share a common tongue. Alignment in this sense is more of a tag than a mechanic, which simply labels the main faction that a character belongs to.

An alignment is a 'meta-faction' in that it can lump together otherwise disparate groups or creatures. If Cthulhu is the big bad, then those aligned against him may otherwise share little in common, and their rivalries may also be quite significant for the campaign. Similarly, those aligned with Law may have intense internal rivalries, similar to the rivalries between different monotheistic religions or different sects of the same religion.

Strictly speaking, alignment need not be allegiance to a religious cause or faction, but most often the cosmic evil in fantasy fiction is indeed a god or spirit of some kind. Cthulhu is an alien entity, but even he inspires religious devotion among his human followers, who form nameless cults in his honor, for example.

Returning to the case of Conan, alignment works surprisingly well with Howard's Hyborian Age. Chaos aligns with Set or the Great Old Ones; Law aligns with Mitra; and Neutrality aligns with various other gods and unaligned entities, such as Conan's own god Crom, and beings such as Bel and Anu.

This conception of alignment is not far from that found in Chainmail, the ur-text of D&D. As Dan notes in the video, Chainmail includes a table labeled "General Line-Up" (on page 39 of the 3rd edition), which divides Fantasy Supplement creatures into three categories: Law, Neutral, and Chaos. The purpose of this list is to determine which creatures will tend to fight as allies in miniature battles; as the text itself says:

It is impossible to draw a distanct [sic] line between "good" and "evil" fantastic figures. Three categories are listed below as a general guide for the wargamer designing orders of battle involving fantastic creatures.

Two aspects of this original Chainmail rule are useful for D&D as well: (1) alignment is not based on strict criteria for good and evil; (2) alignment is a general guide for which creatures will fight together against common foes. In this case, returning to the simplicity of Chainmail helps resolve much of the confusion and muddle introduced by decades of development of D&D.

Granted that alignment is useful to many or most D&D campaigns, is it truly essential? Is it impossible to play bona fide D&D without alignment? Well, many effects, such as of spells, magic items, or monster powers, are defined in terms of alignment. Ditching alignment would require tweaking with these game elements, such as the rule that only Chaotic clerics may cast the reversed form of cleric spells. Arguably, though, the central motivation for D&D characters is winning treasure, rather than choosing a side in a cosmic battle; D&D, at least in its original, 1974 incarnation, is fundamentally a game about finding treasure from the dungeon underneath a mad wizard's castle, or from another similar place of adventure. This motivation does not depend fundamentally on cosmic allegiance, so the game could probably survive in recognizable form even without alignment. Nevertheless, alignment is likely to be useful in most D&D campaigns, as long as there is a recognizable cosmic big bad whose existence shapes the interactions between many of the characters and creatures of the campaign setting.

Social Level for Old School RPGs

Social level indicates a character’s overall status in society. Members of a family share the same social level, and a character generally retains his social level throughout his life. It is possible, however, to gain or lose social level based on significant changes in circumstances, such as being granted a title or estate, losing land, being stripped of a title, or being convicted of a serious crime. Changes to social level are at the discretion of the referee.

A character’s social level determines his general social class and his specific rank or title. The social level money multiplier is applied to a character’s starting money (base 30-180 groats) and his minimum monthly upkeep cost (base 10 groats). Social level affects NPC reactions at the referee’s discretion.

Social Level Table

Social Level	Social Class	Rank or Title	Money Multiplier
0	Slave	n/a	1/8
1	Serf	Cottager	1/4
2	Serf	Cottager	1/4
3	Serf	Half-villein	1/2
4	Serf	Half-villein	1/2
5	Serf	Villein	1
6	Serf	Villein	1
7	Plebeian	Laborer or tenant farmer	1
8	Plebeian	Laborer or tenant farmer	1
9	Plebeian	Guildsman or yeoman	1
10	Plebeian	Guildsman or yeoman	1
11	Plebeian	Wealthy guildsman or yeoman	2
12	Plebeian	Wealthy guildsman or yeoman	2
13	Patrician	Gentry: knight or esquire	2
14	Patrician	Gentry: baron	4
15	Patrician	Aristocrat: viscount	6
16	Patrician	Aristocrat: count	8
17	Patrician	Aristocrat: duke or marquis	10
18	Patrician	Aristocrat: prince	12
19	Patrician	Royalty: king	14
20	Patrician	Royalty: emperor	16

Social Classes

The main division in society is between serfs (bondsmen; SL 1-6), plebeians (freemen; SL 7-12), and patricians (nobles; SL 13-20). Serfs are tied to the land they work, and may only leave with their lord’s permission, while plebeians are not so bound. Patricians bear titles and own estates (with associated feudal dues) passed down from parents to children, while serfs and plebeians lack such titles and estates.

Serf (Bondsman): Serfs are peasant farmers bound to a particular manor. They are required to render services to the lord of the manor, which vary based on local custom. Typically, they include working the land in the lord’s demesne, or giving the lord a fixed portion of the annual harvest.

There are three kinds of serf: villein, half-villein, and cottager. Villeins are the highest-status serfs, who have the right to work more land than other serfs. Half-villeins have about half as much land as villeins, and typically hire themselves out to villeins to make up for this. Cottagers have even less land than half-villeins—generally only enough for a small cottage and garden. Most of their livelihood comes from hiring themselves out to work the land allotted to villeins.

Plebeian (Freeman): Plebeians are men of common birth who are not bound to a particular manor. Rural plebeians (peasants) live in the country, while urban plebeians (burghers) live in towns or cities.

There are two main kinds of rural plebeians: tenants and yeomen. Tenants are farmers who do not own their own land, and who pay rent to a landlord (whether patrician or yeoman) in exchange for the right to work it. Tenants are legally permitted to leave an estate, but economic necessity often forces them to remain. Yeomen are independent landowners. Unlike nobles, yeomen lack a noble title, and receive rents but not feudal dues from tenants.

Urban plebeians include laborers and guildsmen. Examples of laborers include day laborers, midwives, seamstresses, and household servants. Guildsmen are members of a merchant or craft guild, and have three general ranks: apprentice, journeyman, and master. The highest ranks of urban plebeians include guild masters and city councilors. Guild masters (not to be confused with master guildsmen) are the heads of merchant or craft guilds. City councilors are members of the city government, including the lord mayor.

Patrician (Noble): Patricians are members of families in which noble titles and estates are passed down from generation to generation. Inheritance of title and estate is usually from father to eldest son, but the practice varies based on local custom. Patricians fall into three main kinds: royalty, aristocrats, and gentry. Royalty include kings and emperors who are sovereign and independent, and who do not hold their land from another lord. Aristocrats include dukes, marquises, counts, and viscounts. They hold their lands directly from a king or emperor, to whom they owe fealty and feudal dues. Families of aristocrats own many estates, often in different provinces, sometimes in different kingdoms, and have lesser lords or gentry who owe them fealty and feudal dues. Gentry include barons, knights, and esquires. A baron rules a small territory called a barony, which includes a dozen or more manors. Each manor includes one or more villages, and is governed from a manor house or castle. A knight either owns a single manor, or maintains a manor on behalf of a baron or other higher-ranking nobleman. An esquire comes from a family of knights and owns or maintains a single manor, but has not yet formally received the title of knighthood.

Backgrounds for Old School RPGs

Designer's Notes

Like the backgrounds in 5e D&D, these are intended to provide a backstory and some characterization, hooks, and minor powers to player characters. However, they are inspired more by medieval societies than by contemporary fantasy fiction. The ability bonuses are used in my human-centered Twilight Empire campaign, but can be dropped without fuss. The skill bonus is like a 5e proficiency bonus, but uses my house rules for ability rolls in old-school campaigns. The skill bonus is quite high at +1 per experience level, but this assumes low-level campaigns; the skill bonus could be reduced to +1 per 2 levels (round fractions up) for high-level campaigns. Social level is similar to the Judges Guild rule, but I use a different table. The background descriptions contain a handful of other references to house rules from my Twilight Empire campaign, such as for trials, the right to bear arms, and sumptuary laws. Groats are large silver coins that have the same value as a standard gold piece.

Backgrounds

A character’s background represents his social position and his early education or training. A background gives a character two ability bonuses, bonus items, a skill bonus to relevant ability rolls, one or more powers, and a starting social level (SL) score.

Background Table

#	Background	Ability Bonuses	Bonus Items	Skill Bonus	Powers	SL
1	Barrister	Ch +1 I +1	Fine hat (5g) Gown and robe (10g) Legal codex (100g)	Bargain Courtesy Oratory Scribe	Law	9-12
2	Craftsman	D +1 I +1	Breeches and tunic (2g) Cap (1g) Craftsman’s tools (5g+)	Appraise Bargain Build or Repair Drive Vehicle	Craft	7-12
3	Engineer	I +2	Breeches and tunic (2g) Cap (1g) Compass and square (2g)	Build or Repair Scribe	Engineering	7-12
4	Forester	D +1 W +1	Breeches and tunic (2g) Hooded cloak (2g) Staff (1g)	Direction Sense Natural Lore Outdoor Survival Track	Set Snares	1-10
5	Herdsman	C +1 W +1	Bagpipe (2g) Breeches and tunic (2g) Hooded cloak (2g) Riding horse (40g)	Play Instrument Ride Train Animal Weather sense	Animal Husbandry	1-10
6	Mariner	C +1 S +1	Breeches and tunic (2g) Compass and sextant (5g) Fur-lined cloak (5g)	Direction sense Pilot Vessel Swim Weather Sense	Seamanship	1-10
7	Merchant	Ch +1 I +1	Abacus (5g) Fine hat (5g) Fine tunic (10g)	Appraise Bargain Drive Vehicle Scribe	Merchant	7-12
8	Miner	C +1 S +1	Breeches and tunic (2g) Cap (1g) Spade (1g)	Drive Vehicle Natural Lore	Mining Underground Sense	1-10
9	Noble	Ch +1 S +1	Fine breeches and tunic (10g) Fine cape, cloak, or hat (10g) Riding horse (40g)	Courtesy Ride Scribe Track	Nobility Servant	13-16
10	Pauper	Ch +1 D +1	Soiled breeches and tunic Soiled cap Wooden bowl	Bargain Beg Bluff Folk Lore	The Cant City Lore	1-6
11	Peasant	C +1 W +1	Breeches and tunic (2g) Cap (1g) Draft horse (30g)	Drive Vehicle Folk Lore Natural Lore	Farming	1-12
12	Physician	D +1 I +1	Fine hat (5g) Gown and robe (10g) Medical codex (100g)	Courtesy First Aid Natural Lore Scribe	Physic	9-12
13	Scholar	I +1 W +1	Codex (100g) Fine cap (5g) Gown and robe (10g) Wax tablet and stylus (2g)	Courtesy Folk Lore Oratory Scribe	Ancient Languages Scholarship	7-12

Ability Bonuses: A character receives two ability bonuses for his background. They don’t raise ability scores above 18. 

Bonus Items: These are in addition to items purchased with a character’s starting money (30-180 groats, modified by social level).

Skill Bonus: A character receives a skill bonus equal to his experience level on ability rolls related to his background. The table above lists two or four standard ability rolls related to the background, but the skill bonus also applies to any other ability roll for which the background would provide an advantage (referee’s discretion).

Powers: A power enables a character to perform special actions not covered by standard ability rolls, or gives him some other edge or advantage.

SL: Social level determines social class and rank, and affects starting money and cost of upkeep.

Barrister

A barrister is an expert in the law. A barrister does not serve as an advocate during a trial, but may be consulted by a judge (or, more rarely, by a party to the trial) to interpret the law and cite precedents. A barrister has general knowledge of the law, and chooses a specialization: canon law, common law, imperial law, merchant law, or urban law. Canon law is the law of the church; common law is based on local custom or judicial precedents; imperial law is promulgated by the emperor; merchant law is used by merchants who trade across legal jurisdictions; and urban law is promulgated by towns or cities.

Law: A barrister’s knowledge of the law can be used to help avoid arrest or prosecution, to avoid conviction in a trial, to bring a suit against another party, or to otherwise navigate a legal system. A barrister can discover a precedent or loophole to support one party to a trial, which provides a +4 bonus to a trial roll, or +8 if the trial in question relates to his legal specialization. A barrister can also recall obscure facts about the law with a successful intelligence roll, which can help with legal investigations and disputes.

Craftsman

A player character craftsman is assumed to have obtained a journeyman level of training in his craft, before going off to a life of adventure. There are three levels of craftsmen: apprentice, journeyman, and master. Apprentices learn their craft while working for a master craftsman in exchange for their labor. Journeymen are fully trained, but have not received the title of master from their guild, and do not have their own shops. Masters are senior members of the guild, who have their own shops, and are involved in guild politics.

Craft: A craftsman is able to manufacture items given adequate tools, time, and materials. The player chooses which craft his character knows from the following table, or another craft of his choosing (with the referee’s permission).

Sample Crafts Table

Craft	Items Made
Armorer	Cuirass, helmet, lamellar, mail, melee weapon, plate mail, shield
Blacksmith	Crowbar, hammer, horseshoe, iron spikes
Bowyer	Long bow, short bow
Cartwright	Cart, wagon
Fletcher	Arrow, bolt
Goldsmith	Holy item, jewelry, signet ring
Gunsmith	Arquebus, cannon

Engineer

An engineer designs complex devices and structures, such as buildings, clocks, and machines of war.

Engineering: An engineer can design or repair a complex structure or mechanical device, including: castles, churches, fortifications, houses, and other buildings; mills and other basic machinery; water clocks and simple mechanical clocks; and ballistae, catapults, siege towers, and other machines of war. Actually building the structure or device requires a team of skilled workers and sufficient time and money (referee’s discretion). An ambitious or novel design requires an intelligence roll with a difficulty level of 4 or more; failure indicates a collapse or malfunction, either during the period of construction or sometime thereafter (equal chance of each).

Forester

A forester makes his living in woodlands, through timbering, charcoal making, foraging, hunting, trapping, or serving as a warden to guard a territory from poachers or other trespassers.

Set Snares: A forester can set snares and build pit traps. It takes one hour to set a snare. A snare can be set either to inflict 1-6 damage or to immobilize the target. It takes six hours to construct a pit trap. A pit trap causes the victim to fall into a 10’ deep pit. The victim suffers 1-6 damage if he fails a dexterity roll. It takes at least one turn for the victim to climb out of the pit trap, and the victim may only be able to climb out successfully after abandoning armor or other equipment (referee’s discretion).

Herdsman

A herdsman cares for large herds or flocks of domesticated animals. Some own their own land and animals, others watch over animals owned by others, and still others own their animals but not the land they graze on.

Animal Husbandry: A herdsman can raise, care for, and assess the value of cattle, goats, horses, sheep, or other domesticated animals. With a successful wisdom roll, a herdsman can increase the value of a flock or herd by 10% over the course of a year.

Mariner

A mariner works aboard a rowed or sailed ocean-going vessel.

Seamanship: A mariner can find work aboard a ship, which enables him to earn his keep and to get free passage to ports of call. If need be, a mariner can also function as a ship captain and perform basic navigation.

Merchant

Merchants typically live in towns or cities, but some (peddlers) travel the countryside to sell their wares, while others travel by river or sea. Unlike most commoners, merchants are often literate and numerate.

Merchant: A merchant can buy items at half their usual retail value and sell them at their full retail value. Doing so requires locating a buyer; the chance of this varies based on the item, local tastes, and the size of the local population, but there is a base chance of 1% per month in a village (100-900 inhabitants), 5% per month in a town (1,000-9,000 inhabitants), and 50% per month in a city (10,000+ inhabitants).

Miner

A miner has had experience working in an underground copper, iron, lead, salt, or silver mine.

Mining: A miner can engage in prospecting and oversee the construction and operation of a mine (possibly requiring the assistance of an engineer, depending upon the difficulty of the site).

Underground Sense: With a detect secret doors roll (base 2 in 6 chance), a miner can notice sloping or shifting passages, recent construction, approximate depth underground, and other underground phenomena.

Noble

A noble is born into a family that bears at least one noble title and that owns one or more feudal estates. Feudal estates are distinguished from other land in that their tenants owe the landlord feudal dues, and in that the owner of the land is a vassal to a higher-ranking noble. A noble is familiar with rules of etiquette, courtly song and dance, and elite pastimes such as chess and falconry. A noble is likely to be literate, and to have at least a passing familiarity with “the classics”—epic and lyric poetry, sacred scriptures, famous speeches, and a handful of historical or philosophical works. A male noble receives training from an early age in the hunt and the art of war, and a female in weaving and household management.

Ranks of Nobles Table

#	Rank	Type	Social Level
1	Emperor	Royalty	20
2	King	Royalty	19
3	Prince	Aristocrat	18
4	Duke	Aristocrat	17
5	Marquis	Aristocrat	16
6	Count	Aristocrat	16
7	Viscount	Aristocrat	15
8	Baron	Gentry	14
9	Knight	Gentry	13
10	Esquire	Gentry	13

Every noble family in the Twilight Empire is either part of or allied with one of the six great noble houses. Each noble house is a virtual nation in its own right, owning numerous estates, castles, and noble titles, and able to field a large feudal army. The noble houses are divided by intense rivalries, and in the past these have broken out into civil war. The twilight emperor is always from House Beryl; the other five noble houses are roughly equal in power. A player character noble is generally assumed to be from a lesser branch of one of the noble houses, or from a lesser noble family allied with one of the great houses. Such a character will nonetheless be affected by the grand politics of the empire, as shifting alliances and hostilities among the houses are felt at all levels of the feudal hierarchy.

#	Noble House	Coat of Arms	Reputation
1	House Beryl	Gold gemstone on a black field	Majesty, ambition
2	House Boarshead	Blue boar’s head on a gold field	Valor, treachery
3	House Falconcrest	White falcon on a blue field	Chivalry, courtesy, heresy
4	House Ravenwing	Black raven on a white field	Orthodoxy, loyalty
5	House Tawny	Red rooster on a gold field	Pride, prudence
6	House Winterwolf	White wolf on a black field	Endurance, independence

Nobility: Nobles generally receive deference from commoners, and can expect hospitality from nobles and commoners when travelling. They are permitted to bear chivalric arms such as swords and lances, and to wear silks and other luxurious clothing. A noble’s testimony is more valuable in a court of law.

Servant: A noble character begins play with a 0-level NPC retainer in his service, who is either a maidservant, manservant, or squire. Noble fighters are served by squires, while members of other classes have a maid- or manservant who matches their gender. Maidservants are armed with a knife, manservants with dagger and staff, and squires with gambeson, helmet, shield, dagger, sword, and bow or crossbow.

Pauper

Paupers are characters of humble circumstances who dwell in towns or cities, such as beggars, day laborers, maids and valets, pimps and prostitutes, and thieves and con men of various stripes.

The Cant: A pauper is familiar with the dialect and distinctive terminology used by thieves and the urban poor to veil their meaning when discussing criminal matters and to verify their identity when among mixed company.

City Lore: A pauper is familiar with the principal guilds, criminal organizations, and other factions in Greymouth or another city, and knows shortcuts for cutting through streets and safe houses used by thieves and other members of the criminal underworld.

Peasant

A peasant works the land for a living. Peasants are usually illiterate and uneducated. It is often illegal for a peasant to hunt or fish from the surrounding countryside, if the land is owned by a lord jealous of its use, but this does not always stop peasants from doing so anyway. Some peasants live in isolated farmsteads, others in villages connected to a manor or estate, still others in independent villages with their own government (a headman or village council).

Farming: A peasant can oversee the operation of a farm to grow crops (grains, lentils, flax, fruits, greens, etc., depending on climate and terrain) and raise common domesticated animals (mainly geese and pigs, with small numbers of cattle, goats, horses, or sheep).

Physician

A physician has had some training in the art of medicine, and works as a surgeon, diagnostician, and prescriber of alchemical remedies.

Physic: A physician can determine the diagnosis, prognosis, and prescribed remedy (if any) for illnesses or other debilitating conditions (such as poisoning). A physician can also perform basic first aid and primitive surgeries. First aid must be performed within 1 hour of the infliction of a wound, and restores 1-4 hit points with a successful intelligence roll (plus skill bonus). First aid may only be performed once per character per combat (or other source of wound or injury). Surgery may be performed at any time after the infliction of a wound or injury, but may only be used once per wound or injury. Surgery requires both a successful dexterity roll (plus skill bonus) and a successful intelligence roll (plus skill bonus). Successful surgery restores 1-4 hit points, but inflicts 1-4 damage if either ability roll is a natural 1.

Scholar

A scholar has spent time at a university studying the liberal arts. A scholar can find work as an instructor or tutor, regardless of whether he has obtained a degree.

Ancient Languages: A scholar knows one to three ancient languages of the player’s choice. It is up to the player how many languages his character knows, but they count against the maximum number he can learn based on intelligence. Knowing ancient languages is useful for interpreting inscriptions and magical texts.

Ancient Human Languages Table

#	Language	Currently Used By	Originally Used By	Analogue
1	Demotic	Clerics and magic-users	Pantarchy—commoners	Latin
2	Hieratic	Clerics and magic-users	Pantarchy—scholars	Greek
3	Old Terran	Magic-users and sages	Galactic Empire	Indo-European
4	Old Valish	Magic-users and sages	Ancient Val	Old English

Scholarship: A scholar is familiar with the main traditional areas of learning: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. A scholar also has some familiarity with philosophy, theology, and other areas of learning. A scholar knows where to find libraries and how to use them effectively for research. Libraries, however, are few, small, and privately held, whether by abbeys, cathedrals, colleges, or nobles, so it generally takes some convincing (or sneaking) in order to gain access.