Secondary Skills: A Chandler's Gotta Eat!

Note: If you want a PDF copy head to my Downloads page or directly from DropBox.

Secondary skills within earlier editions of Dungeons & Dragons and their more recent retro-clones are a commonly debated inclusion. While many who implement such systems use these ‘skills’ merely as a role-playing device, or to flesh out their character to a greater extent, I would suggest considering a system whereby these professionals are benefitted in some small way.

I: Earning Some Coin

The two tables below may be used in times of non-adventuring when adventurers wish to earn some extra coin. First, determine the character’s background or secondary skill (pg. 12 AD&D DMG). Next, roll on Table I: Locating Paid Work. In my campaigns I would roll on Table I for each week paid work is sought. This presumes the adventure is located within a substantially sized town or city. But you, fellow DM, may change this period to a daily rate or even a monthly rate depending on the value of coinage in your campaign.

Table I: Locating Paid Work (Roll 1d6)

D6 Result	Outcome
1	Failed to locate work
2-3	Located minimal paid work (roll once on Table II)
4-5	Located consistent paid work (roll twice on Table II)
6	Located ample paid work (roll thrice on Table II)

When it has been determined whether work has been located, and if so, how much work, roll on Table II: Earnings. Some results from Table I will necessitate multiple rolls on Table II. If so tally the results to determine the total earnings for that week.

Table II: Earnings (Roll 1d6)

D6 Result	Outcome
1	Earned a wage of 1d4+2 copper pieces
2-3	Earned a wage of 1d8+2 silver pieces
4-5	Earned a wage of 1d4+2 gold pieces
6	Earned a wage of 1d8+2 gold pieces

Example:

Tuscott Irontooth has a background as a carpenter. He seeks work for two weeks between adventures. The DM (or optionally the player) rolls 1d6 per week on Table I. The result is 1 and 5. Consulting Table I, Tuscott fails to find work on the first week, but on the second locates some ‘consistent paid work’. Rolling twice on Table II, he earns a total of 4 gold pieces and 6 silver pieces. Tuscott then remembers why he took up adventuring in the first place: carpentry is not as lucrative as adventuring! Thereafter he locates another dungeon to plunder.

II: ‘I Am After All, Skilled’

Some professions such as a trader, a locksmith or a gambler may infer benefits within an adventuring context. The DM may wish to afford a small modifier to certain tasks based on the character’s profession. For example a trader may add an additional +1 modifier to reaction rolls based on his cheery disposition and experience when dealing with humans, a locksmith may possess additional skill with bypassing non-magical locks, while a chandler will be able to make candles rather than pay for them.

In these ways secondary skills provide some minor mechanical benefits, while retaining the broad role-playing possibilities traditionally associated with these ‘skills’. For those who wish a more granular system, everything herein can be modified to suit one’s personal sensitivities.

Yoon-Suin - The Purple Land By David McGrogan

Author: David McGrogan
Price: $20.66 (Lulu Print on Demand)
Format: Print
Page count: 327
System: Noism Games (OSR/OGL)
Year: 2015

After reading +Venger Satanis' interview with author +David McGrogan and reading his rather thorough review of Yoon-Suin this book sparked my interest. I'm a sucker for vibrant covers, and eclectic settings. This book is suggestive of those things and more.

The Good
This book is comprehensive. There is no denying the nigh-startling effort that would have been required to write, compile and lay out a book of this magnitude. That it was completed by virtually a one-man operation I am truly humbled by the enormity of the task. Having written my own materials and knowing the weeks, that turn into months, that turn into years when these types of projects are concerned, I can only applaud McGrogan in his efforts. Unusually, Yoon-Suin is printed and presented in Landscape format. As I understand,the rationale for this was the copious amounts of tables within the book looked better with a wider page. It makes sense, and adds a point of difference. The text is a very readable font size - I'd hazard a guess of around 12 point- with the interior being completely black & white. The illustrations are whimsical (I'm beginning to hate using that word due to its overuse amongst Instagram and Pinterest users thinking their weedy wild flowers gathered from an abandoned lot and put inside a mass-produced vase, or the summer's dress they bought from Amazon, and thereafter took a photo of while on a picnic using a fishing rod as a prop, in some attempt to be 'artsy', constitutes whimsy. I'm sorry, but please...stop or you'll permanently ruin the word for everyone literate)...wait...where was I? Oh yes. The artwork is whimsical in a weird, fantastic, unusual kind of way. It's cool, while at times verging on creepy. It's very mood-invoking. It fits perfectly.

Here's an example:

I enjoy the presentation of the the illustration maps which look like this:

Contrastingly, I was not enthralled with the various hex maps that appear thus:

Beginning with an introduction from the perspective of philosopher and poet Laxmi Ghuptra Dahl, a visitor to the Yellow City - the biggest city within Yoon-Suin - the book describes the world and setting for the reader. The writing is from a third person perspective, but the author (Laxmi) refers to himself as 'the humble author'. From this fictional introduction the true author - McGrogan - introduces the inspiration and purpose of the book, citing his inspiration gained from various TSR settings 'of old'. It is not far-fetched to say this work is more ambitious than even those worlds presented, both in scope and practicality. While many settings read as travelogues, Yoon-Suin begs participation. Myriad tables remove any excuse on the part of the lethargic DM avoiding practical use of this setting; there are literally no excuses! New monsters, and new takes on old monsters within Yoon-Suin are immensely compatible with any pre-2000 edition of D&D, and all (?) of the recent retro-clones and evolved systems drawing on classic D&D as their forebear. The 'fluff' or even the bulk is pretty systemless, rendering compatibility with 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of D&D too. Speaking of which, surprisingly a copy of the OGL has been copied into the back of this book, though the book contains such a level of departure from anything now associated with 'official' D&D that I was rather perplexed. Perhaps it's simply a legal inclusion to cover one's proverbial ass. Anyway, I digress again. 

There appear to be four dominant adventuring races within Yoon-Suin. At the upper echelons of the Yellow City society the Slug-man holds dominance, seekers of knowledge and occult disciplines. Humans are socially ranked beneath these creatures. Below the humans are the pathetic Crab-men, unable to speak, though rather fearsome in combat. There are dwarfs too. The Crab-men is detailed as a distinct class, very reminiscent of the OD&D or D&D Basic format. A big monster section follows with delightful inclusions like the Yak-man, Preta or Mountain Witch. All of these I will attempt to include in my games. The author has taken the liberty of describing potential points of interest within hex sites across Yoon-Suin, assisting the DM in including this material in their existing (or standalone) campaigns. These are interesting and considered. Besides the core components of the book thus far described, there are dozens, I mean DOZENS of random tables. Random tables within RPG products can be hit-or-miss, but the detailing of adventure hooks, NPC generation ideas, organisations and location features either made me smile, think to myself 'NICE!', or involuntarily make my way to my cupboard to retrieve some dice. I had to shake myself: 'What are you doing Corey?' Generally speaking the tables are easy to use, though there are a few tables that require a d30. I'm confident I could make my own d30 using existing dice, but on a practical level, this may be an issue for some. I'm a pick-what-I-want kind of a guy when it comes to tables, so there's nothing stopping you doing that either. Again, I was blown away with the amount of work and creativity that went into the creation of the content. There are some serious ideas within this. More importantly I began imagining my current campaign in this location, thinking to myself 'how the hell am I going to get the players here?'

The Bad
Despite my overall satisfaction with this product I do have some niggles that sufficiently bothered me. The layout, although technically okay, was rather uninspired and drab, especially considering the vibrancy of the setting. The paper feels a little cheap, and is very representative of Lulu paperback quality. I would have gladly paid more money for a higher production value. The tables don't look bad in black and white, but they would have looked a great deal better had they been printed in colour, on higher grade paper, and with some graphic design. I did not like the hex maps much either, appearing to have been made in Hexographer. The greyscale again, did not do favours to the mapping presentation, forfeiting clarity for lowered cost. I would have preferred something hand drawn to match the overall aesthetic of the other artwork. The cover promises a vibrance that is visually lacking overall. The cover is 100% awesome, and perhaps that's why I feel slightly disappointed by the interior. 

I would LOVE to see another edition of this. +James Raggi if you're on the lookout for another setting or book I think this work would fit the Lamentations of the Flame Princess aesthetic brilliantly. I would gladly shell out more money for such a product.

As far as content is concerned, I can scarcely quibble.

Let me remind the reader that the price is very reasonable as it is print-on-demand via Lulu. It was definitely on the inexpensive end as far as price tag and shipping costs go. 

Final Thoughts
David McGrogan offers the reader a wealth of content with his Yoon-Suin - The Purple Land. It is inexpensive, not at all commensurate with the painstaking hours he must have poured into this work readying it for its published state. The work is bold and ambitious. If  you are looking for a setting unorthodox, albeit approachable, I would highly recommend this. The tables and adventure hooks, interesting NPC ideas and location features are in themselves enough to warrant purchase. You could insert the crab-man class in any existing OD&D, Basic D&D, Labyrinth Lord, or Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign with no trouble, and minimal conversion. For the 5th edition nuts, a campaign set here would fit perfectly. 

As mentioned above I would have preferred a higher production value, but there is nothing preventing a revision of this volume. I enjoy the interior artwork (besides the hex maps) and the cover illustration is gorgeous. I need more time to digest this again in its entirety, but there is enough herein to impress even the most frugal of consumers. 

For more information check out the author's blog.

Give a man a monster, and he'll game for one day; teach a man to create a monster, and he shall game forever.

My facetious take on an old proverb may be irreverent but it's true. I have in my collection tomes upon tomes, filled with monsters. My collection begins with the monsters presented in the 3 little brown booklets of Original Dungeons & Dragons. Add in the supplements like Greyhawk and Blackmooor and it's beginning to feel like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. But why stop there? There is the Basic and Expert box set by Tom Moldvay and David Cook. There are real some goodies within, and of course we must not forget the aforementioned AD&D monster manuals. For good measure I also have the OSRIC rulebook and the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea box set (both being representative of the content emerging from the OSR). Both of these present unique monsters, drawn from fandom or from the pages of Lovecraftian et al, tales. The 2nd edition Monstrous Manual sits next to them on my shelf, and again, is filled with a menagerie of options. I gave away my 3rd edition books some time ago, but again, we have similar monsters represented therein, and some different. I skipped 4th edition entirely, so cannot comment on that. Finally my 5th edition Monster Manual contains some of the classics we've all grown to love. I could throw in the adventures and other supplements I own: boxsets, modules, and my recently acquired Lamentations of the Flame Princess products (Carcosa, Isle of the Unknown, A Red & Pleasant Land). At this point you may be begging me to stop; and I shall.

These are all resources at my disposal, yet I'm inevitably drawn to my own imaginings when it comes to the various underworld (or wilderness) horrors appearing in my games. Don't get me wrong, I liberally borrow from the manuals I own, but when constructing my campaigns my position is always 'flavour first'. In many respects the system one plays is irrelevant, so long as it works for those at the table. The Internet is proof there is no definitive answer as to which system is inherently 'better'. Forums, blogs, websites, videos, and so on, are filled with nerd-raged fans proselytising the virtues of their edition of choice. At least it cannot be said of this subculture that we are passionless people. So play whatever you want, and be sure to have fun. The issue remains however, if whatever is being run is not working for you in your role as the DM. Nearly two years ago I started writing a Pathfinder campaign (which has concluded recently). My biggest frustration with that particular system was that it took so damn long to stat everything out. It interrupted my workflow and creativity. 'I would continue writing, but I need to work out NPC X's skill distribution'. Yeah. Not fun. Inevitably too, the flavour of the game was imposed by the ruleset I was using: I wanted a low magic, and somewhat underpowered campaign, yet mechanically and aesthetically this was a real stumbling block. In my opinion I ultimately failed in my mission, but you'd have to ask my players their opinion on the matter. Sure we had a good time, but it wasn't quite what I was attempting to achieve. The system got in the way.

The draw of simpler systems, whereby one can compose a stat block within 5 minutes has some real appeal in comparison. I can conceive of a monster, think 'damn that's awesome', and have it on paper within a very short duration. I can then continue my debased preparations, cackling occasionally as I scheme of the various horrors soon to be assailing my adventurers. Dungeons & Dragons from the outset, it seems to me, has always been about creativity and freedom. Creativity to conceive fantasy worlds of one's own devising, and to inhabit it with people and creatures. Imagine fiefdoms and baronies, or a race of alien overlords who enslave humanity for their own unknowable agendas. The geography is up for negotiation. Want a mountain here? Sure. This is a cave inhabited by men who farm giant worms? Sure. Even the physics and laws we must obey on Earth can be bypassed, manipulated or even ignored. Planets exist only as they're needed, or a campaign can exist purely within a flat-earth concept. Magic enables planar travel, invisibility and ultra-healing where in our world we say 'impossible!' The freedom within D&D, comes from exploring these worlds. A bank teller, an IT expert, a CEO and a taxi driver can set aside their 'mundane' identities for a few hours and be something they never were/are in reality, yet somehow represents them in an uncanny way.

Which brings me back to where we started: our rulebooks, our supplements, the products we purchase and the dice we use should be subservient to us. They are there to inspire, to motivate and enable our games as we envision them. They are not there to become a burden or a blockage to what we are trying to achieve. TSR's slogan used to be 'Products of your Imagination'. In other words, the system should disappear into the background, as your imagination gives birth to, and takes precedence over, your collective gaming experiences.

So go... Find a system that is effective in design and implementation, and enabling of the flexibility you need. Imagine those monsters, create those worlds, and you too shall game forever young grasshopper.