9. Bibliografia
9.3 Revistes
For many first-time referees the prospect of running a wilderness adventure can seem quite daunting. The question arises: how can the actions and destinations of a group of player characters be catered for when they can go absolutely anywhere? The answer is fairly simple. Although characters can wander about the wilderness in any direction, the basic building blocks of the adventure, such as a haunted cave, a
magical tree, a village or lost city, are all specific locations at specific sites.
Wandering through empty wilderness simply encountering random beasts and overcoming random hazards does not an adventure make. As with the creation of any adventure, the referee is best advised to skilfully blend several exciting story elements, interesting NPCs and interesting wilderness locations. Travel through and across the wilderness to reach these locations and achieve the goals of the adventure brings an extra dimension, since most wilderness terrains will contain a host of challenging wildlife and natural hazards.
Now - while searching for the lost city amidst the sand dunes of the Desert of Lost Souls the characters can try to seek shelter from a terrible sand storm. The concept in mind (for example the search for a lost city), the referee then needs to plan his wilderness adventure using four basic steps:
1) Selecting a suitable region or land within which to set the story. We have already selected Desert of Lost Souls.
2) Select a number of adventure locations within which the story takes place .We have the lost city, the snake-filled caves with the tunnels that might lead to the now buried city, an oasis and the desert village from where the expedition began.
3) Map and flesh-out with descriptions these adventure locations and any NPCs or groups that may be encountered as part of the story.
4) Consider the terrain in that region of the world and decide what types of hazard the characters are likely to face as they travel from one location to another. In the deep desert we have plenty of hazards, from sand-storms to thirst, heat-stroke to scorpions. The referee can usually select hazards as he sees fit (as already mentioned), or he can roll randomly for them each day of travel in the more traditional manner.
1 - CHOOSE A REGION
Often a referee will not need to select a region, as the characters will already be there and just happen to stumble onto the new story-line. At other times the referee may be able to plan ahead and select a new and interesting location for an adventure. There are vast, dark forests in the north beyond the mountains where clearings are sometimes a day’s walk apart. In the north-east beyond Cimmeria the land is flat and endless, a steppe-land of grass and rolling hills inhabited by fierce tribes of Goths and Sarmatians. The Taurus mountains are almost impassable, lofty, snow-covered peaks clad in pine forest and treacherous slopes of boulders, scree and ancient volcanic rubble. There are many areas to choose from.
2 - CHOOSE SOME EXCITING LOCATIONS
There are an almost limitless number of possible adventure locations that could be used in a wilderness setting. The list that follows is not, therefore exhaustive.
Use your imagination! Some of these locations are natural features, some are human settlements, others are types of labyrinths suitable for wilderness adventures. Labyrinths used as a wilder-ness location combine two adventure settings in one.
3 - MAP & DESCRIBE
This part of the process is just like detailing a labyrinth as described above.
Note that some form of local or regional map will also be required to show the immediate environment around the locations. The referee may indeed make two maps, one for his own use with secret areas and surprises marked on, the other relatively innocuous for the players’ consumption. Maps can reflect the primitive state of cartography of the day and never be anything more than simple sketch-maps. Refrain from using sophisticated art software, graph paper or other modern map-making tools.
Keep things simple and atmospheric.
Fort Watchtower
Military Camp Caves
Village or Farmstead Ruined Settlement
Temple Underground Tunnels/Mines
Villa Estate Inn
Shrine Ancient Relic (Standing stone obelisk etc) Narrow Gorge or Mountain pass Lighthouse
Tomb or Cemetery Bridge
Trading Camp Nomadic Camp
Hollow Tree Oracle or Hermit
Oasis Waterfall
Ferry Secret Grove
Island Bandit’s Lair
Tanglewood/Natural Maze Swamp Valley
4 - CONSIDER TERRAIN & ITS HAZARDS
Select a terrain that best fits the story. In ZENOBIA we classify the world of the Desert Kingdoms into seven broad terrain categories.
• Cultivated Land - Farmland and pasture intermittently cut by lanes, walls and ditches.
• Marsh - Lakes and flooded plains full of reed beds and scattered islands of firm ground.
• Mountain - High mountain slopes, peaks and valleys as well as hills and vales.
• River - Any channel of water that cannot be safely waded, includes lakes.
• Sand Sea - Dune-fields that stretch out to the horizon like a sea of sand.
• Steppe - Dry grassland, scrubland and rolling steppe with few trees.
• Stony Desert - Gravel strewn desert with cliffs, wadis and rocky outcrops.
One terrain usually blurs imperceptibly with another (such as steppe-land becoming stony desert). In some instances, such as the Nile valley, there
is a distinct change from one terrain type to another (in the case of the Nile from cultivated land to stony desert).
More common is a region that displays two types of terrain together - mountains in the desert, for example, or a patch of marsh in a grassland. In such cases the referee uses the slowest travel rates of the two, but is free to pick wild animals and hazards from either terrain description (within reason). The river terrain is an exception to both of these rules, see the River section that follows.
Travel rates are included in the section called Travel in the chapter called Resolving Actions.
Details of how to carry out random rolls for the selection of suitable hazards are included with each terrain type, but the referee is encouraged to select a few himself rather than rely on the whim of the dice. This means that he can weave the encounters into the fabric of the game’s plot if needed. In each case, roll 1 d6 and compare the result to the range of numbers given for each terrain type, to see if an encounter takes place. If this first roll is within this range, then roll 2 d6 on the chart provided to see what the encounter is.
Cultivated Land
Around the cities and towns is the cultivated land, the farmland, orchards, vineyards, olive groves and pasturage that forms the life blood of any settlement. Dotted throughout the land are villages and farmsteads, and separating the farmland are low hills, scattered woods, and barren rough land, etc. Cultivated Land is where the majority of the people of the ZENOBIA live. The hazards to be encountered in such a terrain will be almost wholly human, with a small chance of creatures.
Roll 4-6 on 1d twice each day 2 Rainstorm
3 Bandits (2-12) 4-5 Residents at work
6 Legionnaries on patrol (4-24) 7 Merchant caravan (5-35) 8 Religious procession
9 Adventurers/Mercenaries (2-7)
10 Local noble with entourage hunting or travelling 11 Villagers seeking help
12 Monster. Roll 1d: 1 Jackal
2 Snake or Scorpion 3 Lion
4 Boar
5 Wolf 6 Centaur
Marsh
Most marshes are formed by great rivers that flow so sluggishly they create reed-choked wetlands, swamps and marshland which are often inter-cut by waterways and streams, lakes and muddy flats. The greatest marshes include the Nile delta, where the Nile river branches into many tributaries and streams before it reaches the Middle Sea, and the Sealand, that morass of waterways which marks the boundary between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and the sea. Marshes are home to abundant wildlife and to many different kinds of people, some legitimate, but others may be exiles and rebels hiding amongst the waterways and reed islands.
Roll 5-6 on 1d twice each day 2 Rainstorm and local flooding 3 Ship or river barge passing through 4-5 Bandits (2-12)
6 Rebels, refugees or escaped prisoners/slaves (3-18) 7 Residents at work fishing or reed cutting
8 Tall grass - reduces visibility, and speed by half 9 Adventurers/Mercenaries (2-7)
10 Local noble with entourage hunting wildfowl or other game
11 Quicksand - Characters sinking fast! MIGHT points of 2d will pull them out.
12 Monster. Roll 1d: 1 Giant Snake
2 Snake (or Crocodile if in the Nile) 3 Hydra
4 Antelope
5 Stymphalian Birds (1-6) 6 Weret-hekau
Mountain
Mountain terrain is an amalgam of very rough rocky terrain as well as high plateau and traditional forest-clad mountains. There are many mountain ranges in ZENOBIA, from the Zagros to the Sinai, the Lebanese to the Taurus. Travel through these rocky ranges is often by narrow and winding donkey paths. Few people live at these altitudes, there is little land to farm and almost no grazing land for sheep.
Roll 5-6 on 1d twice each day.
2 Hermit/Magician
3 Caves
4 Rockfall 5 Bandits (2-12)
6 Crevasse or sharp cliff - impassable, requiring long detour 7 Waterfall
8 Rainstorm (may be blizzard in winter) 9 Mountain Shepherds (2-7)
10-12 Monster. Roll 2d: 2-4 Griffin 5 Manticore 6 Wind Child 7 Harpy 8 Goats (2-12) 9 Wolves (2-7) 10 Lion
11 Cyclopes 12 Zu Bird
River
The great civilisations of the Desert Kingdoms were formed around great rivers, such as the Nile, Indus, Tigris and Euphrates. They still provide a method of transportation and a living for the lightermen who handle the barges and riverboats. This terrain feature assumes that a river or lake is too deep to be waded or easily swum. In other words it is a fairly substantial body of water. Travel through this terrain assumes use of a boat or barge.
Roll 4-6 on 1d twice each day.
2 Sandbar or ford
3 Rainstorm and local flooding
4 Tall grass - reduces visibility to the bank 5 Bandits (2-12)
6 Residents at work fishing, trapping, washing, hauling water etc.
7 Local boats, fishing or carrying goods to market (1-3) 8 Ship or river barge passing through
9 Current - Unexpected current pulls vessel into bank 10-12 Monster. Roll 1d: 1-2 Giant Snake
3 Snake
4 Crocodile (if in the Nile) 5-6 Merman
Sand Sea
The featureless terrain of the sand sea has few hazards other than those posed by temperature and lack of water and shade. But there are some. The main areas of Sand Sea are the vast dune ‘oceans’ of the Desert of Lost Souls and the ghostly Whispering Desert.
Roll 6 on 1d once each day.
2 Mirage - See water shimmering on the horizon- is it real or not?
3 Singing Sand - ‘hollow’ sand sings and thumps when trodden on out to 1-6 km.
4 Quicksand - Characters sinking fast! MIGHT points of 2d will pull them out.
5 Very Soft sand - slow progress by one half.
6 Saracen nomad clan (6-36) on camels
8 Sandstorm - All travel and work is halted for one day.
9 Previous campsite
10 Semi-buried structure of ancient origin 11-12 Monster. Roll 2d: 2-4 Giant Scarab
5 Jackals (1-6)
6 Snake or Scorpion (especially at night!) 7 Scorpion Men (1-6)
8-9 Goatmen 10 Ghuls 11-12 Manticore
Steppe
Steppeland is flat and semi-arid, covered with dry grasses, scrub and undulating hills and slopes. It borders hot desert, and rocky terrain can still be found in the steppe.
Likewise it also borders cultivated land and the steppe may in places support woods and dry meadows. Water is difficult to find in the hot summer months.
Roll 6 on 1d twice each day.
2 Soldiers on patrol or on the march (6-36) 3 Grass fire
4 Nomad graves and holy site 5 Saracen raiders (4-24) 6 Merchant caravan (5-35)
7 Tall grass - reduces visibility, and speed by half 8 Saracen clan (20-120)
9 Previous campsite 10 Hermit or outcast
11-12 Monster. Roll 1d: 1 Jackals (1-6) 2 Centaur (1-3) 3 Lion
4 Antelope (1-6) 5 Manticore 6 Lion Men (2-7)
Stony Desert
This desert terrain encompasses flat featureless wastes, dry gullies and hills, stony flatlands and rock outcrops. Most desert areas are like this, but most especially the black volcanic rock deserts near Damascus. These deserts occasionally see rainfall in sudden winter downpours, which gradually erode the rock into channels and canyons and often gravel washes out onto outwash plains many kilometres distant, sometimes to later evaporate and form salt flats. Because water often lies deep below the surface, humans can travel here. There are a few hazards posed by the stony desert.
Roll 6 on 1d twice each day.
2 Flashflood - Rain many km distant causes local flooding in canyons and wadi!
3 Salt lake or salt flat (latter can cause blindness in strong wind) 4 Soldiers on patrol (5-30)
5 Merchant caravan (5-30) 6 Saracen raiders or clan (5-30) 8 Conspicuous rock feature
9 Waterhole and abandoned campsite 10 Boulder field - slow progress by one half.
11-12 Monster. Roll 2d: 2-3 Giant Scarab 4 Snake Men (1-6) 5 Jackals (1-6) 6 Lion
7 Scorpion Men (1-6) 8 Snake or Scorpion 9 Manticore
10 Antelope 11-12 Goatmen