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Primordial Age

This age represents the aeons before any of the sapient races or the corrupting touch of chaos walk the earth; it is an age before time. Across the seemingly infinite years, and through incredible feats of godly power, the divine will of the gods shapes the land, giving it forests, mountains, water, and much more. This is your own personal Genesis. The world now appears as an infinite meadow, with little or no features to speak of. To begin sculpting the surface of your world, roll 1d6 and consult the table below. This will reveal which kind of feature will grace the surface next. After this, roll 2d12 to find out the where to locate the starting hex. Once you have designated the location of the first hex, roll 2d6. The result of this roll will tell you exactly how many hexes of this feature to draw. Now look at the starting hex you just created. Around it you will see six other hexes. Roll 1d6 and starting with the hex above the first you located, and counting clockwise, locate the next hex depending on the result of the die. Then roll another d6, and using the last hex you drew on as the reference point, locate and fill the hex with the appropriate terrain. Keep doing this until you reach the number of hexes designated by the 2d6 roll. There is an example right after the tables to show you how this process works. Congratulations! You have just created a natural feature that will stand as a testament of your power through the ages. Repeat this process until you consider the map is finished, and then go to the Precursors Age, to find out who inhabited the land first. A few tips before you start wielding your godly powers, though. If you find that the result of a die roll ruins your map (for example, if you created a valley, with a river and a little forest nearby, and really liked how the location turned out, and then get a mountain result right on top of it, that destroys everything to create a boring wall of rock), just ignore the location result and repeat the 2d12 roll to get a new location, or re-roll the whole thing. It is worth noting, however, that although sometimes the dice show confusing results at first, they usually create things you would otherwise not have thought of (or wouldn’t have dared to do!), so give the dice a chance from time to time. Each feature has a special rule or two explained in their descriptions.

1 Forest

2 Hills

3 Mountains (1-5: surrounded with Hills, 6: no Hills)

4 Marsh

5 Water (1-4: River, 5-6: Lake or Sea)

6 Pick One

Forest: Gnarled woods, twisted trees, branches that get in the way of travellers, roots that seem to move to make the unwary trip and fall, lair of giant spiders and hungry lizards the size of horses; or mysterious pine forests, home of were creatures, druids, and dangerous fey, more than willing to slit the throat of anyone who dares to step into their sacred groves and fountains. In its most basic form,

this terrain represents just a lot of trees, one next to another, living happy and long tree lives (until someone chops them down, at least). If you get a Forest result that overlaps with another Forest, this creates a really Dense Forest hex: adventuring parties will, most often than not, avoid this hexes, for it is way to easy to get lost in them, and, from time to time this places spawn the worst kind of forest-dwelling creatures chaos can summon. If you get a Forest result that overlaps with Hills, you get a Forested Hills result instead (these don’t have any special rules, they just look pretty). Forests don’t overlap on Mountain hexes, so ignore it and re-roll if this happens. If you get a Forest result that overlaps with Marshes, you get a Mangrove hex. Mangroves look like a regular Marsh, but with lots of water resistant trees with really weird roots. Forests that overlap with a River result don’t create a special hex, this just means that the River runs through the forest. Forests can’t overlap on Lake or Sea hexes, so ignore it and re-roll if this happens. Hills: Beautiful rolling hills, crowned with tress filled with chirping birds and squirrels while the sun sets behind them. Looks like a great place to make camp, if it weren’t for the goblin warren beneath that one, or the cursed tombs that occupy the earth beneath that one, the one with the really weird looking stones standing over it. These mounds of dirt and stone used to be proud mountains, back when the earth was young, or are going to be, sometime in the not-so-near future. These places are favoured by those who want to keep an eye on the surrounding terrain, and sometimes they are the preferred choice of those that want to build underground catacombs for their nobles or heroes. If a Hills result overlaps with a Forest result, you get a Forested Hills result instead. If a Hills result overlaps with another Hill result, nothing particularly interesting happens, just re-roll. Hills don’t overlap with Mountains hexes, so ignore it and re-roll if this happens. If you get Hill result that overlaps with a Marsh result, the Hill replaces the Marsh in that particular hex; it doesn’t create a new kind of terrain. If you get a Hill result that overlaps with a River result, erase the river in that hex (the water goes under it and comes out of it in another place) or erase it in that hex and give the river a logical

course. If you get a Hill result that overlaps with a Lake or Sea result, draw a Plains Hex instead. Mountains: The mere sight of these mighty walls of stone, its peaks glowing with snow and ice, and with powerful winds soaring around them, makes the proudest and most battle-hardened warrior of the realm feel humble and weak, and the most powerful wizards feel mortal and ephemeral. Under its roots lie hidden the entrances to the Underworld, ripe with unspeakable monstrosities ready to plunder the surface, and the Dwarves worked (or used to, depending on how greedy they become and how deep they dig) the stone and the minerals the earth shares with them. All in all, mountains simply rock.

If a Mountain result overlaps with a Forest result, replace the Forest hex with a Mountain hex. If a Mountain result overlaps with a Hills result, replace the Hill hex with a Mountain hex. If a Mountain result overlaps with another Mountain result, you get an Impassable Mountains hex instead. This particular mountain range is impossible to go through, and its terrain its way to inclined to build anything over it (though Dwarves and other creatures more attuned with stone can build beneath it). If a Mountain result overlaps with a Marsh result, replace the Marsh hex with a Mountain hex. If a Mountain result overlaps with a River result, erase the river in that hex (the water goes under the mountains and comes out of them in another place) or erase it in that hex and give the river a logical course. If you get a Mountain result that overlaps with a Lake or Sea result, draw a Hills Hex instead. Mountains ranges usually have Hills around them. Whenever you get a Mountain result, roll another d6 to find out if there are Hills around them. Draw all around

the range, replacing any other hex as if you were placing Hills (e.g., a Forest hex turns into a Forested Hills hex, etc). Marsh: For the uneducated eye, these places might look putrid and lifeless, but druids know better. Marshes are filled with life forms of the toughest kind. If there is a place where “survival of the fittest” is a valid saying, it’s in the humid, bubbling, misty, and ominous dominions of the Marsh. Home to lethal beasts like giant turtles, monstrous crocodiles, the savage lizard men, and the seemingly undying trolls. This is also the kingdom of the vile black dragon. All adventurers thread carefully, lest they want their rotting corpses to be an addition to the ecosystem. If you get a Marsh Result that overlaps with a Forest result, you get a Mangrove result instead. If you get a Marsh result that overlaps with a Hills result, replace that hex with a Marsh hex; it doesn’t create a new kind of terrain. If you get a Marsh result that overlaps with a Mountains result, nothing happens, reroll until you get a different result. If you get a Marsh result that overlaps with another Marsh result, you get a Death Swamp hex instead. Only the truly stupid dare to traverse a Death Swamp, as its ghostly lights and inhabitants, worthy of the nightmares of a crazy man, make the incredibly exhausting and confusing landscape an impossible foe to beat by mortal means. You might have the strongest armor in the realm, but it will be of no use when eight tentacles four times your size drag you down to drown you, as a reward for being such a “brave” traveller (colorful prose aside, Death Swamps work just like Dense Forests or Impassable Mountains: they can’t be travelled through, and they can spawn really nasty creatures from time to time). If you get a Marsh result that overlaps with a River result, erase the river from that point onward: the river feeds the Marsh and dies right there. If you get a Marsh result

that overlaps with a Sea result, replace the Sea hex with a Marsh hex. Water: The building block of life. Without water there would be no trees for the elves, beer for the dwarves or “pipe weed” (whatever that is) for those lazy halflings. Waters with some depth can be the home of some curious monsters, like the mermen, tritons, the fierce krakens, and other creatures forgotten even by the gods themselves. The realm beneath the waves is one

forbidden to the world of the surface, and the

earth-dwelling creatures better pray that is the same the other way around. River: Rivers are usually born in Mountain or Hill hexes. When rolling 2d12 for location, consider choosing the nearest Mountain or Hill range and beginning the river there, however, if

you really want to, you can begin your river in any hex (sometimes water just springs out of the earth). You can choose to roll for the length of the river (2d6, as usual. This means the river runs strong for some time and then, for some reason or another, becomes weaker and weaker until people don’t even bother mapping it anymore), or you can choose to keep rolling until the river gets to a Marsh, a Death Swamp, another River, or a Sea or Lake hex. When rolling to find out in which direction the river goes, treat your d6 as a d3 (1-2: 1, 3-4: 2, 5-6: 3) and only choose the three hexes right in front of the direction the river is currently going (at its birth point, rivers usually go downhill, that is, away from its source, whether they are mountains, hills, or just a hole in the ground). This way, the river will usually go “forward”. Repeat this process until the river is finished. If, for some reason, your river chooses to pick a really stupid course, re-roll for its direction from the beginning. Rivers can only be crossed by low level parties in some points. For every three hexes the river runs strong, there is one point in which it can be crossed. Randomly

determine in which hexes this fords and bridges are (e.g., if the river runs through 12 hexes, roll 1d12 four times, if it runs through 5 hexes, roll 1d6 and re-roll if you get a 6, etc). Lake or Sea: These two are not different in-game, mechanics wise; they are basically a big no-no for travelling parties, just like Impassable Mountains or Dense Forests. You can assume that any body of water of at least five or six hexes that at some point leaves the map is a Sea, anything smaller than or that doesn’t leave the map is just a Lake. If you get a Lake or Sea result that overlaps with a Forest result, replace the Forest hex with a Sea or Lake hex. If you get a Lake or Sea result that overlaps with a Hills result, replace the Hills hex with a Plain hex. If you get a Lake or Sea result that overlaps with a Mountains result, replace the Mountains hex with a Hills hex. If you get a Lake or Sea result that overlaps with a Marsh

result, replace the Marsh hex with a Lake or Sea hex. If a Lake or Sea result overlaps with another Lake or Sea result, nothing particularly interesting happens, just re-roll. Plains: Beautiful meadows, ready to become the granary of the kingdom, or the harsh but rich steppes for horse riding cultures, this terrain is the preferred spot for humans to settle, especially when they want to build big, walled cities. You surely noticed that there are no Plains results in the main Primordial Table. That is because generating Plains is plain (yes, you just read that) boring. Besides, the map begins as an endless plain, so any hex not filled by another type of terrain by the end of this age is considered a Plain hex.

Primordial Age Example

So, we have a barren wasteland, filled with lots of nothing. With a roaring thunder the gods start throwing water and rocks and seeds into the world, in the hopes of creating something that mortals might find awe inspiring. We start by rolling 1d6 in the Primordial Table to find out what we are creating first. We get a 2. This means Hills. All right, now we roll 2d12 to determine the location of the initial hex, and we get 5 and 2. We place our hills were the dice gods dictated, and now we have to roll 2d6 to find out how many Hill hexes we are going to draw, and we get 3 and 3, for a total of 6.

Now to the tricky part: we need to imagine that every hex around that first Hill hex has a number that goes from 1 to 6, starting with the one above the Hill hex and counting clockwise. Now we roll 1d6 to find out where to draw our second Hill hex, and the die shows a 2. This means we will now fill that hex (the one that is north-east of our first hex) with Hills and now use this hex as a reference point for the next, as seen in the image. Note that in this case, as we are placing Hills and these don’t overlap with other Hills, if we get a 5 now we need to re-roll until we get something else. We have to repeat the same process until we have placed a total of 6 Hill hexes. Once the hills are forged and firmly set into the ground of our land, we roll again in the Primordial Table to add a new feature to our barren earth. We get a 5, this means Water. We have to roll again to determine if it is a River or a Lake/Sea. A result of 6 tells us this is going to be a Lake or a Sea. We now roll 2d12 to determine its location. 2 and 10, yell the dice gods, so be it! We need the size of this body of water now. 2d6 gives us a total of 8 hexes. We now proceed to place each individual hex following the guides stated previously. That is one weird looking lake! I’m tempted to reroll for its shape, but we will leave it like this for the time being and see where the dice get us later on. We repeat the whole process again, and the final result is a Marsh, right in the middle of the map. Let’s see if we can get it to overlap with the hills or the lake. Well, as you can see in the second image in this page, the swamp ate a lot of that lake, but left a smaller lake intact in the south. Note that, as Marshes don’t combine in a new hex with the Lake/Sea terrain, the Marsh just replaced the Lake in the places where they overlapped.

After this, we would need to keep rolling until we are satisfied with the results. This might take you a couple more rolls, maybe three, twenty, or forty, it depends on when you think the map looks cool. When this happens, jump to the next age, the Precursors Age. A couple of hints before you move on, though. You surely noticed that this way of randomly generating terrain is kind of like painting with the broad, wild strokes of a brush: some forests here, a big hilly region over there, a river that goes along the border of this mountain range in this corner, and some small swamps scattered all over the map. Sometimes the paint will mix and you will get a combined terrain. Sometimes it won’t. Sometimes you will get an elegant, beautiful piece, like a Monet. Sometimes you will get a Pollock. None of them are wrong. You could theoretically play this game without generating any terrain, just using an infinite meadow as the setting, or play it with what it would look like a total mess of a map, with one hex of mountains next to a lake next to a swamp next to another mountain and so on… but, the latter would make a very difficult terrain for adventuring parties to traverse (and this means that the game will slow down anytime the adventurers leave the safety of civilization, which is like, the meat of the game), and the former would be simply boring. The point of this Age, and of this whole game/simulation, really, is for you to watch a very particular kind of world (a classical, old school, D&Desque milieu) unfold before your eyes, with the fickle yet always inventive roll of the dice as the only guide. It’s supposed to be fun. As it was stated before, if you feel like deciding something for yourself, do it. Want mountains here? Place them! Think that a river over there would be silly? Don’t place it, re-roll or pick what you want. This is your game, your simulation, do what you please! But be warned, every time you do this, every time you decide to ignore the dice and decide for yourself, you walk a little bit further away from where this author considers is the fun of this whole thing: not knowing what is going to happen and finding out as it does. You can try to predict it (after a couple of games you will surely get better at this), but the dice respect no one. Not me, the author, or you, the player, and there lies their beauty.

Precursors Age Any inhabited land has had someone living there before. In this age, we find out who lived in the valleys and forests, between mountains and hills, and next to the lakes and marshes, hundreds (or maybe thousands) of years before the actual game takes place and brave adventurers roam the land, searching for fame and fortune. These precursors, be them a powerful dwarven undermountain kingdom that dug too deep, a mighty empire victim of its own pride and decadence, or the forest realm of a wise elven lord that fell fighting the corruption of chaos, leave a number of ruins across the land, the last remnants of their deeds and sins. In the Adventurers Age, the dark corners of this abandoned ruins spawn the creatures of chaos that threaten civilization, and the forgotten treasures hidden in the chambers deep below the surface attract monsters and adventuring parties, both willing to risk limb and life for the wonderful artefacts of a lost era. This is the ancient history of your world.

If you look at your map, you should see all the natural features that were created during the Primordial Age. To find out who populated this land, roll a d6 and consult the main Precursors Table:

1 Human Empire

2 Dwarven Mines 3 Elven Dominion 4 Human Warring Kingdoms 5 Evil Kingdom

6 Monstrous Tribes

Now that you know who lived and died in this land, its time to see what their civilization manage to achieved before disappearing under the sands of time. To find this out, roll a d6 on the Precursors Progress table:

Human Empire

1 Towers (3) 2 Fortresses (2) 3 Cities (2) 4 Tombs and Temples (2) 5 Great Citadel (1)

6 The Wonder

Dwarven Mines

1 Mining Operations (3) 2 Hall of the Fallen (2) 3 Outposts (2) 4 Colonies (2) 5 Underground City (1)

6 The Masterwork

Elven Dominion

1 Outposts (3) 2 Hidden Towers (2) 3 Druidic Sanctuaries (2) 4 Elven Villages (2) 5 Hidden City (1)

6 The Eternity Tree

Human Warring Kingdoms

1 Shrines (3) 2 Cemeteries and Mausoleums (2) 3 Castles and Strongholds (2) 4 Protected Towns (2) 5 Free Cities (2)

6 The World Capitol

Evil Kingdom

1 Crypts (3) 2 Corrupted Towns (2) 3 Demonic Temples (2) 4 Underground Lairs (2) 5 Bastion of Evil (1)

6 The Artefact

Monstrous Tribes

1 Caverns (3) 2 Crypts (2) 3 Imperial City, Dwarven Colony, Elven Village,

Protected Town or Corrupted Town (2) 4 Demonic Temples (2) 5 Underground Lair (1)

6 The Entrance to the Underworld

Here’s how to read the tables. You might have noticed that every project on the table is more complex as the number increases. This is because every number represents the level of progress the precursors reached before meeting their doom (hence the name of the tables). In game terms, this means that if you get a 4, the precursors built 1, 2, 3 and 4. For example, if you were rolling for the Dwarven Precursors, and got a 5, it means that the dwarves dug three Mining Operations, two Halls of the Fallen, built two Outposts, had two Colonies, and got to build their magnificent Underground City, but didn’t reach the level of progress needed to make the Masterwork. Similarly, if you had rolled a 1, that means that they only managed to dig the Mining Operations before disappearing. If this happens, you might want to roll again on a different table and also add what you get to the map. This way you will have some really ancient ruins (those old mines built by god knows who, if we follow our previous example) next to the old vestiges of a civilization fallen a couple hundred years ago, both ready to be plundered by daring adventurers. Each number on the left of the table also corresponds to the Level of the Ruin (an Imperial Tower is a level 1 Ruin, an Elven Village is a level 4 Ruin). In the next Age it will

indicate how many and what kind of monsters will inhabit each Ruin. So, now you know who inhabited the land and what they built. The only thing left to find out is where. You will generally do this by rolling 2d12 a number of times equal to the number listed next to the name of the feature, until you have placed all of the ruins, just like in the Primordial Age, but some civilizations have a couple of special rules concerning the placement of their ruins. You will find these clarifications in the descriptions below.

The Human Empire Those humans. They have this thing. They are like mold; they are always busy dying out and disappearing or expanding like the plague: they just don’t know when to stop; it is never enough for them, never. The human empire is the pinnacle of “order and civilization”. It represents the taming of the wilderness, it is nature at the service of men, the scourge of savages, it carries the light of progress and culture wherever its steel-clad legions march. However, it is quite curious how they always fall apart in the same way: it starts with pride, which leads to decadence, decadence transforms into civil war or the abandonment of the defences in the borders, and then, almost overnight, the marvellous icon of sophistication and refinement burns to the ground, leaving statues and columns as the only reminder of its existence, like the bones of a dead giant. To place their ruins, roll 2d12 for each feature until you have placed them all.

Dwarven Mines Dwarves. Their name evokes images of beards, axes, forges, and impressive underground city-fortresses. Sadly, the bearded-folk seem to be cursed to be expelled from their mountain homes, left to wander the earth as homeless exiles, kicked out by a mighty dragon, or after awakening a horror from the depths of the earth. It is in their nature to be persistent (or stubborn, depending on who you ask) though, and this means that until there is one dwarf from the clan that still breaths, there is hope of taking back what is theirs. Dwarves prefer to carve their homes below hills and mountains. After rolling 2d12 for the location of their ruins, consider choosing the Hills or Mountain hex nearest to the dice result and placing their ruins there instead. The Underground City feature has to be placed in a Mountain Hex (if there isn’t at least one of these in your map, create a lonely Mountain hex where the dice indicated and place the ruins there). The Outposts features can be placed on any hex.

Elven Dominion Forest dwellers, protectors of the trees, sons and daughters of the moon goddess. The elves live in harmony with nature, and build their civilization accordingly. When properly maintained, their watchtowers and palaces blend with the forested background in such a way that unless one actually stumbles upon them, there is almost no chance of knowing they are there, at least until a silent arrow protrudes from one’s chest. Their arrogance is their bane, though, and from time to time they go to war with humans or dwarves because of their inability to treat other intelligent species as equals. Their purity also leads them to wage war against the forces of chaos even when it’s clear that they have no chance of winning, a living tragedy they are, the elves. Elves prefer to live in forests. After rolling 2d12 for the location of their ruins, consider choosing the Forest hex nearest to the dice result and placing their ruins there instead (if there isn’t at least one of these in your map, create a Forest hex where the dice fell and place the

ruins there). The Druidic Sanctuaries features can be placed on a Forest or a Marsh hex. Outposts features can be placed on any hex. Human Warring Kingdoms Every country, kingdom, or empire, starts with a single town. Sometimes they grow by commerce, or the dissemination of a particular set of ideas, but most often than not they do it with sword and shield. These conflicts can go on for decades or more, halting for a momentary truce and then starting because of some petty provocation. Rulers erect watchtowers to keep an eye on their enemies; they build fortresses to defend strategic points and cemeteries to bury their many dead. Independent, smaller towns usually swear allegiance to a ruler to protect them from the other, but it is not uncommon for these settlements to change sides plenty of times as the land around them gets conquered and re-conquered. Whether the conflict drags on until both sides are weakened enough to disappear by a minor plague or famine, or one kingdom conquers another or they merge

into one glorious country, with time, the only testament of their conflict are the mossy ruins that dot the land. To place their ruins, roll 2d12 for each feature until you have placed them all. Evil Kingdom Maybe a warlord got his hands on a particularly powerful artefact, or a wicked sorcerer managed to summon a mighty undead army, or perhaps an exceptionally ambitious monster from a previous age turned into a leader for its kind and enslaved or destroyed every trace of human, elven, or dwarven civilization in the land. The result it’s almost always the same: a kingdom of pure evil is born. Entire forests are chopped down or burned to ashes, or simply corrupted by the forces of chaos. Marshes become mass graveyards or lair of twisted creatures. Ancient crypts are desecrated for necromantic uses; unholy temples are constructed to appease the dark gods; huge cave complexes are carved from the hills and mountains to house the fiendish legions; and with sufficient slaves and power, a sinister tower, an obsidian fortress, or a nightmarish necropolis is built to direct the final assault on the forces of good. Sooner or later, fortunately, these realms of death are destroyed thanks to the joint efforts of all good natured creatures, or by the hand of a band of heroes, or even by the holy rage of the gods. To place their ruins, roll 2d12 for each feature until you have placed them all. However, when placing the

Underground Lairs feature, consider choosing the Hills or Mountains hex nearest to the dice result and placing the ruins there instead. Monstrous Tribes Not every seed gets to become a tall tree. In the same way, not every mountain is a dwarven city-fortress and not every forest has elven eyes watching, and some empires disappear leaving nothing behind to remember them. Whether the land was the home of a civilization which crumbled down leaving almost no evidence of its passing, or the wilderness was never colonized by a single, unified force, now a heterogeneous group of monsters occupy the countryside. To place their ruins, roll 2d12 for each feature until you have placed them all. However, when placing the Underground Lairs and the Caverns features, consider choosing the Hills or Mountains hex nearest to the dice result and placing the ruins there instead.

Precursors Age Example

Eons have passed since the Primordial Age, and now we will find out who lived and died in the land hundreds or thousands of years before the Adventuring Age. We will use a “finished” version of the example given in the end of the last Age. First, we need to roll a d6 on the Main Precursors table. We get a 2, which means that our land was inhabited by dwarves. Now we need to roll a d6 on the Precursors Progress Table that corresponds to the Dwarven Mines. We get a 4, so we find out that before their kingdom crumbled to ruins, they managed to build three Mining Operations (Level 1 Ruins), two Halls of the Fallen (Level 2 Ruins), two Outposts (Level 3 Ruins), and two Colonies (Level 4 Ruins). Whatever wiped them out did it before they reached the progress needed to build a Khazad-Dûm-like Underground City (and the Masterwork that goes with it). Still, those are lots of ruins so we don’t think we need to roll again on the Main Precursors Table. Now we need to roll 2d12 to find out the location of each Ruin in the map. Let’s start with the three Mining Operations. Our rolls reveal a 12-10, a 4-5, and a 1-12 result. The first two results indicate Plain hexes, and most Dwarven Ruins, as explained in their description, are placed in Hills or Mountains hexes, which means that we need to locate the nearest compatible hex and place the Ruins there instead. We do so, and mark each Ruin with a roman numeral, a “I”, to differentiate it from the other Ruins later on. It is advisable to differentiate them between each

other too, so we write a little letter next to each other (a, b, c, etc.) We need to keep doing this until all the ruins are placed, and this means that we will need six more sets of 2d12 rolls. We note that Outposts can be placed anywhere on the map (dwarves needed to keep an eye on those self important elves, and they don’t dwelled anywhere near their mountain homes, after all!), and this results in one Outpost next to the southern Dense Forests, and one in Marsh in the centre of the map. Once the Ruins are placed, we can proceed to the Adventurers Age.

Adventurers Age

Countless eras have passed since the gods first raised the mountains and carved the valleys that grace the land. Centuries have gone by, and all that is left of the Precursors are mossy and long forgotten ruins, hidden in the untamed wilds. In the Adventurers Age, these ruins (and the dungeons below them) serve as lairs for monstrous hordes, that were attracted both by the prospect of a safe den and by the treasures troves left behind by the Precursors. At some point, civilization, in the form of a human kingdom, returned to this land in the hopes of making it their homeland, aware of the presence of the ruins and their current inhabitants, or maybe completely oblivious about their existence. When winter falls, and the creatures of chaos get hungry, the kingdom needs to defend itself, and attracts adventurers and mercenaries, with rumours of fame and fortune, looking to fight the monsters back and make the land safe. This is the last Age of the game, and where most of it takes place. The Adventurers Age consists of the struggle between the kingdom (with the adventurers at its service) and the monsters. This Age is divided in seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. As described a little bit ahead, different things happen each season. It is advisable, though not mandatory, that you keep notes of what happens in each season. This will help you keep track of things in case you get lost, and will result in a nice historic record once you finish playing. The Setup The first thing you will need to do is to find out where the kingdom chose to settle first. To do this, roll 2d12 and draw a little black circle in the appropriate hex. Consider placing it in the nearest Plains hex in case the dice indicate a Mountains, Hills, Forest, Swamp, or Water result. This little black circle represents a walled city of some sorts, that, as time goes by and kingdom gets stronger (hopefully), it will grow and turn into a power in itself. It is the heart of the kingdom, and if it is overrun by monsters and destroyed, you will have to start the Adventurers Age again. After the city has been placed, you will need to find out the location of the first village. This are usually built near the city or other villages. To do find out exactly where it is, assign a number from 1 to 12 in the second “ring” of hexes around the city, starting with the one above the city and counting clockwise, as seen in the image below. Villages can be placed in Plains, Forests and Hills hexes. Later on, as the kingdom grows, you will need to place additional villages. Before rolling the 1d12 for their location, as explained before, randomly choose between all existing settlements and place the additional village around the chosen site. Once the city and the first village have been properly placed, you will find out what kind of fearsome monsters inhabit the ruins that dot the land. Each Ruin can house a number of monstrous groups, and usually attract certain monsters of certain power. Bigger and more powerful creatures usually inhabit the deepest pits of the biggest dungeons, and weaker creatures have to settle with what they can get their claws on: abandoned towers and small underground tombs with a few rooms at most.

The Level of each Ruin indicates which kind of monsters and how many it can house. The Ruin Level corresponds with the number to the left of each Ruin in the Precursors Progress Tables. Take a look at the Evil Kingdom Progress Table, for example. The Crypts are Level 1 Ruins, the Corrupted Towns are Level 2 Ruins, the Demonic Temples are Level 3, the Underground Lairs are level 4, and the Bastion of Evil is a Level 5 Ruin. The sixth item on every Precursors Progress Table doesn’t represent a Ruin, but some kind of artefact, building, and the like, that represents the pinnacle of what that type of civilization can make. Following our previous example, the sixth item, The Artefact, could have been something like Sauron’s One Ring, or the black crown of the lich king. When a 6 is rolled on the Precursors Progress Table (a roll of 5 would mean that Level 5 Ruin was built, but it doesn’t contain an object of power), this “ultimate object” is always found on the last level of the Level 5 Ruin, and only available to the adventuring party that clears the deepest level of the ruin. Each Level 1 Ruin can hold up to two Level 1 Monsters (or monstrous groups). A Level 2 Ruin can hold up to two Level 2 Monsters and two Level 1 Monsters. A Level 3 Ruin can hold up to two Level 3 Monsters, two Level 2 Monsters and two Level 1 Monsters. A Level 4 Ruin can hold up to two Level 4 Monsters, and two Level 3, Level 2, and Level 1 Monsters. Finally, a Level 5 Ruin can hold up to Level 5 Monsters, two Level 4, Level 3, Level 2 and Level 1 Monsters. The pattern is pretty simple: each Ruin contains up to two Monsters/Monstrous Groups of its Level, plus two Monsters of every lower Level. This isn’t set in stone though: sometimes a really powerful monster can, for some reason, inhabit a lower Level Ruin, and sometimes a weaker kind of monster manages to live in a higher Level Ruin. This can be seen in the last four results of the Monster Tables. Stock each Ruin by rolling 1 d20 an appropriate amount of times on the Monster Tables.

Level 1 Monsters Table

1 Giant Beetles 2 Bugbears 3 Dryads 4 Ghouls 5 Gnolls 6 Goblins 7 Hippogriff 8 Hobgoblins 9 Bandits 10 Berserkers 11 Kobolds 12 Lizard men 13 Orcs 14 Giant rats 15 Skeletons 16 Zombies 17 18

Level 1 Encounter / 2

19

20 Level 2 Encounter

Level 2 Monsters Table

1 Centaurs 2 Giant Centipedes 3 Minor Demon 4 Gargoyles 5 Grey Ooze 6 Harpies 7 Wererat 8 Werewolf 9 Minotaur 10 Ochre Jelly 11 Ogre 12 Wraith 13 Shadow 14 Giant Spider 15 Warg 16 Wight 17 18

Level 1 Encounter

19

20 Level 3 Encounter

Level 3 Monsters Table

1 Medusa 2 Basilisk 3 Cockatrice 4 Black Dragon 5 Hill Giant 6 Griffon 7 Hell Hound 8 Invisible Stalker 9 Werebear 10 Manticore 11 Mummy 12 Ogre Magi 13 Salamander 14 Specter 15 Troll 16 Wyvern 17 18

Level 2 Encounter

19

20 Level 4 Encounter

Level 5 Monsters Table

1 Golden Dragon 2 Air Elemental 3 Earth Elemental 4 Fire Elemental 5 Water Elemental 6 Cloud Giant 7 Storm Giant 8 Iron Golem 9 Stone Golem 10 Lich 11 Giant Slug 12 Purple Worm 13 Efreet 14 Titan 15 16

Elevated Monster

17 18

Level 4 Encounter

19

20 Level 5 Encounter x 2

Level 4 Monsters Table

1 Banshee 2 Black Pudding 3 Chimera 4 Balrog 5 Blue Dragon 6 Green Dragon 7 Red Dragon 8 Fire Giant 9 Frost Giant 10 Stone Giant 11 Gorgon 12 Hydra 13 Roc 14 Treant 15 Vampire 16 Flesh Golem 17 18

Level 3 Encounter

19

20 Level 5 Encounter

By now you should have a map with mountains, forests and rivers, a bunch of ruins, and a city with a nearby village. On a different sheet you should have a list of all the ruins, and the monsters that live within the halls and the dungeons of each of them. The only thing missing are the adventuring parties! Roll on the following tables, twice, and generate two adventuring parties.

d6 # of Party Members

1 3 2-4 4 5 5

6 6

d6 Class of Each Member

1-4 Roll Again (1-4 Fighter, 5-6 Thief)

5-6 Roll Again (1-4 Cleric, 5-6 Magic-User)

d6 Fighters Race

1-3 Human 4 Dwarf 5 Elf

6 Halfling

d6 Thieves Race

1-3 Human 4-5 Halfling

6 Elf

d6 Clerics Race

1-6 Human (of course!)

d6 Magic-Users Race

1-4 Human

5-6 Elf

3d6 Abilities

3-6 -1 7-14 +0

15-18 +1

On a different sheet, give each party a number, a letter, or even a name, and note all the members it has (you can name each party member, if you want!), their class/race, their level, and their ability modifier, if any. Later on you will add their experience points and any magic items they can get their hands on. From now on, the game will progress in seasons. A number of different things happen each season. Once you are done with all those things, you jump to the next season and repeat the process. The game doesn’t have an “ending”, you just stop playing whenever you feel like it. You might feel that the game is finished when one of the adventuring parties reaches the last level of the biggest dungeon in the land and retrieves the Artifact, the Masterwork or whatever. Or maybe whenever the adventurers clear all the ruins, or when the kingdom has four improved villages and a fortress. Or maybe you’ll get bored and might want to start a new game. It’s your call. Now, seasons roughly work like this: the kingdom and its adventurers recover (spring), the kingdom and its adventurers attack the monsters (summer), then the monsters recover (fall), and finally they strike back at civilization (winter). After the Setup, begin the game at spring. Spring Start the season by collecting the taxes from each village of the kingdom. Each village generates 1 Gold per turn. Any village successfully looted in the past winter doesn’t generate Gold that turn. Then build. The kingdom can build an additional village (it can have a maximum of 4 villages at any time, each village costs 5 Gold), a castle (15 Gold), or improve any existing villages (5 Gold per village). The kingdom can only build one thing in a turn, and it will try to build villages first, a castle then, an only after that it will improve any existing villages. After those two things are done, hire additional adventuring parties. A kingdom can support a maximum of 2 adventuring parties per existing village, and to hire each party a kingdom has to spend 2 Gold. If a kingdom can support and afford to hire additional adventuring parties, spend the required amount of Gold and generate the adventuring parties as described before.

If in the last year, any adventuring party has lost a party member, generate a new one until each party has the same number of members it did originally. Members generated this way start at 1st Level, regardless of the Level of the rest of the party. Summer In the summer, adventuring parties explore the wilderness, hoping to stumble upon a ruined temple or an abandoned keep, to explore it and plunder its riches, willing to risk their life battling the monsters that live in the dungeons. Now, at the beginning of the game, unless a Ruin is located exactly in the same hex as a village or city, or in a hex situated right next to one of those, the Ruin is considered unknown to the kingdom and the adventurers. A Ruin is discovered when at least one group of adventurers travels through the hex where the Ruin is located; when a party travels through a hex which is next to a Ruin (and gets a 1, a 2, or a 3 on a d6 roll); or when a monster or monster group attacks an outpost of civilization and a defending adventuring party successfully repels the attack (this means the adventurers follow the monsters trails back to the ruins). Keep track of which Ruins have been discovered by the kingdom and what Ruins are still unknown. To begin exploring the land, roll 2d12, and take the adventuring party that you generated first to the point indicated by the dice, travelling from the starting point (the kingdom’s city, right after the Setup), hex by hex, in the most direct route possible, to the location indicated by the die roll. Note, however, that adventurers prefer to go across certain hexes. When attempting to reach the intended hex, the party will try to travel through Plains hex first, through Forest/Hills hexes as a second choice, and, if there is no other way of reaching the intended location, through Marsh/Mountains hexes. Note that Impassable Mountains, Dense Forests, Death Swamp, and Water hexes can only be travelled through by parties of 4th and 5th Level. You will have to make some judgment calls at this point, so pick the most logical course of action for the party, trying to follow the guidelines given, but don’t get crazy. If you are not sure about something, roll a d6 and let the dice gods decide for the party! If in the path to its intended hex the party stumbles upon a Ruin, either discovering for the first time or not, a Delve (as described after the Winter section) takes place. If in its travels the party fails to stumble upon a Ruin, randomly determine which already discovered Ruin it will raid this turn and resolve the Delve normally. If it doesn’t stumble upon any Ruins, and there aren’t any known yet, the party will return to the nearest settlement. Repeat the process with the next party. Now, if a Delve does take place, and the adventurers survive it, they will travel to the nearest village, castle, or city, and spend the rest of the year there (it is important to note if there are any parties present in any settlement in case monsters try to loot or destroy it during the Winter). Repeat this process until all parties had a chance to explore the land. Fall During the fall, the monsters regroup, summon their brethren, regain strength, and move into empty Ruins, preparing to fight against civilization (or other monsters!). For each “space” available in each Ruin, roll a d6. On 1 or a 2 a new monster or monstrous group has moved in and occupied part of the Ruin. Follow the guidelines given before, in the Setup section, to re-stock the Ruins. Winter In winter, wolves get hungry, goblins get greedy, and orcs get bloodthirsty. In this season, the spawns of chaos strike back at civilization, or fight each other. Roll a d6 for the first Ruin in the realm. If a 1 is rolled, a group of monsters in this Ruin musters the courage and the discipline to attack a settlement of the kingdom, any other results indicates that the monsters were not able to organize a raiding party or were too busy killing each other. In case the monsters decide to attack, roll another d6 on the next table to determine the level of the attacking monster:

1-2 Level 1

3-4 Level 2 5 Level 3

6 Roll Again (1-4 Level 4, 5-6 Level 5)

Then randomly determine between all possible monsters of the indicated level to find out which monster attacks (for example, if you get a 3 on the table, and the Ruin has two Level 2 Monsters, roll a d6 and with a 1-3 result attack with group A, with 4-6 attack with group B). If the table indicates a monster of a Level that isn’t present in the Ruin, go with the nearest possible result (for example, if the table says that a Level 5 Monster attacks, but there are only Level 1, 2 and 3 Monsters present, attack with one of the Level 3 Monsters). After the attacking monster has been found, roll between all possible villages and castles to find out where the monsters are heading. Monsters will only attack a city if they are Level 5 Monsters, or if there isn’t any other settlement standing. If there is an adventuring party present in the settlement that is being attacked, resolve the encounter as explained in the Delve section. If there aren’t any adventuring parties in the settlement to defend it, it means the locals will have to defend themselves. A village that is attacked by monsters of any level is always looted and doesn’t produce any Gold in the next year. It also has a chance to be destroyed equal to the Level of the monster on a d6. Improved villages can only be destroyed by Level 3, 4, and 5 Monsters. A castle that is attacked has a chance to kill the monsters equal to 6 minus the Level of the monster (i.e. a 1-5 chance on a d6 to kill a Level 1 Monster, a 1-4 chance to kill a Level 2 Monster, and so on). Additionally, when a castle is attacked by a Level 4 or Level 5 monster, and fails its roll to kill it, it has a 1-2 on chance on a d6 to be destroyed. If a city is attacked, the kingdom looses all of its accumulated Gold, and has a 1-2 chance on a d6 to be destroyed. If the city is destroyed and there aren’t any villages standing, you will have to start the Adventuring Age all over again. If the city is destroyed but there is at least one village standing, the village can be converted into the kingdom’s new city if the kingdom had at least least 10 Gold. Delve This section refers to actual dungeon delving, and also to the encounters that take place when monsters attack the kingdom settlements. The encounter mechanic basically revolves around each adventurer in a party rolling a d6 pool equal to its level, and trying to get a 4, a 5 or a 6. Whenever a d6 rolled by an adventurer equals or beats the required number, the monster (or monster group) looses 1 hit point. Whenever a d6 rolled by an adventurer fails to beat the required number, the adventurer looses 1 hit point. For example, a 4th Level Fighter rolls 4d6 while battling a red dragon. The target number to hit a red dragon is 6, and his rolls results in a 1, a 3, a 4 and a 6, this means that the Fighter takes three points of damage, and the red dragon takes only one; a pretty bad roll for that Fighter. There are a few modifiers that can alter the rolls made by an adventurer: the abilities that are rolled when you generate them (this score represents an average of the adventurer’s Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity and Charisma), some race and class traits (clerics get a +1 modifier against undead and demons, for example), and finally magic items, which give bonuses, and sometimes penalties, to the rolls of an adventurer (a magic mace can give a +1 bonus to all rolls, while an axe of rage might give a +1 modifier but subtract 1 hit point to the wielding adventurer). An adventurer or a monster that reaches 0 hit points is dead. When an adventuring party fights against a monster, you find out the outcome of the encounter by rolling the required amount of d6, and subtracting hit points from the adventurers and the monster as indicated by the results of the die rolls until one side is dead. You begin with the Fighters rolls, then the Clerics rolls, then the Thieves rolls, and finally with the Magic-User rolls, after that you start this process again until the encounter is resolved. When an adventuring party encounters a Ruin (whether by stumbling upon one or by travelling directly to it, as described in the Summer section), it will try to fight monsters of its level (you might need to find the average party level if there are

any members of different levels). As described in the Setup section, each Ruin has a Level that goes from 1 to 5, thus, a Level 1 party will stick to the 1st Level of all the Ruins it encounters (even if these, by random chance, are inhabited by higher level monsters), and a 4th Level party will try to go directly to the 4th Level of every Ruin, ignoring the weaker monsters. When a party tries to avoid a Ruin Level in order to reach a deeper one, roll a d6. On a 1 or a 2, a monster from the Level (randomly determine which monster) foolishly attacks the party, otherwise the party successfully descends towards the next Level. Once this encounter is resolved, and if the party is still alive, take it to the next level, and repeat the process described before, until it reaches its intended Ruin Level. Once in its intended Level, randomly determine which monster the party encounters and fight, and then resolve the encounter. There are three possible outcomes: either the party defeats the monsters, the party suffers severe losses and decides to turn tail and run, or the adventurers are totally wiped out (a sweet, sweet total party kill). If at any point, the party looses half (rounded down) of its members, roll a d6. On a result of 1, or 2 the party runs away, other result indicates that the party decides to keep fighting until the bitter end, or that escape is made impossible by the dungeon layout or faster monsters. If the party defeats the monster, it wins experience points (XP), and there is a chance of an unusually big loot (which means more XP), and of magic items. Once the adventurers defeat the monsters, write next to their names the amount of XP won, note that everyone in the party gets the same amount of XP. After this, roll a d6. If you get a 1, roll again. If you get at least half the monsters Level (rounded down, 1 minimum), it means that there are magic items present in the treasure. On any other result, it means that the monster had more treasure than usual, but no magic items (in this case, give the party the same amount of XP you gave them earlier; in other words, bigger treasure means double XP).