Dwarven Stronghold - a community effort

[Emiricol]

How about a yeomanry system? Regularly-spaced armories, and every able-bodied dwarf is required to train regularly in combat tactics, axemanship, etc.

With such a system, a small full-time military with a high percentage of specialty troops becomes possible, and the armories could add a lot of character.

2 bits!

 

[TheDayKnight]

How about this idea for the ancient evil below the dwarven citadel:

Long ago, the gods bound one of their number far below the earth as punishment for his crimes. That god is now the Forgotten God of Chains. His minions are legion and the captains of his armies are kytons.

Just throwing something out there to play with.

 

[Darraketh]

Perhaps the enemy is in the valleys beyond the mountains.

Mountains are a natural barrier and in the case of a particularly high chain there are few suitable passes. These passes would be guarded by the dwarves who stand as a buffer between the evil humanoids on one side of the mountain and the humans on the other. Of course this is not done out of any particular loyalty to the humans.

Along the length of the mountain chain are a series of signal towers tying each gated pass to the others and to the stronghold itself. Each pass would consist of a wall with towers along it's length and a gate or two. Each pass would have a garrison of veteran troops.

Wait a min. Now I'm thinking "Great Wall of China."

That might work. Dwarves laboring for centuries building their Great Wall. Huge quarries, narrow mountain roads the sweat and blood of generations.

 

[fba827]

Acmite - need help on druids?

I was thinking about pretty much going entirely with a Stone-Druid type concept, and comlpetely disregarding any type of woodsy-aspect. But after reading through some of Billy's post again, and reminded by your Terraism, I think I may go for something along the lines of: They are, and always have been, stewards and guardians of the stone, but with the expansion onto the surface, they have begun to notice an increased awareness of their surroundings. I figure they would just have begun to experiment with new "woodsy" powers, and are still firmly entrenched as Stonelords, or whatever they will be called. Dwarven generations are long indeed, so I think it would a slow evolution, with the younger druids championing the news ways more so than the elder.

Acmite - I was going to Email you but that seems to be disabled/hidden on your profile. None the less, if you want some assistance on doing the druid aspect of this, let me know. I have the 2nd edition Complete Druid's Handbook and it has some ideas in there for Mountain Druids and Underground Druids... taking those ideas and mixing them with the current druid we could come up with a good druid-variant class.

If not, not sweat off my back

 

[Terraism]

How about a yeomanry system? Regularly-spaced armories, and every able-bodied dwarf is required to train regularly in combat tactics, axemanship, etc.

With such a system, a small full-time military with a high percentage of specialty troops becomes possible, and the armories could add a lot of character.

2 bits!

Sounds great! I think this hints at the dwarven society best - they are fighters, but they also work hard outside of military service - they're known for their industriousness. I can see very few dwarves resting on their laurels in the military (note - this isn't disparaging military, but in the case of the dwarves where I could see a good 30% of the people willing to serve, they would run out of things to do.) Regardless, having most dwarves serve as 'on-hand' reserves with only a small percentage - guards and special-ops - serving full time makes a good deal of sense, especially economically.

Terraism - I've got Illustrator, Photoshop and PageMaker, but I'll gladly let you have a chance to fulfill your dream. Since I do it for a living, it will be easier on me know I can concentrate on writing and coordinating stuff.

If you ever need help, feel free to ask away!

Wulf - we may yet have need of your services, but I'd rather have you in on the creative side for now!

I will try to get something written and post a snippet tomorrow!

Beanbag - yup, I've got the lot of 'em... Pagemaker, Photoshop/Illustrator, Acrobat. Plus lots of other great stuff. Computers are a bit more than my 'hobby'. I'm taking some classes now on 'digital imaging,' and I've been thrilled with it... I'm finally discovering some corporeal artistic talent! (I'm generally rather good with music, too - but that's not something I can look at when I'm done... ) Anyway, I might go digging for help, and if someone is good with real illustrations, I can't handle that part... but the layout and design is so much fun!

Darraketh - I'm with you. I say "Lets make this a masterpiece! This will be definitive!" I think this might help answer your question, Stegger - it'll probably be closer to 200 pages than 20. And, as far as setting, I think the idea is to have this possible to drop into any world, somewhere.

Day Knight - though that sounds cool, I'd bet it'd be much more interesting if I understood what you meant by "his minions are legions..." As in a (spelling) sick/ill/sore thingies? As in legions of troops? If so, what? Sorry - I'm not on the same wavelength here, but the idea sounds like a lot of fun.

 

[Emiricol]

Sounds great! I think this hints at the dwarven society best - they are fighters, but they also work hard outside of military service - they're known for their industriousness. I can see very few dwarves resting on their laurels in the military (note - this isn't disparaging military, but in the case of the dwarves where I could see a good 30% of the people willing to serve, they would run out of things to do.) Regardless, having most dwarves serve as 'on-hand' reserves with only a small percentage - guards and special-ops - serving full time makes a good deal of sense, especially economically.

It would also be possible, with a system like this, to determine how long it would take for armed citizens to muster to a trouble spot, based on how far from the nearest armory the problem is! Base it on the length of time it would take someone *at* the trouble spot to travel to the armory (raising the alarm as he went), and of course back to the problem, plus X amount of time to get armed and armored.

That could make a nifty little stat. Also, the makeup of defenders (class, level, alignment etc) could change based on time of day, or even location if we divide the place up into districts or some such.

(Feel free to kill any/all of that, as always - just ideas)

 

[Darraketh]

Dwarven Tavern

There is a thread in the general message forums requesting help nameing a Dwarven Tavern. There may be some we could use. If nothing else I know some of the posters to this thread can help the fellow out with a suggestion or two.

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=678&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

My suggestion was The Idle Hammer or that could be The Idle Anvil, both are Dwarvy.

 

[Mungeon Daster]

Mapping & MERP Moria Sourcebook

Does anyone have the MERP Moria sourcebook ? This is an invaluable resource for what you are trying to do here -- unfortunately I can't find my copy

The best part is a very detailed random 'dungeon' generator, which I remember produced some very impressive results with a little bit of interpretation. This generated gross features, such as types of chambers, number, size and direction of corridors, chasms, waterfalls, rivers, etc etc; this was used in addition to some very large scale maps of Moria which were really road maps of the whole complex.

I think the best way of mapping a huge complex like this is to treat it as if it were a wilderness location - map out the main locations and 'road' network, and then detail key areas just as you would a town, ruin or dungoen for a wilderness location.

What I'm suggesting is work out the grand scheme of the whole complex, locating key locations and features, and then map out in great detail only the main locations such as the entrance, kings chambers, forges, etc. When the DM needs to map other areas, this can be done from a series of tables to work out the main features. Then the tables from the DMG can be used to add extra detail.

 

[Stegger]

Yes Mungeon Daster I have the book, and I also believe that Wulf mentioned it as well, so he probably have it to.
If you want any information from the book, just drop a line!
Can you still get the book? Does the company still exist? Am I allowed to "hand out" a scanned copy? probably not, just asking....
Stegger

 

[Sia-Lan Wezz]

oops