The Worlds Apart

[Jack7]

Some Basic Information on the Developmental Background of this Setting: This setting, Terra-Ghantik is several years old. (Parts of it decades old in development.) It began as an experiment in world design spurred on by some friends of mine.

In my early twenties I stopped playing games altogether and got on with many other things in my life. In my mid-thirties, after having gotten married and returning home some friends asked me if I would DM for them. (Most of my older friends had either gone into service and been stationed elsewhere, in other parts of the world than me, or had moved after attending college. But eventually I made new friends after returning home and some of them had interests in gaming. And my own children were getting older as well and had expressed interest in gaming.) So with these various requests I said I would try and develop a new playing world (my old ones had been burned in my twenties) but that I wanted some time to develop a world setting and milieu that we would all like. So I asked them what they wanted and they told me, and I likewise thought about what I wanted to do and experiment with, and taking all of that information into consideration I set about designing a stable, consistent world for them to play in.

The first thing I wanted to do was create an historically based milieu, because we all have large and long term interests in history, and because real cultures, societies, military matters, people, and events interest most of us far more than purely fictional things. The next thing I wanted to do was create a setting in which the players could explore real moral and religious themes. Some of my would be players had expressed major disappointment at D&D and most fantasy game approaches to religion, and how shallow most religious and spiritual affairs were in-game. I couldn’t have agreed more, especially regarding the Cleric.

So after some experimentation I decided to ditch the D&D approach to religion altogether and instead let people play their own religion. If they were Christian then their character could be that as well, or they could be Jewish, Buddhist, whatever they chose. (Indeed one of my original goals of the setting had been to develop a “Christian version of D&D,” but over time I came to realize that this would be counter-productive, for reasons that might not initially seem obvious. If everyone in a game is Christian then Christianity is never challenged because there is nothing really in the background of the setting to challenge Christianity. [Monsters and evil would be available to challenge the morality of character action, but that would be a reflexive challenge, not an interesting or demanding or evolutionary challenge.] It would be the same as if a Moral or Religious Monopoly existed in the game world. Or let me put it this way, just imagine if everyone in our world were Christian. It might seem a sort of ideal situation in some way, especially for Christians. But would it be? In actuality? Such a monopoly, as with any monopoly would likely lead to complete and total stagnation of the evolution of Christian ideals and behavior. Without allies Christianity would not grow wiser, without opposition Christianity would not evolve and improve; I am not talking so much about the ideals of Christianity, many of which I think should remain stable and unchanging, but about the expression and behavior of those ideals as evidenced by how Christians act. Therefore I strongly suspect and believe that competition from friendly or allied religions does Christianity good, as it causes and promotes self-reflection, as does outright opposition from hostile opponents, as this forces the religion to grow, develop, and adapt in this world. Every force or organization in existence needs a reactionary force to push against, as well as allied forces with which to operate in conjunction in order to reach cooperative objectives. When a thing remains unchanging and unchallenged it cannot grow and is not motivated to grow. In other words competition promotes a nature of both striving and thriving, whereas everyone inflexibly and uncritically accepting the same ideals and motivations for every action in the world can in time only likely lead to stagnation and quite possibly a state of slow corruption and decay. Therefore in the game world I wanted this setting to be Christian friendly, and I wanted the players to feel free to play their own religious beliefs, but I did not want to dictatorially limit the religious expression of this setting to Christianity, as I felt that would not bring out the best in any player or situation, Christian or otherwise. Furthermore I also didn’t think it likely to allow the setting to raise and wrestle with difficult and dangerous real world moral questions if the religious context were inflexibly set beforehand. An inflexible context leads to inflexible and non-innovative answers to difficult dilemmas. And one goal for this setting was definitely as a background in which to present difficult real world moral dilemmas in-game. So instead I opted for a Christian-influenced, but not necessarily Christian dominated setting that nevertheless allows as much religious choice for the player as does our own world.)

Therefore the players were free to play their own religious background, but they could also if they wished play a character from another religion. As far as religion goes I wanted the players to have as much freedom of religious exploration and expression as in the real world, but not be limited to artificial and unreal religious pantheons and organizations to which they would likely feel no real association, sympathy, or interest. But whatever the particular case of their choice they would be free to play a character with a real religion, given the time frame of the setting. It wouldn’t be an artificially created stick-man religion in which the player would have no real stake, or no real set of core beliefs at all, instead he could be playing something real which made real moral, ethical and spiritual demands of the player and his or her character, within the structure of the game setting.

Because of the religious background of the setting I also wanted analogous real historical cultural ties that the player could associate with his character. For instance if a player were going to have a character that had a real religion, it seemed to me that he should also have a real culture, and that this culture should both place demands upon the character and should give the player a feeling of real association and sympathy with the society, nation, and world that his character inhabits. For instance, imagine you are playing a character who is American, if you are American, or Japanese, if you are Japanese, or Irish if you are Irish, and how much more likely you are to instinctively and deeply associate with your own culture than that of let’s say, the entirely fictional Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault. Truth is the best the Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault can do is poorly and palely approximate some real culture, and the likelihood of that culture or government exciting any real loyalty or sense of association with a player within the setting is very remote indeed. So I expanded upon the idea of both the religious and cultural associations of the setting to give the players things they could instinctively and personally relate to within the setting almost as if they were real associations in our real world. (If the Thorodium Excellency of High Somersault is obviously based upon a real culture then it can very well evoke in the player feelings of natural association and sympathy, but probably not to the degree of the associations already evident in his mind and experience as invoked by his real culture, present or past.)

I call this type of resonant relationship between the player and the setting he explores “Sympathetic Association.” I think it is an important idea behind fictional world creation that transforms a setting from being a mere plastic stage backdrop into a milieu that the player can become excited about and can personally relate to. The setting becomes important when the background is something that the player can naturally understand and associate with, and his sympathies are stimulated when it is enough like his own real world culture, religion, background, and interests, to seem “more real, and more important” to him. He can recognize aspects of himself within the background world and he can sympathetically associate with those aspects in the setting. When his gaming country is attacked in war it is like he has a personal stake in the matter. When his hometown is attacked and burned, he associates with that in an almost personal rather than merely imaginative way. In other words places in a game setting do not remain mere geographical points of vague interest with funny names, or bases out of which the player disinterestedly operates, but rather the setting becomes a far more “real place” with real interests, concerns, and obvious risks

However I also didn’t want to create merely another version of the Western European Medieval Milieu. I wanted to create a setting that would evoke natural Sympathetic Association with the players, but a setting that was also new and unique and unknown in many ways compared to most settings. Something out of the ordinary and generally unexplored as both a game and fantasy setting. The reason is obvious. I wanted something new, creative, stimulating, and provocative.

I originally considered Eastern Europe, Russia, and Japan as possibilities, and a friend of mine also suggested Malta (which I seriously considered for a long time as the base of operations out of which the characters would adventure). But after about a year of historic research I finally settled upon the idea of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople (a favorite historical place of personal interest for me) as the likely setting, and after discussing that idea with my potential players they all agreed that it sounded like a very good possibility. That only left the exact era to be decided and after a bit of more research I decided that the era of about 800 AD would offer a number of interesting historical, background, campaign, and adventure possibilities. It was close enough in time and nature to cultures most all of the players were familiar with to seem welcoming and to evoke sympathetic association (indeed much of Western Culture is derived from Greek, Latin, and Byzantine societies, not to mention the Judeo-Christian religious background of Byzantium), but alien and unexplored enough as a game setting to place along the “frontier of the world,” so that one could always find “new and unfamiliar things” to explore.

In designing any setting for any reason or purpose, mythological, gaming, literary, etc I always desire to create places that are both well-explored and civilized (and the Byzantine Empire was probably the most highly civilized culture in the world at that time) and areas that are “frontier,” wild, untamed, and unexplored. The Empire had various barbarian tribes to the East, West, and North (some of them very powerful), the Persians, Muslims, and Indians to the Farther East, and much of unexplored Africa to the deep South. They were surrounded by both highly evolved and ancient civilizations, and by cultures and societies that were barbaric and new and on the fringes of the known world. The potentials of the milieu seemed nearly inexhaustible to me. So I set about constructing the setting based upon my historical research (which I had been conducting for a long time, not just for gaming purposes), and by including augmented elements of my own design.

I’ll continue this later…

 

[Jack7]

For the moment I intend to turn aside from further discussion of the Developmental Background of Terra Ghantik and instead to discuss the Vadders.

 

[Jack7]

Note: For those of you unfamiliar with the term Vadding, it is a real world skill set or avocation practiced around the world. The Vadders described below were developed or based upon real Vadders, plus my own experience at Vadding, which began when I was but a teenager.

Vadding helped me become a much, much better infiltrator, and investigator, and Intel analyst, and I found the skills I learned through Vadding invaluable in certain situations later in life. For instance Vadding is certainly a useful skill or set of skills to know when operating undercover. The pictures included in this section come from real Vads and real Vadders.

Nowadays Vadding is often called "Urban Exploration."

If you would like more information then see these links:

Infiltration

opacity.us - Abandoned Photography and Urban Exploration

Abandoned Stations

Fallout Urban Exploration


Here is a link to a few of my recent Vads and Ruds though I rarely have time to Vad much anymore:

The Missal: Humours of Idleness - Rudding Expedition to Ruins

The Missal: The Secret Mission - New Expedition: Rudding the Cedars Along the Falls

The Missal: Going Vadding


As I said the Vadders in my game are based on real world Vadders.

As anyone can see Role Playing Games like Dungeons and Dragons that require sneaking into or infiltrating dangerous places and ruins is obviously a form of imaginary Vadding. I've always thought of D&D as Vadding for the Mind, or a form of mental Vadding. There is a natural correlation and intersection between the two activities.

At some later point when I have the time I'm going to write a thread and article on The Elements of Vadding and Survivalism in D&D and other Role Playing Games.

The Vadders ​

Name: The Vadders, also known as The Infiltrators.

A description of the Vadders. A very small minority of Player Characters are also Vadders, (though they do not readily reveal their identity as Vadders to anyone else, including family members, or the party with which they adventure), with a slightly greater number of Sharpers being Vadders as well, due to their backgrounds. It is even possible for certain Types such as the Nyedry, Onsrof, Lhuylel, etc. to be Sharpers, and with training to become Vadders on Earth.

General Information: The Vadders could be said to exist as a type of Guild organization, though one of a very unusual type. They have no strict rules of membership, no basic organizational structure and no common purpose or goal. What is known about the Vadders, or Infiltrators, as they are often also called, is that they usually, but not always exclusively, exist in medium to larger urban areas. Vadders are far more common in the West than the East, but some vadders can be found almost anywhere in the world.

Since Vadders have no common organizational structure they also have no localized or central meeting place of their own, no group meeting house, no place at which they congregate as a large group, no known common method of communication or contact. It is thought that one may only find a Vadder by knowing what or whom to look for and that they will only be discovered as individuals, not as a group or party. The solitary nature of the Vadder is an assumption by those who are not Vadders, it is not a known statement of fact.

Goals & Ideals: Vadders have many separate and divergent reasons for why they Vad. Some Vad because it is a compliment to their already developed skills of thievery, vandalism, and spying. Others Vad for the sheer thrill of exploration and for the pleasure of knowing things few others do. Some vad to learn secrets and to trade in secrets. Some vad for military or law enforcement reasons. Some vad because they enjoy the activity. Some vad as training. And some vad because they love the sensation of danger involved. No single reason exists for Vadding. No single type of individual or class need be, or need not be, a Vadder.

Leadership: There is no known leadership since no hierarchy of any kind exists. Leaders sometimes emerge among small parties of Vadders or in a particular location, but no larger structure of leadership or command or discipline can be said to exist.

Inner Workings: Vadding is the art of Infiltration. It is usually, though not always, a set of specific skills practiced in urban environments. Vadders are sneakers, stealthily making their way into and out of and around areas without drawing attention to themselves or alerting anyone to their presence. If discovered most vadders will flee. If cornered they will have an already well developed cover story and will try to talk themselves out of trouble rather than fight.

Vadding involves infiltrating both occupied and unoccupied areas of an urban environment where people are not usually allowed to go, and escaping again without being detected or apprehended. Between the time periods involved in the first infiltration and the escape almost anything else can happen, and often times will happen.

A typical set of Vadding skills might include: Buildering (the climbing, penetration of, and exploration of buildings), Roofing (reaching and exploring rooftops and moving from roof to roof without being detected), Subterranean (the exploration of subterranean areas of a city; building foundations, waterways, sewer systems, underground storage and merchant routes, old tunnels, etc), Lockpicking and Lock-cracking, Hacking, Surveillance, Cover Story and Negotiation, Archaeological (exacavation and ruins) and Architectural Exploration, Exploitation, Sneaking around places quietly, the art of Urban Camouflage, and Urban Espionage, and so forth. This is not necessarily an exhaustive listing of Vadding skills.

Most vadders carry tools and are expert tool-users and/or toolmakers. Most are also adaptive toolmakers, constructing their own tools in the field if necessary. Most will carry a small set of survival and escape tools with them, often in a small backpack. Some wear a belt with tools attached, and most wear dark or camouflaged clothes to hide their infiltration of an area. Commonly carried tools include: small thieves picks and tools, special tools such as cones for amplifying sound, Vadding keys, disguise kits, colored lenses, light sources, mapping tools, survival gear, and often individually created tools and devices which are unique to a particular vadder.

A Vadder can be practically anyone although certain classes of people gravitate towards the art of vadding, while other classes eschew Vadding and think it beneath them. Those classes and individuals which normally consider vadding beneath them are Nobility, Paladins, most Clerical Types, most Fighters and Soldiers (excluding Scouts), some Wizards, Tradesmen, Craftsmen, Rulers, Bureaucrats, Administrators, and the Academic Classes (excluding students who often make fantastically good Vadders).

Those classes and individuals which naturally gravitate towards Vadding include Rogues of all kinds, Thieves, Assassins, Scouts, and Agents, as well as Rangers and Vigilantes, Law Enforcement, some Merchants, Spies, some Clerics and Missionaries (such as those who work among the poor or who adventure), some Monks, the Bard, naturally inquisitive individuals who love to explore, children (mostly young boys), street urchins and orphans, anyone who loves to know and/or trade upon secrets, and natural loners. Sharpers and acers also often make excellent Vadders. Theses are of course generalizations, and no absolute hard or fast rule can be developed about who or what will become a Vadder. Anyone who has an interest or is so inclined may take up Vadding. It is even rumored in some areas that certain rulers will disguise themselves and vad among the lower classes and more troubled areas of their city to better understand the common opinions of their subjects, and to gain information about the undergorund activities at work within their area of command or influence.

Two player classes, the Barbarian and the Druid make excellent Rudders, a special type of Vadder who tends to vad in outdoor or rural environments. Rural Vadding is called Rudding and rudders tend to vad by infiltrating farms, villages, country houses and manors, outposts, trade routes, caravan routes, mountainous areas, and abandoned ruins found far from any present day or known urban setting. Rangers, Scouts and Vigilantes often make excellent Rudders as well, and will often infiltrate and explore fontier criminal hide-outs as well as enemey outposts.

Vadders are well known as being secretive infiltrators and guides into troubled areas of a city, often helping people enter areas through commonly unknown passages or by unique means, such as through climbing and roofing techniques. They are also often known to have many "underground contacts" and can use these contacts to help others infiltrate areas of an urban environment that most people could never reach, or even come to know of, by legal means. Vadders, being very secretive are not well known, nor even well known of, but can prove invaluable in situations requiring infiltration.

Finally, most Vadders are loners, preferring to operate alone, and to keep their vadding activities a secret to most everyone except their very most trusted friends. However sometimes one may encounter a small party (usually of no more than five individuals) of people who vad as a group. Even in player parties it is not unknown for one or more members of a group to be covert vadders, while the rest of the group is totally ignorant of the vadding skills of the secretive vadder in their midst.

Game Mechanics: May be employed by the DM as NPCs, as allies or as enemies to the playing party. A playing party, or an individual character, may attempt to find a Vadder to train them in the art of infiltration or may simply attempt to learn the skill and art of infiltration by simply taking up Vadding, or learning by trial and error. A particular DM may decide for themselves how to exactly structure the skills of the Vadder and what types of vadders are allowed and how they may interact with the player characters.

And of course any player character that desires to do so and can find a Vadder to train or sponsor him may become a Vadder. A lengthy training process is usually involved however, as well as a certain degree of expense, although the expenses required to train as a Vadder are considerably less than that required to become a Sharper or Acer.

 

[Wombat]

Oh man! I haven't thought about Infiltration 'zine for a couple of years now A great read!

 

[Jack7]

So then I take it you're a vadder Wombat?

Not many outside of Vadders and Urban Explorers have heard of it.

 

[Wombat]

Oddly, no -- I am just utterly tied into the 'Zine scene ... from back into the APA 70s

 

[Jack7]

Oddly, no -- I am just utterly tied into the 'Zine scene ... from back into the APA 70s

That's good enough for me.

 

[Jack7]

The Sharpers and the Acers: being a brief description of two of the Variant Character Profession Types of Terra (our world).

The Sharpers and the Acers are two special types of variant Professional Career paths that can be undertaken by a player in Terra Ghantik. Both, as do the Amaconoi, follow an unconventional or unorthodox career progression that is sometimes very different from those who follow more normative adventuring career paths (though it is somewhat of a misnomer to call adventurers “normal”).

To become either a Sharper or an Acer places more extreme demands upon a character than even those demands forced upon a more normal “adventuring professional,” and therefore the expense in time, money, resources, dangerous training, and so forth dissuades many from the attempt. Nevertheless some adventurers decide to pursue these career paths despite the danger and cost.

The Acers, also known as The Amateurs​

The Acers are a group of individuals who eschew the typical adventuring career path and who seek to avoid the strict and regimented professional path of advancement taken by most adventurers.

Instead of taking a career in a single profession (or class) the Acer prefers to learn skills and capabilities of as many professions as he or she has interest in. Therefore the Acer might decide to learn certain skills possessed by Rogues, decide to learn the fundamentals of science and related technical skills like a Wizard, may learn some of the combat capabilities of the Soldier, and may even learn the meditational or prayer techniques of a Hermit, or the rhetorical or instrumental skill of a Bard.

The Acer does not attempt to be any one thing. Furthermore he does not seek to be an expert on anything in particular, but rather he is a type of what would later be called, The Renaissance Man, or the Polymath. He can do a bit of everything (or rather a little of everything he desires to do) and usually does those things quite well (especially in comparison to the general public).

He will never be the expert combatant that the Soldier becomes, but then again, he has no desire to be a Soldier, but merely to know how to fight better than most other men. He will never be the proto-scientist that the Wizard is, but if he wishes he will come to understand far more about the fundamental nature of the universe than the great majority of people. Acers are usually highly valued for their wide range of skills and capabilities (depending upon personal interest, training, and experience of course) among adventuring parties, but to the general public they are often referred to as the Jack-of-All-Trades, either derisively, or admirably. A minority of adventuring professionals (especially many Rogues, though ironically enough to the general public Acers and Rogues are often synonymous terms) through look upon the Acers as Amateurs and are distrustful of them. Hence, their second and more common appellation to the general public, the Amateurs. The Acers, however, have adopted the term amateur as a sign of respect among themselves, and Acers will often excitedly discuss their own peculiar and individual capabilities with others of their kind, each anxious to learn of some new skill or capability in the other. Some believe that there is a sort of Guild or group association among the Acers, but this is unknown for certain.

What is known is that the path of the Acer is often an expensive proposition. They must find different individual experts in any skill or capability they wish to master to instruct them and the training process is often quite expensive. Thankfully, due to the wide and varied range of skills and knowledge possessed by most Acers, especially as they age and gain life experience, they often require no more, or even less, time than non-Acers to master specific skills or capabilities. Most of those who train an Acer however will not reveal higher-level professional knowledge to the Acer, considering that proprietary to their profession. For instance a Soldier might very well train an Acer to fight very well, but not train the Acer for combat as well as he would another Soldier under his command. However some Acers develop a bartering system of “favors” with which they can trade for more advanced training, and some develop long-term relationships with their trainers and masters and eventually some masters are willing to teach some Acers even their most advanced techniques, skills, training, or knowledge. Acers however are not limited to gaining the skills and capacities of the various “adventuring professions.” They may seek to become trained in, and proficient in, any profession, from bookbinding to philosophy to banking and money lending to hunting. Anything an Acer desires to learn he can pursue, given the proper training and trainer, and given the necessary time and expense to master the subject, skill, or capability. Some Acers even become de facto Sages, the type of Sage who has an encyclopedic range of knowledge and skills. Though most Acers, even into old age prefer the active life to the sedentary or academic life.

Most Acers, however, compensate for their lack of more sophisticated expert knowledge regarding any given specialty or profession they train in by mastering a wide and sometimes even staggering array of knowledge and capabilities in a variety of different, complimentary, or related subject matters. In addition many Acers are superb toolmakers and tool-users, making them very useful in a number of circumstances.

Acers are often highly valued as “independent agents” or lone operatives, and sometimes Acers become Vadders as well, so that they also become excellent infiltrators and spies. For this reason, many Agents and Scouts (Rogue Types) often consider the Acer a sort of direct and dangerous competition towards their livelihood and are therefore generally hostile towards Acers. However many Bards consider Acers excellent and fascinating companions, as do Wizards and Monks. Vadders often think of Acers as some of the most proficient of their kind.


My next post will discuss the Sharpers

 

[Jack7]

The Sharpers, also known as The Cryptoi​

The Sharpers are not to be confused with the Amaconoi (the Polyprofessional or the Multiclassed) as they are a different type of individual altogether.

The Sharper is not an individual who chooses two professions to pursue simultaneously, nor is he an Acer who chooses to pursue many different skills and capabilities from a wide range of occupations but concentrating upon none. Rather he is an individual who chooses to pursue a single occupation or profession but also has an interest (or interests) in other subjects of personal concern which he then seeks to add to his overall repertoire of skills and capabilities.

In this sense then the Sharper is like a normal adventuring professional who also chooses to pursue some skills and capabilities of other professions in basically the same way as does the Acer. The Sharper however, unlike the Acer, does choose a single profession upon which to concentrate and never changes his profession, nor does he seek to pursue any other profession to the same degree of intensity as he does his given profession, but he rather seeks to enhance his own professional capacities with skills and capabilities from other classes. Generally speaking the sharper usually limits his cross-classed repertoire to those skills normally associated with the “professional adventuring classes” because of the time and expense involved in becoming trained in these “outside capabilities.” It is, however, not unheard of to discover a Sharper who knows how to dye silk or how to farm or how to make candles or whittle a flute from a Fir branch.

Sharpers may come from or originate from any class or profession, and then learn certain skills and capabilities from any other class or profession, though usually in the same basic way as does the Acer, including the time and expense devoted to the acquisition of whatever they desire. As is the case with the Acer many other professions are sometimes leery and suspicious of the Soldier who wants to learn how to pick a lock or the Agent who desires to know how to mix chemicals together to create a toxic cloud of chlorine. Indeed sometimes the expense and training requirements for Sharpers are even more exorbitant than that of the Acer due to this lack of trust on the part of distrustful trainers. And sometimes the suspicion is even justified. For this reason many Sharpers often seek training in disguise, or under a false or assumed name and occupation.

Sharpers often spend less time directly “in the field” than many other adventuring professionals due to the time they spend training in “unusual” capabilities. Sharpers after all must spend time “sharpening” themselves. However, when Sharpers do take to the field to go adventuring they are called Sharpers for a very good reason. They are often at a very real and practical advantage in comparison to their non-Sharping associates. Sharpers are often the very most capable professionals in any team of adventurers, as well as often being the most versatile and adaptable in any given situation. Sharpers wear their un-official title as a badge of honor and many others respect their remarkable array of practical capabilities. When a Sharper also becomes a Vadder he or she usually develops over time a “clientele” of powerful and wealthy individuals or organizations who tend to employ the Sharper for secret or clandestine missions.

Oddly enough because of their tendency towards secretiveness and to spending time away from their adventuring group pursuing their individual training interests many Sharpers are also looked upon as being loners, outcasts, anti-social, eccentric, or are even viewed with mild suspicion by their own comrades. Sharpers rarely discuss with anyone what skills or capabilities they are trained in (this is often a requirement imposed upon them by their trainers) until such time as their skills and training are needed. Therefore, to many of their friends, associates, and companions they are simply “away again pursuing their own private interests.”

Because of this tendency to engage in enigmatic and unexplained behavior, and because Sharpers sometimes disappear without warning for large periods of time to pursue secret training, they are occasionally referred to by their underground name, the Cryptoi.


Next, the Amaconoi

 

[Jack7]

The Amaconoi, or the Polyprofessionals​

The Amaconoi appear in both our world (Terra) and in the Other World (Ghantik), though usually in different forms, or ways. The Amaconoi are simply characters who at one time or another, or through one means or another, have pursued more than one adventuring profession (a character may pursue any number of non-adventuring professions and still not be considered Amaconoi, though such professions may yield character benefits beyond that of a normal adventuring character, but in this case I refer specifically to what is often called the “multi-classed”).

In our world, the Amaconoi is called Polyeoma. In Ghantik the Amaconoi character is called Endeilr, meaning, literally, the Opportune.

A character may become Amaconoi in one of three ways.

1. He may begin his adventuring career in any profession. At any time after first level he may then take on a new profession, assuming he can find someone to help him train for his new career. He may then continue on, devoting himself to whichever career at any given time he so desires. For instance, a character may begin as a Barbarian in our world and later become a Bard. For one adventure, or campaign, he may concentrate all of his efforts and training upon his profession as a Barbarian, and for another campaign or adventure concentrate all of his efforts and training upon being a Bard. He may continue in this way building up proficiency and levels in any manner he chooses for either profession and at any rate of progression he so desires.

2. He may begin as described in the first pathway, or example cited above, but once he takes upon himself a second profession then all gained experience, as well as advantage gained from training or from any other means is then split evenly between his two various professions.

3. He may begin his adventuring career with two separate professions from the outset, and as he gains proficiency and experience then all advantages are evenly split between the two various professions.


The exception to the three ways or paths for becoming Amaconoi is on Ghantik where the third way (or starting with two professions) is the common practice. Though the Adharma (giants), do sometimes follow the first and second way of becoming Endeilr.


The Amaconoi never become Acers or Sharpers, they are considered a type unto themselves. However, any Amaconoi may become a Vadder given time, training, and proper expense.