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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4772901" data-attributes="member: 54707">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:<a href="http://www.infiltration.org/" target="_blank">Infiltration</a><a href="http://www.opacity.us/" target="_blank">opacity.us - Abandoned Photography and Urban Exploration</a><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/" target="_blank">Abandoned Stations</a><a href="http://www.fallout-ue.com/home/" target="_blank">Fallout Urban Exploration</a>Here is a link to a few of my recent Vads and Ruds though I rarely have time to Vad much anymore:<a href="http://themissal.blogspot.com/2006/10/humours-of-idleness-rudding-expedition.html" target="_blank">The Missal: Humours of Idleness - Rudding Expedition to Ruins</a><a href="http://themissal.blogspot.com/2006/10/secret-mission-new-expedition-rudding.html" target="_blank">The Missal: The Secret Mission - New Expedition: Rudding the Cedars Along the Falls</a><a href="http://themissal.blogspot.com/2006/11/going-vadding.html" target="_blank">The Missal: Going Vadding</a>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.<img src="https://ssl.sunyit.edu/home5/blogfiles/luberap/williams-collector-montreal-sewer-urban-exploration.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />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.<img src="http://www.forbidden-places.net/explos/20/1l.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />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. <img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2322/1507761433_5f4b9aba14_o.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />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.</blockquote>

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