Welcome to the second post of my new project, Tales of Calvenor, an amalgam of solo-roleplaying in the background and fantasy fiction in the foreground. If you went on holiday and wonder what the hell happened to Age of Wonders, check out last week’s installment, which gives a broad outline of what I’m doing here and introduces you to the core game system: Tales of Argosa. We have a lot to do today so let’s dive in.

Disclaimer: If you’re only interested in the story and would rather skip the tabletop roleplaying stuff, today is not for you. Check back next week for the first chapter and you can ignore everything below. Today I’m tackling all the juicy game stuff that took many posts in Age of Wonders: I’m rolling up three characters (teaching the system as we go) and discussing any rules tweaks that I’m contemplating.

Welcome, anaislalovi!

Before we jump into the game stuff, I’d like to warmly welcome anaislalovi, the artist who will bring the characters from today to life. Isn’t the cover art on these posts amazing? That’s a stock image I purchased from her DriveThruRPG shop, and is by © anaislalovi, used with permission, all rights reserved (I’ll be adding this same language to the custom photos she’s done of our three protagonists… don’t be a jerk and steal her stuff). Custom artwork, you say? Yes indeedy! See below for more. Thank you, Ana, and I’m thrilled to be working with you!

A Brief Note on the World

Learning from my last project, I picked up the astounding Tome of Worldbuilding from Mythmere Games. Highly recommended. It’s an amazing tool, and really, really helped me nail down what I hope are primary ways this world will come to life for you as a reader and me as a storyteller. Rest assured that I have… um, many pages of deep exploration across various parts of this world that will help ground me as I play and write. Rather than reveal the results of working with the Tome, I’m going to let these details come out in the fiction, starting next week.

Suffice it to say, this is a low-magic fantasy setting. Our story will take place on the continent of Nomun, which translates to “The Known Lands,” and is made up of dozens of principalities sparring along uneasy borders. We’re starting in the Princehold of Calvenor, one of those principalities, on the eastern edge of the continent. More specifically, our story begins in The Redwood Marches, a broad set of settlements around a bay along Calvenor’s coast. Our protagonists all hail from Oakton, a large coastal city in the Marches. That’s a lot of names, but gives you at least the main hierarchy of locations. Each boldface entry above sits within the entry before it.

Introducing Vessa

There are seventeen listed steps in the Tales rulebook for character creation, which sounds like a lot but many of them are simple and quick. Plus, again, it’s a system that’s easy to puzzle out if you’ve played any traditional role-playing game. Let’s dive into our first protagonist…

Step 1 is to roll for Race. I’m going to slant the rolls here, since my setting is dominated by humans. I’ll roll a d10 to begin, with 1-9 being Human. If I roll a 10, I’ll then roll the table as suggested, a d12. I roll a 1. Human it is! Humans are great in ways that will become clear throughout this process.

Next, I roll d66 for Background. What’s a d66? It means rolling 2d6 but instead of adding them, you use one number as a tens integer and the other as a ones integer. I roll 52, which is Street Acrobat! Cool. That grants her (I’m sticking with at least two of the three characters being female) a +1 Dexterity (max 16), the Acrobatics skill (which grants a +1 bonus to relevant checks and allows for using a precious Reroll on failed checks), and a 10’ pole. Okay that last one is my least favorite old-school item because of how immersion-breaking it is for me, but we’ll make it work.

Step 3 is generating Attributes by “rolling 3d6 seven times and allocate the results in order to Str, Dex, Con, Int, Perc, Will, and Cha. You must have at least one attribute of 13 or higher and another of 15 or higher. If not, increase one attribute of your choosing to 13, and/or one to 15, as required. You may then also swap any two Attribute scores, if desired.”

Here we go! Strength 13, Dexterity 12, Constitution 9, Intelligence 10, Perception 17 (!), Willpower 16 (!), Charisma 9. Wow, those are some amazing rolls. From the rulebook, high Perception means “your character has excellent aim, a sixth sense for danger, and notices subtle details.” I’ll keep that high, but swap my Dex and Will scores, giving her a Dexterity of 16 and Willpower of 12. Because she’s Human, she gets an additional +1 to a single score, not to exceed 16. I’ll give it to Constitution, slightly increasing her hit points. She’ll now have a +3 modifier to Perception, +2 to Dexterity checks, a +1 for Strength, and no negative modifiers. Wheee!

Step 4, based on the rolls so far, I choose my Class. The two that make the most sense are Ranger, which relies on Perception and is a ranged specialist, and Rogue, which relies on Dexterity and backstabbing. Given her Background, Rogue feels like the obvious choice. That gives me a bunch of class abilities, equipment, skills, and such as detailed below.

As with all first level characters, her Luck is 11 and Dark & Dangerous Magic (DDM) score is 1 (more on what this score means if she ever tries to cast a spell or interact with a magic item). Because she’s Human, she gains 2 Rerolls. What are Rerolls? Exactly as you’d expect, though we’ll get into these more during play.

The next three steps are calculated scores. Her Initiative is the average of her Int and Dex scores, rounded down, so 13. Her Hit Points, as a Rogue, are her Con score + Levelx2, which is 12. And her Death Save score is 10 + either her Con or Will modifier, whichever is greater. Both are zero, so she has a score of 10.

Step 9 involves tallying her Skills. She already has Acrobatics, and being a Rogue automatically adds Stealth, Sleight of Hand, and Traps & Locks, all of which are self-explanatory. In addition, she rolls d10 for three additional skills and I roll: General Lore, Gather Info, and Apothecary. Those first two make sense: She’s streetwise and good at rumormongering. I’ll have to think about why she’s also a decent healer.

Probably the most fun step is Class Abilities. As a Rogue, she’ll gain a) Backstab, which helps her ambush and assassinate her foes, b) Finisher, which helps her pick off injured foes, and c) two Tricks: Glue Pot and Cat’s Grace, each of which can be used once at 1^st level (she can regain these uses on rests).  

In terms of Gear, Tales of Argosa uses a modern system of Gear slots. She gains half her Str (5) each in Battle Gear (things that can be accessed in combat) and Pack Gear (things that can be accessed outside of combat) slots. All characters begin with a bedroll, torch, tinderbox, and rations, all in Pack Gear. She also has that 10’ pole, plus thieves’ tools, leather armor, a shortsword, and dagger thanks to her Background and Class. That takes up all her Pack Gear slots and 3/5 Battle Gear ones. I’d like to get her a ranged weapon because of that sweet Perception bonus, but with only 10 starting silver coins, she’ll have to wait.

We’re in the final stretch of character creation! Her Armor Class is 10 +1 for leather armor and +2 for her Dex modifier, for a total of 13. Her Attack bonus is 0 as a Rogue, +1 for melee and +3 for ranged thanks to Str and Perc, respectively. Meanwhile, her Age is 1d20+16 years. I roll 2, so she’s 18 years old. So young for this life of danger!

I have a custom name generator for this land, and her name is Vessa Velthorn. Some nice alliteration there. Per the rulebook’s suggestion, I’ll roll on the Tales of Argosa hireling personality and traits tables for inspiration. Oh my! She’s a “lotus addict” (hello explanation for Apothecary!) and has a broken nose. A true rogue through and through, I’d say.

The final, seventeenth step of character creation is Party Bonds, which we can’t do until we have a party.

See? Easy stuff. Even having never made a single Tales of Argosa character before, the game is elegant and the rulebook easy to follow. Here’s how her character sheet looks after this process, plus anaislalovi’s awesome depiction:

Welcome to the team, Vessa! Let’s see who she’s facing danger alongside…

Introducing Alric

For our second character, let’s return to Step 1. I roll a d10 for Race and get 8, another Human. A d66 for Background gets me 55: Scribe! That’s a +1 to Int (16 max), the General Lore skill, and a parchment & ink in gear. Already very different from Vessa! Love it. I’ll also make this a man to shake things up a bit.

General Attributes do a lot to define the character, of course. I roll 11 Strength, 7 Dexterity, 12 Constitution, 11 Intelligence, 14 Perception, 11 Willpower, and 13 Charisma. Excellent. I’ll swap Perception and Intelligence, which with his +1 makes 15 Int. I’ll also add the +1 from being Human to Willpower. That means his only positive modifiers are +2 Intelligence and +1 Charisma, with -1 Dexterity. Not impressive by any means but he meets the minimum standards. What’s up with that Dex? My son was born with club feet, so that’s the first explanation that popped into my head, and that’s how I’ll explain his Dex score.

Next is Class, and I believe we’ve found our Magic User for the party. Or maybe… Just kidding. We love spellcasters, so if there’s a chance for a Magic User, a Magic User he shall be.

His Luck, Rerolls, and DDM are the same as Vessa (11, 2, 1). His Death Save is 10, also the same. His Initiative is a nice, average 11. He has an impressive (for a Magic User) 13 Hit Points.

Skills-wise, he gains Arcane Lore and Apothecary, and he gets three more determined randomly: Detection, Divine Lore, and Stealth. Interesting. This guy certainly fits as a scholar: So much Lore. What’s up with the Stealth, though? Sneaking through the scroll stacks to steal forbidden knowledge, perhaps?

In Class Abilities, a Magic User gets… spells! At first level, he’ll know two spells based on d100 rolls: Sever Arcanum (basically Dispel Magic) and Cradle of Formlessness (basically Gaseous Form). Weird! He can cast one spell per rest at first level, whichever one he wants each time. He also can, twice per adventure, use Sense Magic (basically Detect Magic).

Next is Gear, and thanks to 11 Str our Magic User has the same gear slots as our Rogue. Two of those five Battle Gear slots go to a spellbook and a longsword (I see you, Tales!). Meanwhile, all the Pack Gear slots are taken thanks to the same bedroll, torch, rations, tinderbox, and parchment & ink. Like Vessa, he’ll have leather armor.

…Which is good, because his Armor Class is 10 +1 for the armor and -1 for Dex. That 10 AC is scary. No Attack Bonuses, but he does have a few languages: Calvenor (i.e. common) and two others that I’ll figure out later. Age-wise, he is 3+16… 19! A young crew. I was picturing him as significantly older up until that roll.

In fact, now that I know that he’s a teenage scribe just finding his way into magic, his longsword makes less sense. I love the idea of a mage with a real weapon, but I’m going to give him the silver for the sword and then spend 1sp on a boring old, stereotypical Gandalf staff.

Who is this magical dabbler? His name is Alric Mistsong, a club-footed young man who is, according to random tables, quite blunt (that will be fun to write!). I’m curious how he and Vessa know one another, but we’ll get to Pact Bonds after our final protagonist.

Here are Alric’s character sheet and portrait:

Introducing Maelen

Let’s meet our final PC! Once again, we begin with a roll for Race and get another 8. Easy Squeezy… even without my tilted, homebrewed odds, all three protagonists are Human.

For Background I roll a 24, which is Brigand! That will give her (yes, back to a female character) +1 to Strength (max 16), the skill Stealth, and, hilariously, a wine flask. The dice have created a really balanced party if this one can handle fighting.

To that end, here come the Attribute rolls: 12 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 11 Constitution, 12 Intelligence, 12 Perception, 11 Willpower, 11 Charisma. That’s about the most average, even rolling I’ve ever done in a “roll down the line” set of scores. Funnily enough, it also doesn’t meet the minimum requirements of at least one 15 or higher. The rulebook allows me to then bump one of my choice to 15, which will obviously be Str. With the Background bonus, that makes her Strength 16. I then have a +1 from being Human, which I’ll add to Constitution. Great.

Class feels obvious. It’s a Fighter, right? I suppose she could have also been a Barbarian, or even a Monk. But yeah… she’s a Fighter, and can definitely “handle fighting.”

Once again, Luck, Rerolls, and DDM are 11, 2, and 1. Her Initiative is a respectable 13. Thanks to her Class, her Hit Points are a more-than-respectable 16. Her Death Save is 11.

Next, we turn to Skills. She already has Stealth (something all three characters have… maybe I’ll build in some infiltration somehow into their adventures), and being a Fighter adds Leadership, Athletics, and three rolled randomly: Gather Info (also there for all three!), Animal Lore, and Traps and Locks. Yep, she’s definitely a scoundrel.

What Class Abilities do Fighters receive? First, she’s Adaptable, able to access multiple fighting styles. She begins with two (her Str modifier) styles: Two-Hander (gains “advantage” when rolling damage) and Opportunist (can get a second attack when a foe drops to zero HP). Like spells, she can use one of these abilities per rest. Her second ability is Deadly Strikes, expanding her crit range to 19-20. Cool!

Her starting Gear as a Fighter is, of course, slanted towards bloodshed. She has a whopping 8 slots each for Battle Gear and Pack Gear. In terms of Battle Gear, she begins with a longsword and shield, but I’m not loving a shield for a brigand who wields a sword two-handed, so I’m going to eschew it and give her the 20 silver pieces instead. She also gains a chain shirt. For Pack Gear, she has the standard array of bedroll, torch, rations, and tinderbox, plus that wine flask. Might she buy something else? For now, I’ll give her a dagger for 1sp. After that, I’ll have to think about whether she would buy a bow and arrows or not.

Even without the shield, her Armor Class is a sweet 14 (10 +3 for the chain shirt +1 Dex). Her Attack Bonus as a Fighter plus her Attribute modifiers are an equally sweet +3 for melee and +2 for ranged. How about age? I roll 5+16… 21. She’s still young, but the eldest of our trio. I really thought we’d have more age diversity, but I rolled 2, 3, and 5 on three d20 rolls!

Consulting my own charts and the hireling ones in the book, her name is Maelen Marrosen, a callous, hardscrabble mercenary with a “lucky pet.” Heh… let’s give an ode to Age of Wonders and make her pet a mouse named Tatter. I also love how this detail ties into her Animal Lore skill.

Well, it’s certainly a scruffier crew of characters than my last story, and perfect for a Sword & Sorcery tale. Let’s roll some Pact Bonds to see if we can puzzle out how and why these three find themselves adventuring with one another. For my first bond, I roll a 42 on d66 and get “Joint debt to someone/thing.” That sounds like our Rogue and Fighter’s bond. I rolled a second bond to see how Alric fits in, but I didn’t like the result and have another idea that… can kick off our story next time!

I don’t know if I was simply lucky or if the system is just that good, but I’ve ended up with a balanced party of interesting characters and am thrilled. I’m tempted to force a cleric (in Tales, called a Cultist) into the mix for a classic old-school band of PCs, but I’ll let the dice tell the story for now. Maybe they’ll find a cultist along the way.

Any Rule Tweaks?

As I’ve mentioned many times in this blog, as I read through Crusaders as the backbone of my Age of Wonders story, I made a metric ton of homebrewed rules changes. As I’ve also said many times, I consider the ability to make these sorts of changes a strength of a rules-light system, and these tweaks enhanced my experience with the game. Imagine, then, my enthusiasm when Tales of Argosa explicitly states, “The GM is the final authority of all rules, which are expected to be tweaked to fit table preferences.”

That said, I find myself ready to embrace Tales right out of the proverbial box, without any need to mess with anything yet. I’ll likely lean more heavily on the Mythic GM Emulator for solo play than what’s directly in the suggested solo play rules, and I’m sure to find little ways (like the Race rolls above) to tilt the game slightly towards my setting. Other than that, I’m happy with what I’m reading so far.

The only rule that I considered changing is that attack rolls are the only place in the game where you want to roll high on a d20, whereas all other rolls you want to roll low. That strikes me as odd. I’m no lover of THAC0, but just for the sheer elegance of it, I wondered about essentially making AC a low number (so, Maelen’s 14 AC would become 6), rolling low to hit. It’s an easy change, though it does mean that any “nat19” mentions become “nat2” and probably a few other conventions that would need me to flip-flop my brain. In the end, I decided it was a cosmetic change that forced me into more thinking than I needed for something that ultimately would function the same way. All of that said, it’s still in the back of my brain in case the inconsistency bothers me.

Oh, and I should also say that my intention heading into this project is not only to play Tales of Argosa as it’s written out of the box, but to do the same with Mythic GM Emulator. I only started dabbling with Mythic towards the end of Age of Wonders, but this time I’m going to try and follow it as Tana Pigeon and the book suggest, using as many of the tools as possible. The result will likely be lengthier “game notes” versions of each weekly installment, and more reliance on random rolls.

As always, if you’re enjoying these posts or have suggestions, drop me a comment below or feel free to email me at jaycms@yahoo.com.

Next: Our story begins [with game notes]