Ethos Magazine 01.pdf

Issue 01, February 2003

Ethos Magazine - An Unofficial D&D Ezine

ethos magazine

Issue 01, February 2003

INSIDE:

Interview with Steve Creech

of D20 Magazine Rack.

Fantasy Short Fiction.

Is your mini cool? A review

or miniatures for use in

D&D.

Ryan Boell, formerly of

Asgard, brings us the new

Story Craft.

Plus Gaming News &

Rumours

www.ethos.curvedspaces.com

Issue 01, February 2003

Ethos Magazine - An Unofficial D&D Ezine

editorial

Hi guys. Welcome to the first

issue of Ethos Magazine.

Ethos is looking to be the best

ezine on the web yet. We have an

excellent staff and some good

submissions, plus my skills as an

editor and layout artist, have gone

together beautifully to make this

wonderful ezine. On behalf of my

staff, we thank you for taking the

time to read this, the first issue,

and invite you to subscribe to the

mailing list and receive next

month’s by email.

editorial

have accepted.

Finally, I want to thank you, the

reader, for finding our site and

downloading our first issue.

Thanks!

This month all the staff are

showing off their writing skills.

Clayton, our resident cartographer,

has a quick adventure ‘add-on’,

which will fit into any campaign

setting with relatively little

difficulty. Chris Morris, my best

friend and a modelling and

miniatures specialist, talks about

using miniatures in Dungeons &

Dragons. Ryan Boell, formerly of

Asgard Magazine, begins a new

series of StoryCraft articles with us.

This month’s is on generating

adventure hooks randomly using

cards. We spoke to Steven Creech

of the d20 Magazine Rack and d20

Zine! about him and the d20

publishing industry. Dimitrii gives

his spirited response to a website

which is damning all role-play. And

finally, yours truly writes about

advanced role-playing technique in

the first of two articles. I’ll leave

you to enjoy it.

ethos magazine

credits

Editor

James Henley

Staff Editors

Clayton Bunce

Daniel Crocker

Staff Writers

Dimitrii Pavlov

Ryan Boell

Dominique Crouzet

Bruce Gulke

Chris Morris

Ilustrators

Herman Lau

John Bingham

John O’Connor

Cover Illustration

White Dragon Attack by John

Bingham.

I couldn’t leave you to consume our

first issue without offering my

thanks to a few people. Here they

are.

Thank you, of course to my

wonderful staff team, from Dmitrii

and Clayton with their enthusiasm

and dedication to the experienced

Bruce, Ryan and John O’Connor.

Thank you also to Herman and

John Bingham (whose excellent art

is displayed on the front cover) my

other two illustrators. And, finally,

thank you to all the other staff

members.

Thank you to all those on the

ENWorld message boards who

offered advice and constructive

criticism and thank you especially

to Steve Creech of the D20

Magazine Rack and editor of ‘D20

Zine!’, for his support and for his

original offer of joining the

Magazine Rack syndicate, which we

See you next month,

contents

Regulars

:-P

Editorial

James Henley,

Editor.

StoryCraft

#1: “Fate, fortune and fabulous

adventures!”

'd20 System' and the d20 System logo are trademarks of Wizards of the

Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used with permission.

Dungeons & Dragons and Wizards of the Coast are registered trademarks of

Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used with

permission.

Some of this magazine, where marked, is Open Game Content under the Open

Game Licence version 1.0a. All text and art not marked as Open Gaming

used with permission by Ethos Magazine. You are free to use this material for

personal use, but commercial distribution of the materials is prohibited

without the express permission of the copyright holder.

The Sojourner’s Diary

Opulentium Arcus: The City of

Canals

Features

Advanced Role-Play

Treatise on Father Ramos 10

Speaking of Ezines...

D&D Models for Begin-

ners… and Halflings

Resources

Prestige Class: Crying

Freeman

submissions

Ethos Magazine will accept submissions from anyone as long as

they follow the appropriate guidelines at www.ethos.0c atch.com/

submissions.htm. Email your submissions to

ethosmagazine@hotmail.com.

submissions

Prestige Class: Carteo-

mancer

Core Class: Investigator

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Issue 01, February 2003

Ethos Magazine - An Unofficial D&D Ezine

#1: "fate, fortune and

#1:

"fate, fortune and

fabulous adventures!"

The first in the new series of StoryCraft by Ryan Boell

Some people have problems

coming up with great

storylines for their

adventures. Most people get

stuck or have writer's block.

What I have found that helps

me is two tools that I have and

use quite constantly. They

dont cost much actually,

maybe $20.00 each. One is

the Alastair Crowley Toth

Tarot deck. The cards have

words at the bottom of them.

The other tool I use is a card

game from Atlas-Games

called Once Upon A Time . Its

a storytelling game in which a

group of people have to

collectivly string a story

together. I find both of these

help and i will give examples

of each.

(Works) - Reversed, The Sun

and 2 Disks (Change)

turn for the worse. Lets use

the hometown scenario, shall

we?

I draw another card, Ooh,

The Devil. This means

ambition, blind impulse,

temptation, secret plan about

to be executed. Well, now we

know what is going on with

the town, but why and by

whom? Two more cards

please. The Ace of Disks and

the Queen of Swords. For

those who aren't into the

pagan arts, a book comes with

these cards so you can look up

some of the meanings. The

Ace of Disks means the

beginning of money, finances,

wealth and so forth. The

Queen of Swords means

perceptive, graceful, keen

observer. Hmm. That doesn't

fit. However, we'll reverse it

so it reads; cruel, sly,

deceitful, superficial

attractiveness which makes

her more dangerous.

Hmm. I smell a lot of

potential here. A rich and

wealthy woman who is cruel,

sly and very cunning and

beautiful. A motive is what we

need now, a reason for her to

Reversed.

Works means things like

business, paid employment,

growth and increase of

material things. This is

reversed, so it is the opposite

of these things. The Sun

means glory, gain, riches,

truth. Change means just

that, harmony of change,

alteration of loss and gain,

weakness and strength, etc.

So one possible way to see

this plot is: The PCs have

exhausted their wealth and

finances and now, their

employment with their

contractor has run up. So

they leave and start seeking

out glories, riches and fame.

After all, that is what

adventurers do, isn't it? They

return to a hometown or a

place they know real well to

find that things have changed

quite a bit. A favorite leader

is no longer a leader, the

towns wealth has decreased

considerably, where it was

safe, it is now dangerous.

Now we have a part of a plot.

A familiar place has taken a

Alastair Crowley Toth Tarot

Cards

I shuffled the deck and now I

pull cards. Usually you need a

conflict and a reason for

conflict. The one thing to

understand is that, when a

card is upside-down (also

known as reversed), it means

the opposite of what it means.

I pulled 3 cards: 3 Disks

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Issue 01, February 2003

Ethos Magazine - An Unofficial D&D Ezine

turn the heroes hometown

upside down. Three more

cards reveal: Knight of

Wands, The Chariot (Reversed)

and 10 Swords - Ruin

(Reversed). The Knight of

Wands means a man of

generosity, prideful and swift.

The Chariot means

Faithfulness, success, victory.

But it is reversed so it means

authority under authority,

violence in mating traditional

ideas and lust of destruction.

The 10 Swords is reversed so

the reversal means spiritually

may end the delusion.

Well, weaving them together,

this is what I have.

speak about their missing

friend and they will notice she

is extremely beautiful and will

try to use the male PCs

against each other. The other

PCs will try to figure out what

is going on and will find the

priests son in hiding. He will

explain the woman came to

town and the plague hit. He

has proof she is a demon. He

saw her with a true seeing

spell. She is in actuality, a

succubus.

Teaming up with the priest's

son, they find their friend ...

So, following the example

above, I shall shuffle the

cards. I will draw 5 cards and

see if i can weave them into a

descent story. The fun thing

with these cards are, if you

don't like a card, discard and

draw again. My five cards

are: Transformation, Happy,

Cottage, Parent and Home. I

think i will discard Home and

Happy. My two new cards are:

Tree and Gypsy. My hand now

reads: Tree, Gypsy,

Transformation, Cottage and

Parent. Now this has started

some sparking in my brain.

Once Upon A Time, there was

a cottage on the outskirts of a

small village where a gypsy

lived. Now we discard the two

cards Cottage and Gypsy and

draw two more. I drew

Sleeping and Singing.

One day, a child went missing

and a nosey, uptight parent

came searching for her and

the gypsy was tired of the

accusations of kidnapping the

child, transformed the parent

into a large tree with a gypsy

curse.

Same as before. Discard

Parent, Transformation and

Tree. Drew three more:

River, Old Woman and Long

Lost. I don’t think I can use

River, so, I'll discard it for

another. The new card is

Blind.

The child grew up without its

parents and eventually

became a blind, old woman...

ok. Im stumped. So i pull

another card and come up

with the Ace of Wands. Aces

are beginnings and wands are

spirituality and fire. *snaps*

Adventure Plot #1

The PCs have exhausted their

wealth and finances and now,

their employment with their

contractor has run up. So

they leave and start seeking

out glories, riches and fame.

After all, that is what

adventurers do, isn't it? They

return to one of the PCs

hometown. The towns wealth

has decreased considerably,

where it was safe, it is now

dangerous. And the local

priest (the guy or gal who

married one of the PCs

parents, or even a mentor to a

priest PC) has vanished and

the local church is now under

new management.

The new priest is a man in his

mid to late 30s. He seems

very cordial although aloof at

first. When the PCs start

poking around, he informs

them the town leader (mayor

or whomever) had past away

due to a disease and as law,

his daughter has taken over.

They should see her if they

wish to find their priest friend.

The PCs will inquire about the

new ruler and many peasants

will be uneasy and sing her

praises. Some local arcanists

will say that she is in league

with devils and demons. They

will meet her and she will

accept them into her home to

…Teaming up with the

priest's son, they find their

friend in a local burned down

church that has been

abandoned for quite a while.

There they will find the way to

defeat the succubus and

regain control over the town.

See? With just a few cards, we

pulled an adventure together

in just a few minutes. No

more borrowing from modules

or books or even TV shows

and movies. These tarot cards

will definitely spark your

imagination!

Once Upon A Time Cards

With Once Upon A Time

Cards, you are given a set of

cards that have staple

ingredients of a typical fairy

tale story. You are also given

Happy Ever After Cards to

help you end the story but

we're going to ignore those

because as we all know in role-

playing, all things don’t

exactly end happily ever after.

The cards also come with what

are called Interupts . We will

be using these but not

interrupting. If you have the

game, this will make much

more sense.

See what you can do easily

with a deck of story cards and

or tarot cards? Why don't you

try an adventure using one of

the above methods and send it

to me at

Angelsboi21@hotmail.com.

Let me know what you have

done and what c ards you have

used.

As always, happy adventuring

and till 30!

www.ethos.curvedspaces.com

Issue 01, February 2003

Ethos Magazine - An Unofficial D&D Ezine

opulentium arcus: the

city of canals

opulentium arcus: the

city of canals

The first in a series of stand-alone scenarios to add to your campaign by Clayton Bunce.

Welcome!

Opulentium Arcus is the

premier installment of The

Sojourner’s Diary. The

premise is to present a stand-

alone scenario that can be

used to inspire a new

campaign, expand an existing

campaign, or fill in gaps for a

one -night gaming session.

Some ge neral details and

maps for each setting are

provided, but plenty of room is

left for the GMs’ devises,

enabling them to alter

whatever is desired to fit into

their campaign world. In the

future, look here for new

cities, castles, dungeons,

temples, and much more-- all

with unusual locations,

attributes, histories, and

purposes. If you have a great

idea for a future installment

of The Sojourner’s Diary,

please let us know! Good

Gaming!

made an overland road

network viable and attracted

thousands to the area.

The docks and wharves

of Opulentium can service as

many as twenty fully laden

vessels at a time, and often

the bay itself has as many as

a dozen ships waiting for

permission to put in. Once

offloaded, cargo makes its

way to barges that maneuver

through the twenty-foot deep

canal system to the trade

depots and commodity

processors, which line the

canals. After that, the goods

go to the trade caravans for

further travel and distribution

or to merchants to be bought.

The Arcus, responsible for

managing the port, is housed

in the Arcus Lighthouse on the

northwest tip of the bay. Its

forty employees are charged

with the maintenance of the

canals and docks and work

close beside the many other

dockworkers dealing with the

transport of freight to and

from the ships.

A population of 20,000

enjoys the fruits of the trade

company’s labors —plenty of

work, food, and wealth. It is

also a magnet for

opportunists. The Ereptoris

Faction, the largest thieves’

guild, is legendary for its

ingenuity and subterfuge.

Lead by Ar’hon Buchetan (11 th

L. Human Thief/Illusionist),

the Ereptors create complex

and minutely detailed capers,

which identify and target the

rare cargoes that come

through the city. They have a

tenuous relationship with the

Ghal Trading Company

(located at (5) on the map), a

thinly veiled front for a black

market fence network. This

organization is impressive,

though, with a number of

resources at its command,

including ships, caravans, and

stealthy agents in disguise

who keep shaded eyes

watchful for any new

opportunities to report

anything useful to their

masters, kidnap the elite for

ransom, and carry out

punishments on those who

interfere in the company’s

black market activities.

Several other notable

trade operators in Opulentium

are the Aquia Ferrum, Gray

Traders, and The Vexillum.

The Circumscribers are an

order of monks that call the

Parchment Abbey (10) home;

specializing in trading in

spices, they are well-known for

their meticulous record-

keeping of the current and

past prices for most of what is

traded in Opulentium. The

Copper Keepers (9) also claim

their share of profits, but

behind their title lurks an

alliance of pirates, hell-bent

on commandeering a share of

the Ghal’s profits. More than

once a confrontation between

the se two organizations has

resulted in blood on the piers

and ships flaming in the port

waters. The Grandiculum

Mercatus (2), itself - a huge,

hexagonal expanse of

property set aside as an

around-the -clock bazaar - is

the epicenter of commerce

and the haggling, wheeling,

dealing, and scamming place

of hundreds of merchants who

Opulentium Arcus

The founders of Opulentium

took advantage of the

naturally calm and deep bay

they discovered and

immediately began to build

what was to become a premier

trade center. Over time, more

and more trading companies

and guilds have made

Opulentium their home and

base of operations. The

existing backshore slope -

which is firm, yet still pliable -

made the construction of the

service canals possible,

effectively quadrupling the

capacity of the Port complex.

The cities’ location among

fertile meadows and hills

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