PC Races of Ara - Updated

Much has happened since I last issued a definitive statement of the extant PC races in the Lands of Ara. Most notably:

1. There have been some recent developments concerning Arandish Ogres that came up as a result of my revisiting the original Crimson Blades of Ara rulebook chapter-by-chapter, and

2. Goblinoid Games' Advanced Edition Companion was published, thereby making certain racial types (gnomes, half-orcs) more readily accessible for Labyrinth Lord play.

Therefore I offer this updated and amended description of all the available PC Races on Ara, as well as brief mention of a significant NPC race. The information presented here replaces and supersedes this previous post on extant Arandish races.

The Nine Arandish PC Races
All of the PC races listed in the Labyrinth Lord rulebook and the Advanced Edition Companion exist in Ara, INCLUDING Halflings (this contradicts my original post on Ara's races) but EXCLUDING Elves and Half-Elves (as PCs anyway). In Ara, halflings are somewhat rare; far more common are the rat-like humanoids called Rodians, who can be played as race-as-class or have up to four "advanced" class options available to them: Rodian Duellist, Rodian Rogue, Rodian Illusionist, and Rodian Invoker (see this post for details). Furthermore, Ara sustains Goblins as PCs as well as Arandish Ogres as PCs.

Hence the complete list of Arandish PC Races includes: Human, Dwarf, Rodian, Halfling, Goblin, Ogre, Half-Ogre, Gnome, and Half-Orc.

Brief descriptions of the origins and geographical distribution of Arandish races -- where they differ from or add to descriptions given in LL or the AEC -- follow.

Humans
In Ara, humans predominate. They are found literally everywhere on Ara, and are all (except the Southern strain called Mizarians) thought to be descendants of the ancient humans of the area now known as Noffel.

Dwarves
Arandish dwarves are magically modified humans created and employed as laborers (especially miners) in the long-since-passed Old War between Telengard and Achelon. Tending to prefer underground habitation, dwarves are fairly abundant in present-day Ara, especially in the east and northeast where most of the largest mountains are found (just as rodians—see below—tend to be found in the south and southwest, near the Bay of Noffel and major seaports). Dwarves have been doing business with and living amongst humans in Ara for a long time; dwarves are well accepted in human culture, live in most major Arandish cities, and are the second-most numerous race in Ara.

Rodians
Rodians are small, ratlike humanoids who constitute the third most numerous race in the Lands of Ara. For those who prefer race-as-class, Rodians may be treated as functionally identical to halflings – that is, with all the same basic abilities and Level Progression Table as Labyrinth Lord halflings. However, in my own campaigns I permit Rodians four different class options -- Duellist, Rogue, Illusionist, and Invoker -- detailed here.

Rodians (sometimes called Suhlians, after their home island) are seafaring folk who demonstrate a distinct tendency toward sea piracy and con-artistry. They tend to be quite dexterous, and get a bonus of +1 to initiative rolls when alone or in a party composed only of rodians. They have keen coordination that grants them +1 on any missile attacks. Because they are so small, rodians have a lower armor class (-2) when attacked by creatures greater than human sized.

Rodians are excellent utilizers of urban camouflage and can hide in shadows or behind other forms of cover when in cities or underground labyrinths on a roll of 1-2 on 1d6, though they must also be silent and motionless.

Arandish Ogres and Half-Ogres
Ogres are once-human creatures who were magically transformed by Telengardian magicians into powerful fighting monsters during the Old War between Telengard and Achelon. After that disastrous war ended, these mutants found that they had very little place in human society, and most of them retreated to the mountainous and wooded areas around Telengard and northern Delzar. Ogres (especially those who have lived in the wild) tend to be feared by humans, primarily due to their great physical size and often horrible appearance.  Ogrish characters cannot practice magical arts, and are predisposed toward severe near-sightedness (that is, the inability to see at distances). For more information on Ogrish PCs, see this post.

Also note that, due to ckutalik's excellent writeup of Half-Ogres as PCs, that race is now available in Ara.

NPC Race: Elves
Elves (sometimes referred to as Aldorians) should almost never be PCs in Ara. They are extremely reclusive, living in near-perfect isolation in the Northwestern forests, and do not usually see any reason to fraternize with other races. Referees wishing to stat up Aldorian elves for NPC use should use elf23's Fey class instead of standard Labyrinth Lord Elves.

Note: A comprehensive current list of Arandish PC classes will be given in a separate post.

Session Photos and Arandish PC Guidebooks

 Carter Soles, enthusiastic Labyrinth Lord, with some of his minions.

Back when I was preparing for the start of Arandish Campaign 2010, I assembled some documents that I thought would be of use to my players, especially on the opening character generation night.  I printed up two copies of this Arandish PC Guidebook and put them into report folders for my players.  If you are curious about what went into these folders, I now offer their content as pdfs via the link below!  The Guidebook includes:

Arandish 2010 House Rules
Arandish PC Class Options
Rodian Player Characters
Sword-Cleric of Frey Class Description
Sword-Cleric of Frey Tables

Here is a link to the downloadable pdfs of all the Lands of Ara content in the Arandish PC Guidebook.

Note that in addition to my own original content, I also inserted information  about a couple of key character classes created by other bloggers into the hard copies of the PC guidebook, i.e., the Beyond the Black Gate Thief and the Ode to Black Dougal Barbarian.

 Carter displaying an Arandish PC Guidebook.

Available Classes in my Arandish Campaign – Update!

Like many old-school gamers, I like to pick and choose what I borrow from various sources, inevitably hybridizing and combining various rules conventions, spells, and creatures to end up with a distinct and unique set of campaign house rules.  Given the time period during which I entered the RPG’ing hobby it should come as no surprise that my “comfort zone” for preferred rules sets are the Holmes / Cook / Moldvay boxed sets as well as first edition AD&D.  Thus, as I have been adapting the various unique races and classes that should exist on Ara into D&D terms, I find I cobble together stuff from Labyrinth Lord (the Moldvay/Cook retro-clone rules system I have happily committed to for this campaign) the original AD&D manuals (thanks to Carl for extended-loaning me the Player’s Handbook!) as well as various inspirations and tidbits from the old-school blogging community (thanks especially to Grognardia, Ancient Vaults and Eldritch Secrets, and Beyond the Black Gate) and Brave Halfling Games.  I am excited by much of the new stuff I’ve found (I love those Brave Halfling rangers, for example) yet I can see that am quickly drifting away from any fidelity to a single set of rules or rules publications—why did I ever think it would be otherwise?  On the plus-side, this is just further evidence of how well all the pre-2^nd Edition D&D publications fit together—I am able to poach a few classes and spells from AD&D, graft them onto my Labyrinth Lord rules, and it all works out and feels right to me (I never played 2e and cannot comment on its compatibility with 1^st edition).  But all this "borrowing," customization, and hybridization means I will need to keep a number of different books and online resources on hand when I play!

Which leads to my recent revelation: that I am immensely looking forward to Goblinoid Games’ Advanced Edition Companion, due out later this year.  I have a feeling that if that supplement lives up to my expectations, it may well solve my organizational problem by giving me many of the additional character class options and expanded spell lists I need to translate Ara into LL terms, all under one cover!  We will see; but be forewarned, then, that as usual, any of the information I am about to give you is subject to change, pending the arrival of that publication and/or any other rules discoveries or innovations I might make or create in the next couple of months. 

That said, it is time to issue a somewhat definitive statement about the extant character classes in Ara.  Some of these, like all the rodian classes, I have previously discussed; where I have made changes, the information in this post supersedes all previous posts about available PC classes.  Furthermore, as you will see, I am for the first time herein revealing the divine magic practitioner classes that exist on Ara; I do not yet have full class descriptions for many of these (e.g., Elementalists) and, as I said, a few of these may shift yet again once I get my greedy hands on that Advanced Edition Companion, but this will at least give you a broad overview of what I am planning.

So here, for now, are the extant classes in my Arandish campaign, listed by race:

Human

Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User (as per Labyrinth Lord)

Noffellian Sword-Cleric (a special type of undead-fighting Noffellian cleric to be described in a forthcoming post)

Fire Elementalist, Earth Elementalist, Wind Elementalist, Water Elementalist, Cold Elementalist (five cleric sub-classes, all to be described in forthcoming posts)

Druid (as per Player’s Handbook): a rare PC type in Ara, since Druids are nature-lovers and tend to live reclusively in the wilds, eschewing civilization and human company.

Assassin (as per Player’s Handbook): another rare, but permitted, PC type in Ara.

Thief: I am officially switching from the Grognardia version (thereby superseding class information given on this post and an NPC on this one) to the Beyond the Black Gate version.

The Arandish Ranger comes in two variants, both found in Brave Halfling’s Delving Deeper: Ranger: (1) the giant-fighter (With Damage Bonus), presumed to be a northerner or from the eastern mountains, and (2) the scout (With Additional Skills) from anywhere in Ara but especially prevalent in the wilderness areas of Achelon and the Western Lands, and around the Great Western Swamp.  

I may in the future use the Grognardia version of the ranger for Telengardian Roughriders and/or Achelonian monster-hunters, if I develop those types as PC classes.

Rodian

Duellist, Rogue [Beyond the Black Gate Thief], Illusionist (as per PH)

Dwarf

Dwarf (as per Labyrinth Lord)

Goblin

I’m just so taken with James M’s use of Goblins as PCs that I am tempted to allow it in Ara.  But not just anywhere; probably only in the northeastern mountains, in campaigns centering on (or at least originating in) Telengard or possibly Delzar.  Well, okay, I suppose that if Goblins exist as PCs in Ara at all, then a few must live in the Free City of Kaladar and at least one must be a member of Hokka’s crew.

What does this list exclude from AD&D?

NO Paladin, Bard, Monk, or Halfling – these do not exist in Ara

NO Elf  -- though elves exist as an NPC race in the Lands of Ara.

Rodians Update

I have been thinking further about rodians, and despite my strong urge to conform the Lands of Ara to the OD&D rules paradigm as closely as possible, I still feel compelled to make rodians more like they really were in the original Ara, which means giving them a few different class options rather than confining them to a single race-as-class.  Thus I offer this update, which is meant to supersede the information given on rodians in this previous post.

While the rat-like rodians are still meant as a replacement for halflings in the campaign world of the Lands of Ara, rodians no longer level as Labyrinth Lord halflings.  Rodians instead have three class options: Rodian Duellist, Rodian Rogue, and Rodian Illusionist.  These I will describe in a moment, but first a few general comments applicable to all rodian characters:

Rodian
Requirements:  DEX 9
Prime requisite:  see class descriptions
Hit Dice:  see class descriptions
Maximum level:  see class descriptions

Rodians may not use large or two-handed weapons, but may use any other weapon or armor permitted by their class.

Rodians are excellent utilizers of urban camouflage and can hide in shadows or
behind other forms of cover when in cities or underground labyrinths on a roll of 1-2 on 1d6, though they must also be silent and motionless.  Rodians are dexterous folk who get a bonus of +1 to initiative rolls when alone or in a party composed only of rodians. Because they are so small, rodians have a lower armor class (-2) when attacked by creatures greater than human sized.

Now the three rodian class descriptions:

Rodian Duellist
Levels as Labyrinth Lord Fighter, no two-handed or large weapons
Requirements:  STR 9, DEX 9 (all rodians)
Prime requisites:  STR, DEX
Hit Dice:  1d6
Maximum level:  10
Note:  May use any light weapons to personal taste but tend to use cutlasses (treat as scimitar) and/or duelling rapiers (treat as short sword) in melee combat and to prefer crossbows as ranged weapons. 

Rodian Rogue
Levels as Grognardian Thief, same armor restrictions as Grognardian Thief
Requirements: DEX 9 (all rodians)
Prime requisite:  DEX
Hit Dice:  1d4 (as opposed to 1d6-1 for human thieves)
Maximum level:  none
Note: I would probably allow a rodian Assassin as well, as per the Player’s Handbook Assassin (pp. 28-30).

Rodian Illusionist
Levels as AD&D Player’s Handbook Illusionist (class description p. 26, Spell list p. 42)
Requirements:  INT 15, DEX 16
Prime requisite:  INT
Hit Dice:  1d4
Maximum level:  none
Note:  Rodian Illusionists mostly come from Suhl, where they study at the remote and mysterious Black Cloister.  There are now some rodian Illusionist teaching centers in rodian-frequented port cities like Jakama and The Free City of Kaladar, but high-level (level six and above) rodian Illusionists must return to the Cloister every other level (every even level from six upward) for specialized teachings and initiation rites. 

The Lands of Ara: Racial Areas of Origin

Each Arandish race has a select number of possible areas of origin; each character must choose his/her birthplace and/or growing-up place from the appropriate list.

Some racial types have an easy time selecting an area of origin: for instance, all dwarven characters come from Gannar, the principal dwarven kingdom in the north. However, players choosing characters of most other races, especially Arandish humans, have a more complex decision to make. To aid you in selecting your character’s area of origin, a brief description of each kingdom / region is provided in the next post. More of the politics and cultural characteristics of each kingdom / region will also emerge in forthcoming specific posts relating to features and denizens of each region.

Arandish Humans
Arandish humans may be from any of the following places:
Achelon
Blint
Delzar
Free City of Kaladar
Minoch
Noffel
Telengard
The Western Lands (specify: see area description)

Dwarves
Dwarven characters generally choose Gannar for their area of origin. Dwarves who grow up in human lands are typically either from Telengard or the Free City of Kaladar.

Rodians
Any rodian character may originate from the rodian home island of Suhl. Rodian characters may also come from any region available to Arandish humans, although rodians from Telengard and northern Achelon are quite rare. The majority of mainland-born rodians (i.e., those born anywhere other than Suhl) come from Kaladar, or one of the Suhlian-governed coastal cities on Ara’s far western seaboard.

The Lands of Ara: Extant PC Classes & Races

All of the seven character classes listed in the Labyrinth Lord rulebook (pp. 8-14) EXCEPT Halflings exist in Ara. In Ara, halflings are replaced by rat-like humanoids called rodians; thus, the total list of Arandish classes includes Clerics, Dwarves, Elves, Fighters, Magic-users, Thieves, and Rodians. I reserve the right to abridge and/or modify certain classes on this list in the future, and will very likely add a few custom Arandish classes to the list in time, but for now, these seven are the class options in Ara.

Now, a few words on the origins and geographical distribution of Arandish races:

Humans
In Ara, humans predominate. They are found literally everywhere on Ara, and are all thought to be descendants of the ancient humans of the area now known as Noffel.

Dwarves
Arandish dwarves are in fact magically modified humans created and employed as laborers (especially miners) in the long-since-passed Old War between Telengard and Achelon. Tending to prefer underground dwellings, dwarves are fairly abundant in present-day Ara, especially in the east and northeast where most of the largest mountains are found (just as rodians—see below—tend to be found in the south and southwest, near the Bay of Noffel and major seaports). Dwarves have been doing business with and living amongst humans in Ara for a long time; dwarves are well accepted in human culture, live in most major Arandish cities, and are the second-most numerous race in Ara.

Rodians
There are no halflings in Ara; instead there are rodians, small, ratlike humanoids who are functionally similar to halflings – that is, with all the same basic abilities and Level Progression Table as Labyrinth Lord halflings. [This substitution is similar to James Maliszewski’s use of Goblins as a PC Race; his explanation for why halflings make him nervous agrees with my sentiments.] Rodians are seafaring folk who demonstrate a distinct tendency toward sea piracy and con-artistry.

Like Halflings, Rodians are dexterous folk who get a bonus of +1 to initiative rolls when alone or in a party composed only of rodians. They have keen coordination that grants them +1 on any missile attacks. Because they are so small, rodians have a lower armor class (-2) when attacked by creatures greater than human sized.

Rodians have the same hiding abilities as halflings, but at 3rd level, rodians gain 1st level thief skills, and from 3rd level onward the rodian has thief skills as if s/he were a thief two levels below the rodian’s actual level.

Elves
Elves (sometimes referred to as Aldorians) should almost never be PCs in Ara. They are extremely reclusive, living in near-perfect isolation in the Northwestern forests, and do not usually see any reason to fraternize with other races.