Friday, October 11, 2013

Helvetica Campaign Update: Wherein I Name the Tribes and Determine Their Attitudes Towards Riesling

Earlier this week,  I rifled through some back issues of Lone Warrior, looking for an article on a colonial campaign I recalled reading.

The article in question, Dhunda Revisited by Kevin White, appears in issue #178. In the article, Mr. White expounds on a system wherein his country is divided into five tribal areas and how he determines their attitude toward the British, as well as the means by which those attitudes change.

There's more - it's a long article by Lone Warrior standards - including a supply mechanism, which I may or may not adopt (another article in the same issue, by George Arnold, reminded me that each of us has a different tolerance for the details included in a campaign; too many fiddly bits can sap the inspiration).

In any case, I set about creating the lizard folk tribes and their territories for the entire island. This was done by tracing the existing map and then demarcating and labeling the territories on the new map.

The names I have given below are not the tribal names in their native tongue but short hand names given by the original explorers of the island in the 1790s. The indication of Hostile, Neutral or Friendly followed by a number has to do with their current opinion of Riesling.

Northern Tribes - All formerly allied with Sauvignon-Blanc

  • Slitherin - Hostile 4. The shaman of the opening conflict of this campaign was a Slitherin. Of course.
  • Serpentors - Hostile 3.
  • Cobra La - Neutral 3.
  • Cobra Kai - Neutral 3.


Central

  • Zartanians (formerly allied with Sauvignon-Blanc) - Neutral 2.
  • Dragon Fist (allied with Riesling) - Friendly 4.


Southern Tribes - All allied with Riesling

  • Ornithromyans - Friendly 4.
  • Unch-unch-unch - Friendly 3.
  • Saurons - Friendly 3.

The scale for attitude is based on Kevin White's system of card draws as follows (from most friendly, Friendly 1, to most hostile, Hostile 4):

  1. Friendly 1
  2. Friendly 2
  3. Friendly 3
  4. Friendly 4
  5. Neutral 1
  6. Neutral 2
  7. Neutral 3
  8. Neutral 4
  9. Neutral 5
  10. Hostile 1
  11. Hostile 2
  12. Hostile 3
  13. Hostile 4
Major victories for the Riesling forces shift all attitudes towards Friendly, while major losses shift all attitudes towards Hostile (to quote Mr. White, "None of the tribes will want to be allied with someone perceived as weak.")  Minor victories or setbacks have little effect on the broader sentiment, but will effect the specific tribes involved.

2 comments:

  1. An elegant little system. I like it.

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  2. Looks like a good addition to the campaign. I need to order some back copies of LW apparently.

    ReplyDelete