Tempe goverment and Society - an Overview

Tempe is the largest city in Arizona, and is the preeminent Arya settlement in the region. The city is hierarchical, militarized, and home to His Lordship, the High King. The city was founded over two centuries ago during the Great Migration, when it enjoyed trade with and support from the Great River Kingdoms to the east. That connection to the east was severed a century ago by the rise of the Dark Hordes, and Arya of Arizona have been forced to subsist largely on their own since that time.

The economic base of the city is agriculture and ranching. Irrigation from the Salt River waters Tempe's fields, groves, and herds, which have become the breadbasket of the Arizona region. The main route of trade involves a triangle trade with metals from Prescott, lumber from Flagstaff, and food from Tempe. An overland route to the Colorado River at Blythe is also a significant trade corridor.

Tempe society is two-tiered, with the land-owning, noble families forming the high society, and the landless, agricultural workers forming the low society:

The Landed gentry of Tempe is made of the seven founding clans which own all the land in the town. The basis of their wealth is land ownership and the guarantee of safety they offer those who live on their land. Their young men are removed from their familes at the age of seven and raised in military academies. After eight years of discipline and hardening in common school, most are granted the rank of squire and returned to their families to assist in the clan businesses. The most gifted among the students, however, continue onward into secondary school, where they are trained as scholars and officers, and enter into the direct service of the High King, in the King's College. Membership in the King's College is considered the highest honor in Arya society.


The Landless commoners of Tempe tend to be poor and uneducated, however, they are not slaves or serfs. The Landless are paid wages and are expected to care for their own housing and family upkeep. Many of the Landless take up skilled trades, and the most gifted among them have some upward mobility through the Church, the Applied Spellcasting University, and the Ranger Battalion (see below). The brave and tough among the Landless have also been known to take up careers as henchmen and mercenary soldiers in the hire of the Landed gentry.

Goverment

The majority of decision-making power and authority is vested in the King and His College, who are entrusted with ruling for the good of all noble clans and the city at large. The various members of the College serve as administrators of the King's laws, guardians of his Treasury, and officers of his Army. The King's College chooses a new king from among their own members when the office of High King becomes empty because of the death or abdication of a King.

The House of Lords is a collection of representatives from the seven noble clans. New laws or taxes proposed by the King must be ratified by the House of Lords in order to become laws. The House of Lords is also responsible for supplying a specified number of Cavaliers to serve in the body of the King's Army.

The House of Commons is a collection of the more powerful and wealthy representatives from the Landless of the town. They have little decision-making authority, but can propose laws to the King's College, and are authorized to adjudicate disputes and conflicts among the Landless.


The King's Army

The King's Army is made primarily of the Cavaliers from the noble clans of the city. It is a standing force, with a career officers drawn from the King's College, athough the body of the army rotates through in limited times of service. The duties of the Army are primarily external, patrolling the King's settled agricultural territories and roads for incursions from magical beasts, giants, or humanoid raiders. The King's Army also patrols the city itself, enforcing internal laws.

The Ranger Battalion is an adjunct force to the King's Army, with dual headquarters in Wickenburg and Superior. The Rangers' duty is to patrol the mountain wilderness, keeping check on humanoid or giant incursions, while gathering information and expanding Aryan territory where possible. While Ranger leadership is supplied by the gentry of the King's College, the rank and file membership is largely drawn from the Landless. The Landed gentry prefers the status and money-making opportunities of the town-based Cavalier lifestyle, viewing a Ranger assignment much like a form of banishment. The Landless, however, view Ranger membership as an opportunity for upward mobility, wealth, and freedom.

Occasionally, in times of need, the King's army will be supplemented by mercenary soldiers drawn from the ranks of the Landless.

Relations with Applied Spellcasting University

The wizard towers of A.S.U. predate the Aryan settlement of Tempe. The origins of the wizarding community at A.S.U. are unknown, and the mysterious wizards are less than forthcoming with any information, but it is clearly connected with the study of the Phoenix Aerie to the immediate west. Although they share contiguous territory, A.S.U. is an autonomous power and does not bow to the authority of the High King.

Overall, the wizards prefer to be left completely alone and seem to be totally unconcerned with the politics or troubles of any other humans in the region. A cadre of servants maintains trade relations with the outside world, and they seem to derive great profit from the sale of the magical items they create. They are also known to take in students, training them in the magical arts, for a steep fee, of course.

They Walk Among Us - the hidden Dragon Menace

Citizen's Alert - to be Posted in All Pubic Places

As you know, dragons are terrifying and dangerous magical beasts. We need no reminder of their attacks upon our knights, and their constant depredations of our wealth.

Recent discoveries have revealed dragons to be far more terrifying and dangerous than we imagined. Stated plainly, dragons have been found to be walking among us, disguised in human form. Through some magical means, dragons walk among us in our towns, pretending to be human.

As everyone knows, Dragons are motivated by greed, and power. Disguised as humans, they infiltrate our society, to learn of our treasure, and study our defenses, to better attack us.

All citizens are advised to be on the lookout for dragon-ish behavior in their neighbors. Signs of hidden dragon infiltration include unnatural interest in the location of treasure hoards, selfish hoarding of money, secretive behaviors, anti-social attitudes, and hostility to governmental investigation.

If your neighbors are exhibiting any of the above signs, report them immediately to the nearest King's Guards and Keepers of the Peace. With your help, we can eliminate this hidden dragon menace. Thank you.

Adventuring Hooks

The aging King, paranoid and monomaniacal at the best of times, appears to have gone completely mad out of fear of secret dragons, and his paranoia has spread to the terrified citizenry. King's Guards run amok through the city, rounding up political enemies (and their treasures) on suspicion of secret dragon infiltration. Citizen has turned on citizen in a frenzy of paranoid accusation and revenge seeking.

Mobs form suddenly to put anyone accused of dragon infiltration to the immediate test, such as slicing their bellies open to check for swallowed gems, placing them upon bonfires to test for fire resistance, or dropping them repeatedly from towers to check for flying ability...

Anyone from out of town, or anyone seen carrying bags of treasure, is especially prone to accusation, thus making the environment particularly dangerous for adventurers...

PCs stand a 50% chance (3 in 6) per day of being accused of dragon infiltration by a mob if they appear in full gear or carrying treasure in public, a 17% chance (1 in 6) if appearing in public in disguise, and a 33% chance (2 in 6) per day of receiving a visit from the King's Guards at their home based on a tip from an anonymous neighbor.

Mob Accusation (d100, modify with CHA reaction bonus or penalty)

--01-25 enraged mob attempts immediate dragon trial (d6: 1-2 gutting for gems, 3-4 bonfire, 5-6 drop from tower)

--26-50 enraged mob attempts to strip, beat, and turn over PCs for arrest to King's Guards (loss of all possessions and all but 1-6 HPs, ending up in jail for further interogation)

--51-75 enraged mob attempts to strip and beat PCs (loss of all possessions and all but 1-6 HPs, ending up thrown over town wall)

--76+ agitated mob threatens but does not attack PC

King's Guards actions (d100, modify with CHA reaction bonus or penalty)

--01-25 Guards attempt immediate gutting for swallowed treasure

--26-50 Guards confiscate all PC possessions, scorge PC to the bone (only 1d6 HP remaining) during interrogation, and throw PC in jail

--51-75 Guards confiscate all PC money/jewels, threatening scorging and arrest if PC resists

--76+ Guards question PCs but take no action

Dragon Menace hysteria lasts 3-18 days (3d6).

On any given day, 1 in 6 chance of a real dragon being accused, resulting in a dragon battle in town. If PC assists in the battle against the dragon, they will be hailed as heroes, receive a reward from the king, and be free from any further chance of dragon infiltration accusations.

Creating Psionic NPCs the easy way

From our statistical analysis we know that a city of 45,000 will have 100 psionics in it, and their range of psionic strength with be as follows:

25 with one attack mode (01-25)
25 with two attack modes (26-50)
25 with three attack modes (51-75)
20 with four attack modes (76-95)
5 with all five attack modes (96-00)

25 with two defense modes [all have Mind Blank] (01-25)
50 with three defense modes (26-75)
15 with four defense modes (76-90)
10 with all five defense modes (91-00)

10 with 1 minor & 0 major disciplines (01-10)
15 with 2 minor & 0 major disciplines (11-25)
15 with 3 minor & 0 major disciplines (26-40)
15 with 2 minor & 1 major disciplines (41-55)
15 with 3 minor & 1 major disciplines (56-70)
10 with 4 minor & 1 major disciplines (71-80)
10 with 3 minor & 2 major disciplines (81-90)
5 with 5 minor & 1 major disciplines (91-95)
5 with 4 minor & 2 major disciplines (96-00)

The base psionic strength of any individual is postulated as 1-100 (with bonus for INT, WIS, and CHA), so one roll of the d100 can be used to create your psionic NPC.

Your d100 roll will provide the base strength and be applied to each of the above charts. This ensures that a psionic with lots of attacks, defenses, and disciplines will also have lots of strength points to put them to use. It makes intuitive sense, since a psionic with less overall psionic strength would logically have less attacks, defenses, and disciplines as well.

So, for example, a roll of 50 would produce base 50 psionic strength, 2 attack modes, 3 defense modes, 2 minor and 1 major disciplines.

A roll of 72 would produce base 72 strength pionts, 3 attack modes, 3 defense modes, 4 minor and 1 major disciplines.

To create the bonus points for the psionic strength, roll 3d6 for the NPC's INT, WIS, and CHA. Remember that one of them has to be at least 16, or he wouldn't have psionics in the first place. For each point above 12 in those three categories, add 1 psionic strength point.

If two categories are above 16, double these bonus points, and if all three categories are above 16, quadruple the bonus points. Thus
-- an NPC with 16s in INT, WIS, and CHA would have a bonus of 12 points
-- an NPC with two 17s and a 16 would have a bonus of 28
-- an NPC with three 17s would have a bonus of 60
-- with three 18s, the bonus would be 72.

Wild Psionics of the City: the Brawler

As I detailed in some previous posts (here and here), according to the dice, psionics should be far more common that most people give them credit for. In a city of 45,000 people, the odds indicate the presence of 100 people with psionic powers. In this post, I will detail one of the more intriguing possibilities: the psionic brawler.

The Brawler is a smallish looking fellow, perhaps even a woman. Physically weak, slight of frame, an easy mark, apparently. Perhaps our PCs encounter him as part of a bar bet. Imagine a smooth talking local, baiting our heroes with challenges to their manhood. "Take you guys on? Ha, I bet you can't even toss my old grandpa out of the ring!" as he points to a petite looking fellow at the table next to him. He, in turn, looks our heroes up and down, and snorts, "ha, don't waste my time with a tray full of creampuffs like that" and dismisses them with a wave.

Meanwhile, hearing the challenges and sensing a possible fight, a crowd has begun to gather around. The young trouble maker continues his tirade and insults, "These vagabond yahoos are all the same, they ain't nothing without their candy-ass armor and magic swords. Give 'em an old fashioned fight, man to man, and they cry like little girls!" The gathering crowd begins to laugh and jeer... "I'm not going to waste my time with these patsies... I'll bet you a hundred gold you can't even whip my old grandpa!" The crowd erupts in laughter... The spindly old man pulls himself up on his table and flexes his tiny arms to the crowds delight, toothless old grin leering at our heroes...

Once outside, a ring is quickly drawn in the dirt, a large crowd gathered round, cheering the old man on, as he pulls his overshirt and pants off, stripped down to his girdle. "Now, mind the rules, strangers: no magic, no armor, no weapons, first one out of the ring loses." Your hero nods his assent, as he strips off the last of his outergarments and steps into the ring.

The old man across the ring throws aside his walking stick, and with a crooked smile on his face, straightens up his back to stand to his full height, which, you swear, is bigger than he looked in the tavern. The crowd erupts in a rising roar as he throws his hands up in the air, and continues to grow, up, up, up...

The old man across the ring has grown to the size of a giant, with legs like small trees, and arms as thick as a normal man's waist. The ground shakes before you as he stamps his feet and pounds his chest and lets out a loud scream, which drowns out even the cheers of the crowd...


Psionic Details

The old man is exhibiting his psionic power of Expansion. His sixth level power has transformed him to the size and strength of a large ogre, growing to over 10' high, and adding a +6 damage bonus because his 18(00) strength. Luckily for our hero, this minor discipline uses up 5 psionic strength points per round, enough for, say, 10 rounds of combat. Can our hero stay in the ring that long??? Better brush up on your grappling rules, Mr. DM, cause the fight is on!

Another cool idea for this "hand to hand" fighting scam is versus a brawler who has the minor psionic discipline of Body Weaponry. At the sixth level of mastery his hard skin would equal an armor class of 4, and his fists would strike as a morning star!

A brawler with the major psionic science of Shape Alteration could also be quite fun to play. With that power, the psionic can change forms into anything for 3 strength points, and add 100 pounds of mass to his new form for every strength point expended beyond that. Think: instant transformation from skinny old man to 700 pound sumo wrestler.... Yeah, that is a fun NPC to have around.

Psionic Attacks upon non-psionics: Ego Whip

The Ego Whip is another really cool psionic attack. The ego is our conscious mind, our mental dialog, our sense of self. Attacks on someone's conscious thought process and identity can produce some really excellent effects, including insanity and mental domination.


The basic mechanic of Ego Whip is to overwhelm the other person's mental apparatus. In the best case scenario, you can actually take control of their mind. The shock of the attempted takeover might also cause insanity, or at least knock them out of commission for awhile.


The Ego Whip costs 7 attack points against a psionic, or 27 points versus a non-psionic. Remember, a psionic must have at least 100 strength points to attack a non-psionic. The Ego Whip affects only one creature, and its range is S = 4", M = 8", and L = 12".

Note that mind blank is normally helpful against psionic attacks, but against the Ego Whip, mind blank is actually harmful. According to the DMG psionic combat tables, Ego Whip is twice as effective against Mind Blank as any other psionic defense. Because Ego Whip is basically trying to highjack the victim's thought processes, the Mind Blank actually helps things along. It's like a "lay down" defense against a grappling attack. Yeah, not too smart.




Savings throw table

Effects table

Psionic attacks on non-psionic: Id Insinuation

The Id Insuinuation is another very creative psionic attack. It seeks to loose the uncontrolled and subconsious mind of the victim. Against the psionically-aware, it is an area attack (2" by 2"), and costs 10 points. Against non-psionics, I would treat it as an individual attack, and make it cost 30 points.

The Id is the animalistic/reptilian part of the brain, focused on passion, emotion, and pleasure/pain. The Id Insinuation stimulates that part of the mind, attempting to cause it to overwhelm the super-ego, which provides our sense of right/wrong.

Because of the nature of this attack, the savings thrown table against this attack is modified differently than against other attacks. It is also more even across the board, as the INT+WIS level matters relatively less than one's mental character traits and habits:
--Bonuses are given to those peolple and races who are disciplined in mental control and less likely to give in to their passions (lawful, good, dwarf, halfling, cleric, monk, cavalier/paladin)
--Penalties are given against those who tend to be less disciplined and more likely to give into their lower natures (thief, assassin, chaotic, evil, half-orc, elf, gnome).
--Mind Blank spells are given extra bonus here because Mind Blank is the most effective psionic defence against this attack on the psionic combat tables.
--Being in a highly agitated emotional state, as well as sleeping, also opens one up to this attack.

Id Insinuation has the longest range of any psionic attack: Short - 6", Medium - 12", Long - 18"

Saving throw Table vs Id Insinuation

The effects of a succesful Id Insinuation attack are more dependent upon the victim's alignment than mental capacity, due to the nature of people's subconscious tendencies.

Psionic attacks on non-psionics -- Mind Thrust

This is house rules stuff for those who enjoy playing with psionics. The way I see it, everyone has a mind, an id, an ego, and a psyche, therefore everyone is potentially vulnerable to these psionic attacks (not just Psionic Blast, as defined in the 1e rules). Giving psionics the ability to attack non-psionics is potentially a big "game unbalancer", so I am trying to constrain these powers to logical limits while still keeping them somewhat effective and fun.

The PH1e states that Psionic Blast is costly in terms of attack point expenditure, but is the only attack that can affect non-psionics. I take that as a statement of intended game balance, and I respect the logic of it. I would postulate that any psionic attack used on a non-psionic costs 20 extra strength points. Keep in mind, the psionic must have a current psionic strength of at least 100 to be able to affect a non-psionic. Thus, only a very powerful psionic would have a chance at using their powers on a non-psionic.

Used on a non-psionic, the Mind Thrust would cost 24 points. The attack range of the Mind Thrust is as follows: Short - 3", Medium - 6", Long - 9"

The Mind Thrust is a stabbing attack which seeks to short the synapses of the victim. I think of it like swirling a stick inside someone's skull. You are basically just trying to mess something up. When used on a fellow psionic, the Mind Thrust can wound or permanently damage the victim's psionic abilities. When used on a non-psionic, I figure that worst case scenario, it can cause the loss of INT or WIS points.

Save vs Mind Thrust table

Effects of Mind Thrust table