Generating Arcane Orders for Your Campaign

The alternate title of this one should be The Blog That Wouldn’t Post.  Blogger ate it three times before I tried again as a .doc first, wasting time and several cool results on the tables shown below.  I had to move Table 2 all the way to the bottom since Blogger wouldn’t save nor render anything that came after it.

Though a long and steadfast AD&D player when I first began gaming, I never paid much attention to the rules in the Player's Handbook pertaining to Chance to Know Each Spell (page 10).  In short, they worked as follows:  Each time the player of a magic user attained a new level she would check against an intelligence-based percentage whether or not the spells of that level were known to her character.  There were both a minimum and maximum number of spells that a character could know for each spell level.  If you missed your roll, the spell was not available to you.

Now the write-up at the time I began playing seemed rather open to interpretation on specifics, and even appears to contradict itself regarding the acquisition of previously unknown spells later on in the campaign.  My experience with the game and those that play it has been that this rule generally gets ignored or modified by most DMs. 

While considering this rule for use in my own upcoming game it occurred to me that while a mage's intelligence might indicate how many spells they could or should know, their training, connections and opportunities should be just as or more influential.  What if one kept the overall idea that not every magic user will be able to learn every spell of an allowable level, but based it on the teaching, instruction and later the networking achieved via their participation in an arcane order, society or school?  Here's how I would do it:

Step One:  The Name

This may seem counter-intuitive, but my system starts with the name of the order.  Words are powerful and evocative things and the name of your arcane order should not be taken lightly.  Because of this there is only one sensible way to designate one.  Randomly.  The words on the below table were painstakenly chosen to evoke a certain atmosphere within a broad set of variables.  I borrowed from Leiber, Howard, Lovecraft, Moore, Vonnegut, Dickens, Tolkien, LeVay and others.  Results will run from the bombastic to the inspired... the silly to the sublime... but I do recommend that you roll.  For every Fraternal Brotherhood of the Engorged Member I came up with at least five or six Benevolent Accomplices of the Artful Arm.

The first thing you determine is how many columns on the below table 2 you will roll on and in what order:

Table 1: Name Structure

Roll d10	Name Structure
1 to 2	The A + B
3 to 4	The A + C
5 to 6	The B of the A + C
7 to 8	The A + B of the A + C
9 to 10	The B of A + B (2nd B is optionally plural)

Then you simply fill in the blanks represented by letters A through C above by rolling a number of dice appropriate to the number of prescribed unknowns. 

(See Table 2 Below)

For example, rolling a ten sided die and getting a “1” on table 1 indicates a name structure of “The A + B”.  Rolling percentile dice I get “30” and an “84”.  The Fecund Seers.  

 

Again, a “4”, indicating “The A + C” then a “41, 36”.  The Indigo Fire…  

“5” (The B of the A + C) then “4, 31, 60”… The Adepts of the Fraternal Mountian. 

 

“8”… The Esteemnable Community of the Learned Day.  

“9” The Witches of the Mendicent Maw.  

The Drunken Collaborators of the Orthodox Wind, The Kyphorrhinos Assembly of the Artful Mime,  The Esoteric Cohorts of the Bizarre Benefactor, The Antagonists of the Blue Ascension. I know you probably don’t need this many examples, but it is rather fun.  

Step Two:  Gravitas

Arcane orders are measured by their gravitas.  This is a composite value representing the organization’s age and prestige as well as the aggregate talent and experience of its members. As the intelligence score previously determined a character’s chance to know a spell and the minimum and maximum spells known in the AD&D rules, gravitas does so for an arcane order.  An order’s gravitas score is determined by rolling 3d4 and adding 6.  

Step Three: Determine the Spells Known

Once the gravitas value has been determined, you must compare it to the values provided on table 3 below and then determine which spells are known by the order for each spell level in your game.  The table should be familiar to you if you’re already using or acquainted with the AD&D rule from which it is borrowed. 

Roll percentile dice to check for as many spell levels that you care to determine at the outset.  Note that a certain gravitas score is required to know spells above 3^rd level.  The older and more prestigious the organization, the greater likelihood that it has an extensive spell library of varying power and complexity.

Table 3: Chance to Know Spell

Gravitas	Chance to Know Each Spell	Minimum Number of Spells/ Level	Maximum Number of Spells/ Level	Maximum Spell Level Known
9	35%	4	6	3rd
10 to 12	45%	5	7	4th
13 to 14	55%	6	9	5th
15 to 16	65%	7	11	6th
17	75%	8	14	7th
18	85%	9	18	8th
19	95%	10	25	9th

Once complete, this list should represent all of the spells available to learn by all members of the organization in question.   Spells not on the list must be obtained by other means.  This can include instruction by another PC or NPC or via the study of scrolls or spell books obtained by the character. 

There’s a good reason that naming the organization came first.  DM Fiat.  If you get to the end of the process in step 3 and managed to roll zero or very few fire-spells for The Supreme Acolytes of the Invincible Flame, then you may want to consider moving some things around unless you appreciate that sort of irony.  I would advise to do so with caution and much consideration.  The arcane powers invoked by these tables and dice are not to be trifled with.  

Step 4: Rounding It Out

At this point, you’ve got everything you need and can move on.  But now or later you may want to think some about the group and how it functions and behaves.  Rather than give a few more tables to roll on I think the name or the gravitas and spells known should dictate this.  An organization with high gravitas and many known spells could be a venerable order dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of knowledge.  A low gravitas group with few spells can be an upstart order or one that has fallen from some previous exalted status.  

You can also consider introducing other mechanical elements at this point.  Do the Savants of the Vigorous Moon see their power wax and wane with the cycles of the moon?  Do the Daughters of the Yellow Harpy enjoy immunity or bonuses against sound-based attackes? 

Consider also relations between groups.  Do the Malevolent Heirs oppose the designs of the Orthodox Union of the Red Party?  What’s so strange about the Peculiar Chohorts, anyway?

I’ll be generating several of these groups in anticipation of my D&D campaign resuming sometime next year.  Give it a whirl.  Please post comments below sharing your results, even if all you do is roll for a name and think up something cool about the group.

Sincerely,

James C.

Seer of the Curious Shadow

Table 2:  Name Variables

% Roll	Column A (adjective)	Column B      (name of order)	Column C (noun)
1	Acerbic	Academy	A deity from your campaign world
2	Amazing	Accomplices	A location in your campaign world
3	Arcane	Acolytes	Abacination
4	Artful	Adepts	Agerasia
5	Asynchronous	Adversaries	Arm
6	Benevolent	Affiliation	Ascension
7	Bizarre	Alliance	Asphyxiation
8	Black	Antagonists	Basilisk
9	Blasphemous	Apprentices	Bastard
10	Blue	Array	Benefactor
11	Bombastic	Assemblage/ Assembly	Beyond
12	Cloaked	Associates	Bicone
13	Cogent	Astrologers	Bitch
14	Coherent	Attendants	Blood
15	Compelling	Autohagiographers	Cachinnation
16	Convivial	Autolatrists	Cat
17	Cosmic	Brood	Catechism
18	Curious	Brotherhood/ Sisterhood	Charientism
19	Drunken	Cabal	Claw
20	Eccentric	Children	Colossality
21	Eldritch	Circle	Conquest
22	Engorged	Clutch	Cosmos
23	Enigmatic	Coalition	Crystal
24	Esoteric	Cohorts	Cyclops
25	Esteemnable	Collaborators	Day
26	Exceptional	Collective	Decrepitude
27	Extraordinary	College/ Collegium	Drake
28	Fallen	Combine	Earth
29	Fantastic	Community	Emptiness
30	Fecund	Company	Emunction
31	Fraternal/ Sororal	Concilliabule	Exsibilation
32	Gibbous	Concordance	Eye
33	Gluttonous	Confederacy/ Confederates	Feather
34	Golden	Congregation	Fey
35	Green	Conjurers	Finger
36	Gregarious	Consortium	Fire
37	Honorable	Conspirators	Forest
38	Hooded	Coterie	Fox
39	Incoherent	Court	Hand
40	Inconceivable	Coven	Harpy/ Siren
41	Indigo	Covenant	Heavens
42	Intangible	Daughters/ Sons	Hells
43	Invincible	Enchanters	Hydra
44	Invisible	Enemies	Illusion
45	Jumentous	Faculty	Key
46	Kyphorrhinos	Fellows	King/ Queen
47	Learned	Fellowship	Lake
48	Leering	Flock	Leg
49	Locquacious	Fraternity/ Sorroroty	Leucrotta
50	Luminous	Gathering	Leviathan
51	Macabre	Gentlemen/ Ladies	Liripip
52	Magnificent	Gongoozlers	Malefactor
53	Maledicent	Hadeharians	Mandrake
54	Malevolent	Heirs	Masquerade
55	Mendicent	Host	Maw
56	Miasmic	House	Member
57	Mighty	Incorporation	Mime
58	Nameless	Initiates	Monolith
59	Omnipotent	Institution	Moon
60	Omniscient	Kinship	Mountain
61	Orthodox	League	Mumpsimus
62	Paternal/ Maternal	Library	Nelipot
63	Peculiar	Lyceum	Night
64	Phenomenal	Magicians	Oblivion
65	Roll any die: add "-fold" to the number	Magisters	Octopus
66	Roll any die: use result as an adjective	Maladroits	Orb
67	Polished	Members	Owl
68	Preeminent	Necromancers	Owlbear
69	Profound	Neophytes	Pentacle
70	Prolific	Roll any die, use result as a noun	Petrichor
71	Puissant	Order	Phenomenon
72	Pyknic	Pack	Phoenix
73	Red	Pact	Portal
74	Ruined	Party	Prince/ Princess
75	Ruminating	Philosophunculists	Prophet
76	Scarlet	Prodigies	Puissance
77	Sciapodous	Progeny	Rendevous
78	Secret	Protagonists	Reverberation
79	Shining	Pupils	Riddle
80	Singular	Ring	River
81	Skillful	Savants	Sepulchre
82	Sovereign	School	Shadow
83	Stalwart	Scions	Sphinx
84	Steatopygic	Seers	Stars
85	Stoic	Seminary	Stipulation
86	Supreme	Senate	Stone
87	Thelemic	Society	Sun
88	Ulotrichous	Sodality	Tentacle
89	Unclean	Soothsayers	Tongue
90	Unknown	Sorcerers	Tooth
91	United	Stalwarts	Transcendence
92	Unlevened	Swarm	Tree
93	Unorthodox	Thaumaturgists	Unicorn
94	Veiled	Theurgists	Wanweird
95	Ventripotent	Thralls	Water
96	Vigorous	Throng	Weirding
97	White	Tribe	Wind
98	Wilting	Union	Wolf
99	Yellow	Warlocks/ Witches	Wyrm
00	Zealous	Wizards	Wyvern