GURPS PDF Challenge 2021: DF Encounters: the Ring Fort

 Carrying on with the PDF 2021 special in order of how they unlocked, we come to DF Encounters 4: the Ring Fort, which I almost missed for some reason.

DF Ring Fort is a very simple book with one chapter:

• Hlifborg Ring Fort: which details the ring fort.

That's it.

I have mixed feelings about the Ring Fort.  When I saw it, I had no idea what it was doing in the DF line.  After reading it, I'm still not sure what it's doing there. Does this mean I don't like it? No, not at all.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  It feels like a strange book that doesn't remotely fit in the line as the line currently stands, and I think it undermines a lot of the conceits of DF. If I used this in DF, I would end up reorienting DF around how this book is designed.  I think I'd have a better experience for it! But what you end up with is a realization that GURPS Low-Tech with Magic is an awesome way to run GURPS, and that DF isn't the only way to run GURPS.  In a DF book.  But would anyone have bought or used this if it wasn't a DF book?  Well, it's in a freaking package deal with a book on the spies of Venice, so yes, I think people would have acquired it, more than a thousand people, in fact.  So why is this DF?

I have some theories, but the core takeaway is that this book is worth your time even for a DF campaign. But you should definitely, definitely consider getting this one even if you don't like DF. It's up there with Wilderness Adventures for broad usefulness.  It's a definite recommend.

So What is the Ring Fort?

In principle, this book represents an "encounter" DF PCs might have. It might be a village they come across, or where their enemy is holding up. With that out of the way, we get a little historical context, then a very detailed map, a detailed discussion of the setting, including locations within in, the defenses (to the foot), and even the economics of its upkeep.  We stories behind why certain areas are named what they are named, and a full description of the military complement that are there, what you can buy, what you can do to earn money, the names of major figures and suggested stats for their lieutenants, and so on.  By the time you're done, you'll know every inch of this fort.

In 10 pages.

You'll often hear me bellyache about how these supplements are too short or don't cover nearly enough ground.  Not the Ring Fort.  Douglas Cole used his word count meticulously.  You will not walk away from this book feeling frustrated that it lacks material, and you also won't walk away feeling like you wasted your money either. It goes into more than sufficient depth for its topic, and it wastes no space. This is up there with Read the Sky as an exemplar of how to do a 10-page PDF right.  Should it have been a pyramid article instead? That's a topic we'll come back to often, I suspect, but in this case, I think a pyramid article wouldn't have been long enough.  This is the right length.

So Why Do You Like It?

I often run into a problem of not knowing what the scale of things should look like. If I have some bandits that raid the locals, how many are in the band? 5? 50? 500? 5000? 5 million? Like what's too many, what's too few? How large did armies get? How many knights is an impressive total? If you had a classic medieval castle with a classic medieval town of village nearby, how many people would reasonably in it? What sort of services would you find?

This covers all of that magnificently. I walked away from this with a more solid understanding of what defenses like this would look like, even what their economy would look like.  The best setting books are worked examples that you could extrapolate to something else.  The greatest praise you can heap on a GURPS book is "I could use this in my campaign" and that goes double if you're not using it for its stated, intended purpose.  And I'm saying I can and probably will use this.

So Why Isn't It DF?

I have a peeve about things getting the DF tag that don't really need it, because it tells me the culture is shifting in such a way that suggests people don't want Generic RPGS anymore, and that makes me sad.  

So I'm reading this book, and given its extraordinary depth, detail and realism, I assume that this is historically accurate, and then I stumble across the mention of two of the "riddars" (which reads as "ridder" or "knight" to me, because I'm fluent in Dutch) and both of them are female.

"Huh.  Were there female knights back then? I understood there wasn't, but I've seen some articles come past that contend otherwise. Maybe my understanding was wrong?  Hmmm, I wonder if Cole knows something I don't."

Then I read up on Riddar Asdis Hafdottir:

An astute ship-handler and inspiring leader, Asdis exudes an optimistic energy and commands with an easy humor laced with a saucy undertone. Young for the role (barely out of her teens), she has an obvious charisma and an equally quick blade. She displays a fierce temper and cutting wit..

A saucy, sarcastic, charismatic teenage ship captain? Okay, so we're going with fantasy not historical accuracy, right? It's fantasy, we can do whatever we want without being historically accurate; orcs aren't historically accurate!  She even reminds me of Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon. I'm not complaining about Asdis; she's a great character! I have no objections to tossing her in my DF campaign.  But there's no historical precedent for... but, wait, on the other hand, the real world is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense.  "The past was full of male chauvanism" is a story we like to tell ourselves, but the reality is always more complicated than that.  Could he be basing this on a real character? I've read of even less plausible historical figures, especially from the swashbuckling era. So I don't know anymore!

The whole book gave me this vibe: how much is the result of deep, historical research and meticulous study, and how much is "Wheeee, we throw fireballs and monsters!" I don't know.  It kinda freaks me out.  I suspect this might be the reason he called it DF as it gave him a little more flexibility to add more cinematic characters of Asdis, but at the same time, I don't know.  Like it could be 100% historical (even the magic could be based on what was considered normal in that era) and I wouldn't know.  

That's not really a reason to say it isn't DF, though.  So why would I argue it isn't DF?

Let's establish what DF is: DF is going into dungeons, killing monsters, and taking their stuff.  Is the Ring Fort a dungeon? No.  Does it have monsters? No.  Could you take their stuff? No, but it is a place where you can go to pick up a quest, or sell some stuff? Sure.  But do you need to know the name of the saucy, teenage female ship captain to do that? No.  Do you need do know there are 250 soldiers in the garrison, the thickness and size of the walls and gates to do that? No.  Do you need to know the economics of the fort to know why they're buying your stuff? Or selling you stuff? No.

Do you know what sort of game you'd need to know this stuff? Where you were playing as part of the fort.  I'd want to serve under Asdis.  I'd want to go raiding for the fort.  I'd want to see the political struggles between the people there. I'd want to defend the fort from raiders.  Or I'd want to play a necromancer who was conjuring up an army of the dead to try to breach its defenses and seize it, defeating its heroes.  The fort is cool and I'd want it to become central, and the ways in which it screams to become central aren't things that synergize with the DF gameplay. Instead, DF-style gameplay detracts from how I'd want to use this fort.

Having read it, it's a straight-up Low Tech product masquerading as a DF product because it's embarrassed by being a Low-Tech work, or because Cole works with DF and Dragon Heresy is a D&D product, and he's made a mission of trying to inject historical accuracy into D&D-like products, or so would be my guess. He likes to blur the fantasy with the historical and is probably giggling at trolling me this hard with Asdid and will never tell.  But, damn, you don't need DF to make this work at all.

I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't use this in a DF game, not at all.  It's a village, you can sell stuff there, they can give you quests.  The fact that you don't need to know that there are 250 soldiers on premise doesn't mean that knowing it makes the book useless.  Like, realistically, any DF village you're going to find is going to be a 2-pager at most "Here's what it looks like here's some names you can toss around, here's what you can buy. Hey, they like buskers at the ring fort." Cool.  We've got that.  We just went on another 8 pages with even more information that makes this even broader.  And is there anything forbidden about expanding a DF campaign? Guilds is a thing: we can serve the Fort, or we can play as evil characters, slap on some mass combat and go to war with the fort if we want.  Sounds cool!  Some people even complain DF is too constrained, and this work will really appeal to them.

It's just that, as mentioned above, it makes me sad when perfectly good LT books get reskinned as DF books "because DF sells." Like, everything I said above applies to the Incense Trail or GURPS Crusades too.  You can use them in a DF campaign as well, if you want, with a little rejiggering. I would have made this a generic Encounters book or a Hotspot Book.

Conclusion

You should buy this book.  If you're into DF, you should get it because it gives you more of a sense of what towns look like and how they function.  If you're into DF and feel constrained, you should definitely get it, because it will inspire you as to how you could broaden your game.  Even if you're not into nordic culture, it provides much needed context. If you're not into DF, but you are into generic LT products (such as the LT companions), don't let the association with the DF line dissuade you from getting it.  I think the only reason to not get this book is if you have no interested in things remotely in the LT or fantasy era, and even then, I could find uses for the context this gives and how it thinks in other games.

This was one of those "happy surprise" books. I enjoyed it quite a bit.