| The Willow Sourcebook |
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If you're like us, when Willow ran to Kiaya and the credits rolled, you had all sorts of questions about the world of Willow. George Lucas and Ron Howard's world is remarkably real and consistent, but there's only so much you can do in two hours of film - especially when you have to cram action, adventure, and special effects into every frame! What's life in the Nelwyn village like? How did Madmartigan get trapped in the cage, anyhow? How did Bavmorda rise to power? What's the background to Airk's relationship with Madmartigan? Who is Kael, and how did he get to be Bavmorda's general? Eric Goldberg Associates and Tor Books are proud to present the authorized sourcebook based on Lucasfilm's fantasy film. In The Willow Sourcebook you'll find answers to all kinds of questions - details on all the characters, monsters, magic, and kingdoms you see in the movie. Much background and many secrets are revealed for the first time anywhere. Everything here has been checked and confirmed by Lucasfilm. The wealth of material in film and sourcebook alike carries on the George Lucas tradition of quality and imagination, already world-famous in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie series. Read on! ROLEPLAYING What is a roleplaying game? If you already know, you can skip the rest of this section. If you're not sure what roleplaying is all about, keep reading. Movies have to end. But your adventures don't have to end with them. Using the rules to a roleplaying game, you can take the part of a fantasy character and experience all the magic and adventure of a world like Willow's. In a roleplaying game, you pretend to be a "character," a person who lives in the world of a story (such as Willow's world). Using the game rules, you decide what your "player character" can do, and how he or she behaves. One person acts as the gamemaster. The gamemaster describes the game world your character lives in, the "nonplayer characters" he or she encounters, and the events that happen in the world. The gamemaster tells the story that the player characters act in. By telling the gamemaster what your characters do in response to events, you and the other players help decide the outcome of the adventure. It's like starring in a movie, complete with scenery, supporting cast, an action-packed plot, and maybe even a bowl of popcorn to munch on. And if you succeed in the tasks the story sets, you can get rewards of fame, fortune, and new abilities for your character. THE GAMING NOTES The Willow Sourcebook includes game statistics that let you adapt the movie's characters and ideas for use in the most popular fantasy roleplaying games. These "gaming notes" are found at the end of each individual entry. If you're just interested in the background material and don't care about the gaming elements, just skip the gaming notes. If you do want to use the gaming notes, you'll need to know the rules of a fantasy roleplaying game. There are a lot of fantasy games on the market, and any of them can be used with this sourcebook. They can be found at your local game or bookstore. GLOSSARY Roleplaying games use many specialized terms. Here are definitions for the terms used in our gaming notes: ADVENTURE A story in which players pretend to be the main characters. The gamemaster describes a situation and goal, and the players create the story of the adventure through their actions. ATTRIBUTES Number scores that describe a character's inborn abilities. In general, the better an ability, the higher the number score. We express most attributes on a numerical range from 3 to 18, with 18 being exceptionally high. A typical person's score is around 10. Note that rolling 3d6 (that is, three six-sided dice) gives a number between 3 and 18. If your game system generates character attributes with 3d6 rolls, as many do, you can use the scores we provide without adjustment. Other systems use other methods for determing attributes; players of these systems should adjust these scores proportionately. We use six different attributes in The Willow Sourcebook: STRENGTH is a measure of physical power and the ability to lift, throw, or do other things that require sheer brawn. DEXTERITY measures coordination, agility, and speed. CONSTITUTION is a character's innate endurance and toughness. WISDOM is a measure of a character's intuition about people and the world, and (especially in magicians) how well attuned the character is to the forces of nature. INTELLIGENCE is the ability to think quickly and formulate new ideas. CHARISMA is a character's leadership qualities and "magnetism". CHARACTER An individual who takes part in the story set up by the gamemaster. A "player character" is one whose role a player takes on; a "non-player character" is a villain or minor character played by the gamemaster. CLASS The character's profession. In this Sourcebook, characters are described as "fighters", "magicians", and even "thieves" when appropriate. Some games have rigid rules for character classes, while other systems let characters develop more freely. Use the class descriptions in the entries as guidelines for adapting characters to your own system. CREATURES We provide some special statistics for creatures: ALIGNMENT: A creature is good, evil, or neutral; that's its alignment. ARMOR CLASS is a measure of how hard it is to damage a creature. It's a rating from 0 (very hard to damage) to 9 (easy). ATTACKS tells you how many time the creature can attack in one "turn". For example, "3/turn" means the creature can make three attacks. DAMAGE: Creatures have damage ratings, expressed in terms of dice. When a creature injures an opponent, dice are rolled to determine how many "hits" it inflicts. For example, if a creature's damage rating is 2d6, you roll two six-sided dice; the result is the number of hits is opponent suffers. When a creature has more than one attack, it often has separate damage ratings for each attack (e.g., 10d6/3d6/5d6). EXPERIENCE VALUE: Some game systems award characters experience (that is, improved skills and abilities) for defeating creatures. If your system does not use experience points, or awards them only for other activities such as roleplaying and clever play, ignore this figure. MOVE is the number of feet a creature can run in one "turn". DICE Roleplaying games use dice to determine the success or failure of characters' actions. Along with the familiar six-sided dice, there are four-, eight-, ten-, twelve-, and twenty-sided dice. These are abbreviated with the letter "d" for die, followed by the die's number of sides: "d4", "d6", "d10", and so on. Sometimes there is a number before the "d", indicating how many of that kind of die to roll. For instance, if you see "2d6", it means you roll two six-sided dice and add the results. In this Sourcebook, almost all rolls are for one or more d6. GAMEMASTER The person who "runs", or referees, the adventure. The gamemaster tells the story in which the players pretend to be characters, and decides the outcome of characters' actions. HITS Characters can be injured on their adventures. In most roleplaying games, a character can suffer some number of "hits" before falling unconscious or dying. A tough character might have 50 or more hits, and a fragile one less than 10. LEVEL A convention used in some games to indicate a character's proficiency in many activities. The higher the number of the character's skill level, the more powerful he or she has become. For example, a "5th-skill-level fighter" is a more dangerous opponent than one of the 4th skill level. Typically characters begin at the 1st skill level, and progress to higher levels. In Willow's world (as a rule of thumb), a skill level from about 5 to 15 indicates significant skill, from 15 to 20 is truly exceptional, and above 20 is world-class power. (Queen Bavmorda, the most powerful magician in the world, has attained the 36th skill level!) SKILL An ability a character has acquired by learning, as opposed to inborn attributes. Some roleplaying games allow characters to learn skills like climbing, tracking, fighting, various professions, and so on. Other games assume all these as part of "character classes" that allot these abilities automatically when the character chooses a career. TURN One turn is assumed to be equal to ten seconds. ABILITY CHECKS Sometimes the gaming notes will tell you to make an "ability check" against one of a character's attributes. To do so, roll a twenty-sided die (or, if your game doesn't use polyhedral dice, roll 3d6 instead). If the number rolled is equal to or less than the character's attribute score, the character passed the check. Otherwise, he failed. Example: A character is the target of a spell. The spell rule says that the target must make a constitution check to resist the spell's effects. The character's constitution score is 13. If his play rolls 13 or less, the character is not affected by the spell; if the roll is 14 or more, the character fails the check, and is affected. |
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