Pregnancy and You

First of all, let us emphasize that this guide is for the purpose of pregnancy, and not necessarily all the services a Temple of Enshar would provide..

..though some of the services do pertain to pregnancy. We hope you'll enjoy our newly-randomized pregnancy rules..

Uhh...what your characters do in the bedroom is strictly your business, it’s not like we’re going to track you down, and...

Anyway, only someone with really bad luck will end up pregnant by accident due a random encounter. Before, it was over 50% probability for humans, leading to what I call the “Damion incident,” where three priestesses were impregnated (and one with twins!). Any pregnancies caused by the old rules are grandfather-claused (most of them have ended anyhow by the time of this publication, thankfully, so I won’t have to take out a life insurance policy).

This is the meat of the guide, the reason why it was created – the Unofficial D&D Guide to Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was giving rather horrendous rules in favor of accidental pregnancies. If actual life worked that way, we’d have more kids running around in Imperia than we’d know what to do with. Though there are population booms following a disaster (such as the plague), it wouldn’t be of the aforementioned proportions.

So, I decided to do what I do best – make up my own rules! I had to base them off something, so I picked the most generalized/fair system and made some tweaks, so to speak.

First, you need to know the DC, or Difficulty Class, of the race you’re talking about when it comes to fertility. For most cases, the following chart will apply.

Race Class	Sample Races	DC
Extremely Fertile Races	Vazgell Can`ri, Orcs, Goblins	70
Very Fertile Races	Humans, Gnolls	75
Fertile Races	Dwarves, Halflings, Trolls	80
Somewhat Fertile Races	Elves, Drow, Gnomes	85
Barely Fertile Races	Dragons	90

There shouldn’t be any races I’ve forgotten that have PCs. If I have, feel free to ask me and I’ll add it to the table, as appropriate. As a note, I know there are some races on that table don’t have PCs – it was thrown in there from the original source material, so I kept it.

Oversimplified Crossbreeding Guide

This section is way too hard for my tastes. Thankfully, I’ve got a lot going for me in that field – mostly, the fact that species usually don’t usually crossbreed to begin with (based on culture, precedent, and location factors). However, should compatible species get it on (and determining that is somewhat common sense anyhow), you use the higher DC of the two races.

The result will be a half-breed with the average fertility class between the two races (for example, a half-elf will be of a fertile race). In the case where there is an even number of classes between the two races (like between a Vazgell Can`ri and an elf, or a Vazgell Can`ri and a human), use the higher fertility class of the average (in this case, a half-elf/half-Vazgell would be a fertile race, and a half-elf/half-human would be a very fertile race).

Incompatible races can only be crossbred through divine intervention only, but would result in a half-breed.

A couple’s health has a quite a bit to do with their fertility. If both partners are very healthy, subtract five from the DC; if both partners don’t take care of themselves, add five to the DC. Otherwise, there is no modifier.

This is, of course, assuming that neither of them is significantly impotent. If this is the case for either partner, add to the DC accordingly.

Let’s assume that Qi`Nok and Estishia are coupling. Because they are of two races – Vazgell Can`ri, which are extremely fertile, and human, which are very fertile – it must first be determined whether they can couple. Obviously (Devan: *Wahhh!*), they can. Thus, we take the DC of the race with the lower fertility class (human, or 75). Since they are both fairly healthy and in good shape, we will subtract 5 from the DC to get a total DC of 70. The resulting child will be a half breed with a human’s fertility class.

The basic procedure to rolling for pregnancy on a random encounter with the new rules is to first roll for a “conception threat” in Grinding Stone. If it’s a couple and you really want to keep track, do this once every two RL weeks (yes yes, I know, there’s only 10 days in an IC month, but this is easier to keep track of). If the roll is equal to or above the DC, then you must roll again for conception. Otherwise, stop here.

The only thing left to do is to roll another 1d100 for conception. If the roll is again equal to or above the DC, you have yourselves a child, congratulations!

Of course, the values of the rolls can be modified, but we’ll get to that later.

Twins are rather – well – RARE in real life without some sort of fertility drugs. Therefore, instead of the 1d10 roll for twins, it has been decided that twins would be much rarer. Rather, the only time there will be an even a chance of twins now will be if the conception roll’s result is above 99. Usually, that’s a 1/50 chance for even a CHANCE of twins. Of course, if you use fertility potions on a perfectly healthy woman, that’s where you’ll start to have problems.

But in this rare occasion that you do get above a 99, you would roll a second conception roll. If that second conception roll is also above the DC, congrats, you have twins. In the very rare case that this would ALSO be above 99, roll again for triplets, and so on.

So let’s continue by following Qi and Esti’s sexual escapades after she gave birth to Devan. I’mma roll the following in GS:

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Month 1 - Conception Threat Roll" and gets 35.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Month 2 - Conception Threat Roll" and gets 31.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Month 3 - Conception Threat Roll" and gets 99.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Month 3 - Conception Roll" and gets 28.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Month 18 - Conception Threat Roll" and gets 91.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Month 18 - Conception Roll" and gets 74.

As you can see, it’s hard to land with a kid by accident, though it does happen. Then again...

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Conception Threat Roll - Random" and gets 63.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Conception Threat Roll - Random2" and gets 84.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Conception Roll - Random2" and gets 72.

Of course, there are ways that the fertility rolls can be modified – the aforementioned rules are just the basics. Possible modifications to fertility rolls can be broken up into two categories:

External Factors (Changes to the Fertility Roll that Don’t Affect the Body): These are forms of increasing/decreasing fertility that have nothing to do with changing the state of either body (examples – external contraception, timing). When these modifications are mentioned, they are only made to the conception threat roll, NOT the actual conception roll.

Internal (Changes to the Fertility Roll that Affect the Body): These are forms of increasing/decreasing fertility that affect the body (examples – spells, potions). These affect both the conception threat roll AND the actual conception roll. Abuse of these methods can yield interesting results.

From there, there are two subcategories: changes that increase the odds of fertility, and changes that lessen the odds.

These additions or subtractions to fertility are cumulative, if possible (when appropriate).

It’s All About the Timing – if a married couple is trying to conceive and use proper methods, they can add anything from 30 to 50 to the conception threat roll, depending on how knowledgeable they are and the frequency of sex.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+50) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Month 1 - Conception Threat Roll" and gets 116.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "DC 70 - Month 1 - Conception Roll" and gets 60.

It’s All About the Timing – if a couple is NOT trying to conceive and they know what they’re doing, a couple can subtract up to 10 from the conception threat roll, depending on how well they know what they’re doing. The only reason this number can’t be higher is because of how imperfect this method is.

External Contraception – Medieval external methods of contraception aren’t exactly..good. Therefore, using external contraception will only subtract 5 from the roll (and may be a bit gross).

Potions (female) – Fertility potions from a Temple of Enshar aren’t an exact science (because it’s a fertility blessing), so they are best used on women with fertility problems. I wasn’t exactly sure how to mimic the problems, as not all fertility treatments work in real life, and not all those that do work end up in multiples, but a good number of them do. Therefore, I have decided that the Temple of Enshar would offer potions at two strength levels: regular (+30 initial modifier), and “Buy A New House NOW,” er, enhanced strength (+50 initial modifier). Potions contain one dose and last for three in character days before it wears off (or conception is achieved, you and you get three tries), but it does NOT negate any bad DC changes on the female’s part.

So, how does this factor into the rolling for each try? First, you take the initial modifier and tack it onto the Conception Threat Roll (I’ll work with the +30 for now, assuming the DC is 75):

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+30) for Estishia with the description "CTR - Try #1" and gets 41.

Roll falls below DC, so we have to roll for the second try, which would take place the next IC day.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+30) for Estishia with the description "CTR - Try #2" and gets 73.

It’s above the DC, so then we roll for a first conception, subtracting 10 from the modifier.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+20) for Estishia with the description "CR1 - Try #2" and gets 116.

Conception is confirmed with possibility for twins (because the result is above 99). Roll again, subtracting 10.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+10) for Estishia with the description "CR2 - Try #2" and gets 12.

Twins is not confirmed because the roll is below the DC, but we stop trying because we have a confirmed conception. Should rolls continue to produce results above 99, continue following the conception roll rules for multiples, subtracting 10 from the initial modifier each time.

Note: Should either of these potions be used on a relatively infertile female, stop after the second conception roll, regardless of the result.

Potions (male) – a special fertility potion used on males will cure their impotency for a month, negating any bad DC changes caused by the male. They can be bought at the Temple of Enshar.

Primal Urges (perfume) – This rather expensive perfume is more precise than a potion, and is usually available to the upper classes alone because of the high prices set by the Temple of Enshar. It is used on the woman alone, and casts a spell that forces ovulation and makes the woman smell rather alluring, so should a woman have sex within 24 hours of being dosed with this perfume, conception is guaranteed (unless the male is impotent, of course). The only roll that would need to be done here would be a second conception roll (regular DC, no modifiers) to see if the woman was all ready fertile at the time of conception (all rules for conception rolls apply here).

In the unlucky case that the perfume is too strong (Ensharan priestesses usually throw these out), said second conception roll would work as a female fertility potion with an initial modifier of 50, which could be quite a disaster (same rules apply, but stop after the fifth conception roll, regardless of the result).

The Key of Enshar – This will probably never be used, but a couple in the light of the Key of Enshar will become obsessed with mating. A child will be conceived with the couple, no matter what the couple is, regardless of fertility.

Potions (male/female) – Because Enshar is the Primal of Procreation, Temples of Enshar refuse to sell such potions (in fact, even asking could lead to a permanent curse). However, alchemists will sell somewhat expensive potions that, once taken, will cause a woman’s cycle to be stalled for a month or for a man to stop producing sperm for a month (depending on who takes it). This eliminates the need to do any rolls. Caution is advised, for misuse and abuse can lead to permanent infertility.

Let’s torture the couple some more and assume that Qi`Nok wanted Estishia to have a kid, so they try for two months. Because the couple is trying, we add 50 to the CTR roll, using the DC we found in the first section (DC 70).

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+50) for Estishia with the description "CTR" and gets 61.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+50) for Estishia with the description "CTR Month 2" and gets 112.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100) for Estishia with the description "CR1 Month 2" and gets 4.

Conception fails. After these two months, Qi becomes impatient. He believes that without the blessing from Enshar, Estishia is relatively infertile. He buys an enhanced fertility potion from the Temple of Enshar and coaxes Esti to take it, not knowing that Esti’s fertility is perfectly fine. Mike drags my poor soul into GS and makes me roll for conception according to the rules drawn out in the potion section:

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+50) for Estishia with the description "CTR" and gets 117.

Conception threat confirmed – roll for first conception, lessening modifier by 10.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+40) for Estishia with the description "CR1" and gets 109.

First conception confirmed with possibility for twins – roll for second conception.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+30) for Estishia with the description "CR2" and gets 120.

Second conception confirmed with possibilities for triplets – roll again for third conception!

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+20) for Estishia with the description "CR3" and gets 99.

* SkilletBot rolls a (1d100+10) for Estishia with the description "CR4" and gets 34.

No quadruplets. However, Estishia is impregnated with triplets, and will be kicking Qi’s ass in a few months before Esti’s kids can kick inside her.

In the interests of being extremely simple, I will base the months pregnancy will last based on the fertility class, like so:

Fertility Class	Pregnancy Duration	Stage Duration (9 Stages)
Extremely Fertile	6 months	2.6 weeks per stage
Very Fertile	9 months	4 weeks per stage
Fertile	12 months	5.3 weeks per stage
Somewhat Fertile	15 months	6.6 weeks per stage
Barely Fertile	18 months	8 weeks per stage

Yes, I know, oversimplified, but conception was complicated enough. Oh, and those are IC days – you’ll need to convert to RL days.

Look, ah, I was planning on posting a whole guide here, but this stuff has real life reference. And since this guide is long enough, I’m just going to throw you some tips on how to reference this stuff in character. You can look on the Guide to Unlawful Carnal Knowledge for what happens during each state according to D&D.

However, you can also look up real life guides on pregnancy and use appropriate to race (elf pregnancies will be much more comfortable than human pregnancies, for example), and there are two ways you can do this:

Oversimplified version for real life referencing: Just divide the pregnancy duration by three to get the number of months per trimester. Then look up the several different trimesters on pregnancy and play as appropriate.

More specific version for real life referencing: Look up the individual months and just use the 9 months in a human pregnancy to reference what happens in the 9 stages of other races’ pregnancies.

Just use whichever is more comfortable for you. Oh, and if you’ve had a child yourself, than you’re much more knowledgeable than any damn book, and you probably knew that all ready. *grin*

A pregnant woman is at risk, especially in Tantallon. If you thought pregnancy was difficult enough, try running from a few demons in that condition! Sigh.

Conditions for Disaster: Abuse of alcohol and other drugs, casting spells to the point of collapse, taking critical damage in fights, steep illnesses, poison, witnessing traumatic events, time spells, and wild magic surges.

Of course, what counts for a particularly disastrous situation is common sense, and depends on the woman. Time spells are tricky, however – the effects of any aging spells are split up between the mother and child (for instance, if a woman was supposed to age a year, both mother and child would age five months). Wild magic surges were just thrown in there because quite a few of the rolls contort the state of the caster/target.

Anyway, should a condition for disaster be reached, there is a 50% chance of miscarriage in the first trimester, a 25% chance of miscarriage in the second trimester, and a 50% chance of a premature birth in the third trimester.

A Note on Death - Obviously, any event that ends the life of the mother will also terminate the pregnancy. Raise dead will restore the mother to life, but the child will be stillborn. Resurrection and true resurrection restore life to the mother and child. If the mother miscarries or dies, the child is automatically killed unless childbirth is expected in less than a month; in this case the child survives, but is likely to require assistance.