tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86864874376925048632024-03-13T10:05:17.971-07:00QUESTONIAJessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-78853418938798650672012-05-19T07:34:00.001-07:002012-05-19T07:36:40.553-07:00Gunslinger Class for Labyrinth Lord<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9184344173696403" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I've been organising a game of Labyrinth Lord with my brother, a Type III/Pathfinder devotee completely enamored with Pathfinder's 'gunslinger' class, a firearm-user class focussed on explosive feats of Bruce Willis-ery. He requested an LL-version, so here's what I came up with:</span><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9184344173696403" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9184344173696403" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gunslinger</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Requirements: DEX 15, WIS 12</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prime Requisites: DEX, WIS</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hit Dice: 1d8</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Maximum Level: none</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Experience Chart: Fighter</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Attacks/Saves: Fighter</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Weapons/Armor:
All swords, axes, daggers, shortbows, longbows, crossbows, and
firearms/leather armour, studded leather armour, and padded armour</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On
the forefront of experimental, temperamental, modern warfare,
gunslingers are those few individuals to whom the crack and boom of
blackpowder is sweet music. Gunslingers live on the edge, performing
swashbuckling feats of derring-do and wielding weapons deadly to target
and wielder alike.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Special Abilities:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gunslingers
begin play with their choice of either blunderbuss or pistol. His or
her starting weapon is battered, and only the gunslinger may properly
operate it. All other creatures treat her gun as if it were broken
(attacking at -2 to hit). If the weapon already has the broken
condition, it does not work at all for anyone else trying to use it.
This starting weapon can only be sold for scrap (it is worth 4d10 gp
when sold).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Practised Gunman</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
The gunslinger regards only rolls of 1 as triggering a misfire, instead
of the standard 1-2. In cases of misfire, the damage taken as a result
of a failed saving throw is of 1-4 rather than 1-6.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">True Grit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: Once per day, the gunslinger may perform one of the following actions:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Deadeye</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
The gunslinger may ignore the armour bonus to a foe’s AC in an attack
beyond the first range increment. The gunslinger still takes the –2
penalty on attack rolls for each range increment beyond the first when
she performs this deed.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Quick Clear</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
The gunslinger may repair a firearm broken or jammed by misfire. This
is the equivalent of movement in combat, and the gunslinger may engage
in one or the other.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gunman’s Reflexes</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
The gunslinger enjoys a remarkable knack for getting out of the way of
missile attacks. When faced with a ranged offensive attack, the
gunslinger may step 5 feet to the side, gaining a +2 bonus to AC against
the oncoming attack. Alternately, the gunslinger may drop to a prone
position on the ground to gain a +4 bonus to AC. The gunslinger may only
employ this manoeuvre whilst wearing light or no armour, and carrying
no more than a light load.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Misfires:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bombs
and gunpowder weapons are subject to misfires. Any natural roll of 1-2
made when rolling to hit indicates that a misfire has occurred. Roll a
D100 and consult the relevant chart:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gunpowder Weapons</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">01-50 Charge fails to ignite; no need to reload, fire as normal next round</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">51-99 Charge fails to ignite; must reload to fire</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">00 Charge explodes causing an automatic hit (d6 damage) and rendering the weapon broken (useless until repaired)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bombs</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">01-50 Bomb fails to explode</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">51-80 Bomb splutters. Roll a D6 every round; when a 6 is rolled, the bomb goes off</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">81-95 Bomb explodes halfway between thrower and target</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">96-00 Bomb explodes in thrower’s hands</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(It's possibly lacking detail towards higher levels, but I can't quite tell.)</span> </span>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-32064851511734367082012-03-20T10:27:00.000-07:002012-03-20T10:35:12.182-07:00Hippogriff replacement, anyone?I've been asked to try running Pathfinder using one of their 'adventure paths' (Curse of the Crimson Throne, namely), and although Korvosa, the city the campaign is set in, is basically workable and acceptable there are a number of places where a little tweaking would improve things immensely.<br />
<br />
There is one thing, however, that really rubs me the wrong way in terms of personal preference and properly fitting in with the setting as I see it: the elite city guard all ride about on hippogriffs. And I, for the record, cannot stand hippogriffs; like griffons and pegasuses, hippogriffs are visually speaking terrible, as they are really back-heavy. The wings are placed up at the shoulder, leaving two thirds of the animal that should be dangling like dead weight but typically are instead bearing a rider. I'm not one for true ultimate realism in my fantasy, but compositionally flying horse monsters are just wrong. Also, the combination of bird and horse is really uninspiring.<br />
<br />
So, anyway, I'm looking for a monster (or other conveyance or vehicle) for the guards to use, and I'm looking to those few stalwart internet-folks whom I count as readers for suggestions. It needs to fly, because the railroady plot requires flying law enforcement at some point, I'm pretty sure. Flavour-wise, I'm looking for something a bit Lankhmar-y, or like it could be used in Miéville's New Crobuzon. A flying steed for grimy, London-esque streets.Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-42982203198101729472012-02-25T15:07:00.002-08:002012-02-25T15:07:26.083-08:00Announcing the Malevolent & Benign ProjectThere's a convergence of interests on my blogs right now, so I thought I'd cross-publicise: over on <a href="http://themightybirenza.tumblr.com/">my art-blog</a>, I've undertaken what I'm calling the Malevolent & Benign Project, where I do daily sketches of creatures drawn from the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio. I'm on monster eleven right now (Carrion Crawler).<br />
<br />
Here was #1: <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MkPrBmMEcR4/T0lo8XRAwKI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/EHIQSOcuLFA/s1600/%25231+Aarakocra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MkPrBmMEcR4/T0lo8XRAwKI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/EHIQSOcuLFA/s640/%25231+Aarakocra.jpg" width="345" /></a></div>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-46832092880955247522012-02-14T10:28:00.000-08:002012-02-14T10:28:33.109-08:00A Fiend Folio Problem, Solved<span style="font-size: small;">So</span>, I'm thinking about a possible project wherein I draw all (or most) of the monsters out of the MM or the Fiend Folio, and so looking through those tomes to decide on which would be more interesting. Flipping through the Fiend Folio, I realise something that's never hit home to me before: there are a ludicrous number of bird-monsters in this book, most of which are severely lacking in the 'cool enough to use in my game' category.<br />
<br />
But I have the solution. The aarakocra, dire corby, kenku, and achaierai (the worst name ever) are all native to some far-flung, half-legendary kingdom aking to Prester John's, only ruled by birds. Aaracokra are, instead of being bland noble-looking eaglemen, like peafowl with flashy colourful males and drab females of shrewd business acumen. Dire corbies, which look like ostriches or cassowaries with weird arms instead of wings are the enforcers and muscle of the bird-kingdoms, achaierai (still almost too stupid to type) are like elephants, with howdahs on their backs stuffed with lavishly dressed aarakocra maharajahs and their avian harems. Kenku are sneaky corvid nuisances (and actually have a place in ordinary places in the game). In the Avian Kingdoms they're more like working-class Dickensian crowmen, with braces, grubby bowlers, cockney accents, and gin habits.Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-61479198546498099392012-02-03T15:26:00.000-08:002012-02-03T19:57:14.265-08:00A very simple random table<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A bit of prep for an adventure I'm working on. This is pretty basic, but should work out well with my players.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Why Am I In This Dungeon?</b> </span></span><br />
<ol id="internal-source-marker_0.9774522652940155">
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Recovering the lost pet of the Dowager Countess of Groanborough</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Keeping an eye on another PC</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Community Service by order of the Lord High Executioner</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dissatisfied in current line of work</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ancestral Quest</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Looking for lost relative/loved one</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Financial difficulties</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hunting for a relic by command of the Lord Mayor</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In search of a legendary beast</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fame and Glory</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Avenging dead relative</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ill-advised bet made whilst drunk</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On the run from the law</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Scientific research</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Investigating at the behest of a foreign nation</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Looking for rare ingredient</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tourist</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Recovering your stolen property</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shadily paid to explore it by a man in a pub</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hopelessly lost</span></span></li>
</ol>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-38832627816517444712012-01-27T07:12:00.000-08:002012-01-27T07:13:51.314-08:00Le Monde du Futur<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This is the last of these giant setting-dumps, I believe. As a disclaimer, Cold-War era international politics are something I'm a little hazy on, so please excuse the occasional wobbly bit history (I also fudge a lot of the facts in order to fit with the theme and aesthetic, so that affects things too)</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.011395929519027459" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A sort of Cold War/Big Brother/Brazil/Paranoia/Modernist aesthetic coupled with a heavy dose of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Metal Hurlant</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-style Euro-sci fi. Illustrations by Moebius, Bilal, Mezieres, set design from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Alphaville</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
and the Bauhaus, and costume design help from Jean-Paul Gaultier. A
worn, 60s-to-80s future where spaceships and flying cars zip about, but
on the crowded, grimy city streets people just ride bicycles or
scooters. It would be like if </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Blade Runner</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> had Europe instead of Japan as the culturally dominant ones.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
like the notion of enclosure, and the people of the world being forced
into tight urban spaces. To that end, I see the world of the future (I
almost want to say the year is 2000 for fun) as being composed primarily
of enormous arcologies that link or combine several major present-day
cities (say, there’s the Paris-London-Amsterdam megacity. Or perhaps one
big Anglopolis and a northwestern continental one with France and
Belgium and the Netherlands. Whatever) and the world outside the
megacities is just a mess and practically uninhabitable due to nuclear
war or something. Technology is clunky and primarily analogue because
the world went to hell in 1966 or something and a substantial chunk of
the world’s industrial capacity was lost, so everything’s done on a
smaller scale now and people are perfectly content with oven-sized
computers and film and typewriters. And hover-cars.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
can see that post-disaster there would be room for major revolution
within certain governments, and that nations might rise from the ashes
under a nationalist dictatorship, but that goes part-and-parcel with the
general tone of things; </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">everywhere</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
in the world is basically pretty horrible and probably a police state,
and the PCs are against that in some way. It’s a ‘punk’ setting. Maybe
there’s a scummy little international lunar colony, where the worst
undesirables of Earth society end up. It’d be kind of like Casablanca,
maybe.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So in this one your characters are variously:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">anarchic (or anarchist) gun-happy Tank Girls and street toughs</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ennui-ridden
Francophones, lurking in smoky stairwells or bars where a lone record
player loops a scratchy Edith Piaf album, or some gloomy jazz</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hardboiled detectives in the vein of Chandler, Blade Runner, or Alphaville</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Overtly futuristic Moebius-y people with curious headgear.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Deluded upper-class people content with the current state of things</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Organised
revolutionaries, full of idealistic notions of overthrowing the corrupt
government and restoring to the world to its pre-disaster state.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Small-time businesspeople, taxi drivers, and suchlike</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Spies, for or against the current regime.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hired killers, with a host of deadly piece-together guns and a precocious young Natalie Portman sidekick.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fashion-wise,
people fall mostly into one of two camps: either they wear futuristic
fashions with wild hair and accessories (and not entirely dissimilar to a
person of the 1980s), or they look broadly 60s, with suits and
miniskirts and suchlike. People live in cramped, boxy flats in the
megacities, but don’t skimp on decor; homes are all decorated in some
variation on a modernist, 60s-future style (albeit with a lot of
concrete about). This is the Euro-future, the Dutch and German knack for
design has greater prominence. (Bauhaus spaceships)</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The major political powers in this future are something along the lines of:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">America</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
The ‘Disaster’ (or 60-Minute War, or just WWIII) obviously affected
America pretty terribly; huge swathes of its territory are
uninhabitable, cities reduced to rubble, all of that. America, at its
peak before the Disaster, is now reduced to a third-rate power at best.
The capital is New York (optimistic, really, but this is fiction.
Nuclear radiation works on principles of fun and drama), and many of the
country’s best minds and important figure fled to Britain before the
attack, leading to the UK’s surge in importance (akin to Von Braun et al
in America after WWII).</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">European Union</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
The calamitous effects of the Disaster left Europe massively weakened,
and caused many nations to realise that banding together in mutual
support wouldn’t be a bad thing. When the Germanies united in the 80s
the EU was further strengthened. Today there are Autobahns
criss-crossing the continent, linking the various major metropolises via
high-speed radiation safe travel. The largest cities are Paris, Berlin,
Benelux City, and Roma.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">USSR</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
It’s pretty much just playing along with genre expectations to include
this, but in the 80s and earlier people didn’t seem to consider the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, it always continued well into the
future. We’ll say they had the upper hand during the war, delivering a
decisive strike against the Americans and then essentially ending
things. They were probably also hit, but less badly. They have their own
lunar base, which they maintain with greater diligence than the EU
Lunopolis. (<i>can you tell I was born post-Perestroika?</i>)</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Britain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
It’s pretty patently ridiculous to say that Britain will be a world
power in the science-fictional future, but perhaps the disaster levelled
the playing field somewhat. I see the UK as mostly semi-isolationist,
occasionally dragged into American schemes. With a rise in nationalism
and patriotic fervour, the monarchy is somewhat strengthened (though
still complete figureheads), and the head of state is Queen Beatrice
(the top four in line to throne having perished in various ways.
Beatrice was in Australia or something) Most of the populace lives in
the Anglopolis, or Greater London, which dominates most of the south and
midlands, and is connected via subterranean shuttles to Mega-Glasgow
(Wales is a nuclear-scarred wasteland)</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">China</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:
China is this world’s stable, reasonable state on account of their
being largely unaffected by the Disaster. They’re affluent,
well-populated, and their communist ideology comes out looking pretty
okay in the face of some of the worse countries in Earth A.D 2000.
Chinese influence probably extends out into the rest of Asia, as well as
into the weakened America (which causes something of a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Blade Runner</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
effect, although Europe also has similar influence). China is, because
of this, one of the most progressively futuristic nations, with a
full-fledged space programme, cyborgs, big multi-level Moebius cities,
and sundry other sci-fi bits and pieces.</span></span></li>
</ul>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-5607341617509482672012-01-22T11:02:00.000-08:002012-01-24T05:59:04.574-08:00Adventuring in the Great War<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.3131650026096451" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Inspired in part by the admirable <i>Weird Adventures</i>/The City material being set down over at <a href="http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/">From the Sorcerer's Skull</a>, this is the result of some idle, half-thought-through contemplation on how to run a campaign set in or around a version of WWI</span><span id="internal-source-marker_0.3131650026096451" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> that could also accomodate anything out of the <i>Fiend Folio</i>, say, and still work. So after this stream of consciousness setting creation, we have this version of history </span><span id="internal-source-marker_0.3131650026096451" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">where
Queen Victoria lives on through the aid of technology and countless alchemical elixirs and unguents; a world that accommodates D&D by being very
flexible in its approach to historical accuracy and no aversion to anachronism, but maintains a pulpy, weird feel rather than any kind of
odious ‘steam-punk with elves and dwarfs’ thing. In this Great War,
technology is much as it historically was, and magic is rare and mostly the
purview of fairies or late-century style Spiritualists (magic-users via
Blavatsky & Crowley). (This is a bit fragmented, with a lot of brief paragraphs containing just one or two thoughts)</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Adventurers
would perhaps belong to a club, which grants certain benefits for maybe
a small cut of looted spoils. Having the Great War raging, either in
the foreground or background, upsets the normal order of society and
affords them </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">carte blanche</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to gallivant across Europa doing as they will.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To
quickly summarise the history: very far back doesn’t really matter,
save to say that the dark ages or so were populated by slightly more
mythic heroes and dragons and what-all. Arthurian goings-on probably
happened to a greater or lesser degree, and Merlin’s works are still
extant in the world (there are also the remnants of mythic islands, such
as Lemuria, Hy Brasil, Atlantis, or Lyonesse around; the level to
which they are part of everyday goings-on is undecided). During the
Tudor period, the throne of England was taken by the elf-queen Gloriana,
or Good Queen Gloriana, who governed the nation in its first steps
toward Empire (places named in honour of Elizabeth, such as Virginia,
are called after Gloriana in this world)</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">. Her court magician, John Dee, fashioned two of the most infamous magic artefacts of all time, the <i>Hand</i> and <i>Eye of Dee</i>.<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The German Empire</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
leads its alliance of Central Powers with an iron will, its goals
furthered with the application of countless technological innovations of
tremendous potency. The German inventions have hastened developments
in other nations, as well as spurred the rise of the New Luddite Party
in Britain through fear of this rampantly accelerating technological development. Gas-masked, pointy-helmeted stormtroopers swarming out of a
choking, deadly fog and landships and the aerofleet.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">France</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
is France. There are monsters to fight there, and undead in the Paris
Catacombs and things. It’s France. Everyone is fighting here, so there’s
that going on. (<i>can you tell I couldn't think of much of anything to put in France, or many interesting adventure hooks or action?)</i></span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ruritania</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
because why not? Burroughs’ version, as well, and
Borduria & Syldavia? There’s a Lyonesian Ambassador, there can be a
Ruritanian one. Cagliostro, with its poplation of 3500?</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Russian Empire</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
lies in a tenuous position, with revolution dimly on the horizon. The
Tsar’s son is taken ill, which allows the ‘Mad Monk’, a sorcerer of
sinister potency, to inveigle his way into the counsel of the Romanovs.
The threat of Russia’s new magical power now looms over Europa like a
great malignant cloud.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Austria-Hungary</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
has ever been second fiddle to Germany, and the War has not changed
this. Austro-Hungary has made some attempts at homegrown innovation in
the vein of the Germans, but little has come of it.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
The country is also, of course, overrun with social and cultural strife
as the various constituent regions chafe at the rule of the Dual
Monarchy.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Balkans</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
are, as ever, fragmented and problematic to the surrounding empires. In
this reality, however, the addition of vampire counts and suchlike make
the area both a great deal more of a problem.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">America</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’s
colonisation followed our history for the most part, although it also
fostered a number of magicians, persecuted at the time, as well as an
even stronger influx of religious minorities. The
West is still fairly young, and far from where I would want the campaign
to go, but East you have New York (which could have a different name in
this. I wouldn’t mind) and New England and Gloriana state and all that.
Not to mention the Dominion of Albionoria (Borealia, Vesperia?), the
still-British part of the continent.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Britain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
has, under the steady and near-century-long rule of Victoria, prospered and grown like no empire since that of the Romans.
Through the developments in industry and certain arcane practices of the
past century, the tangled mess of the Capital has grown to stretch
halfway to Cambridge in the north, Oxford west, Brighton to the south,
and all the way to the Estuary eastwards. To commemorate Her Majesty’s
glorious rule, construction on a trans-channel bridge was begun until
war halted building. The country faces greater social strife, however,
with the rise of magicians and Spiritualists, New Luddism, and, of
course, the War.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Basically,
the world is in essence the 1916 (or whenever) that we know, but a
touch more old fashioned in certain ways (for instance, the
tendency to compare Her Majesty to prior queens is more pronounced, as
are ‘New Roman Empire’ associations, and certain names and terminology,
i.e. Europa, are more antiquated than OTL), and bent and molded so as to
allow D&D and its various idiosyncrasies to fit comfortably. A pulp
feel is strong, and classic or mythological monsters are discouraged;
unique or re-skinned foes are preferred, as are the weirder and pulpier
canon beasts.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Organisations where PCs might get work (in Britain):</span></span><br />
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Their
private club, for gentlemen of an adventurous or exploratory nature,
and ladies of uncommon brassiness. Good source for hirelings.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Royal
Geographic Society. It was practically an adventurer’s guild
historically, but with monsters and magic treasure it’d be hard to stop
them. Rather more formal, but they give out grants and help outfit
expeditions.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Secret
Service. For home-front threats and espionage abroad, both mundane and
more esoteric. A priceless artefact in the hands of the Hun? Call the
adventurers!</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Scotland
Yard, for London-based adventuring. Morlock hunts, daring forays into
smog-dense Limehouse to bring supplies, clearing out a dangerous cult
from a Tube station.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
Army, for adventures on the front. Fighting witches behind enemy lines
or putting an end to a German Juggernaut or protecting an alchemist in
No-Man’s-Land. General Kitchener wants YOU to adventure for Queen and
Country.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is also entirely likely that, were I to run this, I'd steal the idea of multiple clones of Victoria from <i>Sorcerer's Skull</i>. The original version would stay mostly either in Osborne House or, more likely, in Balmoral, as far from the war as possible. With multiple Vickies running around, the possibility of royal-issued quests is increased, and adventuring at the behest of Victoria cannot be a bad addition to a campaign. </span></span>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-53783977413924586122012-01-20T10:32:00.000-08:002012-01-20T10:32:30.059-08:005 Taverns<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A selection of taverns, designed in preparation for some urban-crawling.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<ul id="internal-source-marker_0.09175197138276836">
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
Smiling Chirurgeon: under-lit and fairly raucous. Strange mix of
bohemian types and ordinary working-class folk. A one-eyed Jackwellian
Priest is conducting an enthusiastically heckled & praised lecture
on why wigs are sinful.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
Provost’s Head: philosopher/academic’s pub. A sage at the bar is
looking for someone to help him look for a lost artefact that will prove
his theory on the nature of ancient civilisations. Barman is a cheery
Dickensian figure.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
Well: front for smuggling operation, filled Star Wars cantina-like with
all manner of weird people and species. Barman is heavily tattooed and
fiercely bearded</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
Orc and Cockerel: dusty tavern frequented by down-on-their-luck
thieves, predominantly. Barmaid knows a hex which she can be persuaded
to teach a PC if they can help her with a bit of trouble she’s in. One
of the thieves at the bar has a map leading to a treasure that he can’t
get to on his own.</span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Mangler’s:
orcish smoke parlour. Caters mostly to an orc clientele, serves harsh
rotgut and specialises in smoking crabs. Cellar leads to a fungal
garden, barman is a 2nd-level barbarian</span>.</span></li>
</ul>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-25641928244043863142012-01-17T15:44:00.000-08:002012-01-17T15:44:09.848-08:00Have a big ol' list of names<span id="internal-source-marker_0.8673154553329779" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Arstasia Vennebore</span><br /><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cadwalader Pigeon</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Honoria Matchlock</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vornimand Rudwich</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bixby Scrope</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Balthazar Slyne</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Antimony Olgamesh</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Optric Lasswise</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perfidia Gripe</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Artorius Conger</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eustacia Pike</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Melchior Hogwife</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cathaspar Parable</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Llelai Corcorine</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Trobart Pinafore</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Robilard Panzelkonse</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yolanda Gryneleigh</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Harcourt Pulm-Otho</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Anophelia Moncour</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wintershaw Saxe</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Uther Maeliapter</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Anharawd Possett</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Romula Ludd</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Boggart Vandernoir</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pruntby Lumpwaste</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Casternigh Prawn</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Arbroast Torque</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jane Cacotope</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Augusta Weremaid</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jormund Lackavarn</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Havilard Babbinger</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Desdemona Prax</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Llophelia Coelemoulian</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most or all of these have graced the various NPCs from <i>Keep on the Borderlands</i>, as well as serving as names for a PC or two. </span></span></div>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-40579869415446584042012-01-17T09:39:00.000-08:002012-01-17T19:34:29.460-08:00Offloading setting-stuff, take 1As this blog is designed to, at least initially, act as a place to dump the sundry bits-and-pieces of D&D stuff I've put together, the first few posts will likely be like this one (i.e. little descriptions of locales with some annotations). This stuff here is of the WFRP mold, and is thus the real world with added elves and gorbels. Apologies for any cusses in the text, something was up the day I wrote these (let's say I was channelling Zak S.)<br />
<br />
I think key to this is a sort of underlying theme of 'either it's a city or it's the wilderness and it's deadly' or, to put it another way, it's like the 'points of light' in reverse (gaps of darkness?). The cornerstones of the world are the various metropolises and city-states, but in between are just wild landscapes littered with things that will kill you.<br />
<br />
<ul id="internal-source-marker_0.43511741592404285">
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prettain:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Grimy Blanchian shit-stained Britain-analogue, vaguely pre-norman and
with extra Celtic stuff for colour. Feudal, dominated by ludicrously out-of-touch
toffs and a succession of quirky and occasionally dangerously mad
monarchs. Maybe the aristocracy holds to some form of ‘chivalry’, but
still come off with a sort of old Etonian air, like they see themselves
and their surroundings through Arthurian-tinted spectacles and treat
everybody like that while at the same time being completely venal
pointless bastards. (<i>Speaks for itself, really. It's Britain in the 'dung ages', and people have Anglo-Saxon names 'cause I like them better than French ones.</i>)</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mordengrome:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bloody enormous drowning-in-its-own-immensity metropolis and all of
the inspiration that goes along with it. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mordengrome
squats low and wide over a sluggish black river, its crumbling bricks
and labyrinth of chimneys and steeples rising into the smog. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">London/Mieville/Venice/Lankhmar/Noir/&c. Gigantic and
bizarre and practically incomprehensible and thoroughly sin-drenched.
The basic distillation of an urban environment with added decadent
sorcery, or something. (<i>If I had my way, most adventuring would happen in cities, hence the sheer number of them in my campaign worlds. This is the primary one, though. The city that is characterised mostly by its urban-ness, instaed of a certain feel or genre it emulates like other cities</i>)</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Great Pesmect:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Much like fake-Britain, but slightly cleaner and the aristocracy is
seven times as decadent and weird. Court fads and baroque etiquette
prevail, and Machiavellian Harkonnen schemes are the order of the day.
people are noir-ish and full of ennui, ruled by a conjoined brother and sister who keep a
vast harem of the country’s most beautiful boys and girls. Was once known simply as 'Pesmect' until some king of the past decided, in a fit of aggrandisement, to append the 'Great' part. (<i>I was recently informed of the 18th-century court fad of scathing wit, where the victims of said wit were occasionally driven to suicide by the jokes made about them. Witticism-based combat is the obvious extrapolation of this, and it claerly would come out of Great Pesmect)</i></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Arlemania:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Warhammer-y fake Germany, with creepy Grimm forests. Witches, goblins,
barrow-wights, fairy tale puzzles, and a hundred squabbling egomaniacal
elector-princes.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Balquileia:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Quasi-Mediterranean land locked in a feud with religious enemies.
Devoutly religious, some crusades-stuff and an inquisition. Subvert
things by making them a witchocracy, instead of fake-catholic.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Astraghul:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ineffable brown people. Religiously different to the rest of fake-Europe. Intermittently have crusades launched against them. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1,001 Nights</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and some Sword-and-Sandal stuff goes here. (<i>A bit facetious here, but basically one needs </i>somewhere<i> to stick the sort of things that pseudo-mediaeval Europeans regard as exotic. It's all of the Muslim world, from North Africa to the Mughal Empire rolled into one big, dubiously politically correct, package</i>)</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Carcoveria:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Fuck-off huge empire (or multiple interrelated fuck-off huge
principalities trying to unite each other) to the east. Cold, rich, and
very like us but not quite. Straddle the line between foreign devils,
bearded barbarians, and relatable neighbours.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ymoria:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Snow-blasted icy barbarian wasteland of vikings. Wolves,
giants, fur cloaks and such. Add in some Martin-esque Northerner kings,
more like Scotland or something than Norway. There’s some Beowulf here,
too, and some </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Broken Sword</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. The trolls here have culture and king and things, and are kind of more like giants in certain respects.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Orzorine Empire:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
The now-flagging remnant of a sword-and-sorcery empire that once
spanned the known world, still fabulously wealthy but also failing. Fat
off the riches of the east, but increasingly seen as ripe for raiding to
the west. The place to procure rare or obscure items, seek nigh-lost
knowledge of elder days, and experience the last few traces of weird
fantasy fake-Rome.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Thaumic Putrescence: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Freakish
magic wasteland. Mind-breakingly weird shit, mutation storms and an
aggressively unnatural slant to everything. All of the deepest weird in
D&D goes here, as do mutations and
anything else that breaks your sanity from being too messed up. (<i>this is basically Miéville's Cacotopic Stain, right down to the ridiculous name in an attempt to mimic the feel of the Stain. It exists solely to rationalise to a degree such monsters as Flail Snails and Owlbears without resorting to 'a wizard did it'</i>)</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Malbandon:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Pirate Venice, with secrets and ships and sneak dealings. A
Leiber+Assassin’s Creed feel, with secret societies and cults and
underground warfare under the nose of a corrupt Doge and his militia
cronies. More weird nobility, but these ones have a penchant for
expensive foreign drugs and like masquerades. (preferably attended
whilst off their heads on black lotus powder)</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hawksaw:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Dracula and Bathory and vampiric politics; Twisty dense forests of Ian
Miller treants and people gibbeted on trees and bracken, Balkan nonsense
(vampire watermelons), sinister gypsies, wolves.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bridge-city.
City made of bones. Giant city now inhabited by normal-sized people.
Middenheim. City built in a giant sinkhole. City of permanent night.
Bloated Gormenghast-Carcassonne city-fortress. (<i>I never felt like fleshing-out yet more big cities, but these are a handful of basic ideas should a need for a city-state arise.)</i></span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Nonhuman
lands. Dwarves live in mountain-holds (mountain dwarves have a
caste-system, and are either devoutly religious or decadent and weird,
and probably have a bunch of dark, subterranean cults) or are itinerant
fairy tale tinker-types, akin to the dwarves out of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hobbit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">+Rumpelstitskin
and whatever else. Elves are from another world, which is a messed-up
fairy tale universe of Faerie weird. They’re hard to understand, and
mostly live in hill-palaces that are half in our world and half in
Faerie or wander about the deep forest doing their own Elfish business.
You almost never see an elf in a city. Halflings live in human lands,
and are pretty much like tiny, fat, West-Country landsknecht who like
off-colour jokes and pipe-smoking. They vary slightly in character and
detail depending on where they live, but basically hold to that
standard. Gnomes are like tiny elves as written by the Dutch. They like
animals, are slightly woodsier, and represent the fairy-types that
aren’t elvish or goblin-y. Orcs occupy a big region to the south, a sort
of ‘Here be Orcs’ land. Goblins are like other fairy creatures.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vort/Jackolantern</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>:
</b> Hardboiled, rain-slick city of bawdy music halls and speakeasies,
rampant gang warfare, and anarchic cops-and-robbers antics every night. (<i>I like both names, but can't decide which is more appropriate. The idea of politics involving a power named Jackolantern is awfully appealing, though</i>)</span></li>
</ul>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686487437692504863.post-63330590624323882632012-01-17T08:37:00.000-08:002012-01-17T08:37:24.516-08:00By way of introduction: A Ramble<span style="font-size: small;">I suppose I need to introduce this blog and what I'll be doing on it? That's typically useful, so I'll give it a go:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I'm a student-type individual and artist, and I write quite a fair amount of nonsense related to fantasy role-playing games, mostly as a way of a warming-up before writing assignments, and even the occasional actual game-with-real-players affair. Over the past few months, I've accumulated a decent store of hastily-written setting notes and ambitious, impractical ideas that I have decided to share with the Internet and the many strangers on it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">My gaming credentials are of ignoble pedigree, as I grew up playing the third edition (3e, Type III) of D&D, but a couple of years ago came to the realisation that dictionary-length tomes of feats and skills and classes with un-rememorable abilities was acting more as a barrier to fun than a means towards it, and so have been jettisoning chunks of the system like a sinking dirigible looses sandbags, turning to older versions of the game for inspiration. I now play mostly with a jumbled, chimeric set of rules cribbed from 3e and Holmes Basic and the odd internet source.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">So that's about it, I think. Expect crude pastiches of real-world history and maybe a sketch or two. </span>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05251409067078681594noreply@blogger.com0