Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Glak 04-21-07, 05:02 PM	Hi, I'm working on a low-magic, semi-low-tech, high-fantasy campaign. I'm still at the concept change so stuff is changing around and I don't have the rules designed yet. Please comment! http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/552/mapqn5.png Overview History: About 80 years ago a massive 8 year drought known as the Dry Age enabled the Vost (iron-working barbarians) to invade the Enu (bronze age civilization). A generation of warfare and chaos followed a generation of consolidation, followed by a generation of rebirth has led to a fusion culture (the Kanch) combining Enu and Vost elements. Flora and Fauna: I want to give the players the feel of an exotic but realistic natural environment. To do this I have selected key species to fill various ecological roles. Some are familiar (cattle, potatoes) while others are unusual (dhole, citron). I wanted to use pictures (hooray for wikipedia) to provide atmosphere so I have only chosen animals and plants that exist today. I chose to put a twist on many of the species, for example the breed of sheep looks a lot more like a goat with insane twisty horns. Monsters exist and affect their local ecology, but they don't show up at this scale. I broke the map up into three zones and then into regions. Humans are currently the only known sentient race. Technology: Bronze is still used though iron is starting to replace it. Steel is almost unheard up and held in awe. A swordsmith who can make a steel sword is considered a wizard. Horses are rare due to only having been domesticated only a generation ago. The Enu had some advanced technology (civil engineering especially) but most of it was lost. The main legacy is the network of roads and unicyles to travel them along with a few surviving mills. Weapons and Combat: Swords are rare, with spears being the most common weapon. Those that do use swords are generally accomplished martial artists who use a variety of advanced moves (abilities work with swords or unarmed) rather than BAB. Heroes who wish to master martial arts must find new masters to teach them, until they attain mastery of multiple styles and begin developing their own moves. Armies are generally composed of formations of spearmen based on the Enu model. I expect that I will be using some sort of attack roll followed up by either a damage save or armor as DR. Magic: Spells are cast by forming kennings of magical symbols/words called glyphs. Glyphs are thought to be the words that the god(s) spoke to create the world. Each magical sect knows only a few glyphs and interpretations of each glyph are common philosiphical debates among the educated. Recently several patterns between the glyphs have been noticed and they are being arranged in series and there is the prediction that they might all fall onto a grid of some sort, called the Periodic Table of the Elements. There are spots missing in the patterns and it is thought that they might be undiscovered glyphs. Of course progress is slowed because each sect wants to be the first to gain access to powerful new glyphs. Magical items are all powerful and unique. They are the gifts given to the first king by the god(s). Most were lost during the Dry Age.
Glak 04-21-07, 05:04 PM	History About 1000 years ago primative humans came to the land in rafts from a far away land. About 800 years ago the god(s) gave gifts to the first king. He rose in power and conquered the land. He divided it among his three sons. One took the west, another the south, and the third the central region. Their empires faded into legend. History starts about 500 years ago in the central region with the discovery of bronze working and writing. Technology diffused to the west and south regions. About 100 years ago the central region consisted of a number of city states and their surrounding lands. Lesser cities paid tribute in goods and services to the larger cities. Technology was fairly advanced despite a lack of iron working. The people of the central lands were called the Enu. The west lands consisted of barbarian chiefdoms. They were fairly warlike and had the secret of iron working. However they could not use it to conquer the Enu because the Enu were organized and had excellent armies. Also a large an almost impassible swamp protected the Enu from the Vost (barbarians). The south was even more isolated, cut off by high mountains. The Malrese have a rather unique culture. About 80 years ago a massive 8-year drought caused the Enu societies to fall into disorder. Additionally the swamp protecting them from the Vost dried up and became passable. The Vost, whose land was dry even before the drought, swarmed into the Enu lands and sacked their cities. Within a generation the Enu civilization had collapsed. Now, three generations later, the central lands are home to a fusion culture (Kanch) combining Enu and Vost elements. One generation ago the master Hekom Barsatz adapted Enu unarmed-martial arts to use with a Vostian iron sword. His students each took part of his style and developed the different forms taught to noble scions today. A contemporary of Hekom, Nerzen, wrote the legend of the first king in the language spoke by the common man, unifying the new language of the Kanchians.
Glak 04-21-07, 05:05 PM	Flora and Fauna Key animals by zone/region THE WEST Hills: sheep, snow leopard Savannah: sheep, lion Swamp: crocodile CENTRAL Jungle: baboon, cloud leopard Lower Grassland: cattle, dhole Upper Grassland: cattle, horse, dhole Forest and Lakes: deer, dhole, river otter, bear THE SOUTH Mountains: musk ox, wolverine Valleys: musk ox, wolverine Key domesticated plants and animals Hunted and gathered products are not listed. This list will be added to Pear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pear) - Fresh fruit - Perry (alcoholic beverage) - Jam/Jelly - Quality wood for woodwind instruments, furniture, and smoking meat Pomelo - Fresh fruit - Marmalade - Peel used in sweet soups Citron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citron) - Fresh fruit - Marmalade - Peel used in baked goods Hickory - Pecans (pecan pie) - Quality wood for funiture, flooring, fuel, and smoking meat Cattle - Meat - Milk (also cheese, yoghurt, butter) - Leather - Labor (Ox) - Horns Sheep - Meat - Milk (also cheese, yoghurt, butter) - Wool Geese - Meat - Fat (delicious potatoes) - Eggs - Down - Can be preserved in its own fat Potato - Fresh - Freeze Dried (Chuno), which can then be made into flour Turnip - Dried - Soup - Fodder Dhole - Domesticated Canine (protection, herding, sled dog, etc...) (everything above is only found in the WEST and CENTRAL zones, everything below only in SOUTH) Mulberry - Fresh fruit - Leaves eaten by silkworm - Pies, tarts, wines and cordials - Molasses (rum, rust removal) Silkworm - Silk - Food Rye - Pumpernickle - Flakes - Whisky - Fodder Musk Ox - Meat - Milk (also cheese, yoghurt, butter) - Labor - Wool
Glak 04-21-07, 05:06 PM	tech goes here
Glak 04-21-07, 05:06 PM	combat goes here
Glak 04-21-07, 05:07 PM	Magic The glyphs do fall into a 4x4 grid. Each glyph has multiple aspects loosly connected to a central concept. Each row and column has a theme. Take Oros for example. Oros is associated with orderliness. It is in a row of glyphs that have an association with the sciences. So one aspect of Oros is astronomy. It deals with the orderly orbits of the stars and planets. Oros is also in a column in which each glyph has to do with what separates man from beast. So that aspect is morality. Because each row and column has a theme there are eight themes. ROWS A: Seasons B: Arcane C: Sciences D: Home/Family COLUMNS 1: Change/Creation? 2: Golden Age (bad name but it seemed to work) 3: Separates Man from Beast 4: Physical/mental condition GLYPHS: A1: Spring, Reincarnation A2: Summer, Sun, Maturity, Pride, Glory A3: Autumn, Agriculture, Harvest A4: Winter, Death, Darkness B1: Dreams, Visions, Imagination B2: Phantasms, Ghosts, Spirits, Heroes B3: Secret codes, messages, language B4: Forbidden knowledge, Madness C1: Metalurgy, Innovation C2: Engineering, Architecture, Monuments, Ruins C3: Astronomy, Order, Law, Morality C4: Medicine, Health D1: Names and ??? D2: Songs, Storytelling, Legends D3: Fire, Hearth D4: Contentment, Patience, Wisdom Magical items will be few in number, maybe 6-7
die 04-21-07, 11:05 PM	Unicycles? :D I like it D herbalism, child birth, folklore? charms and curses, when to plant, what to name your kid, astrology, palm reading, etc, sort of wise woman hearthlore stuff?
Glak 04-22-07, 02:10 PM	Thanks for help with the D row. D1 is still tricky. Names sort of fit but hopefully I can find another direction to take that in. Glad you like the unicyles. I was trying to think of what kinds of technology you could have in the bronze age. For the mechanics of spell casting my basic concept is this: you can speak one glyph per turn. Maybe the symbol flashes in your pupils while you do so. Spells are sequences of glyphs. For example maybe you say "B2 D3" You would be trying to get the hero aspect of the first glyph and the fire aspect of the next. So your spell is "hero fire" which could be distilled heroism. Maybe it gives you a Cinematic Point (my version of action points) to allow you to perform a heroic deed. Hmm... I think that more of the glyphs need verb interpretations. I want to be able to say "steal hero fire" to allow you to drain cinematic points. The visual spell effect would be of you draining the color from another character into yourself. So he would become grayer and your color would become more intense. Now if you speak three glyphs to cast a spell you could keep on going the next round. Perhaps the last word of the first spell is the first word of another. Or maybe all of the words form one spell. Each time you want to cast a spell you would make a check. On a roll of 1 all of the glyphs that you have chained together would dissappate. There would also be a way to say multiple glyphs per round, but it would be more taxing in some way.