Rob
Okay, here's what I'm thinking:
About the planes, sounds good. Mainly, the planes should be a place where things come from, not a place the PCs go to. If you guys recall, you always hated the planes, and spent most of your time trying to come back. The exceptions were when it was basically just a crazier kind of dungeon than the normal world could realistically offer. That's why Petrarch's crypt is in the 'Dream realms'. I think that having them be plural- not the Blood realm, but the Blood Realms, is an important distinction.
How about shifting the elemental associations though? Gaea is earth to me, and Blood is water. Zhol is the god of death and the sea in Narbohring, and besides the hell = fire thing is sort of old fashioned, eh? Stitch is fire and Dreams air.
Kind of nice how the Ritual magic domains mapped onto playing card suits, eh? Honestly, I thought you designed it like that on purpose, and I was trying to make it a bit more obvious to new GMs.
I'll add a note to the guide that says that alchemists are not necessarily Guild Alchemists and vice-versa.
Agreed about adding some of the items to the main text. You've got a list of 'normal' magic items, shit like Magic Rope, which I really like. I started to change the names, but realized it was better if the list was entirely generically named. The artifacts and relics, on the other hand, will require a big overhaul and will need to be re-alphabetically ordered. I'll start revising those.
Likewise, agreed about monsters- some of them (the special demons, conjuring eyes) should be in the Narbohring section. I'll add others to the main listing.
Despite what the intro said, I'm now going through and giving statistics of population size, religious makeup, and the major leaders for all the towns. Also adding lists of typical and rare monsters for each region of the world. Kind of dull, but I'll try adding some flavor where possible. After that, I'll go back through the whole thing, and add some GM suggestions.
Finally, yeah, 'Wayfarers' as the name has grown on me.
...
Questions that I want to discuss with you guys this weekend:
Races. Right now I don't have elves, gnomes, or harkumen in the world. What do you think about that? I feel somewhat obliged to have everything in the system, somewhere in here to show how it can be used. I do have, e.g., a gremlin mage, which makes me wonder why some races (ogres, ratkin) are possible but others aren't. If you can be an ogre, why not an ifreet? Or really, why doesn't the system support giving ifreet some Hedge circles or a level of Armor Use? I'm wondering if we want to add a couple sentences about character-making to those monsters for which it makes sense.
World descriptions. This one is pretty academic. The guide is organized geographically, and items, stories, dungeons and NPCs are all linked under major areas of interest.
Here's an example city descriptor:
Then I've got the population, with the largest city having around 100,000 people and the smallest villages having around 20-100. I've got the rough percentage makeup of town, so far with no elves, gnomes, or harkumen (who also aren't in the monster list). Do those town sizes seem realistic? So far humans are dominant, orcs are around 10%, and dwarves 1%, given that as of now, they're basically a slave race of the ogres. That was an arbitrary decision, let me know what you think.
Resource descriptions has given me the most trouble, I start out with a general indication of the upper wealth level: very poor, poor, modestly wealthy, wealthy, very wealthy, or extremely wealthy. Then the tech level available for magic and equipment: low, moderate, high or very high, with magic and tech considered separately (the same here in Thenzor). Then a listing of the big resources around town. Ugh. I didn't want to list every fucking thing, so even if there's a cheese shop in town, I don't say 'cheese' in the list. If the cheese is especially notable, I'll include that in the flavor text. Here's the stuff:
mining (precious and/or heavy metals)
metalworking
stoneworking
woodworking
clothmaking
shipbuilding
agriculture and/or husbandry
libaries
magical and/or military academies
Have I missed anything major?
Religion is next, with a listing of the main temples available. Still struggling if a temple is secret or not, is it listed... right now, I'm saying yes, and if it's a big deal I'll also describe it in the text. The order here is the order of prominence in town.
Guilds is easy enough- which Guilds (of the big four) are in town.
Finally, government. A simple descriptor of how fascist the town is: uncaring, relaxed, strict, oppressive, violent. Who's in charge. Not everyone is an arch-mage king you'll be glad to know, Thenzor's just like that. The general form of government: democratic, oligarchical, militaristic, monarchical, despotic. Have I missed anything? Then the military: well-trained, trained, or untrained, militia, army, navy, how many. Again, I'm just making up arbitrary numbers here.
...
Okay, other things: Mark, I think lions, tigers, boruta, etc should all be classified under 'big cats' or something in the listing.
I think that doppelgangers can use weapons, but steal stat points with their touch attack- 1d6: 1-5 one point off a random stat, 6 one grade of a random prof or ability. They slowly morph into who they're attacking that way. Stat pts and abilities come back only when the doppelganger is killed, at a rate of one per day.
Finally, should everything be explained, to make the weirder stuff in the world totally transparent and obvious? I kind of like some mystery, but it could also be annoying to just say something like 'it is rumored that Slath is still a virgin, but no one knows for sure'. On the other hand, explaining everything (such as the poems and paintings in Petrarch's tomb) can make everything seem just-so, insipid, and mundane.
I'm having some things with the same name (e.g., right now there are two Barrowsreichs) on purpose, for one because duplicity and recurrence is the main theme of Narbohring, two because in terms of the game, it makes it easier for the GM to control the story, the PCs and their information about the world, and three because that's how the world really is- how many fucking Newports and Tom Browns are there on earth?
Anyway, think about it; opinions from anyone welcome.
About the planes, sounds good. Mainly, the planes should be a place where things come from, not a place the PCs go to. If you guys recall, you always hated the planes, and spent most of your time trying to come back. The exceptions were when it was basically just a crazier kind of dungeon than the normal world could realistically offer. That's why Petrarch's crypt is in the 'Dream realms'. I think that having them be plural- not the Blood realm, but the Blood Realms, is an important distinction.
How about shifting the elemental associations though? Gaea is earth to me, and Blood is water. Zhol is the god of death and the sea in Narbohring, and besides the hell = fire thing is sort of old fashioned, eh? Stitch is fire and Dreams air.
Kind of nice how the Ritual magic domains mapped onto playing card suits, eh? Honestly, I thought you designed it like that on purpose, and I was trying to make it a bit more obvious to new GMs.
I'll add a note to the guide that says that alchemists are not necessarily Guild Alchemists and vice-versa.
Agreed about adding some of the items to the main text. You've got a list of 'normal' magic items, shit like Magic Rope, which I really like. I started to change the names, but realized it was better if the list was entirely generically named. The artifacts and relics, on the other hand, will require a big overhaul and will need to be re-alphabetically ordered. I'll start revising those.
Likewise, agreed about monsters- some of them (the special demons, conjuring eyes) should be in the Narbohring section. I'll add others to the main listing.
Despite what the intro said, I'm now going through and giving statistics of population size, religious makeup, and the major leaders for all the towns. Also adding lists of typical and rare monsters for each region of the world. Kind of dull, but I'll try adding some flavor where possible. After that, I'll go back through the whole thing, and add some GM suggestions.
Finally, yeah, 'Wayfarers' as the name has grown on me.
...
Questions that I want to discuss with you guys this weekend:
Races. Right now I don't have elves, gnomes, or harkumen in the world. What do you think about that? I feel somewhat obliged to have everything in the system, somewhere in here to show how it can be used. I do have, e.g., a gremlin mage, which makes me wonder why some races (ogres, ratkin) are possible but others aren't. If you can be an ogre, why not an ifreet? Or really, why doesn't the system support giving ifreet some Hedge circles or a level of Armor Use? I'm wondering if we want to add a couple sentences about character-making to those monsters for which it makes sense.
World descriptions. This one is pretty academic. The guide is organized geographically, and items, stories, dungeons and NPCs are all linked under major areas of interest.
Here's an example city descriptor:
Thenzor Deep: (THEN-zor) Major city and landmark (underground shrine); moderate to very high difficulty (levels 7+). Population: 40,000, (2,000 in Thenzor village); 76% human, 12% orc, 2% dwarf, 2% ogre, 10% misc. Resources: very wealthy, very high magical and technological levels; mining (most precious and heavy metals), metalworking, stonecraft, libraries, military and magical academies. Religion: Duuran, Aguierre, Thainist, Ixian, Xeres, Typhon. Guilds: Alchemists, Slavers. Government: uncaring; militaristic control by House Maxinay, led by Martin Zhennovich von Maxinay (17th level human, 7th Circle Hermetic), well-trained army of 2,000.
Then I've got the population, with the largest city having around 100,000 people and the smallest villages having around 20-100. I've got the rough percentage makeup of town, so far with no elves, gnomes, or harkumen (who also aren't in the monster list). Do those town sizes seem realistic? So far humans are dominant, orcs are around 10%, and dwarves 1%, given that as of now, they're basically a slave race of the ogres. That was an arbitrary decision, let me know what you think.
Resource descriptions has given me the most trouble, I start out with a general indication of the upper wealth level: very poor, poor, modestly wealthy, wealthy, very wealthy, or extremely wealthy. Then the tech level available for magic and equipment: low, moderate, high or very high, with magic and tech considered separately (the same here in Thenzor). Then a listing of the big resources around town. Ugh. I didn't want to list every fucking thing, so even if there's a cheese shop in town, I don't say 'cheese' in the list. If the cheese is especially notable, I'll include that in the flavor text. Here's the stuff:
mining (precious and/or heavy metals)
metalworking
stoneworking
woodworking
clothmaking
shipbuilding
agriculture and/or husbandry
libaries
magical and/or military academies
Have I missed anything major?
Religion is next, with a listing of the main temples available. Still struggling if a temple is secret or not, is it listed... right now, I'm saying yes, and if it's a big deal I'll also describe it in the text. The order here is the order of prominence in town.
Guilds is easy enough- which Guilds (of the big four) are in town.
Finally, government. A simple descriptor of how fascist the town is: uncaring, relaxed, strict, oppressive, violent. Who's in charge. Not everyone is an arch-mage king you'll be glad to know, Thenzor's just like that. The general form of government: democratic, oligarchical, militaristic, monarchical, despotic. Have I missed anything? Then the military: well-trained, trained, or untrained, militia, army, navy, how many. Again, I'm just making up arbitrary numbers here.
...
Okay, other things: Mark, I think lions, tigers, boruta, etc should all be classified under 'big cats' or something in the listing.
I think that doppelgangers can use weapons, but steal stat points with their touch attack- 1d6: 1-5 one point off a random stat, 6 one grade of a random prof or ability. They slowly morph into who they're attacking that way. Stat pts and abilities come back only when the doppelganger is killed, at a rate of one per day.
Finally, should everything be explained, to make the weirder stuff in the world totally transparent and obvious? I kind of like some mystery, but it could also be annoying to just say something like 'it is rumored that Slath is still a virgin, but no one knows for sure'. On the other hand, explaining everything (such as the poems and paintings in Petrarch's tomb) can make everything seem just-so, insipid, and mundane.
I'm having some things with the same name (e.g., right now there are two Barrowsreichs) on purpose, for one because duplicity and recurrence is the main theme of Narbohring, two because in terms of the game, it makes it easier for the GM to control the story, the PCs and their information about the world, and three because that's how the world really is- how many fucking Newports and Tom Browns are there on earth?
Anyway, think about it; opinions from anyone welcome.
posted by Rob @ 12:22 PM
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