'Tis the end of another Calender year. We've all been plotting and scheming our year away, our spare time spent trying to breathe life into our settings. Thought I'd get some current insight on the status of these settings we've all shared, and maybe make it easier to help each ourselves and others.
1) In terms of creativity, what's the area you are most proud of in your setting for the year? What have you made that really makes your world shine? (and if you want to call attention to it, link it here and I'll go look at it. Feel free to be proud of something!)
2) What is the status in terms of players in your setting? How may PC's, how often do they play? What do they seem to like and what direction do you want them to go in? What are their stregths and weaknesses? What is working and not working in the GM/PLayer interface?
3) What makes the 'main playing stage' intersting for the players? Not the whole setting, but where is home base for the PC's and what ties them to it? How have you invested them in their 'home base'?
4) What area in your setting would some immediate feedback help? What area will benefit the most from having a few fellow creators take a quick look at and try to give some new perspectives in? (And again, feel free to link here to where you want me/us to wite about it).
Most of all, thank you all for a thoughtful and inspirational past year, and I wish you, you family, and your setting a great New Year.
(I'll get around to answering this myself later today, as I am at work...)
1)I'm thinking about futuristic technologies from a consumer's point of view in my scifi. It's nothing world-shattering, but certainly a fun level of detail to play with. Like spray meat (which is like spray cheese... only with meat) and drugs (from antibiotics to hallucinogens) available in conveniently located vending machines around town.
2)Sadly, still none. Not that there's necessarily enough of a game to start playing, but I am getting there.
3)NA
4)I need all kinds of feedback. I really need to flesh out the fantasy more overall, and as usual, I need some plausible religions and other organizations for the scifi game.
1) The fact that I've really started, for real this time.
2) 0. I'm actually prepping for a future campaign.
3) NA
4) Feedback is always good. I have a blog (http://cityofkayru.blogspot.com/). I'm going to keep hawking said blog until somebody reads/comments on it ;). Keep in mind I'm still very much in progress.
1) Kishar has seen some major revisions over this past year, though few of them have made it to my site (last update May 20th) because of the coming CBG 2.0. It's hard to say what I'm most proud of, but I suppose it would be making everything fit more cohesively; you know that feeling you get when you bring several disparate ideas together into a beautiful amalgamation of the two?
2) I haven't played any RPGs in 2007.
3) N/A. If I ran another Kishar game, which isn't likely to be my next setting for gaming anywhere, I would probably set it in either Valador or Nostir (Norse myth land).
4) Right now, all I'm working on is revising my bestiary - that is the creatures of Kishar, all of which are supposed to be drawn from mythology, not fantasy norms. But fresh ideas on such things are always welcome.
1 - Creativity and Pride
Creatively, I'm proud of a lot of things in Tephra. I've done setting collaborations in the past, but my partner, the Mad Hatter - a goofy art student - has helped mold this world into one of the most creatively unique worlds I've seen. I'm really excited about the races, the technology level, and the daemons. I realize now that I was creatively frustrated with Aldreia when I was working on it, like I had built a wall around myself. In Tephra there is no wall and that is what I'm most proud of.
2 - Players
I can't talk about Tephra here. It's still in the development stage and my playtesting campaign for the setting will begin this summer, when my old group gets a little closer to home. I've had four campaigns in Aldreia this year, one 1.5 year one that finished up in the Spring, a hard and fast summer campaign,begun another campaign this Fall that should last at least another year, and ran an online one for a couple months. Let's see, that's seventeen players (SEVENTEEN PLAYERS!?) and twenty-six characters. My current campaign meets every Friday night, though this semester one of my players is going to start DMing every other weekend. It'll be the first time in three years that I've played in a D&D game (and, if you couldn't tell, I DM a lot of them). My current group still feels new, a year and a half into it, but I think having a second person DMing will help with that.
3 - Home Base
My current campaign in Aldreia is called Loss of Control, and the players are a company of squires of the Sentinels of the Helix. They enforce their nation's laws regarding the usage of magic. It's been a really interesting campaign. They gotten to know their knights (superiors) really well, and each of them is unique. One of the players has a knight he always goes to for help, and the company as a whole often turns to another knight who always seems to be high. They've become disillusioned with their own direct superior, and it's creating a lot of fun drama. Their "Home Base" is the Tower of the Helix, where their small knighthood is based out of. It works for them because they've fought with the people there and they know that they can come back and get some rest and do their own thing here.
4 - Feedback
The past two questions were answered by Aldreia, but Aldreia will be a retired setting after the current campaign finishes. In Tephra, what feedback do I need? It's still in the early stages, so ultimately I'm looking for people to look at the "feel" of Tephra. It's magic and technology levels are unique, or so I'd like to believe, and I want to make sure that they ring as possible. I guess for specifics, I want people to look at the races. They're different and I'd like to make sure that they are interesting, playable, and still believable. Eventually I will need help with the Tephra D20 system, but that's too much in progress to ask for help on right now.
Great questions!
1) I feel proudest of my world being alive, as more than one person has mentioned. My players do as well--they find it wonderful that if they ask a question I actually know the answer, that at worst I'll say "I'll get back to you on that next week" but then will have presented them with how you can establish a tavern in Fineberg. I rarely have problems with my players remembering names or places (except for one guy who is just plain bad with names).
2) My players are fixed on their particular characters right now, just one each, though I suppose they could play followers if they wanted to. It's the only real problem that I see--I've warned them a few times of how they've come close to death, and at some point the game is going to get even tougher. They really like being able to roleplay with the setting and feel very involved with it, which is one of the best points. Generally I have good communication with them, and problems tend to get solved quickly because I listen and ask questions before I just respond.
3) My players feel that their characters are fighting to save their country from monstrous evil. They've come to identify with it to the point that when travelling in a foreign land they had a moment of in character sadness remembering that their own folk are hungry, weary and in constant danger.
4) I'd most appreciate some ideas on the next stages of the war from the perspective of the pcs' country. What kind of plans might be made? What kinds of factionalism might emerge and how might that work? What roles might the country's leaders find for the pcs to reward them for their excellent service?
By the way, SEVENTEEEN players???? That's QUITE a lot...how in the world do you manage?
Hah, Tybalt -- I have seven players at my university, six players who join me over the summer for the summer campaign when they're not in school, and another four players from different states who played in my online game. Thankfully it's not all at the same time. ^_^
I'm jealous. Players who can remember the names of other NPCs. That takes a lot.
Most players I ever had in game at the same time, was thirteen. I probably won't do that again.
1) My new dwarvish race. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, although I won't implement them until next campaign begins. Then I intend to find a way to make their genderlessness affect the game.
2)Players - right now I only have 2, tho I'm seeking one or two more. I have high standards, and we've been playing together for 15 years, so it's hard to introduce new players. We play weekly (on average 3 times a month). I think we're quite a typical group. We like fairly straightforward adventures with a loose campaign thread, no complex politics but adventures that tie together.
3)My players have a hometown, but in this game they're less attached to it than they are "stuck" there... I'm about to send them across country looking for an old acquaintance, and I think they'll enjoy the change of pace.
4) I'd like to get feedback on my wiki. My players don't give me a lot of feedback, they just keep playing! One player keeps detailed campaign notes and has an active relationship with the campaign and her characters, but mostly in her own head. When we talk about old campaigns, it amazes me how she has these stories about what characters were like that never seemed to exist while the game went on...
Gilladian, can you provide the link to your wiki right here?
1) Proud! I am most proud of getting the damn Celtricia Wiki up and usable. When you run your own rules, your players need access to them. Raelifin made it very obvious to me that I needed to keep expanding that as opposed to trying to cram all of it into a tiny filter and place it on a setting thread.
2) PC's. 7 in Igbarian group, 5 in Mistonian group, 3 in online group 1 (ocodig), 1 on online group 2 (Tralm Isle), so 16 players playing every month at least once per month. Average Age is almost 36 years old, average play time in this campaign just took a dive (thanks, Trent...first month) to 7.5 years played in Celtrician setting. Average EXP per currently played PC is 21560 (note that includes the 5k they start with).
Miston Group amazing with historical puzzle solving, great plotting, great fighting undead, miserable in any direct confrontation, miserly in terms of using magic to survive, can't fight their way out of a wet paper bag, considering thery average 33k exp.
Igbarians miss every other clue, but are excellent comabat group and excelent in terms of public perception, great social gaming.
3) Igbar and Miston are both 15+ real years in the playing, so they have gained a life of their own. Miston is fun and small, a border twon near much conflict and near the ruins of three major historical layers. Igbar has actually been played since 1984, and is the most realized of my realized. The politics are well known, and the politics are played out every month...
4) Help on what spells are missing. I have my own spell system, and even my own spells, ( as well as my own combat, weaps, etc), but I need to see what other GM's see as very crucial spells in the already developed areas that are crucial to be added. I welcome other GM input into the spells of my wierd system.
spells page (http://celtricia.pbwiki.com/Spell+List)
post any help here (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?39572.last)
[blockquote=Jharviss]3 - Home Base
My current campaign in Aldreia is called Loss of Control, and the players are a company of squires of the Sentinels of the Helix. They enforce their nation's laws regarding the usage of magic. It's been a really interesting campaign. They gotten to know their knights (superiors) really well, and each of them is unique. One of the players has a knight he always goes to for help, and the company as a whole often turns to another knight who always seems to be high. They've become disillusioned with their own direct superior, and it's creating a lot of fun drama. Their "Home Base" is the Tower of the Helix, where their small knighthood is based out of. It works for them because they've fought with the people there and they know that they can come back and get some rest and do their own thing here. [/blockquote]
Sounds very well thought out.
1) I'm proud of the fluff I've accumulated on my magic; what's been written and what still needs to be written.
2) I've got none.
3) N/A
4) Dwarves, any ideas on the Dragon Lands, and Some more thoughts on my Halflings would be greatly appreciated.
Since I've worked considerably more on Xiluh then on any of my other works, both in this year alone, and overall, my answers are for Xiluh. The link can be found in my sig :)
Quote from: LordVreeg1) In terms of creativity, what's the area you are most proud of in your setting for the year? What have you made that really makes your world shine? (and if you want to call attention to it, link it here and I'll go look at it. Feel free to be proud of something!)
I'd have to say the history, especially the Second Age. Part of this is probably because I felt it would be much more of a challenge then it has been, but part of it is definitely because of the way it's intended to represent the cultural significance of the past. I hope to have culture be very full of stories of "how things became this way".
Quote2) What is the status in terms of players in your setting? How may PC's, how often do they play? What do they seem to like and what direction do you want them to go in? What are their stregths and weaknesses? What is working and not working in the GM/PLayer interface?
As far as I know, nobody has used Xiluh as a setting for their campaign yet. I remember at one point, somebody talked with me about a game being run in it, but I forget who that was, and it seems that the game failed before liftoff.
Whoever that was, if you're still interested in running that game, please make it known! :)
Quote3) What makes the 'main playing stage' intersting for the players? Not the whole setting, but where is home base for the PC's and what ties them to it? How have you invested them in their 'home base'?
So far, Xiluh hasn't developed a 'main playing stage'. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how I'm even going to handle that when I do eventually get it.
Quote4) What area in your setting would some immediate feedback help? What area will benefit the most from having a few fellow creators take a quick look at and try to give some new perspectives in? (And again, feel free to link here to where you want me/us to wite about it).
Obviously, feedback on
any part of Xiluh is welcome, but the Adventure Hooks section would make the most immediate advantage of feedback. Granted, that's because feedback on that section would most likely come in the form of suggestions for more hooks, but still...
The setting as a whole, however, would take more advantage from feedback on the various cultures mentioned in the Races section, and feedback on the Second Age and Third Age, in the timeline. Those sections will be a large basis for the rest of the setting.
Quote from: Lord Vreeg2) What is the status in terms of players in your setting? How may PC's, how often do they play? What do they seem to like and what direction do you want them to go in? What are their stregths and weaknesses? What is working and not working in the GM/PLayer interface?
4) What area in your setting would some immediate feedback help? What area will benefit the most from having a few fellow creators take a quick look at and try to give some new perspectives in? (And again, feel free to link here to where you want me/us to wite about it).[/quote]http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?41732[/url]
Lord Vreeg,
Sorry to take so long to reply. Here it is: http://vishteercampaign.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
Quote from: GilladianLord Vreeg,
Sorry to take so long to reply. Here it is: http://vishteercampaign.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
Very good. I'll feedback yours...you can feedback mine... YAY pb wiki!!!
I like the different coinage found...and the notation on the older coinage. Very important to a campaign. Too often, you find XXX coin...I like your mintages.
You're killing me with the maps.
There are a lot of GM secrets on the site I am surpised are there...are these well known to PCs?
Though I enjoyed reading about Sir Math...I have to keep most of mine in private pages...
Love the Saint worship.. rings very true,
The historical background of the other races other than Elves and men sounds really 'thrown in'. That needs some work. Any Hobby saints?
Like the page on dwarves, and their relationship with stone, coming from the earth...Any clans that tend towards evil?
and I like Centarius...
Vreeg - Centarius is a direct ripoff of Janus the roman god of travel... nothing new under the sun.
My players never read my wiki - so I just let everything hang out there... sad but true.
I haven't focused on the other races' history - good catch and something I do need to pay attention to; thanks for bringing it to my notice.
There must be evil dwarf clans - that's something I want to bring in for my next campaign... hmmmmmm....
My maps are terrible, I know. I'm neither an artist nor really great with computer drawing programs.
I'll try to look at Celtricia soon - maybe Saturday night after work.
Quote from: GilladianVreeg - Centarius is a direct ripoff of Janus the roman god of travel... nothing new under the sun.
My players never read my wiki - so I just let everything hang out there... sad but true.
I haven't focused on the other races' history - good catch and something I do need to pay attention to; thanks for bringing it to my notice.
There must be evil dwarf clans - that's something I want to bring in for my next campaign... hmmmmmm....
My maps are terrible, I know. I'm neither an artist nor really great with computer drawing programs.
I'll try to look at Celtricia soon - maybe Saturday night after work.
Loved Centarius anyways...your 'slant' or interpretation sounds like fun.
My group si on my wiki like crazy...their not allowed to go to thje Tale of Years, but they are all over the rest of it. I have all the spells, weapons, armor rules, etc on it, as well as the setting stuff, so aclimating new players (and reminding older ones) is a little easier.
And I was glad to look at it, once you told me what you wanted me to look at. what is the biggest foe your players deal with? ANy 'uber-villains' that are really creating bad blood?
I took a bit of a look at Celtricia. You had mentioned your spell selection as something you wanted to expand. I thought it was quite good. Your system seems perhaps a bit cumbersome to me as an outsider - not playing it, I mean - with all the different things to track. But interesting!
I think some of your spells need proofreading, though - some cut and paste duplication (for example, one of the Beacon spells had repeated lines of text).
And I really liked your take on hobyts. Making them the social movers of society is a clever choice.
As far as my game goes - the PC's recently thwarted my big villains by killing them more or less out of hand and by accident; they didn't intend to kill Baron Denbare, but they did, and his wizard, too - who was the real evil driving force. Now I'm going to have to bring in his allies from outside as they try to muscle in on the Baroness.
I had intended to tie the Baron's wizard to Count Math in the end, but now I'm not sure the PCs will ever get there. Instead, I have to rethink my plots and find another thread to pull. Too long to go into detail here...
[blockquote=gilladian]I had intended to tie the Baron's wizard to Count Math in the end, but now I'm not sure the PCs will ever get there. Instead, I have to rethink my plots and find another thread to pull. Too long to go into detail here... [/blockquote]
Hmm...Anything making Math do wehat he does? Any ancient beings using him, or allied with him, or using allies of his?
A while ago, I started trying to think of my game as more of a book, and as a result, my long term plotting took a front seat. SO while there are Merchant guilds that are working deals with humaoid clans outside of town, and a local Church and an anciant merchant family aiding agents of an undead bard, the undead bard is actually one agent of a greater servant of the Dreadwing, an ancient evil corrupted back in the Age of Heroes. The Greater servant is an ancient ANtroo clan Vampyre recently unearthed by a group of players that were almost all killed by it. ANd even the Dreadwing himself is one of the more 'campaign-level' storylines, as the ancient dreadwing is (unbeknownst to all the players) a corrupted former companion to the greatest Protagonist of the Age of Heroes, and the originating origin of the Anginarian Necromancy, an ability to create and direct unseemly large amounts of lesser undeads.
I'm using that snippet as illustration, but I'm curious why Math does what he does, and who his allies are, and what motivations they have, and what organizations are out there, and who has a reason to hate the players...
You're making me THINK! Hmmm.... why does Math do what he does? Power, mostly. He was a small time court official until he worked his way up to being appointed regent for the fallen Count Alharvon.Of course, he was behind that fall. I mention on my wiki that Math is involved with the Black Mages, and then later that Baron Denbare's wizard was involved with the Midnight Arcane. I think these are not completely the same organization, but there is considerable overlap in membership. The Midnight Arcane is perhaps a cabal inside the larger Black Mages.
Math may also be somehow interconnected with the Lich Umade who has replaced Prince Taran. Maybe Taran sees the unrest Math is creating as a potential tool to force Prince Starbow's early "retirement" from power. After all, given the natural course of things, Starbow still has decades of life ahead of him.
So, Umade, who is a lich with a large power-base, but has recently suffered a resounding military defeat, is allied with or at least is secretly supporting, Sir Math in his bid to create unrest. Math intends to come out on top, looking like a hero by taking over several Counties and enforcing peace where there was not, before. But he's the one who created the unrest to begin with.
And Taran hopes the unrest will force his "father" to try to act, after holding aloof for so long. And he'll see to it that whatever his father does turns out badly. I doubt he'll resort to assassination because last time he did that the Church simply raised Starbow. But he will try to make him abdicate after a major failure.
A potential ally for Math would be Starmistress Adele of Castle Naerytar. She wants the town of Mound and a surrounding area under her control. Math doesn't care about that far South - he wants Greenvale. But he and she could help each other quite a bit - her divinations and his mercenaries could be a great combination.
As far as the players - the Baron's wizard was a member of the Midnight Arcane. So was a druid the party killed earlier, and the wizard in an ancient temple they cleaned out. So they've killed 3 of the group (and are openly known to have killed 2 of them- the third they're just connected to). Midnight Arcane is pissed at the party - and could call on their "acquaintances" in the Black Mage Society for help dealing with the "upstart adventurers" who have wrecked a sizable chunk of their plans.
[blockquote-gILLADIAN]Math may also be somehow interconnected with the Lich Umade who has replaced Prince Taran. Maybe Taran sees the unrest Math is creating as a potential tool to force Prince Starbow's early "retirement" from power. After all, given the natural course of things, Starbow still has decades of life ahead of him.
So, Umade, who is a lich with a large power-base, but has recently suffered a resounding military defeat, is allied with or at least is secretly supporting, Sir Math in his bid to create unrest. Math intends to come out on top, looking like a hero by taking over several Counties and enforcing peace where there was not, before. But he's the one who created the unrest to begin with.[/blockquote]
Now, this has potential.
Does Umade have agents in the Church, BTW? Are there players that could be manipulated? If Umade has some highly-placed agents, he could try to turn the players to his own ends by having trusted friends in the church innocently be directed to ask the PC's to gain items, etc. Just an Idea....Nothing like it when players find out they've been helping a Lich...
Well, there is not really one church; more a lot of separate but cooperative temples that occasionally share facilities, especially in smaller towns. But the point is still good. I could see Priests of Kehret, the war god, falling into the trap of obeying orders from a superior who had been corrupted and doing jobs for Umade. Umade was a priest of Aragh, the death/undead god before he became a lich. He wants to re-establish his god's power over the earthly realm. Power for himself is only a route to that cause. So he might want artifacts of his god restored to him.
I could easily see the party's NPC fighter being inveigled into suggesting missions for the party to recover artifacts "for the church" which instead end up in the lich's hands. Hee, you're spurring some real ideas here. Thanks!
1) For my setting, it'd be the Nations. I've had the most fun detailing them.
2) I haven't had the opportunity to use it in a game yet, but I imagine it would be best for 2-5 PCs, but no more. As well, I'd think my setting produces more opportunities for diplomacy, intrigue, subterfuge, and possibly long-range combat than out-and-out smash and grabs or monster battles; depending on where one goes, everybody has some kind of security system, and almost every creature has been recorded and cataloged, along with ways to tame it/ward it off.
3) I'd imagine that one of the many large metropolises of Ifpherion would produce the widest array of options when starting out. There are so many people in the cities, producing very many different paths to take.
4) One of the areas Ifpherion is dearly lacking is more support for the playing angle, especially the rule system. As well, I want to incorporate a bigger, more detailed bestiary, as not too many of the creatures from the Monster Manuals can be imported.
Quote from: GilladianWell, there is not really one church; more a lot of separate but cooperative temples that occasionally share facilities, especially in smaller towns. But the point is still good. I could see Priests of Kehret, the war god, falling into the trap of obeying orders from a superior who had been corrupted and doing jobs for Umade. Umade was a priest of Aragh, the death/undead god before he became a lich. He wants to re-establish his god's power over the earthly realm. Power for himself is only a route to that cause. So he might want artifacts of his god restored to him.
I could easily see the party's NPC fighter being inveigled into suggesting missions for the party to recover artifacts "for the church" which instead end up in the lich's hands. Hee, you're spurring some real ideas here. Thanks!
That sounds like even better than I thought. That would really invest the players in hating Umade in the long run, if they spend 6 months of real time being his dupes.
What does Umade worship about Aragh? Power, obviously, but is he the patron of the souls of the dead as well, a guardion of the boneyards, a lord of the cycle?
The neat thing is that I've decided the "Gods" are either not real or are so remote now to the world that other beings (from the planes or somesuch) have stepped in to steal their place. Worshippers pour their power into whatever they believe, and the interceding being siphons it off, but must (if he wishes to continue the cycle) return something (ie spells) to the worshippers. So while the original Aragh was the God of the Dead, responsible for guiding dead souls to their next state of existance, other "versions" of him (ie stealers of his worshippers) have created other aspects - Undead god, God of war/death in battle, etc...
Umade worships Aragh as the god of Undeath/Immortality. So in a way, he's only worshipping that which he wishes to achieve/has achieved. It's really quite an incestuous cycle.
Oh, and I just had my PCs get nastily threatened by a mysterious sorcerer demanding that they give back a signet ring they stole from one of the Midnight Arcane. They were mighty angry, and will be seeking for more info about them in the near future. So things are going well.