My Campaign and an Introduction

Gilladian · April 09, 2007, 05:21:12 PM

I'm new here - I stumbled across your site from a link on ENworld yesterday - and thought I'd say hello, and post a link to my own campaign site. It's a bit of a kitchen sink world, and not perhaps the MOST original ever written, but I have fun with it.

Take a look, and tell me what you think. I have a couple specific questions/ideas I may bring up later, but that'll wait...

http://vishteercampaign.pbwiki.com/Vishteer%20Home%20Page#Sources

Gilladian

Ishmayl-Retired · April 09, 2007, 07:00:45 PM

Hey Gilladian,
I took a gander at your site; things look interesting. I'm wondering, how exactly does worship through a Saint work? Do the saints themselves grant prayers to faithful clerics, or are they just a medium to get to a particular god?

Gilladian · April 09, 2007, 07:36:41 PM

They're really just roleplay flavor as far as clerics are concerned. Way back in the days of 2nd edition, they were specialty priest classes, and I'd love to reconstruct some of that feel, but not go so far as separate classes. My players don't often pay attention to the Saints, though I've based a few adventures on their histories in various campaigns.

I do have knightly orders and prestige knight classes for a number of the saints. Most are not posted to the site in deference to the true owners of the material (I've shamelessly cribbed many prestige classes to use for them!). A couple of PCs and a number of NPCs have used these knightly classes.

Thanks for the question!

Gilladian · April 12, 2007, 07:04:49 PM

Well, now that people have had a chance to look at my world, I have a question.

I'm working on the Greenvale portion of my world - a fairly standard medieval kingdom which has at this point very little "competition" from surrounding nations. There are a couple of small baronies on the flanks of Greenvale, but no really substantial rivals for power. I'm interested in writing in something. Perhaps I could expand Tallowsland in the west into a more interesting/larger nation, or I could create something from scratch in the south between Greenvale and the fey land of Laigladen.

I'd like to add a kingdom that would be a political rival for Greenvale, and also a source of trade and social interaction or rivalry. Since Greenvale is human and half-elven, I'd like to make this other kingdom a mix of humans and another race. Lizardmen, catfolk, halflings and dwarves are all common, elves are uncommon, and gnomes don't exist.

Any ideas/suggestions/hints?

RedBullBear · April 12, 2007, 07:50:43 PM

I definately am impressed with the thoroughness of your work. I also like the way you used real geography as a basis. Do you have global map of your version of the world?

Xathan · April 12, 2007, 09:06:23 PM

Hey there. I'm really likeing what I'm seeing so far.

For your question, I think a new nation to the south of Greenvale would provide a better conflict and rival than an expanded Tallowsland, though doing both would make for a really interesting area of conflict. I think it would be interesting to break for alot of the fantasy norms and put in this new nation one of the anthropomorophic animal races, so my vote goes for either Lizardmen or Catfolk. That's just me, though.

Gilladian · April 12, 2007, 10:18:35 PM

To RedBullBear - no map of the world, but here's a verbal sketch of my ideas...

North America - East coast is fairly well described in my website.
West coast is called Narbada - a series of smaller kingdoms, tightly packed into the western coast and lower mountains. Quite heavily populated and well-established. Extensive trade up and down the coast. Mountains are settled by giants and such, once civilized and now fallen into mostly violent chaos.

The interior plains are mostly settled by barbarian tribes of humans, orcs and other humoid species. The Catfolk may have come from this region, or may not... These plains and the mountains are essentially an uncrossed barrier to trade between the east and west. The west knows more or less about Miraboria, but ignores it. Miraboria knows little or nothing about Narbada.

South and Central America is settled by larger, younger kingdoms dating from the 2nd Empire era. There are vast tracts of unsettled jungle, but also many settled regions. Trade from here goes both to Narbada and Miraboria, but is difficult enough that there is no good all-around trade.

Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and other islands are all fairly well settled - some by peaceful trade nations, others by piratical sorts. I keep thinking it would be a perfect area to run Savage Tide through.

As far as Eurasia/Africa and other continents, my ideas have changed so many times over the past 25 years I can't even begin to articulate them all...

To Just Xathan - I don't think the Catfolk are the type to have a homeland. They're too footloose and nomadic. Nor are my lizardmen (Szathair) very structured socially either. Maybe I need to add another race, although I hesitate to do so. I wonder if I could reconfigure the catfolk, though... They don't have a very important role in my world right now.

Gilladian · April 14, 2007, 08:17:55 AM

I've jotted down some ideas here:

South of Greenvale, between that kingdom and Laigladen, I would like to insert another nation. The reasons for this are multifold -
1) to provide a more closely positioned political "enemy" for Greenvale - so they have someone to feud with
2) to provide an economic trade partner for Greenvale - so they have someone to trade with
3) to provide a slightly different political/social atmosphere - so they have someone to admire/look down on
4) I'm sure there are other reasons that will come up!
Greenvale is a pretty stable, self-satisfied place. It has grown virtually unchallenged from a small town that survived the 2nd Empire's collapse into a self-sufficient kingdom of many counties. It is flanked by a few independent Baronies which hve never been strong enough to challenge it. It has a feeling of medieval feudalism in the sense that the folks in power are the protectors who fend off evil monsters and humanoid invaders while the farmers and peasants provide the food and other resources needed to make that possible.

But they are surrounded by wild forests and high hills that shelter all sorts of aggressive evils. Greenvale may be strong, but the folk know they must remain vigilant and ready to apply force to survive. They're essentially defense-minded but understand instinctively that the best defense is a good offense.

The new kingdom/nation/culture I want to create needs to have a different feel, but I'm not sure what. I already have a "remains of empire" nation that feels it is the true ruler of all (not that anyone else thinks so...) and a couple of "young explorer" lands. I have a "reclusive fae realm" in Laigladen and a "hidden dwarf city" in Koruzd. My elvish lands are also fairly "fae" in that elves have retreated to a sort of ethereal-like plane where they hide from the evils of the material world (not that it really works). I'm thinking that perhaps this new nation will be fairly small, be a mix of humans and another race (could be a standard one, or a new race, possibly anthropomorphic like the cat-folk), but will have some kind of power base that challenges or could challenge Greenvale. Perhaps they should be an innately more magical race than humans, but not in the way of elves and fae, nor in the magitech sense.

Note that there's no reason this nation could not be a substantially "deepearth" connected realm. I've always wanted one!

Tybalt · April 15, 2007, 02:49:47 PM

Nice site, and I will read more and give you more in depth thoughts soon. However my thought on the neighbor/rival is this: what about some kind of ambitious city state or something? What if the lizardfolk and catfolk and so on are more often say hired as mercenaries or provocateurs by this other area, which perhaps prefers to use others to provoke trouble but doesn't want an actual war? Perhaps it is plotting to gain lands or trade routes simply by intrigue rather than by open conflict, and perhaps is bribing or trying to seduce leaders in Greenvale?

Gilladian · April 17, 2007, 10:36:45 PM

Okay, I started writing up a new idea based on a few old notes from the area, but haven't gotten much done. I'm thinking of going with a new race of frog people based on the Grippli. What I've written up now is quite low magic, but I'm going to go back and make them a more spell-oriented race. They'll be innately good at wizardry, I think.

On top of that, there's a note about a group of women diviners (Stargazers) in the area. These women are borderline evil (maybe just powerhungry) and use the Grippli as servants/tools. There are also a fair number of Szathair in the region whom the Stargazers may use. The Grippli and the Szathair don't get along (Szathair think Grippli taste good, and Grippli disapprove). The Stargazers have taken over (or maybe always controlled) the area directly to the south of Greenvale, and have 2-3 large towns (mostly humans from Greenvale or who survived in earlier times on their own) there which are under their control. They are also attempting to take control of Mound away from Greenvale.

As I said, this is all still pretty loose.

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