current setting status

[Gilladian]

Lord Vreeg,
Sorry to take so long to reply. Here it is: http://vishteercampaign.pbwiki.com/FrontPage

[LordVreeg]

Lord 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...

[Gilladian]

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.

[LordVreeg]

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.

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?

[Gilladian]

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...

[LordVreeg]

[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...

[Gilladian]

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.

[LordVreeg]

[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...

[Gilladian]

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!

[Ghost]

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.

[LordVreeg]

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!

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?  

[Gilladian]

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.