Opal is bordered by Tiger-eye, Summer-Sky, Ebon-Gray, and Purple-Dusk. Typing out out I just realized that it is bordered by all the city-states that have two word names. That was unintentional. Anyway, Opal is the second richest area in the Territory. Black is the only area with more revenue. This is because Opal has the only safe pass through the mountains bordering the territory. This means it has the only outside trade in the entire territory. They have a monopoly on the crystals that are exported and on certain types of meat that are imported. And meat is expensive in Adama. Might have something to do with the lack of solid ground on which to raise it.
They import pork, poultry, venison and other animal products. The scarcity of animal products has far reaching consequences. Drums are metal topped or wooden, not drawn skin. String instruments are also with metal, not gut. Woodwinds are the most prevalent types of instruments. Leather and fur clothing is a sign of extreme wealth. Most fabric is made from linen, but has a vast range of vibrant dyes due to the sea life.
Protein in the diet is mainly through fish everywhere in the Territory. Seaweed, rice, vegetables are the year round staples, and there is wild airborne game in the fall, but it is usually not enough to make a significant change in diet. More like a special holiday meal.
Opal's trade monopolies have made it very wealthy. It also is the only area to have contact with the rest of the world. Its culture is a blend of eastern and western, taking some western cues from it's trade partners. Clothing is in a Victorian-equse style. Homes are still in the eastern style for the most part due to cost of materials, reeds and paper making more sense in the environment and economically. There is one village that is practically in the mountains that has stone homes in a more western style. But is is only occupied during the trading season. During the rest of the year, there is no wind to bow the fumes from the volcanoes away, making it unsafe to live there.
Items in the area have a bit of a steampunk feel. I will elaborate on that later. I think this is enough for today. Next post will be about the landscape and the steampunk theme. Yea steam engines....
---a
Monday, October 17, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Egyptian themed baddie, and inspiration material
So I mentioned having an Egyptian themed baddie in Green with a pyramid and I have decided to definitely have him be an ultimate baddie (of ultimate destiny). Gunna have at least rumors that led to a central plot involving him. He (or she) will know the secret of the the crystals, and be working on a mysterious plot involving them. All the sub-plots like the one in Green will be parts of his ultimate over all plot.
Now I had already decided that upon starting the campaign a counter would start as well. There will be a world event that occurs whether or not the players get to interact with any of the NPCs that are involved, after a certain amount of time had passed in game. This event will change the campaign from a magic-less one to a steady increase in the amount of magic. The baddie will know this is coming and be trying to control the event some. The event's actual details are to some extent dictated by the source material, but it is vague enough that I can allow the baddie to affect it to some degree. I'm already going against one of the theories proposed in the source material, so I'm not to scared of manipulating it.
Well, all my potenial players have agreed not to read this so I'm going to go full out with the info.
The source material is The Black Jewels Trilogy. You would not need to have read the books to play the game, not all my players have. I don't intend to tell the ones that have what is going on. Someone reading this who was familiar with the series might have already guessed. The city-states names are a dead giveaway. I will repeat, to play with story I am creating you don't need to have even have heard of the source material. I do intend to have things stay true the books in my game, just cause it makes it fun for me. Any one else borrowing can do as they wish with this stuff.
Now, back to the baddie and the timed event. The event will be the 'creation' of the Blood. In the novels, the Blood are the magic wielding higher classes. Draca's final flight will be the event. I'm ignoring Seatan's theory about the men not receiving Jewels and therefore the ability to preform magic.
All players will start out as non-magic classes. After the flight, all will have magic power. I think this will be a very fun part of the campaign. Draca's (one of the last dragons in the world) flight will occur at about 3am where ever they are. The crystals that are all over are shed dragon scales. The scales shed by this flight will be special. They are not being shed in a healthy lifecycle, they are being gifted to the world. The players jewels will fall to them, and the ones that touch them physically first after falling from Draca will be theirs. They will roll for how many that is. ("roll 2 D-20's." "what for?" "to see how many rocks hit you on the head, and a roll for retaining consciousness. ya know, from the rocks falling on your head.") The stones will take awhile to form a soul bond, and the players will have to figure out on their own that they have magic. I hope one of them try to sell one. Hehe, mini campaign by itself to try and recover the thing before the player dies. :D
That's enough for tonight, it's already 3am. Not even gunna mention the map, just gunna try to get it done before 2012. Ya know, that's gunna be may goal for the who planning stage. I want to start the campaighn on New Year's Day. Good way to start the year huh? New expericnces, new characters, sounds good to me. Good luck to me. Night world.
------a
Now I had already decided that upon starting the campaign a counter would start as well. There will be a world event that occurs whether or not the players get to interact with any of the NPCs that are involved, after a certain amount of time had passed in game. This event will change the campaign from a magic-less one to a steady increase in the amount of magic. The baddie will know this is coming and be trying to control the event some. The event's actual details are to some extent dictated by the source material, but it is vague enough that I can allow the baddie to affect it to some degree. I'm already going against one of the theories proposed in the source material, so I'm not to scared of manipulating it.
Well, all my potenial players have agreed not to read this so I'm going to go full out with the info.
The source material is The Black Jewels Trilogy. You would not need to have read the books to play the game, not all my players have. I don't intend to tell the ones that have what is going on. Someone reading this who was familiar with the series might have already guessed. The city-states names are a dead giveaway. I will repeat, to play with story I am creating you don't need to have even have heard of the source material. I do intend to have things stay true the books in my game, just cause it makes it fun for me. Any one else borrowing can do as they wish with this stuff.
Now, back to the baddie and the timed event. The event will be the 'creation' of the Blood. In the novels, the Blood are the magic wielding higher classes. Draca's final flight will be the event. I'm ignoring Seatan's theory about the men not receiving Jewels and therefore the ability to preform magic.
All players will start out as non-magic classes. After the flight, all will have magic power. I think this will be a very fun part of the campaign. Draca's (one of the last dragons in the world) flight will occur at about 3am where ever they are. The crystals that are all over are shed dragon scales. The scales shed by this flight will be special. They are not being shed in a healthy lifecycle, they are being gifted to the world. The players jewels will fall to them, and the ones that touch them physically first after falling from Draca will be theirs. They will roll for how many that is. ("roll 2 D-20's." "what for?" "to see how many rocks hit you on the head, and a roll for retaining consciousness. ya know, from the rocks falling on your head.") The stones will take awhile to form a soul bond, and the players will have to figure out on their own that they have magic. I hope one of them try to sell one. Hehe, mini campaign by itself to try and recover the thing before the player dies. :D
That's enough for tonight, it's already 3am. Not even gunna mention the map, just gunna try to get it done before 2012. Ya know, that's gunna be may goal for the who planning stage. I want to start the campaighn on New Year's Day. Good way to start the year huh? New expericnces, new characters, sounds good to me. Good luck to me. Night world.
------a
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Another area, but no work on map done
So I have the ideas for Tiger-eye all filled out to the same extent
as Green, now I need to roll out characters. I haven't done any
characters yet because of the system we want to use. It's one that my
business partner and I are coming up with and we need to finish it up
before I can roll NPCs.
So Tiger-eye, as previously stated is a similar landscape to Sapphire, with shallow waters and a hilly sandy landscape. Unlike Sapphire the waters are slow, almost lazy and quite warm. During the winter the area has a perpetual fog over it from the warm water steaming into the air. Volcanic activity deep underground warms the sand and water, but poses little threat to the surface other than creating a very comfortable place for a nap. The area is uninhabitable due to the complete absence of any naturally occurring life. No plants, no animals, nothing. The water is crystal clear and clean but no fish or algae grow in it. The sand supports no plant life. Without a food source there are no larger animals. Colonization has proven to be too expensive due to the need to import even dirt to grow food. There is no danger to a person getting out of their boat from currents or deep water and it is not poisonous. The deepest the water gets is about 10 feet. You can always see to the bottom.
There are a few temporary 'settlements,' but these are few and as impermanent as the shifting landscape. Some of these groups are 'miners' who gather the pretty, naturally occurring crystals from the ground. Others are archeologists ( from a university in Black) who study the strange ruins that sometimes are revealed by the shifting sands. Sometimes these groups disappear and are never heard from again, although that is not the norm.
The crystals are a mystery. They are not from the ground, can't be found anywhere else (in the world) and are a strange non-color. They are very common in jewelry and all but the poorest of the poor have at least some sort of bauble inside of the mountain range. The are the main export out of the Territory but that has to do with Opal. More are constantly surfacing from the sands. Rumor has it that the crystals are actually shed dragon scales, but who would believe that old wives' tale?
The ruins are made of stone and have strange characteristics. The streets have large channels dug though them, with bridges regularly crossing them. The strange part is the entrances below water level. Almost every building has a completely submerged entrance leading to these channels in the same fashion that a surface door has an entrance to the street. Complete with windows and remnants of furniture, almost every building has a level that was completely submerged at all times. In some of the larger buildings (what appear to be public buildings or wealthy private ones) there are even pump systems that appear to allow some special areas of the surface level to be filled with water, and some sub surface areas to be drained of it. Most of the pump systems are made up of elaborate Archimedes' Screws.
I'm going to roll up a set of characters for one miner's camp and one archeologists' camp. Then I will plot several of each on the map and where ever the players chose to go, if they cross one of points, any to of the miner camps will have the one set of NPCs and same for the archeologists. Easier than rolling out three or four of each and having all those people to keep straight in my head. That would be difficult.
That's that for this week. Hopefully I will actually get something by next week. Once a week is not to much to push for is it?
---a
So Tiger-eye, as previously stated is a similar landscape to Sapphire, with shallow waters and a hilly sandy landscape. Unlike Sapphire the waters are slow, almost lazy and quite warm. During the winter the area has a perpetual fog over it from the warm water steaming into the air. Volcanic activity deep underground warms the sand and water, but poses little threat to the surface other than creating a very comfortable place for a nap. The area is uninhabitable due to the complete absence of any naturally occurring life. No plants, no animals, nothing. The water is crystal clear and clean but no fish or algae grow in it. The sand supports no plant life. Without a food source there are no larger animals. Colonization has proven to be too expensive due to the need to import even dirt to grow food. There is no danger to a person getting out of their boat from currents or deep water and it is not poisonous. The deepest the water gets is about 10 feet. You can always see to the bottom.
There are a few temporary 'settlements,' but these are few and as impermanent as the shifting landscape. Some of these groups are 'miners' who gather the pretty, naturally occurring crystals from the ground. Others are archeologists ( from a university in Black) who study the strange ruins that sometimes are revealed by the shifting sands. Sometimes these groups disappear and are never heard from again, although that is not the norm.
The crystals are a mystery. They are not from the ground, can't be found anywhere else (in the world) and are a strange non-color. They are very common in jewelry and all but the poorest of the poor have at least some sort of bauble inside of the mountain range. The are the main export out of the Territory but that has to do with Opal. More are constantly surfacing from the sands. Rumor has it that the crystals are actually shed dragon scales, but who would believe that old wives' tale?
The ruins are made of stone and have strange characteristics. The streets have large channels dug though them, with bridges regularly crossing them. The strange part is the entrances below water level. Almost every building has a completely submerged entrance leading to these channels in the same fashion that a surface door has an entrance to the street. Complete with windows and remnants of furniture, almost every building has a level that was completely submerged at all times. In some of the larger buildings (what appear to be public buildings or wealthy private ones) there are even pump systems that appear to allow some special areas of the surface level to be filled with water, and some sub surface areas to be drained of it. Most of the pump systems are made up of elaborate Archimedes' Screws.
I'm going to roll up a set of characters for one miner's camp and one archeologists' camp. Then I will plot several of each on the map and where ever the players chose to go, if they cross one of points, any to of the miner camps will have the one set of NPCs and same for the archeologists. Easier than rolling out three or four of each and having all those people to keep straight in my head. That would be difficult.
That's that for this week. Hopefully I will actually get something by next week. Once a week is not to much to push for is it?
---a
Thursday, September 29, 2011
not finished, give me another week
 |
| What I've got so far. It's a good start. Will refine during this week and try to have it done on Sunday or Monday. |
Monday, August 29, 2011
Compartmentalizing for My Sanity
When I had first envisioned this campaign I was hoping to create something that would allow the party fully organic decision making. I could have the party pick any place on the map and then stick their characters in and allow them to go from there. I was recommended by a friend to not do that. He told me to choose one area and make it the opening adventure. Sand box them in till they complete a task, like a mini-campaign. This would give me the chance to get to know the characters, the players and better arrange the rest of the environment to suit them. It would allow for greater enjoyment of the game by all involved. And after breaking the sandbox I can allow the whole of Adama to be open as I had originally intended. I think that I will do this. And the area I choose to be the sandbox is White.
White is a city built on the principal of defense. It's location is on an artificial floating craft, made of a combination of reeds and scrap wood, most of which is wreckage that is brought by the current. An entire caste of people make their living salvaging from the waters. The area of calm water it floats on is in the center of the most active water in the entire Territory. All rivers, flows and tides in all the city-states, both originate and terminate is the wild waters of White. It is also the deepest city of all, with a dangerous undertow under the calm water of the city proper.
Salvaging is very dangerous, but potentially very economically rewarding. Many poor take larger and larger risks in the dangerous waters for a chance at improving their lives permanently by bringing in a good haul. Many of the richer denizens of the city are former salvagers, commonly known as salrites (salvage pirates). The rest of the population is made up of pirates of the normal variety, and the services that pop up to cater to them. Inns and brothels are the most legitimate business present. White is also the capital of the black market for the entire Territory.
The survival of the city as a whole depends on a measure of co-opertion to maintain its infrastructure and to expand. Tolls are charged at the docks and are 'taxed' to cover costs. Since the salrites are freelance, only three officials are employed at a time to oversee collecting the money from dock owners, seeing to overseeing the construction of new 'land' and the repair of old. Their other main source of revenue is the sale of new 'land'. These positions are basically self regulatory and therefore very open to corruption. This is the problem that I will put to the present to my party. They will not be able to leave until forming some sort of solution for saving the city from its own lack of bureaucracy. I figured the irony would be amusing to my projected player base.
To get them together I'm going to have to play the characters for the players a little. One Character (already know which one) will have a treasure map and a boat, and will put out an advert that the players will be responding to for a crew. I can leave the reason for responding up to them, so hopefully this won't be to invasive.
The reason they can't just set sail is that...I haven't really gotten that far. I actually think That is the last think I need for the story line, besides NPCs and the map.
Anyone got any suggestions?
White is a city built on the principal of defense. It's location is on an artificial floating craft, made of a combination of reeds and scrap wood, most of which is wreckage that is brought by the current. An entire caste of people make their living salvaging from the waters. The area of calm water it floats on is in the center of the most active water in the entire Territory. All rivers, flows and tides in all the city-states, both originate and terminate is the wild waters of White. It is also the deepest city of all, with a dangerous undertow under the calm water of the city proper.
Salvaging is very dangerous, but potentially very economically rewarding. Many poor take larger and larger risks in the dangerous waters for a chance at improving their lives permanently by bringing in a good haul. Many of the richer denizens of the city are former salvagers, commonly known as salrites (salvage pirates). The rest of the population is made up of pirates of the normal variety, and the services that pop up to cater to them. Inns and brothels are the most legitimate business present. White is also the capital of the black market for the entire Territory.
The survival of the city as a whole depends on a measure of co-opertion to maintain its infrastructure and to expand. Tolls are charged at the docks and are 'taxed' to cover costs. Since the salrites are freelance, only three officials are employed at a time to oversee collecting the money from dock owners, seeing to overseeing the construction of new 'land' and the repair of old. Their other main source of revenue is the sale of new 'land'. These positions are basically self regulatory and therefore very open to corruption. This is the problem that I will put to the present to my party. They will not be able to leave until forming some sort of solution for saving the city from its own lack of bureaucracy. I figured the irony would be amusing to my projected player base.
To get them together I'm going to have to play the characters for the players a little. One Character (already know which one) will have a treasure map and a boat, and will put out an advert that the players will be responding to for a crew. I can leave the reason for responding up to them, so hopefully this won't be to invasive.
The reason they can't just set sail is that...I haven't really gotten that far. I actually think That is the last think I need for the story line, besides NPCs and the map.
Anyone got any suggestions?
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Map ideas, and further details on areas.
So the map thing did not happen this week. Or last week. blargh. I think that is the technical term. However I think I have come up with a few other things.
First, pertaining to the whole map and how such a strange environment developed. Basically a meteor. Hit ocean and collided with the edge of a continent, that's how the thing has at least shallow water over the whole surface and all these crazy environments. The entire meteor is completely honey combed with caves and tunnel systems, which is why you can almost travel everywhere underground. Water gets sucked up, spit out, stagnates, and everything else through these tunnels.
A situation has been developed for Green. Farming and way of life is dependent upon relationship with unicorns. The unicorns are literally burned by the touch of a non-virgin, so the culture has developed toward, late in life marriage, and fewer, later births. This results in population decline, and weddings being an unhappy event instead of a joyous one.
There really isn't much a stigma against losing your virginity so much as a preference for your relationship with your unicorn. The people tend to pair up with one or two unicorns and form a very close bond early in life. And the relationship with the unicorns makes life so much more convenient. They can walk on water, easing transportation, purify water which allows the farmers to farm many things that can't be grown anywhere else in the area.
The unicorns are fully sentient and as upset about the population decline of their humans and the virginity problem as the humans. They know that this problem has only been going on for the past four or five generations though and believe that there is something causing non-virgins to burn the unicorns. Still working on how to get the rumor to the party, but I'm going to have the item be made of silver, and therefore really precious in this almost metal free enviroment....or maybe iron and allow them to have weapons made form it...I think I'll leave that open to what the party would like more.
I think the item will also be a cap on a pyramid (short dungeon)...placed there by the same necromancer baddie that is currently in Gray...might make a way to have the whole thing interconnected, but I don't think that matters at all till I see how the players are going to be.
I think I will also have them be greeted by a NPC and invited to a wedding upon entering the area.
Other than mapping and Npc's to be rolled I think I've got what I need for Green. Only 12 more city-states to go....
First, pertaining to the whole map and how such a strange environment developed. Basically a meteor. Hit ocean and collided with the edge of a continent, that's how the thing has at least shallow water over the whole surface and all these crazy environments. The entire meteor is completely honey combed with caves and tunnel systems, which is why you can almost travel everywhere underground. Water gets sucked up, spit out, stagnates, and everything else through these tunnels.
A situation has been developed for Green. Farming and way of life is dependent upon relationship with unicorns. The unicorns are literally burned by the touch of a non-virgin, so the culture has developed toward, late in life marriage, and fewer, later births. This results in population decline, and weddings being an unhappy event instead of a joyous one.
There really isn't much a stigma against losing your virginity so much as a preference for your relationship with your unicorn. The people tend to pair up with one or two unicorns and form a very close bond early in life. And the relationship with the unicorns makes life so much more convenient. They can walk on water, easing transportation, purify water which allows the farmers to farm many things that can't be grown anywhere else in the area.
The unicorns are fully sentient and as upset about the population decline of their humans and the virginity problem as the humans. They know that this problem has only been going on for the past four or five generations though and believe that there is something causing non-virgins to burn the unicorns. Still working on how to get the rumor to the party, but I'm going to have the item be made of silver, and therefore really precious in this almost metal free enviroment....or maybe iron and allow them to have weapons made form it...I think I'll leave that open to what the party would like more.
I think the item will also be a cap on a pyramid (short dungeon)...placed there by the same necromancer baddie that is currently in Gray...might make a way to have the whole thing interconnected, but I don't think that matters at all till I see how the players are going to be.
I think I will also have them be greeted by a NPC and invited to a wedding upon entering the area.
Other than mapping and Npc's to be rolled I think I've got what I need for Green. Only 12 more city-states to go....
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The Beginning of the World
Thirteen city-states in one Territory. I have at least a bare bones idea of what I want in each city except for Summer-sky. Been drawing a blank on that one. I'm just going to give a quick run down of each area as I have it for now.
White
floating city in calm water with docks all around stretching out into violent pools, whirlpools, rivers converge and originate here, has Venice like architecture and setup, sewer system (want to use it as part of the plot for this area somehow.)
Yellow
Whalers, seafooev farmers
Tiger-Eye
ever changing sand hills surrounded by water, mines for precious stones, ruins, and archeologists gems loose on the ground sparkling and pretty
Rose
actual swamps, mangrove trees silk farmers, near red same culture (Japanese)
SummerSky
Purple Dusk
near EbonGray and Black, same cliffs rising out of water (can come up inside of Black without stepping into EbonGray, through the tunnel/cave system) this is wear the last of the dragons roost
Opal
Only pass out of Territory, has town of merchants, only importers and exporters in Territory, very wealthy, society is most like inspiration material
Green
unicorns that can walk on water, forest rising out of water, but not swamp like, (water constantly purified by unicorns) Like Channelwood from Myst, tree-top society
Sapphire
underground society (rest of territory does not know it's there, thinks it is barren and empty) mermaids, surface barren visually like Tiger-eye, with shallow water and sand dunes. surface unpopulated, water filled caverns underground with like from systems of light refraction from natural gemstones
Red
Sulfur pools, volcanic activity, mud pits, rotten eggs smells, Japanese culture, onsen, health spas, like Bath, hot springs
Gray
Ship builders, more reeds than wood, trade for wood from Green, Egyptian like culture but no stone buildings, bad guy in area, evil spell turns papyrus into stone to build strange looking pyramid, declare himself a god ruins paper export, can hear rumors, paper really expensive for a while
Ebon-Gray
surrounds Black on all sides, port city must negotiate way through to Black, warrior race, Spartan
Black
Raise Beef ONLY real land in Territory city built into cliffs to avoid wasting valuable land, warriors as well, but Athenians to Ebon-Gray's Spartans Corrupt Government
So there are the City-States as I have them so far. On the map I have also switched Rose and Sapphire in the map. Next week I will try to have a better map put together, and then I will start fleshing out the City's more. Have a good Week!
White
floating city in calm water with docks all around stretching out into violent pools, whirlpools, rivers converge and originate here, has Venice like architecture and setup, sewer system (want to use it as part of the plot for this area somehow.)
Yellow
Whalers, seafooev farmers
Tiger-Eye
ever changing sand hills surrounded by water, mines for precious stones, ruins, and archeologists gems loose on the ground sparkling and pretty
Rose
actual swamps, mangrove trees silk farmers, near red same culture (Japanese)
SummerSky
Purple Dusk
near EbonGray and Black, same cliffs rising out of water (can come up inside of Black without stepping into EbonGray, through the tunnel/cave system) this is wear the last of the dragons roost
Opal
Only pass out of Territory, has town of merchants, only importers and exporters in Territory, very wealthy, society is most like inspiration material
Green
unicorns that can walk on water, forest rising out of water, but not swamp like, (water constantly purified by unicorns) Like Channelwood from Myst, tree-top society
Sapphire
underground society (rest of territory does not know it's there, thinks it is barren and empty) mermaids, surface barren visually like Tiger-eye, with shallow water and sand dunes. surface unpopulated, water filled caverns underground with like from systems of light refraction from natural gemstones
Red
Sulfur pools, volcanic activity, mud pits, rotten eggs smells, Japanese culture, onsen, health spas, like Bath, hot springs
Gray
Ship builders, more reeds than wood, trade for wood from Green, Egyptian like culture but no stone buildings, bad guy in area, evil spell turns papyrus into stone to build strange looking pyramid, declare himself a god ruins paper export, can hear rumors, paper really expensive for a while
Ebon-Gray
surrounds Black on all sides, port city must negotiate way through to Black, warrior race, Spartan
Black
Raise Beef ONLY real land in Territory city built into cliffs to avoid wasting valuable land, warriors as well, but Athenians to Ebon-Gray's Spartans Corrupt Government
So there are the City-States as I have them so far. On the map I have also switched Rose and Sapphire in the map. Next week I will try to have a better map put together, and then I will start fleshing out the City's more. Have a good Week!
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