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 Stonefist |
Time to curl up with Wilderlands again... |
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Posts: 68 (05/07/08 16:42:54) 2E Master |
Slowly working my way through the books. I've noticed that the boxed set does borrow a lot from different original JG material. For instance a lot was
taken fromWitches Court Marshes. I imagine that has been done when information was available. But still, it reads very consistently. Just taking my time
about it.
John |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 69 (05/07/08 18:13:47) 2E Master |
So, thinking I may want to use Bard's gate for Valon. And Minas Ithil for Tula. This helps me to flesh it out in my mind. Slowly tying in the pieces that I
want. Always very slow.
Still thinking of using City of Brass as well. Efreet would make good demons and I could see the green emperor selling people to different efreet as slaves in order to get power. |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 70 (05/07/08 19:04:55) 2E Master |
So the question I ask myself is, How dark does this world need to be??? I hate Ravenloft. Just pathetic. Too dark.
So, I look at wilderlands and I want something that is like Robert E. Howard. That's the flavor I like. Color that with Tolkien and then we have elves and dwarves. Fully integrated into the game. Bob Bledsaw's first game was Middle Earth. So there was a good connection. But human sacrifice? I know it makes for great heroics to overcome. But I really don't like the idea. So, I'm not going to center the world around it. Not quite sure how I'm going to change it, but I don't want it to be a centerpiece of "Civilization." I'm also not crazy about demon worship and whatnot. I suppose some of it can be there. But I like the idea of using the rather evil Efreet of the City of Brass, selling their sevices in exchange for human slaves. Makes more sense to me. Also good potential adventure hooks. |
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Michael Proteau |
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Posts: 3917 (05/07/08 19:27:15) Necro PIMP! |
That's the beauty of the Wilderlands, each Judge should make it his or her own. Don't want human sacrifice and demon worship, bam, there is none. Want
it as dark as Ravenloft-bam make it that dark. Run the Wilderlands the way you want it to be and the way your group enjoys and you are running it right.
I ran a very dark Wilderlands game that centered on the PC's stopping a cult of Asmodeus allied with a cult of the N'Gauthau (Tome of Horrors II) and their network of slavers providing sacrifices and human canvases (for the N'Gathau to work on) centered in and around CSIO and Tarantis, and a very lighthearted one that featured a talking raccoon wizard, a nguack (talking duck), a pixie, and a centaur as the PC's running rampant in the Dearthwood trying to stop a troll sorcerer from stealing a treant's seedlings and both were a blast and fit in the Wilderlands. It is malleable enough to accomodate whatever tone and style you want to play. (Amzingly enough, both games had the same core group of players in it too).
Michael Proteau
"To live is to learn!" "Life is an adventure, fear and worry only ruin it.!" "Follow your bliss!" -Joseph Campbell |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 71 (05/07/08 19:52:29) 2E Master |
Michael,
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them. And I agree. The Wilderlands can accomodate many means of play. In fact part of the JG approach has always been to encourage the Judge to make alterations to fit his or her own designs. Actually, I'm just sort of musing here. Trying to let my thoughs collect on the subject. |
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jamesmishler |
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Posts: 557 (05/07/08 22:30:23) Vampire |
John,
I really like that Efreet idea. A religion like that would work well in the City State as a replacement for the Temple of Harmakhis. You could just say that instead of demons, the temple clerics work with efreet, and instead of daily demonic sacrifices, they give over to an efreet a living slave in exchange for knowledge and power. Probably shifts the temple from chaotic evil to lawful evil, but that works just fine in the City State. Very cool idea indeed.
James Mishler
Main Man, Adventure Games Publishing james@adventuregamespubs.com www.adventuregamespubs.com Personal Gameblog: http://jamesmishler.blogspot.com |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 75 (05/08/08 08:43:46) 2E Master |
Thanks James. I'm glad you like the idea. Plus it lets me use the whole City of Brass supplement as a backdrop. Still working on what Ideas to use. I also
like the potential tie in with the Mycretians and the Arabic theme of the City of Brass. So, I've got a few things to work with here.
Hey, nice to see you. How's it going? |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 76 (05/08/08 10:04:33) 2E Master |
Ok, so now the witches of Witches Court Marshes.
They have been around for thousands of years. They worship Gaia, by and large, the world spirit. And on their annual gathering, they summon all kinds of elementals, including Djinn and Efreet, maybe some more as well. At this time they use these summoned creatures in mysterious earth related rituals, ostensibly to make the planet stronger. Gaia likes these rituals, and rewards them with certain powers to use as they see fit. |
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jamesmishler |
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Posts: 558 (05/08/08 10:34:50) Vampire |
Stonefist wrote: Hmmm...
This could turn the Garman vs. Witches theme into the "Sky-Father Priests" versus the "Earth-Mother Priestess" sort of emnity, I think. In that case, as a suggestion, you might want to consider keeping the witches more purely elemental, leaving the genies as a "mid-level" as more independent spirits (elementals being more "Primal," genies being more "Outsider" oriented). Perhaps the witches that summon genies are on the edges of the grand coven, bordering on heresy in their desire for control over, rather than veneration of, the elements. It is these witches that like to stir up troubles with the Garmans and other non-believers. Also, female witches and their covens would be the counterparts of the male druidic circles. As for me, I am getting by. Not fantastically so, not dreadfully so. For 4E, and thus for all RPGs, it is the deep breath before the plunge, so to speak, so things are very much in a "wait and see" mode, though I am working to get the first Campaign Installment and perhaps one or two smaller other products done in time for the Lake Geneva Game Convention... we shall see.
James Mishler
Main Man, Adventure Games Publishing james@adventuregamespubs.com www.adventuregamespubs.com Personal Gameblog: http://jamesmishler.blogspot.com |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 77 (05/08/08 11:11:27) 2E Master |
You're absolutely right. There could easily be a fringe element that seeks to control the Efreet and Djinn and so on rather than trying to work in harmony
with nature and the elements. Those would be the evil offshoots of this order. But I'm not sure what I want to do about the Garmans. Actually, by making
the Witches as a group more or less Neutral in alignment, I was thinking that they may actually be friends, allies perhaps. That would lessen the need for a
final conflict between them. In fact they could all potentailly rise up against the World Emeror and his twisted ways. But I still want to maintain some sort
of a Wiccan feel to the witches that would differentiate them somewhat from the druids. So while they may object to trying to control Djinn, they may converse
with them and socialize with them. Might help to explain their ability to fly. The more power hungry types would take a strong interest in the Efreet.
Yes, this wait and see stuff is kind of annoying. Doesn't affect me directly all that much as I have no intentions of playing 4e. Heck, I don't even play 3e. I hope things work out for you. Your map got a good review at dragonsfoot. Glowing in fact. I'm looking forward to reading XXXI and AGJ #1 but I"m kind of saving both of them, for now. John |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 81 (05/08/08 13:47:12) 2E Master |
Ok, so here's the question. How powerful is this so called Gaia? Here's what we have (IIRC). Gaia is a silicon based entity with a hive like makeup.
So, appearantly some sort of mass conciousness. Ok, I can imagine that easily enough. But also this hive creature is able to communicate with beings living on
her planet. How is this done exactly? She can also observe dreams and thoughts and emotions as well. Just an aside, she seems to have gained some kind of power
due to there being a lot of magicum on the planet, possibly from meteors. Ok, but supposedly she can appear to be a god to those living on the planet. And
appearantly can give out powers to clerics. Question I have is how good is she at creating a material manifestation. And while I'm on the topic, could she
have directed the creation of the first men and the dragons who lived with them? How powerful is she supposed to really be. Hmmm.... Just thinking.
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 82 (05/08/08 14:05:03) 2E Master |
What else do we know?
Theres some really cool portal technology on this planet!!! A result of all the magicum? Maybe. Maybe the magicum in combination with the makeup of the planet and that in combination with the silicon based hive creature Gaia. So, maybe the dragons came to this world through one of the portals. Maybe cave men, maybe the First men. Hmm, Gaia may have learned a lot about these portals. Maybe she was able to view other worlds through these portals. After all the Markrabs and the other federation, though being space travellers were taking a keen interest in these portals. So, there's a good possible explanation for some of the life living on this planet. I like it. |
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kensanata |
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Posts: 69 (06/26/08 14:40:57) Ghoul |
I'm planning on running a campaign in the Wilderlands tentatively called The
Alder King. The players will be recruits for the Alder King who lives in Dangerous Forest near Lenap and wants to drive all humans away from these lands.
Thus, the players will be allied with goblins (inspired by the Courtney Crumrin
comics) - all things druid, fey, shadow, barbarian, and sorcerous are on their side - the true neutral side, where as all things angelic, demonic, devilish,
civilized, and chaotic will be opposing them. I'm planning on having each hex controlled by something - lizards, frogs, kobolds, humans, and each one of
them a potential ally or a potential enemy. And so the players will keep exploring and building their power base.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on a new Wilderlands campaign that would end somewhere between levels nine and twelve. I'll use the history section only to comment on the various ancient inscriptions on temples and sunken cities in the jungle. If the players take not and start investigating, there will be more. And if savage tribes and ancient ruins are not dark enough for my players, I'll add some Mesopotamia stuff. 
Currently running Empire of the Ghouls and The City of Brass, and playing in The Shackled City Adventure Path, Echoes of
Heaven, and a Burning Wheel game.
Need a simple Campaign Wiki for your game?
Last Edited By: kensanata
06/26/08 14:43:07.
Edited 1 times.
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 365 (06/26/08 18:26:00) 2E Master |
Sounds interesting, Kensanata.
I haven't thought much about Lenap. I focus most of my thoughts on the city state, viridistan, tarantis and Valon. Actually, most anything in the top 6 maps. Well, then there's Tula. Anyway, it is an original take on the Wilderlands and should be rather fun for your players. Given the thousands of years of history that the Wilderlands provides, if your players take an interest in ruins and history, anything could happen. That's part of what's so fun about the wilderlands. You can let it take you just about anywhere. I'm playing in a wilderlands game right now. We are focused largly on a section of the 5th map near Dwarfport. Just a little south east of there. We've been using the CC2 players map that someone made for keeping track of all the villages and so forth that we've been to. Our DM has provided us with maps for just about all of them. And I use CC2 to link from the spot on the big map, to the map from our DM. You can download the map from the judges guild web page. I think it is on www.judgesguild.com, but it could be www.judgesguild.net. I would recommend downloading it and giving it to your players. They can still view it even if they don't have CC2 by using the free viewer from Profantasy.com. StoneFist |
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kensanata |
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Posts: 71 (06/27/08 06:07:47) Ghoul |
I looked at some of the free material available, but the only thing that really caught my eye is Rob Lee's color world map (at the bottom). I will be handing that one out, and I've started doing my
own regional hex map (starting map). Nearby
hexes will contain a sunken city populated by a tribe of Kuo-Tua, a frog temple (using the frogs from Tomb of Abysthor), a swamp hag and her minions, a
draconic oracle run by a kobold (in honor of the Order of the Stick), a tribe of crazy wasp riding lizardmen (from MM4), a beholder, a tribe of forsaken
dwarves, etc. Each one of these in a separate hex. Let's hope that this sort of hex exploration really works without the players growing restless.
I'm also wondering whether players feel that I've stocked my wilderness with way too many critters. I don't need random encounters because there's lairs in every hex!
I guess I should look at the history section again and pick a particular culture in the past and have the sunken city contain hints to the past, just to make it easier for players to be interested in it.
Currently running Empire of the Ghouls and The City of Brass, and playing in The Shackled City Adventure Path, Echoes of
Heaven, and a Burning Wheel game.
Need a simple Campaign Wiki for your game? |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 376 (06/27/08 18:51:47) 2E Master |
Yes, I have a poster sized version of that map and so does one of the other players. It is a player map and lacks the detail of the full 18 maps of the boxed
set. Are you going to use 5 mile hexes then? We've decided to use 15 mile hexes as we don't think the geographical features are scaled right for them
to be only 5 miles. However, the smaller scale is nice too. You might want your players to at least get the Player's Guide to the Wilderlands on PDF. It is
hard to get these days in hard copy. But with your campaign as you've described it, it may not matter much to them. Looks like you're all set up with a
web page for your campaign and everything. Good Luck with it!
StoneFist |
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kensanata |
Hex Size | ||
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Posts: 72 (07/16/08 14:59:28) Ghoul |
I might actually leave the exact hex size unspecified. The important point will be that they can cover two hexes of forest per day. I'm not sure about the
plausible area. Apparently a 5 mile hex has an area of a little more than 21 square miles. I don't know enough about agriculture and ecology to figure out
whether that is enough for a tribe of maybe 50-100 humanoids. And I'm guessing my players have no ideas either. So I'll just leave the exact distance
open and mention note travel distances between important places.
Currently running Empire of the Ghouls and The City of Brass, and playing in The Shackled City Adventure Path, Echoes of
Heaven, and a Burning Wheel game.
Need a simple Campaign Wiki for your game? |
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robertsconley |
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Posts: 446 (07/16/08 15:46:21) Spectre |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 436 (07/17/08 06:51:32) 2E Master |
Thanks for posting that link, Robert. Interesting information and very helpful.
StoneFist |
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Stonefist |
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Posts: 437 (07/17/08 06:53:25) 2E Master |
Leaving the hex size unspecified will give you a little more wiggle room to play with. You may eventually need to commit to one size or another, but if the
players don't press the issue, you can probably just go with a basic range, as you have in mind.
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