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Has anybody already thought about stats for the seven distinct watches?
I'm actually doing something a little different with the city watch. I'm making the watch in eact district part of a standing army of the Dawn council member for that part of the city. I want the city to have a lawless feel, so I've made the watch into seperate mercenary units, that don't cross into other city districts. Some of them will be very corupt, some will be worse than the people they're supose to be protecting you from.
I just wanted a darker feel to the AP than I think it has.
Blackdragon,
Man, I love that idea; hope you don't mind if I borrow it for my campaign as well? (Not that message boards are copyrighted material, but I like to give credit where it's due.) I've been running rogue-based campaigns for so long that it's hard to get into the sword-and-spell mind set all at once, and your gimmick is just what I need to keep the Rogue/Bard character investing points in Knowledge (local)-- maxing that out has already been more use to the party than max ranks in Swim.
Erik / Blackdragon, thought I'd throw some ideas your way...
- The Shadowshore Watch is likey controlled by the Olidammara/Worgul faithful. Even if the other districts have "standing armies" in the district watch, it would be fun to see the seedier side of town being dominated by a church instead.
- Check out the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust. You should come up with a lot of ideas for groups of thugs controlling sections of a town.
- The plantation owners tied to Sunrise will likely have some retainers / men-at-arms. It might be interesting to see the dynamics between the city watch and those out "on the fringe."
Has anybody already thought about stats for the seven distinct watches?I'm actually doing something a little different with the city watch. I'm making the watch in eact district part of a standing army of the Dawn council member for that part of the city. I want the city to have a lawless feel, so I've made the watch into seperate mercenary units, that don't cross into other city districts. Some of them will be very corupt, some will be worse than the people they're supose to be protecting you from.
I just wanted a darker feel to the AP than I think it has.
Nice. I've been thinking about having the merchants and nobles have little household squads of warriors, possibly organized into fencing schools. These units of merc's don't necessarily get along; duels in the street not being uncommon.
I feel, too, the AP might benefit from a darker feel.
Erik / Blackdragon, thought I'd throw some ideas your way...
- The Shadowshore Watch is likey controlled by the Olidammara/Worgul faithful. Even if the other districts have "standing armies" in the district watch, it would be fun to see the seedier side of town being dominated by a church instead.
- Check out the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust. You should come up with a lot of ideas for groups of thugs controlling sections of a town.
- The plantation owners tied to Sunrise will likely have some retainers / men-at-arms. It might be interesting to see the dynamics between the city watch and those out "on the fringe."
Yeah, I've always liked Brust (I ran a campaign recently in which the proliferation of Morganti weapons among PCs became a major political issue). I'd also be interested in any ideas about a James Clavell ("Tai-Pan")-style triangle trade in Jeklea Bay.
I hadn't even considered the plantation owners, but you're totally on the ball there. Imagine, as a Sasserine side-track, what would happen if one of them started using zombie field hands and/or skeleton guards (for example), and the church of Wee Jas (with tacit Dawn Council backing) objected? There might even be a summoned demon in a barn (a la Lovecraft's "Dunwich Horror") ...
Cool post, EP. Thanks.
...and the church of Wee Jas (with tacit Dawn Council backing) objected?
Try using Wee Jas's rivalry with Iggwilv... In case you're not familiar with it, here is an excerpt from an article in Canonfire! for your reading enjoyment:
Iggwilv is the Mother of Witches. She is the foremost witch in the Flanaess if not Oerik and perhaps all of Oerth. Her progeny and paramours are legend. Her failures are spectacular but her successes, her survival and growing puissance being foremost, are even more so. Iggwilv is less than a goddess but has grown to be something far more than human, if she ever was truly human. Covens of witches throughout the Flanaess look to Iggwilv for guidance, inspiration or are secretly controlled by the Mother of Witches. Her influence is everywhere spread like a thin, vaporous poison, settling in hollows and depressions in the hearts of the greatest cities and the most wild of wildernesses. And she despises Wee Jas. Iggwilv envies and covets her divine status and power.
Wee Jas is the foremost goddess of witches and her rivalry with Iggwilv is unthinkably vicious and deadly. Iggwilv will acknowledge no superior, goddess or no, and offers direct challenge to Wee Jas. The goddess full returns the enmity. Covens dedicated to Wee Jas war ceaselessly with covens dedicated to or controlled by Iggwilv, with no quarter asked or given. There is no coexistence possible. If rival covens operate in close proximity, when they are aware of each other, they are at war. Iggwilv, though less powerful than Wee Jas in pure might, may operate directly on Oerth, while Wee Jas cannot. The end result is a terrible stalemate and bloody attrition that sees neither side long holding a decisive advantage.
Those witches beholding to Wee Jas are not "good," even by any simple-minded comparison to those aligned with Iggwilv. While witches guided by Wee Jas have more varied alignments than those in Iggwilv’s train, the variance is not so great in practice. The witchy followers of Wee Jas align LG, LN and LE; law is paramount. Those of Iggwilv align NE, CE and LE; evil is paramount. In both witchy camps, LE predominates for the Craft is dominated by an ethos of self-serving evil that would impose its order, bending all to its will. The battle between the Mother of Witches and the Goddess of Witches is then a battle between twin evils only slightly leavened by those followers of the goddess who yet pursue the good or seek neutrality and balanced again by those followers of Iggwilv of a chaotic bent.
The wild card in this feud are those witches who will declare allegiance to neither side, for there are many other powers who will sponsor witches, even if Wee Jas and Iggwilv are foremost in their offers of patronage. The Craft is diverse, even as it is dominated by evil.
Try using Wee Jas's rivalry with Iggwilv...
Thanks for the reply; I did indeed read it with enjoyment!
Unfortunately, even despite the useful idea you provided, Iggwilv's interest has, alas, sort of been "used up" for me: after DMing Tsojcanth (not to mention the infamous WG-7 spoof dungeon, and also a "Return to the Caverns of Tsojcanth" that I later wrote), I also read EGG's "Gord" books in which Iggwilv is of course a major character. Not to scoff at your suggestion--far from it!--but I was kinda thinking more a Yog-Sothtoth thing for the plantation owner.
Wee Jas I've never done much with.