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Here's the thread for the project proposed here.
Basically, we will work as a group to collectively design a location and then play through an adventure that I create using said location. This is intended to foster a greater sense of involvement and personal/character investment in the setting of the campaign.
Setting - Golarion
Rule Set - Pathfinder
Since this is the first time I've tried this, I'm going to say that the basic structure should be that of a town (between 1,000 and 3,000 in population) located somewhere in the Inner Sea region (the location will be decided by group consensus.
All details beyond the basic structure will be designed by group consensus at this point.
The following are basic elements that need to be settled first:
-Location of the town
-General feel of the town and surrounding area
-Basic history and present condition of the town
And finally,
-Tone and style of the adventure (dark fantasy, horror, intrigue/mystery, ect)
To those who have stated interest thus far, please toss out a few ideas on what they'd like to see in response to these questions.
Let's see...Some initial thoughts:
- Northern Taldor, between the Verduran Forrest, and the Fog Peaks, maybe within a day of the river there.
- I'm thinking heavy agriculture, especially sheep farming. Foothills make for good Shepparding, and not much else. Perhaps a larger market town on the river a day away, for visiting once a year for delivering products, and picking up supplies. Kind of out of the eye of Taldean nobility, and pretty much on their own. (I'm thinking like Edmonds..sp Field from the Wheel of Time novels in atmosphere.
- Again drawing on Wheel of time novels for atmosphere. Isolated, self sustaining town, one among many cookie cutter type towns. Maybe area used to be very well settled, and the home of a former great civilization, and as such many old ruins, and battlefields about...and the old blood is still strong, in many of the residents. Most of the real history has faded to legend, and few keep the old memories alive, except as fireside tales to frighten children into good behavior.
- I'm thinking a low magic setting at early levels. The threats should be able to be defeated with little more than brawn, brains, and a little magical aid...but something is happening. Things are changing, and ancient evils awaken. The portents threaten a gathering storm, and the PC's are reluctantly in many cases at the apex of it. As the campaign grows threats become greater, and magical assistance becomes more required.
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All of those sound like workable ideas, although we'll have to see what ideas everyone comes up with and agrees on.
I tend to run lower magic campaigns, particularly in regards to magical items. Magical items are uncommon, special (not just a plain +1 Thingamajig), and generally have a little bit of story behind them.
All of those sound like workable ideas, although we'll have to see what ideas everyone comes up with and agrees on.
I tend to run lower magic campaigns, particularly in regards to magical items. Magical items are uncommon, special (not just a plain +1 Thingamajig), and generally have a little bit of story behind them.
That's cool. One of the things i really like about Earthdawn. I keep meaning to convert their magic item system to Pathfinder, but never have time. Are you familiar with their magic item system.
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I can't say that I am.
I tend to leave the actual magic system alone, since messing with it is opening a whole can of worms that I don't have the time to deal with right now and a DM can design encounters in such a way to encourage casters to adopt a play style other than 'go in and dump all your spell slots'.
I can't say that I am.
I tend to leave the actual magic system alone, since messing with it is opening a whole can of worms that I don't have the time to deal with right now and a DM can design encounters in such a way to encourage casters to adopt a play style other than 'go in and dump all your spell slots'.
I agree. I really didn't mean for this game...just for discussion. I don't really love their system for spells, just their Magic Item systems. Basically heroic or major events are what cause an item to become magical, and what the item goes through in its "life" are what enpower it. The items themselves are advanced by what they go through...just kind of a neat system. If you find a legendary item, finding it's history, and unlocking it's potentials (weaving threads to it) are often big parts of personal adventure.
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That does indeed sound like an intriguing system.
I seem to recall seeing a system (possibly one posted by someone on these boards) in which the players got certain enhancements (boosts to abilities, saves, ect) based upon their completion of certain objectives within the campaign and their individual backstory. It was a pretty interesting system, and I wish that I could remember what where it was.
-Location of the town
*I was thinking about Southern Varisia, swampy forest region with a couple of days travel to the nearest outpost. Maybee a week to ten day travel to Korvosa. If you played neverwinter nights 2 you'll get the concept.
-General feel of the town and surrounding area
*Farmers, hunters and such. Hard working, simple common folk, distrusting of outsiders and superstitious of their surroundings. Maybee a locale of some varisian legends or a nearby ruined fort from the time of the chelaxian colonists coupled with thasselonian mysteries.
-Basic history and present condition of the town
*I like the concept of an isolated, self-sustaining town with the former greatness in the blood theme. The locale of an old battlefield maybee.
The towns condittion? I'm envisioning timber buildings with thatched roofs, the ocasional brick building for the more well-to-do citizens like the sherif or town elder/mayor. Lot's of rain so a soggy, overcast feel with freqent thunder during spring and fall, hard winters and hot, dry summers. Desnites and Erastilians for the most part with the worship of Pharasma for births, weddings and funerals. So pretty down to earth but a festive and close-knit comunity.
And finally,
-Tone and style of the adventure (dark fantasy, horror, intrigue/mystery, ect)
*I personally favor dark fantasy with a dip of horror. Undead, horrifying monsters and evil humanoids. I agree with the low-magic theme. It's so much more gratifying to come to power slowlie but surely. Getting too powerfull too fast tends to make the mid-high levels more dull. That said I'd like to play a wizard ;)
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That mostly echoes the kind of locale I'd like to create/DM. I find that smaller, somewhat isolated communities tend to create a greater feeling for the players of their characters being part of the world instead of just passing through it.
I'll look through my Campaign Setting book and post my own idea shortly.
Given the other two posters' inclinations towards town type, how about a town that is situated around a "central" monument, powered by spell slots(since I've never been too sure about how those things work). It may or may not provide the town a significant bonus (slightly increased crop yield, slightly increased villager health), but it did not start out that way.
Perhaps the stone fell from the sky, and landed in the center of the town while it was still being built. With the reference to Desna in one of the above posts, its coming may have been dreamed by the senior priests of the village, and the space was kept clear, and it became a central focus for the prayers of the faithful. Desna, liking the "luck" of the stone falling in a place with no injuries allows it to return some of the villagers' faith in the form of beneficial blessings..
The local priests could channel some of their given divine energy into it for greater (or altered?) effects, ranging anywhere from a general "Endure Elements" effect in the harshest winters, to (only once in history) a Consecration effect that saved the town from being overrun by marauding undead-- Of course, part of the odd effect was granted by a Paladin's heartblood being shed onto the stone in defense of the town, but perhaps it was overlooked.
Lots of neat ideas from everyone so far...let's see what I can come up with.
I'm playing CotCT right now, so I'd rather not play in Varisia. Taldor sounds good...perhaps an extremely remote, small town. Been there as long as anyone can remember, barely any contact with the outside world, mostly self-sufficient. This would likely require some amount of isolating geography--hills, particularly dense forests, dangerous regions...any of them could work. The town is mostly untouched by the politicking and squabbling of the Taldan nobility to start, but the heroes would eventually get drawn into that--so it would start as a fairly typical save-the-town heroics sort of thing, and evolve outward and upward as the heroes became more powerful.
Alternatively, perhaps the stone gets power from the people's prayers, like a town deity. The village believes that the stone has powers that help the village, and thus pray to it. Whether it does this or not, the custom of the village is that they believe it to be true. I like Me'mori's idea of making it a magical amplifier though.
The magical stone idea definitely has some potential. Possibly even an option for 'deity' for divine casters? It would give the town a bit of a 'backwards' feel, which I think would be fitting.
Maybe it's not really a stone. Maybe it's a seed or even...an egg!
Moo-ha-ha-ha-ha
...or a trapped demon or an actual deity. Possibly a major point to the campaign. Others may want the power it has for themselves and start a war, or all of the villagers pushing their wants on the stone turns it evil which when hatched it takes vengeance, or something.
Maybe there's a secret cave complex underneath it? When it either gets moved or hatches, this underground chamber is exposed--could be a great dungeon, or source of terrible enemies which then attack the town.
Maybee if we moved the starstone into a nearby-ish grove. It could be the focal point of a druidic order. As this is an isolated place I'd think that clergy was scarce and druids more numerous.
Maybee a site of some natural wonder for attracting desnan priests? Some inaccessable waterfall or spring?
A nearby ruined fort could be tha site off the paladins death? Some holy site dedicated to Iomedae? Corruped by some necromancer or devil-worshiper?
I'm currently playing Rise of the Runelords in RL and have just finished CotCT but I'm still up for exploring Varisia more.
Is there still room in this experiment for one more?
Back country Taldor sounds very interesting, as it is the quintessential fantasy hamlet territory (Emond's Field, etc.). Perhaps up north right on the border with Galt (get a mix of political ideals meshing within the hamlet, possible plot hooks into a neighbouring nation, etc.)
Also, one thing I find most disappointing with adventure paths and modules is the inability to play the mounted, lance-wielding warrior. I know Kingmaker is supposed to be good for that style of play, but I've been in Kingmaker for a little while now and haven't really seen it. It seems like it should be such a cliche, but the sword-and-board, platemail wearing mounted, "round-table" knight is so difficult to play in games filled with dungeon crawls that I'd love to give it an honest try in a setting that didn't make half of my character's strengths useless 90% of the time.
Aye
Sounds good.
I'll reserve my vote. I'm in favor of Varisia but if the group want's Taldor I'll roll with it.
Vote for north Taldor
Sounds good, isolated is nice, it means what you know is really your world. Makes everythingthat more dire. I think an ancient monument is definitely the way to go, maybe old wives tales about what happens should you go beyond a certain region, only to be revealed that the stories are infact real.
Undead are always a great way to go especially as they scale by throwing different ones out as the charachters level.
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Been extremely busy today and unable to put my 2 cents in.
I believe I'll agree with the isolated place in Taldor. Now that I've voted...
I am always fond of low-magic campaigns, or at least ones where a magic item has some sort of history to it, some meaning, and is rare. Like, say, a +1 frost longsword named 'Icebrand' (classic), was forged to fend off a salamander threat, in a one-time cooperation of a blacksmith and a wizard. Stuff like that.
I'm a fan of the knights too, Nazard - and that might be my goal in this if it all works out. In any case, I'm also very open to the suggestions of the group.
I'm mostly here to observe how the world develops and toss in ideas from time to time as I see them. Whether or not I have a character idea is yet to be seen.
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Alright, we have 5 votes for Northern Taldor and 1 preferring Varisia but willing to go for Northern Taldor.
Northern Taldor it is.
So next question:
Is a small, self-sufficient town largely isolated from the rest of the world what we want?
If so, what kind of history, governmental system, level of contact with the rest of the world, and general feel do we want it to have?
Do we want it to be near or centered around an artifact or historical location?
If not, what would we rather have instead?
And Me'mori, that's fine. Creative input is welcome, although it'll be secondary to that of the actual players.
How about a situation where the intipendent town was once part of a pair of twin cities. The location of the twin is now a desolate ruin in the midst of either a blasted desert or a forboding swamp as a result of some great cataaclysmic event.
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Maybe a city split into two halves by a river? The city could have been a fairly important part of a trade route that finally got shut down and so its importance and wealth faded until, what with Taldor's decline, the remote town had to become self-sufficient and independent. As with your idea, maybe one half could've fallen prey to something and is now an abandoned ghost town with a dark secret?
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Working off your ideas, Mark and Grim, perhaps the artifact in question is in the center of the desolate half of the town? It could be the whole reason for the abandonment. Maybe it drove those near it mad? Who knows!
Anyways. I believe a sufficient town, mostly self-oriented, with the monthly caravan or so passing through. That way it's still 'known', and rumors pass by after being exaggerated at least four times.
As for government? Mayor at the top, local sheriff and so forth. Small council of maybe three or four advisors, probably his good friends, and a local militia, probably 38% of the 'adult' men in the town serve normally, double in case of emergency ( random number, felt right).
That's my twist.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I would play, but I'm not fond of parties over six.
Sounds nice for me. How the handle the isolation is the question then. Artifact or ancient battlefields next to the town. How would this then affect?
Artifact had started to malfunction, causing some kind minor effects, larger ones per decade/century etc, affecting the another part of town.
Problem: Why not both? Something attracting the power especially to only other side? Something controlling it? (actually, as Rizzym said, in middle of isolated town sounds good)
Ancient battlefield is nearby and during last decades people begun to disappear. Undead maybe related to these events, (wild) magic in work or something else.
Suggestion for this has already been given, but maybe little bit stretching or modifying, there might appear something interesting
EDIT:
What about the producing or gathering resources? How much land they got around town? farming, woodcutting, mining, researching (related to agriculture & producing).
Maybe possibility for spinning adventure from : mines are producing less stuff / miners are disappearing and monster are dwelling in the mines. Same setting can be related to others also: woodcutting getting dangerous due to feys in the forest, farming is harder because of the attacks (goblins, hobgoblins, other monster/s?)
They are facing a problem with some of these and twin-city faced this kind of problem: unable to prevent it and caused people to escape to partner town / leave out to another location.
What about instead of town where crazy artifacts and strange stuff is the norm, a sleepy village where nothing ever happens...at least, it never used to. An artifact, which has lain dormant for many centuries has finally reawoken...
I like small, isolated, and self-sufficient. Given the size and isolation, I'd say some sort of town council would be the most likely system of government, though it would be interesting if there was a small magocracy or theocracy, possibly related in some way to the artifact or location--guardians/protectors/maintainers or the like. This could contribute to an overall low-magic feel by them dominating the 'magic scene'--maybe some kinds of magic are even outlawed for those not of the 'inner circle'. Overall, this government would be beneficial, but just a little repressive--probably LN.
The main problem I see with having some sort of always active, everybody knows about it, magic artifact in the town, is that this is Taldor, not Varisia. In Taldor, a lot of the nobility like to think of themselves as students of magic and we'd have to have an awfully good reason why this artifact wasn't being studied by some group of mages, or under the protection of some noble. I just don't see the arcane dilletante Taldane nobility leaving this village isolated if there's a powerful artifact lying around doing stuff.
Now, a newly-discovered artifact makes for great plot hooks as various nobles start trying to exert their influences on the little village and the PCs try to help their town retain its independance.
That being said, a theocracy or magocracy that had been put in place centuries past because they had to deal with this artifact but then the town kept using that form of government even after the artifact vanished/went inert so that nobody knows why the town is ruled by priests of ___________ would be ointeresting too.
Seeing all the "Great ideas" here, here is a possible way to integrate them.
1. Village used to be part of a much larger city/Kingdom. There are many similar villages throughout the region, each with their own economy (Sheep, farming, woodcutting, mining etc.) and there is limited trade among the villages (6-hours +/- travel apart). Because these villages don't produce much excess, and they use barter for the most part instead of coin, the Nobles of Taldor have over time forgotten this area, and for the most part don't even acknowledge it's existence.
There could be a yearly "Fall Festival" that moved from village to village on a rotating basis, that allowed the villages to communicate among themselves, court new mates, trade unique goods, and plan for the regions future. Also most villages send a contingent to the larger trade city, on the river once a year, carrying excess trade goods, and purchasing things not made in the villages. There is in addition a peddler whom visits each thorp in the Spring and Fall.
2. Each of these villages is ruled by a Town council, usually consisting of the Mayor, the Wise Woman, and the best Warrior in town. The villages vary in size from 3-4 common buildings (Inn, Crafting bldg., Supply base) up to 10-12 in the larger villages., but all are small.
3. The Artifact. Years ago long before the "Star Stone" fell in Andoran, a smaller lesser stone fell in the former city of this area. The stone caused a massive catastrophe killing many of the residents, and turning the former Kingdom into a vast swampy ruin. This made travel through the area hazardous, and not profitable, so the city died, and the villages sprang up among the survivors.
As for the stone itself, it detected as magical, but seemed to show magic from all the schools...but nobody could determine what exactly it did, so after a few decades, scholars lost interest, wizards decided to quit wasting their time, and because of it's isolated location, it eventually fell to distant memory...
Except for the sect. They had always been there, ever since the stone fell, but they were elusive and secretive. Now they have built a fortress around the stone, and seem to keep to themselves, allowing no visitors. Those few whom have seen the fortress and returned to tell about it, claim it has no visible doors or windows, but they can here strange sounds from inside, and see smoke of the fires of habitation.
Now it is simply a place to avoid in the swamp...but maybe the sect has finally figured out what the stone/seed,egg does, and now send their agents into the world to attempt to activate the artifact.
4. The swamp still contains the ruins of many ancient estates, and closer to the black fortress the ruins of an ancient more powerful civilization...a civilization that once thrived with the blood of the adventurers veins flowing in theirs.
Perhaps instead of a swamp, the falling object caused the forests to grow deep and dark, awakening many of the trees turning them dark and sinister. Villages grew up in spaced-out unaffected areas connected by roads through forest that is only alive at night.
Perhaps instead of a swamp, the falling object caused the forests to grow deep and dark, awakening many of the trees turning them dark and sinister. Villages grew up in spaced-out unaffected areas connected by roads through forest that is only alive at night.
Even better. There is already a deep and immense forest there...
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Seeing all the "Great ideas" here, here is a possible way to integrate them.
1. Village used to be part of a much larger city/Kingdom. There are many similar villages throughout the region, each with their own economy (Sheep, farming, woodcutting, mining etc.) and there is limited trade among the villages (6-hours +/- travel apart). Because these villages don't produce much excess, and they use barter for the most part instead of coin, the Nobles of Taldor have over time forgotten this area, and for the most part don't even acknowledge it's existence.
There could be a yearly "Fall Festival" that moved from village to village on a rotating basis, that allowed the villages to communicate among themselves, court new mates, trade unique goods, and plan for the regions future. Also most villages send a contingent to the larger trade city, on the river once a year, carrying excess trade goods, and purchasing things not made in the villages. There is in addition a peddler whom visits each thorp in the Spring and Fall.
2. Each of these villages is ruled by a Town council, usually consisting of the Mayor, the Wise Woman, and the best Warrior in town. The villages vary in size from 3-4 common buildings (Inn, Crafting bldg., Supply base) up to 10-12 in the larger villages., but all are small.
3. The Artifact. Years ago long before the "Star Stone" fell in Andoran, a smaller lesser stone fell in the former city of this area. The stone caused a massive catastrophe killing many of the residents, and turning the former Kingdom into a vast swampy ruin. This made travel through the area hazardous, and not profitable, so the city died, and the villages sprang up among the survivors.
As for the stone itself, it detected as magical, but seemed to show magic from all the schools...but nobody could determine what exactly it did, so after a few decades, scholars lost interest, wizards decided to quit wasting their time, and because of it's isolated location, it eventually fell to distant memory...
Except for the...
Not sure if I am too late to be involved...
The are above was designed on its surface as a way to settle the area, with the usual practice of keeping monsters at bay. In truth though there was found by the ancient viziers an evil running through the region. A military order was sent to covertly destroy it, and the actual purpose of the villages was to provide support and cover for these brave fighters.
Sadly, evil is sweet as it is foul and someone high in command of the fighting men betrayed them to the evil power. Taldor, already in decline could not send more elite soldiers to defeat the evil, with more immediatly pressing conflicts at all sides and so these towns were all but forgotten.
While they were sent to contain and destroy evil, the evil now contains them and even though it is not awake, in its slumber it has nearly broken thier tenuous hold on the area.
In shame for the betrayal, all records of the military order were blotted out. It was not a military failure, but at worst an economic failure. And with what Taldor labors under it was not even much of a economic failure.
Now, in the present day, some erstwhile youths have found in a ruined estate near town the truth of the military order but not why it was there. They assume the charge was to protect these villages and begin using thier down time to train themselves and develop the skills to regain the glory of this fallen order.
But will thier heroics awake something far worse than the swamp raiders and foul undead that even now form a near constant threat?
So next question:
Is a small, self-sufficient town largely isolated from the rest of the world what we want?If so, what kind of history, governmental system, level of contact with the rest of the world, and general feel do we want it to have?
Do we want it to be near or centered around an artifact or historical location?If not, what would we rather have instead?
In keeping with the Eamond Field's concept a group of isolated villages sounds perfect making a small-ish self-sufficient circle with little outside contact.
As to the starstone, it just sounds a bit off to me sorry. The starstone is just too special an item to exist unknown somwhere in taldor imho.
So. How about a monolith?
As noted above the taldoran nobility concider themselves well-versed in things arcane so how about a noble who brought back an osirian monolith and built his keep around it. Dark magic followed the monolith and the keep quickly fell to it. A paladin came to clense the keep and all that is known off the battle is an intense flash of light signifying the end of it. The paladins sword is rumored to pierce the monolith still but a dark precence still surrounds the keep so it is avoided and has fallen to disrepair. Darkness still surrounds it and rumors tell of a stirring in the keep.
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I like the idea of keeping it small at first. If you want to make it bigger just turn the clock forward. Nothing has been disgust about other races. Is this town all human? Are there other races near buy? You can be isolated from other human towns, but might have demi races close by.
I was thinking that one option with the twin towns theory would be to have the abandoned town butting up to a marsh or swamp, and is slowly being reclaimed back into the bog, as no one is maintaining it anymore. Also perhaps there is a tribe of Lizard men living in the "Bog" and that may be why it was left. But the artifact being immobile is still within the "old district". Perhaps the Lizard-men use Necromancy and are trying to take control of this Artifact to increase their abilities and thralls. If you want a more light vs. dark game you can have a local church trying to fight off the lizard men while protecting the town and artifact. Maybe a small fortification has been built or is being built around the artifact. If you want something else then both of them are vying for control of this artifact merely for control of the power that is within the artifact. Perhaps a truce can be found.
If you were willing to do a town a bit above sea level you could have twin towns one above ground one bellow. You could have predominately dwarves and gnomes below. While you would have predomenently humans, elves and halflings above. Economy or lack there of would be what we should focus on next.
We can brake this into chatagories so we can understand it better. we have goverment, Race, wealth level, economy, factions, districts within the city, level of magic, town guard("military"), history.(Also art and culture should be there somewhere.)
more to come.
We seem to have two camps at the moment: one in favour of a small, sleepy set of villages, and the other a large town with ruins. Perhaps we should settle on one of these before suggesting more ideas.
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We seem to have two camps at the moment: one in favour of a small, sleepy set of villages, and the other a large town with ruins. Perhaps we should settle on one of these before suggesting more ideas.
If you think about it a large town is nothing more than multiple "districts" of villages.
I am fine with whatever way we break this up, but knowing that and the basic enviroment sea level flora animal (humanoid and none) ratio would make it easier.
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We seem to have two camps at the moment: one in favour of a small, sleepy set of villages, and the other a large town with ruins. Perhaps we should settle on one of these before suggesting more ideas.
If you think about it a large town is nothing more than multiple "districts" of villages.
I am fine with whatever way we break this up, but knowing that and the basic enviroment sealevel flora ratio would make it easier.
I think I prefer a collection of small villages, at least in feel...perhaps the monolith or ruins or whatnot is in a central location, and the villages on the habitable edges of the central region?
I like the feel of a collection of small villages...the dalelands...the two rivers... The River kingdoms...etc.
I'll vote for a collection of small villages or hamlets.
The twin city idea sound good though...
sigh...
I dunno...