More gaming stuff..

[gridlore]

This is an idea I've been toying with for a couple of years... The Thousand Isles campaign.



"There are not a thousand islands. Our research shows the actual number being 768." - Alouis Hannardan, Lord Sage of Natural History, Imperial Academy.

"Typical Hangarian bean counter, if you ask me. 700, a thousand, two thousand, who cares? Besides, when did they count, eh? Count when the tides are low, and I'm sure we could find another few hundred islands to satisfy that mainlander. Like to leave him on one, so he could record the moment the tides take it back, too!" Jules Threehand, Captain and owner of the fast sloop Lady's Grace.

To the east of the continent of Hangaria lie the Thousand Isles. The elves say it was home to the dwarves until a great fire came from the sky and sank most of the lands, leaving only the Isles, but we all know the elves are terrible liars and braggarts, right? The dwarves don't discuss the Isles, but that's not surprising. A dwarf wouldn't discuss water if his beard was on fire, catch my meaning?

Anyway, however they came to be, the Isles are home to a variety of folk, most of whom wish to be left alone. There's the problem, see? Ever since Catahan III managed to unite all of Hangaria into his Holy Empire he wanted more. He tried to take the Isles a century ago, but the Blue Circle stopped him cold. The storm they called up destroyed his pathetic fleet or river barges and sent his armies to the bottom. Now his grand-nephew sits on the throne (and there's a story waiting to be told!) and he's decided to take up the quest to put all freemen under the Hangarian heel.

Now, if we could only unite, we'd be able to force the damn Imperials back. But like they always say, putting three Islanders together means four opinions on any topic. Add in the fact that some of the island states hate each other almost as much as they hate mainlanders, and you see the problem. So we do this the hard way. We hit them when we can, foil their plots, keep these islands free. I've even got a line on some old dwarf ruins that might have some magical goodies. So along with defending our way of life, we might get rich!

So, what do you say? We sail with the dawn tide.

The Thousand Isles Campaign is working out to be a swashbuckling fantasy game of freedom fighting, exploration, intrigue, and light comedy. The tone will be light-hearted. For example, the Hangarians aren't evil, just bureaucratic, officious, and power hungry. Think the Byzantines in scope and power. There will be occasional villains, of course, but for the most part the Enemy will be the Empire and its many minions.

The isles themselves can be seen as Scotland with boats. Each island (which range in size from a few acres to Iceland in size) is independent, with its own culture. There is a lot of cross-cultural sharing, of course, and many islands have only a few families of fisher folk or goatherds. Many islands are uninhabited, often because of the allegedly haunted ruins of dwarf cities or outposts.

The "Push" for the campaign would be foiling the plots of the Imperial Governor and his men. The "Pull" would be the promise of wealth and power. This would be an episodic campaign, with discrete adventures taking place followed by downtime (which may or may not be played out, as the players and I decide.)

I haven't decided on the level of magic yet, except that both sides will have it, but are restrained for some reason. Technology would be early Renaissance. Haven't decided on guns and gunpowder yet either, but I'm leaning towards it (if I do decide to use guns, magic will be scaled back - perhaps gunpowder inhibits magic the same way cold iron does?) Not many "monsters" in the traditional D&D sense, although there will be undead and hey, you might stumble across a fog-shrouded island with a really big monkey...

I think this would work well in Hero, but I'm not sure how useful Fantasy Hero would be for my rather specialized genre. I'll need to pick up a good fractal mapping program for the maps, but I have a demo version of one I like.. just need to pick up the full version.

Well, what do y'all think?

Comments

[10binary-cats.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm might i reccomend "Voyage of the Shadowmoon" and "Glass Dragons" for ideas?

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Sounds pretty cool to me.

what type???

[n-1-n.livejournal.com]

of course this would be an RPG, but would it be a game like Warcraft or Starcraft where u dont control the players, or would it be more of a FF (Final Fantasy) or EQ (EverQuest)? If its going to be like EQ or FF than I would recommend those along with Way of the Samurai for ideas. If its going to be like War\Starcraft than ull definetley want those for ideas.

Re: what type???

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

0_o

It would be an RPG played around a table at my home, using dice and our imaginations. I'm reading appropriate fiction and histories for ideas.