I was lurking around on the Vaults of Pandius, and found these excellent articles: the hulean Gaz, this beautiful map, and this excellent article by James M. on the immortals of Great Hule. I liked how James incorporated the great 8 deities and involved the chaos arrow (very Elirickian/Stormbringery!). This is very different from what I had been thinking but seems to somehow fit better with the BECMI type immortals path that I've always found a little bit difficult to grasp.
It really got me thinking about clerics in D&D and BX (pre-Mentzer), vs. BECMI, vs. AD&D cosmology. I found a quote (sorry I forgot the source) about how Frank really didn't like reducing religion and the gods into a shopping list for clerics. This makes immortals in Frank's version of D&D into something like angels/devils instead of gods. So clerics don't exactly worship the exact immortal, but instead see the immortal as an example of how to live under a particular philosophy (law and order, neutrality, or chaos?)?
Something about immortals just doesn't sit right with me, I'm partial to the BX version where gods and churches are implied, just not fleshed out. Hmm, there is a lot to think through, I'm going to have to mull this over some more...
The Greatest Book in the History of Books
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Do you know about the Japanese kids' book phenomenon, *Kobito Zukan*?
Literally translated it means something like 'dwarf encyclopedia' or 'gnome
encyclo...
16 hours ago
As I build my own world, mashing together the things I like about the D&D Known World (Mystara), the Warhammer World of WFRP1e, and Titan, the world from the Fighting Fantasy books - all to be run using a variant of OpenQuest (simplified RuneQuest) [phew, that's a hodgepodge, eh?] I am leaning towards many of the churches, temples, and cults being organised around worship of a saint or hero.
ReplyDeleteOne, it allows you, as a GM, to have endless petty, local gods. And two, it allows the PCs to aim for that level of veneration without getting to the equivalent of level 36.
Love the idea of the mishmash, which map are you using ;) or are you making your own? I've been loving the Openquest system for PBEM so far, although we haven't had an extended combat yet, just a lot of sneaking around and roleplaying. My players keep finding non-violent solutions to their issues. They are wandering around Geoff right now and might run into some giants or orcs or something, so that could change quickly...
ReplyDeleteWe've been using our own map for the moment, though I expect the players will find the geography of the world mutating as they play (not that they'd notice) as the various inspirations find a home, and then I do my best to file the serial numbers off.
DeleteNice, I'll have to read your blog more and see what you have been doing with this mishmash. Sounds fun!
DeleteAt the moment, game-wise, all my players have been doing is sending their characters into dungeons and watching them die. Their fault, I promise you, I'm not a killer DM, honest. ;-)
DeleteThe idea is that we follow the Basic-Expert D&D progression and slowly include the wider world by way of adventure, with the world developing just as the player characters do - through play.
Yeah, that is usually how I run my game worlds. I usually start in a small area of the world. A town or city, with an adventuring locale nearby (or run scenarios based in the wilderness and town setting). After that I keep expanding outward.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to try running a complete make it as you go campaign world. I'd start the game with a 1 page setting description. Then as the players make characters I'd allow them or me to make up new content as we go that keeps expanding the world. I've heard of other people rolling this way, but I'm usually the type to plan things out more ahead of time.