07-23-2019, 01:29 PM | #141 | ||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
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Once below the reversed Kolona's (around 5000 yards) the pull of gravity falls off, the water becomes toxic even to water breathers, and is filled with sand. Plumes of this fluid are drawn upwards towards the reefs, and it is unknown for how far this environment persists. Quote:
Actual contact with alliance nations is limited to the Vishitha. The Vishitha are a military cabal, as are most of the polities near them. The Vishitha collect taxes, conscript warriors, and intefere with laws throughout their holdings, but most administration is conducted by community leaders or by the "Orders of the Swarm" dedicated to furthering chanovat populations and cultures. The orders have enormous wealth and influence throughout the lands of the stone-etched alliance, and have a large presence even outside of those lands. The Order of Enlightenment is the best known of the orders, manufacturing and distributing the communion fluid, but the Order of Universiality is at least as wide spread, seeking to facilitate communication and peace between all Chanovat (with somewhat limited success). Question 115: Now that we've named the four empires near Calledron, where is Ton in relation to the empires? Is it within one of them? on a border? Does it constitute its own direction from Calledron? Question 116: How do Chanovat in the empire feel about their brethren in the stone-etched alliance? Perhaps more importantly, how does the empire feel about the loyalty of its resident Chanovat?
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07-23-2019, 10:32 PM | #142 |
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
Answer 84 Gnomon is a large earthlike world that Calledron has explored only superficially; the Imperial provinces are mostly carved out of a large expanse of second growth forest with many lakes and relatively low and gentle mountains. To the east is ocean and to the west, eventually, a vast grassland prairie. With its unstable seasons, the natives do not appear to have developed true agriculture, although they do garden; buffered from the worst of the erratic seasons by the sea, the most developed local populations were the mer, whose rock and coral holds offshore are near-continuously occupied and only abandoned during the harshest of winters. The woods and the prairie are inhabited by both humans and the people of the hawk, and a surprising variety of less common humanoids; ogres and kobolds are both reputed to exist here, as well as a number of what might be called 'variant humans'. There were no chanovat prior to the Empire's colonization. The humans are pastoralists, with strong relationships to their dogs, horses and goats; on the prairie, that includes camels, sheep and cattle more than goats. The people of the hawk are ill-suited to herding most known animals, so they tend to be the pure hunter/livestock poacher sort of tribes. Many tribes did have an established migration path, with a strong tribe having perhaps five holds; when food was low and hunting scarce during a harsh winter, they would abandon the hold they currently occupied to move to another. The weather and seasons being what they are, doing so was a bit of a crapshoot, but sometimes you have to roll the dice; as Gnomon's inhabitants settle into agriculture using calledronite, this leaves many functionally abandoned freeholds. The bow is prized and most people are expected to know how to shoot, in part because that's the only way to defend your herds from hawk-people. Ceramics and glass are used widely and well, metal less so, because a kiln is much easier to break down and move than a forge, although the well-established freeholds did have forges. Obedience to the chief and respect for food underpin most Gnomon tribal cultures; most tribes would face famine and resulting migration once a generation, and being able to handle it is the test of a tribe's long-term survival. Their gods tend to be heavily involved with animals and the hunt. Some inhabitants of Gnomon are extraordinarily good with animals, even such things as summerdrakes, deepwinter bears, indrik or thunderbirds; Imperials debate as to whether this is an innate or divine-granted ability, with a small minority insisting it's simple, pure skill.
Question 117 Assuming their defensive obligations to the rest of the Concordat are met, what target do the First, the Eleventh and the Final contemplate an assault on next? |
07-24-2019, 12:16 PM | #143 | |||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
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The empire's "Rule", such as it is, is weak in the impossible sea. Mostly it boils down to "These Kalona are ours, and if you attack them or our travelers we will attack you". Some local folk are joining themselves to the empire, but most merely give it a wide berth. Quote:
A few recipes are prone to more extreme effects, including rashes, floating, hallucinations, bleeding, disfigurement, and death. Some elixirs are applied as salves rather than drunk. These usually produce massive rashes if mismatched, and often produce the retching despite not entering through the stomach. Many alchemists prepare a less potent elixir that does little if correctly matched and only persists for an hour if incorrectly matched, allowing them to pin down the Temper of a subject. Of course, most of this only applies to situations where an intelligent being is consuming an elixir. Question 118: We have many locations that don't really have a concept of a year. How does the empire measure large amounts of time? Question 119: Does Temple's home cosm have any land outside of the chalk ripples and central mountain? What is their light source and outer cosm like?
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07-24-2019, 12:17 PM | #144 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
As we are on a new page, I think a summary of standing unanswered questions is in order. Here are the name X questions:
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And the Standalone Questions:
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07-25-2019, 03:27 AM | #145 |
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
Answer 83 Two of five places polycosmic travelers try to avoid and fail
Hecatomb appears to be a default addressing error in multiple portal networks; an incorrect note for the Madrigal or a parasite-infested heart for the Chacmul are two ways that have been verified to open a place to it. Sometimes, though, the error that lands a group in Hecatomb cannot be determined. Hecatomb is a vast cavern network, primarily lava tubes bored through igneous rock, with no "above-ground" portion of the cosm having ever been found. Reports of still-active magma carving new tubes are very rare. The air is frequently polluted with dust, sulfur or less identifiable irritants and seldom naturally circulates, making breathing difficult in places. Accidental arrival in Hecatomb is not at a gate location but a random place, sometimes requiring spelunking through hundreds of miles in three dimensions (through which no straight-line travel is possible) to find a way out. Large caverns with water, mists, light sources and troglodytic inhabitants have been reported, but they appear to be few and isolated - most of Hecatomb is hostile cave network and nothing else. Gloaming is a different sort of hazard; it appears to have been a minor cosm in a well-developed polycosmic civilization at one point, perhaps even Rahalar - a globe only fifty miles across, mostly taken up with a now-uninhabited city involving a great deal of mirrored glass and chrome steel as construction motifs, and a constant twilight level of illumination from no obvious point source. Arrival here means that your body is infested with gloamingworm eggs; gloamingworm eggs do not hatch anywhere but here, but their presence in one's body overrides nearly all known portals to send one here instead. No way other than gloamingworm infestation has been found to reach gloaming deliberately, although there is one portal at the center of the city that has rarely been used to successfully leave if an infestation has been eradicated (trying to use the portal while still a host just loops you back to Gloaming, of course). Sneakily introducing gloamingworm eggs to a polycosmic traveler's body is nasty but risky form of assassination; the next time the group goes through a portal, the uninfected arrive at their destination and the infected arrive in Gloaming, likely without the medical equipment or know-how to avoid a slow, gruesome death. Open infection with gloamingworm eggs has been known to be used as an imprisoning mechanism; the eggs will never hatch until you go through a portal, so people who know they're carriers will avoid portals at all costs. Gloaming has many adult Gloamingmoths the size of eagles, disconcerting but mostly harmless; it isn't clear what they eat here but it's not flesh, unlike their larvae, and they do not attempt to lay eggs in living beings here (although they will if someone takes one through a portal to elsewhere). Question 120 How is the head of the Temple determined? I have avoided giving more than 2 answers on a name-five, since doing more seems presumptious in a multiplayer game. However, I note that no one else has been much interested taking up the question in the 40s about annoying races; shall I (or someone) close it off? Its remaining open makes me itch. Similarly, I've avoided 64 (about calledronian crimes) since it's half of a question I originally asked, but as no one else seems interested in taking it up, perhaps I should close that off too? |
07-25-2019, 07:36 AM | #146 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
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The "other major races" question is something that I've been simmering over. I've been playing around with eggs that stay around for a while, a species capable of hibernation, and traits associated with cephalopods or reptiles. I've had a few ideas, but nothing has quite crystallized yet. So far races have represented different classes* of life, all in humanoid form: people of the hawk for birds, mer for fish, and chanovat for insects (ok, that's a phylum). If you want to, you can say humans for mammals. I've also been debating if elements are worth sticking in one of those slots. On the one hand, we have them, and I think they should be fairly common, but on the other, are they really competitors to humanity? It probably wouldn't hurt anything to close the question down. Just letting you know where I sit on it. I could also name a couple of "Stub Answers" and then ask the group questions about them. * using class mostly in its old linnaean from. For question 64, the original stumped me, and I've been avoiding it because its one of my own, and Diagro has been absent for a while (He says he's coming back). Its a hard question because I feel imperial law tends to be a bit arbitrary: its more about the individual making the judgement than the "Law". But I've been avoiding it because its mine. If you have some good ideas about it, go ahead and answer: its my question, merely inspired by yours. The persistence of 76 bugs me because its a simple yes or no question. A big climatology answer could be attached, but all we really need is a "yes" or a "no". Its one of mine, so I haven't answered it.
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07-25-2019, 12:07 PM | #147 | ||||||||
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
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--- I am interested, however, in a bit of a strategic level analysis. The filling-in-details-here-and-there approach has been doing well, but if this were a published gamebook, what things are missing that would be needed? I'll hold off with my thoughts for the moment, but what do you guys reckon?
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07-26-2019, 09:13 AM | #148 |
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
We have no theory of godhood yet; we seem to have created a setting where hundreds of mighty but finite "gods" exist and can be killed, but we need guidelines for GMs to make their own gods as necessary, and guidelines for what sort of powers those gods might grant their faithful and what they might demand in return.
We need a wider variety of possible Patrons and Enemies. We're slowly getting there, but as of yet it's thin on the ground. Several of the questions that have already been asked are necessary to understand the setting, I think. When we laid out the scope of the polycosm far upstream, we had something like 6 multicosmic entities with 6 cosms each, and 6 important independent cosms. Only Ton has been detailed of the important independent cosms. We need a few others, lest a scorched earth/denial campaign against Ton become a sensible, rational foreign policy. We have almost enough to run a Calledron-based campaign centered on a trading company seeking new sources of alchemical power, which is basically ye olde tramp freighter Traveller campaign. There's a polycosmic supers campaign lurking in the shadows, with an Imperial Archmage, Lokou Divine-Blessed, Tonic suited alchemist with soul-destroying blade, and a couple of others. But I'd want a lot more details on the Verdant and its subject peoples, the Stone-Etched Alliance, and the Temple of One in All to open up other sorts of campaigns, like survival horror, or maybe social engineering. The setting doesn't seem to lend itself to military campaigning, actually, but maybe I'm missing something. A few long worked examples on portal use could still prove enlightening. |
07-27-2019, 08:55 PM | #149 | ||||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
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I agree that a better grasp of what the gods are is needed. What are their limits? why do they interact with mortals? what kind of things do they want? what is it like to meet one of them beyond the distorted lands? If we were publishing this as a book, I'd expect to need more templates and "Crunch". I'd also expect more art... I need to get doodling again. I think that we're running behind on the number of exotic substances that merchants can sell abroad. We have calledronite, some rather niche spice gems, and vaugely referred to substances under ton. patchwork's take of "what do we need to run a campaign" is a good question. I think mentally my primary campaign mode is the polycosmic supers, though I'd admit I think a plain old boulder-tossing mage is a better fit point wise in that group than a full archmage. For that game as a GM I'd want a better variety of foes and challenges. I think that the setting mostly needs more meat on its bones. I'd like to explore the other empires and establish some independent worlds. patchworks suggestion of portals and characters are valid. I don't enthusiastic about NPC's in settings, but I realize they're important and give a lot of color.
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07-31-2019, 10:27 AM | #150 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu
I've got a few items from the "Name X" lists:
Answer 78e - The Eternal Pools The Eternal Pools are a network of portals that usually present vertically rather than horizontally. They shimmer like water, allowing a translucent view of the other side of the portal. They are usually found from three to fifteen feet above the ground, though exceptions are known. The rims of eternal pools appear to act like jets of some fluid moving at high speed, ejecting objects that fall in the stream. Eternal pools can be entered from either the top or the bottom, and both sides can even be in use at once. The pools tend to grow, shrink, and drift with time, which can cause logistical problems as they're usually accessed from elevated platforms. Answer 83c - The Collapsing Rivers The Collapsing rivers are a network of underground rivers and tunnels. The areas portals open to are brightly lit by stones in the ceiling and appear to have lush vegetation growing in them. Tunnels open to the sides of the cavern. As soon as travelers enter the portal, it closes behind them, and the idyllic lake begins to change. The plants retract into the walls of the cavern, and a foul and corrosive agent is released into water. The tunnels leading out of the chamber close, and over the course of a few days, the chamber collapses in on itself, eventually forcing out all of the air and trapping the travelers. If the travelers can survive a week or so of being in a airless caustic cave, the tunnels will open again, allowing them to wander various branches of the dark, winding, water-filled tunnels. Wanderers can also escape by attempting to cut their way out: if they do enough damage to the soft rock the tunnels will open rather than take the prolonged attack. The tunnels are not static, slowly twisting and turning over time, and even expanding into entrance chambers. The network has a variety dead creatures in them in various stages of dissolution. A frightfully large percentage of victims seem to be sapient. Leaving the Collapsing Rivers is a matter of finding an entrance chamber and getting back out quickly. Entrance chambers are hard to find, but they can be found. Escaping must be done quickly: crossing the portal the wrong way has a tendency to shut it down. Answer 94a - The Eternal Slopes The eternal slopes is a solid tetrahedral block, with dimensions similar to the impossible sea Every 12 hours the gravity on this block changes, with different face becoming "down" in a regular cycle. At the tip of each point of the eternal slopes is a tetrahedron that provides light when it is at the "Top" of the eternal slopes, displaying the same murals as found throughout the tetrahedral realms. When the gravity shifts, the rain starts again. It rains hard at first, then slows down gradually. When the gravity shifts, it starts raining again. Most inhabitants of this cosm live on stone tetrahedrons floating just above the main block, where they can lash onto the blocks during changes in gravity. Question 121: What sort of creatures live on the eternal slopes? Question 122: How far into the sides of the Pirate city of Pit have people burrowed? what's its like that far in? What sort of rock or material are the walls of the pit made of? Question 123: Its been said that elixirs of flight mixed with blood can be fed to bamboo to make flying rafts (answer #45, post #88). Who is the most prominent employer of this technique?
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