What Do You Want For Yrth

[Joe]

Originally Posted by dds_ks

my players don't feel comfortable with the situation their characters are in.

This is the bottom line!

My solution would be Paulon's:

Originally Posted by Paulon

Or Tredroy, for somewhere that representatives of both religions from out of town could want to cause problems for their own gain while opposing factions of their co-religionists might cooperate try to protect the status quo.

Why not have them turn up in Tredroy? It gives you many options.

One option: you could treat Tredroy as a big multicultural melting pot where all races and religions basically get along. This would allow you to downplay the religious conflict in the setting, and focus instead on other things. (Example: the adventure included in the old Tredroy book is an old-fashioned treasure hunt, and doesn't really have much to do with religious conflicts at all, let alone crusades).

Second option: you could instead emphasize the ways in which Tredroy is the site of a cold war between the religious factions. In those kinds of situations, loyalties get complicated and conflicted, and both sides start to look compromised. The PCs would then be in a great position to choose which side(s) of the conflict they wanted to serve (if any). For some players (certainly for the players in my group!) this would be much more palatable than an out-and-out religious crusade.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Joe

This is the bottom line!

My solution would be Paulon's:


Why not have them turn up in Tredroy? It gives you many options.

One option: you could treat Tredroy as a big multicultural melting pot where all races and religions basically get along. This would allow you to downplay the religious conflict in the setting, and focus instead on other things. (Example: the adventure included in the old Tredroy book is an old-fashioned treasure hunt, and doesn't really have much to do with religious conflicts at all, let alone crusades).

Second option: you could instead emphasize the ways in which Tredroy is the site of a cold war between the religious factions. In those kinds of situations, loyalties get complicated and conflicted, and both sides start to look compromised. The PCs would then be in a great position to choose which side(s) of the conflict they wanted to serve (if any). For some players (certainly for the players in my group!) this would be much more palatable than an out-and-out religious crusade.

The canon seems to lean toward an edgier version of option 1. Cardiel is more likely to be an ally then an enemy of the Muslim empires as that is a better guarantee of it's sovereignty. Because of this Tredroy is really something of a religious truce zone. Verbal and literary strife does take place between theologians and philosophers in coffeehouses, bazaars, and universities(where it very properly belongs) but sensible people don't try to change minds by cracking heads. That doesn't stop their being established religions, but the three main powers are allies in their large scale relations.

There is plenty of room for other kinds of adventure in Tredroy. There is organized crime there. Slavery is a tense issue. Bounty-hunting is an ambiguous point of law. Each ruler maintains a spy service. Moreover there is a Megalan embassy there(it is not well known that resident embassies were not a part of European politics when Megalos was formed but that can be handwaved or justified to taste). In fact I think my favorite character in Tredroy was a bard who moonlighted as a Megalan spy and was the illegitimate daughter of an Imperial spymaster.

[JMason]

In the many Banestorm games I've run or played in... this was never an issue. We never played "soldiers" or knights in the service to the nation... so we were never going on any "crusades". In fact IIRC the default present of Yrth didn't have any active military campaigns by any nation against any other. There was a civil war... but that was it.

So, you were either in a Christian land or a Muslim land, and nobody had much issue playing "politically correct". No one told the characters they couldn't freely associate with people of different faiths. It just was never an issue for us.

Now there was a problem that only one nation recognized women as being able to hold titles....

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by JMason

In the many Banestorm games I've run or played in... this was never an issue. We never played "soldiers" or knights in the service to the nation... so we were never going on any "crusades". In fact IIRC the default present of Yrth didn't have any active military campaigns by any nation against any other. There was a civil war... but that was it.

So, you were either in a Christian land or a Muslim land, and nobody had much issue playing "politically correct". No one told the characters they couldn't freely associate with people of different faiths. It just was never an issue for us.

Now there was a problem that only one nation recognized women as being able to hold titles....

I don't remember that being the case. I remember only Caithness, and apparently some cross border knightly orders with a chapter in Tredroy allow female knights. But knighthood and aristocracy though related are not quite the same concepts.

[JMason]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

I don't remember that being the case. I remember only Caithness, and apparently some cross border knightly orders with a chapter in Tredroy allow female knights. But knighthood and aristocracy though related are not quite the same concepts.

That may be the case. The game in question was probably over 10 years ago....

[adm]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

...Moreover there is a Megalan embassy there(it is not well known that resident embassies were not a part of European politics when Megalos was formed but that can be handwaved or justified to taste). ...

Any such change is easily hand waived away with the simple fix that a latter arrival explained the concept to somebody who could act on it.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by adm

Any such change is easily hand waived away with the simple fix that a latter arrival explained the concept to somebody who could act on it.

Or that locals independently came up with the idea...

[adm]

Originally Posted by adm

Any such change is easily hand waived away with the simple fix that a latter arrival explained the concept to somebody who could act on it.

Originally Posted by Anthony

Or that locals independently came up with the idea...

Both work quite well. ;)

[sir_pudding]

As written the Templar vs. Hospitaller conflict within Christian Chivalry is more significant in Megalos then any Christian vs. Muslim one.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

As written the Templar vs. Hospitaller conflict within Christian Chivalry is more significant in Megalos then any Christian vs. Muslim one.

Well there is not a major Christian-Muslim war going on as of Fantasy(I haven't got Banestorm yet). Actually it is not unrealistic: it was not unknown to use resources intended for Crusading and launder them into quarrels no one else cared about. The most obvious example was the Fourth Crusade but I think there were other instances.