T'reo School for TFT Up on Kickstarter

[phiwum]

I imagine, Henry, that David wrote a book and not a four volume anthropological text answering all of these questions. This allows a GM to answer these questions however he wants or even not to bother asking them if it just doesn't matter to him.

Different GM worlds are different, yet you're acting as if these sorts of details really must be answered or else the source book is incomplete. Somehow, I'm able to manage my campaign without really paying too much attention to, say, how the feudal system is arranged, how town councils are chosen, etc. I fill in those details if and when I need them, in a shamefully ad hoc manner. (How come Enkarr has a council, while Trews has a "Lord Mayor"? Because I wanted a Lord Mayor for a mildly humorous subplot.)

[JohnPaulB]

Is T'reo island located anywhere near Elyntia?

[HeatDeath]

I suspect it's wherever the GM wants it to be.

The presence of gates makes it practically irrelevant whether it's a 50 mile or 50 light-year overland journey.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by phiwum

Different GM worlds are different . . .

Loving this entire post, but especially this line! My personal preference is to give GMs just enough to inspire, but not overburden them with unnecessary complexities and details that only suck the joy out of fantasy.

[larsdangly]

The strength of the Cidri setting is its openness and flexibility. There is enough of a clever idea there to get your mental gears moving, but there is almost nothing you can do with it that will violate everyone else's clear understanding of how it works.

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

Is T'reo island located anywhere near Elyntia?

The book says:

"The island can be wherever the GM wishes; if using the Southern Elyntia setting, a suggested location is 50-100 miles south-east of Tro."

A few students and masters have backgrounds that link them to either Elyntia or Ardonirane and the Red Plains, but masters and students are said to come from across Cidri,
and there are places mentioned in the book that don't appear in either region, to further this impression.

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Is there a wizard-knight assigned to each village or is village chief an inherited post with rubber stamp approval by the wizards?

(The chief then sends a runner to fetch a wizard to deal with things? Your lordship, a dispute over a cow produced two ghosts whose constant arguments keep the entire village from sleeping.)
Is there an annual festival of the choosing that gets the island kids over represented in the school and hence suffering from a higher percentage of drop-outs who then become the local village apprentice? (Respected as a wizard, and despised as worthless?)
Are dead islanders harvested for alchemy and necromancy and if so do they know this?
Does the island have an independent foreign policy or do they report to a queen instead and what duties and responsibilities tie the mages to the royalty?

The island is neutral "teaching all, beholden to none, until the true emperor returns" as the Wizard-General Phandragrast put it when he declared its independence.

Dead islanders are not harvested, though I suspect that any local criminals dealt with by the wizards may end up used as raw material. But there aren't that many uses for necromantic harvesting in the TFT magic system.

Logically speaking, the greatest benefit wizards provide to villagers is likely casting Cleansing spells to remove animal or human disease outbreaks and ensuring pirates, sea monsters, or the like don't prey upon them. There are some crab-men colonies and similar critters off shore, which the wizards regularly cull.

In practice, an early draft did discuss T'reo relationships with local lords and so on in depth until I realized that would make it very hard to drop the school into existing settings! So I excised those references (replacing them with a dungeon level...) and moved it from a mountain to a small island that can be located as desired. T'reo exists in good standing with the Wizard's Guild (with an independent charter), and like the guild tries to stay out of mundane politics. This is not to say that individual wizards don't have political ties or interests; just that they're supposed to not involve the school (and when they do, as was the case of the Circle of Zero long ago, who may have interfered in the Elyntian War, they can get it into trouble). The school protects its reputation for neutrality, and there are some implications that it will do so ruthlessly. T'reo is, however, a significant force in Wizards' Guild politics. In addition, the school has ties with other magical institutions, both as rivals and partners.

I ran out of space and was unable to cover the village and island communities in any depth: perhaps that will see future publication if the book is well received. I did work out a lot about the village for my own interest so perhaps that might appear in a Hexagram or other publication (and some support material for T'reo is in progress) but details of the customs of T'reo village are up to the GM for now. Some wizards may retire and settle in the village, or meet a comely villager (perhaps one of those working as servants at T'reo hall); some villagers may have the aptitude to earn scholarship to T'reo, or by virtue of having a wizard as a parent, get in as a legacy.

Like most wizards, T'reo are ambivalent about ghosts, though Ragnarvik (one of the masters with an interest in such areas) might come. A product under development does feature local islanders asking T'reo for help with an undead problem, and a master having the labyrinth club send several students to deal with the problem.

I am unaware of Potter-like choosing festivals, but the book does briefly mention several holidays and festivals held at the school (Empire Day, the Festival of Rain, and a few others) and it would be likely some of these exist in parallel in the countryside. It does indicate a harvest festival is held at T"reo village in the first day of the 8th month, which is also the same day the T'reo Conclave meets.

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Is there a wizard-knight assigned to each village or is village chief an inherited post with rubber stamp approval by the wizards?

I simply didn't discuss the village government, so it's up to the GM to develop it. There is only one major village, and the school is right nearby, so a complex feudal system is unneeded. So your second suggestion is more likely.

It seems likely certain families have greater influence at the village and hold leadership positions, but I did not detail whether they are appointed by the wizards, heredity, or elected to a village council. Both school and village are described as tied together economically, and there are several mentions of T'reo staff or faculty having ties with villagers or owning or renting homes there.

[tomc]

Backed the Kickstarter and am looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the info!

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by tomc

Backed the Kickstarter and am looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the info!

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it