Ideas for Yrth

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Alden Loveshade

Even though it's Third Edition GURPS so that some things like templates would require a little translating to Fourth Edition, much of GURPS Faerie could be easily used in a Fourth Edition campaign, including one set on Yrth.

Agreed, the real meat is the exploration of Faerie fictional tropes.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Imagine, if you will, an alternate Yrth where the Banestorm happened over a thousand years earlier (or accessed an Earth that had an earlier present), and some Roman settlements got swept up, mostly between 50 BCE and 150 CE, with Present Day around 920 CE (1673 AUC). The city of Nova Roma was founded around where Megalos would be on mainline Yrth, and this Rome is a republic. Christians are present in-setting, but are not in the majority outside Areterrium - a version of the classical Roman state religion is dominant in the Republic.

Since I've got a character in this setting posted, I thought I'd expand on it a little:

The reason for Nova Roma being founded where it was is that the location was where a few buildings and people from within the Roman Pomoerium arrived. Among other things, a well-made statue of Janus was brought, and so a great temple was built for him; the temple was so impressive that when it was completed, it was decided that the Senate would meet within it. A number of new laws were put in place, due to the stresses that the Republic had been going through when they arrived, and the unfortunate news that was brought by Romans who arrived later. For one thing, it is explicitly illegal to hold the several offices that make up the position of Augustus all at once, or even to hold most of them at the same time (the same man cannot be both princeps senatus and pontifex maximus, nor hold either post and have consular imperium and tribunician power, nor to have both tribunician power and consular imperium even without holding the first two offices). Likewise, the senate is specifically unable to name anyone dictator for life, nor even for any single term longer than six months, nor could a dictator serve multiple consecutive terms.

Culturally, Nova Roma has discovered a number of new sports, such as Magia Diregentes, a rather tiring sport adopted from the elves, which involves casting attack spells at various targets (fire spells are pretty popular with the crowds), some of which are moving. Advanced players do this while moving through an obstacle course. The cavalry variant requires casting from horseback. Citizenship is not limited to humans, though gaining citizenship without being born to it is still difficult.


Not sure how other regions are adapted, beyond the Nomad Lands and Zarak being pretty much the same as canon (and Sahud being pretty similar), and Araterrium being something like a typical tenth-century kingdom/principality that may or may not be under Nova Roma. Vaguely thinking that what was Al-Haz in canon might be under the Parthians, or maybe Al-Wazif is, and Abydos might be ruled by some manner of Helleno-Aegyptian death (or undeath) cult. The Ministry of Serendipity and equivalents would not exist, though, since there isn't any overwhelming tech arriving yet.


Thoughts?

[Astromancer]

I'd like a series of Pdfs all based on major changes in Yrth. You could do one on a TL5+1 steampunk Yttarria. You could do books on Homeline establishing a stable connection with Yttarria. You could explore an Age of Sail with either Yttarria as the discoverer or the discovered. Pdfs detailing alternate continents for Yrth, you pick the ones you like and how much contact with Yttarria, if any.

A mix and match Yrth. Nothing required or official, just options.

[TGLS]

Well I suppose the most trivial would be a replacement for the Djinn Lands. It would even be useful for other settings (being by nature an isolated area)

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Well I suppose the most trivial would be a replacement for the Djinn Lands. It would even be useful for other settings (being by nature an isolated area)

I could see a Pdf. detailing both the standard version of the Djinn Lands and a handful of alternatives.

[LoneWolf23k]

Not quite the same as an official pdf, but we've tried some fleshing out speculation of the Djinn Lands here: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=171016

[dataweaver]

There are several ideas in this thread that I like, and would like to combine.

• First, it's been fifteen years since Banestorm was published; and the world was sitting in the midst of some rather intense geopolitical turmoil. As the Epilogue points out, all of those plot threads are likely to have sorted themselves out by now. Personally, I figure that they were probably sorted out by 2010: the Demon Emperor had been exposed and dealt with; the Caithness Civil War has long since ended, and so on. I'm going with the notion that the resolution to the Blackwoods crisis has had worldwide ramifications: the thing in the heart of the Blackwoods has been killed; but in killing it, another Banestorm-like event was triggered. Which brings me to:
• the Blackwoods have become a dimensional bridge between Yrth and Loren'dil, existing in both worlds at the same time: you can enter the Woods from Yrth, and find yourself emerging from them on Loren'dil.
• As I said before, the effects of what happened in the Blackwoods have had worldwide implications. A similar gateway to Gabrook has opened up in the Great Desert, and a gateway to Olokun can now be found in the abyssal plains of the ocean. There are rumors of a portal to Earth, too; but no one seems to know where it is. But that's not the biggest change that the Blackwoods crisis wrought:
• The biggest change would be that Yrth's overall metaphysics have altered. With the opening of permanent gateways between Yrth, Gabrook, and Loren'dil, the gods and spirits of those worlds have also made their way to Yrth; and the gods have begun to empower followers and to send angels to help them, while the spirits have begun to take up residence on Yrth, transforming its nature into a more… animistic one: elementals now inhabit aspects of the natural world, leading to such things as storms literally taking on a life of their own and the caverns in Zarak are now host to earth and fire elementals.

In short, the opening of these gateways had transformed the metaphysics of Yrth to much more closely resemble the metaphysics of Dungeon Fantasy, allowing you to use this updated version of Yrth as a Dungeon Fantasy setting.

• The immigration of elementals intro Yrth had had the side effect of dampening gunpowder and electronics, largely rendering superfluous the job of the Ministry of Serendipity. Which is a good thing, because the Ministry is far too busy dealing with the new waves of visitors coming through apprenticed gateways to have any time to devote to suppressing technology anymore.

• Araterre has discovered a new continent, populated by a mixture of African and Asian cultures along with some different takes on Gabrook and Loren'dil cultures.

I have more thoughts; but it's 4 in the morning here, and I really need to get some sleep.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

In short, the opening of these gateways had transformed the metaphysics of Yrth to much more closely resemble the metaphysics of Dungeon Fantasy, allowing you to use this updated version of Yrth as a Dungeon Fantasy setting.

IMHO Yrth works pretty fine for DF-style gaming with changes a lot more minimal than you're proposing. Not to say that they would be bad or anything, just that if DF-land is your destination you don't have to go quite that far off the beaten path.

[dataweaver]

True enough. Let's say, then, that these changes would make Yrth compatible with DF, so that virtually all of the DF material could be used in this updated version of Yrth.

And that isn't the primary goal of my suggestions; merely one of the goals.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

True enough. Let's say, then, that these changes would make Yrth compatible with DF, so that virtually all of the DF material could be used in this updated version of Yrth.

And that isn't the primary goal of my suggestions; merely one of the goals.

A few conversion charts and a few paragraphs here and there should cover the important stuff.