[DF] Campaign Setting - Guilds of the Frontier - First Pass

[Delcar]

I'm brainstorming for a campaign setting that is 'generic enough' for convention/demo use, but has some meat to it, here's my first pass at the bare bones:

Dungeon Fantasy Campaign idea: Guilds of the Frontiers

Look and Feel: Tech Level 3(+2) Dungeon Fantasy Game with a Wild West cultural feel/spliced with a setting loosely inspired by the Fairy Tail Mangas/Anime, and too many games of Dominions 3 and 4.

Competing guilds are the muscle in an newly resettled land - the fallen empire; XX years ago, the fallen empire was placed under a apocalyptic curse of undeath, and the dead roamed the land.
The great heroes of the land broke the curse XX years ago - and now life has slowly been returning to the land, but there are still pockets of restless dead… it is marginally safer, but the Kingdom does not have the manpower to protect pioneers thus they are chartering the guilds with the task. Guilds that do well can end up with de facto rulership of vast territories, as well as loot the cities of the fallen empire.

Books Used: GURPS Basic, Dungeon Fantasy 1-?, GURPS Magic, GURPS Zombies

Threats:
Nomadic goblins culturally more akin to the mongols than native americans, that have survived through their mobility.
Other adventurers/guilds in some ugly cattle baron/rail wars type scenarios
Remaining undead

[DAT]

For a TL of 3(+2), (Don't you mean TL 3+2^) What TL 5 items are you thinking of?
Are you intending Firearms? e.g., using Demolisher & Musketeer type templetes from Pyramid articles?
Are you planning on Magic based vehicles? e.g., trains, horseless carrages, sky ships, or others?

What magic systems are you looking at? Standard? Thershold? RPM? Runic? Combinations? Different races follow different traditions?

When you say "Nomadic goblins culturally more akin to the mongols than native americans ..." what is the distinction between the two cultures in your mind?

Was the fallen empire human? elven? dwarven? cosmipolitan?

What are the types of remaining undead? Standard skeleton/zombie/mummy, those plus ghuls, wraiths & wights, vampires, liches, others?

What Guilds are there? What is the hiearchy between them?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

I'd play this.

IMHO the must-use Class templates for this setting, and where to find them, are:

Artificer (DF #4): The higher the TL, the better this guy gets
Bard (DF #1): I just always use Bards. When is a social guy not appropriate?
Cleric (DF #1): The Preacher is a classic Wild West archetype
Demolisher (Pyramid #3/36): Because what Wild West setting is complete without explosives?
Druid (DF #1): For your native shamans
Holy Warrior (DF #1): For the undead-battling that seems to be featured here
Innkeeper (DF #10): Another classic Wild West trope
Justiciar (Pyramid #3/10): The Law Man
Martial Artist (DF #1): Only if you're featuring a pseudo-Asian culture, but that shows up a lot in Wild West
Musketeer (Pyramid #3/36): For your gunslingers
Scholar (DF #4): For your Indiana Jones-type tomb-raiders
Scout (DF #1): For your natives / pseudo-Mongols / whatever
Thief (DF #1): Possibly with background skills appropriate to a cattle-rustler

Classes I specifically wouldn't use:

Barbarian (DF #1): Huge Wilderness Guy not-so-great in a high tech setting with guns. Play a Scout if you want to be Wilderness Guy here.
Wizard (DF #1): Just doesn't feel right for this.

[Delcar]

Originally Posted by DAT

For a TL of 3(+2), (Don't you mean TL 3+2^)

Yep, 3+2^ (thanks), but I may go for 3+1^ overall, with a few 'magical technologies' more advanced; more below.

Originally Posted by DAT

What TL 5 items are you thinking of? Are you intending Firearms? e.g., using Demolisher & Musketeer type templetes from Pyramid articles?
Are you planning on Magic based vehicles? e.g., trains, horseless carrages, sky ships, or others?

I'd like to make it so those templates are available... but like I mentioned above, I may limit firearms somewhat - and will probably go for some sort of alchemical compound Guardians of the Flame style.

I haven't decided on whether or not there will be some sort of (bound fire elemental powered?) trains or not yet, but limited horseless carriages and rare sky ships are a definite.

Originally Posted by DAT

What magic systems are you looking at? Standard? Thershold? RPM? Runic? Combinations?

I do like Threshold based magic, but planning on Standard being er, the standard.

Originally Posted by DAT

[on magic] Different races follow different traditions?

Oooohh.... maybe. I've always liked some sort of Rune magic for the dwarves.

Originally Posted by DAT

When you say "Nomadic goblins culturally more akin to the mongols than native americans ..." what is the distinction between the two cultures in your mind?

Look and feel primarily; l'm actually thinking of basing their look and culture on the ancient Scythians, or at least the fragments we have from their victims. I'm aiming for a live-in-the-saddle always on the move raiders sort of culture.

Originally Posted by DAT

Was the fallen empire human? elven? dwarven? cosmipolitan?

Human majority, but ultimately cosmopolitan. If the campaign has legs, I may have a dwarven vault discovered, where as many other citizens as they could save are crammed in, and under siege. Depending on campaign progress, it might even reveal an heir to the empire that was hiding out, causing a political storm; or if the curse was divine/magical, the survivors may have horror stories of the day the prince/legate/governor and his family all turned and had to be put down.

The curse and its origin is to be a mystery to the players. There's all kinds of theories, but this will give me a big campaign mystery that the players can chip away at.

Originally Posted by DAT

What are the types of remaining undead? Standard skeleton/zombie/mummy, those plus ghuls, wraiths & wights, vampires, liches, others?

Mostly zombies, possibly of different types (I've been itching to work GURPS Zombies into a game) but I could see Ghouls that have moved in, and perhaps the 'most damned' as wraiths or something similar; zombies on the outskirts and maybe progressively nastier undead as we get closer to 'ground zero' of the curse? (which is also where the best loot will be, naturally)

Originally Posted by DAT

What Guilds are there? What is the hiearchy between them?

I'm going for 'generic' adventurers guilds [a la Fairy Tale/most MMOs]as the focus - there will be other guilds, but excepting some orders of Necromancers and possibly other wizard types, most of them will be coming in when civilization gets more restored.

The appeal for the guild setting is it will let me loosely tie the characters together, and also make for an easier drop-in drop-out sort of play, I'll probably have the first group of players (I'm expecting 2-3 regulars, and hope to use it as a rotating demo at one of the FLGS in the area, so I WANT new players dropping in) design the logo, colors, name etc.

The idea is this, a guild pays for a charter, they get to set themselves up in a town, provide security, collect the taxes, etc. and they pay their piece to the kingdom. Some guild towns will be places of sunshine and light, where the guilds are wonderful, noble guardians of the people. Most won't. If the PCs roll into a town that is run by a rival guild, well, there are plenty of opportunities for mischief.

IMHO the must-use Class templates for this setting, and where to find them, are:
<snip>

Yes, yes and yes all around. I'll work martial artists in if there is a player request. (no ninjas though)

I've got a Justiciar buzzing around in my head for a pre-made character. (s)He was from one of the fallen cities in the empire, away on imperial business as a judicial champion, and still carries both weapons of the trade - the executioners sword with the ancient imperial script for 'Justice' inscribed on it, and the executioners axe with 'Mercy' inscribed on it. (maybe switch those two around) It's the right combination of cheesy awesomeness I think that fits in DF.

I'm warming to the idea of TL 4 (well, 3+1^) firearms; buff coats and cuirass' being more common than coats of plate and mail - it may make the 'classic barbarian' more viable again.

Also, GURPS wizards are such versatile generalists (even DF ones) that they'll always fit in somewhere...

Thanks for all the great questions and comments guys, you've really helped get the wheels turning already!

[Delcar]

Another thing I'm wanting to do in the campaign, is a new pantheon of gawds with some slightly different twists. I'm trying to come up with 10 or 12 (because for some reason, I like the generic curse of "By the ten!" or "The twelve take you!") with opposed spheres; I'd like to do it as 5 (or 6) male and 5 (or 6)female in a dysfunctional family sort of way.

Theoretically, I'd like to have one of each element on the 'good' and 'evil' side paired with some other element that may or may not be complementary, and then one or two of the more abstract concepts;
The Pairings I've come up with so far:

• Goddess of Life and Fire (rebirth, symbol is the phoenix) - Makes for excellent fanatical anti-undead fire clerics
• God of Water and Death (storms, drowning, angry seas)
• Earth and Time (permanence, stability)
• Air and Entropy (again storms I guess?)

Any suggestions?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Delcar

Any suggestions?

I'd try to stick to Wild West themes here if that's the overall thing:

Lady Luck: Doesn't provide normal magic; followers have Daredevil, Destiny, Luck, Serendipity, etc.

Life / Death: Androgynous twin gods whose single body of Clerics and Holy Warriors practice both Healing and Necromantic magics. The order's Code of Honor emphasizes living life to the fullest, laying undead to rest, and aiding wounded strangers.

Movement / Travel: The wild west setting implies exploration and some sort of frontier. These are the sort of powerful memes that breed gods, but also magical cattle-rustlers.

Water: A goddess of life in the southwestern desert, warding off dehydration in her followers, but also one of chaos, inspiring war everywhere she appears.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Delcar

The Pairings I've come up with so far:

• Goddess of Life and Fire (rebirth, symbol is the phoenix) - Makes for excellent fanatical anti-undead fire clerics
• God of Water and Death (storms, drowning, angry seas)
• Earth and Time (permanence, stability)
• Air and Entropy (again storms I guess?)

Any suggestions?

I've done something similar in a setting I worked on a while back, although it was more an association of elements with ideas than divinity, Fire, Light, and Earth were considered "Life magic", Water/Ice, Darkness, and Air/Wind were considered "Bane magic." Fire (called "Warmth) was associated with strong emotions (positive and negative), Light (called "Holy") with justice and righteousness (and self-righteousness), and Earth ("Stability") with unchanging consistency (possibly to the point of stagnation and stubbornness). Ice ("Death") was associated with stoicism (and thus the ability to think clearly in bad situations), Darkness ("Unholy") with sneakiness (and opposition to "the system"), and Wind ("Destruction") with capriciousness.
While the inhabitants of the world often saw these in the light of "Life" as good and "Bane" as evil (hence the labels!), I purposefully designed them to be equally capable of being either. For reference, each of the above (except Ice) had a race associated with it - orcs for fire, elves for light, dwarves for earth, dark elves for darkness, and cat-folk for wind. These associations might be of use to you... but you may well be better off going with G&A's ideas.

[Delcar]

I'd try to stick to Wild West themes here if that's the overall thing:

Originally it was more of a feel in the parallels between the opening of the frontier in US history, but the more I think on it, and we discuss it, having more of it for flavor is starting to appeal.

Lady Luck: Doesn't provide normal magic; followers have Daredevil, Destiny, Luck, Serendipity, etc.

Life / Death: Androgynous twin gods whose single body of Clerics and Holy Warriors practice both Healing and Necromantic magics. The order's Code of Honor emphasizes living life to the fullest, laying undead to rest, and aiding wounded strangers.

Movement / Travel: The wild west setting implies exploration and some sort of frontier. These are the sort of powerful memes that breed gods, but also magical cattle-rustlers.

Water: A goddess of life in the southwestern desert, warding off dehydration in her followers, but also one of chaos, inspiring war everywhere she appears.

Hmm; I like the Life/Death angle, or it could be done as a single dualistic god - perhaps represented literally with two faces (Janus style), or cycling between the two (maybe even a god(dess) of fate tying them closer to the Lady of Luck). Before I commit, I need to look closer at DF 7 to see how they'd play.

Movement/travel, I'm tempted to go with a horse god - perhaps appears as a horse, with some of Hermes messenger of the gods sort of duties also.

Fire, Light, and Earth were considered "Life magic", Water/Ice, Darkness, and Air/Wind were considered "Bane magic."

This is closer to my first thoughts; and has some interesting ideas; I'll have to chew on this.

[Delcar]

One item of tech that will definitely be in, is some sort of Magical telegraph equivalent - I picture something like a series of obelisks that need to be re-activated spread across the landscape. Game effect I see them literally relaying a single Message spell down the chain.

Too bad the undead are drawn to them for some reason, and the PCs have to whack each of them with the Gadget of Activation. Oh and the goblins like to camp around them.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Delcar

Movement/travel, I'm tempted to go with a horse god - perhaps appears as a horse, with some of Hermes messenger of the gods sort of duties also.

Goblins would either worship such a god (as they are so reliant on their mounts and mobility), or be horse-eaters who actively oppose him (and use something else for mounts). Either can be good for adventuring purposes.

Originally Posted by Delcar

One item of tech that will definitely be in, is some sort of Magical telegraph equivalent - I picture something like a series of obelisks that need to be re-activated spread across the landscape. Game effect I see them literally relaying a single Message spell down the chain.

Too bad the undead are drawn to them for some reason, and the PCs have to whack each of them with the Gadget of Activation. Oh and the goblins like to camp around them.

Naturally, such obelisks should need to be built upon magical lay-lines, and the undead may be attracted to them for this very reason. Such obelisks are also likely to have a strong association with your suggested messenger god, which can explain the goblin penchant for encamping nearby (either to give offerings, or defile such an altar, depending on which option you take). These can certainly make for good adventure seeds: "We've lost contact with the city of Akar. Our mages sent a Message 'ping' and found it was unable to get beyond this obelisk - we can't spare any guardsmen with the Harvest Festival so soon, so we need you to check it out and reactivate the obelisk with this wand."