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Old 04-13-2017, 04:38 PM   #1
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Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
Default [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

This is a collaborative setting building forum game with one slight difference, scale. Rather than make a whole world let's build a town/city.

The format is, answer a question then ask a question. Start each post with the question you are answering and don't forget to ask a question, even a simple question keeps the game going.
Crunch is welcomed but probably more important later on.

This setting is made with the aim of being usable for the forthcoming dungeon fantasy boxed set. With that is mind all the standard dungeon crawling conventions should be followed while building this setting.
- An economy that supports delving, this includes having every service a delving party requires available.
- The generally high availability of magic
- A generic fantasy technology level that has remained stagnant for some time.
- Many races interacting in one area.
- As many dungeons and dungeon like features as possible will exist, for example the city will definitely have a spacious sewer system.
- A certain amount of tongue in cheek humour regarding the quirks of a DFRPG world.

Question 1) Who is nominally in charge of the town? What can you tell me about this individual or group?

Question 2) A delving party has just returned from a nearby abandoned mine and wants to unload their loot, where should they go?

Question 3) How well do all the races get on together? Are humans the dominant race in the area?
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Old 04-13-2017, 04:38 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

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Old 04-13-2017, 04:46 PM   #3
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Question 2) A delving party has just returned from a nearby abandoned mine and wants to unload their loot, where should they go?
Browbert the Blacksmith buys and sells armor but prefers coin to gems and jewelry as he also fancies himself a yellow/gold smith and is not above alloying and minting his own counterfit coins in leaner times.

A broad chested bald man who's keeps no facial hair as its to easy to singe in the heat.

His sister farms not far outside of town and has a large tract of rugged and rocky, but fertile land that does well in the grape/wine harvest.

He ahas two crescent shaped scars on the top and bottom of his ham-bone forearms that appear to tell the tale of a viscious bite.

Question 4 - Does he get his 'raw' materials (ore) from a local mine, melting down salvage or through som other means?

Nymdok
p.s. If Im not doing this right (E) let me know and Ill fix it :)

Last edited by Nymdok; 04-13-2017 at 05:30 PM.
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Old 04-13-2017, 05:24 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

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Question - Does he get his 'raw' materials (ore) from a local mine, melting down salvage or through som other means?

Nymdok
p.s. If Im not doing this right (E) let me know and Ill fix it :)
Looks good, adding a number to the question is the only thing I can think of adding

Question 4) Where does Browbert source his raw materials?

Browbert having experienced several leaner periods during his life chooses to cut out the middleman where ever possible to save a few coins.
Many of his supplies are recycled from the loot he purchases and cannot refurbish.
He suppliments his purchases of second hand weapons and armour with iron ore he gets from the orcs and goblins that live in the swamps down river. With much grumbling he pays what he considers an exorbitant price for materials from the dwarven communities in the nearby mountains.

Question 5) Where can a battered delving party go to get urgent medical attention?
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Old 04-13-2017, 05:57 PM   #5
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

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Question 1) Who is nominally in charge of the town? What can you tell me about this individual or group?
The city is ruled by the council of the free races. Each free races have an equal number of representatives (I sugges). That means most likely:
- Humans
- Dwarves
- Elves
- Gnomes
- Half Orcs
- Halflings
A Mayor is choosen every 4 years by the concil, and there is an unofficial tradition of racial rotation - human, dwarf, elf, etc. There were some occasions that this tradition were broke due to political disputes and inter-race struggle, which usually causes all sorts of trouble.
Each race have their own method of appointment of councelors - half orcs decide with sacred (non lethal) combat, gnomes vote, Dwarves follow aristocrática bloodlines of nobility, elves have a system of ranking, humans do vote, but only the Nobles get to vote, and the Halflings are picked by their leader (who doesn't have an official position in goverment, but to which all halflings defer to)
Besides those, the leaders of the guilds also have the right to speak in the council's assembly, and have a good political power; they are also the official advisors of ALL mayors. The guilds are - Wizards, Inventors, Alchemists, Merchants.
The High Lords of the Faiths are another political power. They are the representativas of all the many (sanctionated) faiths. They oversee all the religious Rituals (including the highly cerimonialistic sessions of the Council), and have power of Veto. Mayors that get in the bad side of the priests must have a good leverage with the provincial governor, the only one that can drop one of their vetoes. The Faith Lords also have full control over the aspects of their faith inside the city.

Questions: how do the guilds choose their leaders? And the faiths? (A better name for the High priesthood please?). How many different faiths? Does each race have one?

And what about UNOFFICIAL political powers? (Like the thieves guild)

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Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Question 2) A delving party has just returned from a nearby abandoned mine and wants to unload their loot, where should they go?
Thats a matter of the type of loot. But I would say, the cities market.
The city market is located just above the main hall of the Great Temple of the Pantheon of all faiths. The market is regulated by the Merchants guild, and there are always a few Inquisitors guards watching for cursed or unholy items to be safely disposed. Holy items are also required to be handled by the priesthood, but they always pay a fair price from them and are open for haggle (sometimes they are willing to pay even more than a Merchant would).

Question: what are the most typical items of commerce? And the most rare? The most valuable and the most cheap? And were do those usually come from?

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Question 3) How well do all the races get on together? Are humans the dominant race in the area?
Humans are natural social lube. So, they are the most common, but not the majority: all races are minority. The halflings are the smaller one, with the exception of the Half Orcs and Half Elves, which many see as "non races".
Half Orcs are seen with suspicious. To offset that, their religion endorsed a VERY severe code of conduct; Half Orcs must be brave, must be honest, and must honorable. Anyone that doesn't follow can be sure to expect the visit from an Inquisitor of their faith. They are also forbidden to reproduce with the other races (meaning, elves or humans). Even so, no one trusts them, but the elves simply hates them. The feeling is mutual, but the Half Orcs keep it to themselves, since they have very little political power. They managed to gain a position on the city council however
Half Elves are in a similar but different predicament. They are NOT outright hated, but also don't have a place of their own in society. They are mostly seem as an embarassment to their parents. As a result, most of them are semi nomadic artists or vagabonds. Since they have no representation on the Council, they mostly have no political powers.
Gnomes and dwarves are allies
Elves and humans are allies
Halflings are basically the paws of their leader on the Thieves Guild... Which makes their relantionships... Messy...

Question: beyond political relantionship, how do the races Interact on day to day business among common people?
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Old 04-13-2017, 06:17 PM   #6
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

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Question 5) Where can a battered delving party go to get urgent medical attention?
Assuming that most neighborhoods are dominated by a single race (so, there is the "Human Town", "Little Elven Vale", "Dwarven Quadrant" etc), each neighborhood has at least one temple to the faith of the race that has trained clerics apt to heal. The city's Center also offer a pletora of alchemists/herbalists shops, and the market of potions is very common on the main market. The Great Temple offers the best in terms of healing - including ressurection and curse removal - if one can spare the coins.
Usually, trying to get assistence on a Temple of another race is more expensive, unless you are well liked by the local folks.
Half Elves dont have much luck in this regard, since there is no half elve neighborhoods - or temples.

Well, since I've made 3 questions (which would be 6,7 and 8 respectively), this would number 9

Question 9 - Are there hidden, clandestine, faiths? (Specific, evil ones?). Where do they hide, and how do they survive? What are they plotting?
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Old 04-13-2017, 08:11 PM   #7
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

Outstanding questions (paraphrased)

Question 6) What are the typical types of commerce in the city?

Question 7) How do the races interact on day to day basis among general population?

Question 8) What are some names for the religious groups?

Question 9) What are the hidden religious groups? Where do they hide, and how do they survive? What are they plotting?

Question 10) How do the guilds and religious groups choose their leaders?

Question 11) Are there many Faiths and are any of them race specific?

Question 12) What are the unofficial political powers?

Answer to Question 12)
The local thieves guild operates from behind a semi-legitimate front, the "Ratcatchers Guild" one of the many non-council guilds within the city. The maintain some political power through extortion of the poor and lower classes as well as some selective blackmail of the more politically powerful. They are present throughout the city and have many members.

Answer to Question 8)
The large cathedral in the center of the city is devoted to the worship of the "Pantheon" as a whole. It is a multidenominational institution that worships a large group of allied gods. Needless to say it is a rather chaotic place. Smaller churches also exist but they are generally devoted to a single deity. The largest of the churches are devoted to the patron deity of each district.

As there are a multitude of questions outstanding I will forgo adding any new ones.
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Old 04-13-2017, 09:00 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

Wow! I gotta say, I loved that idea of each district having a patron God for a large city!!! Thats a sweet idea that I never thought of!!!

I must confess, all the details that Im giving here are actually part of a HUGE setting that me and a friend of mine made many, many years ago. We delved into the economics, politics, religion, and even traced more than 5.000 years of historical events for a continent like Europe.

Those ideas I placed are some of the initial ideas of our setting, but I dont wanna make that a monopoly of mine, so I'll stay with what I already seeded and get the feedback in order to get a colaborative idea. So, from now on, all only go with the flow and post new ideas based on what follows.

But I loved the idea of patron gods for different districts, that can give a huge color for a very diverse and unorthodox city, where each district is an image of their patron.... Thats amazing.

Keep with that idea, I can see the underground city of the evil dark elves in my world where each district is protected by one of their dark gods... Hmmm...

Just one more question (in my setting I had an answer to that, but I wanna other opinions)

Question 13) - what event led the Half Orcs to earn the right to have a presence in the city's council?
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Old 04-14-2017, 08:25 AM   #9
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E)
I would post this in the world building thread but I don't want to dominate the posts, Going off the dungeon fantasy books the playable race list is a bit larger than the few you put up.
Cat folk
Corpse eaters
coleopteran
dark one
Faerie folk
Goblin kin (catch all name for half orcs and the like)
Half spirits
ogres
reptilian
wild man
Minotaurs
and a few others

No criticism on my part, I'm just checking to see how familiar you are with the books

E
I know. But not all of those goes in the taste of everyone. Even Half Orcs are a wild guess. For example, Ogres are usually seen as irevocably evil, corpse eaters are... Honestly, they are in the WTF?! section, minotaus wild beasts... I know that those are "playable" races on DF, but many people disregard them althoghether (me myself for example). But I guess this is worth noting in the topic, and perhaps suggest that those other races are either not present, or are a tiny minority, and see what others. Imho, not all of those described races are fitting on "civilized" places - goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, gnolls, ogres, and all races that are irrevocably evil would never be accepted on a civilized city - not just the goblin-kin, dark-elves too fit in here, neither would races too wild like minotaurs, faeries or reptilians and coleopterans. And some races would be downright hated and feared to the point of religious persecution and inquisitorial execution, like the corpse eaters, dark ones and infernals. That would basically leave catfolks, half spirits, celestials and perhaps the eventual infernal that can hide its ancestry and features, as possible additional minority races.
However, I say "let the people speak"
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Old 04-14-2017, 07:57 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Game] Collaborative world building for DFRPG.

Perhaps the issue of barbaric races is best solved with a question.

Question 14)
How do the races with social stigma (Savage) and social stigma (monster) go about getting goods and services in the town?
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