General Chatter

[Leitz]

What are the personalities of the local lords, and military? In that the soldiers were hireable, it seems like there's a positive relationship there. How about the local guild masters, for relevant guilds? I'd like to work the options there, and Gars can probably do a lot as well.

[Marullus]

I love the random tables for this - it is a Strength of WWN and the Sandbox style. WWN has tables (Page 386-391) for generating the NPC Appearance and Mannerisms, Burning Ambitions, Close Friendships, Personal Tragedies, and Troubled Romances. It also has the Connect skill that we roll to find out how good our relationships are when we look someone up. If you're willing to let these be player facing I will gladly roll the Inspiration for the NPC as part of an attempt to use Connect. That sounds like a lot of fun.

(I can't roll right now, but can do so later to see what happens for main NPCs...)

[Urson]

Folks: bear with me- I haven't had much chance to look over the rulesbook, so it may take me a day or three to get a character worked up.

FWIT: I usually opt for a basic warrior/ranger type in an unfamiliar game. I'll probably do that here, too.

[Rex]

Sounds good to me Urson. I am not familiar with the rules either, just learning. I have a bunch left to do for my character and it will most likely be a couple of days to wrap up at the earliest.

[sulldawga]

I am happy to let you all particpate in creating the NPCs but then their entire personality would be known to all of you. I'd prefer to keep some of that a secret.

If you want to do Appearance and Mannerisms for the Fort-Captain, go for it.

As for the Guilds, which ones do you want to see?

From my perspective, I'd like to create a world somewhat similar to The Elder Scrolls videogames (Skyrim is probably the most famous of those) where each of the major classes (Mage, Warrior, Expert) has a guild but almost all of the members are working day to day jobs and the adventurers are rare outliers. "Oh, you kill undead and find old spells in their tombs? I just read books in the library" sort of thing. I also envision smaller, more obscure guilds where you have to strive to find a trainer who can help you advance. For example, there probably isn't a mage in the Mages Guild who knows much about necromancy but if you find the hidden monastery across the river, you can ask the Abbot to mentor you.

Let me know what you think. There's a lot of room for improvisation.

[Leitz]

Right now I'm looking for general characteristics that would be known by the locals. The lord, and his/her people have been in Ket for a year, so they have lost the initial "new guy in town" image. Is the lord just, accessible, wantonly cruel, bloodthirsty, etc? Do they pay for services rendered or extract at a whim and call it taxation? Does the Fort Captain keep the troops in line, or do the locals suffer depredations and wedgies all the time?

Since Nicholas is an intelligent noble, he can interpret much about the situation and personalities. That gives him ideas on how to approach things, and what sorts of plans need to be made.

Nicholas is in a perfect place; as a noble he usually gets better treatment and an audience, while as a noble from somewhere else he's obviously not trying to compete with the local lord.

[sulldawga]

Ket is different in that it has been a small town for a long time and so the nominal leader is the Lord Mayor. He's not a landowning noble, he was a local guy appointed by someone in the King's service to keep an eye on this sleepy little fishing town. Now Ket is growing, a large town on the cusp of becoming a small city, and will probably end up being run by a group of local wealthy business owners, not a Count or a Duke or what have you. Think about how, historically, cities used to get Charters from the King to be able to rule themselves. That's what's happening with Ket.

The Fort-Captain is the military leader here, and probably can tell the Lord Mayor what to do if push came to shove, but he really doesn't much care what's going on in Ket. His soldiers keep the peace but he's more focused on the safety of the new farmers about to settle across the river.

The thing to remember is that this game is very West Marches-like in the sense that the action is in the wilderness. Nothing will happen in Ket unless you guys start messing around in the brothels or gambling houses. You should be thinking about the Lord Mayor and the Fort-Captain in the sense of "what does the party want to do out West and will these two be for it, against it, or uninvolved with it?"

[Leitz]

That helps a lot. For the record, Nicholas is more likely to help the Lord Mayor and the Fort-Captain if someone starts going on a rampage and hurting people. The impression I'm getting from all of this is that we can make a good life by applying adventurer level scouting and specialty trouble elimination. It will help the settelers and the military, and us.

So, a question for the other players, with comment from the DM; do you want to have connections to each other, or not?

[Leitz]

Folks: bear with me- I haven't had much chance to look over the rulesbook, so it may take me a day or three to get a character worked up.

FWIT: I usually opt for a basic warrior/ranger type in an unfamiliar game. I'll probably do that here, too.

No worries! We're still coming together. For what it's worth, both a Ranger and a basic fighter are sorely needed!

[Marullus]

Ranger should look at:

Master Tracker
You have an instinctive sense for the trails of those whom
you would pursue.
Level 1: Gain Survive as a bonus skill. You can follow
any trail created within the past day in a city or past
week in the wilderness, detecting even the minut-
est traces of passage and ignoring the obfuscations
of weather or water. You can identify numbers of
creatures from trail sign and their general physical
shape and condition.
Level 2: Your senses are razor-sharp; gain a +1 bonus
to your Wisdom modifier. You can identify specif-
ic people by their tracks if you’ve met them before.
Once per day, by examining the mostly-undisturbed
scene of a particular event that happened within the
past week, you can reconstruct the general physical
actions that happened there.

Wildtongue
You have a profound link with the natural world around
you, and possess an instinctive sense of what its feral
denizens desire. For the purposes of this Focus, “animals”
are natural or magical living creatures of bestial intellect.
Level 1: Gain Survive as a bonus skill. You can commu-
nicate with animals, conveying such simple ideas
as they are capable of comprehending. If appeased,
these animals may be willing to do very basic favors
that require no more than immediate attention.
Level 2: The primal force of your presence is considerable.
Gain a +1 to your Charisma modifier. Once per day
you can command a visible animal for one scene,
causing it to obey even complex orders normally im-
possible for it to comprehend so long as they don’t
seem suicidal or extremely hazardous to it. Magical
beasts get a Mental saving throw to resist.

Apply either Focus to Fighter, Expert, or Mage.

[Leitz]

Two things that I forgot to mention; we need to be planning for the Spring Festival, even if it's off screen We should be back by then, and there will be opportunities for all sorts of social events. The other issue is that I have no idea what the "West Marches" are, but I get the fact that we're mostly safe in town, and mostly on our own across the river.

That's one of Nicholas' ideas, to establish a trading post on the other side. Close enough to get supplies easily, far enough in that it's a better trip than back to Ket.

[Rex]

I would prefer some sort of connection to at least some of the other players. I think that helps to get things moving in the right direction to start.

[Marullus]

I would prefer some sort of connection to at least some of the other players. I think that helps to get things moving in the right direction to start.

I am totally fine if you want to connect to Gars. There's plenty of reasons you could connect with the itinerant taleteller/archeologist.

If we want the whole group to be tight and arriving here together I am fine with that too.

Religion

Pem

• Who leads the faith? [7] The church is entirely part of the secular structure of the land.
• What is the god's origin? [7] It was an Outsider or alien from beyond. A superior being came down from the heavens and delivered the laws to the king's ancestor.
• Why does this faith matter? [3] It's locked in conflict with a major local power. Thieves Guild? Group trying to overthrow the King? The Church of Albor?
• What does this faith want? [12] Roll again, stop a rival from doing that. New roll is [1] Crush its religious rivals in the area. So the Church of Albor wants to be the one true Church and this faith is trying to prevent that.
• What are the clergy like? [6] Isolated ascetics or ritually-separated persons.
• What is their societal function? [16] It empowers those seeking revenge for wrongs.
• What is the god's portfolio? [12] Music. Sometimes the random rolls don't help here. I'm going to keep going with the above theme and call it Justice
• What are the faith's strictures? [9] Pray at certain fixed places or times. Perhaps there are some places out West that the PCs can find for these monks.

This is f'ing amazing.

If other players want to lean into interreligious conflict and antihegemony (which I wouldn't assume without affirmation) I will gladly have Gars join this Faith. A faith started by an Outsider is perfect for him as Accursed [i.e. imbued by an Outsider] and a domain of "Music and Justice" is a wicked Bard. It's like... a musical Paladin of the oppressed.

It is "entirely part of the secular structure of the land" meaning it is the default culture of the everyman peasantry, and the rich Church of the nobility coming in is great grist - cultural conversion from Justice to Obedience.

Individual ascetics who pray in certain places at certain times colored by a domain of music works for me - certain places (probably ley line intersections also desired by mages) have resonance and by praying at certain times (probably with musical Gregorian-style chanting) the monks can use harmonization to activate them simultaneously. This may also be why the Outsider taught the method and then left - it is self-managing, not constant divine provenance. This creates a goal of identifying and reclaiming new nodes/sites beyond the river in competition with other Factions (Yay Faction rules!).

As the common culture, the people believe in justice over obedience and have a tradition of harmonizing and singing as a form of community expression (since it isn't about explicit worship). I see a scene in my head:
*noble shows up* "I am going to now be your lord. And rule you."
Local mayor: "That’s fine. We will share our harvest, your knights protect the land."
Noble: "...and you will live as I say you live and you will attend mandatory services of my new church to which you will give obedience."
Mayor: "Now there we have a problem."
Noble: "We are stronger than you." *draws a sword to make his point*
Mayor: "...but not than us all." *begins singing a long continuous note. The others around the square stop what they're doing and all join in a harmony. Those that hear further away in town do as well. The whole town echoes in althea unison of voices.*

...that actually strikes me as very Welsh.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2018 ... %20Century.

[Leitz]

Nicholas is more philosopher than worshipper, following the "die and let die" style. He's also civilized, and since the local government is doing okay by the people, it beats anarchy by a long shot.

If groups of people have been heading to Ket for the past year, I can see the PCs being in the same group and becoming friends. Rex's character may have worked with Nicholas as they did medical stuff together, and Gars would have seen Nicholas' quiet leadership helping people organize. Gars "Know" and Language skills would probably place Nicholas' speech patterns and demeanor as a noble from "not here".

[Rex]

Nicholas is more philosopher than worshipper, following the "die and let die" style. He's also civilized, and since the local government is doing okay by the people, it beats anarchy by a long shot.

If groups of people have been heading to Ket for the past year, I can see the PCs being in the same group and becoming friends. Rex's character may have worked with Nicholas as they did medical stuff together, and Gars would have seen Nicholas' quiet leadership helping people organize. Gars "Know" and Language skills would probably place Nicholas' speech patterns and demeanor as a noble from "not here".

That all looks good to me.

[sulldawga]

The Church of Albor is an interesting one in that it's mostly good. It wants to spread the growth of civilization and it provides healing and protection from danger. It's also potentially not good in that it wants to expand and it expects its worshippers to pay for that growth.

The Temple of Pem is also interesting in that it opposes Albor but only the parts of that faith that are preying on the disadvantaged. They're not really morally opposed to civilization but they are sort of the King's "long arm of the law".

I didn't anticipate it playing out this way but it's sort of like real life in the way the Catholic Church was always scrapping with Kings over who takes orders from who.

In any event, I was going to ignore the Music roll for Pem but if you guys like it, let's roll with it!

[Leitz]

In any event, I was going to ignore the Music roll for Pem but if you guys like it, let's roll with it!

I think Gars likes it, and I'm happy with either way.

[Rex]

I am fine either way on the music aspect.

I am still trying to decide about the Stab vs Notice skill.

Also did you look at my scores and decide if they are good the way I have them? I currently have 2 -1's and 3 +1's.

[sulldawga]

As for the West Marches, these are the aspects of that style of game that I am trying to emulate:

There is no regular plot; the players decide where to go and what to do. I will probably tweak this a little bit in that you may get some "quest" opportunities from NPCs but you are free to ignore them all and just go out wandering. The important thing to remember is that there's no railroad. In this game, you will not discover some major evil plot to be disrupted or some adventure path to godhood.

Direct quote from the first West Marches post: "The whole territory is (by necessity) very detailed. The landscape is broken up into a variety of regions (Frog Marshes, Cradle Wood, Pike Hollow, etc.) each with its own particular tone, ecology and hazards. There are dungeons, ruins, and caves all over the place, some big and many small. Some are known landmarks (everbody knows where the Sunken Fort is), some are rumored but their exact location is unknown (the Hall of Kings is said to be somewhere in Cradle Wood) and others are completely unknown and only discovered by exploring (search the spider-infested woods and you find the Spider Mound nest)." I am trying to do the same thing. For example, the three regions closest to Ket are the Forest of Nen, the Blackwater Swamp, and the Hallastor Hills.

PCs get to explore anywhere they want, the only rule being that going back east is off-limits — there are no adventures in the civilized lands, just peaceful retirement. This is true in my game as well. Nothing bad or interesting happens in Ket... unless you spend a lot of time carousing in Downeast where the brothels and gambling halls are.

The environment is dangerous. Very dangerous. The caveat to this is that you can generally assume the closer you are to Ket, the less dangerous the environment is. You may also occasionally find pockets of high danger in otherwise easier regions but those pockets are easy to avoid until you can handle them. What this means in-game is that you cannot assume you will win every encounter. Sometimes it will be a good idea to parlay. Sometimes it will be a good idea to run for your lives.

In the original West Marches, there was a large group of players that went out on multiple missions. If you missed a couple of weeks of gaming, you may find that others cleared out areas you wanted to visit. I am running a separate game over at rpg.net. You will never "run into" those PCs but you may find they beat you to a certain area. However, it's a big world and there are only two groups of PCs so this will probably be pretty rare. I am fine if you go over to rpg.net and read their threads. We'll pretend it's like you went back to Ket and heard all the stories and rumors from the other PCs as they returned to town.

One last thing that isn't from West Marches: this is not a colonization game. There are no beastmen or demihumans out there. All of the threats will be other humans or monsters. Any humans are not indigenous but left the Kingdom of Caral to settle out west by their own choice. Do not let that prevent you from clearing some land, building a castle, and starting your own domain. I'm cool with that. I'm just trying not to fall into the usual stereotypes and tropes that sometimes come with a game of exploration.

[Urson]

Am I blind? I can't seem to find the campaign #