[Taern] My new campaign

[naturaltwenty]

Greetings all. I've made some gaming New Year's Resolutions! This year I'll be running Fantasy Hero. I've owned it for years and in numerous variations but never really ran much of anything.

 

So I'm going to put up some ads at the local FLGS (see below) or run it online via ScreenMonkey - don't know which yet.

 

There will be a website soon but I can only loaf so much at work:).

 

 

Later,

 

Greg Volz

Natural Twenty Gaming

http://www.naturaltwenty.com

[Curufea]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Nice!

But with a presentation like that, it looks more like a Con game. Is it a one-off or will it be the start of a campaign?

[naturaltwenty]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

It's going to be the start of the new campaign. It's the first adventure (I'll be using those maps I made in a different thread for this one ) .

 

The next thing is the players primer - which is in the works. It will layout:

 

1. Character creation guidelines including points, max attack, etcs.

2. Regional background info.

3. Maps

4. Deities

5. Political structure

 

Then it's off to the races.

 

Later,

 

Greg Volz

Natural Twenty Gaming

http://www.naturaltwenty.com

[Steve Long]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Good luck! It already looks pretty intriguing, and I'm sure lots of us will be interested to hear how the game progresses.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Let us know if there is any aspect of the game you need assistance with.

[naturaltwenty]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Over beer and pizza - while watching the sci-fi Dune DVD - and taking Curufea's comment that what I'd posted looked like a one-shot I whipped together a different cover. It's not the final but it'll be the working copy to get me in the mood while I listen to Clannad - Legend, some David Arkenstone and maybe some Transvision Vamp, Pixies, and what not. Don't ask me why the eclectic mix of music...it just gets me in the mood:).

 

 

 

Later,

 

Greg Volz

Natural Twenty Gaming

http://www.naturaltwenty.com

[Steve Long]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Nothing wrong with eclectic musical tastes.

 

Nice cover! What font is the title word "Taern" in?

[naturaltwenty]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

It's Caeldara from Blambot - http://www.blambot.com/fonts.shtml with a Script-Fu=>Alpha to Art=>Glossy (with Greens selected) from GIMP applied.

 

I'll fiddle with the transparency to get rid of the lines and clean up the middle graphic as well.

 

Now for the page layout and then to actually start putting some meat into the fluff.

 

Later,

 

Greg Volz

Natural Twenty Gaming

http://www.naturaltwenty.com

[Curufea]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Again - very nice!

 

And, Transvision Vamp - I remember them. There was a song about "I want you money but not your love" or something. Very glitzy. Whatever happened to them?

 

I'd put a dropshadow between the wood frame and the cover, and possibly darken the inner half of the stitching maybe...

[Super Squirrel]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

I'd give you rep for the naturaltwenty but right now the rep system seems funky.

[naturaltwenty]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Alrighty, you know the creative bug's got ya when you wake up thinking about something game related. While not stream of conciousness this is in essence a brainstorm. It will not remain in stone and if this isn't the right forum for it I'll blog it instead:).

 

I've always liked meta-gaming and while not as detailed as The Game of Thrones for example, I'm going to add an optional meta-gaming enhancement.

 

Taern is the name of a mid-sized island continent and the countries that it is comprised of are primarily human. The geographic area that I will be focusing on in the primer uses the following system of government.

 

Humans are organized into:

 

1) Houses

2) Clans

3) Families

 

Houses are the highest on the hierarchy, they are comprised of clans, which are in turn comprised of families. Some clans and families will be stong enough to stand on their own but those pay some fealty to a house in some way, shape or form.

 

The ruling House is where the King is seated and kingship or queenship is passed on hereditarily. Clans and Families may move up or down the ladder through marriage, war, mutual agreement, etc (I'll work out the details someday).

 

Anyway - how I bring this into HERO will be Social Advantages or Disadvantages based on the characters House/Clan/Family (HCF) . The most common use will be affecting bartering, initial reaction, persuasion, seduction, etc.

 

Fate is fickle and this is where the meta-gaming comes in. A chart will be created indicating HCF interactions, I may just create a database and put it on the web to allow anyone who uses the Taern campaign to generate their own weekly, monthly, yearly chart. The chart will indicate wars, feast/famine, floods/droughts, etc. The GM can then use these to power the background of the world for consistency.

 

Later,

 

Greg Volz

Natural Twenty Gaming

http://www.naturaltwenty.com/taern

[naturaltwenty]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Continuation of the HCF idea.

 

There are some professions that are outside the HCF strata:

 

Mercenaries: mercenaries forgo their HCF affiliation and fight for whomever gives the most coin (this is a nod to Katherine Kerr's Deverry series). While mercenaries have joined together in the past to become a force to be reckoned with they all know that eventually the chaotic nature of a mercenary band could never hold on long enough to maintain order in a kingdom. Not that it hasn't been tried.

 

Magi - (Magus for singular): Those that dedicate their life to the Paths of Balance cannot split their allegience to an HCF and that which grants them their power. While Houses employ Magi as counsellors and advisors it is only at the grace of the Magi to remain there. While not unheard of it is rare for a Magus to go into battle or participate in a war.

 

There are five Orders within the Paths of Balance, one for each element: air, earth, water, fire and spirit. While not the only type of magic it will be the primary magic of humans on Taern.

 

 

More later,

 

Greg Volz

Natural Twenty Gaming

http://www.naturaltwenty.com

[Steve Long]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Alrighty, you know the creative bug's got ya when you wake up thinking about something game related.

 

Or when you can't get to sleep -- many's the night I've been unable to shut my brain off and have just gotten up and done another couple hours' work to get some cool idea out of my head and onto the page.

 

The "House" idea sounds interesting -- vaguely similar to some stuff I was fiddling with for a campaign I was toying with running but have now shelved in favor of something else. Let us know how it works out!

[Thia Halmades]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

This sounds like a great start, and clearly you have a plan and familiarity with the rules and whatnot. My strength is in story telling and plot design, so if you need help getting over a hurdle, or tying a sequence from A to B, by all means, post, and I'd be happy to assist. I also have recently flipped from d20 to HERO, so I may hitch-hike your threads as a learning tool myself.

 

Welcome to the boards.

[Savinien]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

naturaltwenty has been around for a long time. He just doesn't post much.

 

Let me know if you decide to run it online. I may be interested, but my online capabilities at home are down for a few weeks. When I get them up and going again...

[Thia Halmades]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Thanks for the update, Savinien. Note made.

[naturaltwenty]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Side thread:

 

I'm pretty much a lurker here - I primarily post over on rpg.net where I'm one of the local online/virtual tabletop zealots.

 

I've been toying with a campaign like this for literally years. It's just taken me this long to decide on the system. My normal gaming group is pretty much a 7th Sea/ Star Wars d20 group. I've tried to create the feel I'm going for with d20 but I could never get it right. My ideal d20 game peters out at about 4-6th level.

 

HERO will allow me to make it the way I want. No fudging of feats, or mapping out my first level character so I can make so-and-so prestige class by level 6, ad naseum. You want to make a rogue with excellent combat skills and some magical enhancement - go right ahead. No creating a custom class, prestige class or what not.

 

Now if only I could find some more HERO dice:).

 

Later,

 

Greg Volz

Natural Twenty Gaming

http://www.naturaltwenty.com/taern

[Thia Halmades]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Actually, I agree with you exactly, around 4-6 is the bench mark for the power level I wanted (doing a fantasy/WW II style grit campaign) and having Teleport really muffs that. It's easier to get in HERO than it is in d20, and since they'll have trouble getting more than 105/120 point VPPs for spells, it severely limits the total effects they can pull off without serious manipulation.

 

I do miss Feats, though, they were pleasantly pre-built. I'll rebuild some of them, although Susano has a great list (including Rapid Shot and what have you). I don't know if'n I'm going with a similar prerequisite structure; I easily could, just don't know if I want to bother.

[Savinien]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Thanks for the update' date=' [b']Savinien[/b]. Note made.

 

So bold...

[Thia Halmades]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

What? I was being sincere.

[Curufea]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Some HCF ideas for you-

 

I can think they would behave similar to royal houses and guilds. If you hadn't had clans as well as houses, I'd have made houses be guild-like. But with an extra level, they will probably be differentiated by something more esoteric than a specialty.

 

You may want to have the Houses represent certain ideals of politics or social mores, as over time each house has chosen to individualise itself from the others by exemplifying some things, and down playing others.

ie-

 

House of the Triumvirate, ruled by three - all decisions are made by councils of prime numbers at different levels. They only have three clans and they tend to wear only three colours in their clothing at any time. Symbol is a fleur-de-lys. Ranks are obtained through merit (meritocracy).

 

House of Order, a hereditary ruler (monarch). Clans are self sufficient and isolationist (autarchy). All decisions are mady by the ruling caste. Tendency to wear primal colours, or a single colour. Symbol is a circle. Ranks are obtained by being born into them (castes, oligarchy)

 

For the clans, I'd make the similar to guilds-

The Clan of War, the Weaver Clan, the Clan of Paper, the Clan of the Sea

[Savinien]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

What? I was being sincere.

 

It was a weak joke about the fact you put my SO in bold. That's it.

[naturaltwenty]

Re: [Taern] My new campaign

 

Well it's almost the New Year and I've made the decision that I'm gonna run this campaign online via Screen Monkey ( http://www.nbos.com ) and use Skype ( http://www.skype.com ).

 

I'll start a thread over in the looking for gamers thread.

 

Initial play times will be:

 

4 players

Bi-Monthly (twice a month)

3.5 - 4 hours of play time

Starting 7:00 pm CST (-6 GMT)

 

Email me if interested: naturaltwenty@yahoo.com

 

Later,

 

Greg Volz