Mr. R

Years ago I was crossing Canada by train and staying in Youth Hostels. I met a young man from Scotland who was crossing from Halifax to Vancouver. I met him in Edmonton and asked him what he thought of my country. "Honestly mate.. its bloody huge!' "Some of us were talking of going to Calgary for the day! The way they were talking I thought it was a short jaunt. Its FOUR bleedin hours! "Back home that gets me off the island and on the Continent!" Conversly here in Canada we can't seem to think OLD I was in Stratford at a small shop that was a converted house. I asked how old was the house? Her answer.. "Well this is the new part of the house, its only 300 years old. The back part is the old part, its over 400 years old!" I come from a country where over 150 years old is ancient!

Part of the reason I am posting here is to get feedback. Are my ideas sound, OR are they so out of bounds as to make no sense. As a teacher I still have people proof read any papers I am writing and welcome those big red marks. PS I loved your comment of where is 1000 miles a small country? I live in Canada, in the Far North. The next closest major city is 1000 km by air or 1400 by land [we have to go north to get around a huge lake] and ALL of our food stuffs have to be brought up overland. Until recently this involved using a ferry to get over the Mackenzie River. Well twice a year that river was uncrossable for about six weeks. And you could see the shelves in the grocery store going bare. And this is with modern semis and refrigeration units.

Seriously the way y/they wrote it originally, there are NO coastal towns/settlements/cities ANYWHERE on the outside coast of the continent. Except for one city on the west side (home of a mercenary company that have no idea of logistics) and two on the east side. Sorry but even the best sailors/merchants/pirates won't sail THAT far without some sort of gain. As a result this merchant island will have as contacts: 1--- the cities on the Mountain coast 2--- the new cities springing up in the three bays area including one at the top of the first bay. 3--- The city of Chioko in the Divided Plains. (Considering this is the only place where they will deal with outsiders, this is to their benefit) 4--- The Far Islands (Not yet described, but an archipelago of islands forming a circle around the Black Sea of the east. Think a combo of Caribbean and Philippines) 5--- The cities on the Eastern side of the continent!

Before I post my next area, I want to comment on how a supplement certainly needs an overview editor to make sure that certain ideas that SOUND good, really DON'T work. Case in point the west coast of the continent. As I have mentioned, it is south of the equator, so south is colder, north is jungle. Also unlike NA which has a lush west coast, it is more like SA with a dry coastal plains. Please remember this. No 1 We'll create an island off the west coast. It will be the home of merchants/privateers, who sail up and down the coast maybe into the Three Bays area. OK. Are there any cities along the way? Nope! So they are merchants, right! Who do they trade with? Well the cities of the Gefting Sea, you know that Basin area with all the cities. Which also happens to be 1500 km inland from where they are! Oh, add the fact that there is no major city on the west coast to load and unload goods. Oh and even if they bought good to the west coast, where would they sell them? No 2 There is a city state on the west coast, BUT it is not a port. You people are going to love this. It was founded by a mercenary commander to be his base far away from the Basin Area. The focus exclusively on selling their services as Mercenaries. They do have a side gig as glass makers, but otherwise everyone dedicates themselves to training and practice. Sounds cool, sort of like the Swiss Mercenaries that dominated warfare in Europe. Hold on, what's this? There are NO non soldier professions at all! No farmers. No Herders. No fishermen. Only professions that help equip a soldier. They get all their food imported, from that Basin area, over 1500 km away. As one poster stated above even 300 km was a serious overland journey. You're telling me they are going to ship perishable food items overland, across those plains controlled by the nomads, across one of the few passes of THE tallest mountains (think Andes here) then down the other side. And this will serve to feed a city state of close to 50000 people? I know this is fantasy, but really! So basically my next two areas are going to be almost total reworks. For this area I am taking some inspiration from Al-Qadim with the Cities of the North and the Corsair Isles.

I have thought of that. But the difficulties of establishing itself along one of the most useful trade routes going north south right now will take all their time. But a few well placed PCs can always be useful (IMF Fantasy Hero Style!)

Next up a slave free city... Yes I am ste..err borrowing from Turakian Age.

I like this idea. The blacksmith who can make magic weapons, the seamstress who can create outfits that act as armour, the jewel crafter who can make a broach that detects poison. YES!

That is why I post these. To either re-enforce an idea, or discard it for something better. I am taking a page from the Valdorian Age book, a nomad culture that considers the river totally sacred. As long as you are within about 1 km of the river you are safe. Same idea. River is neutral territory. Also I like It sort of reminds me of Mercedes Lackey and the Hawkbrothers / Plains riders divide!

North of Bola is a plains/ grasslands area and home to an interesting land!

Over on RPGnet there is a thread about a game called Fabula Ultima. It has a luck point mechanic where.... here: So I was thinking, we have a Luck Point System (optional). encourage the use of the luck points by tying it to PC development. What do you think?

So anything about Trammel Highlands?

Now we head to the frigid south (The continent is south of the equator)

I was hoping for that. There are three ways for people to get into the Bola Wastes: 1- The Corridor, a grassland area controlled by nomads, but leads to the Wastes and the Plains area after it. 2- The Wyrmian Pass, fastest way, but threatened by goblyns 3- The Eastern Shore, used to be favoured as it had a river on it, a good city state, led to Feydor, and possibly the Far isles. Now that area is overrun with goblyns and the trade is totally disrupted. I am going with the former, not the latter. As far as the devastation, it was attributed to a mage war, where one mage in particular launched some fire magics, and slowly the grasslands caught fire, and it has been a wasteland ever since (the original booklet had this happening 6000 years ago and no change taking place. I need to come up with a slightly different explanation for the original war, and why after 1000 years it is still a desert. Ideas welcome!

I am actually planning an Andean type for the far West Coast, which is dominated by a continent spanning north south mountain chain which has a jungle environment on the far side (Yes it is too easy to see the parallels) I plan to have rivers from the mountains to the ocean through plains area. Each river will have a settlement, which leads to trade. The original booklet left this whole region empty, but then placed an island of merchants and pirates off the coast... say what? Who do they plunder/trade with?

Good Point. Ok, so it is the clearing house for any trade coming down river, which it then ships by boat to Aerelios. This actually makes sense as you can just go with the river's flow to the Gefting Sea, hug the coast, head up the Kulana River a bit and you're in Aerelios. I keep forgetting that overland travel is very much a modern (ie 1850's +) idea. Also as a North American (Canadian) we tend to see long distances as common place. I am reminded of a conversation with a Scotsman visiting Canada. I asked him what he thought. "Its so bloody HUGE. You talk about going to Calgary from Edmonton as like a small day trip. Its four bleedin hours mate! Back home that gets me onto the Continent! For us anything more that 100 kms is overnighting!"

Next up a desert region, very sparsly populated. But with many an old ruins in it. Can we say Ancient Desert City? Knew you can. I am almost making this up whole cloth, but I do not want to do an Arabian type society. I was thinking more Apache/Navajo with a little of the Fremen maybe!

Well said!

Good points. Since a trade route to the Jomoloto (Western) mountains and the Western coast exists, I will say they favor trade. But clans closer to those routes are becoming richer, while others are seemingly being left behind. I envision some sort of ritual combat, as open warfare will weaken them as a whole. Whether this is weapon combat/HTH wrestling OR some sort of contest like a horse race or footrace, I am not sure! I am also thinking that as long as the outsiders stay on their paths and don't roam the plains, it is fine. But roaming around... Well to paraphrase Yosemite Sam "Someone getting footy prints all over my grassland!"

So outside the Basin states are other lands. I am keeping this simple, as the aim is that these are places to visit, but not set a campaign in. BUT any suggestions or ideas will be welcome!

Good points all of you, thank you. Looks like I am going with some local languages, but a trade lingua franca that all know to some level or another!

As I develop my world I came to the idea of Languages. Some background: The main area is a Basin Lake 1000km by 200km (about) that long ago was conquered fully by one state, and that language was imposed on the populous. But now 600+ years later and the fall of the empire and the fracturing of the area, I can't help but see a parallel to Old Rome. In addition there are areas never conquered by the empire and so their language development was different. Now in my experience differing languages were a PITA. five players who could only communicate with two others at any one time for example. So do you make a detailed language table, where knowing one language gives you help with understanding a second or third? OR Do you go all hand wavium and make a Trade Tongue as it were, a language everybody uses?

And we finish the last two cities on the south coast. Next up a primer on outside the Basin States!

We now are on the Southern Coast of the Gefting Sea

We continue our voyage across the Basin States!

We are going to go clockwise, and so we go east.