Mr. R

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.

This will be an ongoing document, so feel free to make suggestions or improvements.

Mortem or Vita? Which? HMMM! I am getting a Al Qadim Shair type feel for this school (They are genie summoners who could use their lowest type genie to hunt for spells for them. So they had a HUGE spell selection BUT it took time to cast each spell, like minutes or hours time) OK you are going for some classics used in a lot of games. Is there a limit to how many schools you can learn? Are there certain counter schools, like if you know Vita you can't learn Mortis? It has promise and I'd like to see more!

I am leery of making potions that go for longer that 5 minutes, but I did vary the durations for what seemed cool. As many as they want, as long as they have the time. And know the formula. Note IF you want to change a potion so it has a longer duration, or a larger effect, THAT is a new formula and you must learn/develop it. That I am not sure of. I could see a side pouch with maybe 30 potions of varying types. A cleric will have to be very careful in their selection as replacements are goung to be hard to get. But there are also Talismans which are Much Less powerful, but I can see a large amount carried!

Another to read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52039930-awakening It is the first in a series about Evolved Ones, people who one day develop some sort of super power. Most are low key, but some are more obvious and so the people become the target of .... less than scrupulous entities. In the case of the MC she's being hunted by a scientist who wants to use her for experiments to find out how EOs come about, if he can duplicate the process to create it artificially, and finally what can be spun off from the abilities (Ex. one lady can secret a substance that can render a person unconscious with NO side effects). So there is the approach that IF people can develop super powers, CAN we do it artificially, control the process, and even choose what abilities they will get. A comic called Strike Force: Mortuary ended its run with a similar. The process to get super powers would kill you after 1-2 years, but later the process was improved and that onerous SE eliminated. Now we have a world where it is possible to buy super powers.

I like!

Talismans are the other facet of Cleric Alchemy. These are at best 20 AP BUT have multiple uses OR one use for a long duration (One has a duration of a season) These represent the small holy magic relics that people buy at the temple. As a result I have also made them specific to each deity. This is one where I really can use some help in fleshing out some options. For example Orchen (God of fire and Speed) I could not think of anything that wasn't already a potion! Or am I overthinking this? Anyway, I present... Talismans: