Nightshade

One of the things that have had a huge impact on the history of our world has been the transformation or addition of religion. I was thinking of doing something with this in my Fantasy HERO game. Has anyone done this in their game before? Was it a good experience, bad, somewhere in between? Say you were in a game and this started to evolve as part of the plot line (the rise in popularity of a new religion). Would that interest you? What if it was the drive behind a plot? Nightshade

One of the flashpoints in our history has been creation or transformation of religion. The beginnings of Christianity, Muslimism, the Reformation, and I am sure that there are more. Has anyone ever dealt with this type of subject in their game? If so, was it a good experience, bad, somewhere in-between? If you were in a game and something like this started going on, would you be interested? Is this a good plot device? Nightshade edit: This was actually intended for the Fantasy HERO site. Sorry for the disruption.

My wife came up with a decent idea. For the Nightlings, Morla, and any other highly mysterious race that people have a prevailing attitude about, I'll write what that attitude is. Then, I'll have a separate document about what the race really is like. I really have no idea how I'm going to do that with my current format for my world book, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Thanks for the ideas! Nightshade

Similar subject, different mode: I have another race, the Nightlings, that are reviled, distrusted, hated, feared, and/or killed on sight (depending on where you find one). However, this is due to a terrible misunderstanding that happened thousands of years ago, and they're really not bad guys. They pretty much just have a bad reputation. I wouldn't mind a player playing one of these guys, but I don't want it to be the norm, and if normal PC's met one, I want them to react as if they were "definitely evil." Should I do the same thing here? Nightshade

Whoa... Hey there. Calm down a little. I looked at your chart and I thought that it looked pretty good. It is simple and easy to follow. The language names follow the racial names (which is pretty close to how it works here on Earth), so I think that is pretty nice. It is a little more simple than mine will be (for obvious reasons), but I think that it is workable. Nightshade

I'll have to go look at what I have available on my computer at home for software. Right now, my world is in Word, single spaced, two columns and 10 point font. I have a Table of Contents, but I am thinking of adding an index, too. With the HTML, I could just link everything, so the index may not be necessary, which would be nice. Right now, the document is something like 87 pages long, plus maps, character sheets, and the like. I also save every section as its own document, too. For example, every empire/kingdom/country has its own document as well as being in the world book. It makes it easier for me to change without searching through the big document. Then I just copy/paste into the big one. Thanks for the help! Nightshade

Oh, I understand. That's why I posted what I did... It seemed obvious that I wasn't particularly clear by the responses I was getting. Well, I would call it a combination of Tolkein, Goodkind, and DragonLance with a healthy dose of Greek, Norse, Egyptian, and Native American mythology. In other words, its different, but familiar. If that makes any sense. My world started as DragonLance, way back when. But, I hated the books. I just liked the world (as presented in their campaign material) and the creatures, so I figured that I would run that. Well, I got really tired of people quoting crap at me and saying that I'm running my game wrong. So, I said, "Fine. You all wake up and you are in the same inn, but when you walk outside, everything is different." From there, we explored. The first thing I created was the city of Fantasmia. The second was my religion. Everything went from there. Nightshade

Interesting thoughts on the HTML. Unfortunately, I suck at doing pretty much anything other than simple stuff. I really hadn't thought of the web page, so there you go. I have been doing everything in Word, since I have it and was only ever planning on printing it. I don't know how easy it will be to get 100 pages redone in HTML. Good advice, though. I'll have to think about it. Nightshade

Oh, this isn't a "new" project for me. I did start small. Specifically, I started with a city, called Fantasmia. Then went to the country. Then the neighboring country. Then the next. After a long time, my whole world write up died in a HD crash. After a lot of soul searching, I decided to recreate everything from my hard copy, but having enough detail for every country to be capable of handling a sustained campaign. That way, I can run Epic Fantasy, Low Fantasy, and everything in between on the same world. So, every country/empire/kingdom comes with several different plot hooks and dynamics. I try to keep each write-up in the 5-8 page range of just text, so as to have enough detail, but not get terribly bogged down in it. I may do some character sheets, and then an 8 1/2 x 11 freehand map. This write-up is available to the players. I also have a book that I keep various plot and random facts in that the players have no access to. That way, if I decide that there is a Duke in Elendil who is a member of the Bringers of Night, I can be consistent with name, etc. Nightshade

The reason I have so many countries is just that I have so many ideas for cultures. I have been working on this world for many years (more than I care to admit), and almost everything written has been roleplayed at some point. Currently, I would guess that I am about 2/3 done with the main world book, other than the updating part that happens when the PC's change stuff. I agree on the language chart. Since a lot of my world history has been roleplayed, I know where the "base" languages were from, geographically and historically speaking, and where the influences in dialect came from. So, yes, there are many countries that speak dialects of the same language (ala Spanish), or have pretty related languages (Portuguese), and languages that are somewhat related (English) and totally different (Mandarin). Nightshade

Here are some suggestions: KS: History (region, race, etc.) KS: Art (specific arts, such as painting, fresco, archetecture, sculpture, etc.) KS: Lore (think D&D Bard type skill) KS: Arcane Items KS: Arcane Symbols Just some thoughts. Nightshade

I am working on my fantasy world and have run into a few quandries. First some background: I have a huge world. I will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 different countries when I am finished. I am writing up everything in a format similar to what most gaming companies do: Main world book, supplements for specifics (such as Vampires, Lycanthropes, Fae, etc.). I would like other's opinions on these: 1) I have a race of Dark Elves on my world (who doesn't?) called the Morla. Now, I want them to be evil, nasty, and altogether known as the "bad guys." I really didn't want them to be a culture that players chose their characters from. Would you put a write up of this race (culture, aspects, leadership, etc.) in your main world description, or would you leave it out to foster the mysterious side of them? 2) In writing up my magic, I have Infernalism (devil magic) and Diablism (demon magic). Again, these are for the bad guys to use. Should I even put them in my magic section, or should I just state that there are these two forms of magic and give an overview what other wizards might know about them, or something else? 3) Has anyone ever done a language similarity chart? I was thinking that it would be nice to have (since I have so many languages), but it seems a pretty daunting task. Is it worth doing? Thanks for your advice! Nightshade

I've been looking at perhaps getting Terran Empire and using it as a basis of my Sci-fi game. However, I haven't looked particularly hard at this book. Let me tell you what I'm looking for, and let me know if TE is pretty close: 1. Setting that has enough overall detail to be useful, but not so much as to make it so that I can't add my own nuances to the setting. 2. Multiple alien races that can be used as PC's. 3. Setting allows for many different plot lines - Exploration, military, piracy, revolutions, political intrigue, etc. What I don't want is a very confining setting, where you get pretty much pidgeon-holed into a fairly set meta-plot. I wouldn't think that HERO would do this, but I figured that I would ask. Thanks a lot! Nightshade

Actually, I did exactly what was suggested in the original post in my game. I don't like using encumbrance, just because it is something that takes too much time for me, so I felt that this was easier to deal with. I didn't lower the cost of the spells, though, as all spells had this issue, it really wasn't limiting. Nightshade

Without a printing press? You forgot the months of work copying the text by hand, including the illustrations. Books in pre-printing press times were incredibly expensive. Very rich people had libraries to show off how rich they were, not how well they could read. So, in other words, I agree. Either the paper is too expensive, or the books are far too cheap. Nightshade

The Fantasy HERO Companions actually did have some more information, but not a whole lot. My suggestion, if you like using it, would be to continue to do so, but to add flavor as you play it. If you needed to define some stuff more, do so. Keep everything written down, though, so if someone comes into the game who is familiar with it, you can fill them in a little easier. Nightshade

If you want a primary source for Roman politics (ie an original writing by someone who was near or in the period), I would suggest a translation of the Twelve Caesars by Sutonius, if you can find one. Just as an asside, the Byzantine Empire was incredibly interesting. If you went there and asked people, they would say that they were Roman, even though at the time, Rome was not in then Empire, they primarily spoke Greek, not Latin, and only had Turkey as being part of Europe. One of the Emperors thought that this situation was totally unacceptable (that Rome wasn't part of the Roman Empire), that he invaded Italy to try to reclaim the "heart" of the Empire. The campaign failed. Nightshade

My first suggestion would be Fantasy HERO. It has a lot of information on world building. For very detailed world-building, if you can find ARIA Worlds (blue book, not the roleplaying book), it is excellent. Hope that helps. Nightshade

If these items have powers, I would suggest that you make the characters pay for it as such. Normally, I wouldn't require this, but for your idea, it makes sense. The character would choose to be one of these simply for the items otherwise. Nightshade

How about Neophyte for the level one and simply wizard or adept for the other? Nightshade

I've done that, and it worked fine. Many different magic systems use wands, staves, dusts, etc. The nice thing is that it also makes spells relatively less expensive. If you go with something more D&D style, expendible foci can be a real problem. Then, they not only have to find the focus, they have to find a lot of foci. Nightshade

I prefer low, but epic, fantasy. In my mind, the way to do this is to have a low fantasy setting, but then (eventually) give players access to magic. This not only makes the magic special, but makes the PCs epic in standing. It also makes magic wielding villians that much more powerful. Nightshade

I always liked the concept of opposites in magic. So, if there is necromancy, there should be vitamancy (or whatever you call it). In that vein, I would suggest Light-based and Darkness-based magics. Many magics are very attack oriented, so a defensive oriented school would be great (Abjuration). Mind control/possession magic (Charms) would be cool, too. I will be getting the Grimoire this weekend. Can't wait to get it! Nightshade

A sequel? Hey, no one ever mentioned a sequel. *starts reprioritizing money to buy more HERO goodness* I'm hoping to get my Grimoire this weekend. Nightshade

Okay... So you've got it. Spill, man, how is it? Is it half as good as FH? Give us the scoop! Nightshade