Iren's PbP - Fantasy Setting

[Rand]

TL;DR

It seems we are starting off in a good kingdom. There is a king but no powerful hand bearing down on us. Seems most people are Godfearing. Each area we run into will have a local lord defending it. As long as we don't do evil or aggravate him, we will probably be fine. The kingdom is attempting to lay claim to a wilderness to the Southeast. The kingdom has a pioneer culture and respects landowners, and people can become owners simply by being able to hold territory.

Since most of our characters are dispossessed, and several character backstories had our families get backstabbed and there might be people trying to kill us if we remain in the civilized areas of the kingdom, it seems like the thing to do is to hike to this Southeastern Wilderness and try to stake out land there, becoming lords which may insulate us from our backstory enemies. In the wilderness we might run into pagan clans and bandits there and have to fight them. They might wield the power of pagan gods against us. Alternatively, if we want a challenge we could remain in Arandia and try to pick a fight with the powers that be there, though that would probably turn out badly real fast if the local lords ally against us and/or knights start coming after us and/or the Church's inquisitors comes after us.

From people's character backstories, it seems that there is raiding of villages happening within lord's territories and not much being done to clamp down on it.

If you want to use a lot of magic, you will probably want to get into the good graces of the Church and maybe become a recognized priest or inquisitor or paladin or something, or have an Church agent accompany you around and vouch for you. Maybe one of us could become that person. Mages are shunned and mages employed by lords are considered expendable, so being under the Church's wing might offer you protection.

I was kidding, man.
I guess Poe's Law strikes again.

[Rand]

Guess we should get rid of our flint and steel then?

Keep your flint and steel. You bought them with hard earned money (starting money).

It would be natural pyrite nodules and flint in that era.
This was a common usage among bronze civilizations if you don't want to futz with friction nonsense.
It wears out a lot faster, but it works fine.

Note: it requires more skill to use. A novice will eventually get a fire, but he'll struggle for a good while.

[Irenaeus]

I like it.

Thanks!

Here is a lot of lore stuff that you suggested and my opinions on them, see what you think:

► Show Spoiler

Most of the material wealth of Arandia is not in its nobles, but in the merchant families who control trade routes, supply armies with weapons, and bring in goods the kingdom does not produce itself.

This doesn't seem realistic. Traditional agrarian economies were closed (as in, didn't depend on foreign trade). Trade was primarily conducted for goods for prestigious consumption - furs, silks, spices, curiosities, etc.
There were some exceptions (Western Russia had no quality iron and no silver of its own, so it had imported it all from Scandies and Arabs). But, generally speaking, if 90% of population are farmers or agricultural labourers, all your income comes from land. And nobles own the land. Including a right to organize large seasonal fairs (and profit off them).

You are right, in the heartland of the kingdom, the nobles have all the land and that is the most important measure of social status and power. The merchant families might be rich in coin and serve as logistic managers but the nobles may take their stuff with little consequences, forcing them to pay tolls and just confiscating their wealth or expelling them. The kingdom has grown to allow for a cooperative relation being built between the nobles and the merchants, but the latter are usually the junior parties.

You could have a strong trader class if your kingdom had colonial ventures, but it doesn't seem this way.

There are a lot of settler expeditions to the borderlands funded by either nobles, the church, merchants or even free citizins by themselves, as we will see in the game.

You probably would've had slavery in this case and I don't see it mentioned (except for that naval market).

There is slavery and slave markets, yes. Only the rich and powerful own slaves for hard work in stuff like mines or as servants in mansions. The land is usually worked by free farmers, either on their own patches or working in their lords' lands.

You could say that trading is sinful and organize traders into a guild that is separately taxed by a king (and is overseen by church;

Trading is not sinful, but its not prestigious either. Nobles value might and the Church has its own proselytizing mission. They all use trading for their goals, such as logistics and developments.

the king might promote the guild to have a power base independent from landed vassals).

There all types of trader and crafter guilds in the capital and other large cities, but the game will be set in the borderlands with very little of the major guild's' oversight.

Or maybe rephrase the original to "most of monetary wealth".

Good point. It was meant in the way that traders transport and warehouse many goods, though the real powerful people are the nobles. Yet like I said, some merchant families do get materially rich, particularly in the bigger cities in the heartland.

Nobles could be taxed in labour and in kind.

Indeed, nobles swear fealty to the Crown, pay annual tributes to the king in coin or goods. They also support the Church in varying levels of commitments.

And coins could be rare (and minted from iron, you can even have them have some funny shape, like shield or helmet or sword or grainsack).

Coins are not that rare as coin minting techniques are ancient from older empires that crumbled much before the game's time but the technology and the concept survived. The kingdom uses stander coinage to trade, particularly from its northern ports, with many different nations. The game will begin far from all that.

In this case church (or royal court) could be responsible for keeping records of taxes and debts (and redistribute some of the gathered taxes as king or patriarch demands).

Both the royal exchequer and the Church's own finance department keeps records of taxes and debts of their own, same goes for high lords in their offices and merchant societies. The game will start far from all that.

For style points make those debt records be kept on steel tablets with letters made of wire that are stored in METAL LIBRARY. As a saying goes, "What is notched in metal is notched forever." And defaulted debtors are branded with that same wire cut out of their debt books.

I didn't post about the history writing technology in the setting, but suffice to say that proto-writing appeared in ancient empires millennia ago then evolved into alphabets and writing systems for keeping records and literature. Codices and books handwritten with parchment or vellum pages have been popularized but are expensive and rare for the regular Arandian outside libraries and offices. Where we will game, in the borderlands, this will be rare.

As for money lending and indebtedness in general, the debt recording system and the methods collecting are somewhat sophisticated in big cities and there are ubiquitous tax collectors for the nobles and clergy, even bounty hunters for the debts. Again, this is happens far from the lawless frontier.

Also, cold steel kills fairies and pagan gods better than the bronze.

We'll see about fairies and pagan gods on the course of the adventure. I can't promise they will appear, but the rumors may point to them. As for cold steel killing them, that will can be a rumor with base on facts or just tall tales.

Also also, there's a legend about a godly white metal that brings wonders and immortality. Alchemists are trying to get its secrets and adventurers are running around looking for old empire artifacts allegedly forged from this metal.

Godly white metal with legendary reputation? That's an interesting idea. Perhaps I can incorporate it to the setting indeed and it might appear in the adventures.

Also 3. There was AN IRON PROPHET once, who forged wondrous things out of this metal and made the sinful old empire crack, before being killed by drowning him into liquid metal. From metal he came and to metal he returned. And that crack of the old empire got covered in (spiritual) rust and had led to its downfall many years later. Because soul rust gnaws slowly but unstoppably.

Well, that's a fun story. I'll attach it to your characters own lore.

Also 4. The curse of the soul rust is heretical and abhorrent and its usage is a reason enough for a pyre.

Curse of the soul rust? Not sure what that's about but again sounds interesting and I may incorporate that to your characters' beliefs.

I hope you enjoy my answers!

[Irenaeus]

Guess we should get rid of our flint and steel then?

Keep your flint and steel. You bought them with hard earned money (starting money).

It would be natural pyrite nodules and flint in that era.
This was a common usage among bronze civilizations if you don't want to futz with friction nonsense.
It wears out a lot faster, but it works fine.

Note: it requires more skill to use. A novice will eventually get a fire, but he'll struggle for a good while.

I'm including selling flint and steel for easier gaming convenience. It's just a tool to light fire and I'll be assuming all characters know well how to light fires and the tools only wear out after a long time.

[DemoGraph]

I hope you enjoy my answers!

I do. I'm just throwing in ideas. Take the ones you like and discard the rest. You're the GM.

There is slavery and slave markets, yes. Only the rich and powerful own slaves for hard work in stuff like mines or as servants in mansions. The land is usually worked by free farmers, either on their own patches or working in their lords' lands.

What does One true god say about this? He doesn't assume that all people are equal?

Also also, there's a legend about a godly white metal that brings wonders and immortality. Alchemists are trying to get its secrets and adventurers are running around looking for old empire artifacts allegedly forged from this metal.

Godly white metal with legendary reputation? That's an interesting idea. Perhaps I can incorporate it to the setting indeed and it might appear in the adventures.

Nobody has heard about mithril before!
Actually, maybe better make that godly metal red, since iron ore is red-tinged.
There could also be a "green bronze" ubermetal for pagans.
(And many sessions later red sword-wielding horde would meet a green sword-wielding one in a jedi battle.)

Also 4. The curse of the soul rust is heretical and abhorrent and its usage is a reason enough for a pyre.

Curse of the soul rust? Not sure what that's about but again sounds interesting and I may incorporate that to your characters' beliefs.

Well, the church probably calls sins and corruption in some manner. If your church is big on iron, ideologically associating it with rust is quite obvious.
There could even be real soul rusting curses! Get under one and your soul begins to flay, and all the bad things can creep inside it!

[Irenaeus]

I hope you enjoy my answers!

I do. I'm just throwing in ideas. Take the ones you like and discard the rest. You're the GM.

That's exactly what I'll do. Thanks for contributing your ideas!

More discussion here:

► Show Spoiler

There is slavery and slave markets, yes. Only the rich and powerful own slaves for hard work in stuff like mines or as servants in mansions. The land is usually worked by free farmers, either on their own patches or working in their lords' lands.

What does One true god say about this? He doesn't assume that all people are equal?

There discussions on souls doctrines and among theological scholars on different souls and their worth, slavery being cruel or necessary. However, at a practical level the Church excuses slavery as part of the One True God's plan and allows slaves to be treated like goods and be exploited for work. Some excessive mistreatment of slaves are sometimes caught or used as attacks by rivals on slave owners, so there are civil and religious tribunals concerning the issue.

None or very little of that exists in the borderlands.

Also also, there's a legend about a godly white metal that brings wonders and immortality. Alchemists are trying to get its secrets and adventurers are running around looking for old empire artifacts allegedly forged from this metal.

Godly white metal with legendary reputation? That's an interesting idea. Perhaps I can incorporate it to the setting indeed and it might appear in the adventures.

Nobody has heard about mithril before!

Actually, maybe better make that godly metal red, since iron ore is red-tinged.
There could also be a "green bronze" ubermetal for pagans.
(And many sessions later red sword-wielding horde would meet a green sword-wielding one in a jedi battle.)

The concept of special metals either natural or magical is definitively one of the themes for equipment that will come up along the adventures.
I'll keep your suggestions recorded!

Also 4. The curse of the soul rust is heretical and abhorrent and its usage is a reason enough for a pyre.

Curse of the soul rust? Not sure what that's about but again sounds interesting and I may incorporate that to your characters' beliefs.

Well, the church probably calls sins and corruption in some manner. If your church is big on iron, ideologically associating it with rust is quite obvious.
There could even be real soul rusting curses! Get under one and your soul begins to flay, and all the bad things can creep inside it!

The association of rust with corruption by the iron-supremacist Church makes total sense and I'll try to find ways to make that relevant.
Thanks again!

If you guys have any more lore suggestions keep posting and I'll try my best to incorporate in our setting.

[maidenhaver]

@Irenaeus give me justice: Zollo's people are cannibals and sodomites, and Hunkar dwells in a dung heap.

[Irenaeus]

@Irenaeus give me justice: Zollo's people are cannibals and sodomites, and Hunkar dwells in a dung heap.

Your character can have that opinion in the game, but unless @Humbaba agrees to it, it's not happening. When he created his savage mountain tribe and god for his backstory, I examined and felt it fit the setting flawlessly; there are a lot of barbarian and wild tribes at the frontiers of the kingdom, it's described in the lore. Everyone's background integrate seamlessly with what have written for the setting so far and there's no need to be worried about them.

[maidenhaver]

We might need to simplify combat. Right now it's:
day 1 - roll for init.
day 2 - roll for attack / dmg for round 1.
day n+1 - roll for round n+1.
If it's 50% chance to hit, one hit one kill, we make turns once every two days, single combat may take a week.
It might be easier for a GM, but after several combats it might become too long.
Ideally, we probably need player input only when some meaningful decision has to be made. Roll for init or attack closest are not decisions.

Also, a cellar that 12 grown men hadn't even began to fill with their bodies is a goddamn huge one for a mud pit.
It's either a sacrificial pit for us all (roof falls, everyone dies, blood for the rat god), some kind of trader's warehouse or the inn stands on top of some older foundation (proceed to discover loli elf skellingtons).

The village is new, but the foundations are ancient. Homes were built into the earth, and the Inn was converted from the largest dwelling.

@Irenaeus its up to you, I'm just offering a solution. Or just make us look cramped and pathetic, in your next post.

[Irenaeus]

Also, a cellar that 12 grown men hadn't even began to fill with their bodies is a goddamn huge one for a mud pit.
It's either a sacrificial pit for us all (roof falls, everyone dies, blood for the rat god), some kind of trader's warehouse or the inn stands on top of some older foundation (proceed to discover loli elf skellingtons).

The village is new, but the foundations are ancient. Homes were built into the earth, and the Inn was converted from the largest dwelling.

@Irenaeus its up to you, I'm just offering a solution. Or just make us look cramped and pathetic, in your next post.

Thanks, it's a good observation. I did write that the town was rebuilt decades ago over ruins of an ancient outpost.