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Author Topic: Lands of Plenty RPG  (Read 4157 times)

catty_big

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« on: July 14, 2017, 07:51:10 AM »
Introduction

I'm currently working on a fictional world that will eventually become the setting for a wide-ranging RPG and possibly also some novels (and maybe one day a movie franchise?). I asked in the G+ World Building community some time ago whether folks would prefer a big info dump or short articles about specific aspects of the universe, and the consensus was for the latter. I'm now ready to start putting some of my workings out there, and over the next few weeks I aim to provide folks with a basic background to the setting: potted history, topography and civil infrastructure etc.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2017, 08:02:13 PM by catty_big »
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catty_big

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« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2017, 07:39:28 PM »
General overview

The phrase Lands of Plenty ('Romandis Sidra' in the language of the gameworld), is how the territory - which encompasses an area roughly the size of Central Asia - has traditionally been referred to by its inhabitants, who at the current era number around 50 million souls. The phrase derives from the once rich and fertile grasslands in the centre of the Sidra (lands), and by extension their abundant natural beauty; however, over the course of the last two centuries the Sidra have been wracked by war, famine and pestilence, as a number of powerful clans (think GoT Houses meets Scottish clans) have fought each other for dominance, leaving the Sidra devastated, with disease rife, and over a million displaced people either established in regions far from their own, or roaming the land finding work, food and shelter where they can.

The game is set in the year 1502 (that's to say 1'502 years after the legendary founding of a settlement in what is now the city of Ketri-sar by a figure who is marginally more likely to have existed than King Arthur), at a point when the clans have fought each other to a standstill and are tired of fighting, and have grudgingly accepted semi-obeisance to the current Primarch. Although the Primarchy has existed for several centuries, the authority and reach of most Primarchs over the last 200 years has been minimal at best. However, thirty years ago this began to change when the current Primarch's father attempted to bolster his authority by means of local legates (Okhtaga) and compliant clan chieftains whose support he gained through various inducements, including titles, military threats and of course bribery.

This enterprise was reasonably successful, so much so that, as I say, there is now a peace of sorts, however fragile. But do the clans genuinely desire peace, or are they just giving themselves time to re-group, before launching into yet another damaging internecine war? And will the Primarch and, more crucially, his cretinous son, held in utter contempt by most of the Sidra's movers and shakers, be able to consolidate their authority and create an enduring legacy, or will they prove to be yet more flotsam, carried away on the tide of history?

Ok, that's yer lot for now. More detailed explanation of all of the above and more coming shortly...
« Last Edit: July 23, 2017, 08:01:59 PM by catty_big »
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Dumarest

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« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2017, 03:28:19 PM »
What RPG are you using to play in your world? It'd be a lot more interesting to discover the world through play.

catty_big

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« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2017, 10:10:42 AM »
Quote from: Dumarest;976463
What RPG are you using to play in your world?
Homebrew system, although I'm going to try to make it as system-independent as possible so folks can play other games within the setting.

Quote from: Dumarest;976463
It'd be a lot more interesting to discover the world through play.
Well in a way the gameworld is the game. What I'm doing here is outlining the setting so people can get a feel for it. Also, although the game is not intended to be fully immersive, it will help the players to have a general grounding in the history and lore. And don't worry, there'll still be plenty to discover :).
« Last Edit: July 20, 2017, 11:47:11 AM by catty_big »
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catty_big

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« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2017, 10:15:11 AM »
Power structures and the justice system

The Amarkhkris Sidra at this time was a bit like early C19 Italy in that it was, in the famous Metternich quote (who knew A Level History would ever come in handy?), 'only a geographical expression'. Comparison can also be made with mediaeval Iceland, which nominally came under the Kingdom of Norway, but on the whole did its own thing. Modern students of political science can argue back and forth about the extent to which the Primarch of this period was a national ruler, and Ketri-sar the seat of a national Government, but for most intents and purposes we may take it that they weren’t.

The Primarchy was established in the 1220s following the gradual collapse of the continent’s various competing duchies, principalities and kingdoms, as part of an agreement by a number of high-ranking noble families not to wage war against each other for dominance in exchange for vaguely-worded promises of what we would today call a peace dividend - mutual co-operation leading to security and increased economic prosperity etc. - so it was somewhat akin to the UN or Nato, with the Primarch as a sort of Secretary-General. The agreement consisted of a set of protocols covering various specifics, packaged up in an overarching agreement known as the Fealty, under which the nobles pledged loyalty to the Primarch, who would be elected by a self-selecting High Council composed of figures representing assorted interest groups, including the noble families themselves. Note that this agreement was not in any way a constitution (although it would be used as the basis for one by centralising administrations of later epochs), nor did it overly concern itself with the rights and working conditions of ordinary people, since the purpose of it was mainly to stop the inheritors of the power structures of previous centuries from engaging in a damaging and mutually destructive war. Not that in the end it was able to do so, the conventional wisdom being that it merely postponed the inevitable, and possibly even exacerbated the situation by giving the clans a breathing space in which to gather their forces and build up war chests and arsenals.

The Fealty technically refers to the document signed in 1223 by the clan chieftains which led to the creation of the Primarchy, but in time it came to represent the actual territory it covered, in the sense of the area of influence of its signatories. Its core principle was a very simple one: abide by the agreement and no-one will bother you; break it, however, and not only could the Primarch come down on you like a ton of bricks, but fellow signatories could potentially attack you with impunity as well, because although the blessing of the Primarch was nominally required for such action, communications being slow it would be relatively easily to argue that speedy containment of a sabre-rattling fealty-breaker could be justified under the defence and military assistance protocols. Ultimately peace is achieved (or at least achievable) when there is a balance of power between competing interests, and if the balance should shift there is the potential for renewed conflict. As such, the Fealty was effective only to the extent that its signatories were evenly matched in terms of wealth, influence and, crucially, military might.

Something to keep in mind when discussing the power balance in the Sidra is that although the clans have enormous power over the territory they effectively control, their rule is de facto not de jure. In other words, apart from the Primarch’s Edicts in Council they have no legal right of suzerainty aside from their rights as landowners, and so technically are subject to local laws just like everyone else. However, it would be a very brave alderman, magistrate or tax collector who would go up against a member of powerful local clan, although the high risk of serious repercussions doesn’t always stop them from doing so. Looking ahead a bit to my exposition of the system (such as it currently is), such a case would involve a dice-off where all sorts of things - such as crusading zeal, desire for revenge, support from other high-profile figures, and reputation (which can go up and down during a session due to various factors like being bested in combat and failed challenge rolls) can modify the roll, so it’s theoretically possible for a high status character to lose a roll against a low status one.

In addition to the Primarch and his or her local representatives, clan leaders, local officials (who derive their authority from the legal structures of the legacy kingdoms and duchies etc. from which the current regional entities spring), there are in addition a number of other classes. There are the merchants, who are sometimes able to use their often vast wealth to leverage members of other groups, including clan elders and local officials - as with any society, everybody has their price. There are tax gatherers, who ‘buy’ the concession to collect taxes on various types of goods on behalf of the local authorities and/or the Primarch (the payment of duties being part of the control mechanism of the Fealty, and one bitterly resented by the clans). Then there are the religious groups - the spiritual and/or monastic orders - who also have power and influence stemming from, in some cases, very extensive landholdings, and material wealth in the form of donations by pious individuals. They are often also under the protection of local clan elders or merchants concerned about the status of their souls. I will expand on the role of religion in the Sidra in another post.

The justice system includes courts, court officials, magistrates, investigators, town elders and town councillors etc. - and crimes are broadly similar to ones we would recognise, although the laws differ in type and severity from area to area and region to region, for example in the Greenlands the laws against things like cattle-rustling may seem pretty draconian to someone not from a farming area. Similarly, in mercantile areas the penalties for theft, handling stolen goods and highway robbery are very severe. And so on. One big difference between the Sidra and our world is that prisons are often privately run, and the supply of goods to prisons and their inmates is for some merchants a business in itself. Punishments, types of offences and the rigour of the judicial process vary enormously from town to town and from region to region, meaning that it’s sometimes a matter of chance whether you get locked up or executed for a particular crime.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2017, 08:02:28 PM by catty_big »
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catty_big

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« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2017, 06:29:16 PM »
Crime and punishment

In my last post I talked about the power balance and listed the major players. I mentioned that, although the clans are uber powerful and massively influential, there exist civil authorities and local laws governing various aspects of life in the Sidra, many of which started off as one-off edicts and by-laws but which have evolved over the centuries into a solid canon. But what kinds of crimes and misdemeanours are covered by these laws; how strict are they and, perhaps more importantly, how strictly are they enforced, and by whom? Who curates them? Can they ever be amended or rescinded, and, if so, how and by whom etc.

Ok. At first glance, the mishmash of laws across the Sidra do look like a total dog's breakfast. And there are the anomalies beloved of students of jurisprudence, such as the famous rope tax, which gradually pulled more and more items into its orbit while at the same time ceasing to be levied on rope, and the 'fact' that murder wasn't a crime until the mid-C19. It's true that it wasn't made a federal crime until the unified penal code of 1851, however there were numerous local ordinances governing offences against the person - up to and including the various degrees of homicide - and these were fairly uniform across the continent, albeit with penalties in some areas being more severe than in others.

Typical crimes included public order offences such as affray, disorderly conduct, rioting, or incitement to riot, and brawling etc.; property offences such as burglary, vandalism, wilful damage and so forth; passing fake coin, watering down of beer and wine and the giving of short measure; the striking of public officials and/or the obstructing of them in the course of their duties (amounting to what we would call resisting arrest); assault and battery; spousal abuse (on both sides), 'Acts most egregious and monstrous': rape, infanticide, parricide, assaulting a pregnant woman (legal protections for women being far in advance of most Mediaeval Societies we know of in our world); cattle rustling, the mistreatment of animals (Surprised? Don't be, animals are hugely important to farming communities. An injured animal is an unproductive animal, and an unproductive animal - especially a dead one - could mean the difference between life and death to a poor peasant farmer) and various types of fraud involving deeds and documents etc., particularly as regards to property ownership.

So who brings prosecutions, and where and by whom are they tried? First of all there are the relatively straightforward 'pick up and drop' offences, where an officer of the Watch would rock up to a disturbance, assess the situation on their feet and if it was a relatively trifling matter haul the perpetrator off to the town gaol and leave them to cool off for a few hours or days. If it turned out to be something a bit more serious, or if there was a local big-wig involved, they'd bung them in the clink to await being seen by a magistrate at the next available session. Then there are the more specialised offences such as tax evasion, counterfeiting and fraud, and here's where it starts to get interesting, as there are multiple agents often vying for control, with no hard and fast rule as to who has jurisdiction in a given area (so we're back to the dog's breakfast), and where it frequently comes down to might over right.

I mentioned before that gaols tended to be privately operated. Well, in addition, as was the case in Tudor England (only a lot more so), there was a whole raft of taxes, duties and 'rights of purview' which were effectively sold by the Primarch, local nobles and the various legacy dukedoms and principalities etc., which entitled the holder to collect monies due on the sale of everything from building materials and fine cloths to pig manure. Trouble is, due to traditionally poor record keeping and the lack of an established civil service, not to mention the wholesale destruction of acres of legal documents during the Warring Clans period, the documentation for all the above varied from scanty to non-existent, and so the potential for disputes, rivalries and corruption was immense. Step forward the various competing interests I talked about in my previous post, and, looking ahead to my discussion of the types of possible scenarios and possible player characters etc., I could envisage plenty of sessions and even long-form campaigns where these types of power struggle inform the fiction, and at least in part drive the PCs' actions.

I'll finish by walking folks through the various punishments on offer to the custodians and enforcers of the law. Ok, so we have all the usual suspects - pillory, stocks, dungeons, ducking and whipping etc., as well as fines (or imprisonment and/or forced labour for those who couldn't pay) and in addition amputations, branding and banishment, and of course public execution (usually by hanging in the town square). There were also special punishments meted out for banditry and brigandage, and for outlaws whatever summary justice as might be deemed appropriate by the person apprehending them - which could be anyone, even an ordinary citizen - without the necessity of a trial. Finally, due to the lack of a legal and moral code deriving from a revealed religion (see my post on religion and morality for more on that point), sexual acts such as fornication, abortion, adultery, sex work and homosexuality were not considered criminal acts, any misdeeds associated with them coming under public order offences as above (but see also the aforementioned 'Acts most egregious and monstrous').
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catty_big

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« Reply #6 on: July 26, 2017, 12:25:49 PM »
Religion

Religion is a difficult thing to handle in RPGs. It needs to be thematic, interesting, and capable of being worked into the gameworld and mechanics in a way that both makes sense and is 'gameable' (i.e. can inform PCs' actions in a meaningful way rather than just being bolted-on). Moreover, the inclusion of a religion or morality system must (in my opinion) avoid (a) appearing to simply replicate an existing religion, especially one's own or that of one's background or culture, and (b) being too mechanical, i.e too overtly connected to the game's system, for example if it's used largely to stop the player characters being evil: 'Yes, you can slaughter that NPC, but you'll lose so many such-and-such points that it wouldn't be worth it'. I'm happy for a morality system to impose penalties on evildoing, but I don't think it should be used to stop it happening. Or the alignments in D&D which, while interesting and ingenious, and capable of generating quite a lot of variation from a small set of tools, are too mechanical for my taste. They do a good job of creating a relatively complex morality system fairly easily and with not much input, however I prefer something a bit more impressionistic. Anyway, let's turn our attention to the religion of the Sidra.  
 
The main thing that distinguishes the Amarkhris Sidra from Mediaeval Europe is the lack of any kind of organised religion. Up until now (that is to say, around the turn of the Sixteenth Century, a period comparable in culture and development to that of a similar stage in European history), the religion across most of the continent has been a mixture of animism, ancestor worship and worship of the 'old gods', a sort of pagan quasi-pantheon of a significance somewhere between the Graeco-Roman and Hindu deities, with specific ones 'in charge of' various aspects of life, and shrines and temples similar in style to Buddhist and Shinto ones, with carefully proportioned and positioned structures of stone and wood, interior decoration in auspicious patterns, shapes and colours, and intricate rituals and liturgies designed to exhort, appease and celebrate. The gods in this set-up varied slightly from region to region, and from one locality to another, partly depending on the local economy, thus there were gods that as it were specialised in agriculture, ones with oversight of mountains, rivers and lakes etc., (somewhat shading into animist wood and tree spirits here), of fertility, fishermen, travellers, weather, learning, commerce and so forth; many of them had different names in different parts of the Sidra but fulfilled roughly the same function, and most of them had days and festivals associated with them, again varying region by region.
 
However, worship of these 'old gods' (as they are starting to be disparagingly called) has been on the wane lately, for a number of reasons. First, without the protection of the civil power (apart, in some cases, from the private support of specific clans and local officials), there was nothing to stop rampaging armies from looting the shrines and temples, breaking up the buildings and stripping out the precious metals, furnishings and roof tiles and kidnapping novices and assaulting and raping priests, monks and nuns. Not that these ravages were systematic (although they sometimes were), but they eventually became endemic, and at the same time the gradual economic collapse caused by the endless fighting meant donations slowed to a trickle and then stopped completely. What with one thing and another religious buildings - temples, shrines, seminaries and monasteries (there being a relatively small number of the latter two compared to parts of Europe and Asia) - fell into ruin, and the Sidra is now littered with their remains.  
 
At the same time as the above, two other things were happening. One, in the same way that the Catholic Church in Mediaeval Europe began to lose its grip on power as people saw that for all its talk it hadn't saved them from the Black Death, as Society began to fall apart, so too did the denizens of the Sidra begin to question the existence of the old gods, and the value of all the money spent on propitiating them, and slowly but surely their faith in them began to crumble, and with it any residual respect they might once have had for their priests and followers. Sensing the mood of the citizenry, previously pious members of society started to distance themselves from them, and anyone who was seen to cling to the now discredited gods was mocked. The other thing that was happening across the continent at this time was the rise of spiritual cults, usually centred around a holy person, often poor and of lowly origins, who preached simplicity and asceticism, and who steadily gathered around them groups of followers who went from town to town spreading a message of peace and harmony and so forth. They didn't generally require a belief in any specific god or gods, but preached that salvation came via a vague, undefined divine entity of some kind that was everywhere at once, in an all-encompassing theology that somehow managed to combine elements of monotheism, animism and yes, you guessed it, the old gods (though you wouldn't recognise them as such). Some of these cults grew so large that the original holy man or woman splintered off from them, and either established around themselves a new cult, or retired to a cave, or simply wandered round the countryside chewing on psychotropic plants.  
 
So where do these groups fit into the power balance? Well they don't, basically, at least not in this era, with one exception. I mentioned previously the existence of chivalric orders; these groups went round righting wrongs (or trying to) and generally doing good, sort of a combo of Western movie staple the wandering drifter and Robin Hood's Merrie Men. In time these groups themselves became rich and powerful, and a force to be reckoned with, though not in the same way as other power brokers such as clan elders, nobles and wealthy merchants; they weren't so much proactive as reactive, in other words they didn't up front exert control or get in peoples' faces, but if they felt their interests were threatened, or if they thought someone was getting a raw deal and they could help - they were bound by a loose, (usually) unwritten ethical code - they might step in. Were some of them corrupt? Wealthy, powerful and (often) militarised, what do you think? But it wasn't a big problem: some of them were, obviously - they were only human after all - but most weren't; however, as is the way with secretive and powerful organisations the world over and throughout history, they were frequently suspected of using their money and influence for immoral gain and acting in their own selfish interest, or had that suspicion used as an excuse to attack them, as with France's Philippe IV and the Knights Templar. It didn't help either that, like the Knights Templar, they had established a rudimentary banking system.  
 
One of the big differences that not having an established church made to the Society is that there wasn't the European Mediaeval Church's grip on education and learning, and by extension control over literacy and the dissemination of knowledge, which meant that literacy levels in the Sidra as a whole - with some variation obviously relating to the cost and availability of tutors and the perceived lack of necessity in many farming areas for the ability to read and write - was very high compared to Mediaeval Europe, but of course more similar to many societies in South-East Asia and elsewhere where organised religion was likewise not an issue, and where scholarship was more prized. Against this is the fact that that this absence of a controlling and authoritarian organised religion, together with the lack of sacred texts (even priests and monks were sometimes illiterate, though not often), meant that - in a departure from South-East Asian Societies - there was no tradition of a bureaucracy or Civil Service, so laws, property deeds and other documents were often sloppily written and carelessly or inexpertly drawn up, and where they were in order, they weren't necessarily curated in a tidy way, leading to and exacerbating the kind of corruption and disputes I mentioned in my previous post. I don't want to over-egg this aspect however: the holders of concessions for this or that tax or duty, and the local officials with oversight of these areas, clearly had an interest in making sure accurate records were kept; nevertheless it didn't always happen, and see also my earlier note about the destruction - sometimes wilful - of records during the Warring Clans period we're just starting to emerge from.
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catty_big

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« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2017, 06:38:51 PM »
Historical background

The first settlement in what is now the Amarkhris Sidra (the Lands of the River People) is supposed to have been on the site of Kanrimak, a town on the outskirts of Ketri-sar, in the South-East of the continent, and believed to have been established by the legendary Prince Kanrif in Year Zero (the dating system of the Sidra is based on this event). According to the traditional account, handed down for centuries, Kanrif was an explorer who together with a group of fellow adventurers had come from a distant land, settling the area where they came ashore, developing agriculture and metallurgy etc. and building towns, and eventually spreading across the entirety of the continent. Except that this narrative is almost certainly completely false. First of all, since the last Ice Age the continent had been a vast island, cut off from and all but inaccessible to anyone travelling from the nearest land mass; in fact you'd be mad to try it in the current era, let alone five hundred years previously. Secondly, there's virtually no archaeological evidence to suggest there was a colony where Kanrif and his cohort are supposed to have set one up, nor is there any evidence of the existence of a society anything like as advanced as, according to the legend, theirs apparently was.

The earliest reference to the Kanrif legend occurs in around 753, in a diary kept by a scribe in a monastery about twelve miles from Kanrimak, who writes of the Abbots ambitious plan to vastly increase the number of visitors to the monastery - which was known for its striking architecture and the reputed healing properties of a medicinal potion made on the premises from a variety of herbs and whatnot, but which had lately begun to see a steady decline - by promoting the monastery's connection with a legendary ruler from several centuries ago who was thought to have established a settlement on the site where the monastery now stood. Reading between the lines of the scribe's account of this plan, one gets the sense that even then the evidence for such a figure was negligible at best, and may in fact have been a complete fabrication. So it very much looks as if the whole thing was cooked up by an enterprising Abbot in a bid to beef up the local tourist industry. Interestingly, artefacts recently uncovered on the site of a settlement dating from Year Zero about a thousand miles North-West of Kanrimak show significant differences to others from that period, and would appear to suggest that the continent may indeed have been home to a more technologically advanced society than had previously been thought.

The period dating from around the Sixth Century is more well-documented (although not hugely), and we have a picture of a society with intensive farming, metal-working and basic mining, and thriving settlements across the continent which traded with each other and between which there appear to be have been significant migration, and a population that seems to have been generally healthy. However, evidence of overarching social structures is scant, and of large-scale towns or cities virtually non-existent. It's only in the Eighth Century that kingdoms, principalities, lordly fiefdoms and areas of influence begin to form, and alongside them a culture of literature and the arts. Finds dating from this time show a remarkable level of craftsmanship, and an appreciation of objects as much for their aesthetic quality as for their function. Religion and a common language also begin to emerge, as well as a sense that the inhabitants of this vast and diverse continent think of themselves for the first time as one people, the 'People of the River' - the Amarkh Kora - that gives the continent its name.

Things carried on like this for nearly four centuries without incident (other than the occasional local war - intense and brutal, but mercifully short), with literature, music and the arts continuing to flourish - pastorals, lyrical ballads and epic poems being especially popular. However, around the late 1100s all that began to change, and the polity that had shaped the continent, and for the most part served it well, started to disintegrate. Historians disagree as to the major cause of this collapse, but point to several contributory factors that contrived to bring the whole house of cards crashing down. First, there was the quarter century from 1162 to 1187 when a series of unusually dry summers left large tracts of prime agricultural land parched and barren; crops failed, animals died and huge numbers of people starved. Secondly, there was the Great Plague of 1192, which seemed to come from nowhere and left hundreds of thousands dead. Thirdly, by a terrible co-incidence, at around that time there were several rulers (Kings, Dukes, Princes and other potentates) who were staggeringly evil, greedy, power-crazed and/or simply incompetent; their contemporary nicknames - among them Nunva the Stupid, Lanis the Arrogant and Bevik the Wicked - giving one something of a clue as to how these figures were regarded by their (literally) long-suffering subjects.

It's against this backdrop that we have the rise of the clans, who started off by co-operating with the aforementioned local rulers, but eventually eclipsed them; after a period of increasing instability and uncertainty in the early Thirteenth Century (prompting the establishment of the Fealty, as mentioned in a previous post), the political structures broke down entirely, and the Warring Clans Period - nearly two centuries of almost perpetual fighting - begins.
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catty_big

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« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2017, 06:31:13 PM »
Geography and terrain

The name given to the continent as a whole - the Amarkhris Sidra - means literally 'lands of the river people' (the Khamarkh Kori), the river in question being the mighty Sakhranogakh (or 'Dear Grandfather' as it's sometimes affectionally known), which winds its way majestically from way up in the Lower North West (no-one's exactly sure where it originates), meandering through the lush Greenlands and past the Western Highlands until it eventually empties into the Southern Sea via the Ketri Delta. Its importance to the people of the Sidra cannot be overestimated, its iconic status matching that of rivers in our world such as the Nile, the Ganga, the Mississippi and the Amazon. At its upper reaches it forms part of a larger river system, and where it joins one of these other rivers it plays host to the Twin Cities, an urban powerhouse that straddles the confluence like a colossus.

The continent itself is vast, covering an area approximately the size of Central Asia, and as such contains many different types of terrain, in common with other great land masses. The climate varies considerably, and, again, following the pattern of other large continents, climatic conditions go from one extreme to the other. For example, it can be very inhospitable in the far North, with temperatures dropping to -40C in Winter, and in the Central Plains it can reach 35C in Summer. In addition, in the latter it gets very dry in the hot Summer months, and travel across it can be extremely perilous, with nary a sign of habitation (or indeed vegetation) for up to a hundred miles in some parts. There are extensive forests across the Sidra (populated with all manner of wild beasts, thus providing another danger for travellers), several large lakes and a vast inland sea. The Sakhranogakh is about 2'200-2'500 miles long (depending on how you measure it), and up to 2 miles in width, so it's very useful as a transport link, going from North to South, but difficult to cross, especially during the rainy season in the Southerly regions, when it can swell to around 6 miles at its widest point.

There are two main mountain ranges, the Western Highlands to the West, and the Zagra Deni in the East, at the lower end of which are located the so-called Celestial Lights, a clutch of small towns and villages clustered round the foothills of Mount Zagra (Zagra Dag) that are home to a number of abbeys, nunneries and other spiritual communities. Weary travellers can get succour here, and there's a sort of unwritten code that prevents unwanted clan activity, whether that be extortion, military aggression or what have you. Parts of both the Western Highlands and the Zagra Deni can be - and have been - scaled by hardy adventurers, but are hazardous to even the most experienced of climbers. To the East of the Zagra Deni is the territory of the Digina, a clan popularly thought of as being nothing but a bunch of low-life thugs, thieves and murderers. There's some truth in that, but probably nowhere near as much as people - especially their rivals - make out. Of course, other clans hold sway over different types of territory - arable, mountainous, forested and so on.

There are a few dozen cities and large towns across the Sidra, hundreds of small and medium-sized towns, and countless villages and hamlets. The big cities - Ketri-sar, Nogamak, Bandonda and Mifunsa etc. - are for the most part 'free cities', i.e. there is a notable absence of clan activity, be it because a particular city is dominated by powerful merchants - not that life under them is any more congenial, hence the expression 'The yoke of an ox weighs as much in the town as in the fields' - or because it's in an area that never came under the influence of a clan in the first place, or only very minor ones. The major towns and cities across the Sidra are linked by a network of trunk roads, built by legacy regimes and financed by those movers and shakers who stood to benefit from trade and currency exchange and the fast and efficient movement of large numbers of people such as couriers, farm labourers and of course the merchants and princes themselves. These transport links also aided the smooth running of the chivalric orders' fledgling banking system, BUT... where you have money, goods and wealthy personages travelling great distances you also get highway robbery. Step forward gangs of ruthless villains known as Rarta (which approximates to 'useless trash' in Amarkhris). No loveable rogues these, no Sunday matinee Robin Hood and his Merry Men, these characters are hardened thugs that terrorise the highways, and from whom no-one is safe.

However, lest you should think that life in the Sidra is all misery, doom and feudal oppression, here's the bright side. The average person's lot is not actually as bad as you might think. Sure, there are troubles. There is seemingly endless fighting and destruction, both of people and of property; there is disease, drought and famine, and yes, life is hard. But among all that there are festivals, laughter, friendship and good times. As I mentioned previously, the activities of all the various power bases don't necessarily impinge on ordinary people's day to day lives. So long as you keep your head down, keep your nose clean and don't speak out of turn, chances are you'll lead a life relatively untroubled by all the shenanigans going on around you. Unless of course you're a member of one of the aforementioned power bases. But even there, if you play your cards right (and the gods haven't stacked the deck), you could in theory make it through to old age with your intestines and various body parts intact, leaving aside a few scars here and there, and maybe one or two fingers. And perhaps an ear. Hey, you've got two, what are you complaining about?
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catty_big

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« Reply #9 on: August 03, 2017, 05:46:58 PM »
Miscellaneous
 
Work
The preponderance of the population across the Sidra are more or less born into certain roles, in particular agricultural labour. Other than that, the possibilities include traveling occupations such as minstrel or messenger, and of course for members of local clans a life of leisure as part of the landowning elite. As noted previously, life as a low-level member of Society doesn't necessarily entail endless unrelieved drudgery, and while generally speaking hope of advancement is scant, it's possible to go from trader to merchant and, if one is lucky enough to be taken under the wing of a powerful figure of some sort (whether as a concubine or catamite, or just having a shine taken to one), the sky's the limit).
 
There are in addition military and household roles for members of lesser clan members (from peripheral families and suchlike), and one can fairly easily get a position as servant to a tradesperson or innkeeper etc. Failing that, the only other way of breaking out of one's pre-determined lot is to travel to distant lands in search of adventure. Cue the classic player party, roaming the land, seeking fame and fortune, rescuing folks and righting wrongs. Other jobs, especially official ones like magistrate and watchman and so on, would be either bought or inherited, or given out as a reward for loyalty by a local big shot.            
 
Sex, love and marriage
Attitudes to sex, love and marriage are extremely liberal and relaxed compared to our world, and particularly in comparison to societies traditionally under the sway of organised religion. Thus abortion, sex work, homosexuality and sex before marriage are hardly worthy of mention. That's not to say that individual characters won't be adversely regarded by particular other characters for so doing, not from a moral perspective but more from a practical or personal one. So for example a man might be angry that his wife is consorting with a business rival, or dismayed that she has had an abortion when children are needed to help provide for the family or work on the estate or whatever. Or an ugly slob of a merchant might be ridiculed for sleeping with and mooning over handsome young men.
         
Entertainment
In most localities there are traveling minstrels, actors, poets, circus performers and so forth. A fortunate player or poet may get to be employed in the service of a noble, clan high-up, or other top banana of some sort. There are also jesters who, like their counterpoints in our world, had a lot of leeway to educate their masters by cleverly insulting them.
 
One notable character is Biler of Nogamak, the Sidra's answer to Chaucer, who lived in the early 1100s, and wrote everything from short, pithy verses to long, rambling sagas. Biler is known to modern readers particularly as the author of the long-form poem 'In a Land of Plenty', written in around 1104, which painted an idealised picture of the continent. Almost certainly composed (like much of his oeuvre) under the influence of the cannabis-like plant kharbakh, this poem relates a journey through the Southern Greenlands during a time of peace and tranquility, far removed from the later Warring Clans period, and is often used - along with the legend of Prince Kanrif - to hark back to a mythical Golden Age.        
 
Medicine
Apothecaries and healers not having access to a corpus of knowledge similar to that of the Ancient Greeks or Mediaeval Islamic scholars, medical science is relatively primitive, consisting as it does mainly of herbal remedies and suchlike, although many of those are very effective. There's no surgery, anatomy or knowledge of how the heart or other organs function; however, theories regarding the above are starting to be developed by healers in some parts of the Sidra, and those investigations are beginning to come to the notice of teachers and scholars in towns where education is particularly prized, and where rudimentary universities are becoming established.        

Rituals and beliefs
1. Death and the disposal of the dead
This is an area where regions differ widely, in the sense both of generalised local beliefs and of religious tenets, and where it's almost impossible to set down a record of the Sidra as a whole. In some areas, ancestor worship - or at least ancestor reverence - is commonplace, and in others the dead are not reverenced at all beyond a simple ceremony marking the person's life, and there's no cultural obligation to remember them or to visit their memorial site. I say memorial site because, while some societies bury their dead and mark the spot with a memorial of some kind - some elaborate, some not - others either cremate the body and scatter the ashes or don't mark the location at all, thinking it unnecessary if not arrogant. Some follow the Greek custom of burying the body, and then exhuming it 2-3 years later and placing the bones in a charnel house.
 
Of course, in those societies where the death of a family member is marked by a ceremony and a memorial, the higher up the social scale the deceased, the more grandiose the whole affair. Clan high-ups for example will have ornate memorials, mausolea and statues.          
 
2. Beliefs, various
Other beliefs include those what we would call superstitions, such as attach to certain animals, weather patterns, birds flying overhead and so on. As with funerary customs, these vary considerably from region to region and area to area, although there are some that are common to most parts of the Sidra. I won't outline them all, otherwise we'd be here all day, suffice to say that the most pertinent ones would be detailed during a game session or campaign, and an exhaustive list of them will eventually find their way into the published book.  
 
Transport
As I mentioned in a previous post, there's an extensive network of roads and highways across the Sidra, laid by a combination of legacy regimes, merchants and clans in order to facilitate Sidra-wide travel for the purposes of trade and the movement of troops etc. The upkeep of this infrastructure fell to the inheritors of power in the various regions, and these transport links have been reasonably well maintained, since their aforementioned original purposes still exist. However, inevitably some have fallen into disrepair, thus presenting travellers with yet another hazard in addition to the risk of starvation, dehydration and disease, of being attacked by bandits and/or wild beasts, or of making disastrous faux pas related to local customs and beliefs as above.          
 
Money and finance
Most of the legacy kingdoms and principalities etc. struck their own coinage, which was recognised and accepted as legal tender in other parts of the Sidra depending on whether Queen this or Duke that was thought of as good for it. The authority for the minting of coinage is now vested in the rulers of big cities, including town officials, merchants and other notables (although, somewhat surprisingly, rarely clan officers). Essentially, in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, any coinage minted anywhere is recognised only to the extent that it's considered to be acceptable elsewhere.  
 
Disputes regarding currency are of course common, whether it be people accused of passing counterfeit or sub-standard coin, or traders refusing to accept money from sources they consider suspect, or simply because they don't like the cut of a particular customer's jib. What counts as 'sub-standard'? Good question. There are all manner of local laws governing the minimum amount of specific metals that coins of various sorts should contain, and yes, you guessed it, they vary considerably from location to location, so that a coin deemed acceptable in one area may well not be considered acceptable in another. Cue countless opportunities for corruption, violence and rivalry.
 
The main form of currency is the Tanlit, which is used pretty much Sidra-wide, and which is divided into sixty agira (or a hundred fedira), and in addition there are a number of other currencies that are more local and/or less widely accepted. There's also an inchoate private banking system operated by a group of chivalric orders in cooperation with local traders and merchants.  
 
Science and technology
Fairly undeveloped overall. There is at this point no concept of astronomy, mathematics, natural philosophy or philology. However, individual people are making discoveries and positing ideas that would later form the basis of nearly a century of advances in medicine, physics, chemistry, geometry and astronomy, and drive the growth of universities in some of the larger cities. On the other hand, in areas such as mining and metalwork, joinery, carpentry and coach-building, weaving, dyeing and pottery, horticulture, herbal medicine and the properties of various plants, metals and other substances, knowledge is abundant and widespread. Cartography is also fairly advanced, as is bookbinding and printing, so all in all the level of tech is basic but not primitive.  
 
Education
Access to education isn't filtered through the prism of an all-powerful organised religion, and thus literacy is much more widespread than you might think. Money is the primary complicating factor, but it doesn't have to be one's own. Clans, merchants and traders often pay for the education of their subordinates, servants and apprentices, on the basis that an educated worker is a happier and therefore a more productive one. There's no sense in which education could be seen as potentially leading to rebellion, dissatisfaction or dissent, indeed such a view would be regarded as absurd.
 
There are no officially sanctioned schools, far less an education system, the bulk of people's learning being under the aegis of independent tutors, who instruct their pupils either at home or in one-room 'schools' that they hire for the purpose. Teachers are respected citizens, and operate by and large outside the web of power structures, rivalries and spheres of influence that characterises most of the Sidra, and to which most people are subject to in one way or another.
 
In addition, there are a handful of nascent universities, which are nothing like the Mediaeval universities in our world, but which are nevertheless crucibles of higher learning, in so far as that exists in the Sidra. They consist of buildings similar in size and structure to monasteries or abbeys, with three or four study rooms, sometimes a lecture hall, and dormitories for both students and staff, and are are funded either by local bigwigs or the teachers themselves.  
 
Language
There's a continent-wide language, Amarkhris Leminra, which has three main dialects and an array of minor ones (some of which are barely mutually comprehensible), and is widely spoken and understood, although some regional accents can be difficult to penetrate, and of course curmudgeons are wont to tell outsiders they can't make out what they're saying, even though they can do so perfectly well. So, another potential source of misunderstandings for our plucky adventurers (whether comedic or otherwise).

Ok, that's the last of the setting material for now. Articles concerning playable classes, types of scenario and mechanics to follow in a separate thread.
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catty_big

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« Reply #10 on: August 07, 2017, 07:08:00 PM »
Knocked up a demo cover earlier today. The pixellation is pretty skanky - will have to work on that - but otherwise I think it looks ok. Obviously, the actual published cover will be professionally done, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1233[/ATTACH]
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catty_big

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« Reply #11 on: August 26, 2017, 02:50:39 PM »
Ok, here's my first stab at building a system. Please note that although I've played many fantasy adventure type games, I've never designed one myself, and this is way out of my indie hippy comfort zone, so forgive me if it looks weird, wonky or downright pants.

I've done three things here: first, I've cleaned up and strung together the flavour text so that it's clearer and all in one place, and thus constitutes a reference document for people wishing to familiarise themselves with the game world. Secondly, I've had a go at putting together a rudimentary system so that I can start playtesting it asap. You'll see that there are gaps, inconsistencies and hesitant fumblings etc., but, again, bear in mind it's a work in progress; I will be expanding it as I go and as I think of stuff, and following people's advice and suggestions and so on.

Thirdly, I've started to organise it as a book, so this is an idea of how it might end up looking. The layout will almost certainly change, as will the typography and artwork etc., and the sections mentioned in the contents may well change.

Regarding the mechanics, there are several things that I'm aware are not yet fleshed out enough for anyone to be able to run a game, but I'm hoping my friends in the community will help me with this as I grope towards the semblance of a system.
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catty_big

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« Reply #12 on: October 03, 2017, 04:50:06 PM »
Revised draft

Slightly revised and amended. Still no decision on basic dice mechanic, but following some comments on here and elsewhere I've changed some of the terms used and relocated one of the sections, downgrading it in the process from a chapter heading to a sub-heading. Summary of changes:
1. In the attributes table (p23), stats and ranks have become Basic and Bonus.
2. In the section on physical combat (p24), the description has been amplified to include players' ability to take a series of actions during combat, forex parry and change weapons etc. (I'm not entirely sure I've got 'choose to fail' right. It's an expression I've heard used in combat situations in several games, with the meaning given in my text; however, I may have misheard or misinterpreted it).
3. 'Player classes' (how on earth did I think that meant anything at all?!) has now become 'Occupations', and is now folded into the section on scenario building as a subsection of character creation.
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catty_big

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« Reply #13 on: October 11, 2017, 11:57:01 AM »
Ok, I've looked at a few core mechanics, and here are a selection I've chosen from among the more commonly used ones. With my storygames I almost always create a home-brew system, or savagely cannibalise an existing one, but as the audience for LoP is likely to be the traditional adventure path gamer I think it's more appropriate to use a tried and tested one.

Out of all the available mechanics I know or have briefly scanned, I've more or less settled on d20, d%, 2d10 or a d10 pool. I'm perfectly wiling to abandon all of them however if folks think a different one would be more suitable, and I'm open to arguments one way of the other; however, for the time being I'd like to explore the ones I've lighted on, as set out in the linked doc.

Lands of Plenty possible core mechanics
« Last Edit: November 01, 2017, 03:40:12 PM by catty_big »
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catty_big

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« Reply #14 on: May 20, 2019, 06:56:35 PM »
Finally, I've got the public alpha where I want it. I've spent the last couple of weeks honing it, as follows.

1.  I've added adventure seeds (pp25-32). After a period of consultation on here and elsewhere, I decided to make a whole section for it, comprising a preamble, descriptions of notable game-specific character types, lists of locations and themes, and eight actual adventure seeds in the form of tables with the headings Play mode, Synopsis, PCs, NPCs, Opening scene, Body and Denouement, together with some suggestions for fleshing them out where it seemed appropriate. So now potential GMs have three ways of creating a scenario: (1) run the pre-written scenario (or variation thereof), (2) use one of the adventure seeds, or (3) write an adventure from scratch using the advice in the Writing a scenario, Character creation and Setting notes sections.

2.  I've provided explanations of all the Abilities (pp10-13). This was in response to a user on TBP who said what does a Good Success etc. mean? I hope they're now reasonably clear. The abilities list may still change: I've taken out Initiative and Willpower, bc IME Initiative is only used for deciding turn order in combat, and Willpower for resisting Presence. In the section on Opposed rolls (p9) I suggest resisting Presence with Presence, but I'm now thinking Presence could be resisted by Constitution, given that, in the form of Stamina, the latter resists shocks and weariness etc., so why not have a mental form that resists Presence?

3.  I've overhauled the section on Social Combat (pp9-10), clarifying some aspects of it and making Social combat a weapons skill (SOC+n - see character sheet, p17). I've changed Social Status to Social skills, bc Social Status is fixed, and so not really a stat, and bc technically even a peasant could have Social Skills, although in practice they'd be unlikely to have it higher than 3.

4.  The map is now much more detailed, with some more terrain types (mountains, boreal and tundra), mine fields - some operational and some abandoned - and a sprinkling of villages.

5.  A small point, but I've amended the way specialisms are presented, from e.g. Horse-riding 4 to Horse-riding AGI+1.

6.  Thanks to TBP user John Out West I've zapped a long list of inconsistencies and infelicities, so the text is much more coherent and the rules a lot clearer.

It's still not perfect by any means, and we're a long way off from publication, even as a Quickstart; however, I'm confident that GMs can run games of Lands of Plenty using this document. If there's still any confusion about any aspect of it, I'm happy to answer any queries folks might have. Now and then the document will be amended following feedback of various kinds, so it's a living document that will evolve over time.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2019, 12:41:10 AM by catty_big »
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