Dark Albion: the Origin Thread

[RPGPundit]

I just read the opening post and I like this setting from what I have read so far and want to read it more in-depth later tonight. I'm a sucker for historical fantasy.

I'd love to get the materials for Dark Albion soon and maybe run a campaign of it. Can I make some homebrew settings for it focusing on fantasy versions of Russia (I presume that's the Rus mentioned in the opening post), Italy, the Nordic countries, and especially the Holy Roman Empire?

Yes, you could do any of those. There's a chapter on "The Continent" which covers the Albion version of all of those in brief.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Well we got Dracula, King Arthur, and Robin Hood, I think it would be interesting to insert a few other fairy tale characters, like Jack the Giant Killer, their are Giants North of Hadrian's Wall, Maybe the Little Mermaid, and if there was a King Arthur, there maybe a Lady of the Lake, maybe she was an aquatic elf, that is why she is "of the lake." You have Richard the Third, player characters might decide to rescue those two princes and see what happens.

[Tom Kalbfus]

I notice that the highest level of the campaign is 14th level. What if each gold sovereign collected as treasure was worth an experience point and the experience point table was set up like this:

Level : xp to attain
1st : 0
2nd : 1000
3rd : 2000
4th : 4000
5th : 8000
6th: 16,000
7th : 32,000
8th : 64,000
9th : 125,000
10th : 250,000
11th : 500,000
12th : 1,000,000
13th : 2,000,000
14th : 4,000,000
15th : 8,000,000
16th : 16,000,000
17th : 32,000,000
18th : 64,000,000
19th : 125,000,000
20th : 250,000,000

This leads to some very powerful characters, not because they obtain high levels, but mainly to attain these high levels, they need to accumulate vast fortunes, and at high levels, most experience gets accumulated through treasure collected. If the wealth level is to high, one could set an experience point equal to 1 copper penny's value of treasure collected instead, the doubling experience point table will still keep the levels down low.

With this kind of advancement, players are more likely to become political actors in this campaign world, they are likely to have their own private armies, mass combat will get used a lot at the higher levels. Players will get to direct troop movements, and one can dust off Battlesystems to resolve these actions. If your player characters want to challenge King Richard III for the throne of England, this is the way to do it.

[RPGPundit]

I notice that the highest level of the campaign is 14th level. What if each gold sovereign collected as treasure was worth an experience point and the experience point table was set up like this:

Level : xp to attain
1st : 0
2nd : 1000
3rd : 2000
4th : 4000
5th : 8000
6th: 16,000
7th : 32,000
8th : 64,000
9th : 125,000
10th : 250,000
11th : 500,000
12th : 1,000,000
13th : 2,000,000
14th : 4,000,000
15th : 8,000,000
16th : 16,000,000
17th : 32,000,000
18th : 64,000,000
19th : 125,000,000
20th : 250,000,000

This leads to some very powerful characters, not because they obtain high levels, but mainly to attain these high levels, they need to accumulate vast fortunes, and at high levels, most experience gets accumulated through treasure collected. If the wealth level is to high, one could set an experience point equal to 1 copper penny's value of treasure collected instead, the doubling experience point table will still keep the levels down low.

With this kind of advancement, players are more likely to become political actors in this campaign world, they are likely to have their own private armies, mass combat will get used a lot at the higher levels. Players will get to direct troop movements, and one can dust off Battlesystems to resolve these actions. If your player characters want to challenge King Richard III for the throne of England, this is the way to do it.

Well sure, but it's not very medieval-authentic. Both because that amount of coin currency shouldn't be common, and also because many characters, either due to social status or character class, should not be concerned with collecting coin as their main reward.

[Ghostmaker]

Well sure, but it's not very medieval-authentic. Both because that amount of coin currency shouldn't be common, and also because many characters, either due to social status or character class, should not be concerned with collecting coin as their main reward.

Oh jeez, I just realized this. Part of medieval/Renaissance history involves the rise of the moneyed merchant class, because the nobility really didn't pay attention to money (indeed, it was considered gauche to actually do more than direct underlings).

[RPGPundit]

Oh jeez, I just realized this. Part of medieval/Renaissance history involves the rise of the moneyed merchant class, because the nobility really didn't pay attention to money (indeed, it was considered gauche to actually do more than direct underlings).

Precisely, and I point that out in the book.

[SciFiGuy]

Hi brand new to the site, just bought Dark Albion.

Had a strange issue though, I was using PayPal to purchase it from Lulu / your book was the only item I had in the order and it was declined by PayPal for the Reason "This transaction cannot be completed because it violates the PayPal User Agreement." I do not understand how this could and I have a request in with PayPal CS to see if they will be able to provide more info. But with all the bad press about PayPal it kind of freaked me out. Has this happened before / or is this just my strange thing?

[Validin]

Is there a full "worldmap" in Dark Albion?

[RPGPundit]

Hi brand new to the site, just bought Dark Albion.

Had a strange issue though, I was using PayPal to purchase it from Lulu / your book was the only item I had in the order and it was declined by PayPal for the Reason "This transaction cannot be completed because it violates the PayPal User Agreement." I do not understand how this could and I have a request in with PayPal CS to see if they will be able to provide more info. But with all the bad press about PayPal it kind of freaked me out. Has this happened before / or is this just my strange thing?

I'm not sure. I presume it's a problem at paypal's end, or your end, rather than at my publisher's end. Nothing has been notified to me about that.

[RPGPundit]

Is there a full "worldmap" in Dark Albion?

Only the ones in the Dark Albion book. That includes the map of Albion, the local maps, and the map of the Continent.

[Danger]

Waaaaay late to say "thank you," for Dark Albion and the rest of your offerings, RPGPundit.

To put it mildly, your works as well as Sine Nomine's goods, are "no brainer/Day 1," buys for me.

Keep on truckin', man.

[RPGPundit]

Waaaaay late to say "thank you," for Dark Albion and the rest of your offerings, RPGPundit.

To put it mildly, your works as well as Sine Nomine's goods, are "no brainer/Day 1," buys for me.

Keep on truckin', man.

Thank you very much!

[1stLevelWizard]

Hey Pundit,

I've been gearing up for some Dark Albion using the AD&D rules, and I was curious if you had some insights on how to adjudicate the races. I remember reading that in the original campaign there were modified races, would you mind sharing these?

I'm considering running them as-is, but removing the additional languages, Infravision, and anything that would otherwise seem out of place (such as the Dwarves' stone sense abilities).

Thanks!

[RPGPundit]

Hey Pundit,

I've been gearing up for some Dark Albion using the AD&D rules, and I was curious if you had some insights on how to adjudicate the races. I remember reading that in the original campaign there were modified races, would you mind sharing these?

I'm considering running them as-is, but removing the additional languages, Infravision, and anything that would otherwise seem out of place (such as the Dwarves' stone sense abilities).

Thanks!

In the original campaign, I didn't have demihumans. I included the Scotsman and Cymri classes as a replacement.

But if you want there to be D&D-style elves and dwarves, there's no reason you can't just have them there; the real trick would be figuring out how common they were, and what their role in human society was.

[1stLevelWizard]

In the original campaign, I didn't have demihumans. I included the Scotsman and Cymri classes as a replacement.

But if you want there to be D&D-style elves and dwarves, there's no reason you can't just have them there; the real trick would be figuring out how common they were, and what their role in human society was.

My bad. What I meant to ask was: would you just use the Elven/Dwarven racial rules for the Cymri and Scotsman, respectively?