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Post by Maerin on Jun 11, 2008 21:28:23 GMT
Hey all, I have finally had time today to start to turn back to this plan and get things moving. Today I posted the Story So Far, so one might be introduced to the initial plot line. In case you might be wondering, yes, you are the heroes that Lord Kevoan recruited in Garthen and who discovered and defeated the plot to assassinate Queen Evaine. So plan character backgrounds accordingly. There doesn't have to be any sort of explicit or significant connection to Dessi, but there probably shouldn't be any sort of "I don't like Elder Magi" component in there anywhere. Character creation information to follow this week. Generally speaking, the basics are going to be per the rulebook (not for heroic attributes this time; sorry folks). Class is about the only area where things might get a bit fuzzy, as has been talked about before.
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Post by Altor "Al" Cloudscraper on Jun 12, 2008 10:59:00 GMT
What rules are you going with for rolling up stats? Not pure 3d6? LOL You are a hard GM, but I did not think that hard!
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Post by Karstan on Jun 17, 2008 20:23:48 GMT
Has anyone noticed an apparent error in the map in the back of the LWRPOL it shows the capital of Talestria as Gurthen not Garthen.
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Post by Maerin on Jun 18, 2008 0:10:04 GMT
Maerin chuckles. I had not noticed that particular typo, no. The map in the back of the LWRPG book, while artistic, is not as helpful for practical gaming use and so I really haven't paid a lot of attention to it.
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Post by Altor "Al" Cloudscraper on Jun 18, 2008 6:07:24 GMT
Maerin chuckles. I had not noticed that particular typo, no. The map in the back of the LWRPG book, while artistic, is not as helpful for practical gaming use and so I really haven't paid a lot of attention to it. Its horrible for it! What game book best depicts the areas we are starting with?
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Post by Maerin on Jun 18, 2008 18:32:57 GMT
Right off the bat? Book 8 for text, Book 17 for map (in fact, one of the best maps to keep around one for this game in any case, at least for the foreseeable future).
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Post by Altor "Al" Cloudscraper on Jun 18, 2008 19:38:48 GMT
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Post by Maerin on Jun 18, 2008 20:34:27 GMT
Book 18. GM not immune to typos.
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Post by Altor "Al" Cloudscraper on Jun 18, 2008 21:04:32 GMT
Book 18. GM not immune to typos. So I don't need the winter outfit that I bought just yet then, eh? LOL
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Post by Maerin on Jun 18, 2008 22:00:07 GMT
Yet.
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Post by Altor "Al" Cloudscraper on Jun 18, 2008 22:09:10 GMT
No worries there! I have wanted to campaign in an arctic environment for a while now, never had the chance!
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Post by Maerin on Jun 18, 2008 22:17:48 GMT
Well, no forays to either Kalte nor Ixia are actually planned (unless you all REALLY want to get away from the conquering Darklords). But there are some interesting...um...semi-related ideas floating around out there.
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Zohar
Hardened Gamer
Is Mr. Handy
Posts: 453
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Post by Zohar on Jun 19, 2008 0:10:40 GMT
Book 18's map was the very one I pulled up a few days back to scope out the area, and it is a very good one to use.
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Post by Altor "Al" Cloudscraper on Jun 19, 2008 6:23:39 GMT
So I have been working on my char background, going over the geopgraphy of Palmyrion, and could not help but notice two things.
1. It, alongside its ally Talestria, have to be the most poorly placed freenations! I would argue thier position is even worse than Sommerlands! Talk about being surrounding be enemies! It shares a border with Ruel (truely evil), three countries whose leadship could easily be taken by agents of Naar, and while not sharing a border with Ogia, it is just a leap over bandit country in Magador!
2. The alliances along the Tanteris are so interwoven as to make the alliances that led to the first world war look simple by comparison. I was just mapping out the alliances, and pretty much attacking any freeland nation along northern tanteris would plunge most of northern magnamund into war.
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Post by Maerin on Jun 19, 2008 16:49:36 GMT
1. It, alongside its ally Talestria, have to be the most poorly placed freenations! I would argue thier position is even worse than Sommerlands! Talk about being surrounding be enemies! It shares a border with Ruel (truely evil), three countries whose leadship could easily be taken by agents of Naar, and while not sharing a border with Ogia, it is just a leap over bandit country in Magador! Germany between the mid-19th century and the end of World War II understands completely. That said, Germany and a couple other European nations do provide good examples demonstrating that geographical barriers are not necessary if other considerations are put in place. In Magnamund, Darklord Zagarna demonstrates rather pointedly to the Sommerlending that geographical barriers that actually do exist are not guarenteed protection against a determined invasion that plans in advance to deal with those barriers. 2. The alliances along the Tanteris are so interwoven as to make the alliances that led to the first world war look simple by comparison. I was just mapping out the alliances, and pretty much attacking any freeland nation along northern tanteris would plunge most of northern magnamund into war. Actually, that may be more true by the end of the war against the Darklords, just after Lone Wolf’s slaying of Gnaag and the destruction of Helgedad. After that point, we saw the emergence of the Freelands Alliance as a coherent reality, which seemed to carry forward into the Grandmaster and New Order gamebooks (as well as be present, in various forms, in our own West Watch storylines). However, in the time period my game is starting out in, that does not seem to be so much the case. That various nations had friendly relations is certainly true: Dessi and Talestria is one example offered in the time immediately prior to Gnaag’s first invasion. But very few seem to be true “military-intervention” style alliances in the pre-World War I sense you referred to. I would actually conclude that this was one reason many such nations fell so readily to invasion by the Darklords and/or Vassagonians (in some cases not just once, but twice!). It is probably worth noting that the various alliances that characterized the world in the decades leading up to World War I were not as simple or cut-and-dried as popular history often makes out either. It is also worth noting that “alliance” does not automatically imply either “mutual-defense” or “military-intervention”. I suppose that, in the case of the Freelands Alliance after the end of the war, such implications might be more readily inferred (we see evidence of that in a few of the Grandmaster and New Order gamebooks). The only real apparent, multi-national (i.e. more than two nations) alliance that appears functional in the MS5061 to MS5062 era is that between Anari, Firalond, Lourden and Kakush. That alliance, pretty obviously made and sustained because of the long-term (centuries-long, in fact) threat of Vassagonian attack, is obviously functioning at the beginning of the invasion. There are a couple stated two-nation alliances that obviously exist prior to Gnaag’s invasion: Talestria and Palmyrion, for instance, or Sommerlund and Durenor. Even Vassagonia and the Darklands represent a known example. But that seems about it, before the beginning of the war. In the first year of the war, a couple others seem to form. Eru and Lencia obviously allied in Eru’s war against the Hammerlands, to order drive them out of former Eruan lands. There did not seem to be any greater strategic goal than that; and it seems plausible that, if all had gone well, Eru might have then supported some sort of Lencian drive into Nyras. That is an inference, but it seems a straight forward “trade”, if you will, of equivalent military-intervention services. However, what there is not is any evidence to suggest that this alliance existed prior to the point where we see its effect. The same seems to apply to the Bor army that joins the allied Talestrian-Palmyrion army that finally defeats the Ogians. That alliance seems even more tenuous as, after the siege of the Ogian capital of Xanar, the Talestrian-Palmyrion army attacks Ghatan while the Bor army separates to invade the Hammerlands. Though this all has the appearance of coordination, I tend to think actually that might be fairly illusionary (which is why the whole house of cards falls down when Gnaag turns things around on everyone). World War I actually makes for a very good parallel here, with the discovery by the end of the war of the overwhelming need for a “supreme Allied command structure” to organize and render coherent and cooperative all the various strategic elements for war on that scale.
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