The New World: A Bit of a Campaign Setting

[petespahn]

Finally had some time to read this; really good stuff!

Yeah man I think so too. I like that you've given so much thought to different human cultures. Can't wait to see how this develops.

Pete

[Charlatan]

Finally had some time to read this; really good stuff!

Yeah man I think so too. I like that you've given so much thought to different human cultures. Can't wait to see how this develops.

Pete

I really haven't put as much thought into this as you assume, but thank you all the same!

I won't be running the setting for a while yet, but my players are batting around ideas which I thought you might like to see:

Katrianna Redfield, Calarnian Thief
Goal: Make enough gold to live the easy life

Brock Redfield, Calarnian Fighter
Goal: Make enough gold to become important and respected

Cli'int Eastwood, Elf Ranger (bending the rules for that)
Goal: Find a monster strong enough to take him down, wants to be remembered

Nacandi, Ormercian Monk
Goal: To perfect her body and soul, to open a monastery and to spread her teachings

Gustaf Leonide, Calarnian Magic-User (secretly a Bromal)
Goal: Escaping his home land was the goal, now he wants to become strong enough to defend this land

...No cleric was my first thought. : o

Proper update later, today or tomorrow.

[Charlatan]

Okay I am back with another rough update! Sorry for the mess, it'll be awhile before this is a complete thing.

Today's post is factions and sects and guilds and all that. How much they effect play is up to the players really, they might join and then travel to the other side of the continent, not at all or they may work for them in return for resources, gold and helpful allies.

Church of the Creator, Creationists
The main religion of the New World, pushy and dogmatic, but generally good.
Few high ranking members of the clergy are present in the New World, so there is a good chance a priest could actually rise to the top and become an Archbishop.
While the Church has hundreds of diverse sects, they're merging together due to lack of numbers and a more open attitude.

The Evenmen sect, The Green Chapel, are growing somewhat, while many older sects have been forced to join together, loosing many obscure traditions in the process.

Bromals
Their race and religion are intertwined, to be a Bromal is to be brought up worshiping the Creator differently.
Their religion is fairly secretive and secluded, you'd have to be a Bromal to join the faction, but if you meet the requirements you'd be among equals.
Creationists consider Bromals blasphemous due to a misunderstanding about beliefs, compounded by their own secrecy.

Tower of Art, The Inspired
Primary religion of the Ormercians, but they are open to anyone, regardless of morality.
Their teachings of the power of the self lend themselves to adventurers and of the religions the Inspired has grown the most since entering the New World.

Weshirists
The religion of the Medians, who's extended families of gods are called Weshir.
Generally a Median only religion, the sheer number of gods mean other people are likely to know at least one of them by name.
Medians surprisingly have little feud with the Creationists, rather they just say their gods are angels whenever they are in their presence.

Cartographer's Guild
Perhaps the first and only corporation in the New World, it began as a few men mapping the surroundings for early settlers and grew to be manned by fifty or more people.
They are split into three parts, firstly known maps are copied and sold, secondly crews of four or five brave individuals are sent further afield to draw up new maps, thirdly older crew members become guides for those that wish to travel to dangerous locations.

Waytown's Finest
Or more often called, Boars, the town guard of Waytown.
Playing by the rules of Law are much more difficult than slaying beasts in there own way, they need keen detectives now more than ever.

Boldare's Mercantile Union
Boldare would be a small fry were he not one of the first settlers of Waytown.
His men will no almost anything for gold and while they prefer guard work and pest control, they have been known to build barns and harvest crops.
Boldare is free with his money and while this means he's often cheated, he has amassed a lot of loyal mercenaries.

Biggen's Rascals
Once Biggen the Half-Orc, now Mr. Biggen, he finds time between writing plays and showing off his Strongman routine to keep the black market ahead of the town guard.
If one was to help Mr. Biggen traffic goods in or out of Waytown, they'd have a friend-ally-aquatence, well, actually you shouldn't trust him too much.

Little Birds
Founded by Wren, the Little Birds are messengers that will deliver letters and packages to anywhere, if the price is right.
Originally created to warn Wren of oncoming law enforcement and local gossip, they still retain a bit of thievery in their training, "just in case".

The Antiquarian Foundation
Largest of many tomb robbing gangs, they're notable for studying their finds as well as selling them.
Backed by magic-users and the odd rogue Calarnian noble, they have a lot of power and have been known to make smaller gangs vanish if they try to jump their claims.

The Blind Cabal
Healers and educators, there goal is simply to rise the standard of living for those in the New World.
People are frankly looking for the catch and there isn't one.
What they do need are guards as the bumble around doing good deeds.

Conori's Fantastic Tales
A group of writers and artists that print tales of daring do, willing to pay for a good true story.
Conori himself loves adventure, but is far too old, he does patron adventurers he believes in though, as long as he gets the story.


There is a rivalry between the Cartographer's Guild and the Antiquarian Foundation. Both factions hire Boldare's mercenaries, and both are putting pressure on Boldare to choose a side. Biggen sits on the side line, however if he chose to work with one of these factions he could easily tip the scale of power.

[Charlatan]

Well thats a wrap for this thread. Gonna go play it now.

[Denim N Leather]

Keep us posted on how it develops!

[Charlatan]

Keep us posted on how it develops!

Oh ah, well, the party consists of:

Katrianna Redfield, Calarnian Thief
Father Dumont, Evenman Cleric of The Green Chapel*
Cli'int Eastwood, Elf Ranger
Nacandi, Ormercian Monk of The Inspired
"Leon Tannen", definitely not a Bromal Magic-User

and a hireling by the name of Chu, an alcoholic Awa mercenary.

Heres whats been going on so far, in brief:

Katrianna and Leon snuck on the same vessel at the border between their countries. They looked out for each other and didn't ask many questions of each other during the trip, both know they wouldn't have made it if not for her thievery and his tricks. Once they landed they bolted off into the night, only to resurface a few weeks later in Waytown, its not something they'd speak of, but the idea of not having the other by their side is unthinkable.

Father Dumont came over on the same ship Katrianna and Leon. He was the only person on board that knew of them, but could find no reason to tell the captain. He left them food and caused diversions for them from time to time. He is likely the youngest Father ranked priest in the New World.

Cli'int is one of the rare and dangerous "dark elves", elves that have grown tired of being immortally confined to the Elven Forest. He crafted himself a canoe and set off, only to find he wasn't much for navigating. Lost by the shore of Ormercia one night he came across a woman that turned out to be a monk with a map. The rest is history.

...

The game began in Waytown with the party, besides Cli'int and Nacandi, buying gear at the town stalls that surround Wren's Statue. After a bit of haggling and a successful pickpocket from Katrianna the action begins.

Two giant albino spiders and ten blind spider spawn+, likely having crawled out of Janya's Hole, pounce their way through the streets chasing a child. From a nearby Tavern races forth Cli'int, happy to be facing "some mean lookin' sons a bitches!" and he is lazily followed by Nacandi, who calls out for aid from anyone that'll help. Of course the thief, the preacher and the spell-slinger join in the fray and they took care of them fairly well, though one of the spawn nearly burrowed into Katrianna's arm and she had to cut it out.

The people cheer a little but get mostly just get on with things. The boy's mother runs a stall and offers them some free rope and a ornate lantern as a reward. The mother explains where the spiders come from and that the boy just wants to be like his father, a high ranking member of Boldare's Mercantile Union. She suggests they join, since they may as well get paid if they're just going to be saving people anyway. They look to one another and Nacandi suggests a vote.

Karianna, having come off the worst, isn't up for being ordered around. Nay!
Leon sides with the thief. Nay!
Cli'int figures they should work together, but not for someone else. Nay!
Already out numbered, the other two agree.

As the party gets to know each other an elderly gentleman jogs over and claps Cli'int on the back. Cli'int squints and turns, about to let off an arrow. It's Conori, patron of Fantastic Tales, printers of cheap thrill stories. His enthusiasm soon wins them over and before they know it they're heading off to his house to discuss a map found in the pocket of a dead man...

Gosh darn I was suppose to be brief. The next game took them to The Owl Shrine, wherein they fought all manner of beasts and birds. The session ended with them slaying an owl headed bugbear that had a telepathic link to a giant owl. They got angry at Conori for putting them in that much danger without telling them the shrine was full of monsters. Conori just told them it wouldn't of been a good story if they'd have known!

Next up they had a run in with the Antiquarian Foundation who claimed they'd marked the shrine as somewhere they were going to explore. They wanted the party's hard earned treasure but they weren't having none of it. This argument was overheard by some of Boldare's men and a fight broke out between them; after a few rounds of getting smacked they snuck away and let the Union and the Foundation brawl.

Having had enough of the more monetary guilds for the time being, they've left Waytown with a group of The Blind Cabal that want to take supplies to a small dwarfish outpost that is refusing help enough though their crops aren't taking to the soil for some reason. In fact the whole area seems poisoned...

[Charlatan]

* I let the player make up his own angel, which he named Far-Met, Angel of Journeys
+The two spiders were non-poisonous giant crab spiders. The spider spawn were rot grubs.

Oh and they just picked up the hireling on the way out, he was a drunken beggar I mentioned in passing that they took to for some reason. May become a fighter at some point, perhaps when he sobers up.

[Charlatan]

I tend to find inbred nobles are much like demons and undead.

Thank you for reading. Sounds like you've got yourself a cool campaign going!

[Denim N Leather]

I tend to find inbred nobles are much like demons and undead.

Now, THAT'S a quote! Way to kick off the new year!

I have finished mapping the city for my campaign, as well as a couple of other maps. Two players have rolled up their characters and I'm working on the in-city one shots now, as well as the Letters of Mark. All in all, it's on schedule; I should be able to run this in a month or so!

[Denim N Leather]

Interesting. I'm currently running a New World campaign using 4E D&D. Mine is further into colonization with 7 different colonies. The Old World was a standard D&D world (humans, dwarves, elves, halflings). The New World contains an Aztec like empire (tieflings and humans) and the Native American like tribes (dragonborn). I used the past tense for the Old World because it has been destroyed. It is now overrun with demons, undead, etc.

You gonna run it as a sandbox?