Mega Update - a work in progress

New Ideas on RPGs

I have slowly, over the course of some time, gone over the history of my RPG gaming (a very limited part of it anyway), and new thoughts have come forth on the matter.  These will be covered here in due time, but meantime, I would like to present and organize some of the notes made recently in my notebooks reserved for the topics.

Back in 2013, I resurrected my Arkon related campaigns (which had never fully died, see below).  Along with this, and at about the same time, came another 2 ideas for campaign settings (and I mention this for reasons that will become clear later).  This brought slowly back into my consciousness ideas that really ought to have been developed long ago.

The trouble that I had for some time was the tendency toward riffing off campaign worlds already in existence, which to some extent is probably unavoidable.  But by bringing back Arkon I was defiantly bringing to life something that was very much my own creation.

Then I came to realize, with the arrival of 2015, that there were other campaigns as well, and that these are also worth a retrospective.  These concerned other campaigns not just run in the JL era, but also the campaigns of the JJD and MW era, which were actually older (and more over the top in many ways).  There is no reason, if the Arkon campaigns got attention, that these other ones ought not also.

The purpose of this file, then, will be actually twofold:  first, to document and preserve writings germane to the topic, and second, to probably generate new ideas for the future as needed.  There is certainly ample material to work with.  For example, in the yellow notebook I recently perused, there were pretty well-mapped ideas for a whole solar system or even several of them for Arkon and its related campaigns.  Not a bad find at all, and hopefully there are more to come.

So without further ado:

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The Green Notebook
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-There are first and foremost some considerations that need to be taken with regard to what kind of campaigns the Arkon campaign was.  Namely, was it 'high fantasy' after the fashion of Tolkien, or was it closer to the horror and gritty realism of a Howard?  The answer, though no doubt a 'cop out', is that it was somewhere between those two things.  Though not quite so far out as some previous experiments.  However, I am fully of the opinion that 'far-out' campaigns can be among the most enjoyable...

-The nature of government by the time of Verial.  Note that at that time, things seem to have attained to an Early-to-High Modern level, albeit with some fantastic additions like airships.  This is a period of high power politics between developed nation states.  The different realms of Saen reflect these.  Though in my previous writings it had been said that there were three major kingdoms, why not also allow for some minor ones and so on?  And vis-a-vis government, it seems that the major powers are either monarchic or high-aristocratic, that is the pattern of the older times of decentralized aristocratic rule is now a thing of the past.

-Bold revisions:  How about viewing the three major campaigns of the later period of Arkon as a progression and one that ultimately involves lifetimes instead of a shorter timespan.  That is, Verial is sort of a 17th century wars of religion type of affair, Vampyro is 18th century great power politics, and by Jedon's era, the whole world is in play?  This way we can see e.g. the rise of the triadic cult as a process involving a longer period.  That way we get to see these things arise and develop according to their own rules.  Verial campaign didn't have the world saving heroics of high fantasy anyway, since JL didn't like that, and preferred a more adventurous and personal way (which made the struggles with Arxam, Derus and Count Savil more enjoyable).  Note well, I am not looking for exact parallels with the real world, just sort of using those as a rough guide.  I want it to be fantastical after all.

-Belgast plotline would be some kind of fork campaign, but it has an admitted appeal.  It is also proof that JJD and I came up with the idea of an interstellar Necromancer/Undead Empire before Warcraft/Blizzard did.  This will be a fork campaign on Arkon and others, just as WotI was for KW.  The 'main stream' Arkon will have the Darklords plotline come to a head with the Age of Jedon.  Does this prevent a Late Modern catastrophe like what happened in RW?

-The system of Magic needs to be carefully thought out.  Usually it takes a tripartite form (as in both DND and RM, with the formulation of Essence-Channeling-Mentalism).  This might be acceptable to keep.

-Classes notes:  NPC classes I like to have include the Artificer and Alchemist.  The latter deals mainly with the magical manipulation of solids, liquids and gases (for example they may make potions, poisons, or materials), while the former deals mainly with magical production of finished goods (i.e. weapons, armour, items).

-With regard to source material:  I have found, recently, some sites of note and there are probably many more thanks to the modern internet (if only I had time to look at all of that!).  I feel indebted to Grognardia for turning me onto artists I had heretofore not known of, but really should have sought out long ago.  Men like Howard, Vance, Leiber, Merritt, Burroughs and so on can be inspirations even so many years later.  Another profitable ground to look on, besides say blogspot, would be the Reocities archives, which also are very helpful in having preserved some of what used to be hosted on the now-defunct Geocities freeweb platform.

-New Materials:  Moonsteel is a material used for armour and weapons among other things, and this may bear some resemblance to the Mythril.  Elfinglass, a Mythic Age concoction of the high Elvish alchemists, is another one of note.  And there are others.

-Arkon was interesting because of the active resistance of JL to Apocalyptic and High Fantastic plotlines.  On the other hand, another early participant JLy made for a very weird diverging set of campaigns based apparently on New Testament Apocalyptic visions and ridiculously over-the-top science fiction and carnival-style aesthetic.

-James Maliszewski is a probably unfortunately maligned character around the internet and I'm a fan of his despite his many flaws (he shouldn't have made promises he couldn't keep, even if it's a very human flaw it made his name mud and that's a shame).  But I don't always agree with his characterization of hi-level campaigns.  Those can be very fun if done correctly, though unrealistic, but this is after all a fantastic form of entertainment for God's sake.

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-Everything RPG began in 1994 (for the sake of simplicity let's just say this is so).  This was the Hale campaign, commenced in the high summer months with JJD upon our meeting in a chemistry class.  It was over-the-top in a way that is hard to imagine for someone not wholly possessed by the spirit of youth and the unbounded passion which it brings.  What was it?  A space opera would be a not unfair characterization of it.  But it also had high sword-and-sorcery, epic world-saving and -destroying plot lines, absurd time travels, galactic-imperial politics, etc.

-In fall 1994, I inaugurated the Exiles campaign with MW who was (still is?) a SciFi fan, particularly of Star Wars at that time.  Therefore, Exiles was basically a Star Wars knockoff, except not, because it was mutated to a great degree.  The Empire ended up being something way more than in Lucas' creation, among other things, and there were too many original ideas for it to really be at all viewed as a copy.  PArts of this were chronicled as of about 1996, but I am not sure if I still have them.  I tried to preserve all of my valuable notebooks, but there are some I haven't seen in a long time.  The yellow notebooks (2), and the big dark gray notebooks are good examples, but maybe they're around somewhere - the chronicles were in one of the yellow notebooks.

-In 1995, probably in the Summertime, a new JJD character was rolled out (maybe this was amidst Hale's triumph as the Emperor of Sol and having conquered to an adequate extent).  I think the decision to create a new character was taken amidst the backdrop of yet another summer school event, which led to Rowan's creation.  This involved the Godlike race of Aiye that I had already dreamed up earlier in the year during a trip to the Deep South (funny how travel can stimulate the imagination in ways other things oft can't).  This campaign was more grounded, but involved many highly adventurous campaigns, which I think were located on a world where the Aiye resided (not on any familiar terrestrial ground, though I could be wrong).  If I recall, the nature of the Aiye made them highly competitive and prone to aristocratic feuding not unlike, say, Greek Gods in the Myths put down by Hesiod and others.  But they were not Gods of a 'pure spirit' or Noeric type, but embodied beings albeit of great power.

-Exiles was a fairly long running affair, with fits and starts.  It probably wasn't defunct until after Summer '97 (it did last at least that long, I know).  By '99 it was definitively done for, and this was, as it happens, the same time that Arkon in its original form was put to rest.  More's the pity!

-1996 was the most important year because it was at this time that gaming on numerous fronts was inaugurated.  I ran campaigns with JJD, JL and JLy, and MW.  There was the Jarlaxle campaign, the Arkon Genesis with the Aceries and Korsos campaigns, and the continuation of Exiles.

-Jarlaxle was probably ended abruptly, though if I remember it correctly, maybe it was merely put on hold.  And not resumed.  The last definite part of it that I remember was the warlike expedition to the new land, which will eventually get an entry of its own.  There were also the campaigns of Vance, Dantrag, and the Tabashi.  All of these inspiredd campaign worlds of their own, with the exception of Vance which was set in Krynn (with the changes made to it about that time, which in retrospect I didn't like very much, at least not unless they could be considered a fork campaign).

General Announcement

I have some fears that this old account may be compromised to an extent, and for that reason it is very possible I will be migrating this blog to another one.  It has been around for a long time and I do not at all want to lose everything I've worked on over time, even though it is probably, to an extent, backed up in other locations.  The backup process will be attempted in due time if I am able.

Characters and Campaigns

Characters and Scenarios of the Latter Campaigns

Tense Peace

The War of Ideals originally favored the Dark, but with the rise of Arthomer I and Verial's Return, the Southlands were able to recover and drive the forces of the Darkness out of the Southern Kingdom. What eventually resulted was a division of the Central Kingdom between the two spheres, with the Dark-aligned powers having the advantage. Central Kingdom is currently ruled by puppets with the Royal Family in exile (possible wild card for the future?).

The Vampyro Campaign

This is the story of the rise of a rather sinister individual. While the Verial Campaign, a long-running campaign, was the story of a man conflicted between demonic and angelic influences, and his ultimate redemption, the story of Vampyro is much darker in many ways. Vampyro starts out as an assassin, working for the Order of Obscure Firmament. After many adventures he is able to take control of this organization with the blessing of Kazar Kan, the former leader, who is old and desires to live out the remainder of his years in peace.

Vampyro's campaign becomes especially heated in the wake of two happenings. First of all, the alliances he is able to forge with the mysterious warlord known as Derus who emerged as a political force during the War of Ideals on the side of the Northlands/Darkness. In turn, this leads to the introduction of one of Derus's old acquaintances, the dark magician Maroh. Then, one of the Council of High Magi in Jadus who has gone rogue, also joins the campaign. The events that allowed all of this to happen escape my exact recollection, but hopefully perusing the campaign logs will help to sort this out.

This group of men became known as the Quadrarchy. Despite their seeming connexions with Darkness, none of them had any time for the Black Syndicate, the Priests of the Dark or the Northern Kingdom. They desired to rule a piece of land and to establish their own form of tyranny over Saen without the interference of agenda-driven powers in either sphere.

The Jedon Campaign

Jedon is a young soldier who served in the armies of the South during the Civil Wars following the tense peace that stabilized in the wake of the War of Ideals. These wars were covered in the Vampyro Campaign when King Arthomer tried to assert dominance over the territories of the West under the auspices of the Quadrarchy's rule. This resulted in a draw, after Arthomer I was defeated at the pass of Cairon. In the wake of the events of the Civil War, the Quadrarchy now controls most of the West, with the King still dominating the Central and Eastern portions of the Southlands.

His life changes strangely after being exposed to a strange magical pollutant, which others in his company were as well. The abilities, perhaps borne of mutation, that he acquires during this time end up molding him into a man of heroic stature. Unfortunately, his chief rival, the nobleman Serenax, also develops along parallel lines and this becomes a thorn in his side throughout the campaign.

Characters

Vampyro

Physically, he is about 6'3” and lean, almost gaunt in appearance. He has pale sallowish skin, long black hair and glinting black eyes. His features are sharp and thin. He tends to wear dark colors which accentuate a sinister aspect.

Jedon

He is of medium size, 5'10” and of a middling build, though very lean and muscular like a career soldier. He has mid-length rose-blond hair and pale blueish-green eyes. He tends to favor the blue uniforms of the Southern Army, with whom he served.

His personal politics are Royalist and he has a distaste for the Quadrarchy. He knows that it will not settle for the current territory it has and will try to expand again as soon as possible. Thus, it is something of his personal mission to stop it. However, during the course of his adventures he finds that the tyranny in the West is actually less of a threat than that from the North.

Arkonian Update

Updated Arkon Document

Purpose: To discuss some of the previously unaddressed issues. Namely, the religion, politics, and geography of Arkon. I want to revisit the technological background of Arkon. It seems that by the Verial campaign things were in a more modern setting to an extent. In fact, it was very disjointed. That needs to be addressed. Arkon by the Verial campaign may be some kind of modern dystopia but it needs to be addressed in a way that makes sense.

Cultural Notes

Due to the fantastic nature of the setting, certain currents didn't take root. Instead of an atheist/materialist paradigm which wouldn't make sense in light of the setting like in the RW, I envisage a Religion of Darkness spreading in tandem with an evil-aligned oligarchy which installs puppet rulers like, for instance, the Baron Krieg. The Master of the Black Syndicate, Arxam, is both a criminal prince and a Dark Priest, though the latter is revealed later.

Saen is to some extent like the Continental European kingdoms of old. Jadus, I suppose, though being separated from it by the sea, may be more akin to the kingdoms of Scandinavia and Britain. These places seem to be the center of the world by the time of the Verial campaign. This would match up to an extent with the RW. The issue of whether there was colonialism of a kind needs to be addressed also.

What is interesting is designing a history for it that parallels RW events to a degree, but also has to account for races and beings that don't exist in RW history. This is certainly a challenge and can lead to absurdities at times, but this may be part of the fun.

Geographical Notes

Saen is a large continent and it has many zones. However, some important things must be noted. The mountain chains which run along the west of the continent are not very high, perhaps equivalent in some ways to the height of the Dividing Range in Australia. The central part of the continent tends to be somewhat high elevation, before declining again to the east culminating in lowlands that are marshy in the southeast and rockier areas in the northwest. The highest mountain chain seems to be the large range that mostly, but for some gaps, divides Southern Saen from Central Saen.

As for climate, because Saen is mid-latitude, it tends to have a temperate climate in many places, except for at high elevations. The biome ranges from forest to semiarid, with perhaps a few areas of aridity, such as the waste in Anteras country east of Kriegsburg. In general, continental type conditions with greater seasonal swings in temperature are more common inland, while more steady temps prevail near the sea. Southern Saen is generally hot in the summer and mild in the winter, Central Saen also has hot summers but slightly cooler winters, and Northern Saen may approach continental changes in places with cold winters and warm summers.

The major cities that are involved seem to have been Koralden, Kriegsburg and Sylvan-Town where Verial grew up, though others could easily be broached.

Religious Notes

In Jadus, the emphasis on polytheism is stronger, with six major popular deities, and many other lesser known ones. These were War, Healing, Justice, Fire, Darkness and Strife.

In Saen, the Church of the South was dominant for much of their history. It was strongly Light-aligned for much of its history, though it has been accused of becoming corrupt in latter years and faith in it has fallen. This has in turn led to the rise of some other religious movements, but some of these are strongly persecuted in places where the old church holds sway. The Northern Kingdoms broke away to the religion of the Dark some time ago. There is also another movement that coincided with the events before the rise of Emperor Peregrine. This is the Temple of the Liberty, which still has devoted adherents in many cities of the South.

Cities

Kriegsburg

This is well known as the most visited city in the Verial campaign because of its status around the time of the War of Ideals. The traditional first city of the South was Koralden, but because of all of the goings on in that city, the trade declined and the highest cultural expressions left. Kriegsburg was a natural location for a center after that, due to its advantageous position (controlling the trade routes from Port Varas), its defensibility, and its diversified economy. Furthermore, the rule of the Krieg family made it quite stable. It was here that the Black Syndicate made their new headquarters, knowing that the South depended on this area as a bastion of the Light more than anywhere else.

The city is large and has several important districts:

Central – where the markets and many public buildings are

Reservoir – a suburb by the man-made lake

Blackgate – well-known as the seedy part of town

The Hill – where the urban patriciate of wealthy men and women live

Warehouse – in the western part of the city, this is where the thieves hide out

Farer's quarter – by the main entrance to the city, inns and businesses are here

Kriegsburg is in a somewhat high elevation savanna type climate, with deciduous or mixed woods. It is an area of relative dryness but not aridity. It has warm summers and cool winters. Snowfall is not uncommon in wintertime, though it tends not to stay around except in the peaks above the city. It is ideal land for ranching and some kinds of crops.

Koralden

Known for being a large and grandiose city, it was actually in severe decline around the time of the Verial campaign. A combination of the Church of the Dark's activities, influx of loyal monsters brought in by same, the warring factions of the city, and the general chaos, it became for a long time a very dangerous place to go to. This has begun to change by the time of the later Vampyro campaign, thanks to the activities of the Quadrarchy. It becomes the center of the new state.

It is known for palaces and libraries, great cathedrals and public edifices, institutions of learning and highly charged sectarian politics. It is by the Vampyro campaign a growing cultural center with poets, painters and composers calling it home. This is made possible by the heavy police presence of the mercenaries of the Quadrarchy.

Koralden has a pleasant climate of the Mediterranean type, with warm summers and mild winters. It is moderated by the influence of the nearby sea. It exists in a chaparral and woodland type of a climate and it generally sees rainfall mostly in the winter, with summer being very dry.

Technology level

At the time of the Verial campaign, it would seem that the technology level is something akin to the FF VI world. That is, some industry, and definite urbanism, but certain things like the combustion engine are not there. Nor are huge populations which would require industrial scale agriculture. Gunpowder does exist but has never been widely used or developed beyond cannons. In short, some of the things that were decisive in creating the modern world are not so in Arkon.

However, flying machines due to the floater have been made, though they are not available to anyone other than state actors. It does seem that by the Vampyro campaign, some level of commercial airship travel has become available, at least to adventurers with the money to pay.

General notes

Part of what made the Quadrarchy a possibility was the chaos in the wake of the War of Ideals. There was, by that time, a large surplus of mercenary warriors for hire and this was something which a force with enough money and influence could take advantage of. This was aided by the discovery of the Great Trove of Diamonds, which also was found in the days of Jarlaxle (a hero of the days around the same time of Aceries).

General trends

I'm really not sure what to make of the whole Belghast plotline. This is something that needs serious consideration.