Finally a map

Your initial foray

Your guild cartographer noted the unnatural shape of these valleys as-if they had been made.

Blue rivers
Brown roads
...a crater where once a small elven town stood
You have explored little of this land actively. The mountains can be passed through however and you have been told there are minerals in the hills

Settling Thyrela

So far you have

2 merchant ships, with supplies they can carry 100 people (30 sailors/crew) each. Same size as the Mayflower!

A horse counts as 3 people
A boar 5 people
A giant boar that gets grumpy 10 people

Already in Thyrela

3 characters and support
20 troops loyal to Bernard (10 mounted)
10 house troops (survivors from Volorts party)
[the rest of the ship is taken up by officials, marines, sailors and supplies you have been gone for some time]

Horses are available but they are work horses and would need to be taken from the local populace.


Waiting for transport

You have 40 troopers but by the time you add officers, support staff (blacksmith etc.) it comes up to 50. 45 combatants and 5 non-combatants.
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10 marines (5 crossbow and 5 broadsword) (Level 2)
1 Sergeant (Level 3)
1 marine (level 3) Dark Paladin killer (one of the two marines that critted at the end)

As survivors of this great victory they all receive +25 on fear rolls vs undead (not your characters) and your special marine will get a bonus +15 to OB when we do his stats up.

Can count as "sailors"
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5 orcs with boars
5 orcs without
12 wives
8 sprogs
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General settlers including 10 followers of Labienus

Elphas, common knowledge and recent history

Why Elphas first chose to attack Glorwyn is a mystery, though the common problem with such militaristic nations is when the soldiers get bored they cause trouble. Attacking the bloated remnants of an empire that has dwindled long past its prime seemed like a good idea. Now nearly 60 years later and after 2 generations of war there is peace throughout the land.

 

 

While Elphas has agreed to return gains it has made across the Chain of Jewels to the South it has been granted the Island of Thyrela to settle. While some elves have remained in their steadings in the North this is now a land ruled by Elphas and the nine gods. What the locals have to say about this is largely unknown, some suffered under the yoke of elven masters (well their servants anyway), others were lucky to see one in a generation.

 

 

Prince Gothrik has been named Governor after successfully leading the armies in the war against Glorwyn. Loyal servants are being rewarded with lands and titles in this new region.

 

Sir Bernard, the Grey Bastard is one such hero, with the dubious allies and friends he has collected is one such newly landed noble. The fact that he has one of the Northern most territories with his closest neighbours likely to be Merian Pirate Lords, other struggling new lords of little influence and the odd High Elf it is increasingly feeling like a sentence not a reward.  

 

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Well the public story all sounds great the reality is far less pleasant. The King (and his forbears) have long fought the church, restricting its responsibilities to the souls of the believers and to the heavenly realm. The army was honed fighting Glorwyn and with loyal Lords the church has had to bide its time.

 

Things changed with Prince Gothrik, a brilliant leader and even better warrior he has lead the armies of Elphas to victory after victory. But at the same time he has started spouting the words of religion. The church has flocked to him and his Order of the Phoenix gaining power within the army over the last decade riddling it with the religious. At the same time it has pressed for more material power in Elphas.

 

The King, in his wisdom, found a way to remove his son from leadership of the army. By naming him Governor of Thyrela he has effectively exiled him and with him will go his most loyal followers (rewarded for their faith with land and titles). This will give the King time to sort out the armies and reaffirm their loyalty to the crown.

 

The church, that had banked on Gothrik being named King in time is of course furious, but there is little it can do. Meanwhile Bernard is blissfully looking forward to finally having a home of his own.

 

Elphas

There are effectively four planks to the kingdom (the King, his royal army and the various Lords, The church, The mages [Neutral] and the peasantry).

Royal family of Elphas

King Rudrin the 2^nd (the red prince) now past 70 he has yet to name his heir to the throne. Great warrior in his youth.

Eldest: Prince Gothrik; (the raging hammer OR the hammer of Elphas) ex-General of the Armies, now Governor of Thyrela. Blessed by the God of War (Vard), Grand Marshal of the Order of the Phoenix, Paladin of Vard. Being given the governors role effectively means exile from Elphas.

Middle: Prince Jothan; Admiral of the Fleet and hands down favourite to be named heir. Grand Marshal of the Order of the Kraken

Youngest: Prince Kvil; Basically the administrator.

The church of Elphas (the 10 gods)

Elphas - Rulership and command

Dorn- (the wife of Elphas) Home and Family
Vulcas- The fire, smith, skilled profesions
Hestia- Cultivation farming and husbandry
Shep- Healing and protecting others

Vard- War, battle and victory
Torm- Honour and responsibility
Mythas - Sea and Travel
Gild- Wealth and merchants

Tyg- Knowledge, Time, Death

Generally people of the Kingdom will worship all but they will offer more prayers to gods whose domain they often interact in. Bernard when fighting would typically apply equal weight to both Vard and Torm.

Gothrik as the blessed of Vard fights, when in his realm (war) battles with his sole focus on victory. Honour, protection responsibility are irrelevant. In day-to-day life he would respect all the gods but in war against any he defines as an enemy of Elphas or its people his only focus would be winning with no concern for how.

The church knows the gods are real. Miracles and divine aid (even in the form of angels) have appeared in the history of Elphas. Scholars that assess these things point to the fact that in the last century the number of documented instances has actually increased as has the power of their interventions. A clear sign that the faith of the populace will be rewarded as Elphas has grown and added more believers to the fold

House rules; Aid another, Leveling skills and training skills

House rules on skills

Aid another

There are existing rules on aiding another in a skill check (basically the bonus is number of skill ranks – the square of the number of characters aiding a skill). It doesn’t give much benefit in aiding others. Here is what I propose.

Aid another can be used where it makes contextual sense; examples include knowledge, observation, organisation, tactics skills etc….I think practically I would exclude it where only one person could complete the activity. This would allow (if there was sufficient room) a person to aid another to try and bash a door down with their shoulder but not pick the lock in. What I could see is someone using lock lore to aid another persons lock lore check (which if successful gives a x2 modifier to the appropriate pick lock attempt).

In practice how it would work

1. You need at least 3 ranks in a skill to aid another
2. The aid replaces a separate skill check role (you can do one or the other)
3. My thoughts are 1^st person adds 30% and 2^nd adds 20% of their skill to the appropriate check/attempt. Yes it means some very good bonuses can be jointly developed but also means I can play more with the difficulty levels of certain tasks.

I am hoping this will encourage you  to develop skills even if you have a low percentage chance of success if you know it will help the group out. It also means that couple of ranks in geology isn’t wasted if you go looking for that iron mine with another PC or a NPC.

 

Skills and leveling up

We will use a variation on the skill gain rules at level up from character law. Your character does not “automatically” gain his skills on levelling up they must spend downtime “training” the skills to get the ranks. I am going to make it fairly simple especially at earlier levels and use the following rule. 

It takes a base 1 month of training in your downtime (non-adventuring) time to learn your skill ranks after a level up add 1 week for every 2 skill ranks above rank 10 and 1 week for every skill rank above 15 (probably not an issue but who knows).

The fact you are assumed to automatically know these new skills as soon as you level up has always bugged me. Assume the skills you have used a lot while levelling need minimal training but those that you want to acquire but haven’t used take more time as do the higher ranks of expertise.

 

Skill gains and downtime

 I will introduce the concept of downtime between each “adventure” it is assumed half the time is spent resting, drinking, helping manage the development of your realm. The other half is up to you but basically I assume you are doing something that will fall into categories of 1) self improvement 2) realm improvement or 3) just chilling. During this time you could explore with your scouts trying to find resources of dangers, build something, training your troops in elite moves, go and do some trading for interesting items, or improve yourself.

You will be able to learn up to  rank 2  in any skill through the use of downtime. You start with none at this point its only available when the campaign starts. If you are “self-improving” it is assumed you are doing the minimum in helping the realm develop. How I propose it works;

 It only applies to skills where you have 0 or 1 rank in the skill

1. If the development cost of the skill is 4 of less (6 for hybrid classes) it will take 1 month downtime to take a single skill from rank 0 to rank 1, or two months downtime from rank 1 to rank 2 (these don’t have to be consecutive time periods)
2. If the development cost of the skill is >4 (or 6) it is not a natural area of expertise and it is a lot harder for you to developvia downtime. The cost in that case in time is as above (1 or 2 months) plus the DP cost of the skill divided by 2 in additional months.

This means you can elect to spend some of your time learning new abilities to a basic level outside of level-up which, if you desire will then be able to easily get the “aid another
bonus. The idea is try and create an incentive to build a wider range of skills.

Character creation

Character creation

 

-Two characters level 7 and level 5 using 680 point buy (yes a little more than the 660 typical but you are heroes)

-You will start with appropriate wealth to at least get you and a few followers to the “new land” and to fund the construction of a small outpost, we may do an adventure to help you earn more and you have options (see below). You will also get an appropriate item or two.

-Select race (but perhaps wait until you choose starting “kingdom” see below)

-Background option points apply e.g. common man 6  Half-elf 2

-If you want to spend them on extra wealth, higher status or items that’s fine don’t roll but discuss with me

-You all start with a “free” lesser talent

-Cost of talents is per the talent/flaw cost chart – you pay the selected talent fee (unless you want random) but can chose the flaw just check with me first (its not a random flaw)

-A maximum of 1 vocation and 2 training packages are allowed for a character. These can all be selected at generation time however you may want to save one for later depending on how your characters role changes in this type of campaign.

 

Character backstory

-Give me a back story with some hooks I can use in the campaign (your choice if you share it with others- I wont). It doesn’t have to be long (even a paragraph per character could be enough)  just with some things to tie your character in. The 10 characters all know each other and have adventured together for at least a few years (this may have been in the past). For these deeds they are able to request land in this new realm. If your background option has you coming from a noble family but you don’t spend background points on it I may twist it by making that family paupers or been labelled traitors to the ruling body etc… There may be small benefits  if you want to do this.

 

Fate points

-One character starts with 2 the other with 1 (your choice). Fate points are not gained at level up but instead when something major/heroic is done e.g. “claiming your domain in person”, ending the scourge etc… They can also be purchased (see later in campaign points). Also be aware fate doesn’t like being tampered with and sometimes unintended consequences will occur if they are used (though the main twist of fate e.g. avoiding the crit will always work other things may also happen positive/negative).

 

Campaign points (CP)

-You start with 100 points in total across all the characters, these are arguably more useful than fate points. You can also earn more during the campaign for certain activities (while fate points are gained for major activities you personally are involved with campaign points are basically linked to how you interact with the various other parties in the campaign (more details to come as I flesh this put). They represent how your heroics have changed the world around you.  Campaign points can be used for almost anything so its hard to have a generic “cost” but here are some examples;

 

Purchase an extra background option point (5CP) so yes they can help you in character generation but they can also be spent in the future if you earn more.

Acquire information of use (1-10 CP) depends what you want to know

Have access to additional resources (initially or in the future) gold, construction materials, expertise, followers etc…

Create a favourable reaction when needed (1-5 CP except in exceptional circumstances)

 Pretty much whatever you can think of you can at least ask if you can spend CP on it.

The trick of course is you have to agree how they are to be spent. PS they don’t all need to be spent at the start, it also represents goodwill, inherent potential etc….that you may access in the future

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The purpose with the campaign points and starting region is two-fold to get you guys thinking of how you fit in the world and to get you talking about things. There is no rush but I hope this gives you enough to see I want to bring a slightly different flavor to this campaign! I highly recommend you discuss a lot of options between yourselves (without me) particularly as we get further into things.

 The campaign will be split into stages

 

1. Set-up which you have kicked off now and will largly be email with the odd small adventure set in for those that can make it. You need to consider where you want to set up in Thyrela, what level of advance work you will do identify a location (or will you just trust the GM to give you a shitty spot), what resources you will take, what resources you expect to acquire there, the logistics between getting from where you are to Thyrela and what you will do for income once you are there.
2. Stage 2- clearing out the initial lands (if required), identifying the resources you have (assuming it wasn’t found in stage 1) and if/how you will exploit them, what level of defenses you will construct, what your priority of construction will be, what your characters will contribute to these tasks
3. Stage 3- ruling. Dealing with bigger issues (you should have a few troops to take care of the minor issues by now). Slightkly longer more important adventures and dealing with the actual ruling and managing the people.

Obviously having fighting  skills I important but so will the social skills be. Hybrid characters like Paladins will find it tough so they should clearly focus on a limited number of secondary skills. If however someone just wants their character to be a blacksmith that’s fine they can and the focus for them will be finding sources of unique materials and making something out of them. You wont be able to do everything as your kingdom wont generate enough income unless you “acquire” some through adventuring or use campaign points.

Campaign points

Basically campaign points are a new concept that represent the influence and power your group has gained over its years of adventuring. These can be used on virtually anything to give you added benefits, swing things in your favour etc....You will gain more over time as you complete actions.

These can be used top buy fate points, more background points, access to items etc...


Starting campaign points (90)


50 points allocated to characters to be spent (10 per player)

17 Survey Extended survey (3 months) with geologists and members of the royal surveyors to record your claim (costs 5-10 points depending upon PC's with useful skills that also support the survey). Current cost 7. Spent another 10 making second claim giving whole valley which gives access to at least one elf lord

5 Nob the merchant scouting out the location of a potential pirate ship you can capture. Includes the cost to outfit a privateer (use connections to get a ship) and pay a bunch of mercenaries for a month.

10 Getting the lay-of-the land Spent 10 

4 Hiring the "Mermaids arse" to cart the orcs over to Thyrela

18 Hiring wave one settlers/troops

 Total spent 40/40
Additional earn't 13/15
1 for the mages guild
1 from the kingdom (finding a prime spot and not starting a war with your neighbor)

A list of the key characters

Over time add your  name, class and any interesting skills you want to share like geology, painting etc... (not the martial ones just others you want me and the rest of the group to know you have).


Rick

Sir Bernard (also known as Landgrave Bernard, or to those that have served with him the Gray Bastard). Knight Commander of the kings Armies, Marshal of the Order of the Manticore.

Aaron a registered mage of Elphas.

Craig

Yoshi poet, artist, metal smith and warrior from the far east.

Ug'luk Shagrat (also know as "3 arms", Private Dandelion) Orc and retired soldier from the Royal  Army of Elphas.

Laurence

Labienus A pious priest of Elphas. Potential spreader of heresy.

Delphinus A protector of the faith and believer of the teachings of Labienus. A paladin.

Paul

Nob Nasty, vile little kobold scout.

The Merchant

Lee

The twins

Map of Thyrela (Basic) and initial survey plans

Map of Thyrela (basic entries for Royal Order of Surveyors)

Leader: Bernard

Other characters: Yoshi, Nob (the kobold)

Surveyors are looking for:

 1. Ideally an abandoned village or ruins in a river valley where the river tracks out to the coast and a good harbour;

2. Ideally somewhere near established local villages (preferably friendly)

3. Access to trees/lumber

4. Party to include several geologists/delvers to survey for precious metals (if found we will take a less desirable village location in order to stake a claim around a commodity we can build wealth from)

5. Party to also include a small (say 20) soldiers to protect survey party and who can be left behind to secure a site if need be. We will need provisions for 6 months for any party left behind. 

6. Party members included in the survey party will be Craig's two characters and Paul's scout only at this stage. All other members will stay back as the preparation and settlement party.

Specialists, protection, royal surveyors, transport and supplies covered in you CP costs (currently 7). The survey is expected to take 3 months (2 weeks there and back with 8 weeks on the ground).

 

How it will work (I have a table, or will have) which lists possible outcomes of your survey. You get 4 d100 rolls (the higher the better with the cutoffs every 10pts e.g. 20, 30, 40, 50) next time we catch up. Basically those on the survey get to make them. You can add CP to increase a roll (e.g. get a 66, add 4 CP to get it to 70) before you take the next roll. That will give you 4 "settings" to choose from. Depending on the skills your characters have you may be able to roll for extra benefits.