This is my stab at completing the Gygax 75 challenge by Ray Otus. Many others have tried and failed. Some even managed to complete it, so there is hope. Anne has collected some worthy entries in a post.
Week 1: The Concept (this)
Week 2: Surrounding Area
Week 3: The Dungeon
Week 4: Town Features
Week 5: The Larger World
PATCHLAND
Patch, a campaign World healing from a War that shook its foundation. Ruins upon ruins upon ruins define it. The survivors attempt to rebuild the harsh reality.
A current feel of slumber and slow prosperity, as the decades of peace brought some solace. Despite the Undead that plague the Night.
Heightened Awakened are revered as Gods of flesh and bone. Their very recent origin, a great puzzle.
1.1 Notebook
For this one I'm going digital.... Markdown notes and a folder of images will have to do for now.
1.2 Pitch Points
- Three Dead Periods. Ruins upon ruins upon ruins. All collapsed due to avarice, malice, black fate. Or a combination thereof.
- First came the era of the Saurids (Millenia): Alien, ancient, extinct.
- Second came the Telonian Empire (Centuries): Strictly organized. Technological advanced. Ruthless colonialists. Remnants still alive in city-state of Konfian.
- Third came the Mageocracy (Decades): Competing city-states ruled by magicians. Culminated in the War of the Sages, leaving a wreck behind, and the current vacuum.
- Undead take over the land at Night. Since the end of the War of the Sages, mindless undead prowl at night with ferocity, tainting the land at their passing. Only the Blue Flame, a prized and secretly guarded alchemical oil reagent keeps them at bay. Cities, towns and settlements fight for this prized possession.
- Tangible Gods and religion. Petty Gods walk the land, the latest stage of an Awakened (Heightened). They inter-mingle in the day-to-day life of mortals. Their recent origin is not fully understood.
- Magic is taboo and shunned away. Given the recent War of the Sages and their preceding short-lived but brutal Mageocracy. Recent events are imprinted in everyone's memory. Magic is strictly regulated. Prosecuted for those that don't abide by the existing limiting rules.
- Technological advancement is akin to our Bronze Age. Aside from a few exceptions and tiny clusters of genius, like the Blue Flame and the city-state of Konfian. Copper is the official currency, but is rarely used.
- There are four humanoid classes: Warrior, Thief, Magic-User, Awakened. And four race-as-class options: Kraa, Marionette, Telonian.
- The first three classes are self-explanatory, with just some personal extra options and tweaks compared to their B/X counterparts. For example, Magic-User have both Wizard and Cleric spells available, as well as some malus to reaction rolls. Awakened are humans that came back to life, but unlike the Undead, with sentience and free will; they can perform minor miracles and possess mutant-like super-natural abilities.
- Kraa are the First Men: neutral, secretive giants with long beards and impenetrable grey robes, that have seen all three Dead Periods from the sidelines. Marionettes are tinkerer constructs made of tin, branch and wood. Telonian are the remnants of the Telonian Empire of old: wise and powerful and decadent devils.^
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| Thorgal, attempting to steal the coffer |
1.3 Sources of Inspiration
- Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Thematic idea of Breath, undead, petty Gods that are enhanced humans come back to life with sentience, awakening objects, etc. Recent read of mine, its ideas have dictated this challenge's skeleton.
- Points of Light and its assumed gameplay. The undead and Blue Flame tie into an open table or west marches game play structure. See this link for instance.
- Thorgal by Van Hamme and Rosinski. Thorgal is a tale of Swords & Sorcery & Science & Sandals. A true classic. A "softer" Conan that provides a good aesthetical ground. It has some issues (female character agency, for instance), but I dig the aesthetic and illustrations, as well as the imaginative stories.
- Our own Roman Empire as inspiration for the Telonian Empire.
^ Note: I prefer to leave race-as-class options locked until they are encountered in play. Make for excellent replacement characters when inevitably the first batch perishes adventuring.