• Ray Winninger’s “Dungeoncraft” Essays
• Diary of the Birth of a Camapign Setting

My own Dungeoncraft column was inspired by Joshua Dyal’s “Diary of the Birth of a Camapign Setting” but I think he has done a much better job than I did. And Ray Winninger’s Dungeoncraft essays are a classic. In my opinion every GM should have read them.

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: Ad Astra!
2. Dungeoncraft: Secrets!
3. Dungeoncraft: The map

The Tolkyn
The Tolkyn are a race of humanoids that are probably closely related to humankind. The average Tolkyn is a couple inches taller than the average human, has an athletic build, a long slender neck, broad shoulders and muscular arms that are sleightly longer than human arms. All Tolkyn have a dark blue almost black skin and feline eyes. Tolkyn have large pointed ears and usually long hair that ranges from white to dark blue.
When humanity first encountered the Tolkyn had already settled most of southern Asecia. Tolkyn cities could be found from the grasslands south of Cerynia to the Ciazah Desert. Because of the human advances on Tolkyn settlements it came to war. After many battles the Tolkyn retreated to the desert regions. 
In moden Asecia the Tolkyn are the main exporter of meteoric iron and all kinds of products crafted from that rare ore. Most of the Tolkyn live in the Ciazah Confederacy that consists of the five major Tolkyn city states Maranis, Alaraby, Nevehnu, Ciarish and Urechar.

Tolkyn

• Strong: Tolkyn characters start with a d6 in Strength
• Low-light vision: The Tolkyn’s feline eyes allow the Tolkyn to see in the dark. A Tolkyn character ignores attack penalties for Dim or Dark lighting.
• Outsider: Tolkyn are outsiders in a human dominated society. They get -2 on Charisma when dealing with humans.

The Skarians
The Skarians are a race of small (an adult skarian is approx. 1 meter tall) humanoids. They have a greenish-gray skin, large heads with a mouth full of razorsharp teeth and big eyes. Skarians do not have hair. Skarians are strict carnivores and tribal Skarians even eat the flesh of their defeated enemies. Like Tolkyn they have rather large and pointed ears but a close relation between the two species is not confirmed by modern scholars. Skarians are very cunning and have a knack for mechanical things.

When the human settlers arrived in Asecia they soon stumbled upon Skarian tribes. What followed can only be described as a massacre. Several hundred thousand Skarians were wiped out, the rest fled to the deep woods of northern Asecia. A few tribal Skarians still live in those woods until today. They survive by ambushing caravans and small settlements.
Much to the surprise of the human settlers the tribal Skarians were only a subspecies. In the mountains to the east they encountered the Mytagiir Empire, a nation of civilized Skarians that were excellent miners and blacksmiths. The Mytagiir Empire still exists today and it’s a close ally of Cerynia since Imperial times.

Tribal Skarian

• Bite: Str+d4
• Small: Members of the skarian race are very short. Substract 1 from you character’s Toughness.
• Berserk: Tribal Skarians have the ability to go berserk during combat. See the SW rulebook for details.
• Low-light vision: The big eyes allow the Skarians to see in the dark. A Skarian character ignores attack penalties for Dim or Dark lighting.
• Outsider: Skarian are outsiders in a human dominated society. They get -2 on Charisma when dealing with humans.

Mytagiir Skarian

• Bite: Str+d4
• Small: Members of the skarian race are very short. Substract 1 from you character’s Toughness.
• Mechanical Apitude: Civilized Skarians start with d6 in Repair and Lockpick.
• Low-light vision: The big eyes allow the Skarians to see in the dark. A Skarian character ignores attack penalties for Dim or Dark lighting.
• Outsider: Skarian are outsiders in a human dominated society. They get -2 on Charisma when dealing with humans.

This is my first try at creating custom races for Savage Worlds, so there might be some balance problems. If you have any ideas on how to improve the Tolkyn and Skarians, please let me know.

UPDATE: I added Low-Light Vision and Outsider to the Skarians.

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: The Future of Asecia
2. Dungeoncraft: Asecia reboot
3. Dungeoncraft: Religion on Asecia

Omega Centauri
The globular cluster Omega Centauri is about 18,300 lightyears away from our solar system and contains several generations of stars, so that some scientist believe that Omega Centauri could be the core of a former dwarf galaxy that has been captured by the Milky Way. In “Ad Astra!” this is the home of a human civilization. Several hundred years ago a colony ship crashed on an habitable world in the Omega Centauri cluster. When the 10,000 colonists awoke from their cryogenic chambers they at once found out that something was terribly wrong. Nobody could remember anything from their past – not even their own names. All other memories were still intact. When they started salvaging the crashed colony ship, they found out that the ship’s main computer was still mostly intact but all historical databases were blank and the navigational subprocessor was broken beyond repair. They were stranded and didn’t even know where they initially came from. So they decided to start picking up the pieces, building a city from the remains of the ship. They called their new home “Citadel” after their crashed vessel.

Brave New World
This concept allows me to shape the civilization from the ground up. And since most of the original space ship is still salvageable it’s plausible that the colonist would be ready to return to the stars after only a few centuries. The reason how they crashed on Citadel and why they have no memories of their past lives shall remain a mystery. This could even be an interesting hook for an “Ad Astra!” campaign.
The fact that the Omega Centauri cluster is so far away from Earth has several advantages, too: not much is know about that region of space so that even an astronomy-geek wouldn’t know that much about it. If you run an SF campaign closer to Earth there’s always the problem that one of your players may for example notice when you turned Betelgeuse into a dwarf star by mistake. If you choose a far away region of space you can just use some solar system creation rules (like the ones in GURPS Space or Traveller) and create your own stars, worlds, nebulae, etc.
This shall be enough for today. As always I am interested in your thoughts, so feel free to leave your comments!

Related posts:

1. Ad Astra!
2. Ad Astra: Major Factions of the Omega Centauri Cluster
3. Dungeoncraft: Ad Astra!

As I posted before I am very interested in writing a Science Fiction setting. Over the holidays I started playing EVE Online again and since then my head is filled with images of strange new worlds and huge space ships and bold adventurers who boldly go where no one has gone before!

In order to create a believeable SF setting we have to make some basic assumptions that are extrapolated from current technologies, societies, et cetera. The farther we move away from the 21st century the more free you are in developing your world. If you want a galaxy-spanning human civilization in 2050 you really have to come up with some extraodinary ideas to make this plausible. If you place your setting in the 41st century, things become much easier to swallow

Ok, let’s give our new child a name. What about “Ad Astra!”? It’s short, simple and to the point. Now everyone knows it’s about travelling to the stars. I agree, the name might be a bit clichéd but I like it nevertheless. Since the focus is on space exploration “Ad Astra!” must have a few elements that are not strictly “Hard Science” like FTL (Faster Than Light) travel and everything that comes with it. Realistic space travel is not very fun, I tell you. And since everyone likes having some cool powers the setting will also allow some psionic abilities. To make it more science-y psionics will probably need some special equipment that enhances human psionic potential or genetic modification.

Next time I will give you some details on the the history of “Ad Astra!” universe. Stay tuned!
As always I am interested in your thoughts, comments and critique. So please use the comment section below or contact me via the contact form on the “About” page.

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: Ad Astra #2
2. Ad Astra: And so it begins… (Part 2)
3. Ad Astra: PDQ vs. D6 1:0

So I decided to try some kind of reboot. I took a sheet of paper and wrote down all the things I liked and what I didn’t like and thought about how I could emphazise the strong points of the setting while eliminating the things that just didn’t work out.

On Magic
I’ve made some major changes to get the mood of the setting more in touch with what I had in mind when I started working on it. Although I really like the idea of the sorcerer marks and all what came with it, it doesn’t exactly fit the pseudo-victorian feel of the short story I wrote. And I had some trouble on how to make the avatar idea more than some nice fluff for gamemasters and players to read. So I decided to go another route with magic. In the “rebooted” version of Asecia magic was lost for a thousand years. Before the fall of magic, there were powerful magicians and they ruled over the world, but suddenly the magic winds subsided and all wizards, sorcerers, witches etc. were robbed of their powers. For a long time magic was thought to be a myth. Then, shorty after a industrial revolution was in full swing, magic suddenly reappeared. Now, a century later, Mankind tries to harness this new power source and a few magic academies have started training new wizards all over the world. It’s a time of change.

On Religion
The religions of Asecia will change a bit because of the lack of magic for a thousand years. The Brotherhood of the Three Sisters was created during ancient times, when there still was magic all around. When magic came back they found out that the rituals they repeated in their worship were actually working magic rituals. Several people that started to dabble magic have also started to pray to the Sisters, so that they may help them with their magical development.
The Church of St. Michael still exists in the rebooted version but it’s quite changed. In the “rebooted” version of Asecia, Michael d’Arellien was the second son of a noble from the Western Isles that chose the life of a monk in the Church of the Architect around 300 years before the return of magic. During that time church has become corrupt and many high churchmen were more interested in the gold in their coffers than in spiritual affairs. He became abbot of a monastery and started to preach against the corruption of the church. He started a movement that lead to a split of the Holy Cerynian Church of the Great Architect. The Michaelites, as they were called, finally converted most of populations in the Western Isles and western Cerynia. Today the followers of the Great Architect are still split into the Cerynian part of the Church and the Church of St. Michael.

Both the Church of the Great Architect and the Michaelites are wary of magic and the clergy if forbidden to practice magic, but the Brotherhood of the sisters fully embraces the magical arts.

On Technology
For over two hundred years the industrial revolution is in full swing. There have been major improvements in technology that lead to steam driven trains, airships, steamdriven ships, modern ways to wage war, like firearms and cannons. With the recent comeback of magic the industrial revolution was not set back. Some inventors have successfully combined magic and technology. Magic driven warmachines, called Wargolems have appeared on the battlefields and the armies have started recruiting wizards and sorcerers.
Since most practitioners of magic treat their art like just another scientific field, most people see magic as nothing else as some fancy new technology.

On the World
The world from a geographical standpoint will not change that much. And there will still be the same countries I wrote about before, but they will all be quite different because of the major changes when especially magic is concerned. My current plans is to start an Asecia campaign using FATE rules soon. The focus of the campaign will be the city Cerynia, home of the Holy Church of the Great Architect, center of learning and art and home of the Cerynian University of the Sciences, Arts and Magick.

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: Religion on Asecia
2. Dungeoncraft: The Future of Asecia
3. Dungeoncraft: The World of Asecia

The main problem is that I currently don’t have the time to make the necessary next steps. So I am thinking about putting all my work into a neat box and wait until I have enough time to finish the work. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to have another look at the “World of Asecia” in a few weeks and make some adjustments. While I was writing one article after the other I noticed that my image of the campaign world shifted a bit with each post written. And some ideas that I were very excited about when I first wrote them down now look bland and uninteresting to me. They probably just don’t fit my current idea of “Asecia”.

One plan I currently have is to focus on a smaller area of Asecia and set my campaign there. A perfect place would be Cerynia. It’s a big city with several districts, industry, a magic university and a long history. And urban campaigns are pefectly suited for the genre. I also think about scrapping the avatar idea and changing some of the religions. And then I will have to convince my gaming group that they ever wanted to participate in an urban steamfantasy adventure in a place called Cerynia. And that’s probably the toughest nut to crack…

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: Asecia reboot
2. Dungeoncraft: New Races for Asecia
3. Dungeoncraft: The World of Asecia

When you read all my Dungeoncraft articles in one session you’ll probably noticed that there are some things that don’t quite fit. That’s because Asecia is a world under construction. And sometimes I even introduce a new idea while I am writing it all down. My plan is to sit down in the end and write a definitive guide to Asecia. So please bear with me.

The look and feel of Asecia
During the last week I decided to make Asecia a more dark and gritty world as it has been before. But don’t fear it will turn into some horror game. Although there are already some horror elements (like the secret of Rivenar), there will be a lot of space for heroic adventure.
The major cities in Asecia have grown enormously in the last few decades and the industrial revolution is present everywhere. The outskirts of the cities are dominated by factories and the homes of the poor worker class. The city centers are usually the home of the more influential people including mage families and rich industrialists. The cities are always bustling with activity, heavy-duty industrial golems are transporting goods or constructing new buildings, airships are high up in the skies bringing passengers and cargo to their destinations.

Technomancy
Initially Asecia was planned as my version of the Arcanum world from the computer game of the same name. But early on I decided that it was much cooler to combine technology and magic instead of having a magic-tech dichotomy. This combination of both worlds is called Technomancy. Technomages from the Principality of St. Michael are using advanced technology and millenia old magical techniques to create wondrous contraptions like the war golems that are in use in many armies of the world or the airships that are the backbone of modern transportation.

Hinterland
In Asecia the cities are points of light in a dark world. Most of the hinterland is unsafe for travelers, forests are the home to many dangerous beasts that pose a danger to the communities in the area. From time to time local rulers and the central goverments send out their troops to make sure the trade lanes are kept safe. There are also a lot of ruins dotting the wilderness and many adventurous types try their luck and venture into these dark places in the hopes of finding lost treasures.

Adventurers
There are many opportunities for adventurers in Asecia. Although its a time of peace, the different nations use several methods to get advantage of the other nations. They employ spies, saboteurs, sometimes even mercenaries. In recent years many of the nations of Asecia have paid adventurers to fight monsters in the hinterland or protect caravans, because it’s usually cheaper than to send the army.
Often adventurers and mercenaries are hired as bodyguards or to help solve crimes when the local police doesn’t have enough manpower or skill to handle the situation at hand.

Clothes make the man
Clothes have been always an easy way to show off your wealth and standing. And this is still true in modern day Asecia. High ranking mages often wear the traditional sorceror robes. But a lot of younger mages combine modern suits (double-breated jackets are currently in fashion) with a lighter version of the mage robe (much like the lawyers and judges of our world, who have to wear special robes of office). The modern Asecian man usually wears a suit, leather shoes and a leather coat and hat for protection against the elements. People better off usually wear suits created out of better and more expensive cloths. The most expensive cloth is mageweave which has threads of pure magic woven into the fabric, that make it more sturdy and creates an elaborate magic line pattern.
Women in Asecia usually wear dresses but in recent years women have started wearing trousers, too, much to the dismay of traditionalists. The favorite fabric for clothing is wool but often leather is also used, especially for coats and heavy jackets. Clothes for craftsmen, technomancers and adventurers often have a lot of pockets to help store all the tools and equipment these people need.

“You’re in the army now”
The armies of the Asecian nations have been reformed greatly over the last decades. Armies of force-drafted peasents are now replaced by smaller armies consiting of highly trained individuals. The standard soldier wears a woolen uniform, sometimes an armored coat, leather boots and a wide-brimmed leather hat or a metal helmet. A modern soldier carries a rifle and has a large knife or a sword for defense in close quarters.
In earlier times most officers where sorcerers but nowadays there are only a few mages in the armies.
The age of industrialisation has brought the introduction of large numbers of war golems to the battlefield and airships allow the quick transportation of troops through the air. 

This concludes this episode of Dungeoncraft. I hope you have a clearer picture of Asecia now. If you have any questions or criticism let me know in the comments below.

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: The Future of Asecia
2. Dungeoncraft: Asecia reboot
3. Dungeoncraft: New Races for Asecia

As I wrote about in the first episode, there is no special divine magic. But most people believe that the mark of sorcery is a gift from god (or the gods) and organized religion and the magocracies worked hand-in-hand for millenia. But in the times of urbanization and industrialisation the power of religion starts to wane.
But let’s first talk about the major religions.

The Holy Cerynian Church of the Great Architect
Shortly after the Cerynian empire became the first democracy the Cerynians adopted the religion of the Great Architect. In earlier times they revered the Three Sisters, three vengeful and unforgiving goddesses. But then a young prophet from a small province at the border of the empire started to tell the people about the Great Architect, a loving and creating god that created the world for humans to make their own. The new religion was very successful with artists and craftsmen, that preferred the positive creativity of the Great Architect over fearful obedience to the Sisters. Especially the mages opposed that new religion because they feared that they would lose their power, because it was believed that magic was a gift from the Sisters. But in the end the new religion prevailed.

The Holy Cerynian Church of the Great Architect is now one of the major religions in Cerynia and the other nations of Asecia. Following a long tradition most priests were craftsmen or artist before they were ordained. Followers of the Great Architect believe that the best way to please their god is to create something that outlasts their death, like a piece of art or a building. Members of the Church of the Great Architect don’t beliefe in an afterlife and they strive to live a fulfilling and pious life.
The Symbol of the Church of the Great Architect is a hammer and compasses. The priest usually don’t take a vow of chastity but some monks do so in order to focus on their religious or scientific studies but those vows are normally not for life. The tradional garb of the priests is a simple grey hooded robe.

The Brotherhood of the Three Sisters
Although the Brotherhood has lost most of its members hundreds of years ago, the religion is still alive. The Brotherhood believes in the Three Sisters, three vengful (sometimes almost evil) goddesses that expect complete obedience from their followes. In Brotherhood dogma all sorcerors are the Sisters’ children and shall be revered as well. In the Brotherhood only men are allowed to pray and take part in church service. There are a lot of rules which regulate the lives of the believers and not following those rules leads to fast and draconic punishment. The Brotherhood’s symbol are three black female figures in front of a red disc. The priests usually wear read, unadorned robes and featureless black masks that cover the whole face.

The Church of St. Michael
Michael d’Arellien was a minor noble with almost no magical talent born on one of the island that are now called the Principality of St. Michael. He was a devout follower of the Great Architect but pretty insignificant until a fateful day when suddenly his magical talent increased hundredfold. It is said that his magical aura and his eyes were shining bright as the sun even when he was not actively using magic. That influx of power has given him immense insight and hidden knowledge of the world. He used his new-found talent to help people, heal the sick and he preached about a better world for all humans. Many people believed that he was the reincarnation of the Great Prophet or an avatar of the Great Architect himself.

He convinced the Cerynian Empire to grant the Western Isles independence and became their first prince. But he tought of himself not as the ruler but the servant of his people. In the following years tales of miracles spread throughout the Isles.
All of the Principality sects started to rise that believed the prince was more than a man. They believed he was the Architect himself walking amonst men. And when Michael d’Arellien suddenly vanished without the trace it was believed that he transcended.

Today the major religion of the Isles is Michaelism. The Church of St. Michael still resembles the Chruch of the Great Architect but its followers believe that a man, St. Michael of Arellien, was an incarnation of the Architect himself and that he came to lead the Isles into freedom. The priest of that religion wear white silken robes adorned with the symbol of a white-blue star.

Minor Religions
 The citizens of Tovenar are followers of the Great Architect but there was a schism several hundred years ago that lead to the creation of the Holy Tovenari Church. The Holy Tovenari Church uses a slighty modified liturgy and this church is mostly based on monastries. Tovenari priests wear black robes.
There are rumors that the people of the lost kingdom of Rivenar worship some kind of evil entity, but that’s unconfirmed and doubted by most scholars. 
There are also a lot of atheists and agnostics in most countries especially in Cerynia and the Principality. 

So, that concludes this episode of Dungeoncraft.

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: Asecia reboot
2. Dungeoncraft: The Future of Asecia
3. Dungeoncraft: The World of Asecia

The Lost Kingdom of Rivenar
In the last episode I mentioned a nation called Rivenar but I haven’t given any further details. That was intentional because Rivenar is another big secret. Of course everyone knows that Rivenar exists and there were sporadic contacts and some trade between Rivenar and the other nations but about 200 years ago, the nation started to isolate itself from the others. Maintaining isolation was very easy for the kingdom beyond the Balaki Mountains because of its geographic location.
The kingdom that once shared its tradition with the bigger Tovenari nation has turned into a dark place. A few years before the isolation, Rivenari King Ozardin II found out that he had a terminal disease. In order to fight that disease he tried everything, even resorting to magic shunned by other sorcerors. He finally found a cure in Necromancy. Using the life energy of others he not only fought his disease but also prolonged his life.
200 years later Ozardin II still sits on the throne of Rivenar. His use of Necromancy left him twisted and mad, more demon like man. His armies consist of intelligent undead and he rules his land with an iron fist. In his laboratories his scholars have developed terrible weapons powered by necrotic energies and now Rivenar is ready for war.

So, this concludes this episode of Dungeoncraft. Next time I will write about the role of religion in Asecia.

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: Winds Of Change
2. Dungeoncraft: The Future of Asecia
3. Dungeoncraft: The World of Asecia

“The world is not enough”
Shortly after I’ve restarted my “gaslight fantasy campaign” project anew I realized that my initial map was not big enough. There were three ways to remedy that problem:

• Create a whole new map
• Change the scale of the map
• Keep the scale of the map and add more lands around it

In the end I decided to go with option 3, although technically I will have to recreate the whole map either way. Since I lost the original map files, I will have to recreate the whole map in CC 3.0, allowing me to add more lands and make some changes. The major landmass of the original map will become a group of islands similiar to the British Isles and I will add some more islands and a bigger continent to the east.

“Rise of Nations”
In my first episode I wrote about the tribal origins of humanity and the rise of magic. But this was millennia before the actual campaign is meant to start. Over the years nations have formed, collapsed, where rebuilt, conquered, united and broken apart. Over almost a millenium the major political power on the eastern continent was the Empire of Cerynia. Cerynia started as a magocracy with the leaders of the three sorceror houses forming the ruling council, the Troika of Cerynia. Over time the lesser houses and the unmarked populace demanded more rights and after a long struggle that almost broke the empire apart, the Empire of Cerynia became a republic. 300 years ago the Republic of Cerynia lost a lot of their provinces because the once free territories wanted independence. During that time, the Principality of St. Michael, the Kingdoms of Tovenar and Rivenar were formed.

“Republic of Cerynia”
Cerynia is my version of Rome. During their golden age the Cerynians not only invented democracy but they also were the ones who formalized magic, created the first magic academies and made huge advances in the mundane sciences. But their nation grew to fast and so it started to fall apart, just like Rome did. But I didn’t want Cerynia to become a footnote in history, so decided that although it lost most of it territories, the Republic of Cerynia still continued to hold its core lands until now.

“Principality of St. Michael”
Another major power is the Princpality of St. Michael. Once it was part of the Cerynian Empire but the island nation has been granted independence during the most troubled era of Cerynian’s history. The empire was fighting on too many fronts at that time and so they decided to grant the Principality independence and keep it as an ally instead of getting another enemy. The first prince of the new founded nation was Michael d’Arellien, who is now worshipped by the Church of St. Michael. The principality is a constitutional monarchy with the prince as the head of state. The parliament consist of the Industrial Council, the Council of Mages and the House of Commons. The Industrial Council consists of 20 of the most influential industrialists, the council of mages consits of the highest members of the sorceror houses and the House of Commons is elected by all citizens of the Prinicpality in equal vote. The Principality is also the spearhead of the industrial revolution that still changes the face of Asecia.

The Principality was strongly influenced by the United Kingdom of our world. The Principality is much like a Victorian England with magic and weird inventions thrown in. The Principality is highly industrialized and the industrialists are trying to get even more influence. Mages have lost a lot of their former glory but they are still a power to be reckoned with. There is also a rather new breed of mages in the Principality that tried to combine the advances of technology with the traditions of magic, calling themselves Technomages.

“Kingdom of Tovenar”
Tovenar is the last remaining pure magocracy today. The majority of the people of Tovenar are farmers that owe fealty to their mage lords. The land is controlled by a lot of minor nobles that only report to their sorceror-king Kharad II. Kharad II has studied at universities all over the continent and is trying to turn his kingdom slowly into an industrialized nation much to the chargrin of a lot of backwater nobles who fear the change of the status quo. Recently Kharad II has moved his capital to the new city of Kharagrad which he planned himself and invited scholars from all over Asecia to teach and research at the Royal University of Tovenar.
I will write about Rivenar and the rest of the world later.

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. – Karl Marx”
Borrowing from real history has its advantages. Although it’s not as original as creating everything from scratch it’s much easier to get things feel natural. My world of Asecia is much like Europe during the Victorian times. Then take the noble houses of that time and replace them with mages and you’re almost there. Spice it with some weird science and steampunk and you get an unique mix. I am currently at a point where I think that this campaign could really work. My main problem with creating whole campaign settings has always been that I want to put it all in. I have thousands of ideas and I don’t want to let something out, so the result is a mess. Blogging about my ideas and reading your comments helps me to focus on the project andkeeps me from jumping from cool idea to idea.

“Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book”
The big question remains: Should I try to write all my ideas down at the end so that it could be published as a book? Not that I intended to sell it in the first place, but I could make it available as PDF for free on the site, if there are enough people interested. What do you think? And do you think I should keep the format of the articles?

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: Religion on Asecia
2. Dungeoncraft: The Future of Asecia
3. Dungeoncraft: Asecia reboot

Some of the names are probably a bit strange and you may notice a lot of dwarven clans in the north. When I started this project years ago I was still planning to include several races like elves and dwarves into the campaign. And actually after thinking about it for a while elves and dwarves could actually make a comeback. But I don’t think they should be playable as characters races. But more on that later…

By the way, does anyone recognize the program that map was done with? I only have faint memories and I remember that it was pretty easy to use but I just don’t have any idea how the mapping tool was called. Can anyone give me a hint?

Related posts:

1. Dungeoncraft: New Races for Asecia
2. Dungeoncraft: “It all started with a map”
3. Dungeoncraft: Secrets!

“It all started with a map”
So I decided to create my own version of Arcanum that didn’t use any intellectual property owned by Sierra. I started with a map of the continent where the majority of the action should take place. I created the map using some computer software and printed it out on 6 DIN A4 sheets of paper in color. Then I obviously stopped working on that project and the map ended up in some drawer. Years later, when I was rearranging some furniture, I started cleaning out some of my old stuff. And that’s when I stumbled upon the map. I had some faint memories of the project but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what software I used to create the map. But I decided to keep the map for future project. So now, I am going to use the map as a basis for my latest project. Having a map of the world makes things much easier to visualize. I probably will have to recreate the map in some point of the future, but it is sufficient for now. For this purpose I already bought Campaign Cartographer 3 some time ago. Although the software has a steep learning curve, you can create some impressive maps.

“Welcome to the lands of <please enter a great name here>”
Since the map is pretty big and the original file is nowhere to be found, I can’t give you an image of that map here. Hmm, perhaps later I can use my digital camera for making a photo. The yet unnamed continent/island has roughly the same shape as the British Isles and is probably of the same size, perhaps a bit larger. I plan to add a bigger continent later but for starters a place of that size should be big enough for my purposes. The climate is mostly temperate but there’s one large desert area that probably was created by unnatural means. The island is also dotted with several cities, some fortresses, towns, ruins and even some other features. I will talk about them in a later article.

“Let’s get down to the basics…”
Now I want to focus on the basic ideas of the campaign. Like in Arcanum I want to confront the players with a world where magic and technology collide. But instead of Arcanum I don’t want to have the whole magic vs. technology dichotomy. Having magic and technology interfere like it has in the computer game needs a solid set of rules that are probably easy to realize in a computer game enviroment but much harder to get to work in a p&p game. The other point is that mixing technology and magic could lead to some interesting results like enchanted guns, airships driven by magic and more wonderous contraptions.

“We don’t serve your kind here”
Arcanum uses a tolkienesque world as a premise and then introduces an industrial revolution. “Tolkienesque” means that you have a world with several intelligent races that are similar to those seen in the “Lord of the Rings” or perhaps D&D. Although my world will have several trappings that are reminiscent of a tolkinsque world, I have decided against other intelligent species than humans. Magical creatures like dragons will exists but they will be simple beasts instead of highly-intelligent beings they are in other settings.

“History 101″
Let’s talk about some history. Millenia before the campaign starts humankind was still organized in small tribes, sometimes even clans that had a more or less nomadic lifestyle. It was during these times that the first children where born that carried the “mark”. The mark looks like an elaborate tribal tatoo and normally is invisible to the naked eye. When these children were in stress or in great fear the mark starts to glow and they were able to do impossible things like hurling fireballs, creating things from thin air, heal wounds or teleport themselves. Each time they used their abilities the mark glowed in an eery blue-white light. Sometimes these children were feared and even killed, sometimes they were revered. In time they learned to control their abilities and they called it “Magic” or the “Art”. Often the “marked” grew to become great leaders of their people and so the first sorceror-kings were born. Normally the children of sorcerors inherit their parent’s abilities but it is not unheard of “normal” people bearing a “marked” child. But this was becoming less and less common.

For several millenia the most common ruling system was magocracy. But this was about to change with the advent of the first industrial revolution.
This concludes the first part of the series. I will talk about the fall of magocracy and the industrial revolution in a later episode.

UPDATE: Following an advice from The Chatty DM and the Questing GM I tried to break the article into paragraphs to make the text easier to “swallow”. Since I hadn’t thought of readabilty when I wrote down the article, it’s still very much a “wall of text” but I hope it’s a bit easier to read now. I will try to work on that in the future. And thanks to all of you for the helpful advice!

Related posts:

1. World Building Part 3 – Getting Started with World Tone
2. Dungeoncraft: Asecia reboot
3. Dungeoncraft: Winds Of Change