Game Master's Atlas

Not quite sure where it started, but somehow I ended up with an expansion module to give a short description of all the various regions of Aladron. The idea of this Atlas however is not to connect all the dots but rather supply threads and hints that a game master can use to create an interesting setting outside of Umarald that still feels connected to the rest of the world.

It is at 27 pages perhaps better used as a dictionary than a read-through, though that is left to the choice of the reader. As usual it can be found on the downloads page.

Kynri

Due to a little change of plans work has been going into completing the Centuria world map - which means work on the continent of Kynri has progressed. In fact, not only has it progressed: it has been completed! So here's a peak at the last piece of the puzzle of the world of Aladron:

A description of the continent will be added to the world atlas currently in making. It is an epic continent to be sure; not least for being the native land of the dragons! But as if that's not enough to spin a tale there's some more coming, just wait and see…

But, sticking to the news at hand its a lovely feeling to at last be able to present a completed world map! Hope you enjoy it!

Magic Elite Skills

Just pushed out a small update of the Age of Information rule book, adding elite skills for the magical disciplines.

Note that these additions aren't yet available in the character creator.

Developer Diary: The Orc Cities

Delving further into the nations of the Age of Steel we now come across the Orc Cities. These aren't a coherent state but rather independent city states - left overs from the ancient orc empire of Orchiag.

In the Age of Steel, orcs are the enemies of practically all human kingdoms in the Northlands. Its a quite classical setup - and one I see little reason to change as there will be plenty of opportunity to turn the tables and put a big question mark on the whole racial war thing in later ages.

Most fantasy settings contain traces of older civilization of some sort - not rarely grander than anything the world has to show at the current date. In Centuria I didn't want this; it should be a world that is moving forward - not looking backwards - as new inventions and ideas will lead on towards the Age of Knowledge. However, old ruins and fallen empires certainly have their charm - so I wanted some of that but without the classical stereotype.

Now then, the orc cities were a result of solving two issues with one solution. By making that old fallen empire orcish in origin we provide rather tangible proof that orcs don't have to be wild beasts living in the forests (useful for explaining that race's later inclusion in civilized settings). And at the same time we get that old empire with a very good explanation as to why it's remains would stand apart and also why it fell in the first place.

What is left as a problem to solve is how and why the remaining cities have managed to survive. Common sense suggest it should be due to a combination of mainly size and location - and possible to some extent local culture? In the Age of Steel there is four orc cities remaining, from north to south: Rhegor-Thurk, Wierkrag, Nargor and Egarga. With the first two it is pretty easy to explain their survival; they are situated very far to the north and their only enemy is the nation of Gwendellor to the south, which is portrayed as sparsely populated and also quite focused on the conflict between Damasa and Menlor. Nargor, on the other hand, is surrounded on all sides by human lands (and also elves and gnomes). There is quite inhospitable terrain surrounding the city, but it still has to be pretty powerful in order to fend off invasions - given that its neighbors are unlikely to all be occupied elsewhere at once. Thus Nargor is the biggest and also militarily strongest of the orc cities.
Lastly there's Egarga, situated far to the south. Here its location can explain quite a lot; it's situated quite far off from the human lands but within reach of the shortest sea trade route between Cenowar and the rest of the human nations of the Northlands. So it seems likely Egarga walks a balance between being able to support its population in such a remote location while still being strong enough to dissuade any direct military actions against it.

The end result provide us with good insight not only into the cities themselves, but also into the political context of the surrounding lands. It also provides a lot of possibilities to build on in the next age!

Developer Diary: Duiden

Alright; vacation's over and it's time to do some writing! This time it's all about Duiden: the small country with a big future (read about it in the Age of Knowledge)! Duiden is located on the west coast of the Northlands. In the Age of Steel it is a rather backwards, if progressive, place. It's neighbors are Gwendellor to the north, Usabia to the northwest and Arbea to the south (though the Umo mountains lie between).

Duiden is perhaps the best setting for a down-to-earth campaign as much of the country is wilderness or at least not densely populated. The people have banded together against nature and, perhaps more critically, the surrounding orc tribes.

In Centuria, Duiden has about the same role as the Shire in Lord of the Rings; its the quiet homeland of the would-be heroes yet to experience the real dangers of the outside world. Its a place ment to portray a simple society where people, generally speaking, are trying to help each other and make for a better tomorrow. The challenges are of a practical nature and so are the solutions.

Fitting Duiden into the world of Centuria poses some challenges. An explanation is needed as to why the general sentiment of the nation is different - especially given the rather extreme differences among their neighbors. And, as with any country, it needs a background to explain how it came to be. Thankfully, these difficulties come together to explain themselves.

It seems most plausible that if the nation of Duiden is different in its culture then this is related to its history. With the war that tore apart the human empire, Duiden is geographically a good place to retreat to for those seeking to escape marauding armies. So a combination of not very organized settlers and war refugees making up the population explains both the sentiment and also the state of the nation as a whole. Nationhood is not a given status; it is a circumstance born out of necessity. As Gwendellor to the north was formed after the civil war it seems plausible for the Order of the Falcon to have attempted to establish itself in Duiden first (it being closer to Gothia) - but apparently failing (possibly - even likely - contributing to a stronger sense of unison among Duiden's inhabitants). This also gives a hint as to the continued relation between the Order and Duiden.

The emerging picture is of a nation where those in charge came to be, not because they were powerful warriors or land holders, but because they were the sort of people that could get others to work together. They rule with the support of the people below them and know they stand to loose if that support should dwindle. The idea of a benign though perhaps not very advanced or powerful country arises quite easily from this train of thought. And this is where Duiden stands - and as for now it is all it needs to be.

Developer Diary: Magics!

Its been quiet here for a while now. Summer times and new habits means Centuria is currently a little less prioritized - but certainly not forgotten!

As a small proof of this: here is an additional module - adding some new magic rules to the game! These rules deal with advanced rituals (beyond level 10), add some rules for large research projects (can be this other than magic) and also introduce improvised magic and performer magic skills! As usual you can find it on the downloads page.

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/440086194829604208/?lp=true

Amara and Anaku

Here it finally is: the completed map over the continents of Amara and Anaku! 

While this post will not go into cultures and civilizations here is a short overview for the major regions, starting from the north, going south:

Beyond the glaciers, highlands surrounded by mountains cover much of northern Amara. Large forests dominate much of the landscape.

Further south a great steppe stretch all the way from the western to the eastern end of the continent, surrounding a large body of water known as lake Zhizni. 

Even further south massive deserts cover huge areas of northern Anaku, down to the central mountains of the continent. Here jungles cover much of the land. 

Further south still, dry steppes or savannas open up and run alongside the mountains to the southern end of the land.

With Amara and Anaku completed there's only one continent remaining: Kynri. However this mysterious land must wait for a while - next on the to-do list will be an expansion module for the three new continents not covered in the rule books (Amara, Anaku and Thamal). 

Continents!

 Two more continents have been finished for the world of Aladron: Amara and Anaku. They represent the largest landmass on the planet. More info will be posted later!

Developer Diary: Cenowar

Time to write about another nation - Cenowar! Now Cenowar is something of an oddity; in the Age of Steel it is the only organized nation on the east coast of the Northlands and its situated far away from practically all other nations (except the dwarves of Thzud). And an oddity is exactly what this country is meant to be!

Cenowar provides an excellent ground for any type of man-against-nature campaign. It is surrounded by wild steplands (populated by centaur clans) to the south, steep mountains (homeland of the dwarves) to the west and dark forests (populated by tribal worgs) to the north. It is the nation's main purpose to provide this setting.

The main difficulty with designing Cenowar is, quite obviously, to explain its existence. How did this civilized state come to be so far away from all other nations? The logical idea seems to be that the population are settlers from the south - choosing Cenowar because of the prosperity of the land. As there aren't any orcs in the area it isn't suitable that this colonization should have been part of the imperial invasion of the Northlands. Something else must have sparked this movement.

Here the already established evens in Damasa provides a reasonable explanation: as the nation reforms its military (basically overthrowing the old military-caste) disgruntled soldiers and officers assemble their entourages and leave the nation. Though relatively few in numbers they possess wealth, knowledge and - not least - vast experience of surviving in hostile territory. They travel north along the eastern coast until they finally decide to settle in Cenowar.

As it seems unlikely that the number of people doing this migration would be enough to populate a whole kingdom we need something to form the base for the population. As goths have already been described as living across many other places in the Northlands it doesn't seem unlikely that they lived here as well - though their primitive settlements just barely kept centaurs and worgs at bay.

From this point Cenowar is quite a straight journey. The former damasan soldiers take control over and unite the gothic settlements in the land. Introducing military discipline and new technologies they quickly transform Cenowar into a powerful nation and expell the centaurs and worgs from their lands - their main limitation being that they only recruit soldiers from the military families.

As it is my desire to connect the dwarven kingdom of Thzud to the rest of the world Cenowar should become a trading partner. While I imagine the dwarves viewing the human expansion with some distrust, once it has been established the two nations have little to fear from each other they seem bound to start exchanging goods. With dwarven craftsmanship at its markets Cenowar would soon attract the interests of merchants from the south, though because of the distance contact is limited.

It is easy to see that the more nations that are established it actually gets easier to fit in the story of the new ones as there are more existing context to build on. Cenowar is a great example of this.

LinCon 2018: The Great Escape

And so for the last LinCon adventure: named the Great Escape, which takes place in the Age of Steel. As with the other two adventures this is a standard roleplaying scenario which also serves to introduce a campaign, which will be available for download after the event.

A light rain fell over the shoddy huts that made up the miners’ camp. It was so early that it was almost dark with only the fires from the watchtowers burning brightly, sheltered under their roofs. But still you got up, donned your miner’s gear and headed for the shafts. It wasn’t that you longed to swing your pickaxe; this meeting has been decided the day before. The ever-present guards didn’t question you, though you did notice them writing something in their books. Climbing down the rope ladders you reached one of the middle shafts. Down here it would have been completely dark if it wasn’t for the lanterns. Careful, as not to drop down the big shaft which continued for quite a while longer, you climbed onto the wooden platform that took you into the tunnel. The meeting was set to be further in. They said one miner died for every 5 meters of tunnel. You counted 10 lives before you saw the others. Words could travel far in the tunnels and even though the guards rarely came down into the mine there were others who could be listening. And what you were about to speak of could certainly get you in trouble. It was the beginning of a plan. A plan for escape.

LinCon 2018: The Message

Time for another update on preparations for LinCon 2018. The idea for next year is to host one adventure for each age. Standard roleplaying but each adventure introducing a campaign which will be available for download after the event. That said the intention is of course that it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone experience.

Second adventure is for the Age of Knowledge and is called The Message:

The pleasant journey on the train felt far away as the scenery of the grand Merdonia station was shifted towards the narrow streets of Merdun’s Novella district. It hadn’t yet acquired the true grime of the city but there were already signs that the polished facades wouldn’t stay new for very long. Inquisitor Cathrine hadn’t been very clear on why she had sent you here, but thankfully her local informant had provided some more worthwhile information. There had been some… disturbances. Killings even. But it was senseless actions – regretted as soon as they were done. Why was it happening? It smelled like sorcery and if so it was doubtful that the local police would be able to get to the bottom of that question. But if anyone could it was the agents of the inquisition. That meant you – and the others of course. You looked around at your companions; it had been some time since last time. Indeed, this could get interesting…