SE Creative Exercise-collab thread

[axlerowes]

I need a former homeland for the displaced merchant class that are the over lord of two of my islands. The left about 80 years ago with there slaves and other estate wealth. Any takers?---I am looking at you Strolen and Muro....

[Strolen]

Welcome to mine.

I am basing mine very loosely on N. Korea. So if a merchant class breaks free of their grip there would either be war or very extreme animosity or hate from my country. If you can deal with open hostility from me, go for it. Unless you can come up with a way to escape safely that is. That would be an interesting thing if you could figure it out. Outcasts that were thought to be killed. The king is finicky and creates and destroys other "royal families" on whims. So if they were a disgraced family that was supposed to be dead, that might work. Then if the truth came out, perhaps he would just verbally ignore it and nobody could speak of it. That would be sort of a cool secret. Those that did know and spoke of it would be sent to the mines. So just another installment of rewritten history to cover a King's embarrassment.  If you don't use it, can I? Might just be a plot type submission for me though and I have enough I want to do anyway.

Most of my submissions are going to focus inward so you have free reign!

[Strolen]

Yeah, sorry to make it so complicated. Not sure if it needs to be, really, but I was still in idea mode when I wrote the above.

[axlerowes]

Strolen thanks this is great, what I am thinking is that your country had a class of people 80+ years ago that had achieved wealth and power.
 
Perhaps they were warrior nobles (the king killed all the generals Stalin style),

perhaps they were sea trade merchants who prospered from foreign trade (closed the borders),

perhaps they were members of the political elite that helped prop up the king only to find themselves rivals once he was in power ,

maybe they were an ethnic minority that had risen to prominence in the country wealth wise but not politicly because of institutional segregation.  This minority was advantageous for the regime because they could have the country could have benefits of wealthy land owning class without the political threat or they performed some. (the Indians in Uganda)

I think you can chose this one or make one up.   

At any rate 80+ years ago there were purges and an exodous of wealthy land owners and their human chattel.  This is the only point that is important is that my "settlers" took there class system with them.   

[axlerowes]

Religion and divine presence should be a bullet in each of the realms.

[Scrasamax]

I'm going to use this to get into the Dwarf Guild

[axlerowes]

Shadoweagle, this fantasy continent needs a name.

[Strolen]

A name from the namer!

[Strolen]

So we can link our subs!

[Shadoweagle]

Tomorrow afternoon I will have time to work on some more of this, plus I will come up with a name for you all :p

[axlerowes]

Okay Strolen

Here is what I got.  83 years ago prior to the drawing of the map (I am using the "drawing of the map" as the current day of the write ups)  the king of Vartanadel declared that all properity and herditary rights were trusts of the King.  This meant that the Nobles, the peerage, didn't own anything. What was worse to the mind of some of the Nobles was that the King then promoted and granted lands to commoners.  Fearing seizure of their property a number of wealthy Noble families took their serf and as much wealth as they could carry and fled the country.  This was, according to the King's law, theft.  The Vartanadel exiles still hold all the belief of divine right and cultural ascendancy that the current Vartanadels do and they still consider themselves Vartanadels.  The exiles still recognize the King or at least the monoarchy (because to over throw the rightful king would be obviously as bad a throwing out their hereditary rights and they do not support chaos) but they want King to recognize their own hereditary rights, that they believe are divine as well.  These handful of families would be a good place for any one with a claim to the Vartanadel thrown  (the Uncle claiming the prince is an illegitimate bastard, the King's illegitimate bastard or princess passed over in favor of a prince) to gain support for his/her cause.   

[Strolen]

Ok. I can work around all that if you make your land a safe haven for escaped refugees that continues on to today. One of the secrets I was playing with is many of the 'shan guilds that I am messing with have sort of an underground smuggling racket (people and goods) going. Probably 50% of the "trusted king's servants" are working the operation. Land and Sea. With this in mind, and your addition, I can see that melding that with how the kingdom works. Just need to do a few tweaks on my end to make it fit.

So you mind being a central hub for escaped citizens and their contraband? A sort of network to accept a  continuous stream of escapees and meld them into your society perhaps?

I need to go read the rest of your additions but haven't had that much time yet. Later tonight!

[axlerowes]

So does the King know that the Nishan are smuggling and his "ignorance" is just for appearances?

[Shadoweagle]

There is a legend which runs rampant through all the lands. This fable tells of ten great beings - some say they are gods; others that they are something greater and created even the gods themselves. Regardless, the tale states that these eldrich creatures wrote into existence the world itself! Omnipotent and omniscient, the great scribes etched out the fate of man and god alike. this is just a fairy tale of course, and nobody truly believes this. Nonetheless, the lands are named after these creatures: Decathros; Land of the ten Authors

[Shadoweagle]

Also, re: the scale question in the quickchat.
The scale of the map is largely arbitrary - the map is a general visual tool used to inspire, and each section is as large as you need it to be to fit in all that you need.
but as a general guide, let us say that perhaps the scale in the full-size version of the map is 50km/1cm or so. Sound reasonable?

It's good to see this whole thing is getting a lot of interest. If it continues to kick off like this I may consider making a second map in a month or two.

[Strolen]

So does the King know that the Nishan are smuggling and his "ignorance" is just for appearances?

I think the king is truly ignorant. I am working my way from the bottom up and letting the ideas build so I haven't quite figured that part out yet. I am leaning towards the king being a puppet of the 7 strongest families right now...and the families will know all about (and profit off of) the smuggling. The hope of escape might be one of the keys of keeping the country together. Allowing hope.

Didn't have time to mess with it today unfortunately. First day back to work after a couple months is a real time sink!

[axlerowes]

I was running with the exiles blame several strong families fro turning the King against them.

[Dozus]

Scras: What are your thoughts on a community of exile/refugee dwarves of Kazandelve living in the swamps of Swynmoor?

[Strolen]

Ok. Home alone with the kids for a week and getting the flu for two days is almost c/w. Time to get back to putting the rest of my ideas for this down!!

[Shadoweagle]

Yeah, yeah! Tell us the tale of Vartanadel, strolen!

[Shadoweagle]

Hey there, everyone.

So, I was considering writing up a massive plot-line over the next month or two which enscapulated as much of all ten nations as I could physically manage. I was thinking about making a moderated freeform roleplay down the track with it, and then releasing the plot on the main site as an 'in work,  viewable' sub and i'll reveal the sections of the plot after those who join in play through each section of the game (so they can see what they missed, how well they did and such.)
To do this effect, I was wondering if I could glean just a couple of bits of information about what is intended for each area, just so I know what i'm dealing with in terms of travel and logistics (For example, I know that Vartanadel and Hypoten are both quite inwardly-focussed; Vartanadel seems to frown on outsiders very much, and Hypoten seems to pretty much bar them from coming in altogether. Thus, if I were to make the characters go into these areas, i'd probably need to either have them do it on the sly, sneaking around and blending in, or perhaps in Hypoten's case, perhaps they will only be allowed in with an escort to make sure they don't get up to mischief :p)

Also, I know that some areas haven't had any info added yet and that's fine too! This is an exercise which you can take as much time as you need with and i'm definitely not trying to rush you! All I want is a couple little tidbits of information so I know whether or not I can start a campaign in said area, or if it's going to be trouble to get through an area. Stuff like that.

Anyway. For now, i'm only interested in the very basics of each area, so if you guys have a couple minutes, i'd really appreciate if you could answer some of this info. I really don't even need details really, just so I can plot a direction to take the victi... erm, players.

Name of the area?
Hostility of the area? (Wild animals? Eldrich demons? Militant society? Will they get thrown in prison for entering the place? Welcome outsiders with open arms?)
Society of the area? (Small towns? Massive empire? Kings and queens? Cave-dwelling Dwarven communities? Anarchy? Or no societies at all? Perhaps a wasteland? No sentient life? etc...)
Travelling difficulties? (Beaten paths? No paths? Treacherous mountains to climb? Empty desert? Rafts in swamplands? Thick, bramble forests? Boat travel? etc...)

I know some of you already have a bunch of this info done, too. I'm loving the way each area is coming together; such a diverse land! 

[caesar193]

And here I thought I was almost done with the great land of Hypoten and then you had to go and mention transportation. 

Let's see. Name: check. Hostility: hmm. I wonder how each level of society reacts to strangers... no check for now. Society: checkish. I have the overlying political system, but what about the little places? And Traveling: no check.

I guess I have to go add this stuff to Hypoten. And, naturally, scribble something in dungeons and items, too.

Oh, and by the by, if someone decided to enter Hypoten, the military would kill them. They'd have to sneak in, past the patrols. But nobody does that anymore, because nobody knows what its like inside the borders. I'll go in and clarify this slightly.

[Shadoweagle]

Coolies Caesar I don't need much depth. In fact, i I have an idea of your place; I was thinking they can sneak in via a treacherous cave from skaldevale (a dangerous path, but lets them bypass the heavily patrolled north.) and once in they can blend in easily enough. I'm just going to have to think up a "why" motivation for having to get in there. Whether to find an item or a person or glean information...

[caesar193]

Motivation? Why, here's seven:

1. Area Five or Vartanadel wants to expand their borders, and wonders whether Hypoten is powerful enough to resist such an invasion- and so, the PCs become a scouting party.

2. Or maybe a merchant wants to sell something that the world has but Hypoten doesn't to Hypoten's people- maybe the newest and coolest steel-making technique?- and wants the PCs to get Hypoten to open its borders.

3. The PCs are hanging around in Skaldevale when a freak Maddux happens to them, and the PCs fall down the rabbit hole, and they find themselves in a cave system heading to (where else?) Hypoten.

4. Or sure, I could make some new, awesome technology that Hypoten got that the rest of the world didn't (probably because the fools spent to much money on foreign policy) and someone wants it- but then you'd have to ask the question of how the world found out about the thing, and why they didn't reverse engineer it like Sequoyah did in 1810 with writing.

5. Or maybe someone decided to leave Hypoten, and left it, but then found out the rest of the world was complete and utter waste of space, so he now wants to return home- enter the PCs.

6. The PCs are sent to kill a bandit because said bandit has stolen something precious... and the bandit gets a little "turned around," and accidentally manages to slip past Hypoten's patrols A, B, and C, and eventually is captured by Fort D- and guess who has this "precious?" Naturally, the PCs liberate "my precious," and flee military patrols deeper into Hypoten.

7. Country A started the medieval era version of the Manhattan Project (based off Einstein's Theory of Relativity), so Country B started the medieval era's version Nazi's version of the Manhattan Project (based off Quantum Physics- the Nazi's version, no the Manhattan Project). And guess what material is needed for Country B's hypothetical superweapon? And guess, based off a map drawn up 300 years before the Drawing of the Map, where the only deposits of said material is? And guess whether or not said location's denizens used said material for their own sadistic uses?

What was that about you having to think?

[Shadoweagle]

Well snap. I may as well get you to write out the rest of the campaign! :p

number 3 would be cool in a once-off kinda setting; the cave blocked behind them, they have to make it through the cave, then sneak through Hypoten without being noticed to get back out to safety.
I'll definitely use one of these as a part of the campaign Cudos, Caesar.