The Strange World of Volga
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Basic World Information
Campaign
Start-up Rules:
Pathfinder
Rules: Start at Fifth level as
that is where the previous campaign left off.
Start at maximum hit points for all of those five levels (rather than
granting any sort of bonus hit points or bonus hit dice).
Ability Scores:
25 point buy for your ability scores using the
Pathfinder rules on page 2.
Races: Only those as listed in
the Pathfinder rule book. The monster
races will truly be monstrous and evil, so playing a half-orc
will involve much initial prejudice, just so you know. It is not considered evil to kill orcs and goblins, though executing them without just cause
or killing their children could get you a bit of a reputation. Not necessarily of someone who is evil, but
rather of someone who is ruthless.
Classes: Any in
the Pathfinder rules or any in the Complete books for
3.5. Some alterations might have to be
made if you choose one of these alternate classes, certainly to the skills
list, so let me know if you are interested in one of them and I will figure out
what needs to be changed.
Prestige Classes:
Any in the Pathfinder prestige class supplement, and any in the Complete
books for 3.5, again some changes might have to be made.
Skills: Again,
use the Pathfinder rules. For any
prestige classes you might want (not already adapted to Pathfinder rules) class
skills require 3 fewer ranks of the appropriate Pathfinder skill and
cross-class skills aren’t changed in the number of ranks required.
Feats: Any in the Complete books and the Pathfinder book. If there is any contention or duplication,
the Pathfinder book takes precedence.
Starting Equipment:
As characters are starting at fifth level, they will start with some
equipment already. Characters will start
with 8000 gold worth of equipment which may be purchased only from the
Pathfinder book, with no single item costing more than 3000 gold. Characters will also start with some
additional random equipment given to them by their GM. This random equipment will be worth at least
3000 gold, but may not be anything you want or can use, or might not even be
identified yet. The
problems of a random nature. My
thinking here is that if you had worked your way up to fifth level you wouldn’t
have all of your equipment optimized, some of it would be of a random just
acquired nature. Queue my random
equipment.
Spells: Any
spells from the Pathfinder book or the Spell Compendium. Polymorph type spells from the Spell
Compendium are subject to alteration or rejection if they don’t follow basic Pathfinder
guidelines for this type of spell.
Experience: We will
use the medium advancement track on characters advancing in levels. Thus all characters start with 15,000
experience points. Characters will start
with additional experience points given as a GM award based on their character
background, see below. This will not
exceed 4000 experience, however. As I
have no intention of calculating experience point awards based on what you have
killed, I will adjust my experience rewards up or down depending on whether
characters are advancing too slowly or too quickly.
Training:
Characters will not generally have to undergo training in order to
advance. Like the warmage
class in the Complete Arcane, when you finish your apprenticeship you will have
received all the training you need to reach 20th level. You just need the experience to unlock it
from within your mind. As long as you
don’t change your class after play begins, don’t pick up a prestige class after
play begins, or start with at least one level in all of the classes your
character is going to want before play begins, you won’t need any training
until you reach epic level. If you wish
to pick up a new class or a prestige class once play begins, then you will need
training, but it will be a single session of training which will again have you
covered until 20th level. I
did this mostly so that I could send the characters out on long adventures
where they might not have access to any sort of training facilities, without
them having to suffer from being experienced enough to advance but not getting
to. New levels kick in as soon as you
have enough experience to advance, and after you have gotten a night’s rest.
This does
have some repercussions to game play, however.
As your character is continually trying to gain the experience he/she
needs to advance to the next level, so long as your character is on an
adventure you will not have any real free time.
That means no time to learn new spells (other than those that come with
level advancement), create magic items, craft items, etc. At least not while adventuring (though if the
adventure requires it, that is a different story). Whatever free time your character has he
spends practicing, researching, praying, etc. in order to advance. If your characters want to take a break
between adventures, however, or possibly even during one, then you may spend
your free time doing whatever you wish to spend your free time doing.
World: I want this world to be
one that the players have some connection to.
With that in mind, I am not creating a world, or at least I am not
creating any more than I need. Other
players are free to contribute to the world and their pieces will be added to
it as is appropriate. If you want your
starting character to be from a country that is a matriarchy whose primary god
is the god of fire, so be it. Give me a
name for your starting country, a brief description of the country and its lands, tell me about the god of fire and the clerics who
worship him/her, and subject to some editing from me, that will become a part
of the world. If you have an idea for a
secret society that your character belongs to, no problem just write down the
society’s goals, mission, rules, etc.
I’ll take it from there. Want to
be from a country that worships elves but has never actually seen one? Write it up.
Want to worship the god of prostitutes?
No problem, just create one. Are
you a spy from another country checking out this one? Fine, just tell me about the country you came
from and what your goals are in this country.
Religion: The gods
are wide open because I haven’t created any yet. I do plan on creating at least one before
play begins, that being the god of home, hearth, and herbs. So those spheres of influence are taken. When it comes to players creating gods and
the clerics that worship them, it is first-come first-served when it comes to
spheres of influence, though all are subject to my editing, and utter rejection
if it gets ridiculous. I will be
creating gods as I need them, though I will most likely spend my time creating
gods that are opposed to the current actions of the party. If your character needs a god to worship,
whether it is because you are a member of a divine class (ranger, paladin,
cleric, etc.) or just because you want one to worship (god of gambling and good
fortune, god of travel, god of wealth and greed, etc.), you will have to create
it. This will give you a lot of leeway
in creating the god you want, though I will be looking for game balance and
sensibility in the gods and their clerics that you create. Having clerics of the god of fire getting
access to the water domain probably doesn’t make much sense, though if you have
a good explanation for it in the story of the god I will allow it. When creating clerics and
choosing the domains they have available, don’t look at the domain powers. Don’t pick a domain to be available to your
god just because you want it, pick the ones that make sense for your god to
have. And do the same with your god’s
background story. Your god should have a
theme of some sort, try and stick to it.
Character Background:
I want to see a character background on your characters. This should tell me where your character is
from, why he/she is where they are (see below), what gods they worship (if any),
their goals for the future, their likes/dislikes, flaws and quirks, what they
look like, etc..
Perhaps most importantly, tell me how your character reached the
glorified level of 5 in their profession.
And yes, it is a glorified level.
90% of the population would fall in the 1-4 level range. What have you fought to get where you are,
what adventures have you been on? Were
you in a war? Have you seen a dragon
before? Have you fought undead? I don’t expect pages and pages of background
material, though the more the better. As
I mentioned above, I will be awarding experience of 0-4000 depending on your
background story. This experience award
is also influenced by the write-up you give me of any gods you create and/or
your home country.
Save Points: Each
level your character will get two Save Points (though I wouldn’t mind a better
name for them). Basically I don’t want
the characters dieing all the time, party cohesiveness is better maintained
without characters dieing, and generating adventures that tie in with a
character’s background also work better if that character is still alive when
the adventure begins, so save points are a way out, at least to a limited
degree. At anytime that your character
is killed, or would be killed, for whatever reason, you may use 1-4 Save Points
to keep them from immediately dieing.
Save Points will do various things depending on why your character was
about to die, but the following can be used as an example. If your character gets critically hit with a
great axe, going from +20 hit points to dead, you can save him thusly: For one Save Point your character is instead
at –9 hit points after the attack, but still bleeding to death. For two Save Points your character is at –5 hit points
after the attack and already stabilized.
For three Save Points your character is at +1 hit point after the
attack. For four Save Points the attack
is not a critical hit and does minimum damage, with your character having at
least +1 hit point after the attack.
Characters
will start out the game with four Save Points saved up, having had to use the
others to get where they are.
Party Cohesion:
To the best of my ability, I am not going to favor any single character
over the group. That means that if your
character can’t get along with the party (most of the time at least), I don’t
even want you bringing him into the game.
Keep this in mind when creating your characters. Whether your character is good or evil, I
don’t really care. Just remember that
you need to be able to get along with others who might be good or evil. For all, keep the extremes to a minimum. Also keep in mind that the party will need to
travel together on adventures. I don’t
currently have a reason for your characters to do that, so you will need one. Discuss this amongst yourselves.
Starting Location:
Your characters will be starting in the Hamlet of Blue Granite. Blue Granite has a current population of
about 150 people. It is a walled hamlet,
though the wall is much larger than the population could possibly ever protect
from invaders. The wall is mostly just
to keep wandering dangerous animals from entering the town. Blue Granite’s original claim to fame was its
mine where they got the coveted blue granite that the town was named for (rare
and therefore valuable and popular with the rich, but otherwise mundane). The vein of blue granite ran out about ten
years ago though. The town probably
would have died out without the Dumsen family. They keep people coming to Blue Granite. Ardith Dumsen is in his fifties and is a gifted sage,
knowledgeable in history, languages, and magic.
His wife, Lorren Dumsen,
is in her late forties and is a powerful wizard (i.e. over tenth level, though
her exact level is naturally not for public knowledge). She spends most of her time researching new
spells or making magic items, usually on assignment. Their son, Canton Dumsen, is a ranger and
hunter knowledgeable of the local terrain, and their daughter-in-law, Hestia Dumsen, is a highly gifted herbalist and healer (mundane,
not magical). She is often sought out
for her rare herbs and her knowledge of the healing arts. While magic is much quicker, not all poisons
and diseases can be cured with magic, and few can afford magical healing
anyway. These four (though
Canton least of all) are
usually why people come to Blue Granite.
Blue
Granite is situated at the base of a tall cliff, just into the
Wildfire Type
Mountains. The cliff and the mountains are to the east,
with the mountains stretching to the north and south as well. To the west about a thousand feet away is
another cliff, this one dropping three hundred feet to the Name
Ring Ocean. The ocean near Blue Granite is rough, there
are no nearby coves or bays, and there are lots of rocks and reefs, so ocean
travel doesn’t come to Blue Granite much.
There is a staircase carved out of the rocky cliff that leads down to
the rocky shoreline of the ocean, where a single rowboat can be found. A local, Mad Gregor,
often heads off into the surf in his rowboat.
He hasn’t crashed or capsized yet, and usually brings back some fish
that he has caught, but everyone thinks it is only a matter of time before he
is lost to the sea.
North of
Blue Granite the Wildfire
Mountains take over and
there are no roads. Beaches are likewise
not to be found, though there is a rocky shoreline and lots of caves exist near
the ocean. The Name
Wildfire Mountains
are heavily wooded, are mostly north-south, ending about eighty miles to the
south. A poorly maintained road leads
south from Blue Granite, eventually joining up with a much better maintained
road after about fifty miles. That road
heads both south and east. The road to
the south passes through a few other hamlets and villages before eventually
reaching the city of Geanavue,
the capital city of the country you are currently in, Volga. To the west of Blue Granite there is ocean,
and about twenty miles out there is a fog shrouded island with a volcano rising
up through the fog. Throughout the
history of Blue Granite that volcano has always been spewing lava, though
mostly just a gentle pour. Only rarely
has the lava ever been thrown from the volcano.
And that is
the world as it currently exists. How
far east or north do the Wildfire
Mountains go? I don’t yet know. Why are they called the Name
Wildfire Mountains? Don’t know that either. The well-maintained road
that goes both south and east, where does the east portion go? Someday we’ll find out but for now it is a
mystery. The world is open, as are the
adventures you might choose to go on.
And speaking of adventures, if there is a particular type of adventure
you would like to go on at some point in time, let me know. I can’t promise anything, certainly I can’t
promise any sort of a schedule, but I will do what I can. Let me know if
you have any questions.
Characters:
Andy: character background, country background, random
other stuff, playing a half-elf rogue I believe.
Gary:
character background, hometown background, country background, playing a dwarven cleric
Name: Marmor Mountainbreaker,
Battle Cleric of Hrothgar Sparkshard
Hometown: Treppe zum Himmel
(a dwarven village in the Pical
Mountain range, background on the village coming soon)
Marmor is adventuring to further his knowledge of the
world, and to seek out other dwarf clans outside of the Pical
mountains. A quiet dwarf, he keeps mostly to
himself, studying the surroundings around him. He is fiercely loyal to
his clan and his friends. Those who tend to cross him often end up on the
flat surface of his mattock.
An orphan, Marmor was adopted in to the
church of Name
Hrothgar Sparkshard,
by the clerics who found him. Brought up with a strict study of the ways
of the forge, and the respect that is earned through it glory. A natural
combatant, Marmor was urged to study with the Battle
Clerics, a group of clerics who travel with the military, providing healing and
inspiration to their fellow dwarfs. Having served his clan for several
years, Marmor received permission to seek out other
dwarf clans outside of the Pical Mountains,
he has since been traveling. He has recently taken to traveling with a
small group of adventurers, attempting to seek out the other clans, to further
his quest for personal glory, and to honor his clan.
Also, I gave
David the basis for the Dwarven Pantheon,
and between the two of us, here is what currently exists
Hrothgar Sparkshard (Male)
Dwarven God of the Forge
Lawful
Neutral
Symbol is a
hammer striking an anvil
Domains –
Fire, War, Law, Protection, Strength
Favorite
Weapon: Any Hammer
Orik Stonesplitter
(Male)
Dwarven God of Creation
Chaotic Good
Symbol is a
swirling mass of colors, no two of which are alike
Domains –
Earth, Creation, Good, Chaos, Artifice
Favorite
Weapon: Unarmed Strike, Spiked Gauntlet
Heilen Earthmender (Female)
Dwarven God of Healing
Lawful Good
Symbol:
Undefined at this time
Domains –
Healing, Law, Good, Life, Community, Repose
Favorite
Weapon: Quarterstaff
Stürmisch Hilletcher (Female)
Dwarven God of Acanum
Lawful
Neutral
Symbol:
Undefined at this time
Domains
–Magic, Knowledge, Law, Protection, Rune
Favorite
Weapon: Dagger
And, yes in case you are wondering, he is a front line
cleric. His levels are Fighter 1/Cleric 4, the reasoning behind this is
that the Battle Clerics are trained with more fighting skills than the standard
clerics. Their first year of service is spent with the infantry, learning
the ways of the military in order for them to better serve the combatants
during an actual battle. He is also Lawful Neutral, so yes, I am going to
try and play lawful, should be interesting.
Dale: ?
Adrian: ?
Dominick: country background, playing a halfling fighter/rogue, eventual warsling
sniper
David W.: monastery details, playing a half-orc monk
World:
200 miles southwest of the city of
Geanavue is the
city-state of Oristus. Just to the west of Oristus is a desert called the Great Bowl.
This is because the desert is in a depression 50' or more below the surrounding
land. West and north of the Great Bowl are the
Pical
Mountains. West of the
Pical
Mountains is the Empire
of Haelthia, or at least the southeast corner of that
empire. South of the Pical Mountains
and the Empire of Haelthia is a jungle whose name I
don't recall just now. And the Ring Type
Ocean is just north of the Name
Pical Type
Mountains, and north and east of the
Empire of Haelthia. The Name
Ring Ocean
is turning out to be either a very large bay or a very large salt-water lake.
Time will tell.
Picture the Ring
Ocean as a giant
circle. Technically I don't know what the top of it looks like yet, but
so far it is a circle. At the very bottom of the circle are the Pical
Mountains. They are
sort of in the shape of an L rotated -90 degrees. Inside of the L is
where the Great Bowl is. The very bottom of the Empire of Haelthia is west of the Pical Mountains
and then goes north from there, following the western curve of the Ring Ocean.
On the eastern curve of the Ring
Ocean is where Geanavue and Blue Granite are located, though Geanavue is about thirty miles inland. The jungle
starts just below the Pical Mountains
and extends west from there, forming the southern border of the Empire of Haelthia.
Deities:
Pertian – God of terror and destruction
Hentara Homemaker – Goddess of Home, Hearth,
and Herbs
Moandain Deathbringer
– God of death and the undead
Hrothgar Sparkshard
– Dwarven god of the Forge
Orik Stonesplitter
– Dwarven god of creation
Heilen Earthmender
– Dwarven goddess of healing and family
Sturmisch Hilletcher
– Dwarven goddess of magic
Alastriel Talanka
– Elven Goddess of the Hunt
Ringen Krig - god
of conquest and tyranny. Patron deity of the Empire of Haelthia