Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles - what German folklore can do for your game

I've written about German folklore before, especially about the legends of the Fränkische Schweiz mountain region. But it has been a few years and my attention wandered elsewhere.

But last year I found this page at Wikisource which lists a massive number of old, public domain collections of German folklore tales - and realized that the vast majority of these tales have never been translated into English. Thus, I decided to start translating them myself, which culminated in the creation of a Patreon campaign in early April:

Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles

All translations are published under a Creative Commons Zero license and thus can be used and copied by anyone without any restrictions, even for commercial purposes. I have posted new translations and commentary of more than 1,000 on a weekly basis since then, and currently maintain a buffer of material sufficient for the next three months. Additionally, I am developing a Google Map layer which displays the locations of these folklore tales:


I am confident that I can maintain this pace for the foreseeable future... so now it's a good time to consider how I can use all this in gaming products. For one thing, gaming will always be my first love when it comes to hobby projects - and for another, folklore-themed gaming products could create some additional revenue and channel folklore-interested gamers back to my Patreon page.

The lowest-hanging fruit would be Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition... or rather, the 5E d20 Rules. It's popular, it's everywhere, and the license is not overly complicated. The following options spring to my mind:

• Miniature "monster supplements", each showcasing and discussing a single creature or type of creature from German folklore. One-off entities or ones that only appear in a few stories like the Mecklenburg Hoop Lindwurm should be easy to write up, while more common entities like pressure spirits, the Wild Hunt, the many types of ghosts, or the Devil himself require considerably more care and would have to wait until I have a firmer grasp of the source material.
• New spells and magic items. As it happens, there are quite a lot of descriptions of magic and its effects in German folklore, ranging from the minor and subtle to grand works that wouldn't feel out of place for 9th level spells. This would likely be an ongoing effort as I uncover new descriptions of magic in German folklore.
• Character options. Eventually, I should be able to work out new subclasses, backgrounds, racial options and so forth that fit into the themes of German folklore.
• Finally, a very distant project would be regional sourcebooks for specific regions, mixing real world history at a specific time (right now I am thinking the year 1500, but I am open to other suggestions) with folkloric stories - possibly including legendary locations such as Vineta. However, this would require considerable research for both the region in question and its associated folklore stories.

Another option which I am considering is the newly-released Scion 2nd Edition, a game where the myths of old faded into the background, but never completely left. The "All Myths Are Real" premise of the setting would surely apply to German folklore, and it would be fascinating to explore how these stories interact with both the Gods and their children, and modern-day Germany. And since historically Germany sat at the crossroads of Nordic, Slavic, Roman, and other pantheons before the rise of Christianity, it should be a fertile ground for the adventures of the children of the Gods.

The upcoming Storypath Nexus, a "Community Content" program like the Dungeon Master's Guild for D&D, would provide the opportunity for publishing material for the game. I'm envisioning a series of essay collections similar to short magazines - perhaps 20 pages each - exploring facets of Germany and German folklore as they apply to the setting of Scion, which can be used either by entire chronicles set in Germany, or for shorter stories that visit the region and its associated Otherworlds.

A third possibility would be creating a supplement for the Zweihander RPG, a retroclone of the first and second editions of the old Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game. To be honest, I haven't paid too much attention to Zweihander until recently, but people have been saying good things about it and I do have fond memories of WFRP. And as its flavor is strongly inspired by Renaissance-era Central Europe (with extra doses of Grim and Gritty), German folklore would be a perfect fit for its Community Content program.

What other possibilities do you see for using German folklore in gaming products?

A Return to Maztica

Around the year 1990, TSR started producing a number of expansions to the Forgotten Realms which were based on historical cultures. These included Kara-tur (based on East Asia), The Horde (Mongols), Al-Qadim (based more on the Arabian Nights tales than the historical Arab world), and Maztica - based on Mesoamerican cultures in general and the Mayans and Aztecs in particular.

I bought and read the boxed set when it was first published in 1991. I enjoyed it well enough at the time, but looking back I must say that it has not aged particularly well. One reason is that the state of historical knowledge has increased drastically those past 28 years, and obviously the Maztica Boxed Set couldn't take recent discoveries into account.

Yet in my opinion the biggest problems derive from the author's decision to not only introduce a setting based on the historical Aztecs and Mayas, but also re-tell the story of Hernando Cortes' Conquistators and their conquest of the Aztec Empire within the Forgotten Realms (in the Maztica novel trilogy, which serves as a prequel to the boxed set). While the outcome eventually differed from real world history, this decision nonetheless has profound implications for the setting.

For starters, the storyline needed to explain why the invaders succeeded with their conquests against such overwhelming odds. In our worlds the invaders had a technological advantage with steel weapons armor, and horses, and this is also the case in Maztica. But the Conquistators also had the advantage of a massive smallpox epidemic wrecking the native population, and this should be less of a concern in a world with magical healing - indeed, neither the boxed set nor the Maztica novels mention any kind of plague. Thus, there needed to be other explanations:

• The native Mazticans had no knowledge of and exposure to arcane magic (and indeed, the novels feature such classics as "let's have our invisible wizard teleport within range of their leaders and throw fireballs at them until they are charcoal!").
• While the natives do have a unique magic of their own - plumaweaving and hishnashaping, which draws on the power inherent in feathers and talons - it is vastly weaker than other forms of magic (indeed, its foremost practitioners were represented by Rogue kits).
• To add insult to injury, even the native clerics are weaker than their counterparts from mainland Faerun, having access to far fewer Spheres of clerical spells and no special powers. The Spheres of Summoning and Necromancy are even completely banned to native priests - which means, among other things, that no native priest can raise the dead!

This is of course frustrating for those who want to play native spellcasters in a campaign where both natives and invaders are present - why settle for the weaker spellcasters when the invaders have magical superiority on their side? But the problems with the storyline do not end there - throughout, the native characters show little agency of their own and are usually pushed or manipulated by external forces - whether the invading Golden Legion, their own or foreign gods, or even drow (!) exiled from Faerun which set up the human sacrifice cult for their own purposes and manipulated the natives into this activity. That the climatic events of the series culminated in the members of said cult being transformed into orcs, ogres, and trolls only added insult to injury - as if implying "the natives can only be a real threat when they are transformed into monsters derived from European mythology and folklore!".

Additionally, neither the novels nor the boxed set really engage with the topic of human sacrifice in a serious manner - their stance is basically "It's evil, but it was all instigated by outsiders anyway, and now most natives refuse to do this evil thing any more!" This does not really represent how pre-Columbian Aztecs viewed the practice - as a conscious decision to harvest the energy of rival city-states in order to feed and strengthen the gods and the cosmos as a whole in order to delay the inevitable dissolution of the current world a little while longer (admittedly, it was a pretty effective intimidation tactic too - "send us tribute, or we will rip your hearts out!").

Eventually, Wizards of the Coast also presumably came to the conclusion that Maztica wasn't one of the best work done for the Forgotten Realms. Which is why, when they published the 4th Edition of the Forgotten Realms, they sent the entire continent to the twin world of Abeir and replaced it with a new continent named Laerakond. Oh, and they also introduced a hundred-year timeskip, in addition to numerous other changes.

Most fans were not amused. Thus, Wizards of the Coast undid most of these changes for the 5th edition (as presented in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide) - without, however, returning to an earlier time. Maztica too is back, though beyond a few references indicating its return there is nothing known about its precise state.

Which means that now is a perfect time to start developing a new version of Maztica - and that is precisely what I am planning, with the eventual goal being a series of publication on the Dungeon Master's Guild.

Of course, there already is an interpretation of Maztica for the 5th Edition era - the True World series by Jon Hild and others (and you should go and buy their stuff right now). So what will my project, which I call "Returned Maztica", bring to the table? Mainly, a difference in approach.

The True World series an approach similar to the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - while the timeline has advanced, many of the changes are rolled back and the setting now largely resembles how Maztica was in the era before or immediately after the conquests of the Golden Legion. There are some chances, but they are comparably minor. This is a legitimate approach (and follows the lead of Wizards of the Coast), but I wanted to try something different - inspired by the book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles M. Mann.

This is one of the most gameable nonfiction books I am aware of - among other things, it contains such tidbits as "there were Japanese samurai guarding silver shipments in 17th century Mexico" (and why this hasn't been turned into a manga or anime, I will never know). But the main lesson for me is this:

You cannot really rewind the clock. Once the "New World" is "discovered" by outsiders, changes will inevitably follow. Technologies will be exchanged, creatures will be introduced to new habitats, new modes of thought and belief will spread among the people.

But change is always a source of conflict - and thus, adventures. Therefore my vision of Maztica will not portray a pre-colonial or colonial setting, but a post-colonial setting - one that has been recently liberated from its oppressors but now struggles to define itself and its place in the world. My basic outline is this:

When Maztica was transported to Abeir during the Spellplague, the colonies established by nations from Faerun were cut off from their home countries and rapidly lost most of their power and influence. However, new overlords soon appeared - dragons who sought to claim the riches of Maztica for their own. Their fighting was fierce, but eventually seven ancient dragons survived and divided the nations of Maztica between them, setting themselves up at the top of the traditional tribute chains that tied the towns and cities together. To administer their conquests, they brought clans of dragonborn sworn to their service with them who collected the tribute, stopped any uprisings, and made sure that trade and commerce (and thus, treasure) kept flowing. And for the most menial of tasks - such as working in the vast silver mines of Lopango - they introduced genasi slaves from Shyr. One people placed above for the natives to resent, and one people placed below for the natives to look down on - this way, the dragon overlords distracted the Mazticans from their ultimate oppressors and kept the mortals from uniting against them. And it worked... for a while.

But ill omens continued, and though the priests of the High Gods were no longer able to channel miraculous power, the people of Maztica never completely abandoned their faith. Did not the philosophers claim that the gods needed to be empowered by ritual and sacrifice to give them the strength to keep the world turning and prevent cosmic disaster? And wasn't the shift of Maztica to Abeir precisely a cosmic disaster that the philosophers had warned about?

Then the couatl reappeared and whispered to select heroes: "Strive to become dragon slayers, for when the dragon overlords are slain, their evil vanquished, surely your faith and devotion will be rewarded and Maztica will be returned to its rightful place!" And when a group of mighty heroes assembled, they were gifted the long-lost Cloak-of-One-Plume and proclaimed the Feathered Champions - the saviors of Maztica. And indeed, after a series of mighty battles the Feathered Champions were able to slay six of the seven dragon overlords, although most of the Champions perished in the final battle, and one of the dragons... turned out to be not quite dead enough.

And after the final battle, the skies lifted and Maztica returned to the shores of Toril. Now the dragonborn trading houses send out their great ships to Faerun and even more distant shores to establish new trade routes, while the cities, nations, and empires of Maztica eye each other and contemplate the future they will want to build.

That's the basic background - for much more detail, you can visit this forum thread at the Piazza forums, as well as the other threads linked there. But first, here are my design goals for this project:

• Developing a unique, compelling vision for each of the regions of Maztica which supports not only adventures, but entire campaigns taking place within that region. The writeups for these regions should emphasize both their Mesoamerican roots and the fantastic nature of D&D settings - "Aztecs meet Morrowind" is the vibe I am striving for.
• Developing a Maztican view of the gods, the world, and everything in it that is derived from Aztec metaphysics and in no obvious way "wrong" or "lesser" when compared to that of mainland Faerun.
• Developing explanations for how all D&D 5E player character classes (including the Artificer and the Mystic from Unearthed Arcana) and most of their subclasses fit into the setting without seeming out of place for native characters.
• Using the sojourn on Abeir to introduce all sorts of fantastic new creatures to Maztica - staying away from the more "common" creatures prevalent in Faerun and instead using more obscure creatures from D&D lore (such as those from the AC9 Creature Catalogue) and bringing them to the 5E rules if necessary.

My plan is to write a series of supplements for "Returned Maztica" - starting with a rules supplement that presents the plumaweaver and hishnashaper as new 5E subclasses to test the waters, which will then be followed by a Player's Guide giving a top-down overview of the setting and its changes.

So what are your thoughts? What do you want to see in a revised Maztica setting? Comment here, or in the forum thread that started it all!

[Eberron] Campaign Idea - Ironport-Splintertown

Every good hexcrawl/wilderness exploration campaign needs a good home base - a frontier town where the player characters can rest and restock after an adventure. But for your Eberron campaign, you don't want just any home base. You want a frontier town that has steep mountains to the north, dinosaur-filled plains to the west, deep jungles and swamps with ancient ruins to the south, stormwracked oceans to the east, and the unfathomable depths of Khyber below. You want a boomtown that visibly grows every month, with new arrivals both noble and base coming in on an almost daily basis. You want a port town beset by greedy pirates and angry orc tribes. You want a border town straddling a political division a mere two years old, with one side trying their utmost to be "respectable" while the other side remains in cheerful anarchy. You want an aspiring city which, once completed as its founders intended, will reshape the politics and economies of the entire region.

In other words, you want the twin town of Ironport-Splintertown. Read on...


First, some background: As outlined in Forge of War (p. 17), the Mror Holds were the first region of Khorvaire to officially declare themselves independent from the Five Nations - all the way back in the year 914 (84 years before the present time). Karrnath was rather upset about this, but lacked the resources to do anything about it at the time. To take some of the sting out of this, the Iron Council (the leadership of the Mror Holds) gave Karrnath Most Favored Nation Status and wasted no time in selling them weapons, armor, and other war materials, assuring that they would "maintain close military ties". However by no means did the dwarves wish to lose out on the very profitable Southern Trade with Breland and Cyre - thus, they clandestinely hired on Lhazaarite "merchants" to smuggle their products, maintaining plausible deniability with Karrnath.

However, now that the Last War has ended the Mror Holds do no longer have to be clandestine about the Southern Trade - after all, everyone was now at peace and thus free to trade with whomever they wanted to. Naturally, this has cut into the war profiteering profits of the sea princes. However, they managed to bargain their way into the Treaty of Thronehold, and are now doing the whole "We are a verrrry respectable nation with verrrry serious businessmen and verrrry vigorous and innovative forms of taxation! Arrrr!"

In other words, their erstwhile business partners have become a major pain for the Mror Holds - any goods shipped from the north has to pass through pretty much the entirety of the Lhazaar Principalities, which means that every sea prince on the route will want either hefty bribes or plunder their goods outright. Thus, the Holds need a new trade route that will circumvent as much of the Principalities as possible. Fortunately, there is a possible route, though it will require some work.

Two years ago, the nations of Khorvaire signed the Treaty of Thronehold, which nailed down the national borders after the Last War. While the main focus of the extremely intense negotiations was on the borders of the original Five Nations with their neighbors, the newer nations had their own arguments - one of these being the boundary between the Mror Holds and its neighbors Q'barra and the Lhazaar Principalities. In the end, the Mror Holds managed to gain a small strip of coastal land that represented "a natural extension of the Ironroot Mountains" and thus clearly part of the Mror Holds (which was news to the Jhorash'tar tribes living there, but nobody invited them to Thronehold). The dwarves tried the same argument for the territory south of the Hoarfrost Mountains, but the sea prince of Cliffscrape considered the numerous fishing villages dotting the coastal plains to be part of her domain and objected most vehemently. The negotiations with Q'barra were easier, since the latter country did not have much in the way or resources to spare for this strip of no man's land this far north anyway. In the end, the current borders were worked out as a compromise in order to present a united front to the older nations.

Half a year later, the dwarves surveyed the land for a possible location for a new port (with the assistance of Lyrandar experts - the Mror Holds had excellent engineers, but little in the way of maritime expertise). It was soon determined that the very best location for a new port was at the mouth of the Crystal River - which, awkwardly enough, was the boundary line agreed upon with Q'barra in the Treaty of Thronehold. Furthermore, the site already had a small settlement named "Shardtown" by its inhabitants - a combined fishing village and hideout for smugglers who during the war specialized in lightweight/high value items - including Dragonshards.

Officially, the logic of nautical engineering won out. The dwarves arrived with a force of engineers, guards, administrators on the north side of the river mouth and announced to the startled inhabitants their intention that they intended to build a new city on the spot entitled "Ironport" (after the Ironroot Mountains). Anyone who wanted to stay under the new rulers could do so and take part in the many exiting and entirely legitimate business opportunities. Those who were unhappy about the regime change were politely but firmly pointed towards the other side of the river, where the settlement retained the name Splintertown and doubled down on the smuggling and all sorts of other dubious activities (many of which take advantage of the riches generated in Ironport).

Very privately, several Mror clan leaders see this problem as an opportunity. They would dearly like to grab more territory for the Holds (and their clans), and considering that Q'barra is weak, underpopulated, and focused on the southern parts of its territory, the country looks like a perfect victim. However, none of the other major nations are willing to allow such a blatant land grab and violation of another nation's territory so soon after the Treaty of Thronehold was signed. Thus, the Mror Holds need some sort of pretext for expanding southwards. Their strategy is as follows:

• Tolerate the presence of Splintertown, but subtly encourage it as a den of criminality and vice that causes ongoing problems in Ironport (frankly, this isn't hard) - and then complain loudly to the government of Q'barra, the worldwide press, and anyone else who will listen about it. Q'barra of course does not have the resources to "clean up" a town so far from its core settlement, but it might send the occasional lawman north who will predictably get horribly murdered in short order (either by the crime bosses or deniable agents of the dwarves). Eventually, the dwarves might be hailed for invading the town and "cleaning it up" by world opinion...
• Provoke some sort of attack or raid on Splintertown that is unlikely to threaten the defenses of Ironport but represents a major threat to the inhabitants of the smaller town. This can provide an excuse for the trained soldiers of Ironport to march forth and defend the town, since Q'barra is obviously unable to defend its people. And once the threat is defeated, the soldiers might stick around... and the inhabitants might cheer them for it.

(Side note: For an alternative campaign, consider making the PCs the "lawmen" sent north by King Sebastes in order to clean up Splintertown and then discover all the... complexities of their assignment once they arrive. Assuming that they won't get horribly murdered first.)

But these are far from the only issues facing Ironport-Splintertown. To the north, the Mror Holds need to establish a secure route through the southern Ironrood Mountains, which means dealing with the orc tribes one way or another. Some clans are in favor of giving the orcs a place in the Iron Council, while others are bitterly opposed and would like to see nothing more than have all the orcs wiped out - and they are perfectly willing to send agents sabotaging each others' efforts in this. There is also the question how this new region is supposed to be distributed among the clans, since it is not part of their traditional territories (see the Player's Guide to Eberron, p. 55 for a map). For Ironport and the route leading to it at least, the Iron Council has agreed on a basic profit-sharing scheme based on the amount of investments each involved clan has made. Currently the lawyers and accountants are battling over the details, and whether this agreement will survive the next round of renegotiations in a recognizable form is anyone's guess. Meanwhile, beneath the southern Ironroot Mountains things stir in the depths of Khyber, and duergar have been spotted in increasing numbers. How this will affect the new trade route is anyone's guess.

To the west, the hill country gradually gives way to the Talenta Plains, and dinosaurs are a common sight. While the halflings themselves are good neighbors, and their trade caravans become increasingly common as Ironport grows, the Valenar raiders range far and wide from their southern lands, and eventually the growing town might represent too tempting a target for them.

To the south, the lizardmen and dragonborn of the marshes seem mostly quiescent, though the occasional group of dragonborn pilgirms passes through town on their way to the Boneyard. But the swamps hide numerous brass-embellished ruins from the Age of Demons, and the explorers of Ironport-Splintertown might not be wise enough to stay away from their sleeping inhabitants. Indeed, perhaps agents of the Lords of Dust are already active in town in order to encourage such explorers...

To the east, the Sea Princes watch the growth of Ironport with fear and greed. The northern princes fear the inevitable loss of income - and with it, prestige and political power - that will result once the Southern Route is firmly established, while the southern princes hope for increased opportunities for bribes and plunder. Prince might turn against prince, and this issue is what might cause the young nation to splinter again in its component parts. For now, the alliance holds - but for how long?

And to the far east, the Inspired watch this new development with interest. Any new major port on the eastern end of Khorvaire represents another opportunity for infiltration from Riedra - and once they realize how explosive the political situation is, they will do their best to cause the situation degenerate further while presenting a helpful and friendly face to everyone.

It is in this maelstrom of political intrigue where the PCs will make their names. Will they just focus on plunder and profit to their own benefits? Or will they make a stand and shape this new town in accordance with their vision?

The Dungeon Masters Guild is an awesome deal for would-be Forgotten Realms publishers

The big news in gaming this week is that Wizards of the Coast have finally released their updated Open Gaming License for D&D 5th Edition. Since they promised that they would do something like that, this was not totally unexpected, even though many of us had given up hope by now.

What was totally unexpected is the announcement of the Dungeon Masters Guild, an online market place for fan-created D&D material. It's basically a subsite of DriveThruRPG, and for the privilege of publishing there they (that is, DriveThruRPG and Wizards of the Coast) keep 50% of the revenue, with the other 50% going to the publisher. Here are some details on how it works.

That in itself would deserve a big "meh" from publishers, since the standard deal offered by DriveThruRPG for site-exclusive publication is that DriveThruRPG keeps 30% while the publisher gets 70% of the revenues. However, there is one important difference:

The Dungeon Masters Guild allows you to publish and sell new Forgotten Realms material.

Think about it. In the old days, if you wanted to publish Forgotten Realms material and get paid for it you would first have to make a name for yourself to get a commission from Wizards of the Coast, or submit something to Dragon or Dungeon magazine and hope you get accepted. Now you can just write about whatever Forgotten Realms-related topic you want and publish it instantly with the Dungeon Masters Guild without any kind of formal submission process where the content has to be reviewed by the under-staffed offices at Wizards of the Coast.

Yes, they reserve the right to pull products that are "offensive or pornographic", but I consider that to be a standard "anti-asshole" clause. Treat the IP with respect, and it is unlikely that they will go after you (though if your publication is nothing more than a long, graphic description of how Elminster is stabbed to death, you have no one but yourself to blame if it is pulled. Not that I believe the guy deserves that...). And again, this review is reactive, not proactive - your product will go live as soon as you publish it, and it is likely that Wizards of the Coast will only become active if they receive complaints about your work.

Given that Wizards of the Coast gives you permission to use their biggest sub-IP of the Dungeons & Dragons brand and make money from it, the added 20% of the revenue they ask for really is not very unreasonable. In fact, I consider it very generous - most freelancers working for publishers get paid significantly less.

An added wrinkle is that your work can be expanded upon by other Dungeon Masters Guild publishers, though they do encourage contributors to give proper credit to other people's work. They might also consider including your work into the Forgotten Realms "canon", though that will require a separate deal and is not automatic. The closest comparison I can come up with is how Disney, upon the acquisition of Lucasfilm, declared the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" to be "Legends" material - non-canon, though something that they can draw upon for added material and ideas at need (as it has happened quite a few times in Star Wars: Rebels). With this setup, they can observe what fan works are popular and use them as ideas for future "official" Forgotten Realms material (assuming they get the author's permission) - a good situation for both authors and Wizards of the Coast.

Don't get me wrong - if you have your own setting and your own rules material that isn't related to the Forgotten Realms, you should stick to the OGL which gives you more freedom for publications. But if you do want to write for the Forgotten Realms, then this particular deal is awesome - so go for it!

As for myself, I am also contemplating using this - I have an idea for a project which I will call "Returned Maztica". Stay tuned for further details.

[Campaign Idea] Eberron - The Moiras Foundation

Another campaign idea for Eberron which I would like to run one day (compare with Morgrave University Archaeologists).

During the Last War, Moiras d'Cannith became very, very rich thanks to the numerous magical constructs he sold to the Five Nations - but the devastation he saw during the war made him restless. He researched the Draconic Prophecies and was plagued by dreams of doom. When, at the end of the war, the proud nation of Cyre was destroyed in a single day through a magical cataclysm, he became convinced that the end of the world was a very real possibility. He spent the last two years of his life traveling to distant countries in order to learn more about possible threats to the world - and his will established the creation of a foundation which would allow others to do the same.

The player characters have been selected by the newly-established Board of the Moiras Foundation. They receive a generous stipend, room and board in the mansion at the outskirts of Wroat (the capital of Breland) which serves as the headquarters of the Foundation, as well as free travel with all regular Orien lightning rail and caravans and Lyrandar ships (second class only). In exchange, they are obligated to research the Draconic Prophecy as well as any groups and powers that might pose a threat to the safety of the world - and, if possible, thwart their schemes (although their primary mission is to gather information). Such groups include (but are not limited to) the Cults of the Dragon Below, the Lords of Dust, the Children of Winter, as well as other groups that seem rather suspicious and secretive (like the Blood of Vol).

The actions of the player characters - and any other agents of the Foundation - are reviewed at least annually by the Board if they are making a good efforts towards these goals, and if they fail to make a satisfactory account of their actions, they might be kicked out. Apart from that, they are free to set their own priorities on how to tackle those goals, although individual members of the Board sometimes pass on hints on suggestions on what kinds of activities they would consider to be worthwhile.

Of course, while the stipend and the other perks are sweet, this job comes with quite a few enemies. All these cults, for example, will object most violently to their activities getting exposed. Furthermore, the three surviving splinter groups of House Cannith would love to get their hands on the Moiras inheritance to help rebuild their House, and will fight the Foundation in the courts, in the eyes of public opinion (especially if the PCs mess up), and possibly through more underhanded means. Finally, the members of the Board might have their own hidden agendas which are not necessarily the same as that of the Foundation - what if an agent of the Aurum sits on the Board? Or of the Chamber?


Basically, this campaign framework is my excuse for running Call of Cthulhu-esque adventures in Eberron, while also providing a framework why player characters would participate in such adventures again and again. In fact, this was based on a similar framework for 1920s Call of Cthulhu which I saw on a website somewhere (unfortunately, I lost the link), and I figure it was well worth stealing for Eberron, with some further modifications to suit the setting.

Campaign Idea: Into the Depths

At first glance, the world looks rather similar to other D&Desque fantasy settings. There are various nonhuman races, various types of monsters, and, of course, there is magic.

However, magical energy has a source: The molten core of the world, from which it gradually travels outward throughout the layers of rock until it dissipates into the sky. At the surface, only fairly weak magics can be cast without constraints, and you have to go to the deepest depths of the Underdark to be freely able to cast the mightiest of spells.

GURPS: The surface is at low mana. Once you go underground, you reach normal mana, while much deeper regions of the Underdark reach high and even very high mana before you reach the magma.

D&D: You can only cast cantrips and 1st level spells at the surface. If you are underground, you can cast 2nd level spells, and deeper levels allow you to cast higher-level spells until you reach 9th level spells just before you reach the magma.

The ambient magic in the depths warps its inhabitants, which means that the deeper you go, the more bizarre and powerful creatures will you find, which sometimes survive by devouring magic alone. However, the ambient magic also anneals in in harvest-able form - strange fungal growths, crystals, even internal organs of creatures. These can be used to cast more powerful spells at the surface, though they are consumed during the casting.

GURPS: Ingredients from the normal-mana regions reduce the spellcasting penalty for the surface low-mana zone to -4. Ingredients from the high mana regions reduce it to -2. Ingredients from the very high mana regions waive the penalty entirely.

D&D: Ingredients from a region where you can cast a particular spell level freely also allow you to cast the same spell levels at the higher layers, including the surface - for instance, if you are in a region where you can cast 5th level spells, then ingredients from that region will allow you to cast the same spells in less magic-rich regions, including the surface.

(Note: Volcanoes are generally more "magic rich" than the surrounding areas since they present a direct access to the magma. However, since the mana dissipates directly into the sky, volcanic regions do not provide especially magic-rich ingredients.)

So, what does this mean for the campaign? Well, for starters most mages will generally lair underground. But it also provides a clear impetus for surface civilizations to venture into the depths - ranging from small-scale expeditions to establishing long, fortified trade routes and even entire cities. It will also encourage trade with the natives (just what are you willing to trade to the drow in exchange for their magic crystals?) - and if that's not possible, warfare.

For the player characters, it also encourages going deeper into the bowels of the world as the campaign progresses, as both the challenges and the rewards will increase further down. More than just a place to do the occasional quest, the Underdark becomes the focus of the campaign. As they increase in power, they can explore ever-stranger civilizations and locations until they reach the deepest depths.


Note: This was inspired by this RPGNet thread.

[Campaign Idea] Eberron - Morgrave University Archaeologists

Here is a campaign idea which I want to run one of these days:

Morgrave University - situated in Sharn, the famed City of Towers - is a beacon of scholarship and research (and claims that it is funded primarily by selling ancient artifacts under the table are vile rumors started by rivals)! Its archaeologists travel the world in search of knowledge - the jungles of Q'barra, the Shadow Marches, or even myth-shrouded Xen'drik - in order to excavate the past, illuminate the dark strands of history... and be the first ones back alive in civilization to talk about it! It's a "publish or perish" world, after all...

The PCs would be a professor of archaeology and assorted flunkies, such as students (ordinary, grad or even PhD), post-Docs, bodyguards, wilderness scouts, black marketeers, and so forth. Their mutual home base unites the party and also gives a good excuse for rotating or absent players (i.e. the character had another appointment coming up).

Away from the university, the basic missions are clear: Go to distant countries and remote regions, find ancient stuff, and excavate and plunder it - not so different from what normal adventurers are doing, really, except for the veneer of academic research. Opponents can include pesky natives who seem to object digging around in their ancient burial grounds, adventurers and looters without the proper academic credentials, people with the proper academic credentials but who come from rival universities or departments, and so on.

But the stories need not end at the doorsteps of the university, as academia can be every bit as cutthroat as the outside world - just in a different way. Rival student societies, rival academics, and the day-to-day hazards of a university environment where far too many people know how to use magic. And as a special treat, there should be occasional "faculty meetings" which the player character professor is required to attend - while the other professors as well as the dean should be played by the other players, with their own personalities and agendas provided by the GM. Who can successfully blame the latest budget shortcuts on others, while spinning the problems of their own department in the most positive way? Vicious back-stabbing is strongly encouraged!

Essentially, this campaign would run like a crossover between Indian Jones-style adventuring archaeology and GURPS IOU.

Your thoughts?

Setting Idea - Fantastic Colony

Over the decades, D&D and its various incarnations (such as Pathfinder) have accumulated some truly bizarre creatures in their various monster manuals. I am not talking about creatures from real world mythology. I am also not talking about hybrid critters like the infamous owlbear. No, I am talking about beings which look like they couldn't have possibly evolved in an Earth-like environment, such as the tentamort:

 

the yrthak:

 or even the abominable flumph:

So how do all these strange creatures come into contact with fantasy worlds which are, though not exactly Earth, at least very similar to our own world? While you could always claim "A Wizard Did It!" and leave it at that, but I, for one, prefer my settings with a bit more internal logic.

For Urbis, I ruled that all those creatures which look like they couldn't have possibly evolved in an Earth-like environment... in fact didn't, but usually came from other planets in the same solar system, implying that there was travel between the planets in the distant past and these creatures represent invasive species to the local ecosystem. This works well enough if you want to keep those creatures around as an occasional novelty. Still, there is another approach one could take - what if these creatures are not the invasive species, but humans (and elves, and dwarves, and...)?

Let's imagine the following scenario. We start out with a fairly standard D&Desque fantasy world with all the usual tropes and a fairly usual Earth-like environment.

Unfortunately, that world is doomed to die. In 10 years or so, the sun is going to explode, or a similar catastrophe of equal magnitude which is going to leave no survivors. And everyone knows this. Civilzation is still able to function, but the impending doom puts a damper on things.

Then one of the wealthier nations comes up with a plan - evacuate everyone to another world. Sages scry the multiverse, and while most worlds they find are too hostile, there is one fairly "nearby" (in magical terms) which is suitable - a terrestrial world with breathable atmosphere, with plants and animals digestible by humans.

And vice versa.

However, life there evolved along rather different lines. Instead of the birds and mammals and reptiles, the flowers and trees we are familiar with, the ecosystems on this world are extrapolated from the strange life froms of D&D history. With some limitations - if I want to publish this, I would have to limit myself to creatures published under the OGL. In particular, the primary resources would be:

• The Pathfinder Bestiaries
• The Tome of Horrors Complete, since that book has been able to collect all sorts of classic D&D monsters due to a special deal with Wizards of the Coast.

Further limitations would be:

• No "Earth-like" creatures - no recognizable mammals, birds, reptiles and so forth.
• In particular, no recognizably humanoid creatures, as this would present seemingly relatable people and take away from the alien atmosphere of the setting.

This should still provide a rather lengthy list of suitable creatures. From these, I could find common links which indicate "families" of species, and from there I could fill out the holes in the alien ecosystem, eventually reaching a level of detail similar to that of the Blue Planet RPG (in particular, its excellent Natural Selection sourcebook).

So this is the world which is chosen by the inhabitants of our doomed fantasy world. Magical portals are being built - their cost is vast, equivalent to the wealth of a city-state, yet when the very survival of one's civilization is at stake then the cost must be paid. It is now Year Three of the colonization effort, and various nations have established beachheads and a ring of rapidly growing settlements on this alien world which struggle to make this land fertile for their crops so that they can feed the teeming, desperate masses pouring through the gates. Some of the gates have fallen to orcs and other marauding monsters who are now fleeing to this world as well. But the biggest challenge is the alien environment itself - its many inhabitants, many of which are deadly and many of which are not, and few of the refugees know enough to tell the difference. A number of seemingly intelligent creatures have been encountered, though nothing the refugees would recognize as native civilization - so far, although explorers have found long-abandoned ruins in remote regions...

The PCs can be peacekeepers solving the problems among the settlers, merchants seeking to exploit the riches of this new world, leaders trying to carve their own nations into the wild, or exploers uncovering the secrets of the land.

Your thoughts?