Checking in, having login and post issues, so let's see if this one sticks

I'm back.  Two adventure threads updated.  I will update the third one later today.

I know I have Adoven's trip to Restov to run.

If you think I made a mistake with anything in the Campaign Round ...
If you have a question, I haven't dealt with ...
If I have left you hanging anywhere ...

This is a good time to tell me  :)

Technically, it is Tobias making the Restov run. Adoven is far too busy to negotiate every contact.

When I go on holiday, all the static and general noise in my brain slows down, and I start thinking about different things.  Thus time it was a bout a game that I might want to run in a few years time.

http://galinia.org.uk/looking-a-long-way-forward

I look forward to seeing that new Galinia campaign develop over the next few years. Do you already have a basic world map to help put places and events you mention in context?

Funnily enough ....


http://rp.baileymail.net/lib/e...ld:greater_hann_.jpg

You have a very expansive, thoughtful approach to world & setting building.

Were you influenced by any particular novels?  Or real world history?  Both?

A bit of both, I think.  However, you need to remember that I ran the first game in this 'game world'  about 40 years ago - and 'The Strongholds' was built using the stronghold rules from the 1st Ed DMG.  *grin*  So long ago that I had to go back to my paper records and scan the map, when I started to analyse the cities.

My whole approach to D&D comes from my early reading, coupled with a long-standing interest in history.  My interest in fantasy started with fairy stories (as a very young child)  I learned to read very early, and read the various 'bedtime tales', followed up by Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm.  Then my father brought me a book of Norse Myths - and I have been collecting mythologies ever since.  I have a collection of books that covers Norse, Celtic, Greek, Roman and other mythologies - including African and Australian folk tales / mythologies.  The collection includes various anthologies covering British folk tales and stories about elves and similar.

That lead to Lord of the Rings and Raymond Fiest's books (in particular) - although there are a number of other authors that I admired.  All of them had really tight world settings - they were Low Magic (and often historically feasible) for the majority of the population, with real Heroes as the exception.

Then there are my historical interests.  I have spent well over 30 years re-enacting battles from the 17th Century  and recently branched out to 18th century with a few Pirate events thrown in for good measure.  However, I am not really interested in lists of battles and their details, so my research has always revolved around  social and cultural aspects of the settings.  For example, I researched knitting (in enough depth to have a conversation about the development of the 'purl' stitch), I have read about the development of spectacles and lenses, and once researched the history of the cabbage, because of something I saw on a webpage.

I always found the published game setting fairly bland and flavourless, especially when TSR, Paizo etc, started adding so many supplements to boost their income.

I think my work background (Computing and Teaching) has fostered a love of research and detail - which also informs the approach I take to world building.

Now you know why I protect my games settings so much -  and deny all sorts of 'really cool' abilities.  :)

Although, I forgot to mention something that had a big influence in the way I try to build things into the settings I develop.

A few years ago, I spent some time writing Persistent Worlds for the Neverwinter Nights computer game - and that taught me to write in world design elements that encourage players to interact with them, and then role play around them.  The more chances you give players to RP, the more they will RP.  Quite often without realizing that they are doing so :)

I agree totally with this.  And it is part of what makes this game stand out, compared to many.

And that published settings are often lacking.  Most of the best games I've played were either home brew, or a case where the GM had his personal stamp well in evidence on the pre-written material.

 I'm a huge fan of the filled-in-detail approach to gaming, not because I enjoy memorising nonsense, but because it's amazing where inspiration for a cool idea can come from. I played a Church Mathematician once because I read up on how bloody arcane roman-numeral accounting could get - everyone assumed I was an inquisitor in disguise, but no, just an accountant and that was even rarer.

 And, like most long-term roleplayers I'm probably on like, a dozen watchlists for my search history alone (why yes, I did try to calculate how many catfish I would need to dispose of the corpse of one young child a week, and yes that is a thorough history of anthrax weaponisation testing on Gruinard Island I was looking up, why?).

 A lot of this stuff is just fun.

*grin*  Thank you.

I enjoy the detail - but I don't expect anyone to try and memorize it, which is why I have such a stupidly large website for you guys to look through, and I am always happy to point people to the right pages or expand on the content.

A large chunk of the detail on the website has come from questions or comments that players have made, as they either highlight areas that are missing, or that need expanding.

I often find unusual characters are often more interesting -  especially when they are underpowered, although they can't be too underpowered.  We found that out in a game using characters with NPC classes, who all had a level or two of commoner - I still think it would have worked, if we hadn't used the commoner levels, but just stuck with the other NPC classes.  Underpowered Characters make you think carefully about how you will use  the equipment and abilities available to you.

And as for searches, I have had to cut back on some of the more 'questionable' military and dangerous web-searches recently.  Yes, Officer, I know how to build an atomic bomb, I know a lot about small firearms, but I have deleted all those files and web searches about the manufacture of explosives.

When I was a teenager (some 50 years ago)  one of my friends had  a book that contained 'recipes' for all sorts of explosives.  We made all sorts of stuff that is probably illegal now (and might have been illegal then)

It is amazing what you find  :)

I thought I had lost access to the online version of this, when I set up the Galinia Blog -  but this is the first game I ran online, first at PBW, then it moved to RPoL.  It started in 1999, on the PBW prototype site -  efore it was made public.

http://www.baileymail.net/j-bailey/RolePlay/Galinia/

The images to the left of the text are clickable.

So for the next three days I'm going to be in a remote cabin in the Canadian wilderness. I won't have access to wifi.

@Maple - Enjoy :)

I agree with this too, totally --  it's one of a number of reasons I took a liking to the cleric class(before 3E), early on, albeit I don't think they were under powered, per se.  But, aside from the healing, the spell list always led me to think more about how to best use it, than the mage list did.

I've got that now, with the multi classed cohort I'm running in Vik's group.   She's not as powerful as the single class PCs, but kind of has just the right amount to make it interesting.
**
Maple, have fun --  I'd give up wifi for a few days of that!  The Canadian wilderness is beautiful.

 That's more or less how Vova is working out... I mean sure, a divine/arcane caster can be scary with the right combination of feats and spells...

 ...neither of which Vova really has. And all the things about him that are the most fun are almost entirely unconnected to his spellcasting. ^_^

So is it too early to sign up for "Return to Galinia" ?  :>

I played in the original campaign on PBW over 20 years ago now.  I wasn't in right at the start, but joined soon after to take the role of Edgar the talking raven and still have all my character/game notes sitting on my current computer.  A talking raven was just a little different to the standard Fighter/Thief/Wizard/Cleric Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling that I'd played before ...

... and I loved it.   Probably the campaign that opened my eyes to playing a role as a character rather than seeing the game as a puzzle to be solved by if not always smart then hopefully lucky choices.  Edgar wasn't equipped to take on the foe in the usual dungeon-bashing manner, but despite, or more accurately because of that, he/I became involved a lot more in the planning, discussions and relationships unfolding around.

Oh yes, count me in !  ;>

PS: and our illustrious GM is spot on in his suggestion that the books we've read informed our world design choices.  I started with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, of course, but thereafter my own major influences were Moorcock's Eternal Champion saga, the Thieves World anthologies and Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant ... which go a long way to explaining (excusing ?) the differences in our approaches.  Probably just as well I didn't come across Terry Pratchett until a bit later ! <ROFL>

I remember Edgar affectionately.  I think we had a sentient dagger in that game for a while as well.  Edgar was, in part, the inspiration for a couple of Avian characters that I played later - Ean, the sentient Magpie, is still one of my favourite Characters.  You might remember Peter Gasgano, my Sage NPC?  He went on to play in another game (as a PC) and has cropped up as an NPC a number of times since.  Most recently as a  pseudo-immortal known as The librarian.

I'm not sure if I will be going back to Galinia (although it is a potential adventuring area)as I am currently fascinated by a colonial/pirate concept.  But who knows how I will feel when we get there.  I certainly don't.

... I'm NOT playing the pirate captain's parrot !  Oh all right then ...  ;>

Ah, a Norwegian Blue. Beautiful plumage......

*grins at Brother Frug*

For those of you who are interested, The last blog post led to a follow-up as I analysed what I had in more detail.  I should warn you that it is a long post, and is written primarily as an information source for me - rather than something really intended for publication.

http://galinia.org.uk/looking-a-long-way-forward-2

Looks like an interesting combination of gods.  I'm into this kind of thing, pantheon integration;  will have to give a deeper read...

I quite like the idea of that the Trades' Guilds in Urgon could be organized and administered by clerics of Abadar and enforced by inquisitors dedicated to St Cuthbert.