Archive for the ‘Realms of Eldrath’ Category
Natural Twenty Games wishes you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Look for a more active Natural Twenty Games in 2010 as we finally release our Realms of Eldrath setting for Savage Worlds and True20!
This is my third and fourth map I’ve made using ProFantasy Campaign Cartographer 3. These are the work-in-progress versions and have been cleaned up using Adobe Elements 7 and a Bamboo Graphics pad.
The past few months have been ultra busy at my day-to-day job. A project kicked off where my commitment was only supposed to be 5-10% for 4-6 weeks and it’s turned into 110% over that same time period. Slight miscalculation by the project management team 
.
Some design decisions that I’m coming up to regarding RoE:
Humancentric
The Realms will be humancentric vs. many fantasy races. The Savage Worlds, True20 and Fantasy Craft lines actually support the idea rather well.
Smaller Scale
Adventures will not be world-spanning, plane hopping jaunts. The focus will be on the village, barony, fief, etc. I really want to give the game master a solid framework to hang his campaign off of.
Views of Magic
Magic will be viewed with suspicion by most normal folk. The Ordo Arcanum will wield some power but it won’t be blatant and magic and some of the orders of The Church of the Twelve will definitely clash.
The Church of the Twelve
The Church will have a strong influence on the day to day life of Eldrath. Since it is based upon interpretations of man it will also have its own flaws and faults.
More to come later!
On a few boards I’ve been asked, “What is Realms of Eldrath going to be like?” I’m going to let you in on a secret. I’ve never once made my own campaign world. Realms of Eldrath is actually my first attempt. I’m combining years worth of mini-ideas into a semi-coherent whole. The reason for saying “semi-coherent” is that I actually do not like the campaign point approach presented in the Pinnacle offerings. The campaign story is built around what the characters do during their adventures not a pre-defined template that shoehorns the players into what needs to be done.
That being said the Realms of Eldrath will present an 50,000 ft. overview vs. containing detailed secrets. Game related influences include:
- The Greyhawk Boxed Set – 1984- One of my most beloved purchases. Even as I read it and questioned, “What the hell is this?” at the root of it I understood what it was. Poorly organized it laid a little more groundwork than just the background in the modules and strengthened the framework of Greyhawk. Every game that each DM ran in Greyhawk was theirs but the shared world allowed others to have conversations like “Do you remember killing Stalman Klim?” – and those who had played The Slaver’s Series knew what you were talking about.
- The Arcanum - 1984 – hmmm – 1984 again must have been a good year- Another personal favorite. This D&D clone was better put together than the TSR PHB. The default world, a proto-Earth where Atlantis still remained above the waves and knights existed in Albion along with barbarians from Hyberborea, meshed well with the classes and races presented. The rules-set added some D&D-esque house rules like damage reducing armor, pre 2nd edition AD&D non-weapon proficiencies and a non-fire-and-forget magic system but it just felt “right”.
From a fantasy fiction standpoint I’ve always enjoyed the monomyth and bildungsroman type stories – you know, farmboy orhpan off on an adventure saves world. While RoE won’t focus on that it will follow the standard assumption that the adventurers are just starting their adventuring careers. So this would be as good as any bibliography for The Realms of Eldrath:
- The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 1)
– a low-magic series with very good characters and plot. It really made me re-think the “orphan with unknown lineage comes into great power” meme that I’d become comfortable with.
- Daggerspell (Deverry Series, Book One)
– even though it’s sometimes a confusing series (lots of flashbacks) it intertwines magic, past lives, and curses into a very good series of books.
- Assassin’s Apprentice/Royal Assassin
– neat magic background, good characterization and a very intriguing social structure kept me entranced while on a two week training course in San Diego.
What sets these books apart from The Wheel of Time or even some of the Midkemian books is that the main characters really aren’t out to save the world. Their aspirations aren’t that lofty and while there are big-bads in the books none of the protagonists are wielding the power of gods or tossing magic aroundwilly-nilly.
So these are some influences and opinions on what’s gotten me where I’m at.
I’m outta my funk – things are coming back together. I’ve been using my new logo on a few boards that I frequent (ENWorld, RPG.net, Pinnacle) and I’ve gotten some great feedback. Jim over at One Monk made the logo for me and while it’s very simple it’s also iconic to me.
I bought naturaltwenty.com prior to the release of 3rd Edition D&D. It has always represented what I like so much about rolling the dice when gaming. That chance of rolling the natural 20.
Look forward to an aggressive release schedule for the upcoming months including:
- The Realms of Eldrath One Page adventure
- The Realms of Eldrath Campaign Guide
- Two Realms of Eldrath Adventures
Agreements are in the process of being signed at RPGNow/DriveThru and I’m also investigating Print-On-Demand options for those that like paper/bound products.
