The Game World Book

The World

- There is no planet name it’s just the world (there are no other planets, what’s a planet?)

- There is one moon approximately 28 days for a full cycle of phases.

The Calendar

- Year = 365 days, 4 Seasons = 91 Days Each, 13 Months = 28 Days each

The months are our twelve, plus Yule. The days are our days.

1 Festival Day (Old Pagan Ritual) to mark the New Year (the day after Yule ends)

Most places celebrate the equinoxes and solstices as holidays

The Continent and foreign peoples

- A large continent of undefined size and borders with a temperate climate

- Colder in the north, warmer in the south, tropical in the far south, unbearably frozen the far north

- The eastern edge of your continent is an oceanic coast, rocky in the north, sandy and marshy in the south. (Ships generally travel within sight of land, those that don’t disappear. There are no compasses, astrolabes, or even decent telescopes, and no ocean-worthy ships. But intelligent people do realize the world is probably round).

- The farthest north is a frozen wasteland that no one can find any reason to cross – The Waste.

- The northwest is a harsh, mountainous region that is populated by small, stout men – Miners. They mine the ore-rich mountains, and do not interact with “Southrons” very often. Occasionally an adventurer will come south seeking fortune/adventure.

- To the northeast are coastal islands populated by large, fearsome barbarians - Northmen who have raided along the coast for many years.

- To the west is the Great River and beyond it The Borderlands - Open plains spreading out westward populated by savage Nomads who tend to kill anyone who tries to travel west, there are rumors of Great Mountains beyond the Borderlands.

The players have become familiar with a vorder group of Nomads, the Kingdom of Bexar.

- In the far south rivers enter into swamps, channels shift, deltas come & go – the Southern Marshes. There is supposed to be a sea beyond them that the rivers eventually flow into, but no one you know of has seen it.

- The interior, bounded by these obstacles, is where your homeland has grown.

- It is clear that there were ancient societies that populated these lands before your people. There are some ancient bridges made of shaped stone and ancient roads with faded tarstone surfaces. In some places there are towers of shaped stone or granite or even crumbling redbrick. There is scrap metal in many places that a smith can use. Much of the sand that liters many places is in fact glass, ground fine over time. There is danger in this as well. There are a few places in the uninhabited Northeast that you shouldn’t travel, or you’ll contract an incurable wasting sickness. This knowledge to create and destroy has long disappeared.

Your Homeland and its people

- A mountain range stretching slightly northeast to southwest – The East Wall, separates the eastern coast from the interior – your homeland – The Kingdom of Anglia. Raids by Northmen along the coast drove your ancestors inland through the gaps into the interior. There are still coastal fishing villages in the north and coastal farms in the south, but they are largely independent people, and not considered true Anglians (it being to expensive to build and hold coastal forts against the Northmen).

- There are many rivers that cross Anglia. Some feed into the Great River in the West and others rise in the southern East Wall and feed into the southern swamps. Anglian society grew up along a great northern river, the King's River. It runs from the uninhabited Northeast, south and west through Anglia and feeds into the Great River. The capital, Anglia City, is located on the river, in the north central region of the inhabited area. A great southern river, the Brown River, rises along the southern tip of the East Wall and flows westward and slightly northward and also feed into the Great River. It is wide and slow and largely divides the north from the south.

- Anglish society began as a feudal one in the distant past. The most powerful warrior was named King and established his stronghold on what became the King’s River. He distributed land among his supporters and the land and they spread out along that river, to the Lake Lands in the north and some even as far south as the northern banks of the Brown River.

-Primogeniture and the Divine Right to rule are tenants of the absolute monarchy and feudal society of the Kingdom of Anglia. The state religion is a polytheistic one with many gods who looked out for the various professions and collect tithes, which go to the church and the monarch.

- Anglian settlers who did not like the existing system either moved to the dangerous east coast or moved south of the “Big Brown” River and settled their own farms, free from feudal authority. The various kings would send magistrates and tax collectors south occasionally, with little luck, but could never find any nobles who could/would establish his authority in the south –“The Frontier” it came to be called. The Frontier society grew in population with a largely agricultural and trading society. Cities and towns and counties elected Councils and Council Sheriffs to govern the Frontier south. The state religion is also not practiced in the south and the people are largely atheistic.

The Troubles

- About ten years ago trouble began. The new king, King John I, began to try and increase his authority in the South. Instead of nobles, he sent military governors into the south. He revived an old military unit, the Old Crown Guard, and assigned them responsibility for the south. (These mounted troops are derisively known as Redlegs, because they wear crimson leggings under their black cloaks and chain shirts). They crossed the Brown River on ferries and where ancient bridges existed in force and occupied River Cities and imposed “Crown Law”, which was really harsh, arbitrary martial law, imposed by military governors. The de facto southern capital, Brown's Ferry, was a site of constant civil unrest.

- Finally after two years of this the Frontier Councils vote to resist and fight for independence, The Frontier Council's Rebellion. The Frontier Army (dressed in forest green) won numerous battles throughout the south and all along the frontier, from the swamps to the Brown River and all the way west to The Great River and The Borderlands. Fishermen and farmers from the east coast supported them also.

- Badly beaten in all but a few River Towns for three years, King John called for a negotiated settlement. The Councils cautiously sent their leaders, both civil and military, across the Brown River to meet with the King and his Councilors, on the relatively neutral ground of the Northern Bank of the Brown. A tent city was constructed to host the meeting and no significant armies were present for either side. At the initial meeting proposals were exchanged. A large, but solemn, feast was given the first night as each side reviewed their options. At the feast, Frontier leaders were systematically attacked by sorcery, poison, ambushed, and assassination. Almost all of the finest leaders of the south were killed by treachery, only a few cautious and skeptical warriors escaped, like the legendary general Tobin Thalion.

The attack is remembered as the Treachery on the Brown

- A tremendous new army of Redlegs (Old Crown Guards) then crossed the river and began hunting leaderless frontier units and imposing ‘Crown Law’. There was still resistance, but the loss of nearly the entire civil and military command was too great. It became a capital crime to be seen in Frontier Greens and entire towns were forced to take loyalty oaths. The King’s influence still could not penetrate the deep south and many Frontier people moved even further south to the edges of the Southern Marshes and west towards the border lands, so trade routes lengthened. Councils still govern in many southern places and Redlegs do not travel alone far from the River Towns and Brown’s Ferry, but after five years an unpleasant calm has settled over the land.

Party Specifics

- As you guys know, I prefer Heroic Fantasy. I want you to enjoy playing, but a running gang of thieves - I probably would not enjoy. But a group of Frontier outlaws who find work as caravan guards and adventures & kill Redlegs when the opportunity arises, that would be great fun.

- There are other forces that will act on us as well, but this is where we start. All of you will have ended up in a deep south town working as an adventurer out of a mercenaries guild (they say there’s gold in those ruins) or something similar. Traders come down the rivers on barges, but use oxen and wagons to take what they buy back up to Brown’s Ferry and further north. You’ll hire on to work the caravan, working under an old Frontier sergeant, because you’re broke and would like to see a real city again for any number of reasons. I’d like the party to already know each other a little, many of you to have possibly been Frontier soldiers, and have already developed a bit of a cooperative group dynamic. Let’s work on things from here.

- Mike Ray - 9/13/6 v3.0

- Mike Ray - 6/1/6 v2.0

Tags: Campaign Resources Page