The Riddle of Steel PDF Mini-supplement.

[Tywin Lannister]

I am currently writing a "TRoS" PDF mini-supplement. It was almost finished, but my harddrive finished first; so I am rewriting material.
The mini-supplement in question is a detailed setting guide for a cluster of islands on the westcoast of Weyrth, and includes chapters on NPCs, locations, culture and maps.

The question, before it is too late:

Anything you'd like to see in such a supplement?

EDIT:
I have sent various drafts to Jake Norwood himself, and he has allowed me to publish the supplement on the official site, so this will be a supplement you will be able to download.

[Tash]

Types of ships, currents, trade routes and other nautical data would be cool, I'd like to run a Pirates of Weryth sort of campaign in that area at some point.

[Muggins]

Sounds great- life has been beating me up, so my writing has not made it to the same level.

What is the general overview of the island setting? Pirates or something a bit different? Noticing the west coast bit and assuming it is off Mainlund, I would assume relationships between the islands and Angharad, Xanar and Stahl would be important.

On a sidenote, anybody working overly hard on Stahl and Angharad at the moment?

James

[Tash]

I'm currently runniong a campaign in Stahal with close ties to Angharad.  I"ll be developing this region for my sessions as I go.  So far all I've done is create to provinces and actually draw a border between the two nations.

[ZenDog]

I'm running a game based on the Savaxen Islands off the coast of Angherhad.

My player is a Savaxen warrior who is about to get into a very nasty war with the Cymri (with lots of politcal machinations from other Savaxens, Picts and Stahl).

Details in the sig.

I'm running it as a kind of self contained darkages microcosm within Weyrth. As far as my player and the people of the area are concerned their nations and their dark age technology are the only ones that exist in any real sense. The rest of Weyrth and all it's myriad cultures and wonders are just the tall tales of travellers.

[Mike Holmes]

Anything you'd like to see in such a supplement?

Make the location "grabby." That is, make the NPCs need adventurers for some reason. Not in the sense of a village that needs protection or something, but much more individual. Make sure that each NPC has some reason to "grab" some category of PC. Maybe X NPC needs a warrior to represent him in a challenge. Maybe Y NPC is a beautiful maiden looking for just the right PC. Think in terms of general categories of SA, too (the girl is looking for a character with "Destiny to find lady love"). The point is to make sure that your location isn't just a place, but it's a place trying to become an adventure for the PCs.

Mike

[Tywin Lannister]

Thanks for the comments :)

Types of ships, currents, trade routes and other nautical data would be cool, I'd like to run a Pirates of Weryth sort of campaign in that area at some point.

You've made me start working on an extra chapter, "Trade & Travel" :)

What is the general overview of the island setting? Pirates or something a bit different?

Only one true pirate island, the rest is more of a shattered kingdom which has turned into lordships, one or two per island. Main inspirations is the history of Britain (Wales, Ireland, Scottland, Celts etc.)

Make the location "grabby." That is, make the NPCs need adventurers for some reason.

An excellent suggestion which I try to implement as best I can :)

[Thagorod Alynsson]

Some of you wants info on ships who sails oceans between the island kongdoms.

Do you really need it?
I agree on the trade routes, currents and other navigational information. But this takes a lot of time to write down, much more than for your respective sanechal to tell you during play (its easy to come up with a "northern wind, strong")

I would rather have Tywin to concentrate on other parts of the supp...

I really want Tywin to finish his mini-supp as fas as possible so we all could see it.

Do you think my nose is to big?

[Tywin Lannister]

Now that I finally reached summer vacation alive and well, I have begun editing the PDF, adding stuff here, removing some there. Here is a little look at what you can expect:

The PDF is divided into seven chapters, or Books, with two or three appendices.

The largest and most important chapter is Book III, "The Nations of the Calandyn", which describes in detail close to sixty different Island Kingdoms, complete with story hooks, NPC details (stats), geographical descriptions and more. I guess this chapter will count approximately 100 pages alone.

Other chapters include "Trade & Travel", with details of the various faiths, trade between islands, piracy, languages etc., a chapter on the history of the setting, and a chapter on chivalry in the setting.

I have changed the setting to better fit Weyrth. It is now west of Mainlund, but far enough away that it can be a stand-alone setting (the Island Kingdoms are separated from the Sea of Raiders by very dangerous waters).

The working title of the PDF has been and still is "The Island Kingdoms", but I want to change that. A possibility is "The Calandian Kingdoms" or something like that, perhaps "Islands of the Calandyn" or "Kingdoms of the Calandyn".

Suggestions are welcome.

[greyorm]

I like "Islands of the Calandyn." It sounds most evocative.

Any specific date of release you're aiming for?

[Tywin Lannister]

Thanks Greyorm. I guess "Islands of the Calandyn" it is then :) I want to finish it by August. It's only now in the summer vacation I really have the time to get it all down and edited.

[Rattlehead]

A couple of things you might want to consider:

One, if you're going to be having a lot of sea-based adventures you might want to take into account the oddities of the tides in a world with multiple moons. Something that just hit me is that perhaps you could create a table that shows the tidal effects over whatever period is applicable. Probably the longest lunar cycle. Then, this table could also have numbers assigned so that the starting place could be determined randomly and the GM can go from there. Just an idea...

Second, you may want to include some new skill packages. The packages in the main book cover lots of general ground, but something with a special flavor could be great and help to bring your location alive. Especially if there are new skils that are special to this area.

Aside from new skills and new packages, think about any other things that make a person from this place different. Are there any new proficiencies? Weapons that are specific to this place?

Also, what makes people live here? Why are there people on these islands? Fertile volcanic soil? Native plant or animal life of value? Far enough from the mainland to be ignored by the "proper authorities"? Look at some real world islands for examples if you can find them. For example, there's an island near Antarctica that is extremely inhospitable, but it has (had?) a small village on it because of whalers hunting those waters. Similarly, coffee and cocoa are valuable and are only found in certain areas that are often difficult to reach. I could see an island of some value if it had a monopoly on some agricultural rarity. Also, sometimes rare plants can be controlled. In some societies, it was illegal to posess chocolate (cocoa) beans without permission, if I remember correctly. They were a form of currency.

Some ideas:
An island that is periodically flooded by the oddball tides. The houses can be on stilts. What does this do to the fishing? What about agriculture? Handy for drydocking ships?

Perhaps a diamond mine near a volcano that has been discovered due to tidal forces producing caves. These caves would be very dangerous places to work, which is why slaves and peasants would be employed. Research African diamond mines (including modern ones) for examples.

Perhaps a fort placed on an island by some existing imperialistic power from the mainland to combat piracy. Maybe the sailors stationed there are as corrupt or worse than the pirates themselves? Maybe they're just so undermanned that they can't put up a fight, so they stay out of the way and hope the pirates forget they're there?

Maybe a listing or small map showing known shipwrecks. What caused them? Are they carrying valuable cargo?

Are there any interesting superstitions? Islanders (native and colonial) tend to be superstitious as do sailors. Special traditions, social mannerisms?

Dangerous areas such as reefs, volcanos, sand bars, ale houses? Where do PCs go to get killed?

What sort of animal life is native to these islands? Any valuable animals? Any dangerous animals? Any out-right monsters? Take sea life into account as well...


I'm sure I could go on, but you're wanting to be done with this thing sometime this summer...  Maybe you'd want to accept submissions from people here on the forum to help flesh it out, if you're into that.

Sounds interesting. I'll prolly download it. Who knows, maybe you'll change your mind and (Jake willing) publish it in hard copy like OBaM? I know I loves me some swashbuckling!

Hope this is of some use! :-D

Brandon

[Tywin Lannister]

Thanks for the suggestions, Brandon Rattlehead. I am sending you a PM.