The Olde Realm

[Eldrad]

This is a possible intro to the Olde Realm RPG/Novel
It is a genre called swordpunk. Take the cyberpunk model and  reniassance level technology mixed with a bit of magic and steam.

The system is a simple percentile based system and the magic is improvised based on eight elements as oposed to four.


1658
The
City of
Westfort
Giant flare stacks burn in the distance amidst the old rotting buildings and ancient castles. The roar of the elemintium refineries sounds constant in the background noise of the city. Oily black smoke pours from the chimneystacks. The foggy streets glow eerily with a mixture of elementium lights, torches, and lamps. The hiss of steam pipes and the clanking of strange machinery are entwined with this renaissance city. The city is old as all cities are in the Olde Realm. It is built on to of ruins on top of ruins. All the great cities of the world are this way. It just is.

The sound of despair, work and play echoes throughout the city. The poor trudge along in their bleak victimized lives. Tools of the aristocracy, the guilds, and the church they are. The city guard with their studded leather armor, rusted helms and shields walk the cold streets looking for the criminal or unlucky. Any challenge they meet with their sharp spear or trusty musket rifle.

Worse than any injustice done by the powers that be is the horrible mutating Bane! The ancient race of men known as the Skas released the bane from its entombment. The Bane is an ever-living evil served by alien blasphemous gods whose forgotten names are whispered by nameless secret cults hidden in secret places. They only have one desire, destruction of all creation in a slow torturous demise. The Bane can infest people and places corrupting, twisting, and mutating the body and soul. These horrible infested crafty ones plot and play amongst the city, rich and poor. Some are Bane born others are seduced by it. Surely this is a time for heroes. Surely this is a time of prophecies to be fulfilled.
NOTE: Any title with a (B) means the area has a Bane Infestation.

Also called the Gateway to the Wastelands Westfort houses over 1 million people. The city was called Kobstanbul in the old forgotten tongues but hardly anyone speaks the old name anymore. Westfort is nestled west of  the mountain pass blocking refugees and invading hordes from the wastelands. The Great Fort armed with three huge cannons with torches and lights marks it as far as the eye can see.

[Sovem]

I love the idea of swordpunk.
Did you need help with something? Questions, advice...? Your preview snippet could use a lot of editing...

[brainwipe]

I thought steam was harnessed much later. It should really be clockwork, surely? It's a bit of a dodgy premise. It'd be live Cavepunk - punk in 3000 BC.

[Eldrad]

Steam and clockwork have a historical place and time on earth...

Not in this world of Aeon.

The magical sciences fit well in this swordpunk world

Even it's calender is not quite the same as our world .

1 second
60 seconds a minute.
60 minutes an Hour
32 hours in a day
8 days a week
8 weeks in a month
512 days in a year
16384 hours in an Olde Realm Year
8760 in an earth year.

Modifier x 1.87 or .534

I want to see if the idea is good enogh to go foward with trying to publish.

The game itself at home has went on for over 10 years with rave reviews from the players.

It is just not all written down. What I have written/typed is a mess.

The game itself is very non PC, has many eludings to social and divine statements.

It would have been banned in the 80s for sure.

I am hoping to take much of the rules and stories and release it into an old style eclectic book called

The Olde Relam book I: AKEDEMIOS

I will most likely have the book as a free PDF once complete and for sell on lulu if well recieved.

[Adam Dray]

Hey, Eldrad. Welcome to the Forge.

I think you'll find people are loathe to tell you if they think your ideas are "good enough" to publish. Not only are opinion polls against policy here, no one but you is qualified to say whether it's worth your time to publish something. A good rule of thumb: if you're crazy about an idea, probably someone else is, too.

You've been playing this with your friends for 10 years, with rave reviews, right? That probably means it's awesome. The trick is translating all that in-your-head stuff into a working manuscript. What if it's that you are awesome and that can't be transferred to a guy off the street?

What I will tell you is that I don't see anything about system yet. Are you writing a setting book for an existing game system like OGL / D20 System or D6? Or are you writing a new game system as well? How can we help you with your publishing goals? You'll find here at the Forge forums to help you with playtesting (and thusly game design) and publication (running the gamut from editing to layout to binding to PDF generation to distribution and so on).

If you're writing a new game system, we'd love to hear a little about it, starting with the kind of play experience you'd expect to see during a typical game session. Frankly, knowing how many hours in an Olde Realm year doesn't really excite me.

I don't think you'll shock anyone by being "non-PC." I mean, compare with kill puppies for satan, which is about as non-PC as you get (and awesomely funny).

We're here to help! Tell us about your game! The BEST way to do this is to jump over to the Playtesting forum and post a bit about one of your recent game sessions. Tell us what worked and what didn't. Explain the mechanics to us in bits and pieces via a brief look at one of your actual games. That'd be awesome.

[Eldrad]

Thanks for the completly professional and friendly response Adam Dray.

I was first introduced to this site from the awesome Riddle of Steel RPG. Really great game. I will be soon playing a game of little fears (I hope)! I really like the whole Indie RPG movement as it is.


The system will not be OGL or D20. I did convert it to D20 for a bit but all the players liked the old simple system. I am not anti D20 and will play any version of D&D out there.

Translating all the information to a format that makes sense...
That is what I am afraid of. But this seems to be the site just for solving the problem.

I have read a few cool indie games but they had long half histories and vague setting with no maps.

I want to try to create an intro setting starting inside and going out with hints of the rest of the world.This world is dark gothic fantasy swordpunk but not at a nation spanning heroic scale. The characters are just small players in a big world.   

 
It would be really cool to know how other groups respond and playtest the rules. Also here would be a place to protect copywrites as post dates as proof.

I will get a long post written up on the Playtesting Forum.

[TwoCrows]

quote author=Eldrad]
I have read a few cool indie games but snipt]
Fantasy Heartbreakers, and More Fantasy HeartbreakersFantasy Heartbreakers, and More Fantasy Heartbreakers

[Eldrad]

WOW
The fantasy Heartbreaker aticles are ones that I shall have to read a few times to absorb. Really fantastic articles.

My rules suffer from very little of what these articles talk about though there are a few of these "flaws".

I do have "elves" and "dwarf, gnome, mixture" though heavily modified.

My character creation consist of 20 broad skills that you put points in. If you don't the default is 25%. Yes I use a % system simply roll % or less and you do what you are trying to do in a pinch. If it can be played without the dice then so be it. Another cringe"diceless" approach is the palyer picks a number from 1-100 and sees how close he is to the gamemaster depending on his skill. The gamemaster is the final judge. This diceless system works great. Though I perfer to use the % roll.

I really appreciate the feedback from you guys. My mission is to make a free PDF than can also be bought on lulu or some other booksite.

Twocrows I will be soon writing up an example of the rules and such.

I have alot of holes in my world and would enjoy other writing in these cities with my control of the content as to keep the vibe of the world.


To get the correct vibe try these influences...

Thief the Dark Project (Gold also)
Thief II the Metal Age
Thief III Deadly Shadows
The Gangs of New York
Any HP Lovecraft Novels
Any Fritz Lieber
Alice by American McGee
Pan's Labyrinth
Harry Potter
Any old Philisopher's book
Sleepy Hollow
many Tim Burton movies
many Sam Rami movies
many Quinten Torinteno Movies

[Eldrad]

[Eldrad]

[Eldrad]

[Eldrad]

Do the rules make sense as they stand?

[Eldrad]

Comments?

[Daniel Davis]

Perhaps a reason that you haven't gotten many comments is that you've just dumped a lot of information and have directed readers toward the sort of criticism you'd like to receive on that information. In other words, you'd benefit from specific questions.

Additionally, instead of just having a bunch of rules up here and saying "What do you think?", you should explain what the game is about, what play will be like, what kind of play you want to encourage and what kind to discourage. These kinds of discussions will help us determine if the rules you've posted make sense for the concept of your game.

[Eldrad]

Oh okay I will try that!

DO you think I should try to put out a quikstart rules/module?

I think if I can find time I will write one up.

Thanks!