Brave New World
I'm abbreviating the following titles: Mongoose's RuneQuest II Core Rulebook as RQ and Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords as ToB.
Me
This section is about me. If you just want RQ or ToB skip to the next section.
I wrote this column for a few years and then stopped to concentrate on writing a novel. I finished my novel but decided it wasn't ready to be pitched to agents. In the meantime, I ran through enough campaigns to realize that D&D 4E isn't for me and that I need a break from Pathfinder as I played D&D third edition for ten years and have run out of enthusiasm for running a D20 system.
Along the way, I continued to get e-mails about the Nine Swords campaign I detailed in columns 32-36. I also found RQ a quantum leap forward from Mongoose's first attempt at RuneQuest. And the two ideas just came together.
Since I'm doing the work anyway and several readers liked what I did with ToB before I decided to start the column up again. And you'll get the maps this time, I promise.
I am also about to start work on another novel, but that is a tale for another day.
Your RuneQuest May Vary
The background and history of the nine swords fits perfectly into the cults of RQ. And the magic rich powers of the three core classes in the ToB translate well into RQ.
I'm not following the ToB lore directly. I'm using the spirit of the book to create a workable and usable RQ campaign that works for me. I've updated the swords to match the RQ rules and simplified the names of some swords. I'm also not using the default locations provided in ToB at the start of the campaign this time around.
Basics As Given to the Players
Here's what I sent out to prospective new players about the new campaign.
Your Adventurer is a barbarian of the race of Man, huddling on icy shores and eking out a precarious existence. Only the martial tradition of a collection of heroic cults called the Nine Swords provides hope and honor.The homeland of your ancestors was destroyed by forests and mountains that erupted out of cities streets and farmland overnight. Dwarves and elves now claim the lands of your forefathers and strange beasts roam the ruins of empire you call Summerland.
And now Chaos monsters, banished long ago by your heroic ancestors, have returned to prey on your villages. This means that the precarious existence of your people may very well be doomed.
Will you go quietly into the darkness of Man's final fall or will you HeroQuest to save your people as ancient heroes did in an Age long ago?
Player Handout
And here is the first half of the player handout I followed up with for the players. The section on cultural beliefs about life and details on NPCs follow next month.
The village of Tsuro huddles in the frozen north with only sharpened logs and swords keeping fearsome monsters outside. Winters are dark, long, and hard and summer seems fleeting. As adults, you would have more influence and a voice in what happens to you, but you haven't been initiated into adulthood yet.Rival villages, bears, mountain lions, and wolves are all mundane dangers that you face every day. But the biggest threat to Man, until the recent return of Chaos, is Grendels, monsters of darkness and violence that prowl outside the village gates looking to devour the unwary.
You wear what you kill and skin. Buckskin clothing and soft boots with a thick jacket and hat of fur and fur lined boots in the winter. Single women wear necklaces of beads, the more intricate the better. Married women wear a sash with color in it bordered in fur brought by their husband. Married men have beads sewn into the arms of their shirts and coats by their wives. Men cut their hair at the shoulder or shorter to keep it out of the hands of enemies. Women grow long hair and braid it with rawhide.
Starvation is only one hard winter away; you survive on the hunting and trapping of game, mostly deer and small mammals, and the gathering of fruits and vegetables. Some small trade goes on with nearby villages, but distrust is high and violent betrayal common.
Summerland looms near and the ruins of the city of Anbegriffon offer more substantial food stores and lost treasures. However, Summerland is haunted by twisted monsters, disease spirits, dark faeries, and the Morgway, primitive humans who delight in cannibalism and worse practices. And Anbegriffon suffers from infestations of the living dead as well as malign spirits of its own.
Map
Back in column #35 I promised a map of the continent described in ToB. Here it is. North is up on the map.
click for larger view
A world map for Kruvil is coming in two months; this continent is located to the west of the rest of Kruvil and is about as big as a fourth of the world map.
I'm not using this map for the starting location of my own campaign but I wanted to provide it as I promised back in 2007. The world map is similar in theme to Europe, Asia, and Africa of the Middle Ages. This month's map is themed like South America as it would seem to Europeans of that time if they knew of it: unexplored and mysterious.
It is unlikely the cultures described in previous columns survived into this current age as anything other than ruins. The runes of earth and plant have gained ascendancy in Kruvil and the kingdoms of this continent would be overrun with its already existing mountains, deserts, and jungles exploding through city streets and across trade routes.
What's left is a haunted, mysterious continent that Adventurers might be able to explore at some point in the future. It is likely the birthplace of modern civilization (such as it is) but no one in the current age is likely to know, remember, or maybe even appreciate that fact unless the Adventurers take note.
Of course, it would be a great place to hide one of the nine swords if one of the Adventurers decides to start looking for it.
Campaign and Character Creation
As a GM, what jumped out at me from the RQ were two things: combat styles and cults. As suggested in the free PDF Signs & Portents, combat styles can be created to specifically provide culture-specific weapon training. ToB had a feat to allow access to several weapon groups and I used the spirit of these groupings to create combat styles for each of the nine swords.
The cults though really grabbed my attention. What a way to tie GM envisioned world building directly to the needs and wants of the players. Unlike prestige classes from D&D, which interrupt the progression of one class and change it to another, cults build an existing character concept up if chosen wisely even if the cult's behaviors force changes in the Adventurer's personality. In two months, I'll provide a sample cult.
As to the players, Ron and Jeff created brand new Adventurers. The combination of rules and player input created great backstory, one guided more by the player and the other allowing randomness to steer creation.
Ron was able to create the character he saw in his mind's eye--an orphaned shaman who communicates with ancestor spirits as he tries to unravel the mysteries surrounding his parent's death and his family's influence in the village of Tsuro and the surrounding lands. He is apprenticed to Tanara of the Desert Wind cult. Her husband, Haku, disapproves of him.
Ron also discovered some surprises during Adventurer creation--his Adventurer's parents left him a legacy that he was cheated out of by an unknown enemy. And the spirits have directed him to seek out Jeff's Adventurer for unknown reasons. Ron's Adventurer wants to travel, talk to spirits, uncover his family legacy and secrets, and rebuild a new society for man using hard work and practical knowledge.
Jeff created an Adventurer who could stab people (specifically with a spear). He is also a hunter. Jeff let the dice guide him in many cases. His Adventurer has visions brought on by Lorissta, a female crusader who once carried Avenger, one of the nine blades, in battle. The visions are incomplete but one showed Ron's Adventurer and Jeff is now hunting with him.
Jeff's Adventurer was apprenticed to his sister, Weeja of Devoted Spirit. They had a falling out over his visions and he is currently seeking his own way in the world.
Next Month
NPCs. Basic house rules including new combat styles. And another map, this time the continent that is home to the starting location of the village of Tsuro.
Do not go quietly,
Charlie
