Puck

I kind of like the flipped one. Actually makes me dizzy to look at hard though. A little bit more messing with Spain(giving it a different shape, trimminig it down or stretching it out or something) might dull the easily noticeable Mediterranean bit though. The little sun thing is a kick. I am waiting for little teletubbies to come out around the sun mountain. (Hey the smilies work at home. At school I cannot get them to work). By the way thanks for the attachment thing. I tried it and this time it worked, at least sort of. :thumb: I think the first time I tried it I was not authorized.

I like the icelandic island at the top. The jaggy fjiord coasts look cool. Now I don't know how hard it is for you to make changes, but here are several possible suggestions: Flip the map so it is a mirror image of Med world; east is west and west is east. Same feel to the world, just a little different paradigm and maybe a little harder to recognize. (All the Greeks and Romans would have to wear spock beards, little daggers, and salute with clenched fists). I would also slightly mess with the Mediterranean, maybe Spain, kind of the way you did with Great Britan so it is not quite so noticeably earth. As a personal preference I would like to see the Northwest and Southeast chunks of land knocked out to allow for more ocean possibilities. This would allow for more coastlands and river systems, deltas etc. for people base their creations on. All in all my favorite parts of the map are the parts you did freehand. (Dang it those little smilie things arn't working for some reason. They would have come in handy here). By the way how do you do uplode images into your text. I have a few pictures of things I wanted to add, but it kept asking me for a url. (As I mentioned I am not very proficiant with computer stuff).

Wow! thanks a lot. I really appreciate your feedback. Reviews like that can keep me banging away on this keyboard an awfully long time. Hopefully it will fit in with other peoples ideas.

Gr Thanks!, gives me energy to keep going. An other idea for race, or really a background story, are the Azchirgnoth (Azchir to make it easier to remember). This again is just a proposal. I think with some nipping and tucking they could fold into Rurik’s Akershule. I will descibe them as I originally conceived them here, but of course a lot of edited or adjusting may be necessary, and of course welcome, to make them fit other people’s world ideas. In the distant mythic past the Akershule I will use Rurik’s now familiar name) had one among them named Koru-su who lusted for power, and was not content with his normal allotted life span. He started messing with things that were forbidden (possibly the gates). Eventually Koru-su was ousted from the council and banished along with a number of his followers. Hundreds of years passed and then when many of the original banishers had died or grown very old Koru-su re-emerged. In his exile he had made secret pacts with things from the gates and they whispered secrets to him whereby he could become like the gods. Druaga, Lord of the Undeath taught him the secrets of the immortality (not what he imagined though, in order to become truly immortal Koru-su had to become undead). Kosharo, the Mutant Twister of Life had taught him how to create creatures of his own to fill his legions. Although he could not create his races from scratch, he could crossbreed, twist and form others to his liking as well as force them to submit to his will. These creatures are called Kracheeth or simply the created. Koru su defeats his old nemesis’ and sends his generals and sorcerers, the Azchirnoth, out to conquer the world. To make a long myth short several surviving members of the Akershule sneak though the Azchirgnoth armies and his guards and Slay Koru-su. The Azchirgnoth who have been sent out with armies to conquer and enslave the world set themselves up as independent kings. Immediately after Koru-su’s demise they begin vying for power. Vast wars are fought between the Azchirgnoth. Sorcerers begin trying to create(or possibly summon) nasty kracheeth of their own to throw at one another, they also create diseases to ravage one another's hosts. Though an era rife with slavery and warfare the Azchirgnoth wear each other down. Finally, much like in Rurik’s Portal, a hoard of northern, horse-riding barbarians arrive on the scene. Through divination, the remaining Azchirgnoth witch kings realize that their time is at an end, their empires are fated to be crushed by the barbaric hoards. (Now here is the important part) Instead of succumbing to their fate, the Azchirgnoth begin to build tombs for themselves hidden in the back countries of their kingdoms. There they deposite ritches and vast libraries of knowledge. They hide and protect these tombs with traps both clever and magical. They too have learned Duaga’s secret of immortality and they lock themselves and their servants up in these tombs and go into the deep slumber of the undead hoping that someday the world will again be ripe for their rule. The two important things a background like this could offer would be Kraecheeth (unknown horrors created or summoned from a past age that still inhabit the backwaters of the word), and a reason for undead guarded tombs and such. Each writer/contributor could create Kaecheeth that hid is his area of the world or borrow from some-one else if they like. They could come up with stories about the particular Azchirgnoth of their territories as well. Or, of course, they could ignore the thing all together as the Azchirgnoth overlooked or never invaded their part of the world at all. I realize the names are kind of nutty, but they can be changed as well from territory to territory. ….Just and idea to hopefully keep people thinking.

As they were really created for a very specific fantasy world I never really gave it much thought. I am not even sure they will really work with the common fantasy world. That is the nice thing about this forum though. Hopefully people can take ideas and go with them. I would be open for any suggestions to make them a better sci-fi fit. The Goblins following Peruth(the cat) would not be too much different than Kzin; maybe a little smaller and less agressive. I guess it would depend on the type of sci-fi. I couldn't see them working with very realistic techy sci-fi, but with a little work they may fit into space opera or fantasy based scifi like Star Wars. Again I am very glad you percieve them this way. I was afraid people may read them as kind of cartoony. In the end though they will can be whatever people want to make of them. I believe I will need some help and advice to port them over to sci-fi and would like to get my hands on the actual Brp book and read the sci-fi stuff before I try.

Race possibilities I have a few suggestions for races. I know that this was discussed and consensus seemed that there would be no races but the decision was still up in the air. I had worked on a number of races for my homebrew world and thought that I would put them up on the sacrificial pyre of the Shared world. Years ago I tried to create a world with races distinctly different than Glorantha, but wanted to have much of the same feel. I liked the way high fantasy races that people were familiar with were taken, given different names, and then fleshed out in unique ways. I did not want to use the same races Glorantha used though, and wanted them to be unique. The problem was Glorantha had somewhat muddied the water and used many of the high-fantasy type names and races already: trolls, elves, dwarves. Orcs are far too Tolkienish. What that left me with was Goblins (I know the name was used in Glorantha but not seriously fleshed out the way the other races were). I then stretched this race name as far as I could and used goblins as my major non-human race. I always envisioned them as more realistic than fantastical more like Frazetta than animie. Well, I called the race Trogod, goblin is simply the human slang term for the race. Trogod evolve very quickly based on their environment and there are a number of different subspecies (different parts of the shared world can have different types of Trogod as fits the writer, originally I had trolls as species of Trogod). The premise is that by nature goblins tie themselves to different animal totems and their features and magic are all highly influenced by the totem they adopt. This would leave a lot of options available for writers while keeping to a single racial theme. In my world many of these Trogod were gathered up and enslaved by a group called the Azchirgnoth (more on them later, but basically Rurik’s Akershule gone bad), (I was shocked by the similarity of the names) these slaves lost many of their totemic ties and live on the edges of human settlements. Others ran to the hills and forests to hide and adapted to their environment. Anyway, I began writing up the Trogod races for mrq. I am going to attempt to post them on the wiki as it is a little long to put in posts here. I am hoping it can be easily modified or deleted from there as it is just a suggestion and only in rough-draft, mrq, and totally unfinished form. (Much of the later stuff is just notes and random musings). Also, the first bit was written to tie the Trogod into my homebrew world but I left it in as it may inspire ideas in others. If the entire bit is rejected out of hand I will understand as a purely human world has its charms. Goblin notes here: http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/sharedworld-wiki/419-goblins-trogod.html

Sounds like an excellent option to me. :thumb: I was kind of hoping that the Green would be easily adapted for other gamer's ideas and worlds; kind of like a kirby vacum cleaner with different attachments. There would be the base idea and then people could pick and choose which parts they like, cut it up and add it to their world. I planned on writing it as a fantasy world, but was hoping I could put the purely fantasty stuff in one section that could be cut out(not sure if I can really do this properly though). One could cut the fantasy part out and add the Sci Fi adaptation. People could add articles of where the Green would fit into the shared world, their world, or add adaptations of their own. For instance Atgxtg's( How do you pronounce that) Nivenesque ideas could just port the Green into a corner of the ship/ringworld/Dyson's spere. What would really be nice is a place for contributing writers to add campaigns, senario's and particularly mini-adventures that people could add to each world. This is were authors could really help each other out I think. Also a place where contributers could write and post personalities and npc's like the Borderlands encounter book, Runemasters, or Foes and Fangs. I have always been disappointed that there was not more of this on the MRQ Wiki. There could also be a place for additional societies, cults, fantastic, legendary items and whatnot. Another neat thing would be a rumors thread about what is going on in each setting. People could add to this to their hearts content, Dm's could peruse the list and have a handful of rumors to throw about every time the characters go to the watering hole or meet people on the road. (If you havn't noticed yet I was thumbing through Griffin Mountain this morning). It would be very nice for the author to control the riens on what is cannon though. :thumb: On that note It would be nice to see to see a semi-private forum where writers could suggest stuff to one another or have solid, honest editing help with one anothers work. A place where rough drafts, propositions, and lists of ideas could be slung around before the generaly public cuts into them. I for one have the weeds of stupid ideas growing up with the hopfully bountiful crops of good ones and would love a place to ask just a few people what they think before I put them in stone. I used to write scripts and do voice acting for computer game mods. Each mod had a private forum where contibuters and the heads of various mods could mess with ideas and show each other their work before they released it. It was a wonderful tool that helped to hone the edge and knock out many of the chinks. Well, I hope this doesn't sound too demanding or anything, I really do not know what is possible with Wiki's or what anyone else is really imagining. I am just kind of offering up ideas.

You asked about adding the the Green to the shared world. That of course would be great! Would the Green be able to go onto the same Wiki with Portal and the rest of the shared world or would each contribution need its own? I am really kind of a dunce, 07% with computer skills and forum edicate (although I am hoping for an improvement roll soon).

Great stuff, If I ever run any sci-fi stuff it would be a great world to visit. It seems like so much can be done from world to world with sci-fi stuff. Good luck I'll be looking forward to seeing the water world take shape.

Thanks Rust I never really had much experience role-playing in or writing for a sci-fi world. The concept is to make it primarily for a fantasy world, but if I can do it right, the Green should be a good place to drop into for an adventure or two for any kind of setting with a little adjustment. Space ships or gate-crashers could bop in for an adventure or two and then go to some other wild planet or setting people are writing up. I plan on writing up specific tree and swamp magic stuff and that may be a little trouble for some more realistic sci-fi adventures, but hopefully that can be left out if a GM chooses. If this thing really goes off it might be handy to write a page or two appendixes to each world explaining how they could be adapted to other peoples creations. That would be good fun. On a different note your water world sounds really cool, but the post is tantalizingly brief. It seems like you have a lot of ideas you can go with. Do people/ other races breathe water or do they need devices? Are you going to have underwater vehicle rules? Underwater combat rules? Do people live in domes, caves or something else? What kind of weapons do they use underwater? Like the big tree concept, many movies, books, and comics have toyed with this thing, but to my knowledge it has never been truly explored in a unique game world. Good luck, I am looking forward to reading more about it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks Frogspawner I thought that it could really be either a gated world or part of the shared world. For that matter someone could use it for a sci-fi setting but I wouldn’t plan it as such. The reason I was afraid that it would not work with the shared world is that there was talk that there should not be intelligent races other than mankind on the shared world. This type of setting really lends itself to new types of races though. It would be a tough stretch, but I could work it up without some of the races I was thinking of. I planned on the Green being on the western edge of a continent very much the shape of the inner cusp of west Africa, pinned between very high mountains (the Skysheild) to the northeast (to catch the rainfall) and the Sea to the southwest. To make it seem real, the inner part of the continent, just past the mountains, should probably be a nasty desert. (The clouds dump their moisture into the Green as they rise over the mountains leaving an extremely dry place on the other side. This desert would be a very fun project as well). The Green would connect with the rest of the shared world through two routes: The mountain gates/ tunnels through the mountains and the corsairs, pirates and explorers. The Pirates could themselves come from other writer’s portions of the world or at least be running from the authorities from other parts of the world. The vast slow moving rivers, deltas and swamps of the green make great havens, hiding places or even strongholds for less reputable seamen. The Green could offer other parts of the world rare medicinal and magical herbs and spices as well as beautifully wrought leather, bone and possibly ivory products. Also strange animals(for gladiatorial games and such). In return the Green would require metal tools, weapons and armor. Metal is very rare and valuable. So in short the answer is: yes, I would love to help out the shared world if it will fit. I am very interested in the final decision on the inclusion of other races as well as this will affect a lot of what I am about to put together. I am also very open for suggestions, the Green may fit into the common world in other ways. Thanks again for the interest. That goes a long way toward pumping me up to tear into this.

I did some voiceacting for a computer game trailer last year. Although it isn't really role-playing, it may be inspirational for an inquisitor role-playing game. You can see a poor grainy version of it here:

I have a fantasy world that has been decades in the making that I partially resurrected when RQ was re-released. There is enough written for a small book (a hundred pages or so), but it is spread out between several game systems and much of it is fragmented, mish-mashed and only half edited. The other problem is that in order for it to work as written it would need a lot of geographic space. Where Glorantha is really a God/Cult centric world, this world was really based on its history (if that makes any sense) and the history must be on the entire world stage for it to work. I believe there are some good ideas though and with the talk of this common world stuff I thought about cannibalizing the world for ideas and offering them up on the common altar. But…… with all the talk of all the gated world stuff I started thinking in a different direction …..something much smaller, easier and hopefully a lot of fun…. THE GREEN A fantasy dragging ideas in from Larry Niven’s Intragrel Trees, Endor and the wookie world from Star Wars, and particularly Arboria from Flash Gordon. (Also hugely influenced just by watching squirrels or ants climbing trees while I was sitting in a deer blind and wondering what it would be like if…) The whole idea would be that the relatively limited setting would be overshadowed with vast trees. The canopy would be a world of its own complete with strange races, both intelligent and bestial and adapted to their verdant environment. The Branches would be huge and easy to walk on.. at least to a point. Much of the magic would be based on manipulating and influencing the ubiquitous wood and growing things. Beneath this green world is the dark, swampy root world where other less wholesome critters dwell. Into this world more civilized humans are making inroads to trade for the valuable, woody magical and medicinal goods of the Green. In trade these foreigners bring metals strange magic (and possibly even primitive black powder technology like wheel-locks or something). Many of these humans are entering the forest from a road-tunnel in the great cliff-face that hems in the green. I was thinking that this massive cave might lead to a world gate or right through the mountains or both. Other human invaders are pirates coming up the rivers and swamps and retreating into the Green to hide from their pursuers from the outside world (lots of possibilities of outside contact). Anyway I already have a good part of a notebook filled with sketches and notes since the talk began about gated worlds and such. Problem is I do not have BRP yet so I can only do conceptual stuff until the fated day arrives when I can really take the saw to the branches.

Me too. It could prove to be a great deal of fun.

I would certainly be willing to help out with either of the first two options. Dont know how exclusive the brp world writing club is though. The Organizing/editing/common agreement between parties seems like a bit of a nightmare.

Arrrg! That is the first I have heard of this being cancelled. Although it doesn't suprise me. FRPG's do not make as much mula as mini's. People playing FRPG's do not spend near as much money as people buying armies of overpriced mini's, paints, codexs and whatever else. If in their spare time wargamers began roleplaying at $50(core book) for a whole group instead of hundreds or thousands per individual, GW would have a lot of money to loose. I know that the idea of the rpg was a little unpopular among distributers for this very reason. Either way, the rulebook for the old inquisitor game is a helpful buy for those wishing to roleplay in the 41st millenium. Someone bashing Brp together with Inquisitor should be able to come up with a usable set of rules.

I recently found it in the download section. Great stuff! :)I have not had the chance to read though it all the way through yet but I am looking forward to it. It just seems the perfect time for good campaigns with the Helenized thoughts and ideas in place and comingled with Eastern and Egyptian thought and culture. Alexanders empire breaking up and Rome and Carthage on the rise in the West. All the major ancient powers seem to be on the stage at that moment. Just the time for adventurers to explore the ancient world. :thumb: Well, right now I am going to finish reading it. Keep up the good work.

Agreed, Eco has a writing style all to himself. His stuff is so deap I never know when he is veering from history/reality. The Island of the Day Before really did my head in. All his stuff is great! I love all the basic cannon:Tolkein, Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock, Leiber, Burroughs. Actually I originally learned about many of these from the bibliographies of role-playing games. Dune and Starship Troopers top the Si-Fi list along with the Foundation Trilogy. A less known gem is The Earth Abides by Stuart, which is definately the best "after the bomb" (actually a disease) book I have ever come across. I may get mugged for this but I also really enjoyed Battlefield Earth (The book not the movie). Other books I have not seen mentioned are: The Once and Future King by White. The First Man in Rome series by McCullough (I mentioned this before on the "Rome" thread), This is an incredible series but a couple of very disturbing parts. One of the best history books I ever read was A World Lit Only By Fire by manchester. Gives a really gritty feel to the Dawn of the Renaissance. One history book that I found that is a great sourcebook for role-playing is Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Life and Society in the West. If you can pick this up used and cheap it is as good as most real-world role playing suppliments and written in much the same style.

I found a couple of of his short stories on tape a couple of years back. Nightwinds and one other. I think they were read by Zelazny. They had sound effects in the background and were kind of cool. The three paperbacks I have, Nightwinds, Darkness Weaves and Dark Crusade are definately on my top shelf. Great Stuff!

Holy smoke, that will cover a huge period of time! If it goes well there is a lot of room for future interesting possibilities and crossovers: Greece, Carthage, Egypt, Persia, Asia Minor. There is a lot going on during those years. I always thought the post- Alexander/Hellenistic period would be a great time to set a campaign in. I think Fafherd and the Gray Mouser ended up there in one of their adventures. By the way there is a stunning series of books about the fall of the Republic written by Colleen McCullough beginning with The First Man in Rome. It runs from the time of Marius and Sulla to the rise of Augustus. Great ideas for role-playing plot and character in that series and really gives a different “out of the box” feel to many of the famous personalities. To read this series is like taking a masters level class on the fall of the Republic. Anyway, I am looking forward to buying this supplement; sounds great.