THE GREEN - Magical Adventures Beneath the Canopy

[Trifletraxor]

Some say it began as a garden planted by the old gods when the world was young, so they might shade themselves from the fiery sun and take rest from their divine pursuits. Others maintain that a strong, healthy magic infuses the mountain waters that feed it, giving its flora and fauna their prodigious health and size. Still others have called it a verdant hell where the spirits of the prideful and cursed are damned to spend eternity among the insects, hounded by venomous predators. Perhaps there is a bit of truth to each…

Stretching eastward from the windswept coastlines to the Skyshelf Mountains, lie the forest lands of Verduria - more commonly called the Green. Unknown to most of the known world and long thought to be legendary by the rest. Verduria is slowly becoming a fabled destination for those seeking the bounty of its resources, the adventure of its giant beasts and unholy creatures, and the secrets of its ancient magic. It is a land beautiful and harsh, populated with fierce tribesmen and intrepid explorers, forgotten races and creatures of myth.

To enter the Green is to enter a land strange and foreboding. To newcomers it appears to be a landscape made for giants or towering gods, for the trees rise hundreds of feet in the air and spread a lofty maze of branches easily large enough for man to traverse. The dense leafy canopy allows only broken shafts of sunlight into the dim interior. Far below, the land is dark and wet, with mist curling among pillars of giant roots, and creatures moving in the shadows of swamps and vine-choked channels. The rivers that pass through Verduria are the arteries of the land, stretching from their reedy, mangrove-choked deltas to the mountain gorges of their source. This book explores this world, providing details on its inhabitants, magic, and history.

By Scott Heiney. 144 pages. Published by Chaosium December 2009.

Edited September 30, 2011 by Trifletraxor

[Puck]

I think I know already how to make the best use of The Green in my next

campaign.

The "Big Bad One" of my pseudo-Arabian Merasan setting is The Iblis, a crea-

ture that lives in Merasan's Dreamlands, from where it sends dream messages

and occasonally some of its servants (djinn and ghoules) into the real world

to cause chaos there.

Near the beginning of the campaign, some archaeologists from the Miskatonic

University will begin to excavate the ancient ruins of Thibba, a place where

the Iblis was worshipped before the Merasani tribes came to the region. Du-

ring this excavation the scientists will uncover a gate to the Dreamlands and

accidentally destroy the wards that kept this gate closed.

Soon afterwards a series of strange events will begin in Merasan, with people

becoming more and more aggressive and desperate because of nightmares in-

citing them to evil deeds, there will be rumours of djinn and ghoules roaming

the countryside at night, and so on.

The Emir will ask his scholars, and they will learn from the book Kitab Sfyd

that the influence of the Iblis is growing, and that someone has to close the

gate at Thibba to stop this - but the gate can only be closed from the other

side.

So the Emir will send some of his best men (the player characters) through

the gate to deal with the problem.

They will have some advantages, for example modern (= 1920s) firearms and

the protective magic of the Sufi scholar(s) accompanying them, but on the

other hand the environment of the Green - totally alien to desert dwellers -

and its fantastic inhabitants and creatures will easily balance out these ad-

vantages.

And after a couple of adventures the characters will find out that the Iblis

only uses the Green for "transfer", he and his servants come from yet another

part of the Dreamlands beyond the Green's ancient gates, and to stop the

Iblis from devastating Merasan the adventurers have to find and close one of

those ancient gates, too ...

You see, Puck, the Green really feeds my imagination - thank you.

Cool. It is neat to see the Green growing in ways I never imagined.

You may find ideas that you can use in your campaign toward the back in the section on the Ancients. Their is a blurb on the gates themselves.

There may be other ideas in that section that you can grab to use in your campaign. For instance, one of the Ancients is a blind twisted little man who plays a flute and "watches" over one set of gates.

The other thing that may help out is the material dealing with the Une. Unec magic and spells are in the magic section and then there are a small number of unec monsters is the bestiary that may go well with the Lovecraftian theme.

I hope you have fun with it. :thumb:

Please let me know how the adventures turn out.

[rust]

Thank you very much for the tips, and I will of course tell you

about the characters' adventures in The Green - although this

may take some time, because I am still working on the Merasan

setting itself, and there ist still no end in sight.

[joela]

Will The Green be offered in deadtree version in the foreseeable future?

Edited December 28, 2009 by joela

[rust]

Will The Green be offered in deadtree version in the foreseeable future?

This will probably depend on the number of PDF sales, I think.

[Bygoneyrs]

Well I hope that they do a Deadtree copy of the work, because I like and only buy "printed" versions of any book to add to my ever growing gaming library.

Penn

[Puck]

I sure hope they do a printed copy too. Originally, they mentioned it may be out in January, but I have not talked to for a while. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

[Bygoneyrs]

As with all things, it will take time I know. I guess I will just have to stay tuned and keep watching for it to be released in a "printed" version.

Penn

[Bygoneyrs]

Ok I have sent a email to Chaosium's Customer Service, asking when the product will be offered in a 'printed" format for sale by them. Hopefully I will get some type of a answer from them. If I do I will post it here for the rest of you to see.

Penn

[joela]

Ok I have sent a email to Chaosium's Customer Service, asking when the product will be offered in a 'printed" format for sale by them. Hopefully I will get some type of a answer from them. If I do I will post it here for the rest of you to see.

Penn

Coolio! Thanks!

[Bygoneyrs]

Well I got a email this am about the BRP Witch coming out in printed form, but still not the Green.

Penn

[Puck]

That is is not very good news. The Witchcraft PDF came out only a couple of days before the Green. It seems that they should have gone to the printer at about the same time. The Green has not sold as well as Witchcraft though and it is bigger so it may have been more expensive to print. I can only hope they still intend to make a print version. Chaosium is mysterious though. The PDF came out way sooner than I anticipated.

On the bright side I have not heard that they were not going to print it either.

[Byron Alexander]

The Green has not sold as well as Witchcraft though

How on earth do you know this? I have, honestly, no idea how well (or how badly?) Witchcraft has sold.

I expect it being bigger is a factor in delaying it - stands to reason, to me, that a bigger book takes longer to prepare for print at the printers. They probably put them on sale as soon as they have the physical copy in storage, so I'd guess The Green should be out within the month. Like you say, though, Chaosium are mysterious. Fingers crossed we'll see it soon, man.

[Jarulf]

How on earth do you know this? I have, honestly, no idea how well (or how badly?) Witchcraft has sold.

http://catalog.chaosium.com/fdm_folder_files.php?fPath=19_27 reveals all.

[Puck]

How on earth do you know this? I have, honestly, no idea how well (or how badly?) Witchcraft has sold.

There is a option bar at the Chaosium Web site that says downloadable books. Then choose BRP. Optionally if you hit the requires purchase option for any PDF it will show the number sold.

I do not know how writers can track printed copies though.

Other than the number of PDF's sold the rest is just speculation.

By the way congratulations on Witchcraft. I have not bought it yet as I was waiting to buy it in printed form with some copies of the Green to save in shipping. I am looking forward to it though.

[Puck]

Whoops I was a little slow on the Draw.

The attachment is a color picture that I was going to give to Triff for an add for the Green. The Pdf came out way sooner than anticipated and I never used the cover. Rather than rotting in my computer I thought I would post it.

[Bygoneyrs]

Well I am starting to find myself buying all of the books in "printed" format for BRP. As a long time collector it doesn't ever hurt to have lots of resource material to draw from when ones to DM/GMing a game. The more the better. Besides I mostly pick elements from any work and create all my own stuff, but looking at examples of what others have done always helps too. Thus a large gaming library is always my focus and making it a complete one it especially important to me. So for me I have to have it "all"!

He whom dies with the most toys, dies happiest<g>!

Penn

Edited March 15, 2010 by Bygoneyrs

[Puck]

As a log time collector it doesn't ever hurt to have lots of resource material to draw from when ones to DM/GMing a game. The more the better. Besides I mostly pick elements from any work and create all my own stuff, but looking at examples of what others have done always helps too.

I know where you are coming from. I love to buy stuff I know that I will probably not use just to mine it for ideas- especially if it is BRP related.

I hope the Green would be very helpful in this regard. While the Green has background on its specific environment there are a lot of things that may prove useful to any fantasy campaign.

There are a number of weird or familiar new monsters and races that may prove useful. Many of these are of course adapted to swampy or arboreal environment. The first among these are the Goblins or Trogod. They have animal affinities or alliances and practice totem based magic. I used these long before I started writing the Green and I imagine they could fit in any high fantasy world. The magic system helps to divide the Trogod clans into Leopard, Crocodile, Rat and the malicious Bat Trogod.

Others include:

Mamprusi (Intelligent apes)

Tree Children (Pygmies, similar to Halflings/elves)

Morpa (Very old and intelligent Sloths)

The Green’s take on magic could also prove very useful. Much like the Glorantha of old, the Green is pretty magic heavy. It is assumed that most adventures will use magic. Magic is taught by traditions that teach different Glyphs. Each glyph allows for certain kinds of spells and other powers related to realm of influence. For instance the glyph of the Leopard (Called the totem of Peruth) allows characters to cast spells that increase their stealth, agility, etc. whereas the glyph of wood (Wealding Glyph) may allow for spells that meld wood or increase the efficacy of wooden weapons.

Included in the Green are the glyphs of:

Wood and Plant (Wealding Glyph), Physical enhancement, Mental Enhancement, Spirit,

Arrowdancer (for Bow users), Earth, Water, Beast, Commerce, Alchemy, and Une (which is something like Chaos).

Also the Totems (which are really just animal based Glyph) of:

Leopard, Crocodile, Rat, Frog, Bear, Monkey.

There are also a number of different quirky tribes and peoples and locations of interest that could easily be cannibalized to fit in any fantasy environment.

On the other hand the Green probably would not be very handy for someone who wanted a more historically based campaign for obvious reasons.

As far as being available in print format, I cannot help much. I am also waiting with my fingers crossed. I have no real reason to believe that it will not be available sometime soon. The last time I heard from Dustin was when I sent it in and he hoped it would be out in January.

[Bygoneyrs]

Just a update, I put in a order back on 2/9, and it went to "Order being Processed" the same day of 2/9. I then on this last thursday 2/25 sent a email off to Chaosium customer service asking them for a status update on my order. Well it has only been now (21) days and still now reply or status change. I ordered BRP Witchcraft among a (4) item order, AND asked them as well when this product the Green might come out in Printed format to sell. Well still no word. Anyone have any idea what is going on, I payed using PayPal and the bill was payed that day. So what the heck are they waiting for...Easter? I am not very impressed with customer service for Chaosium at all.

Penn

[Byron Alexander]

That is is not very good news. The Witchcraft PDF came out only a couple of days before the Green. It seems that they should have gone to the printer at about the same time. The Green has not sold as well as Witchcraft though and it is bigger so it may have been more expensive to print. I can only hope they still intend to make a print version. Chaosium is mysterious though. The PDF came out way sooner than I anticipated.

On the bright side I have not heard that they were not going to print it either.

A recent tweet from Dustin:

Random Info: Chaosium monographs are *always* made available as both printed books and PDF files...Eventually that is.

Thought that might set your mind at rest... The Green WILL be available as a printed book.

[Puck]

That is really good news. Of all things I just e-mailed Dustin today and asked about this very thing.

[Trifletraxor]

Just bought the pdf and printed it out. Havent started reading it yet (must finish Fractured Hopes first), but I do like your photoshopping!

SGL.

[Puck]

Cool, I hope you enjoy reading it when the time comes.

[Bygoneyrs]

I want a "printed" copy for my hot little hands to hold, you see these older eyes doesn't like to read a .pdf in the Throne room either..LOL!

Penn

[Puck]

I want a "printed" copy for my hot little hands to hold, you see these older eyes doesn't like to read a .pdf in the Throne room either..LOL!

Boy I sure agree with you there. Thats where I do most of my quality reading.:cool:

I have learned the hard way that I will not get much enjoyment out of PDF's. I just cannot sit in front of the computer and read them they way I would with a regular book. Early on I couldn't seem to wait and bought all the monographs as soon as they came out in PDF's. Now I wish I would have waited.

Well, I hope the Green is worth the wait. I recieved a reply from Dustin and apparently it was held up do to some printing problems.