Rd100 S&S Sandbox in Jonril / Sunken Lands

[1000buffalo]

My good friend Ben has me looking at running some Revolution d100 powered sandbox sword & sorcery stuff. We were both reminiscing about Jonril, the big little city that borders the Sunken Lands.

Anyone else remember this one and care to comment?

[Ethereal]

It is from Raymond E. Feist's Series of Krondor, 'Magician: Apprentice', 'Magician: Master' Novels, etc. Originally printed by Midkemia Press as

more of a Universal supplement, 'Tulan ofthe Isles', 'Carse' and 'Jonril' were converted to a D100 format by Chaosium (all with maps). Included in a

similar format was 'Thieves World' (also with map) and 'Thieves world Companion'. The last two had stats for multiple game systems (including

D100, A.D. & D. etc.) . I have used both 'Carse' and 'Tulan of the Isles' as a game master. They are good supplements. There is also a supplement

called 'Cities' that also originally came from Midkemia press that Chaoisum published later that is a good source for creating encounters and

populating cities, towns and villages.

Edited July 1, 2017 by Ethereal
correction

[RosenMcStern]

3 hours ago, Ethereal said:

 There is also a supplementcalled 'Cities' that also originally came from Midkemia press that Chaoisum published later that is a good source for creating encounters and

populating cities, towns and villages.

This one is a small gem. "Kidnapping in al-Halisa" was originally designed by just rolling on the Cities encounter table and adapting the result to the context.

[1000buffalo]

Yea, RQ Cities has huge utility for GMs. I keep mine at close hand for general use (and not just for RQ / BRP / Rd100 games).

[1000buffalo]

I was also thinking that Design Mechanism's Monster Island might provide some good content for the Sunken Lands jungles.

[TheHistorian]

On 6/30/2017 at 9:59 PM, Ethereal said:

It is from Raymond E. Feist's Series of Krondor, 'Magician: Apprentice', 'Magician: Master' Novels, etc. Originally printed by Midkemia Press as

more of a Universal supplement, 'Tulan ofthe Isles', 'Carse' and 'Jonril' were converted to a D100 format by Chaosium (all with maps). Included in a

similar format was 'Thieves World' (also with map) and 'Thieves world Companion'. The last two had stats for multiple game systems (including

D100, A.D. & D. etc.) . I have used both 'Carse' and 'Tulan of the Isles' as a game master. They are good supplements. There is also a supplement

called 'Cities' that also originally came from Midkemia press that Chaoisum published later that is a good source for creating encounters and

populating cities, towns and villages.

There wasn't a d100 version of Jonril, just Tulan and Carse.

[Questbird]

I've used Carse, Tulan and Cities for a long time in my games. The two cities are easy to incorporate into almost any campaign. I later acquired Jonril and The Sunken Lands. They are less polished and a bit harder to integrate. They weren't published by Chaosium, so have worse maps and I think no interior artwork. The town of Jonril is heavily dependent on the Sunken Lands, which is a weird jungle in the middle of a mountain range next to a European-style medieval kingdom. Not so easy to replicate. Still, never say never.

[1000buffalo]

After some discussion with Ben, I'm going to set the Sunken Lands in alt / fantasy Europe, likely in the Alps. Where it will still be a weird jungle in the middle of a mountain range, but at least the European-style medieval kingdom around it are a little more plausible.

[RosenMcStern]

Perhaps they are the descendants of the Kingdom of Fanes?

[1000buffalo]

10 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

Perhaps they are the descendants of the Kingdom of Fanes?

Very interesting! Going to ponder this prior to the game (which is in 3 hours!!).

Also lets me pull in some ideas from items like Graeme Davis' Knights Templar: A Secret History. I suspect the Sunken Lands also has a route or routes to the Lost Lands of the Hollow Earth!

[Ethereal]

On 7/5/2017 at 10:13 PM, TheHistorian said:

There wasn't a d100 version of Jonril, just Tulan and Carse.

True, but at the time there were several conversion tables supplied by different parties that made it easy to do quick conversions. Or you could use "Foes" to supply the stats, just switch out from foes to your adventure. I lumped Jonril in with the other two because I used it for parts of the adventure as well as being part of the original trio of cities from Midkemia. I apologize for that misconception.

 

Edited July 10, 2017 by Ethereal

[BMonroe]

FWIW, while they were republished by Chaosium, none of those books had D100 stats. Indeed, they had no stats at all. They were published as stat-free books for use with any game.

[Ethereal]

Actually, while they did not have much skills % for fighting they did have % for townspeople in skills. Ex: Tulan of the isles, page 59 H-23 Arthur Klugle  had background, some personality traits. Quote "He is a former caravan guard who is skilled with sword and polearm (Strength 18, Combat skill 70%, Level 7 fighter). He keeps no weapons in his home, but has a 65% skill in brawling due to his awesome strength. His Combat skill is only 70% due to low quickness (Dexterity 9) Klugle: 10%explain, 10%betray, 60%help.

As noted they used more of a universal type conversion. But for me it was easy. I only needed the hit points. Most NPC who got into a fight with Player characters didn't last long.

[NickMiddleton]

IIRC Midkemia press did a bunch of the stuff FIRST, and then later did a deal with Chaosium to republish SOME of them as generic / D100 supplements - they are based on Steve Abrams RPG Campaign from the mid-seventies, that was the basis for Raymond E Feist's novels - http://www.midkemia.com/

And holy shit there is an App version of Cities?! now?

In many ways I always found Jonril and the Sunken Lands the most interesting - they weren't stock "pseudo-medieval", they were something different, but becuase the wider world WAS, they were accessible. Jonril has always struck me as one of the great forgotten cities of early RPG's, too often overshadowed by Pavis, the City States from Judges Guild and Greyhawk.

Cheers,

Nick