What's That Sound? (Setting-Specific Wilderness Encounter Table)

You're walking through the wilds of Evenoria and stumble upon...

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Is RPG Worldbuilding "Writing"?

After rehearsal last night, my pianist (whom I met in grad school for English) and I retired to a local pub for drinks and conversation. Since we hadn't seen each other for a while, we did the usual catching-up Q&A.  Among one of the first questions out of his mouth was, "so... have you written anything lately?"

He was referring to fiction and poetry, to which my answer was (sadly) "no".  But as I was driving home later, I caught myself thinking about all of the worldbuilding, adventure-creating, and connected blogging that I've done here recently.  Does this stuff count as "writing"?  I'm not sure. On the one hand, it feels very creative and certainly requires a lot of word production. On the other hand, though, people (my fellow players, folks who read this blog) don't really seem to care about the writing itself. Rather, they like the interaction with the ideas, whether that means going through one of my adventures at the game table or borrowing ideas to use in their own games.

What do you think?

Does Ancient Elven Have Glottal Stops?

With the new campaign starting up, I've been trying to add to the Celtic/Viking ambiance of my game and its world.  Campaign I took place in a more cosmopolitan age, when many cultures had already made their way to the Isle and intermingled. Its feel (intentionally or not) was similar to that of most D&D games' default setting.

With Campaign II, I have made a more conscious effort in terms of cultural and linguistic flavoring. To wit, I've created some new settlements in the north of Evenoria and have renamed (or secondarily-named) others using certain language guidelines. So far those guidelines include:

• using transliterated Irish for the Midlander (native human Evenorian) names of people and places, often with an English "translation" of the name as well (e.g., "Ravensport" and "Cuan Eandubh" being two names for the same city)
• using transliterated Icelandic and Old Norse for Northlander people and places
• using transliterated Welsh for elven, annwynn, and other fey beings and places
• giving places two (or more) names if they are home to or recognized by more than one culture

By "transliterated," I simply mean spelling the names so as to be pronounceable by modern American English speakers, shifting the occasional vowel or consonant as needed. I've no illusions that my names have any kind of legitimate or correct meanings or pronunciations! Although I've perused the Poetic and Prose Eddas as well, most of my "research" has simply been done via Google Translate. 

If anyone out there would care to comment, I'd love to know you go about creating place names in your campaign world. Or do you even think about the logic behind such things, instead just picking out names that sound cool?

You Gotta Serve Somebody (New B/X-Style Clerics for Evenoria)

After years of having them simply be window dressing, I've finally started putting some flesh on the bones of my setting's deities.

First task: creating clerics!  In the linked pdf, you'll find cleric options for 5 different deities.  Enjoy!

Quick disclaimer: the artwork in this file (and in the previous character class document) is not mine. Also, I neglected to collect the attribution info when I nabbed the images off Google. If you know who created each drawing (or if that's you), let me know and I will make sure to embed a link in the next version and/or remove the image if you don't want it used that way. That said, I'm not trying to make any money off of this or anything--it's simply material for my homebrew game that I'm willing to share with other hobbyists!

5--no, make it 6--New "Basic D&D" Classes inspired by Celtic and Viking Lore

Want to add some variety to your usual party of clerics and fighters? Here are some new options. These were made for my homebrew system and setting (based on Labyrinth Lord but using some modern touches like positive AC, three-category saving throws, etc.) but feel free to tweak them as you wish.

5 6 New Character Classes for Evenoria
[click for PDF]

Features:

• Annwynn
• Bard
• Berserker
• Ravenfolk 
• Scout
• Ursari

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

gh

Local Cleric Rescued from Abandoned Temple

RAVENSPORT.

Symbol of  the Children of Kyuss cult:
a scull erupting with worms

The City Watch and clergy from the Temple of Moranya are considering a full investigation into possible cultist activity inside an abandoned Church of Pereun on the city's southeast side. This concern comes after one of the Temple's own, an experienced battle-priestess known as Amaya, had to be rescued by a group of adventurers Friday evening.

The cleric had been allowed to enter the normally-sealed ruins to search for signs of demonic activity on Wednesday but as of Friday had not returned or been heard from. Concerned, the High Priestess asked the cleric Xene to search for the missing Sister, accompanied by a group of itinerant "adventurers": An "expert locksmith" named Xanna, a magician known as Elazti, and the pair's bodyguard, a gruff she-elf who would only give her name as "Crowbar." (Sources at the temple later confirmed the elf's name to be Indis.)

While searching for the missing Amaya, Xene and her assistants reportedly encountered a number of strange things, including a vicious ghost who attempted to strangle them and a 12' tall monster made of charred bones. Amaya was finally located in a cavern beneath the church, where she was being held prisoner by an animal-like beast composed of swirling shadows. While unconscious and clearly exhausted, Amaya is expected to make a full recovery.

The southeast-side Temple of Pereun was abandoned by its order some 200 years ago when the current temple was built near the city center. It became a source of concern 120 years later when a death-cult calling themselves the Children of Kyuss illegally broke in, defaced the sacred building, and began practicing necromancy and demon-summoning. The cult was eventually driven away and/or destroyed in a combined raid by the Temples of Pereun and Moranya, supplemented by forces from the City Watch.