World of Brukellen Development

[The Shadow]

Another interesting point is that, sociologically speaking, it doesn't seem like Karson has enough people to support an industrial revolution.

To take a really oversimplified example, suppose that the economy can support 1 in 10,000 people becoming a physicist. Then Karson will only have 5 physicists - not enough to support a vibrant body of research.

I conclude that the current boom is the result of centuries of quiet dwarven work being adopted by the humans in a rush - with their own haphazard improvements, of course.

EDIT: This implies that technology is going to hit a wall before much longer. They aren't likely to move on to airplanes, radio, and so on - unless they have a higher incidence of geniuses (ie, weird science) than in the real world.

At least, they won't advance at the same rate. There will come a point where things will slow down by a lot.

[The Shadow]

OK, Jacob's completely done. Rather than repost him, I edited the original post.

Looking forward to starting this game!

[The Shadow]

So I got inspired tonight and had a poem come to me out of the blue. This is what Jacob chants slowly as he cleans his rifle; he also murmurs a snatch of it as he sights down it to kill a man.

The Kindler Rifle Prayer
(translated from the Helgrae into Karsonite)

This hand of mine was made to kindle.
The steel strikes the flint, and behold:
A spark is born!
This is my Purpose.

May my hand be ever quick to reach
for tinder and flint, and slow
to reach for my weapon.

Yet when the time to fight is come,
my hand must not be unsteady,
must not be uncertain.

May my hand upon my weapon
be as the hand of the Maker
shaping the curve of the earth with its furrows,
its mountains and its valleys,
yea, even the grains of sand upon the shore.

May my hand upon my weapon
be as the hand of the Maker
shaping the curve of woman, the strength of man.

May my hand upon my weapon
be as the hand of the Maker
stirring up the wind which goes hither and thither,
according to a Purpose only he can see.

Gear meshes with gear, cam kisses shaft.
All is made to interlock and move
in silent harmony, with perfect Purpose.

May my hand upon my weapon
move with that harmony, that Purpose.

The hammer strikes the flint, and behold:
A spark is born!

I mourn for my enemy,
for this is the only spark
he will let me kindle.

May this spark be for my enemy
what he has ground out with
the heel of his heart.

May this spark be for my enemy
a blessing, the only blessing
he will let me give.

[The Shadow]

I've also been thinking about the Sundering. Though of course I know little about the setting so far, from what I do know I wonder if it would be better if it was much more recent - say, 500 years ago.

That would give society time to claw its way up from sheer anarchy up to its present level, depending on what level things were at beforehand. 6000 years is way too long - compare 4000 BC to now in the real world.

If the Sundering was a few centuries ago, that explains how languages like Helgrae still survive; how the rise of technology could represent a live sense of betrayal by the gods.

Furthermore, for the elves the Sundering would be only a couple generations ago, if that. They could know much more about what actually happened... which may be part of the reason for the genocide. The powers that be may want that knowledge suppressed.

P.S. Maybe we need a Brukellen/Karson settings thread now, in addition to this campaign thread?

[Kendermage]

Characters look good.

Any thoughts, Kendermage, about what kind of equipmment i'd need to use my Imbue Item feat? I'm a bit unsure myself as to whether i'd be able to just kind of "cobble stuff together" pretty much without any equipment, or whether it might require a toolkit that could be carried, or a full laboratory?

I imagine he would have something that probably looks like a mobile mad scientist's lair: one part tool kit, one part laboratory, and one part bat cave. If nothing else he'd probably have a a cart pulled by a mule and when he desired to tinker would have to literally set up shop.

Yeah Brukellen is the size of Jupiter. I hadn't really given much thought to the scientific rationale behind a lot of what I have written, but your explanation of the true gods having something to do with it is as good as anything I could come up with. I'm not going to decide anything definitive on those ideas yet though. I figure it'll be more fun if we discuss the truth of them in game. That said, there is going to be plenty of opportunity to slowly uncover snippets of Brukellen's past.

How long are the days and years and what kind of moons are there? I confess to not having given it much thought. I just looked up info on Jupiter and discovered that its days are about 10 hours long, and its year equal to about 12 Earth Years. 10 hours is awfully short for a day and 4380 is awfully long for a year. That would mean that one month on Jupiter is the equivalent of one year on Earth. It would also mean that the seasons change only once every 1095 days (3 earth years - yikes!) I suspect that the length of the years has more to do with Jupiter's distance from the sun than it does anything else; so if we move Brukellen to the distance from its sun similar to mars then we have roughly 25 hour days and 690 day years (approximately 2 Earth Years). A month would then become 57.5 days. Much more reasonable I think; unless I'm missing something.

Once again climate isn't something i gave much thought to when writing this setting up. Like a lot of other ideas I had, I just kind of hand-waved the physics behind it. That is one of those things that will likely be discovered through exploration.

Yeah the elves and goblins are very much like the Native Americans in our own world. Their numbers have been drastically reduced and they stand on the precipice of extinction: the goblins in particular are in really bad shape.

Like everything else, I hand-waved logic when it came to deciding tech levels for Karson. I went with what sounded like fun rather than what might occur in the real world. Shadow hit it pretty much on the head with the dwarves having been using advanced tech longer than humans. Yes, tech is going to run into a brick wall before too much longer and then it will probably fall to mad scientist tinker types like Walton to spearhead the next wave of discovery.

I'm all for altering the timeline a bit. If you would prefer to have it occur less than a millenium in the world's past I'm all for it. Perhaps the ancient civilization stretches back 6000 years, but the Shattering is the dividing line between pre-history and current era. So although the ancient civilization thrived for 6000 years, the Shattering occurred only 500+ years ago. Given what we've been discussing, I clearly didn't reason through a lot of what I wrote. Some write once said creating a fantasy world is hard, but creating a believable fantasy world is damned difficult.

I'm good to go with you two guys to start. Once we start playing, maybe it'll draw a few more players in, if not, it won't be the first time I've ran a campaign with only two players.

Last thing, yeah I may change the title of this thread to the Brukellen/Karson thread and start a new one for the game itself. This way I don't have to move a ton of threads.

Anything else before we get going?

[Kendermage]

D'oh! It just occurred to me in reading Walton's bio that I never made mention of this.

Karson uses the uses the Gold Standard, and by virtue of it the Hard Coinage rules from the True20 Companion. Characters start with 50 GP + 20 GP per point of Charisma. If the wealthy feat is taken it adds 80 GP each time its taken.

That said instead of using the starting gold; you can each get reasonable equipment you might have such as horses, a couple weapons, travel gear, clothes, etc..., and any special items you deem appropriate for your character concept: ie a tool kit for Walton - within reason. After the shopping spree, you'll each have about 10 gp left.

I can't believe I forgot something so central. Here is my reasoning, though it may be somewhat flawed.

Most of the gold and other metals are found in the mountains; in dwarven territory; however, they have to trade much of it to get resources they need. The humans grow much of the food and create most of the textiles; however, like the dwarves they have to trade much away to get metal for machinery, tools, and coinage. Wild elves and goblins grow their own food but also raid nearby human settlements for other things they need.

I don't know if it makes sense, but it sounds plausible; at least to me.

[The Shadow]

...I just wrote a minor treatise on planetology, then decided you probably didn't want one. :)

Calendars and extrasolar planets are hobbies of mine that I wax enthusiastic about, and I have a degree in physics. If you'd like me to come up with something vaguely plausible, I'd be glad to. :) If not, that's cool too. It's a fantasy world, after all.

As for starting - woohoo! Let's get this show on the road! I assume you're going to start things off with an initial post, Kendermage?

[Kendermage]

...I just wrote a minor treatise on planetology, then decided you probably didn't want one.

Send it to me. I'm all for it.

Calendars and extrasolar planets are hobbies of mine that I wax enthusiastic about, and I have a degree in physics. If you'd like me to come up with something vaguely plausible, I'd be glad to. If not, that's cool too. It's a fantasy world, after all.

I'm always happy for the help. I kind of suspected you had a degree in physics the way you are always dissecting the rules and putting them back together to be more logical. Fantasy world or no, I still want people to look at it and go - yeah that could happen. So hit me with your best shot (not too hard though I bruise easily)

As for starting - woohoo! Let's get this show on the road! I assume you're going to start things off with an initial post, Kendermage?

But of course.

[The Shadow]

Just read your coinage post. OK, that changes things. I'll add a horse to my list, and work out how much I have left. May well need the 'shopping spree' option.

By the way, Techne frowns on giving names to things that don't have the spark. Jacob calls his horse, "Horse". :)

Suggestion: Could we maybe have a name for the local coin? "Gold pieces" just doesn't do it for me. :)

[Kendermage]

Here's a few ideas for what to call them. Feel free to add your own ideas.

Chips

Stakes

Pledges

[The Shadow]

OK, so Jacob definitely needs the shopping spree - horses are expensive!

I'm adding a horse to his existing list, and noting he has 10 gp left.

As for a name, "pledges" sounds interesting, and is open to puns. :) "Stakes" and "chips" sound more like slang terms than an "official" name. "Chip" even strikes me as slang for a smaller, silver coin.

Alternatively, they could well be named after whatever image is stamped on them.

[Kendermage]

Coinage Terms
Gold Pledges (slangly referred to as "plays")
Silver Bonds (slangly referred to as "chips")
Copper Tokens(slangly referred to as "stakes")

1 Pledge = 10 Bonds = 100 Tokens

I can see Bonds as being the default coinage wagered in most card games, thus where the slang term "chips" comes from.

Any objections?

[The Shadow]

Perhaps a gold pledge can be broken into pieces, which are also called 'chips'. That may be the source of the name for the silver coin. Though it's hard to break something into ten pieces, true.

By the way, I think that the Kindler chapterhouse, or if there's more than one, the one Jacob grew up in, is in a small city, but one not in the way of grave danger. Lamarr or Marten look good, maybe Plainview. Pick whichever one strikes you as better. That area would likely be one of the hotspots for "Texan" accent, too. :)

As for the dwarven language, how many humans learn it? I'm certain the dwarves have their own name for it, but how many humans bother with it? I can see dwarves getting exasperated at hearing "Dwarven". :)