Fighting Fantasy Details Optional rules:
Genre:Fantasy, World: Magical Mystery Medieval Settings The world of this setting is made by disgruntled minor gods who wanted to have their way for once without the influential big players of the pantheon. The entire world is made cheap. When miners find gold for example it will be a slab of gold, because the minor gods had no power, experience, patience and aesthetic sense to do real mines, they created everything in shape of bricks, put it together, and punished it with heavy storms for a hundred year, so it would look like a real world at least on the surface. However if you dig in, it is bade of enormous slabs. The largest caverns are to this day between the slabs, because the gods didn't even have the decency to fit them properly. Geography: 80% of the surface is rugged mountain covered by forests. The water of the rivers collect into large lakes, and the water from their bottom is recycled in a rather ruthless but efficient manner to the springs of the rivers. The gods went into efforts to prepare nice places for residential areas, where cities will can be built. They are usually on elevated grounds on the shores of major lakes (think on the scales of Lake Huron), with agriculturally profitable plains arranged strategically around the area. It is easy to find these highlands, for they are holy ground. This is because minor gods have not enough power to defend their world from daemons. They needed a way to close them out from at least the major cities. The Kingdoms: The gods' residence is in the elements of the world. Some of the elements are none-traditional, for example Richard Rothschild, the god of banking lives in the element "money". The Gods live everywhere, but they have favorite cities, and they usually go into no end of troubles to make their favorite the center of a glorious kingdom. Since they are not very ken on fighting each other, these kingdoms are separated by vast wilderness. This is mostly forest covered mountains with various level of hostile creatures and rogue tribes in them. All the intelligent life forms was brought in by the gods from other plains of existence. Some of them had enough of the rule of minor gods, or they were seduced by daemons and went rogue, they set up their own cities in the mountains, or live in barbaric tribes in the wilderness. The areas controlled by the kingdoms have strong central power. This power is centered on the holy court of the king. The King's court is also the center of culture and academic knowledge. The king never leaves his palace, he governs the country by appointing warlords, he is not supposed to deal directly with anyone who is not a warlord himself or member of his court. The warlords rule their domain by appointing knights to perform various duties. The warlords are usually busy repelling invasions of various rogue nations, raids by demon summoned monsters, and rogue clans. The basic edict governing most kingdoms look a lot like Buke Shohatto, and the king has the means to enforce them:
Agriculture: this is an important part of all medieval societies. Because of the priestly blessings and magic devices, one farmer can produce enough food to support about 100 men. A farmstead produces about 10 times this much, of course this needs a rather large area. Therefore villages are scarce, the farmsteads are not on holy ground and do not have the means to defend themselves for a longer period of time. therefore the constant vigilance of the knights of the kingdoms are of utmost importance. The biggest danger to any farmer is not the failure of the crops, that hardly ever happens. Raiding parties from the wilderness are to be feared, for they not only take what they need, they often kill and put to the torch what they can not take. The agriculturally profitable areas are priced lands for the warlords. They are constantly scheming against each other to acquire most of these areas. Fishing villages are absolutely controlled by the capital. The magically enhanced fisheries produce enough fish to make it the staple dish of the average kingdom, this is several tons of fish every year. For cultivation about 10-20% of the kingdom is suitable. The main agricultural product is cabbage, rice or potato, depending on the climate. Livestock raising is a minor activity. Demand for meat drives the prices relatively high. (100gold for a meal when a knight's income is about 5000 gold in a month.)Milk cows are numerous, about 25% of farmers run diaries. The Wilderness: The wilderness is hostile to civilized visitors. There are undead, demon spawn, orcs, goblins, were tribes, demon worshiping cults, old destroyed cities, hiding criminals, refugees from law or the gods themselves. Still there are 2 important things in the wilderness that are important to civilization: caravan routes and magic resources. The wilderness is practically impenetrable because of the dense shrubbery. There is the caravan road system through it and a web of minor roads and trails through it, however it is very difficult to get off road, into the wilderness. The dense edge of the forest around the roads defends as much thepassengerson the road as it is an obstacle. It is impenetrable both ways. You can threat all the path as dungeon corridors, except for the light filtering through the canopy during daytime. The shrubbery feeds on the magic of the roads, it can not penetrate the road, but tries to get as close as possible, so it regenerates incredibly fast, it is thorny, there is no way to see through it, and far the easiest way to get to the other side is teleportation. Of course teleporting into the forest means that you might have to face dire horrors. The caravan routes are built and maintained by spells. These means produced the 8 yard wide solid surfaced strips connecting cities. There are inns on the side of the roads. The forests of the wilderness surrounds these roads with dense scrubs, creating a wall of thorny shrubs at the edge of the forests. These roads have far less military support than what they need, so all the caravans are well equipped with guards and scouts. The magical resources are mostly rare plants and other spell components that do not tolerate the pollution of industrial magic created by the churches and monasteries. Therefor prospectors are in constant need to find and exploit these resources in a timely manner. Of course both caravans and prospectors have a much more difficult job than what it looks like at first glance. Unfortunately they mostly fail without much of a noise, the rare success is well advertised with celebrations. So what you see is not what you get if you try your luck in these professions. There are even cities in the wilderness. Of course the gods try to extend their influence on them, but mostly it is impossible to completely break the links to demonic influence. Most of these cities are connected by caravan routes. They are often the main suppliersof heavy industrial products or narcotics in the surrounding area. Adventurers: Field operatives of knight orders, and their retainers are often called adventurers. Their task usually includes several common knightly duties. First and foremost to complete tasks for their warlord in his scheming against other warlords. To maintain oder. To go and fix issues on the caravan routes. This can be the assassination of a leader of a group of bandits, the rebuilding of a collapsed bridge, there-installationof the magic maintenance device of a broken part of the route, to rescue a kidnapped princess from a marauder camp in the wilderness, perform a hit on a cultist group in the wilderness or anyone else disturbing the peace on the caravan routes. This often involves the application of construction skills, mapping, scouting, installing and maybe fixing magic devices. To go and fix issues and investigate crimes in the inns on the caravan routes. To rescue prospectors from the wilderness. Prospectors can get lost, they can get kidnapped, killed, or detained for ransom. Knights and his trusted group of adventurers are expected to provide a solution. Since the gods of this plain are happy to have any help, they are willing to turn a blind eye on the deeds of their trusted servants. If you check out the Sewer Rats Campaign settings for 3.d DnD, what it says about the paladins, applies here too: A knight "is expected to kill evil things without much thought. Morals are applied with the sharp end of a sword. Kill evil. Loot the bodies. Share treasure equally. That's lawful good. By definition, it is both legal and good to kill those who resist arrest, fight you, or are the target of your mission. If you are expected to bring back prisoners, your orders will say so. Otherwise, you are expected to kill your opponents and finish off the wounded." Field operatives often dislike the law and order of the central areas of a kingdom. These knights often set up their permanent residence in an inn close to their warlord's headquarters. Tone: Heroic Slapstick Adventures AdventureSnippets Module ideas Campaign chain Monsters |