Anyone here remember Song of Swords? I'm making a low fantasy style campaign setting of my own, and I really liked a lot of the stuff I saw in those threads back when they were posted. I'm actually using The Riddle of Steel combat system (along with the Game of Thrones RPG for the Intrigue combat system), and it so both the crunch and the lore gelled a lot with the kind of things I'm working on. But I think that it's pretty easy to get hooked on certain ideas or miss good potential / unique ideas when you're making it all by yourself, and found that some of the work that Veeky Forums came up with when discussing SoS and other shit great. So does anyone have any good ideas for some low fantasy setting lore, be it sword and sorcery heroes, long dead civilizations, odd governing forces, social quirks and all that?
The campaign I'm working on is pretty much contained within one country, so I don't have other countries / parts of the world fleshed out at all, and really open to ideas. Within the setting I've made, the country is an overall isolated one, with a few unique traits that I've included - like the use of a barter economy (where everyone trades amongst each other / pay taxes according to primary production). Magic is currently locked away in a mighty forest as it has been for ages, but as they cut away at the forest, magic begins to seep back into the world (or at least back into the region). So all the nobles are currently cutting their way through the massive magical forest in order to reach a castle on the far side and be appointed the next in line for king. There's tons more, but as I said, it's always good to get some new ideas and world-building tips from others.
So anyone have some good ideas for a campaign like that? And how is your campaign setting coming, user?
I'm running a couple games in SoS. They're still working on it. The final release is in March, I think.
Have you ever read anything about Harn? It's a low fantasy setting with a huge amount of detail that might serve as good inspiration for you.
Ryder Bennett
You're running some games in SoS? How are they going? Did they finish polishing the combat system?
And Harn? I've never heard of it. Is it for an existing RPG?
Anthony Lopez
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Michael Rivera
Yeah. Currently a Call of the Void game refluffed for Shadowrun. We ran the first session today, and it went very well. Sometime soon I'll be starting up a game set on the Infinite Steppes in the Tattered Realms. Character generation is done, but we have yet to play.
When was the last time you looked at SoS? There's been some fairly big changes in the last edition.
Harn is one of those OG settings. It had its own custom game, Harnquest, and was mostly famous for being much more solidly medieval than a lot of the games on the market. Fewer fantasy races, low magic, and an obsessive amount of detail in a world based on the Norman Conquest. A lot of the shit for it is in overpriced PDFs nowadays, but you can also get most of it in the PDF share trove.
Robert Richardson
tfw no daily sos thread
Grayson Jackson
I homebrewed some things for SoS myself to run my setting on, especially stuff like magic back when there wasn't much other than Unkindlies and Dark Pyromancy. I've ran a campaign, a one-off, and I was a player for another game with it.
Matthew Ortiz
I missed out on all the sci-to stuff, and it’s been a long time, so I’m sure they polished a lot, though since my setting is less advanced technology wise, I didn’t bother with the firearm rules that much. I’ll have to check out Harn, too. Is it in the Trove? I thought that all got taken down, but maybe it’s still up.
I miss it, even the old TRoS combat threads. They were a great source of user innovation.
How was the magic system? Like I said, magic isn’t in the setting at first, but I probably need rules for it when the magic start seeping back and the prophets and sorcerers start being able to do shit.
Lucas Roberts
WHY DID THEY DIE, TEEG
WHY DID THEY DIE
Dominic Nguyen
The SoS devs have shown some of the Thaumaturgy mechanics and spells, seems pretty good, getting committed to certain deities so you can get more spell points, and spend them on various spells with varying tiers of potency. Pretty cool stuff and it's a nice base to homebrew your own stuff (I know I did, Thaumaturgy pretty much revived my Acolyte homebrew)
As for Sorcery and Pyromancy, not much has been show other than the pics from way back then. We'll probably have to wait for release to see the real meaty essence of them.
Liam Williams
I kind of wish we had more threads like that?
Samuel Gomez
Yeah, I miss the SoS threads as well. But I usually have very little to say. So I guess I'm one reason they died of. I just am a quiet person lurking, most of the time. And I did not work on the STALKER homebrew in a long time now. So I have nothing really to show off on that front
Thanks, I really ought to bookmark that. I was looking for the Ishkaldin the other day since I might run a one-off soon
Jacob Moore
I've been constantly working on my own homebrews but haven't updated them in months since I don't think they're necessary to anyone but my group at this point
Chase Davis
Thanks user, you're a good guy.
And I think the battle threads were fun, and its one of the times Veeky Forums really got shit done.
What sort of homebrews are you making user?
Luke Phillips
I've got a low-fantasy setting in mind where humans weren't meant to have magic, so those that do use it are eventually bound to lose their sanity. So humans don't really have a high tolerance for the "Mages" and there's even an organization that hunts them down when they do go crazy or commit crimes of some manner. Also, there's a village of halfling cannibals.
Thomas Nguyen
halfling cannibals?
I'm pretty sure I remember some thing about them back in DnD. Similar, or completely different?
Daniel Howard
I wouldn't know, never heard of DnD having them before. Might have to look into it. Right now they're just friendly folks during the day but become crazed cultists at night.
They're called the Jerren - apparently halflings that went full edgelord on some goblins and stuff, eating them and vile shit like that.
Is your village an isolated incident?
Aaron Perry
Most likely yeah. I haven't gone further than the fact that they only eat the flesh of their victims on what would be considered holidays. Not sure if I'll actually do anything with them at the moment though.
Brody Hill
You're probably thinking of Dark Sun.
Gavin Parker
I'm pretty sure there's something similar in Dark Sun too, but I think it was the Book of Vile Darkness mentioned here Would it be too hamfisted to have the party spend a night there? It could be a rumor, depending on how known their activities are.
Dylan Miller
Out of the playable ones I made an JRPG-like Mage (the older versions I posted in the threads), an Acolyte so I could have the flavor of deities from my setting, and a while back I made an Attack on Titan homebrew for a one-off and it was pretty fun
Oh I guess I have a races homebrew also with more generic elves but also things like orcs and centaurs
Joshua Adams
I wouldn't say so. The halflings in the village tend to stick to themselves so rumors about people going missing around the area are bound to pop up every now and then.
Brayden King
It sounds like the type of thing that might go completely unnoticed in your campaign, but one of those things you put in because you can't resist.
Henry Jackson
I'm working on worldbuilding a Zweihander game. I'm having trouble with names. I'm not a big linguist, so my name's are mostly shit.
Brandon Phillips
Well I where does the campaign mostly take place / the players come from? I think that usually you can pick a naming scheme for places given by your primary country. Plus I think a lot of the time names are deceptively simple, shit like Longriver and Greenhill for example. Unless you're looking for country / cultures names.
Isaac Murphy
It takes place in Not!Holy Roman Empire. & I want suitably germanic/romanish gothic type names. But I just end up with names that are smudged together with half remembered translations like Drakkenstein for a place named after a dragon. Or a castle called Castle Weiseisen, but none of the subtlety of real thought out names like in Warhammer FRPG
