My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

Well feel free to keep exploring. I always look forward to your thoughtful replies.

I guess I am a big fan of the Percy Jackson series and they made green a sea based color, so I kind of rolled with that.

I figure Scarterrans with green skin would have a very light green like this sexy Orion cosplayer.



As opposed to a brilliant green like this sexy Orion cosplayer.




With the pink cheeks and reddish tint to her hair, the lady in the first picture could be a Scarterran human (with four or five dots of Appearance) with about a 75% water 25% fire mix. Her nose is about what I'd picture a 50/50 fire water mix.

To up the fire, I would redden her hair and maybe curl it a little. Add color changing lenses to make a striking eye color maybe.

The lady in the second picture might be a high appearance archetypal water woman if her skin was a little bit more subtle and her eyes were brighter.

I of course peruse galleries of cosplay women purely for research purposes.


Tearing my eyes away from cosplay pictures. I finally have a working web camera and microphone. I would like to try out a virtual RPG session by the end of April.

I am practically a luddite when it comes to new technology, but I hear good things about video or audio conferencing RPGs. I have a tiny voice in my head reminding me that lots of people play more than one RPG at once. Perhaps once I get the hang of running RPGs for my longstanding (and very patient) friends, perhaps maybe, if schedules permit, I could try running a Scarterra RPG via Discord for my L-O friends, interest and schedules permitting.

Though that is months away because I move slow as molasses on these things. Most of my RPG story ideas are Fumaya based and most of you guys have read my creation process on that, so I cannot reuse it, so I'd have to move settings and come up with a different campaign premise.

Probably either the Border Baronies or I can start out fleshing out Penarchia. Both the Border Baronies and Penarchia have a lot of small feuding kingdoms surrounded by monster infested wilderness. Excellent for adventurers.

Unless people wanted to play a low combat/high intrigue political game, in which case playing Swynfaredian nobles might be fun for Game of Thrones fans, since I am putting a lot of effort into fleshing out the inter-house intrigues, I kind of want to use them to tell stories. Though I will admit that these kind of RPGs are challenging for GMs and players a like. Players and GMs have to be a lot more proactive and creative than "a crying peasant child says a monster is attacking his village."

While I'd love to try a Scaraquan adventure, I don't have near enough material to start that.


There is a new contest on World Anvil for describing an interesting plant species. I plan to use this article as my base and expand on it. As Silverwood trees are the number one culturally important plant in all of Scarterra. The existing article I already have covers Silverwood lumber. The article I would create and enter for the contest would cover the plant as a living tree.

They are viewed as holy and were almost literally what saved the world during the Second Unmaking because it provided a cheap and ready defense against the faceless hordes which did almost as much damage as the demons themselves.

 

I created a new landmark. Or rather I put a name and some minor detail to my previous notion of "Here there be monsters"


Go to Scarterra Homepage
The Great Colassian Tundra
It makes up all the frontier land that is east of the World Seam Mountains and north of the nations of Fumaya, Codenya and Uskala.The most common humanoid denizens of the Great Colassian Tundra are Jórtoca human tribes and assorted tribes of orcs. There are also many monsters here, both mortal and bestial.
Geography
Technically, the land is not entirely a tundra, but the majority of it is a tundra. There are hills, taigas, and steppes. All of the land is too cold for agriculture, but the southern portions are warm enough to allow for herders to eke out a living.
Ecosystem
The flora and fauna of the Colassian Tundra vaguely resembles the flora and fauna of real world Siberia and Scandinavia plus with more than a fantasy monsters sprinkled. Flora and fauna is a bit richer and more vibrant than in the real world due to the influence of Korus' divine influence.
Natural Resources
There are pockets rich with reagents, a great many of them have dragons or other intelligent monsters claiming them.Supposedly there are mineral lodes here too, but the region is considered to be too remote for a cost effective mining operation.

The most commonly sought and obtained resources are the animals themselves. Ivory, pelts, and reagents harvested from animals. The locals also eat the local fauna of course but that is not feasible for the region to trade foodstuffs with the outside world.
Tourism
There is relatively little to entice adventurers to enter this dangerous place, but there are rumors of lost relics and treasures from the the First Age and the Second Age.

Supposedly there are also frozen examples of now extinct species. Something sought out by collectors, alchemists, and historians.

 

And a new-ish elf ethnicity.

taiga elves
The taiga elves are an offshoot of the wood elves of Nation of Codenya. While the wood elves have many clans and tribes differentiating themselves from mainstream wood elves in some way, taiga elves are the most distinct group because they very rarely intermarry or mix with other wood elves in a lasting fashion.

Appropriate to their name, the taiga elves dwell primarily in the colder forests to the north of Codenya where the forest eventually gives way to the The Great Colassian Tundra. While they frequently stick to the taiga, they do not shun roaming the tundra.

They are bound by treaty and tradition to the nation of Codenya, but the taiga elves keep their distance. Wood elves are known to outsiders as being independent, stubborn, and isolationist. Taiga elves come across as independent, stubborn, and isolationist to other wood elves.

Unless there is a war or other unusual event prompting the activation of their treaty obligations, the taiga elves only meet with the other wood elves for trade and joint religious and cultural ceremonies two or three times a year.

This isolationism permeates their culture beyond their dealings with other elves. Codenya is only approximately 80% elven. They have many allies that are formally part of the nation including forest gnomes and Codenya kalazotz among many others, but taiga elves do not mingle with these groups as much. When they meet, they are friendly enough, but prefer to distance interactions through a layer of polite formalities.

Most Wood Elves live by a mix of low impact farming and hunting and gathering. The Taiga Elves cultivate a few hardy cold weather herbs but they live almost entirely on hunting and gathering. While their population is small, Taiga Elves are a lot more nomadic than average Wood Elves. They like trees and they like the taiga, but they could just as easily be called "tundra elves". In a typical year, Taiga elves cover three to four times the total miles traveled by southern wood elves. Between their preference for cold weather climates and their highly nomadic life styles, Taiga elves are probably the most airy elves in all of Scarterra. Many have a pinch of earthy traits or a splash of water traits, but it's all but unheard of for one of them to show even a tiny ember of fiery traits. This means they are taller and leaner than most other wood elves and a lot of lighter of skin tone and hair color.
Culture
Major Language Groups And Dialects
They speak of course Elven. They have a tendency to speak slowly and often couch their words in riddles and metaphors. It is believed they talk more simply amongst themselves but they like to appear as mysterious among outsiders as an inside joke.
Culture And Cultural Heritage
Some mainstream wood elves admire the taiga elves' spirituality and other wood elves call the taiga elves' air headed naval gazers.

Taiga elves like riddles, meditation, and seeking spiritual signs. They favor this cerebral personal approach to the Nine, the afterlife, their ancestors, the spirits, and the world as a whole as opposed to relying on formal dogma. This is not an uncommon outlook for wood elves in general but taiga elves tend to take this to an extreme.
Average Technological Level
Taiga elves might be somewhat distant from other wood elves of Codenya, but they are not removed from them. They have access to the same collective lore that the rest of the wood elves enjoy. What the taiga elves cannot make for themselves, they can barter for from other wood elves.
Common Dress Code
Taiga elves dress practically for the harsh climates they dwell in. They not only want to dress warmly, but they prefer white clothing in the winter and browns in the summer for camouflage.

They do have a creative side and like to express themselves subtly in their dress. They wear a lot of jewelry made of simple inexpensive materials but lovingly crafted with intricate workmanship. Their knotwork is considered especially beautiful and is often sought after by other wood elves.
Art & Architecture
Besides their jewelry and good luck trinkets, the Taiga elves do not have much physical art. Their architecture is primarily tents and igloos erected temporarily.

The Taiga elves primary form of artistic expression is via music. Singing and percussion instruments are especially appreciated.
Common Customs, Traditions And Rituals
Taiga elves are technically fully polytheist but they usually venerate Korus above all the rest of the Nine. The rest tend to get almost token worship outside of a few holidays, many of which overlap with mainstream wood elf observances. Very few taiga elves ever become priests or theurgists to deities other than Korus.While they honor Korus, they value balance and completeness. They do not shun any of the Nine outright, even the typically unpopular ones.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
Wood elves wait twenty-seven days after birth before observing a child's Naming Day. This is marked with a simple ceremony usually presided by priests of Korus, but it can be done by a lay person in a pinch. Their parents or guardians typically create a knotwork spelling out the child's name. This knotwork is returned to an elder family member when the elf completes his or her rite of passage into adulthood.

When an elf turns nine years old, they have a second Naming Day ceremony that is more elaborate involving formal rituals followed by an informal party usually involving lots of extended family. An elf child at nine years old is developmentally equal to a human at five, roughly, but the elf will usually ceremonially dye his or her personal knotwork at the start of this ceremony.
Coming Of Age Rites
Adolescent boys and girls go through a vision quest under the supervision of older family members and/or priests.Tests vary but they usually involve physical and emotional hardship. The hardship is mostly symbolic. There are always adults standing by, so it's rare for young elf to die during their rite of passage into adulthood, but elves will find themselves judged for their rest of their lives based on how well they cope with the hardships given.It's considered especially auspicious to have a spiritually significant encounter with an animal. It's possible to find a spirit animal earlier or later in life too. Taiga elves with spirit animals will usually display the iconography of their spirit animal almost constantly.While not every elf with a spirit animal can manipulate magical forces and not every wielder of supernatural power has a spiritual animal, they are commonly linked with spirit loas, mages, and theurgists all uses their spirit animal as a focus.
Funerary And Memorial Customs
Taiga Elves will usually cremate their dead, time and circumstances permitting.Given the harsh natures of their existence, a taiga elves cannot always recover the body and have the means to create a full funeral pyre. If this is the case, symbolic knotwork spelling the elf's name is burned instead. If they cannot burn their original knotwork, a new one can be made by a bereaved friend or relative.

EDIT: Forgot the sidebar

Taiga Elf Rumspringas
Most wood elves take a Rumspringa to spend a few decades of their young adult lives exploring the outside world interacting with humans, dwarves, and other mortals outside their homeland.

Only a tiny portion of wood elves choose to take a traditional Rumspringa in such a manner. Some forgo the Rumspringa entirely. A majority of taiga elves go on an internal Rumspringa where they live among wood elves of the southern provinces of Codenya outside their taigas but still in the forests.

This is about the only time most taiga elves will interact with the wood elves' traditional forest allies without all the formalities.

These Rumspringas are often much shorter rarely encompassing much more than a single decade. A new informal tradition is to take a nine year Rumspringa beginning and ending on Korus' Zodiac year.

This mini-Rumspringa is valued by both taiga elves and wood elves as a whole. Without this tradition, the taiga elves might have split off from the rest of Codenya entirely generations ago.

 

So last solo session, Kormatin walked into an ambush set up by Maylar cultists.

Today we resolved that.

Kormatin died.


I wanted this to be a hard fight, but I think I made the encounter a little bit harder than it needed it to be. But even then this was mostly just bad luck.

It was 3 against 11. They were 11 sucky fighters, but I guess Kormatin's two sidekicks were not exactly powerhouses.

Humans (and most humanoids) have ten health levels before they are dead. Generally speaking, Kormatin was takin 0-1 health levels of damage with every hit. Then one of the mooks got a statistically unlikely high damage roll paired with a statistically unlikely low armor roll.

The bad guys were mostly lousy fighters, but they had recently robbed the local armory so they had top notch gear. That means on average it took two hits to drop a cultist and while the cultists missed frequently, when they hit, they did damage.

Kormatin and company killed a mook and wounded two more. These bad guys were Maylar fanatics. A normal ordinary mook will either run away or play dead after taking a wound, but these guys were willing to fight to the death.

I could have made it 3 against 7 or 8 instead of 3 against 11 but the same result could have easily happened.

Another option, is that Kormatin had the option to recruit local soldiers to join him. In the past, he avoided doing this because he was going against enemies with mind control powers, so he didn't want to take any red shirts that were not of exceptional strong Willpower (like his sidekicks) but this time he knew he was not going up against an Enchanter so bringing extra people would not be a liability.

Anyway, me and the players had discussed not coddling players and bending over backwards to keep PCs alive. So we are okay this. My friend is going to make a new character. He doesn't know what his new character will be, but there are no hard feelings and he still wants to play my game.

Kormatin had a cool backstory and a would-be secret reveal that he was the bastard son of an evil Swynfaredian noble, but that's over and done with now.

I'm giving his next character the experience points he earned up to this point as a bonus.


Maybe his next character will deal with the fall out from this Maylar cult, or maybe his next character won't give a rat's ass about the Duchy of Wiern or it's murderous secret cults.

I can hold things off if the player wants his second character to clean up the mess left behind by his first character. Or not.

If player characters are involved, they can clean up the Maylar cult. If not, the Maylar cult might be a self correcting problem. In order to set up the ambush that killed Kormatin, the cult leader had to cash in every chip the cult leader had. At this point, it is almost impossible for the secret cult leader to remain anonymous.

That means the cult leader is probably going to have to try a forceful coup in Wiern or flee.

 

So Kormatin's player and I were walking through the events that led to Kormatin's death.

While Kormatin was imprisoning and/or killing Maylar cultists, the cult leader panicked that the inquisitor was closing in, cashed in all the cult's chips and laid out a careful subterfuge to lure Kormatin and his sidekicks into a trap.

Preparation include gathering all non-incarcerated cultists, hiring some local criminal thugs, and robbing the armory.

Problem is, there was a large time gap between this session and the next one and I forgot something very important.

Walking through things, on the way to the ambush site, Kormatin's player pointed out that Kormatin dropped a prisoner at the guard house on the way to the ambush site because at this point, Kormatin was concerned that the duke's castle was compromised and didn't want to store prisoner's there.

The guardhouse prison is next to the barracks and the town armor is also next to the barracks. So before walking into a ambush, the guards would have informed him that the armory was just robbed.

Oopsy.


This means either Kormatin and company was aware that the Maylar cultists have just stolen a bunch of weapons and armor, so Kormatin would have walked into the ambush site fully aware that something was fishy, so logically he would have walked into the site with a bunch of soldiers in tow.

Option two, the ambush was a good ambush that truly would have caught Kormatin by surprise, but the cultists were not able to rob the armory first.


We are going to do option two. So we are going to replay the same ambush scenario as before, but this time the cultists and their criminal mercenaries are not going to have expensive top of the line weapons and armor. Kormatin still might die, but his odds are better now.

They still have four-to-one odds over Kormatin but now they aren't armored so Kormatin can one-shot the bad guy mooks while Kormatin and his buddies can take a lot of hits before they drop.

 

Shad recently released a world building video that really got my brain cells firing though mostly on off-topic tangents.

I recommend you skip the first four minutes of the video.




Shad has a silly comedy sketch that is not very good then shills his sponsors and then shills his other channel for the first four minutes.

Inns in fantasy are commonly based on the Prancing Pony in Bree in the Lord of the Rings, and these are not very historically accurate but they are prevailent in many fantasy worlds, including Scarterra.

Despite this, the player characters in my RPG rarely stay in inns despite it being an adventurer staple in most of our previous games. Neshik and Kormatin are both deeply entrenched in the priesthood of Khemra. That means, more often than not, they can get free food and lodging from a Khemra temple or allied temple. Neshik is a a highly charismatic folk hero beloved by the peasants and Neshik really likes to talk up the people around him. After Neshik stayed in Duke Zimoz castle, Neshik spread the word among the peasants how wise and just Duke Zimoz is. The other nobles noticed this. Now every noble is delighted to host Neshik.

So far Neshik and company, and Kormatin and company only stayed in inns once, and they did this while traveling incognito as part of an espionage ploy.




4:00 Inns were not as common as most fantasy worlds assume. I knew this already, but it’s was easy to forget.


5:35 Pilgrimages were pretty common, not just for nobles and rich people but it’s something peasants did. Not just for the religious aspect but for the tourism aspect. Not mentioned in the video, but medieval pilgrimage sites had elements of modern tourist traps with people who made their living selling food, accommodations, and cheap souvenirs to pilgrims.

I sort of worked this into the Great Stone of Meckelorn being the pilgrimage site for dwarves. The Border Barony of Prophet Pass could have people make a pilgrimage to visit the oracle.

During my December writing binge I wrote a short article on the Temple of the Mountain Winds located in the Barony of Prophet’s Pass.

This would be an important pilgrimage site for Nami’s faithful in West Colassia and ignored by everyone else. I guess it’s also useful for anyone who wants to consult an Oracle which would be many people.

It occurred to me that with Nine deities, Scarterra is probably overflowing with pilgrimage sites though most of them only appeal to a small demographic. I’ve been procrastinating making a detailed map of Fumaya and Swynfaredia but I need to get around to this eventually.

It occurred to me that instead of populating the land with Generic Small town Number One and Generic Small Town Number Two, I can add a local pilgrimage site to give the town some local color and possibly name the town after it.

I clearly need to come up with many pilgrimage sites in the near future. I figure in Swynfaredia, a lot of pilgrimage sites would be the tombs of famous dragon bloods.


5:57, Despite the lack of inns, travelers were fairly common, so they had to stay somewhere.

Not much to add here.

6:55, Staying in Strangers Homes used to be more common than it is now. Air BNB, medieval style. Not much to add here. Scarterran standards for hospitality and being a good host/good guest were probably similar to the real world antiquity.


7:40 Kings and queens visited their vassals often, as noted in the comment section below the video, a king that disliked a vassal might choose to visit a vassal and stay a longer than usual time to eat his resources as a sort of de facto tax. Sure, the king gets the best lodging and that is not that big of a deal, but feeding the king’s entourage is no small feat.


8:10 Merchants liked to host traveling merchants. You get news this ways, and you can shop talk with your peers. Now that I think about it, without phones or the internet, almost any member of a skilled trade would relish the chance to converse with a peer over their shared trade. Shad covers this a bit too.


8:59 One of the expectations of travelers being good guests was that they share news. This actually is what the Order of Delas is based on and without watching this video I came to the logical conclusion that a disproportionately high number of the Order of Delas members would be merchants.

I also figured tengku would be unusually well informed of comings and goings relative to other Scarterrans though they don’t have a formal order for gossip sharing. Gossip sharing is just something that is part of their culture.


9:15 People who are sick have a harder time finding shelter, as do the bottom rung of society. Originally hospitals provided shelter to everyone. They were not originally places of healing but places of hospitality. But if you were a healer and you were looking for sick people to heal, you go to the hospital. Hence the modern evolution of the institution.

Mera is a big softy who cares about the outcasts and Mera’s theurgists and clergy are frequently gifted healers. Zarthus might get in on the action too. Also, Hallisan might get in on the action too, if only to make sure Zarthus doesn’t win too much of Mera’s favor. Okay, so most Scarterran hospitals are run by Mera’s Tenders and they receive support from Zarthus’ Lanterns and Hallisan’s Guardians.

I must make a note to write an article about Scarterran hospials in the near future.


13:57 Medieval European monasteries frequently accommodated those seeking shelter. I covered bishoprics in this article.

I probably need to figure out how common they would be. Bishoprics and monasteries go hand-in-hand. It’s rare to see one without the other. Because Scarterra has nine deities rather than one, a case could be made that Scarterra would have more bishoprics than real world medieval Europe but because no priesthood in Scarterra wields political power akin to the Medieval Catholic Church, a case could be made that there would be fewer such places.

The only bishopric that I created thus far is the Island of the Stewards. Note, the Island of the Stewards does not lay out a welcome mat for random travelers. It's an island that is protected by a small army of sentient plants.

17:30 He finally gets around to addressing inns.


18:30 The concept of sleeping in your own bed and especially your own room is a very modern concept. It was not unusual to have strangers share a bed in an inn. It was certainly not uncommon to have a stranger in the same room. It was pretty common to have a single large room with lots of beds.

This clashes so much with modern sensibilities I might prefer to hand wave this historical realism away because it would distracting to modern audiences.

It was noted in the comment section that adventurers in a fantasy setting qualify as a separate social class and they are fairly rich. Rich enough that whole industries would pop up to accommodate them. They could afford private beds and private rooms. Also, adventurers are often trouble makers and common people would not want to share rooms with them.


24:20 Medieval inns were not commonly also public taverns or ale houses. This conception arises almost entirely from the Prancing Pony in Lord of the Rings. It’s logical that Tolkien came up with this because in the modern world, hotels frequently have attached bars and restaurants open to the public. Real world historical inns did provide food and drink to their patrons but they didn’t normally attract public clientele who were not staying at the inn.

I don’t see a problem with this. Maybe it’s not historically accurate, but it’s not that crazy of an idea that an inn could also be a pub.

As of yet, no article I have written on my World Anvil account has accrued more positive feedback than the Drunken Bat Inn and Brewery.

To be fair, I would not want to live in Scarterra (unless I retained my power to change Scarterra with my mind while visiting). Scarterra has too many things that could kill me. Also, I like indoor plumbing and toilet paper. But if I could visit Scarterra for one day, I would want to visit the Drunken Bat and chill with my bat homies.

If this style of inn is what people like to read about, why would I not include it? Historical accuracy be damned. Historical Europe didn’t have many combination inn/tavern/breweries, but they didn’t have many kalazotz either.

I will point out that Nami is the patroness of travelers and is the patroness of wineries, distilleries, and breweries. So Nami monasteries would probably include inns and a winehouse or alehouse. If this became popular enough, secular people could adopt this practice. In fact, the aforementioned Drunken Bat Inn and Brewery has a symbol of Nami near the entrance out of respect.

I probably need to write an article about Scarterran inn traditions to help clarify this.


27:37 When a city had weapon restrictions, inn’s served as an official place to check your weapons. That could work in Scarterra, but as we covered many pages ago on this thread and summed up in this World Anvil article, I think Scarterran lords would be laxer on weapon control than real world medieval lords.

 

Fluff aspects of hospitals

Go to Scarterra Homepage
Scarterran Hospitals
Much like historical real world medieval hospitals, Scarterran hospitals were not like modern real world hospitals. They are places of hospitality, not places of healing.

Essentially they are alms houses that will take in almost anybody and provide them with food and shelter for free.

Hospitals vary from location to location but they often accumulate the undesirables of society, often housing the ill, the infirm, and the extremely destitute. Not everyone who stays in a hospital is the riff raff of society. Ordinary people sometimes stay in a hospital while traveling, generally finding staying in a hospital preferable to sleeping in a ditch (though many Scarterrans are too proud to even consider staying in a hospital and would prefer to sleep in a ditch).Almost every town has a hospital. Most cities have several hospitals, often with specialized hospitals for different types of boarders. Maybe one in three villages has a hospital in or near it and a few hospitals exist on their own along major trade routes. Hospitals might also be attached to feudal bishoprics.
History
While there were altruistic people and traditions in ancient times, there are no historical records for hospitals existing in the First and Second Age or anything like hospitals.

No one is sure when or where the tradition of hospitals emerged, but most assume that humans invented the concept. In the year 1837, hospitals are very common sites in human lands. When nonhuman societies create hospitals, they are copies of human run hospitals. A relative rarity in Scarterra as it's usually humans that assimilate the customs of other races.

Hospitals are uncommon in elven lands, only popping up in larger population centers, and very rare in lands dominated by dwarves only seen in the largest cities.

The Tenders claim that one of their number created the first hospitals. Most people believe this claim because most modern hospitals are sponsored primarily by the Tenders. Once in a while hardliner Terrawan or Walchese will argue that their faction created the first hospitals but most Tenders believe that hospitals became an institution before the Terrawan/Walchese schism.
Execution
Each hospital is different, but they are all dependent on donations from someone. It's very rare to see a hospital that always has adequate funds, so a lot of the buildings are run down and barely maintained enough to avoid falling down with leaky roofs and vermin issues.

Food is usually very bland and simple and not always adequate. Turnip stew and assorted gruel being the baseline.
Participants
Most hospitals are sponsored by religious organizations. The majority of hospitals are sponsored primarily by the Mera's Tenders. Walchese tend to favor a small number of large hospitals and Terrawans tend to favor several smaller hospitals.

Lanterns and Guardians are frequently co-sponsors of hospitals along with he Tenders. On rare occasion they will sponsor their own hospitals. Lanterns support hospitals because their code wants them to stand up for the outcasts and lowly. Guardians code of chivalry charges them with safeguarding the weak and hospitals have the weak.

While it's relatively uncommon for hospitals to have institutional support from these organizations, individuals from the Keepers, Masks, Stewards, Rovers, and the Cult of the Compact are common sponsors of hospitals.

Children and Testers rarely support hospitals but they are oddly likely to spare hospitals their wrath despite their values being quite opposed to what hospitals stand for. It's speculated that a lot of traveling Children and Testers quietly move about the population of numerous hospitals.

Some hospitals take donations from the general populace or sympathetic nobles, but in most cases such donors prefer to filter their donations through religious organizations.

When a secular prince decides to become the sponsor of a hospital the ruler the ruler is either motivated by altruism, very image conscious, or they are very paranoid and want to keep tabs on the local riff raff.

Hospitals As A Places Of Healing (sidebar on article)
Scarterra has a lot of theurgists and a few favored souls that have magical healing magic.

Either out of altruism or a desire to have a good public image, it's not uncommon to find magical healers who are willing to work for free or cheap. If a theurgist wants to heal the sick, she can find lots of sick people in most hospitals. A few healers even spend almost all their time running circuits moving from hospital to hospital. A few very lucky hospitals (usually hospitals a part of bishoprics or literally adjacent to temples) have a magical healer on site at all times, Scarterra does not near enough altruistic magical healers to cover every hospital, but they have some. In a lot of cases, the last resort for a very sick person with no money is to go to a hospital and hope a magical healer stops by before they perish.

Because of these occasional visits from magical healers, the average Scarterran hospital was a lot less disease ridden than most real world medieval era hospitals.

Of course, every once in a while, one of the Bearers of the Ill Wind or a Gaunt will pay a hospital a visit and make them more disease filled than usual, though usually such spreaders of disease will choose a tactic that is less clichéd.

 

RPG Mechanics of hospitals.

Go to Scarterra Homepage
Staying in a Hospital
Scarterran Hospitals almost never turn people away unless they are known criminals.

They don’t normally charge admission, but donations are encouraged. Your character gets food and lodging though the food is along the lines of a watery stew and some dry biscuits.

The two issues are that hospitals are often full of the bottom rung of society, so anyone staying in a hospital has to avoid issues with rotten apples. You have to deal with filth and disease and you have to deal with the fact that you are sleeping in a den of society’s riffraff.

Roll A Stamina Save To Avoid Getting Parasites Or An Illness

Difficulty 3 if the hospital has a full time magical healer with Purification 3 on its staff (this is the ideal situation)

Difficulty 6 if there is a part-time non-magical healer on the staff (this is the most common situation).

Difficulty 8 if the hospital has no healing staff and there is a plague outbreak in the area.

Success means nothing bad happens.

Failure means your character picked up lice or something minor getting +1 difficulty on social and mental concentration activities for a few days.

A botched roll means you caught something more serious.

Make A Social Roll To Avoid Getting Shanked
You also have to avoid getting stabbed or robbed by someone disreputable.

If you want to keep a low profile and quietly distance yourself from the trouble makers, roll Wits + Empathy.

No one can stay mad at someone who makes them smile and laugh. If you want to be too likeable to mess with, roll Charisma + Etiquette.

In hospitals, the strong prey on the weak. If you wish to project strength to deter would-be attackers, roll Manipulation + Intimidation.

Difficulty varies depending on just how mean and nasty the other residents are.Difficulty 3 represents a hospital that is literally next door to the chapter house of an order of knights or holy soldiers dedicated to safeguarding the hospital under peace time conditions.

Difficulty 6 is your typical isolated crowded hospital during peacetime.

Difficulty 9 represents an isolated hospital with an influx of wartime refugees and there are suspected spies and dark cultists among the hospital refugees. Even if you don’t run afoul of one of these spies or cultists, someone could mistake you for being a spy or cultist.

A successful roll means nothing bad happens and you slept well.

A failed roll means your character was too paranoid to sleep restfully and regains no temporary Willpower. If this happens repeatedly your character may suffer some chronic dice penalties until you get a good rest.

A botched roll means your character faces a serious incident.



I thought about writing more RPG articles for every means of finding shelter.

Fancy inns, ordinary inns, paying a commoner to take you in, charming a commoner to take you in, acting as a performer and singing or tale spinning for shelter, bartering with rich people to stay at their place, talking a lord into extending hospitality, and staying at a temple or monastery

But really that is unnecessary. The golden rule of D&D10 applies.

If the player says they want to do something, the game master on the spot comes up with an attribute + ability combination and a difficulty.

Or just go dice less and say "you can find shelter without problem" if that would move the story along faster.

One thing that is important is to tie the people giving the PCs shelter to the story. If I need to set the mood I can describe the attitude of their hosts. If I want to plant a story seed I can the PCs overhear "rumors" and "scuttlebutt" from their hosts.

Often, since the PCs are becoming more and more famous, commoners, burghers, and nobles alike are now likely to offer them food and shelter as a means of buttering them up before asking them to help them with whatever problem is afflicting them.

As it should be for an RPG. Fortunately I have experienced players who make it very easy for me to feed them story hooks when needed.

 

I created an article for inns, no picture yet. I haven't found a public domain picture for medieval people sleeping yet.

Scarterran Inns and Lodging
Scarterrans of all social classes sometimes travel for work or pilgrimages (which is the closest thing Scarterrans have to a modern vacation.)Towns typically have an inn. Cities typically have several inns. You might inns in villages if the village in question is near a pilgrimage site or major trade route. Quality inns are fairly uncommon only popping up in larger cities typically.

A lot of cases, there are no inns, but there is a custom of hospitality. Travelers can ask a person to give them food and lodging for a night, typically with a promise of coin and/or news and gossip from afar. Almost anyone can choose to accept a traveler but most villages and small towns have individuals who go out of their way to host interesting strangers and they have individuals who distrust strangers and would never host someone. It's usually not hard to figure who has what views.

This basic transaction changes very little whether the traveler is staying in an inn or in a person's home.

Peasants and princes alike are often hungry for news. Remember, there are no phones, Internet, televisions or radio so taking to travelers is the main way to learn from places abroad. A traveler that is especially entertaining or from an exotic location might not have to pay coins at all to stay somewhere. A traveler that is tightlipped or otherwise unwilling and unable to share news might have to pay more or be turned away outright.

History
Hospitality customs have changed relatively little over the centuries. Hosts are expected to make every reasonable effort to make their accommodations nice for their visitors. Visitors are expected to share news and polite conversation. Visitors who make extended stays are expected to help with the host's chores after three days. Visitors and hosts mostly stick to hobnobbing with those of their own or similar social status.

All of these traditions existed in some form or another through the the First, Second, and the Third Ages and these standards of hospitality extend into nearly every race or culture in Scarterra with only minor variations.

Even nomadic barbarians have similar customs for being good hosts or being good guests.

Execution
Staying at a hospital is free, but has it's own risks and is often viewed as a low status option, even by peasants.

Staying at a very cheap inn is very similar to crashing in someone's barn. You sleep on a pile of straw at the floor and use a drop hole outside to relieve yourself. This typically costs a copper piece a night if your host charges you money at all.

Staying a cheap inn is very similar to staying with a common peasant family. You probably sleep on a mat on the floor or cram into a large bed huddled with near strangers. This typically costs two to silver pieces a night, unless your news and gossip is especially sought after.

Staying at a common inn is very similar to staying in the home of a modestly successful tradesmen. If the traveler is in the same trade as the host, it is professional courtesy to host the traveler for free, provided the traveler is willing to engage in shop talk and compare and contrast working that trade in a foreign land.

Small temples that don't routinely have guests are likely to provide similar accommodations to people who give them donations or are spiritually aligned with them.

Visitors in such a place might still have to share a bed with someone but the sheets are changed more regularly and the room is bigger and cleaner. Typically this costs four to five silver pieces a night.

Staying a high quality inn is very similar to staying in the home of a well-to-do merchant or highly skilled burgher.

Travelers can get similar accommodations from a temple or monastery if they can talk their way into VIP treatment either from their social status, religious affiliation, or a large donation. The visitor probably has a private room and a private bed. There might be amenities such as a servant (or younger family member of the host) cleaning up after the guest and perhaps a bath would be prepared.

Typically this costs around two gold pieces a night, unless the travelers have really juicy gossip or share the same profession as their host.


Food is separate. It is very common in Scarterra for hosts to charge their guests for lodging but provide the food for free provided the guests make good company. Travelers (and day laborers) can also buy food without buying logic.5 silver pieces a day will let someone enjoy fine meals typically consisting of spiced meat, white bread, quality fruits and vegetables, with quality wine or ale. This is the hospitality norm for the top quality inns or the homes of wealthy burghers.3 silver pieces a day will let someone enjoy hearty commoner food such as fish or rabbit plus a few modest herbs, seasonal vegetables and either simple ale or clean water. This is the hospitality norm for most commoners or common inns.1 silver pieces a day will get you water and hard biscuits with some thin stew or gruel. Meat is out of the question, but if you are lucky you can get an egg or two. This is the hospitality norm for cheap inns or commoners experiencing hard times.



Travelers can seek shelter in the local lord's castle or manor house (or one of the attached servants buildings of the lord's castle or manor house). Food and accommodations would either equal the quality level of high quality inns or moderate inns.

Sometimes the local lord (or more likely the lord's steward) will politely "suggest" that the visitor contribute a few coins, but this is uncommon unless the local lord is especially miserly or cash strapped.

Local potentates extend shelter to travelers of high social status or people who have done them favors (or people they want to butter up to ask to do favors).

Just like with commoners, nobles probably expect their guests to regale them with tales of their travels.

 

Sidebar

What About Inns That Are Also Taverns Or Alehouses?
Real world medieval Europe have many places that resemble The Prancing Pony of Lord of the Rings. Scarterra does have a fair share of these types of places, but they are hardly omnipresent.Nami is the patron goddess of travels and the patron goddess of breweries and wineries.Nami temples cannot rely on regular donations to pay their operating expenses, so it is common for Nami temples to have a mundane side business to make ends meet.

This frequently means that Nami temples own taverns, breweries, wineries, and/or inns. Nami's Rovers favor versatility so it's not uncommon to find a business that has a small distillery in the basement, a public tavern on the first floor and a couple high quality inn accommodations on the second and third floors.

Some of these Rover-run facilities are so popular that secular businessmen have chosen to emulate this business model and create combinations of inns and taverns. Most of these places have only a small number of rooms and make the dragon's share of their income from selling food and drinks to patrons who don't spend the night there.

The most famous inn of this type is the Drunken Bat Inn and Brewery.

 

There is a little pop up slime monster giving "writing advice" on World Anvil.

"Name all your characters by giving them all the same first letter quirky and convenient."

"If you share your work on social media, it will make the next feature come out even faster."

"Lots of sapient races fleshes out a fantasy or sci-fi setting. Aim for a 1000."

"I see you are worldbuilding. Have you considered adding velociraptors."


Among others.

The last point is valid.

It's funny but the pop guy is blocking my access to links I want to click on before I went to the help page and someone showed me where the off button was.

Who would dare alter the sanctity of a hobby website on this, the first of April.


The first one actually felt directed at me. "Set achievable goals, only 1,042,000 words to go." I do have about a half a million words at this point. Me getting to 1.5 million is not inconceivable.

 

There was a snarky suggestion to include bananas (because they are bright and always wear a smile) and another comment that I can unlock a hidden achievement if I include bananas and velociraptors.

I'm not sure about velociraptors, but I did create a short article about bananas.




Go to Scarterra Homepage
bananas
Bananas are bright and always wearing a smile.Bananas are a seasonal crop that can grow in equatorial regions of Scarterra. They are usually enjoyed only a few months of the year but alchemical processes can preserve bananas for longer, but the process is fairly expensive so typically only elf nobles and very wealthy merchants can afford eat bananas in the off the season.

Even then, bananas lose some of their zest in the process, so alchemical bananas are usually baked into custards or pies rather than eaten as is.


I even added a new category for food plants. I'm sure I'll expand it, but nothing earth shattering. Scarterra is going to have very earth familar foodstuff plants.

 

So I created a smartass article about bananas in Scarterra. This got me pondering a serious article about potatoes in Scarterra. I will post that soon.

I wrote that potato cultivation became more popular in the period of time known as the Little Unmaking. I realized that I hadn't made an article for the Little Unmaking. So I wrote one. Here's the fun part. I originally created this as a historical footnote, but I noticed, this footnote could have huge implications if I wanted to do a Scarterran spinoff. I put the last line of the article in bold.

The Little Unmaking
The Second Unmaking was officially over when the last of the Demon Lords was slain and the Nine patched up the hole rent in the Barrier.

When the Demon Lords were slain, their armies of minions didn't spontaneously combust. The remnants of the Demon Lords' hordes dispersed and rampaged across Scarterra and Scaraqua in a sporadic fashion. While the main rent in the Barrier "fixed", the Barrier was still weak for decades if not centuries, letting more demons sneak into the material plane.

The Little Unmaking is a term scholars use for the transition period between the end of the Second Unmaking and the start of the Third Age. Humanity was young and not very numerous or well organized. The surviving mortals of the Second Age were not in great shape either.

They had to build up their livelihoods from the ruins of the previous Age while dealing with frequent small scale demon attacks and very harsh winters.

On the plus side, the Nine were especially proactive sending spirits to aid mortals of all stripes.

Because it was a struggle just to survive, there wasn't much time to chronicle events. Written records for this era almost nonexistent. It's not even clear if this period lasted for one hundred years or one thousand years.

Legends of this era are vague. Even with the aid of scores of spirits of wisdom, humanity and the other mortals were fairly promotive and disorganized. Feudalism hadn't emerged yet and the various geographic corners of Scarterra had almost no contact with each other.

The various priesthoods of the Nine had to rebuild themselves practically from scratch. The priesthoods did not have inquisitorial bodies to root out Infernalists who were far more common in Scarterra than in feudal era that followed centuries later.

There were tiny pockets of settlements ruled by competing warlords surrounded by monster and demon infested wilderness.

This era of Scarterra might qualify more as Sword and Sorcery than High Fantasy.

I like Sword and Sorcery movies. I probably would like Sword and Sorcery books too.

There is a Native American proverb. "If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both."

It's very tempting to chase this second rabbit.

I can picture Conan-esque barbarians having gritty adventures getting advice from barefoot filthy robe wearing priests of the Nine while battling Infernalist wizards and their Lovecraftian Void Demon allies.

If my wildest fantasies came true and I was able to A) finish a couple novels rather and B) monetize said novels then C) make Scarterra a widely known fantasy setting, I could partner with a Sword and Sorcery writer to sublease out a Sword and Sorcery prequel spinoff.

Anyway, I talk about the First, Second, and Third Age a lot. The Third Age is the period where humans were dominant species of the planet. I guess I can break it down into three eras now.

The current year is 1837 of the Feudal Era. The Feudal era is now, you know 1837 years starting with the death of Vladimir the Conqueror.

Before that there was ???? years where vampires terrorized most of Scarterra and looked poised to take over the world. I guess I call it the Age of Vampires until I come up with something better.

Before that was the Little Unmaking, a period of ???? years where humanity was slowly growing ad dealing with an even more harsh and unforgiving world than the Scarterra you all know and love.

 

I am 100% on board with this. That's just a long term thing.

My style of world building is to start with broad strokes and work my way down to the fine details.

I need to flesh out the nations, cultures, and history more before I can figure out which sites are valuable for their spiritual, historical, or military significance rather than simply being valuable for the resources in said area.

In Scaraqua, geographic features are a bit more....fluid.

Compared to Scarterrans, I think Scaraquans would care less about lines on a map and be more concerned with people and mobile things than static resources, but they are not fools. The sea would still have static resources of some sort.

 

Go to Scarterra Homepage
Grapes
Grape vineyards and wineries are pretty much synonymous in Scarterra.Grapes can be used for things other than wine, but the fate of grapes is tied to wineries. In Scarterra, much as Earth, grapes were and are mostly grown in order to make wine and this is why grapes were spread.

In Feudal Era of the Third Age, the plurality but not majority of alcoholic beverages in Scarterra are some variant of grape wine.

Additional Information
Domestication
All Scarterran grapes like sunny areas. Lunatus Grapes grow best in subtropical climates and Condenya Grapes thrive in sunny temperate areas. Selective breeding of grape vines has created several new Third Age varieties of grape. There are six common derivatives of Lunatus grapes (counting the original grape) and seven or eight obscure local varieties. There are three common varieties of the Codenya grape (counting the original grape) and four or five obscure local varieties. Any wine aficionado can figure out immediately if a new type of wine is descended from Codenya or Lunatus grapes.

Uses, Products & Exploitation
Grapes can be eaten as is, made into jams or jellies, or dried into raisins, but the vast majority of grapes end up used to make wine.

Of the several Third Age variants of grapes, the so called candy grape is the only grape that is not grown for wine (very few people like the wine). Candy grapes are grown in the Elven Empire and are valued for making tasty raisins and jams.
Geographic Origin And Distribution
Wine is a known beverage almost everywhere in Scarterra. Wine is the drink of choice for most modern elves. Wine is a very popular drink in the subequatorial regions of West Colassia, East Colassia, Penarchia, and Umera.

In other areas, some vineyards do exist and imported wine is fairly common, but other alcoholic beverages are more popular than wine in most of these places. Vodka is the most common drink in southern Penarchia. Rice wine is the most common drink in southern Umera. Ale is the most common drink is the interior of West Colassia and East Colassia probably enjoys the widest mix of spirits in all Scarterra with a wide variety of locally produced spirits.
Civilization And Culture
History
Grapes In The First Age
Vineyards and wineries existed in the First Age, but they were not especially common. It takes a lot of grapes to make enough wine to satisfy a dragon or giant. Because of this limitation, wine was a wealthy dragon's beverage that common dragons and the thurekal only got to taste on holidays and special occasions.

Grapes In The Second Age
Vineyards expanded rapidly in the the Second Age. Wine became ubiquitously available throughout all of Scarterra drank by peasant and prince alike (though of course the princes got better vintages).Wine wasn't just an alcoholic beverage in the Second Age, it was the alcoholic beverage. It was not uncommon for peasants to drink wine, but it was uncommon for princes to not drink wine. Vodka, ale, whiskey, and most other alcoholic beverages were known in the Second Age, but they were viewed as libations of the lower classes, rarely touched by self-respecting elf nobles. If a noble lord or lady ruled over land ill suited to grow grapes, the nobility would import their wine from elsewhere.

Nearly every nation and culture boasted their own local vintages and breeds of wine grape. There were dozens if not hundreds of varieties of grape known in Scarterra at this time. Many elves and non-elves alike developed a taste for foreign wine faire. This created a booming trade. If anything wine was probably the biggest driver of economics in the Second Age as merchants in other trades would piggyback off of wine trading routes.

Tengku made a niche for themselves in the Second Age by frequently running vineyards and wine caravans on behalf of their elf clients. Even in the Third Age, tengku are disproportionately represented in the wine trade. Some surviving historical records mention, half in jest, that elves would not have tolerated tengku at all if they weren't able to deliver quality wine on demand.

Grapes In The Third Age
During the Second Unmaking, a great many vineyards were abandoned. Some of them were burned or frozen by Void Demons forward thinking enough to destroy crops, but a lot of grapes grew wild.

There were a lot of harsh winters in the Second Unmaking and the Little Unmaking, this wiped out a lot of wild and cultivated grapes. Of the dozens of varieties of Scarterran grape once known in the Second Age, all but two were extinct by the dawn of the Third Age.

The two surviving grape varieties are now known as "Lunatus grapes" and "Codenya grapes" because these are the lands where grapes survived. These grapes were and are associated with grey elves and wood elves respectively for obvious reasons.

Technically there were FOUR surviving grapes. Both Lunatus and Codenya had green grapes and red variants of their basic grape.

Both varieties of grapes have spread throughout Scarterra. Given that Nami is the goddess of wine, it was not uncommon to find Rovers spearheading the spread of vineyards in the early Third Age, but wine was popular enough that they didn't need religious endorsement to spread. Tengku and other traders were economically incentivized to spread wine grapes throughout Scarterra.

Selective breeding has created new sub varieties of Lunatus and Codenya grapes. They have not reached the diversity of wine grapes available in the Second Age, but each of two main families of grapes has many variants and derivatives throughout Scarterra

 

I did a bunch of world building stuff that is probably pretty boring. Math!

I mentioned how my Zodiac works many threads back. You got the year of Maylar, Mera, Korus, Nami, Greymoria, Khemra, Zarthus, Hallisan, Phidas in that order, rinse and repeat.


It usually doesn't matter what the zodiac year but sometimes it does, so sometimes I included. Year 1 is the year of Maylar. I did math whenever I needed to figure out what the zodiac year is and apparently I'm bad at math because half the time I calculated it in the past, I was wrong.

I created an Excel spreadsheet. With years 1 through 1837 plus a few years beyond. Now I can check any year and be able to look up what zodiac it is without doing math.

I also created brief character profiles for all the founding fathers of the nation of Fumaya. I mentioned an adventuring party essentially founded the nation in the early 1500s.

Fumaya is shaped like a sock

The Duchy of Palbuc is Fumaya's Toe, Wiern is Fumaya's Arch, Nerozik is Fumaya's Heel, Linijka is the lower ankle and Frymar is the upper ankle.

My RPG is set in the year 1837. Each of these duchiess has a duke with a name, internal problems, and an agenda. But I went back in time to the original dukes.

Now I figured out Linijka was a warrior (aka classic fighter). Palbuc was a favored soul of Hallisan (aka classic cleric). Frymar was a nimble warrior (aka rogue) and Wiern was an invoker (aka classic wizard). They agreed to make Linijka their king and set everyone else up as dukes.

Nerozik was not part of the adventuring party, but he was an influential warlord and the adventuring team needed his support to turn their coalition into a nation, so they had to agree to set him up as a duke too to win his support. Half of them also ended up marrying one of his daughters.

All this is reasonable backstory but I am kallazotz skyte crazy and World Anvil has a very addictive family tree feature. I didn't just create names for the original dukes and short descriptions. I came up with their year of birth and death and whom they married. And when their wives were born and died. Then I figured out the names, lifespans, and a brief description for all the original duke's children. Then I figured out who they married and how many kids they had and I named their kids and established their lifespans.

There is a little monster in my head goading me to keep going and fill up the royal family trees all the way from Fumaya's founding fathers to connect them to the current nobles in charge.

I'm still barely a hundred years into Fumaya's history. I have roughly 7 generations to go to connect what I have to the 1837 political crowd and each generation is slightly bigger and more convoluted than the last.

It might be a waste of time. For story purposes, you only really need to know two things. Who was the first king and who is the current king. The ones in between matter very little. Never the less, I have made roughly 50 articles in the last 10 days, roughly 50-100 words each, but I had to check a lot of boxes and whatnot to make sure everything is linked.

My process is this. If I have a new noble, I will go over my list of Polish names and decide whether I want to give them a repeat name (to honor their grandfather or whatever) or pull a new one.

Then I roll a d10 to see if they lived a relatively long life or a relatively short life. Low is short, high is long. 1 means they didn't survive to adulthood. 10 means they died of old age for certain. Base of 70 years and I add 3d10.

2-4 means they died relatively young. I'll make a second d10 roll to gauge if they died as teenagers or young adults or made it into their late thirties/early forties.

8-9 means they died relatively old. I'll make a second roll to see if they they have a base of 40 or a base of 50 then add 3d10 years.

I look at their parents. Did they rebel against their parent's values (low d10 roll) or did they emulate their parent's values (medium or high d10 roll).

I give men a core personality of either a warrior, a politician, a selfish hedonist, or a man of faith/academia.

I give women a core personality of a matriarch, a politician, a tomboy, or a woman of faith/academia.

I take into account what their parents were like and if the child in question grew up wanting to be like the parents or diverge.

If I cannot figure out which archetype the character would fall into, I designate a die for each archetype and pick the highest one, unless they are all pretty similar in which case I get a jack of all trades.

If a warrior dies young, he probably died in battle. If a politician dies young, he was probably assassinated. If a matriarch died young, she probably died in child birth.

I try to figure out how logically marriages would have been arranged. I use a d10 to gage if the couple was happy with their arrangement or unhappy with it taking their personality archetypes into account. Like attracts like.

Then I figure out if the couple had lots of kids or few kids (obviously if one died young, they couldn't have as many kids). If the couple actually liked each other a lot rather than coupling out of political obligation, I threw in a few bonus kids.

Once I guestimate how many kids they have, I roll a die to determine if they created a boy or girl starting with the eldest and working my way to the young.

Those that die before marriage, don't have kids. A small number are barren or celibate (the latter often join one of the priesthoods of the Nine), but the majority end up having kids.

If a daughter marries a foreign nobleman and moves out of Fumaya, I don't profile the kids. I also don't profile bastard children because they don't affect the lineage for generations to come though if I ever make a fully detailed family tree for the nobles still alive in 1837, I want to include bastards because they would out there doing stuff in the here and now.

I also have a family tree started for Swynfaredia, but the idea of completing the Swynfaredian family tree is even more insane.

The four founding dragons had roughly thirty half-dragon children between them. They all have brief profiles, but I haven't got too deep into their children yet.

The idea of going from the Founding Dragons to the year 1837 is silly. Fumaya is hard enough and they have a nation for about 520 years. Swynfaredia is just shy of 900 years old and their succession laws are weirder requiring a more complicated family tree, but again a crazy voice in my head tells me to plow forward.


EDIT: I use baby name sites to name my characters. I do this so often that targeted ads now assume I am a new or expecting father and I get advertisements for baby stuff a lot.


Anyway, if anyone reading this thread has thought "Hey I'd like to learn more about _______" that could help steer me into writing more World Anvil articles that people might actually want to read.

 

Well as Scolenex says, I am quite smart, handsome, and above all: modest.

Well I have a very simple Covid era job that lets me free to let my mind wander, and when my mind wanders it nearly always thinks about Scarterra.

I also keep copious notes. I have to review my own notes to keep things straight sometimes.

There are three things I have to balance with this. Realism, Playability, and the Rule of Cool.

So I use a baseline from White Wolf's d10 system. My friends and I have played that off and on for over 20 years. Initially as teenagers we read over the rules section fast because we all "knew" the rules. We didn't realize we were playing some of the rules wrong from day one and just kept it going out of habit. One such rule is that we didn't apply was the multiple opponent penalties.

My friend who dabbled in training in boxing told a story about how a regionally successful professional boxer was beaten up and mugged by some nobody teenagers because realistically it is hard to fight groups.

Officially the rules for fighting multiple opponents at once are very unforgiving. If you are surrounded your difficulty to defend and hit back goes from 6 to 9 while your enemies still need 6s and they have more dice to throw and some of them could get bonus attack dice for making flanking attacks.

This is realistic. Even a great fighter is going to struggle if swarmed. But that's not very heroic. Movies and ancient stories love to show grand heroes fighting through massive hordes. The Rule of Cool wants to let PCs mop up hordes of mooks fairly easily.

Conversely, if the PCs are fighting a large monster and surrounding it, if the monster gets the same penalty for fighting multiple opponents at once, giant monsters would die quite easily. Violates the Rule of Cool.

It's also a little cumbersome to keep track of who gets a +1, +2, or +3 penalty. So it kind of violates Playability.

Thus, I didn't carry over these harsh multiple opponent penalties to D&D10.

I watched a lot of Shadiveristy, Skalgrim, and others talking about medieval weapons and armor. Certain weapons are not very good at parrying with and scream out for a shield.

I looked at this and figured out a good way to approximate this. Weapons have S (soft) class damage ratings and H (hard) class damage rating. S class damage ratings apply to unarmored targets or lightly armored targets while H damage applies to metal armor or monsters with rocklike hides.

Bladed weapons such as swords tend to have high S class damage/low H class damage relative to most other weapons, and they are difficulty 6 to use making them fairly easy to attack and parry with.

Bludgeoning weapons have high H class damage/low S class damage relative to other weapons. They are usually difficulty 7 meaning they are not that easy to attack or parry with meaning you probably want a shield.

Axes have high damage of both types but are difficulty 7 to attack with and difficulty 8 to parry with meaning you almost certainly want a shield.

This seems fairly well balanced, realistic, and easy to arbitrate! Win-Win-Win.


But then comes in reach. There are situations where a longer reach weapon is advantageous and there are situations where a short weapons is advantageous. I could make adjustable bonuses and/or penalties but that's a lot to keep track of.


Most swords, axes, clubs, and the like are "normal reach." They have a reach rating of 1

Daggers and similar weapons that require very little space to use are "grappling" weapons. They have a reach rating of 0


Spears, polearms and great swords are "reach weapons" They have a reach rating of 2.


Pikes are the only "superior reach weapon." It has a reach rating of 3.


Small creatures like gnomes and goblins have a reach rating of 0, medium creatures like humans and elves have a reach rating of 1, and giants and the like have a reach rating of 2.

A character's reach rating is their size modifier added to their weapon modifier.

The next step was to figure out what situations where reach differentials mattered. That was a pain in butt.

For instance, a pike wielder against a sword wielder is probably going to get the first and possibly even second attack, but once the sword wielder is in the pike wielder's face, the pike wielder is near helpless and better drop his pike and draw a backup weapon.

Aranil's player made the suggestion (paraphrasing) "A skilled fighter with a short weapon will always try to close the distance and a skilled fighter with a long weapon will always try to maintain distance. Since both opponents are trying to maximize their advantage at all times, just call weapon reach a wash and let the relative attack and defense rolls represent who is capitalizing on reach best."

Thus all the distinctions I came up with on "reach" got tossed out on the altar of playability.

I will point out that D&D10 is ideal for running skirmishes: 4-10 people on each side. In this case there is a lot of running around. The people with short weapons are going to keep rushing the people with reach weapons who are backing up.

If you have 400-1000 people on each side, reach becomes more of a game changer. It's one thing to go around one spear in your face, but it's very hard to avoid a formation of spears in your face.

So as of yet, with the way the rules are written, there is very little incentive for adventurers to use spears and pole weapons even though they are the preeminent battlefield weapons of Scarterra.

I created a few minor tweaks to the basic d10 rules mainly to make combat go faster. But I covered the basics here. If you wanted to see my combat rules in all it's thousands of words of glory, you can check out this link.

I have a lot to say on my thoughts on martial arts styles and the fluff-tastic lore around martial arts in the real world, but that will have to wait till later since I have to go to work soonish.

Yes, but I'm not sure where to start. What I really need to do is find a oceanographer or marine biologist who is a fan of fantasy and become his/her best friend so I can talk his ear off about this.

Based on my limited knowledge (mainly from Shadiversity's video on merfolk weapons) I think the main weapons would be spears and short slashing swords/long knifes.

Based on the physics of being underwater, I think spears and short slashing weapons would be practically the only conventional land weapons that would work underwater.

So I'd need to come up with some unconventional weapons to keep things interesting.