The Battle for Bablovia - War Report #1

May 11th, 2018 - Inaugural Brawl

Three of Bablovia's factions held a secret meeting to see if they could bring peace to their beleaguered realm: The Order of the Widget, the League of Dastardly Doom, and the Goblin Explosioneers. As they began deliberations and debates, they were assaulted by the two upstart factions: The Association of Stormcrows and Squirrels (A.S.S.) and the Planeswalker Urza. The Order of the Widget was eliminated early, followed by A.S.S. The remaining three factions kept duking it out, but eventually the League of Dastardly Doom and the Goblin Explosioneers fell to the might of Urza.

With the mighty planeswalker now thawed, who can challenge him for control of Bablovia? The factions will meet again on June 10th for more action.

Faction	Points
Order of the Widget	3
Agents of S.N.E.A.K	0
League of Dastardly Doom	5
Goblin Explosioneers	6
Crossbreed Labs	0
A.S.S.	3
Urza's Revenge	7

The Tao of D&D

If you are a fan of D&D at all, you owe it to yourself to read Alexis Smolensk blog, the Tao of D&D. The Tao, which is nearing it's 10th anniversary, is like a master-class in running the game we all love. He's current in the process of unifying his world-building system, which contains a fully-functioning trade system, maps based on Earth, a hex based infra-structure system(!), and a development/technology system. I assure you that these systems are deeper and more robust than anything else you can written about D&D. (His latest magnum opus is chronicled here.)

But it's more than just about his incredible systems. Alexis uses a wealth of knowledge to make you think differently about how you run the game. By getting down to the level of detail that he does, the world simply comes alive.  I don't have words for all the praise that he deserves. If there was justice in this world, his name would be mentioned alongside the founders of the game.

Irith - DMG - Core Assumptions

I've played D&D for over 20 years. In the past, whenever a got a new RPG rulebook, I'd read it cover to cover. (I was lonely, and had a lot of free time.) As I've gotten older, this has fallen off quite a bit. I read the 3.5 core books all the way through, but for 5th Edition, I've only read the Player's Handbook completely. In order to get a new perspective on world-building, I'm going to look at the resources provided in the Dungeon Masters Guide, and "work" my way through them as I build Irith.

I'm on page 9 of the DMG looking at the Core Assumptions.

Gods Oversee the World

I'm not sure how I feel about a pantheon as this point. I've tried making my own pantheon in the past, but I wasn't happy with the result. I'm leaning towards using the Dawn War Deities listed in the DMG, but I'm not all-in on the initial description. Rather than having the gods exert their influence directly, I may go with having them be more cold and aloof. They would still grant spells, but I'm not liking lines like this "The agent seeks to further the ideals of that god and defeat its rivals". People are going to worship gods, clerics and the like will proselytize for them, but there's not going to be any crusades in their names, and they're not going to be making any appearances.

Much of the World is Untamed

I am all in for this. There are kingdoms, some of which share borders, but there is a lot of untamed wilderness to explore

The World is Ancient

I like this as well, but I'm going to leave the ancient civilizations intentionally vague. I'm not looking for something like the Dwemer ruins from Skyrim, or the pre-Eldrazi ruins of Zendikar. I want there to be places to explore, but they don't need to be tied to specific times periods.

Conflict Shapes the World's History

I'm kinda "meh" on this one. I usually go very heavy on all the cults, factions, conspiracies stuff, so I'm going to lay off for now. Right now, I'm not planning any world-spanning groups. That might change later.

The World is Magical

There's definitely going to be magic in the world, both arcane and divine. There will be magic creatures, and magic items. But I will try to err more on the side of low magic, than high magic. A stone stone is cool, but I'm not feeling levitating cities.

Looking at the "It's Your World" options in the DMG, I think I'm going to pass on the most of them as written. I'm going to have the gods exists, but be distant, and I'm going to have magic exist, but be more "special" and rather than usual. Here's what I'm going for with my starting assumptions for Irith.

-Gods oversee the world, but are distant from day-to-day affairs

-Much of the world is untamed

-The world is ancient

-The world is magical, but magic is still special 

 

Irith - Finnwyck - Brainstorming the 3 Duchies

Here's some more brainstorming about each duchy in Fynnwyck. These are the things that I want to keep in mind when I'm designing the map. Again, I used names derived from the list of generic place names in the U.K. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_forms_in_place_names_in_the_United_Kingdom_and_Ireland) I like how the names are hanging together well. If I expand the world into other kingdoms, I'll use the place names from other countries to make them seem really foreign.

Duchy of Braedon - "Hilly Forest"

Location: Northern-most potion of the kingdom

Ruler: Prince Bryant Kenway

Landscape: A small amount of fertile plains, giving way to forests and hills, which give way in turn to rugged mountains

Resources: Grains, Lumber, Ore, Cattle, Fruits (orchards), Stone

Imports: Textiles

Exports: Ore, Lumber

Cities:

• Ashfield, Capital City of Braedon ("Ash Tree Clearing")
• Norleigh, Border City ("Northern Clearing")
• Whelsten, Mining City ("Stone Mine")

Duchy of Langstead - "Long Pasture"

Location: Middle portion of the kingdom

Ruler: Princess Lyneve Kenway

Landscape: Fertile plains, with many rivers and lakes

Resources: Grains, Textiles

Imports: Stone, Fish, Lumber, Ore

Exports: Grains, Textiles

Cities:

• Keldstow, Capital City of Finnwyck as a whole ("Holy Spring")
• Stokemore, Capital City of Langstead ("Large Farmstead"
• Chipping Cully ("Narrow Market")

Duchy of Mardwin - "Great Fort"

Location: Southern-most portion of the kingdom

Ruler: Duke Owain Maddox

Landscape: A few fertile plains, but dominated by arid grasslands; Rugged hills and mountains; Deep forests to the south

Resources: Lumber, Grains, Fish

Imports: Ore, Grain

Exports: Lumber, Fish

Cities:

• Sutchester, Capital City of Mardwin / Border City ("Southern Camp")
• Hobbton: Port City

New Beginnings - Urith and Irith

I've decided that I'm going to change the spelling of "Urith" to be "Irith". I kept wanting to pronounce Urith as "UR - ith", rather than "EAR - ith". By spelling it "Irith", I'll be able to pronounce it the correct way. It may not seem like much, but it's all part trying to make iconic names stick for this campaign.

New Beginnings - Urith and Hobbton

I missed a few days of writing, but now I'm back. Right now, the important thing is for me to write when I can, and to not get discouraged by missing days. Eventually, it will become a habit, and I'll start looking forward to it.

I've made some more steps in world-building. I've decided that the world itself will be called "Urith" (pronounced "EAR-ith"). I found it while perusing a list of female names, and took an immediate liking to it. I usually pick the name of a new campaign world by searching for translations of the word "Earth", but I've exhausted those. This name is clean and simple, and not too difficult to pronounce. Urith was a British maiden who was supposedly martyred in the 8th century. More info can be found here. Apparently, the word also means "mole" in Albanian . The more you know, right?

The duchy of Mardwin is taking shape in my head. It's the southern-most province of the kingdom, and I'm picturing that it only connects to Langstead on it's nothern border. The rest of Mardwin will jut out, peninsula-like, from Finnwyck. The western border of Mardwin will be the sea, and the eastern border will be composed of mountains, which taper off into hills as you head west. The extreme northern border shares fertile farmland with Langstead, but only a very narrow band. The majority of Mardwin is grasslands which receive little water, making them unsuitable for farming. The grasslands continue south, eventually running into a large, unsettled forest. This forest acts as the southern border of Mardwin, and the edge of civilization. However, logging has begun to chew away at it's northern-most reaches.

 The campaign will begin in the port city of Hobbton. Hobbton is the largest settlement in Mardwin, which isn't saying much. The large natural bay is used by the inhabitants for fishing and shipping. Hobbton imports grains and metals, while exporting fish and lumber. Because it's located at the ass-end of the kingdom, Hobbton attracts citizens who are on the run, or have "washed out" elsewhere. This city, and it's environs, are their last chance, so they tend to be fiercely loyal to it. However, it's very much a frontier area, with the general lawlessness that entails.

New Beginnings - The Royal Family

Usually, when I start a new campaign, I don't concern myself with the political structure of where the party is starting. They are assumed to be in a nameless kingdom, surrounded by other nameless kingdoms. This time, I wanted to get that structure down from the beginning to add flavor to the world. Even if the party never ends up meeting the Queen, I can have the smallfolk swear by her name, or they can hear rumors about the Duke of an adjoining duchy, etc.

A quick jaunt to my favorite name resource, Kate Monk's Onomastikon, has aided me in selecting names for the royal family of Finnwyck. May I present to you, the Kenways:

• Queen Carina Kenway
• Princess Lyneve Kenway, Duchess of Langstead
• Prince Bryant Kenway, Duke of Braedon

There's a little bit of a cheat on my part here. Both "Queen" and "Carina" have similar starting sounds. It's the same for Langestead/Lyneve, and Bryant/Braedon. I started doing it by accident, but then decided that it would help me remember who ruled which duchy. I mean, Stan Lee did the same thing with superhero identities like Bruce Banner and Peter Parker, so why not stand on the shoulders of giants?

Since we're starting in the Duchy of Mardwin, here's the government structure that concerns us the most.

• Owain Maddox, Duke of Mardwin
• Glyn Llewellyn, Marquis
• Rhonwen Vayne, Sherriff

Note that I kept the same initial sound in Maddox and Mardwin, but that the third Duke is not part of the Kenways. I liked the idea that the Queen didn't have enough children for each duchy, and that Duke Maddox has the worst duchy, being on the border and all. Did he do something to offend the Queen, so she shipped him off to the frontier? Is he young and trying to make a name for himself (and perhaps win the Queen's hand in marriage) by expanding Finnwyck's borders? We'll find out later.

Because Mardwin had Celtic/Welsh influences, I decided to go with those same influences for the Marquis and the Sherriff. It's little details like this that I hope will tie the world together in a way that's been lacking in my other campaigns.