Setting: Semnavoldt

[Hiraevun]

The Semnavoldt wiki is a work-in-progress detailing a fantasy world setting that is being built within an active role-playing campaign. The setting aims at being mechanics-free, meaning that it could be imported, with some work, into any role-playing system, although the game is being played using the old AD&D 2nd edition rules (with some imported house rules modeled from 3.5).

The setting so far details the impoverished district of Dampbricks in the city of Semnavoldt, a former center of Elven culture currently under economic occupation by the Gearmorgian Empire, centered far to the north. Time, deities, drugs, and some astrological and magical aspects have been described to various extents.

As far as the intrepid adventurers scrabbling their way to heroism, the story so far is detailed in an introduction, game session 1, and game session 2.

Thanks for checking out Semnavoldt. Please vote in the poll. More detailed feedback is most welcome!

[Hiraevun]

Those who have perused the Semnavoldt wiki may have seen that I've posted synopses of our group's gaming sessions there. With our third session, which we played last night, I am taking a slightly different approach to summarizing the game: I'm posting it in little bits on the Leftundergb twitter feed. I've posted the first encounter from last night, wherein the party concludes a comedy-of-errors battle with a rust monster by immolating the poor thing in the middle of a street. Hopefully it's good for a few chuckles, and I'll be posting the rest of the session in spurts and fits and starts over the next couple of days, probably.

Transcript of the first leg of the twitter feed synopsis is below, to save you some clicking and scrolling:

The resident difficult PC, a gnome priestess of elemental fire, refused as usual to allow us all a smooth start. She wandered out to the edge of the city to look at the stars ("astrology proficiency check", you see) while the other PCs looked for her. The stars hadn't changed too much since she had looked at them the previous evening. "But I need practice." Sure, fair enough. Meanwhile the half-blind half-elf warrior priest, the druggie priestess, and the half-elf wizard are searching streets & cupboards for her. After a rust monster, out from under the city for an evening snack, disintegrates and munches on the gnome's mace, she yells curses and runs. The sounds come to the attention of the other PCs. "That sounds like Serenio!" "I'd know those curses anywhere!" By the time the other three reach her, the metal bands and working parts of her crossbow have been turned to rust. The monster munches. Only Pretty, the half-blind half-elf's dog, can seem to penetrate the rust monster's scales. Ichi (Pretty's person, the nearly blind guy) slashes at the rust monster with his long sword, which crumbles to rust. The monster fixates on Ichi's belted dagger, ignoring the plentiful rust pile at its side. It keeps missing the dagger. Serenio stabs at it with a crossbow bolt, which bends and snaps against the hard plates of its hide. Ichi tosses a flask of oil behind it. Splash! All this time the pacifist half-elf wizard and neutral priestess opt out of this fray for personal reasons. Serenio kicks the monster and hurts her foot. Ichi tries to distract the critter and trick it into walking into the oil spill by throwing cp. Rust monster wants dagger. It misses. "Throw the dagger into the oil!" orders Serenio. She stabs it with another bolt. The tip crumbles. Dagger gets thrown, rust monster follows it into oil. Serenio tosses burning tinder, but it fails to catch. RM munches, turns, fixates on dagger again. Its feet are covered in oil. Serenio tosses burning tinder: WHOOSH! Horrible agonized shrieks as RM burns. The air is filled with the scent of thick, hot iron, burning blood and scales. The RM flares in violent flames for long moments. The pacifist hippie half-elf cries. Ichi proclaims that they have successfully defended the ferrous metals of Dambricks from certain doom. Two tipsy halflings wander by as the creature burns. "Oh, gods, it stinks! What did you do?! That's terrible!" "Oh, you're awful!"

...to be continued..

[Hiraevun]

Gollygee, nobody is voting in my poll. That makes me sad.

[Hiraevun]

This third session synopsis has been updated a bit. I'm about 3/4 of the way through reporting on the events of that game. We have our fourth game coming up on the 19th, and I'll probably do another twitter-style update after that. Turns out tweeting these things is entertaining to me at least, and forces me to be concise.

[ZleapingBear]

Gollygee, nobody is voting in my poll. That makes me sad.

Dont be

Hay... just cheked it out... it seams detaild enough. even do it also looks alitle in the alpha...

i like the style and the "Full aspeckt" of the world. i do think it needs a better look into the everyday life of its inhabitans... and some sample on how the moons affeckts magic (and other things) just make a quick sample rules using the dnd 2ed that you play.. that will give people an idea on what scale things in your world works. so that they can easy implant it into there own system. without destroying your idears original...

Yours ZB.

[Hiraevun]

Hi ZB! Thanks for the feedback; much appreciated. Yes, it's definitely "in alpha", as you put it. It's going to take a while to build everything up, and a lot of the source material is developing as my group explores and experiences the world. I like your idea of giving details of the life of the average citizen in the Dampbricks area. I do have an area map of northeast Dampbricks and a key for it that details some popular localities like inns, temples, shops, and markets that I should put up on the wiki. There are also many different districts within Semnavoldt, which itself is just one city, so there are many different cultures to be detailed eventually in the larger world. My priorities at the moment are detailing the pantheons and the social forces at work within the city of Semnavoldt. There's a cold cultural war that's been happening for some time and could develop into a civil war.

As far as the moons and magic go: yes, what I've got up right now are very basic sketches with much room for details. Again, I intend to flesh that out over time. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment.

As people express interest in the setting, I'll respond by prioritizing development of different aspects and areas of it.

So, who's next?
--- Merged from Double Post ---
I've uploaded a map of NE Dampbricks along with its key, and both are downloadable as .pdf files. The formatting on the key looks a little wonky on the wiki; the actual .pdf file is more readable. Check it out by visiting here.

Also, if anyone is interested in playing in this setting, with a little bit of work I can have an introductory adventure for 1st-level characters published in .pdf format and downloadable from the wiki. It'd be free, so say the word and I'll polish up what I've got. The scenario is one of murder, filth, and a bit of paranoia. For more details, have a look at the introduction and the synopsis of session 2.

[Hiraevun]

I'm in the process of moving the campaign wiki over to Obsidian Portal:

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/dampbricks

Also, if you are in the Roanoke, Virginia area, we have one or two openings for players interested in creating and running warrior or rogue characters. Click the "want to join?" button in the sidebar to get the ball rolling if you are interested.