The Plan: D&D 5E, Savage Worlds and So Forth

 After some discussion and kibitzing with the group we have arrived at an intermediary solution, one which exemplifies why D&D 5E remains king of the heap: we're returning to our last Saturday campaign of D&D. We'd taken a break and then got distracted (repeatedly) from that campaign, but the time now is to return for a new story arc and focus. The thing is, D&D 5E is really easy to pick up and play, and the rules are very easy for all at the table to get back in to. Roll20's Charactermancer is so easy to use my son was able to make his new goliath warlock with little intervention on our parts. My other player who normally has some technical issues has been using D&D Beyond which seems to work really well and also interfaces with Roll20. So....win win for all.

This sidesteps the Starfinder issue entirely, which I decided boiled down to a problem with the specificities of welding Pathfinder mechanics to scifi thematics. Paizo has such good visuals and design on the story and look of the Starfinder universe that it is hard not to want to explore it....but the design choices and thousands of pages of rules make it a tedious chore. Maybe in my younger days I'd have the energy, but I feel proud of myself to admit that I no longer find such volume and complexity satisfying, and it is okay to find a simpler solution.

Ironically the next story arc of that older D&D campaign involved the group finding a crashed Spelljammer ship and trying to salvage the helm so they could use it on a new vessel. As such, it would be doing more or less exactly what has been planned for the other group. Kizmet? Who knows. Either way....I plan to blend the old AD&D Spelljammer stuff with the Legendary Games Alien Codex stuff, so it should be interesting.

I still plan to get back to Starfinder, but I am mulling over an idea of using Savage Worlds for the rules, instead. Pinnacle, the company behind Savage Worlds, published a very nice adaptation of Pathfinder to their ruleset, and I think they should do the same thing for Starfinder, too. A lot of settings from other games adapt really well to Savage Worlds, and this is a great example of how the flavor and style of Starfinder would be improved upon by the flexible but simpler and more intuitive ruleset of Savage Worlds. I am not saying Starfinder can't be fun to play on its own....for a great many it is......but merely that a SW style take would be amazing. So my plan is not to wait, and look at how I can use Starfinder as the setting resource, but Savage Worlds as the mechanical resource. It would solve all my issues with Starfinder's rules in one fell swoop, that's for sure.

Spelljammer is Returning?!?!?!

According to these two posts at ENWorld about the GAMA Trade Show presentation from WotC, it was strongly implied that the upcoming Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes will have Spelljammer favorites like the hippo-like pistol-packing giff, and that this is because the next world that will be revisited in D&D 5E is Spelljammer. I'm a bit floored.....I'd sort of assumed that Spelljammer would remain forever an artifact of curiosity from the 2E era, too interesting and weird for more conservative WotC to explore in this day and age. Maybe Starfinder's success motivated them to bring it back....but that doesn't seem right, given that Starfinder is much closer to 3rd edition's Dragonstar in theme than it does the strange alternate reality Ptolemaic/Copernican space fantasy of Spelljammer.

Either way....I'm stoked that this could happen, and would even suggest that Greyhawk fans (all 700 of you) should take heart....if they'll rekindle Spelljammer, then maybe even Greyhawk has a chance!

More Starfinder Fun: Looking at how it changes D20 mechanics

Okay, Starfinder has really got me now. I'm diving deep in to the book, I'm scrubbing the rules meticulously to identify the differences between Starfinder and Pathfinder, I've written up a lengthy gazetteer of worlds to be explored and plots to be uncovered, I've got an introductory scenario, and I've talked my players on Wednesday into trying it out tomorrow, as a Thanksgiving Eve special, if you will. Even my wife might show, if she feels better (fighting a cold), and she never normally shows up to my Wednesday night game!

Part of the insidiousness of Starfinder, besides completely co-opting that creative headspace that D&D and Pathfinder both exist within and applying it directly to space opera sci-fi fantasy, is taking the very underpinnings of the overall experience and saying, "Hey, you know that thing you do over here, with fantasy? Well you can do it in space, too, exactly the same way, but also spaceships and lasers and stuff."

Spelljammer did this. Spelljammer was doing it at a time when something as creative as flying galleons in magical space seemed like just the right mix for some gamers but was totally out there for others. Spelljammer did not, however, really give you any tools to move beyond the concepts of Ptolemy, Copernicus and mythology as the basis for fantasy space exploration.

Dragonstar did it for 3.0 D&D as well, and in fact arguably did exactly the same thing Starfinder is doing, right now, just with more color art, glamour, and design ethos. Dragonstar, without a doubt, could benefit from a revival now, if Fantasy Flight Games were in to that sort of thing (it's not, alas). The entire setting of the Dragon Empire and its drow enforcers in space would fit nicely in a corner of Starfinder's implied, infinite universe.

Heck, some time on ebay could net you all the Dragonstar books you need to blend something up with Starfinder. The compatibility is still there.....sort of. Actually, I'm surprised as I have read through Starfinder at just how insidious it's D20 mechanical update actually is. Some of the interesting things I've noticed.....small, but significant:

Threat rolls (where you get a critical hit but not really, you gotta roll again to confirm?) are gone. Now, if your critical hit would have hit normally, it's already confirmed. That usually means the only thing your natural 20 wouldn't auto-crit is something with an armor class so much higher than 20+ all your modifiers and attack bonuses that it would never have hit otherwise. And in those cases it's still a hit, just a normal one.

Stamina Points, which are basically hit points you regain quickly. D&D 5E has hit points you regain by spending hit dice to replenish, and it's "break" on this is that you only regain 1/2 your hit dice with a long rest. In Starfinder, you have hit points and stamina points, and hit points are regained slowly (1/day/level) and stamina points are regained with a long rest. Stamina points are literally your "second wind" and reflect everything people often say hit points have in the past of D&D....your sort of "pool of energy" depleted by fatigue, morale, getting smacked around, etc. Hit points in Starfinder are now the "oh crap I have a actual laser hole in me" points.

Reactions have been formally codified in Starfinder, in a manner consistent with how we all like to use them. They have been upgraded from the less clear mechanics in PF, and encompass opportunity attacks as well as immediate actions. More importantly, opportunity attacks and special conditions (spells and special abilities) are the only real way to pop a reaction, and you only get one reaction per turn. So guess what, no more special builds with a gazillion opportunity attacks! In fact, I don't even see a feat (like combat reflexes) anymore that messes with this stuff, although it's possible there's something buried in there as a class trait or spell.

Resolve is another fascinating mechanic: it's basically a pool of points equal to half your level plus the modifier for your primary class stat. Resolve can be used to pay for certain class and feat options that let you re-roll or do other stuff. The number of resolve you have left determine how long before you die when you are mortally wounded (at 0 HP). You recover them once per day after an extended (8 hour) rest. Resolve's not really a new mechanic...it's a spendy resource pool, something many other games have done before, but it most definitely is new to D20 and Starfinder executes it well enough that players will have ample opportunity to think hard about the gain of spending a point vs. the perk of keeping it in reserve.

Messing with modifiers seems to be a thing in Starfinder, too. I noticed an active effort to reframe certain situations which in the past were all lumped under bonuses, and therefore added complexity to stacking issues. For example, a theme might "give you a 5 point reduction in the DC" of a certain check rather than a +5 skill bonus; or An attack roll might be made against "KAC (Kinetic Armor Class) +8" rather than with a -8 penalty to attack. This change in framing appears to be done in each case to change the context of how the modifiers are applied, and while it doesn't necessarily reduce the math, it does reduce the ways that the numbers can be gamed through the stacking mechanics.

Monster Creation is a big deal for me with Pathfinder. It's not easy to do in the classic D20 rules in any edition, honestly. You either like the lengthy process of designing monsters in the same mechanical manner as player characters, or you realize how cruel the process is and how poorly it treats your precious time. I don't know if books like Pathfinder Unchained introduced some of the ideas fully implemented in Starfinder, but the Alien Archive includes a full set of rules along with handy ready-to-go charts for creating challenge-scaled foes without too much fuss. The process, after using it to create a variety of NPC foes, appears to be much more intuitive and streamlined than anything that has come before (noting that even the original PF Bestiary tried to improve the process over classic D20 3.5) and I knocked out several complete statblocks in remarkably little time (maybe 20 minutes, and lacking familiarity, for two stat blocks).

Unfortunately the Starfinder rules are missing some of the cool things already in the Pathfinder repertoire, such as the NPC Codex, or that handy roster of sample NPCs in the back of the Gamemastery Guide, but I hope Starfinder's success prompts Paizo to make such resources in the near future. The streamlined stat block and foe design process in the meantime is good enough for me to be satisfied that they designed this part of the game with the GM's precious time in mind.

Okay, enough gushing for now....I'll do an after action report in a day or two after tomorrow's test pilot game!

D&D Reprint On Demand Report: Spelljammer and Ravenloft

Three more books from the POD option at dmsguild.com came in today: Ravenloft II: The House on Griffon Hill, Spelljammer: Goblin's Return and the first-time-in-print Scourge of the Sword Coast. I won't focus on the content, but instead on the quality of these print editions:

Ravenloft II: The House on Griffon Hill

I couldn't resist this primarily because I never owned the original, and I always wanted to investigate the first module to outline Mordent, one of my top five domains in Ravenloft. The cover and binding of this module is great, and it's a bit thicker than the old 1E modules were, mainly due to being perfect-bound on heavier quality paper. The cover and back look great.

However, the interior looks a bit faded to the naked eye, although I noticed it less once I put the reading glasses on. The net effect is that some pages....many....just look a bit "off" in that way a print from a scanned copy tends to be. This is unfortunate. It's not bad enough to make me regret the purchase, however....or the advantage of an inexpensive new copy over hunting for one on ebay. The back contains reprints in color of the handouts and maps for the module, and they actually fare much better, being legible and useful.

Spelljammer: Goblin's Return

I owned this one long ago and ran it once. Like Ravenloft II, the module's color cover looks great, and it's thicker paper and perfect bound spine mean it looks just a tad thicker than the original (which was itself a big book at 68 pages including fold out ship cards. The cards are in the back, and remain in full color, albeit standard, slightly washed-out colors instead of the glossy cardstock of the original.

The print in this module suffers from the same problem as Ravenloft II: a bit light, and feels like a bit washed out in a "print of a scan" kind of way, but the problem once again more or less disappears for me with my reading glasses on so I'm not 100% sure it's me or the book itself. I'm leaning to "book" though because of the next module, which serves as a great control....

Scourge of the Sword Coast

This was the third module to be released in the 2013-2014 D&D Next playtest phase, which means its at once compatible with D&D 5E and also contains some interesting artifacts in its design from that formative phase of 5E, including some interesting monsters stats. The book's never been offered in print before, but it was clearly laid out and designed for print; the POD version looks awesome, and the version I got (the deluxe premium color paper) is crisp and sharp....and the fact that it looks so good and is also so readable is a good test to confirm that the lighter print of the other two books is a real problem, and not just an issue with my eyes.

As a side note this module is a direct sequel to the Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle module, which was a Gencon special with playtest rules and a level 1-10 quartet of scenarios. This is another great candidate for a future POD edition. I actually ran the entire Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle as a level 1-10 campaign in the first half of 2015, albeit ported from the Sword Coast to the Silver Coast of Pergerron. Good module! But not sure how viable Scourge of the Sword Coast is as a direct sequel, since it's aimed at level 2-4, and takes place after the last scenario in Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, where the PCs would be pushing level 10-11.

Overall

I think for the price all three POD books above were worth it, but if you're a collector I'd keep hunting the originals, especially Ravenloft II and its large map of Mordenshire. For Goblin's Return, this module would be perfect if you want to run it....and more than sufficient if you're collecting Spelljammer for fun, but maybe not ideal if you want a "first printing" level of quality. As for Scourge of the Sword Coast....if you had the two prior print release modules from that era (Murder in Baldur's Gate and that other one with the drow elf and the crystal shards) then this is a must-have, and contains plenty of useful stuff to crib for 5E games.

D&D 5E: The Argos from Spelljammer

Check out this awesome write-up of the Argos from the Monstrous Manual (which in turn was an entry taken from the Spelljammer MC Appendix). In fact, hang out at Tribality and enjoy, they have some great stuff over there!

Review: Pathfinder Campaign Setting - Distant Worlds

Continuing my review of Pathfinder books....since there appear to be about a million of them out there and hardly any reviews....I offer up another favorite of mine, Distant Worlds. This setting book focuses on the universe of Golarion, specifically the solar system and its inhabited worlds, as well as the means by which Golarion's extraterrestrial denizens and adventurers traverse the stellar expanse.

One could look at Distant Worlds as Pathfinder's dabbling in the world of Spelljammer, but that's not entirely accurate. Golarion's thematically aimed at the old pulps of the 30's, and unlike Spelljammer, which was built on a premise of "what if everything both quasi-scientific, mythic and fanciful that anyone, including the ancient Greeks such as Ptolemy, though about the way the universe worked was true?" The Pathfinder/Golarion take is more along the lines of, "What is the universe functions a bit more like an Edgar Rice Burrough's conception of space?" instead.

Most of the book is about the solar system of Golarion, with a breakdown and gazetteer of each solar body, including the sun itself, as well as other notable bodies such as Aballon, Verces, Eox, Apostae and more. The local planets of the Golarion solar system are all briefly presented with enough adventure hooks and detail to make for some compelling adventure ideas. You may have a hard time (as I do) figuring out how to easily extrapolate without porting the entire solar system over, or just giving up and running a campaign of world-exploration "as is." At the end of this section is a couple pages on other worlds, which is loaded with brief plot seeds and ideas.

The second chapter is Stellar Adventures, a short section (too short) on how to travel the stellar expanse, and some useful spells, ideas and environmental rules (i.e. vacuum), for traveling in space. This section needed about a dozen more pages, in my opinion, but what is here can serve as a useful springboard to crafting your own adventures. What is missing is actual statistics for stellar ships and different ways to model them in game rules.

Last is the chapter on Aliens, which features a short overview of beasts in the Bestiaries that might be found in the outlined setting of the sourcebook, along with new monsters, including the mechanoid-like Aballonians, gassy-world Brethedan, giant-floating-brain Contemplative of Ashok, dragonkin (looking a lot like actual dragons with a more humanoid gait), the Oma (space whales), and my favorites: the shobhad, four-armed giants (yes, yes) with dusky blue skin and lighting rifles who have an earned reputation for ferocity in battle.

For a Pathfinder fan who uses Golarion, and who has an interest in taking a campaign into space, this book is essential. If you're like me, and don't use Golarion but love the concept, this book offers roughly 13 pages of universal content and a lengthy section on Golarion's solar system that is worth reading for ideas, but works best when used as-is, in my opinion, perhaps as a location for your adventurers to traverse. It is not too difficult to lift the entire solar system and drop it in your own campaign, replacing Golarion's spot in the universe with your own world, if you so desire.

GMs looking for a campaign setting to use with a different game system will find that this book is largely system neutral, and can be readily utilized for campaigns in any other of the grand meta-family of D&D and it's relatives, clones and descendants.

30 Days of Dungeons & Dragons Day 4

Day 4: Favorite Gameworld

This is a tricky one because my favorite gameworld is one of my own creation (The Realms of Chirak), but I assume the intent is to look at published D&D worlds. Hey, waitasec, my world is published...heh...

So the Realms of Chirak. It was spawned in 1992 as a Gamma World scenario which I had worked out, in which the daring heroes of some remote town had to reach the lost City of Eristantopolis by traveling through the badlands where a mutant lord named Gaminok Makrenz lurked, a region where the mysterious lost-technology robots of a factory called the Black Dome patrolled, and eventually to the sacred city where lost knowledge of the ancients would save the town. The Gamma World game was aborted, however, and never saw actual play.

Later that year I was inspired to do a Runequest campaign (using the 3rd edition Deluxe set from Avalon Hill) and I began constructing ideas for a new setting. As I pieced the setting together, I was aiming for a very low tech environment, and I decided that I wanted the gods to be extremely low key, something behind the scenes, primarily to contrast it with my Lingusia campaign where the gods were as active, if not more so, than your typical Greek pantheon. Then I got this idea: what it this was a fantasy land that had been annihilated by an apocalypse, and there were no gods anymore? It was the world after Ragnarok! I fished out the Gamma World material for ideas, and realized I could retool the scenario I had to fit a fantasy realm. This fantasy land had a magical epoch of greatness, in which the old Clark adage of technology being indistinguishable from magic was true, but in reverse....so lost magical artifacts bordered on the technological, essentially. The idea of sentient golems, which I called animates, filling the niche of robots in a typical post-apocalyptic setting was appealing as well.

By the time I was done stitching together the thematic notions of a post-apocalyptic land with a low-tech godless fantasy setting I had created a short (about 20 page long) precis for an interesting campaign setting. I produced an elaborate map, and from then on I had a decent setting into which my planned Runequest campaign could go.

That Runequest campaign was short, lasting a semester, but it sparked many more ideas for me, as I saw a lot of unrealized potential in the concepts I had toyed with in Chirak. Later on in 1996 when I had moved to Seattle I revived the world, added in more Planescape tethers to it (the damage done to the world had left a great many planar rifts in the wake of the apocalypse) and began a new campaign that started out the gate with the theft of the Manual of the Planes from a sacred library in Barcen, where the powerful and ancient book was kept under lock and key. This campaign was powered entirely by AD&D 2nd edition, and it was the first of many, many D&D-only campaigns (although Chirak was revisited by later editions of Runequest in the future).*

In case you're wondering....if I had to pick a single D&D setting that was not written and published by myself, it would be Spelljammer. The core conceit of Spelljammer was just too great for me not to tinker with, especially when I was in college and studying the history and development of philosophy, science and astronomy, and the idea of a universe powered by Ptolemaic and Aristotelian physical properties was just too cool for me not to indulge in! Plus, Beholders and Mind Flayers in giant theme ships attacking asteroid colonies defended by gun-happy Giff hippo men....what's not to love?

*I should note that I also was really into the "Mighty Fortress" historical resource for 2E at the time, and had run some historical scenarios using that book. When I revised Chirak for the 1996 game I expanded on the island kingdom of Espanea, and turned into a strong cultural and technological analog to England (Mercurios), Spain (Espanea), and France (Esterehabau) during the height of the renaissance, complete with gunpowder and advanced sailing ships. The old low-tech campaign remained entrenched in Legoras, Syrgia and elsewhere....the idea was that at the center of the setting a new budding revolution was under way, but it was centered amidst a sea of forgotten empires, fallen kingdoms and barbarians risen from the ashes.

The Gods of Astrophikus

   Astrophikus has literally thousands of gods, religions and belief systems in place. That said, there are a handful of gods that are worshipped by everyone, and universally accepted as the “principle deities” of the world in question:

Etah, the Golden Voyager

Lawful Good

   Etah is the god of knowledge and civilization, and a revered patron amongst most Astrophikans. He is believed to have been the one who led them on their voyage in prehistory to Aastrophikus and salvation. His teachings espouse that all mortals can ultimately attain godhood through the embrace of divine virtues.

Draeggaros the Star God

True Neutral

   Draeggaros is the Star God, and his worship began early on with the deceipherment of the greta obelisks that speak of his venerable heritage as the prison keeper of Sulziddaran. He is a mysterious and sometimes malevolent deity, who care nothing for forces of good and evil, but only balance. The communion with his spirit is only possible through living sacrifice. His greatest temples are found in Vulmeadea.

Sulziddaran the Imprisoned

Chaotic evil

   This primal, malevolent deity is said to have been one of many spawned by the elemental Chaos itself, sent to destroy reality and remake the world in an image more pleasing to the formless domain of chaos. Sulziddaran is a potent and ever-present force on Astrophikus, dwelling in slumbering imprisonment at the heart of the world, manipulating susceptible minds in to erratic and dangerous behavior, as it seeks eternally a means of escape.

Kothe

Lawful Neutral

   Kothe is a revered ancient god-spirit and patron lord of the eladrin of Astrophikus. Kothe is believed to have been a neverable eladrin who achieved immortal transcendence, and has long since been revered as the patron overseer of the race.

   Kothe’s edicts are one of superiority over all, and the dedication of the spirit to the evolution of the mind and soul. Much of the eladrin culture has embraced this philosophy, and used a mixture of the primarl Feywild’s potence and alchemical means to attain higher states of being as they seek to evolve their spirits in to something greater.

Susurus

Chaotic Neutral

   The nature of Susurus is a mystery, a great watery beast in the southern waters which some claim can be seen physically. It is believed to react to worship, and to allow safe passage for those who are sufficiently reverent, while sending storms and beasts to destoy those who do not. This god is primarily revered by the barbarian cultures of the coast who are practiced seafarers.

Phonatas

Chaotic Good

   The benign goddess of love and beauty is revered among the elves, who adopter her worship centuries ago from interaction with the elves of Lingusia. Phonatas is a deity who embodies lust, love, strength and many other raw emotions that are considered deeply empowering by the primal elves of Astrophikus.

 

Elisin

Lawful good

   Elisin is the goddess of peace and culture, and also imported for worship by the Astrophikan elves. Elisin is regarded as the calm counterpoint to Phonatas’s wild lusts, and the wizards and scholars of the elves pay homage to her.

Ningada

Neutral Good

   The god Ningada is an ancient deity, worshipped by the ancient elves of Astrophikus since time immemorial. He is believed to be an angelic seraph who ascended to godhood after the destruction of his ancient city upon the moon, and some tales say he brought about the birth of elvenkind from his own blood.

Metatron

Lawful Good

   The mysterious Metatron is worshipped by very few, but his existence is rarely debated. It is believed that if you quest deeply enough beneath the ruins of the moon Metaros you can find him, meditating, awaiting the time when he must rise forth to stem the tide of chaos once more. His followers are usually reverent inquisitors and paladins dedicated to thwarting chaos by any means necessary.

Hargameth

Neutral Evil

   The god of blood and thunder, a vicious primeval brute who relishes in warfare is strongly regarded by the northern barbarians of Nordravar, and though his worship has all but gone extinct in Lingusia, he is strong here on Astrophikus. Though many on Lingusia regarded him as a deity of order, he is widely regarded as a beast of both powers, with elements of order and chaos permeating his being. The Nordravari priests of Hargameth are potent soldiers in battle, and many barbarians swear by him.

Zingar

Chaotic Good

   The lord of the hunt is a strong deity and his worship has been with the natives of Astrophikus since the stone age. Zingar represents the spirit of the hunt, the ultimate power of nature and the interaction between man and his environment. Cults of rangers and barbarians are dedicated to him throughout the wilderlands.

Wolfon

True Neutral

   Wolfon has a strong following among the many beastmen of Astrophikus, from the gnolls and orcs to the minotaurs and beyond. The Shadow Wolf is said to roam the Shadowfell, and sacrifices of sufficient greatnes by his followers will call upon his might.

Staddak’Zuthul

Chaotic Evil

   The vile Staddak’Zuthul is said to be an ascended immortal, who achieved power stolen from the raw Chaos itself. His cults are numerous and surprisingly work at odds with the chaos cults, for Staddak’Zuthul does not want the slumbering darkness at the heart of Astrophikus to awaken, but instead for his own cult to subjugate and ultimately gain control over the many civilizations of the world in his own name. Rumors abound that the wizards and necromancers who follow this god work hard to make him the chief deity of the realm, and that he seeks to siphon away all of the chaos energies of the trapped Sulziddaran for his own. Staddak’Zuthul is said to d well in a powerful fortress on the plane of shadow.

The Eleven Divine Spirits

Various alignments

   The eleven immortals of Shinjiki Koru are said to have been elder gods from the old world, a faith so ancient and ingrained within the people of this land that they have always been with them. Indeed, Etah himself is considered one, the twelfth member of the Divine Hierarchy.

Tyrnada

Lawful good

   The benevolent Tyrnada is a beneficient deity who was imported from a remote world some thirteen hundred years ago, and over time her following spread to the four corners of the world. Her clerics are dedicated teachers and healers, and her message is one of peace and tolerance. Though her followers are often tortured and killed in regions where chaos gods are worshipped, she is nonetheless still popular, even in secret.

   The miraculous cures and blessings of Tyrnada’s priesthood are at least partially responsible for her popularity. The charitable priests of her faith will free do all they can to mend wounds, heal the sick and cure the ill in whatever way they can, and many are blessed with divine magic to aid them.

Karzak’Hadon

Neutral Good

   Karzak’Hadon is one of several ancient deities that existed on Astrophikus before the immigration times, and was worshipped amongst the ancient stone age cultures. He is a deity of primal earth and air, and said by some to be the entity in charge of insuring that the great prison of the world is never weathered such that it could be broken. He has a small but dedicated following, consisting of militant templars who serve his cause by destroying demonic influences that could corrupt the prison of Sulziddaran.

Atrophikus - Gazetteer of the Lesser Kingdoms

Nordravar

“The Barbarian Kingdoms”

Patron God: various, especially Hargameth, Wolfon and Zingar

Ruler: Various, though the warlord Drogas is most prominent right now

Capitol: no single capitol, but the main trade port is Tholios

Population: a good mix of  human, half orc, werefolk, dragonkin, elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome and orcs.

Shinjiki Koru

“The Jewel of Astrophikus”

Patron God: The Eleven Divine Spirits

Ruler: The Shogun Mishigi Arayu

Capitol: Khozakan

Population: mostly human and dragonkin, with some dissident eladrin, elves, dwarves, werefolk, lesser giants, goblins, and samsarans

   The empire of Shinjiki Kuru is as ancient as all the other civilizations founded by ancient immigrants, but has long held to a different culture and focus, which grew increasingly isolated and aggressive over time. Shinjiki Koru was last among the great empires to succumb to the lure of orichalcum, and only adopted planar and etheric trade as a means of sustenance within the last thousand years.

   Shinjiki Koru is ruled by a shogun under whom numerous samurai clans serve, although they engage in constant ritual warfare with one another and their barbarian neighbors.

Toskolian Steppes

Patron God: Phonatas, Elisin and others

Ruler: no single ruler

Capitol: no capitol; the region is dominated by nomadic tribesmen

Population: the region is dominated by human, elvish and giantkin nomads

   This vast region of grassy windswept steppelands is dominated by nomadic tribes of elves, humans and others, and no permanent settlements exist, though there are several regions of prominence where the clans migrate yearly for trade and commerce. The nomads of this land have stood strong against the efforts of the Vulmeadean empire to lean on them for mining labor, and fight the empire at every chance they get. They are also found frequently warring with the city-states of Hed’Zimmet to the north, which also delights in using the nomads for slave labor.

Hed’Zimmet

Patron God: Staddak’Zuthul and his horde of gold-children

Ruler: numerous lesser rulers throughout the city-states of the land

Capitol: the largest city-state is Kadak’Hinil

Population: although humans are dominant, significant portions of the population include dragonkin, werefolk, half orcs, elves, and ogres.

   Hed’Zimmet is a collection of city-states united by their worship of the dark god Staddak’Zuthul. Some claim that Staddak’Zuthul was not a true god, but one of the Immortals of Ashetnur who was lured away thousands of years ago to begin his own cult, after suffering the temptation of Sulziddaran’s dark dreams and promises of power.

   The Hed’Zimmeti are very territorial, and when they are not warring amonst themselves or rival clans and tribes in the greater expanse of the Jungle of Lost Souls, they are seeking slaves from the Toskolian nomads or even venturing east to raid mining towns from Vumeadea to steal the precious orichalcum. Several of the Hed’Zimmet cities are able to field their own spelljammers in battle, and have begun to explore the possibilities of trade, commerce and perhaps even war in the planes and etheric regions.

   The region north of the Hed’Zimmet territories is dominated largely by uncivilized lesser kingdoms, barbarian tribes and hidden mysteries. It is said that one of the greatest ancient empires, lost to memory but indicative of an older prehuman race that existed before the immigrants arrived ten thousand years ago can be found in this region. The ancients are called the Karkosans, and little is known of them, save that their mysterious ruins sometimes yield fabulous ancient magic.

 

Hydakenos

Patron God: Susurus, the Sea God

Ruler: the high king Drymarkion

Capitol: Mylkarianos

Population: mostly human with small local populations of demi-humans

   Hydakenos is a southern coastal empire of local barbarian tribes who have been hammered in to a strong kingdom by a line of sophisticated leaders. They have united the southern coast of the Gulf of Oblivion in to a united land for more than a century now.

The Darklands and Inatras

Patron God: chaos gods

Ruler: none; Drow ruled by the Grey Queen, Siddratha

Capitol: none, although the free port of Daggerspell sometimes serves as a center of commerce; Drow capitol is Ulviridien

Population: humans, drow, orcs and other monstrous chaos beings

   This region is unique in its lack of dominance, at least partially due to the fact that the barbarian tribes in the region are devoted to the chaos gods, and practice profane and charnel ways. Beneath the surface of the Darklands in the vaste region known as the Subterrene Realms rests the hub of the drow empire, called Inatras.

   The main local center of trade and commerce is the free port of Daggerspell, where all sorts of scum and villainy thrive. Much of the illegal planar and etheric trade will channel through Daggerspell, and many who wish to travel to the more malevolent domains of the Elemental Chaos can find passages to such domains through this city.

Astrophikus - Ashetnur and Tanatsanu

Ashetnur

“The Empire of Immortals”

Patron God: Etah, the Golden Traveller

Emperor: Hath Hamanid the Divine

Capitol: Khoshet

Population: human, tiefling and genasai in equal numbers, with a smaller percentage of lizard men, devas, minotaurs, gnolls, elves and dragonborn.

   Ashetnur is ancient, even more so than Vulmeadea, and its historians claim the oldest civilizations of Ashetnur go back 5,000 years. The immortal god-kings and queens of this empire are given to a sacred magical elixir that sustains their life for centuries, or even longer, until at last their mortal husk can no longer sustain their souls and they ascend to the Astral Sea, where they become gods. The local religion worships Etah as the greatest of these spirits, and that the tradition of ascencion to immortality was taught to the kings of Ashetnur by the Golden Traveller.

   Ashetnur is located in a vast desert, a cold and dry location of the world with only a few life-sustaining rivers and large lakes. As such, its people are hardy and sometimes fatalistic, with a strong caste system in place. Despite this, Ashetnur is a strong center of history and scholarship, with vast libraries dedicated to the study and recording of local and planar history.

   Ahsetnur is also weak in orichalcum. Most of its trade comes from the planar gates, which are easier to maintain over time, unlike spelljammers, which eventually exhaust the magic potential of the orichalcum. Because of this, Ashetnur has many good available found normally on the planes, and a population of greater diversity, including a large number of tieflings, genasai and even devas.

Tanantsanu

“The Fey Kingdom”

Patron God: Kothe

Emperor: Yndradda the Eternal

Capitol: Ethylios

Population: eladrin high elves only, with some subjugated races

   The Eladrin (high elves) of Astrophikus have dwelt on this world since before the arrival of the Astrophikan immigrants, and they are an ancient kingdom steeped in mysterious traditions, ancient cults and their strong tether to the Feywild. Few Eladrin cities seem terribly impressive on Astrophikus, until you enter and discover their dual existence in both this reality and that of the Feywild.

   The eladrin as a race are haughty and exhibit barely restrained contempt for most lesser races, including their close elvish kin. They despise the drow, and seek to eradicate these chaos worshipper whenever possible. Eladrin, though holding only a nominal territory in the north, are considered a potent force due to their much larger presence in the feywild.

   Tanantsanu has a strong alliance with Vulmeadea, but cool relations with Ashetnur. They are perpetually at war with the barbarian kingdoms of Nordavar, and the city state of Hanacal, which is deep in the mountainous territory they consider their own. The corrupted city fo Hanacal was founded centuries ago by a cult of followers to the mad prophet Koldragas, who still lives today, and claims to channel the dreaming voice of Sulziddaran himself. Indeed, the entire city is populated by disparate followers from all over the world, who have been seduced by the promise of power chaos offers.

Astrophikus - Vulmedea, Empire of a Thousand Stars

Vulmedea, Empire of a Thousand Stars

   The following provides a concise summary of the major forces on Astrophikus:

Vulmeadea

“Empire of a Thousand Stars”

Patron God: Draeggaron

Emperor: Eskaton VIII

Capitol: Gyldarion

Population: human dominant, with a healthy mix of demihumans, especially tieflings, eladrin, halflings, gnomes, goliaths, and dwarves

   The Vulmeadean Empire is the largest in terms of political, military and mercantile power on Astrophikus, and it is over four thousand years old according to its own historians. Centered around the vast Inner Vulmeadean Sea, the empire is represented by three great cities: Gyldarion (capitol of the empire), Hedareden, and Nythtilien. Dozens of smaller rural townships and numerous mining towns dot the region. Vulmeadea has several satellite baronies in the wilderness, centered around mining activities as well.

   Vulmeadea’s ancient history includes a conflict about three thousand years ago with dragonkind. As the tales goes, the dragon lords migrated through space to Astrophikus during this period, and waged war against the early empire to attempt its subjugation. The empire drove the dragons back, and the ancestors of those dragons who settled upon the world now dwell in the greater wilderness, often ruling over barbarian tribes that have sworn fealty to them.

   During this war, many humans were swayed to the cause and worship of the dragons. Interbreeding with the dragons led to the creation of the Dragonborn race. About three centuries ago, dragonborn descendants attempted a coup against the empire once again, though they failed. Today, dragonborn are a persecuted underclass in the empire, and most choose to dwell in their own fortress enclaves in the wilderlands. Once especially prominent dragonborn house is the former royal house of Zyma, which still seeks to actively overthrow the empire and institute the rule of dragonkind. It is unknown which dragons are behind this movement.

   Vulmeadea has nearly as many planar portals as it does spelljammers, although the bulk of its trade comes through the passage of the magical ships. The planar portals allow passage to several demiplanes and dimensional realms throughout the planes, and as a result of this connection, a large population of planar beings can be found engaging in trade and commerce in the fantastic cities of the empire.

   The largest temples to the Star God exist in Vulmeadea, but as the hub of so many cultures across many worlds, there is a strong embrace of openness to all religions. Every major city has a Temple District, for example, in which dozens or even hundred of temples and cults prosper. Gods from the thousand stars can all be found worshipped here, and only those gods which would exchew the ultimate faith of Draeggaros are banned or considered heretical.

The Colonization of Astrophikus

The Colonization of Astrophikus

   Astrophikus was colonized by the first humanoids about ten thousand years ago. To be fair, there were many humans and demihumans already dwelling on Astrophikus at that time, though they were dwelling in a state of barbarism and had no technology and culture to speak of.

   The first civilized colonists to arrive on Astrophikus speak of half-forgotten myths of a great exodus, and a lost world from which they had fled after a cataclysm that left their original home a devastated ruin. The colonists followed the will of their fabled god, the Golden Traveller Etah. Even today Etah is strongly worshipped, and is the patron god of the empire of  Ashetnur.

   The Astrophikans all agree that their world was once in the sky, a sister to Astrophikus, but it was destroyed. There is some perceived truth to this; the great Haze, a vast swath of asteroids midway between Lingusia and Astrophikus is claimed by many to have been the origin world of the first colonists. A fairly unpopular movement amongst some well-read activists claims that the ancient texts support the idea that the home world of all Astrophikans was destroyed by ancient magic, and that some suggest it, too, was a prison constructed to contain one of the ancient chaos gods, one which escaped. Stories of the ancient entity Dalroth from Lingusia’s pantheon have pointed to this dark god as the one which burst forth from the mantle of their lost world, creating the Haze, though others more familiar with the sacred texts of Lingusia (The Idean Codexes) point out that Dalroth existed long before the time of destruction, and no references are ever made to his imprisonment.

   In any case, it was ten thousand years ago, upon primitive orichalcum-driven spelljammers that the first Astrophikans arrived on their new world. They found a world inhabited by primitives, for whom even fire was often a new phenomenon, and tool use was no more complex than stone and reed. These early travelers brought with them a fraction of the glorious history, knowledge and magical power of their lost culture, but it was enough to make themselves kings among the natives.

   The sum total of the last ten thousand years of history can be described as one of perpetual conflict and evolution. The first colonists secluded themselves for a very long period from the natives, though such exclusion eventually crumbled in some cases. Over time, the Astrophikans learned that their new home was also a great source of orichalcum, although it had apparently become a lost or forbidden art for a time, for it was many thousands of years before the early empires developed enough sophistication to once again mine for the mystical ore and at last turn to the production of the stellar and planar spelljammers for trade and commerce with other worlds and planes.

   In ten millennia wars have been fought, nations have risen and fallen with typical speed, and the Astrophikans slowly recovered their lost knowledge of ancient sorcery. The natives grew and learned, sometimes gifted with knowledge by the foreign powers, other times subjugated. The mysteries of Astrophikus’s curious position in the solar system and the importance of the many planetary alignments became the province of the priests of the Star God, who grew up rapidly in their beliefs, taken from the mysterious sacred obelisks, the largets of which is at the center of the Vulmeadean capitol, Gyldarion. These obelisks, of which a dozen have been found around the world, each tell of the tales of the Star God Draeggaron, and the imprisoned entity Sulziddaran within the heart of the world. So it was that the Temples of the Star God spread across the world.

   It was about three thousand years ago that the civilizations of Astrophikus recovered all their lost knowledge of spelljamming, and began to develop new ships in earnest. Over time, this changed the landscape of the world from one of normally developing civilizations, spreading outward and developing local resources to support large rural populations around feudal townships and cities in to one of a strangely different nature. Today, Astrophikus is dominated by vast, ancient ruin-filled tracts of land, with immense city hubs from which most trade and commerce comes from the plains. The merchant princes of the various empires are the true force behind each city, for they are the lifeblood. Rural townships spread out, though rarely for more than a hundred miles, providing some modest resources locally, but the enriched citizens of the empire are given to a culture of art, religion, philosophy and culture, as well as a talent for magic rarely seen in most other realms. The merchant princes are extraordinarily proficient at their trade, buying and selling commodities off world to amass vast wealth, and bringing in the precious goods necessary for the opulent lifestyles of each city of the various Astrophikan empires.

   Outside of the “hub” of each city, beyond the rural farmlands, is a no-man’s land of the barbarian kingdoms, monster-ridden realms and isolated mining communities where vast complexes dedicated to the extraction of orichalcum from the depths of the earth can be found. Only the desperate and criminal tend to become miners, for life is short in this profession. Nonetheless, the seemingly endless supply of orichalcum is vital to the survival of the Astrophikan way, for without it as the only local resource of true worth, the empires would lack the vital material necessary to sustain the hulls of spelljamming vessels. Without orichalcum the empires would collapse and anarchy would reign.  

   There are several strong empires in Astrophikus today: Vulmeadea, Tanantsanu, and Ashetnur are three noted empires on the super-continent. Each empire has its own ancient history, and maintains careful military forces to prevent neighbors and barbarian kingdoms from interfering with their city hubs.

Astrophikus - Stellar Cartography

The Stellar Cartography of Chaos Space around Astrophikus

   Because of the elaborate and advanced use of flying ships called Spelljammers, Astrophikus is a rare interplanetary civilization. The various kingdoms and empires of the world are all reliant on this interplanetary and planar travel, creating an unusual local enconomy in which the planet’s greatest empires depend largely on imports and exports for their continued subsistence.

   Spelljamming vessels are designed to travel through the planar realms, and from the planar realms they can reach other distant points of existence in the material realm. Spelljammers are capable of traversing the Ether Sea, the arcane term for the depths of space, a vast void with no air and an imcredible chill. Spelljammers are built out of the material typical of sailing ships, but their hulls are plated with the rare bronze-like metal called orichalcum, which acts as a super-conducting material for magical force, allowing a spell caster to imbue the metal with flight and other properties enchanted in to the hull. For those vessels which traverse the ether, these enchantments include gravity and an air envelope, as well as protection from the coldness of space.

   In the realm of chaos space there are several other worlds that are regularly traded with, including Hyskortius, called the “Winking Eye” by some, a curious water world with no land, as well as the vast inner world of Lingusia, a great disc-like construction with twenty times the land mass of Astrophikus. Lingusia is known to be a prison as well, much like Astrophikus, though it harbors twelve ancient entities called the Krakens. Lingusia, unlike Astrophikus, has no orichalcum of its own, and its civlizations lack space-faring capability. Nonetheless the Astrophikans allow for travel to and from this immense world (around which the sun and Astrophikus itself revolve) for trade of more conventional goods, although they are usually limited to those cities which are open to the presence of flying magical vessels from strange lands (Octzel and Naminthia are most well known for their appreciation of ether merchants.)

   Because Astrophikus and the sun both revolve around the great disk world of Lingusia, this creates some unusual astronomical alignments and conjunctions. All of these phenomona are given special mystical properties around which great ceremonies are held. When Lingusia, the Sun, and the moon Metaros reach a conjunction, for example, that is considered a time of great prosperity and all warfare must cease for one year, during which even criminals are excused of their crimes by the Vulmeadean Empire, for example.

Astrophikus: Principia Geographica Mythologica

One of the occasionally visited realms that manifested during one of my Spelljammer campaigns in the early nineties, Astrophikus likes to keep popping up in current campaigns ever since, a strange fantasy realm which is inextricably tied to the weird realm of fantasy wildspace. Astrophikus has appeared in 2nd, 3rd, 4th edition and pathfinder campaigns. It may make an appearance again soon in my planned 5E playtest. I'll be throwing some data on this into the blog in the coming weeks for fun...

Astrophikus: Principia Geographica Mythologica

"The Jewel of Chaos"

   Astrophikus is a small world, perhaps half the size of the Earth. It exists in a region dubbed by Spelljamming explorers as “chaos space,” a solar system where it is said that the power of the Primordial Chaos God ruptured the fabric of space-time, as it attempted to reclaim the vastness of the material plane in to its crawling chaos. It has often been dubbed "The Jewel of Chaos" for the small but lush world is regarded as a paradise by those who have traversed the empty realms of the ether and the phlogiston for far too long.

   Astrophikus operates like a fairly dense but otherwise normal world. It is spherical, and has normal gravity, despite its smaller size. The world has modest oceans, one at each polar cap, and several large lakes and a single inland sea, though less than 40% of the world’s surface is covered in water. The world has temperate extremes across the globe, with strong, humid equatorial regions rife with growth, leading out to vast cold deserts in the inland regions furthest from or most protected by the coastal regions. At the poles much of the water is locked in ice caps; likewise, many of the largest mountains stretch out in to the thinnest regions of atmosphere, where ancient glaciers remain forever locked in ice.

   Astrophikus has a thick crust and deep mantle, beneath which the mythology of the land claims lies one of the more terrifying progeny of chaos, the destroyer god Sulziddaran. Indeed, most of the scholars of Astrophikus assert that this world is, in fact a vast prison designed to contain the dreaded god, forced in to perpetual slumber by his prison-keeper, the baleful elder god Draeggaron, usually called the Star God. Astrophikus is notorious for its terrifying earthquakes and volcanic events, and these are usually attributed to the restless movements of the slumbering Sulziddaran.

   Astrophikus has two small, curiously shaped moons. The mythology of the moons is complex, a strange tale of dark power, in which the moons were once a single whole. Each moon contains the ruins of a vast city that was once said to be a single great metropolis from which Dreaggaros and his minions held watch over their charge, the entombed chaos god below.

   As the story goes, Draeggaros’s lesser seraph minions grew complacent, and in time they lost sight of their overall purpose, for Draeggaros himself had passed on the the Astral Sea and moved in to the outer realms of thought, only occasionally being called back to his realm through great sacrifice or need. This complacency led to corruption from within, and a dark cult of infernal beliefs insinuated itself within the city of the seraphs.

   Over a period of eons the cult expanded and turned in to a terrible conflict that wracked the Great City in fire and destruction. In the end, the battle was won when the dreadful lord of battle, Metatron, sundered the city in twain, thus creating the two moons. The survivors of the cataclysm, desperate for redemption, fled to the planar realms in search of their god, for Draeggaros, disgusted with their fall from grace, had chosen to forsake them all.

   Thousands of years later, the myths of the two moons are known to all. The dark moon, called Ternikos, is a vast graveyard of undead and infernal devils. The powerful and evil entity called Halistrak the Lich Lord is the ruler of this realm, or at least portends to be. The other moon is called Metaros, and its ruins are filled with weird and ancient mysteries, mad angels and other strangeness. Rumors suggest that somewhere deep in the heart of this moon Metatron still dwells, where he was instructed to continue vigilant watch over the prison world below.

   Current belief on Astrophikus suggests that the two moons, which can fall in to alignment once every century, will bring terrible doom, earthquakes and bad luck during this period if a valued living sacrifice is not offered to the god Draeggaros, to call him back from the Outer Realms to impose his will upon the world and set things aright.Though it has been many thousands of years since at least one of the major cities of Astrophikus failed to offer sacrifice, the stories do tell of a terrible cataclysm two thousand years ago, in which the planet suffered a year of quakes, floods, plague and famine the likes of which none could imagine. As such, all of the kingdoms of the world today invoke regular sacrifices to call upon the protection of Draeggaros during lunar alignments.