Chainmail Hearts: An OD&D Campaign Setting
Jul 27, 2017 20:24:12 GMT -5
Admin Pete, Crimhthan The Great, and 2 more like this
Post by docsammy on Jul 27, 2017 20:24:12 GMT -5
I originally posted this on OD&D 74, and I'll re-post the material here and expand upon it.
I came up with a rough sketch for an OD&D campaign setting I'd like to share with you guys. I drew inspiration primarily from two main sources, the so-called "Implied OD&D Setting" discussed on the Initiative One Blog and the other is Arthurian Legend and the Matter of Britain. The setting would also have some aesthetics lifted from anime and manga. The working title of this campaign setting is "Chainmail Hearts", though the actual in-game world itself is not going to be called that, obviously.
Mechanically, I'd use either Full Metal Plate Mail or the core OD&D box set for the base mechanics and Outdoor Survival for the map. I may later include fluff to accommodate the additional mechanical materials found in Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, Gods Demigods & Heroes, and the like. But for now, I'll be focusing on just the core material from Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.
The main premise is that this is a land that is sparse and almost post-apocalyptic in nature. It is nominally part of a great civilized empire that is in severe decline (for now, we'll just call it The Empire), if not totally collapsed already. Chainmail Hearts is less Tolkien and more of a mix between Arthurian Legend and Shonen Anime. The main dynamics are drawn from Late Roman and Sub-Roman Britain, but with the strange fantasy geography of the Implied Setting/Outdoor Survival.
A major source of influence is the overall style of actual Medieval Arthurian works such as Historia Regnum Britanniae (Geoffrey of Monmouth) and Le Morte D'Arthur (Thomas Malory) in which the setting is presumed to be Sub-Roman Britain but there are a lot of anachronistic elements that better reflect the High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages. Combine the typical early OD&D fantasy elements and you have the base setting for Chainmail Hearts.
There are three core classes in Chainmail Hearts, and they are the obvious picks of Fighter, Magic-User, and Cleric. Alignment is divided into Law, Neutrality, and Chaos.
As for player races, I have decided that only Humans will be playable, but there will be different cultures of Humanity in this setting. The races of Elf, Dwarf, and Hobbit are mainly reserved for encounters and rare specialized NPC's and are more otherworldly in their presentation.
There are several different cultures in Chainmail Hearts, each one based on a different culture of world history. Most of these are Western European, given the Arthurian influence, but I do have a few non-Western cultures in play as well.
Here is a list of the in-game human cultures with their historical inspirations in parentheses. NPC-only cultures are marked with an asterisk. In future posts, I will fill in more details and maybe include additional cultures.
Imperials (Roman Empire)
Pretanians (Romano-British)
Anglians (Anglo-Saxons)
Milesians (Gaels)
Wild Folk (Picts)
Northmen (Norse)
Yamato (Feudal Japan)
Tuatha De Danaan(Atlantis/Ancient Aliens)*
Fir Bolg (Cro-Magnon/Neanderthals)*
As for religion, I am torn between including real world historical religions and mythologies or creating my own. I did have an idea for a major organization that is still extant within The Empire, and that is the Imperial Church, led by the Pontifex Maximus, a high-level cleric ruling from the Imperial capital (the Imperial Church is obviously a parallel for the Roman Catholic Church of the Early Middle Ages).
Some things are different in their presentation when it comes to character classes, particularly Clerics and Magic-Users. Again, I'll copy and paste elements from another thread on OD&D '74 because it's relevant to this setting.
In my campaign setting of Chainmail Hearts, not all clerics are clergy or employed by the Church. Rather, Clerics are extremely devout and dedicated worshipers who are blessed with divine magic by whatever higher power they believe in (sort of like True Faith in Vampire: The Masquerade). Cleric characters advance their spells through devotion and dedication to the tenets of their beliefs and aren't just limited to being granted spells from a deity.
Non-theistic religious people (such as Buddhists) can be granted divine magic through their faith and works, and the same can even apply to atheists and agnostics who are dedicated to a specific code of conduct or ethics (essentially being a cleric of their alignment).
Magic-Users aren't defined by one specific style of magic (though for simplicity's sake, the core mechanical rules for spells are fairly Vancian, same as they are in the core rules) and arcane magic can be learned many ways. There are three forms of Magic-Users, though they are essentially the same in terms of raw mechanics. The three forms of arcane magic are Magery, Sorcery, and Witchcraft.
Magic-Users who practice Magery advance their arcane abilities and gain spells through meditation and academic study of scrolls, grimoires, occult texts, and spell books.
Magic-Users who practice Sorcery are born with innate magical powers that improve through a mix of age and life experience (which is why you'd get more spells as you level up).
Magic-Users who practice Witchcraft gain their spells when they make a pact with a otherwordly patron (can be a demon, a faerie noble, an alien overlord from a far away planet, or even one of the Great Old Ones) and over time, your patron awards you more spells as you level up.
While those who practice magery or sorcery have little to fear as they gain power and more spells, practitioners of witchcraft fear for their souls at higher levels as such great power often comes with a great price. Once you reach a certain level, your patron starts to demand more of you and these demands increase at each level. Fail to meet them and you will be dragged away to the home of your patron, whether it be Hell, Arcadia, R'lyeh, or the home planet of an Alien Overlord and the player must make a new character.
As for mechanical differences, all Level 1 Magic-Users get two spells automatically instead of one (one is Detect Magic and the other is the player's choice) and if they have a high Intelligence score, they get a number of bonus spells equivalent to their Intelligence Modifier.
I want to run this as a Play-By-Post campaign and build up on this campaign setting as well. I'm always looking for feedback, constructive criticism, and new ideas.
I came up with a rough sketch for an OD&D campaign setting I'd like to share with you guys. I drew inspiration primarily from two main sources, the so-called "Implied OD&D Setting" discussed on the Initiative One Blog and the other is Arthurian Legend and the Matter of Britain. The setting would also have some aesthetics lifted from anime and manga. The working title of this campaign setting is "Chainmail Hearts", though the actual in-game world itself is not going to be called that, obviously.
Mechanically, I'd use either Full Metal Plate Mail or the core OD&D box set for the base mechanics and Outdoor Survival for the map. I may later include fluff to accommodate the additional mechanical materials found in Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, Gods Demigods & Heroes, and the like. But for now, I'll be focusing on just the core material from Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.
The main premise is that this is a land that is sparse and almost post-apocalyptic in nature. It is nominally part of a great civilized empire that is in severe decline (for now, we'll just call it The Empire), if not totally collapsed already. Chainmail Hearts is less Tolkien and more of a mix between Arthurian Legend and Shonen Anime. The main dynamics are drawn from Late Roman and Sub-Roman Britain, but with the strange fantasy geography of the Implied Setting/Outdoor Survival.
A major source of influence is the overall style of actual Medieval Arthurian works such as Historia Regnum Britanniae (Geoffrey of Monmouth) and Le Morte D'Arthur (Thomas Malory) in which the setting is presumed to be Sub-Roman Britain but there are a lot of anachronistic elements that better reflect the High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages. Combine the typical early OD&D fantasy elements and you have the base setting for Chainmail Hearts.
There are three core classes in Chainmail Hearts, and they are the obvious picks of Fighter, Magic-User, and Cleric. Alignment is divided into Law, Neutrality, and Chaos.
As for player races, I have decided that only Humans will be playable, but there will be different cultures of Humanity in this setting. The races of Elf, Dwarf, and Hobbit are mainly reserved for encounters and rare specialized NPC's and are more otherworldly in their presentation.
There are several different cultures in Chainmail Hearts, each one based on a different culture of world history. Most of these are Western European, given the Arthurian influence, but I do have a few non-Western cultures in play as well.
Here is a list of the in-game human cultures with their historical inspirations in parentheses. NPC-only cultures are marked with an asterisk. In future posts, I will fill in more details and maybe include additional cultures.
Imperials (Roman Empire)
Pretanians (Romano-British)
Anglians (Anglo-Saxons)
Milesians (Gaels)
Wild Folk (Picts)
Northmen (Norse)
Yamato (Feudal Japan)
Tuatha De Danaan(Atlantis/Ancient Aliens)*
Fir Bolg (Cro-Magnon/Neanderthals)*
As for religion, I am torn between including real world historical religions and mythologies or creating my own. I did have an idea for a major organization that is still extant within The Empire, and that is the Imperial Church, led by the Pontifex Maximus, a high-level cleric ruling from the Imperial capital (the Imperial Church is obviously a parallel for the Roman Catholic Church of the Early Middle Ages).
Some things are different in their presentation when it comes to character classes, particularly Clerics and Magic-Users. Again, I'll copy and paste elements from another thread on OD&D '74 because it's relevant to this setting.
In my campaign setting of Chainmail Hearts, not all clerics are clergy or employed by the Church. Rather, Clerics are extremely devout and dedicated worshipers who are blessed with divine magic by whatever higher power they believe in (sort of like True Faith in Vampire: The Masquerade). Cleric characters advance their spells through devotion and dedication to the tenets of their beliefs and aren't just limited to being granted spells from a deity.
Non-theistic religious people (such as Buddhists) can be granted divine magic through their faith and works, and the same can even apply to atheists and agnostics who are dedicated to a specific code of conduct or ethics (essentially being a cleric of their alignment).
Magic-Users aren't defined by one specific style of magic (though for simplicity's sake, the core mechanical rules for spells are fairly Vancian, same as they are in the core rules) and arcane magic can be learned many ways. There are three forms of Magic-Users, though they are essentially the same in terms of raw mechanics. The three forms of arcane magic are Magery, Sorcery, and Witchcraft.
Magic-Users who practice Magery advance their arcane abilities and gain spells through meditation and academic study of scrolls, grimoires, occult texts, and spell books.
Magic-Users who practice Sorcery are born with innate magical powers that improve through a mix of age and life experience (which is why you'd get more spells as you level up).
Magic-Users who practice Witchcraft gain their spells when they make a pact with a otherwordly patron (can be a demon, a faerie noble, an alien overlord from a far away planet, or even one of the Great Old Ones) and over time, your patron awards you more spells as you level up.
While those who practice magery or sorcery have little to fear as they gain power and more spells, practitioners of witchcraft fear for their souls at higher levels as such great power often comes with a great price. Once you reach a certain level, your patron starts to demand more of you and these demands increase at each level. Fail to meet them and you will be dragged away to the home of your patron, whether it be Hell, Arcadia, R'lyeh, or the home planet of an Alien Overlord and the player must make a new character.
As for mechanical differences, all Level 1 Magic-Users get two spells automatically instead of one (one is Detect Magic and the other is the player's choice) and if they have a high Intelligence score, they get a number of bonus spells equivalent to their Intelligence Modifier.
I want to run this as a Play-By-Post campaign and build up on this campaign setting as well. I'm always looking for feedback, constructive criticism, and new ideas.
