Design Journal: I have written an OSRIC Campaign world

World of Ariakus is a decidedly old-school workd in the vein of Hyboria and Greyhawk. Hey, aim high right?

This first book provides a world map, details the gods, gives an overview of every country, provides a new class, the Crusader, along with 4 variant classes: Anti-Paladin, Bounty Hunter, Hunter and Poacher.

All in a clean, concise 25 pages.

Sounds cool. Tell me more.

Agreed. It does sound cool. Tell us more!

Well- it's sandbox-y in a lot of ways, in that the world is very big and definitely not uniform, both in terms of what is going on and also the scale of what's going on.

For example the Northern Continent is just about in complete disarray. The Fractured Lands, The Axelands and the Battlegrounds all used to be the largest, most prosperous nation the world had ever known, the Kingdom of Damask.

But civil war and a foreign influx of humanoids and humans have turned the area into complete chaos. The King's bastard brother technically sits on the throne (him assassinating the royal family was what lit the fuse on the whole thing exploding) but in reality, the place is a hodge podge of robber baronies, rapacious humanoids and greedy, amoral dwarves.

But if the players aren't into that, or get tired of that, a quick boat trip south across the Turbulent Sea will land them in a much more stable place, especially if they don't mind signing on with the Great Khan of the Endless Plains, who just about has conquered the entirety of the southern continent.

If they want to serve one of the minor powers NOT ruled by the Khan (yet), things will be dicier, but still not a daily struggle to survive like they face in the north.

Or they could head to the Canterbury Isles, where demi-humans outnumber humans and a possible race war between the demi-humans and the followers of the "humans first" god Therran the White is "all" they would have to worry about.

Or they could strike out for the unknown and find out if there really IS a white man living with the hostile natives of the Trackless Jungle.

Or outfit a mighty ship and try to gain an audience with the Shogun of the Droplet Isles.

In short, one of my main goals was not to make Dragonlance, where no matter which direction the PCs head, they're in a world where steel is scarce, clerical magic is unknown and dragon-dudes are roaming the land.

Ariakus is a big world with a lot of variety, giving the game master support enough so that the PCs picking up and heading east to see what Utgaror, a nation ruled by giants, is like.

And you can see what I'm talking about a little better here: I have posted the complete map at my blog.

I'm not sure what we're supposed to say - is this a free product or a for-pay one? There's no link to either, just a cover image, a brief description, and a map. And the fact that it's OSRIC, which seems like it's supposed to be really important, but without an actual product, lacks meaning.

I'd love to read it, but....

Nellisir said:

I'm not sure what we're supposed to say - is this a free product or a for-pay one? There's no link to either, just a cover image, a brief description, and a map. And the fact that it's OSRIC, which seems like it's supposed to be really important, but without an actual product, lacks meaning.

I'd love to read it, but....

Click to expand...

It will be a for-pay product, available at RPGNow.

As the title suggests, this is a design journal, where I talk about the book while it is in production.

It's almost done, but not quite.

And I included OSRIC to let people know what rule system it will be designed for, which is either really important or not so much, depending on your tastes

Though I think OSRIC is cool, and it's free.

Vigilance said:

It will be a for-pay product, available at RPGNow.
As the title suggests, this is a design journal, where I talk about the book while it is in production.
It's almost done, but not quite.
And I included OSRIC to let people know what rule system it will be designed for, which is either really important or not so much, depending on your tastes
Though I think OSRIC is cool, and it's free.

Click to expand...

OK. The past tense of the subject ("have written"), made me think it was a finished project, not one in progress. It's too bad for me it's for-pay; my RPG budget while I'm a student is exactly $0; but that's life. OSRIC is A-OK in my book - as you point out, it, at least, is free. I'll be interested to see what else you post here.

Nellisir said:

OK. The past tense of the subject ("have written"), made me think it was a finished project, not one in progress. It's too bad for me it's for-pay; my RPG budget while I'm a student is exactly $0; but that's life. OSRIC is A-OK in my book - as you point out, it, at least, is free. I'll be interested to see what else you post here.

Click to expand...

Ahh, I see the confusion.

In fact, both of the statements you make are true.

It is written, thus my past tense "I have written an OSRIC world" was 100% accurate.

But it is also in progress, since writing is just step 1

Currently, the book is in layout, which makes me really happy.

I can't explain why, but I have had more fun working on this book than I have had in a long, long while.

I'm doing some slightly different things with the gods, and will post a sample later today.

Chuck

So here's a look at one of the deities in the game.

I wanted to make deities matter for more than just roleplaying, so I added one mechanical touch to the deities, the concept of additional spells.

Basically these are thematically appropriate Druid, Magic-User and/or Illusionist spells that are added to the list of spells the cleric can pray for.

Akhia, the Weaver
Akhia is the goddess of motherhood, creation, the universe and weaving.
Symbol: The Loom
Animal: Spider
Raiment: Veil (Head), Lace (Body)
Color: Black
Holy Days: New Moon, All Saints’ Day, All Kings’ Day, All Heroes’ Day (First three days of the year)
Sacrifice: Any
Place of Worship: Temples or under the night sky
Preferred Alignment: Neutral Good
Nemesis Orders: Nicthonis, Therran, Arcara
Additional Spells: Spider Climb (1st level), Web (2nd level), Summon Insects (3rd level), Repel Insects (4th level), Insect Plague (5th level), Creeping Doom (7th level)

Vigilance said:

…provides a new class, the Crusader, along with 4 variant classes: Anti-Paladin, Bounty Hunter, Hunter and Poacher.

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What's up with the Poacher? That sounds like a pretty specific and narrow class. What distinguishes it from the Hunter, for example?