Level Up (A5E) Sins of the Scorpion Age, Sword and Sorcery Campaign Setting

[GuyBoy]

Please keep going. I believe you have a setting that is worthy of publishing. I’m cheering you on.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think with the mechanical side of it you'll be able to reach a nice 60 pages format when in print. Do you have in mind a freelancing artist for the images (I personally prefer having images and portraits done by the same artist or some artist with similar approach to have a presentation standard, but YMMV) ?

I can get you in touch with my best friend who adores this kind of project and (I think) would not ask for much for its design, if you are interested in moving the project even further ahead.

Anyway, wish you luck. I think you have a nice product that would do well in a small-scale kickstarter.

 

[Steampunkette]

Oh, I don't intend to stop writing this. I just need to buckle down some design elements and actually, y'know, get deeper into it. Work on formatting so I can have templates to fill out, rather than just going scattershot with it, like I normally do.

'Cause the classes whizzed by, 2-3 pages per day, which was awesome. But everything else has been a bit of a slog.

As far as artists and designers, I'd be happy to talk with your friend, Vince. Maybe work out some commission rates if they're interested.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Oh, I don't intend to stop writing this. I just need to buckle down some design elements and actually, y'know, get deeper into it. Work on formatting so I can have templates to fill out, rather than just going scattershot with it, like I normally do.

'Cause the classes whizzed by, 2-3 pages per day, which was awesome. But everything else has been a bit of a slog.

As far as artists and designers, I'd be happy to talk with your friend, Vince. Maybe work out some commission rates if they're interested.

One important thing is too avoid burning yourself out. Even with a thrilling project, overworking oneself is harmful. Take all the time you need to polish your gem, there's no rush.

I'll talk with my buddy, if your still interested when you are ready to cross that bridge, I'll gladly play the match-maker!

(You can call me Thomas, that's my real name, Vincegetorix is an old handle from 10000 years ago. I keep delaying asking the mods to change it)

 

[Steampunkette]

City-State Formatting template

EMBEDDED IMAGE HEADER
City-State Name
Nickname or Basic Description
Prose segment, 1/4th of a page or less -The Chronicler-
Population, Politics, Resources Block.
-Column Break-
History of the City-State Block, 1/2 page mixed Prose
\Page Break\
Architecture and Material Description segment, no more than 1/4 page
Notable Buildings in the City-State no more than 1/4rd page
-Column Break-
In-depth political/religious information 1/2 page.
\Page Break\
Organizations and Plot Elements, full page.
\Page Break\
Connected Regional City Name
Prose Narrative Overview
Description of connection to the Primary city
Population, Politics, Resources Block
-Column Break-
Organizations and Plot Elements, 1/2 page.

This continues through all the connected Regional Cities which each get 1 page where the Main City gets the full 3 page treatment... 4 pages if I can write enough for it's history, politics/religion, and organization/plot elements...

Decent format?

 

[Steampunkette]

Could also move down from regional cities into smaller towns and villages or groups of travelers each taking up 1/2 page? Not 100% on that. Might be biting more than I can chew, already, with the 9 primary city-states each having 3 regional connected cities, as that's 27 cities. At 3 and 1 that's 55 pages of cities and regions.

... in hindsight, that's probably not actually -enough- for the book. I should probably aim in the 250-360 page range. And if I wind up doing 60 pages of Crunch for classes/races/corruption, then 55 of Locations, it leaves me with 140-250 pages I need to fill.

Though... I also have Sepfar... I -could- do up combative city-states with little or no connection to be regional harassers independent of City-State quarrels. Achelb and Musarra, for example, might have minor wars that also involve independent city-states like Lagan and Qesh through tangential attachments.

But places like Sepfar would offer a no-politics involved potential antagonistic state... I could sprinkle a bunch of those around the map with the express intent of making them harassers and problems for everyone in the region. One or two in the Scorpion Lands, one in Annam with a bunch of ruins to explore, things like that, to flesh out regions with hostile city-states...

I even already wrote one into existence with the would-be Usurper of the Phaoris of Annam...

That would certainly expand the city-state section notably if I gave them 2 pages each...

 

[Steampunkette]

Journey Map...

So the Journey System has it's own rules for regions and areas so you can have different skill checks and the like along the way to supply your party, rob people, or otherwise engage in various things along our way without it being always combat or just a timeskip between locales.

I could probably grab the full size and detailed map (8k image), set it to Grayscale, and then do a Hex Overlay and do minimally opaque colored overlays to show where the different Journey Regions are with color-coding. Then break that into a 6 page panel map that can be printed and fit together?

It'd be super useful for the Journey System... especially if I do a "Both Sides" layout with opposite locales on the reverse so you can print out a double-sided poster map.

1/3, 2/2, 3/1
4/6, 5/5, 6/4

One side is the world map in normal color, the reverse is a hex map with travel regions filling each hex.

 

[GuyBoy]

Just as ideas, you could include some or all of the following in the setting book:
1 A short adventure
2 Some plot hooks for adventures with maybe a few sentences for each.
3 A flora and fauna section for creatures, monsters and plants unique to the setting.
4 Weapons and armour unique to the setting.

I’ll try to come up with some more ideas. Happy to help in any way I can.

 

[GuyBoy]

You also have a gift for writing fiction, which has been clear in the background stories you write. Possibly a short story? This might be better as an extension goal for a kickstarter.

 

[GuyBoy]

I think this is such an exciting project because you seem to be pulling off the “impossible” of keeping the Swords and Sorcery feel of REH but doing it in a positive and human manner, which is inclusive and supportive of all. That’s some feat.