Graf
Explorer
The Hollowfaust love fest continues
Night, ColonelHardisson & co are leaving me with precious little to say...
Port issues should be minimal. The volcano is optional, though you probably should have it near some kind of large rock unless you want to re-do the map. Its built on the site of an older city and part of the charm is that HF itself is smaller than the whole city. Its history is almost completely disconnected from the Divine war (though the refugees need to come from somewhere)
The city has been through several seiges and has magical water supplies, grows its own food inside (mostly vegitarian diet),etc
If anything -too- little was said about the routes to and from HF, road patrols, the relationship with the Hornsaw, etc.
If Necromantic magic automatically forces your alignment toward evil it -does- work anyway. It just becomes 'rational' evil and the whole slant changes. (I love this concept but its a seperate post)
Their objections to Undeath were always more practical than ethical. Even their objection to torture and so on have sort of moral practicality that shies away from idealism completely and is brutally practical. Basically, "if you can torture somebody enough they'll say whatever you want. this is counterproductive to our purpose of discovering the truth."
They are scholars obsessed with truth over power and the city works best if you like playing up contradictions.
The necromancers favor skeletal servants, fully covered in armor (so the creepy parts aren't visible) but they do keep them around to initimidate vistors and troublemakers.
There are Marrow Knights in Drover's plaza and (I believe) skeletal guards outside of the third gate. The risen at the 2nd gate also scared the stuffing out of the PCs (but they had to fight one once). [Its not undead in the techinical sense but made-of-human-parts-and-animated-by-power-psychotic-spirits is kind of what most people mean when they say undead anyway]
And of course after dark all the guards are skeletons who attack people without citizenship tokens on sight.
1. Investigated a bunch of murders of poor people (they were the first to notice it and then they gave up and told the authorities)
2. A missing farmer (techinically a non-citizen and thus not of too much interest to the city) outside of the city
3. Traded and wrangled with the necromancers for information and services
4. Got sucked into some religious intrigue
The ghost quarter/sewers allows for a surprising amount of combat.
The one thing that is true is that a lot of this conflict occurs under the watchful eye of the necromancers. Who will happily whip, fine, imprision and then exile you. And there are bunch of crimes for which your body is simply claimed for "research".
If you die your body is the property of the state.
In most fantasy games this will be stressful on the PCs. They will want to leave the city if you have other better choices (in SL this means they are perpetually planing on going to Lokil). Most gamers just aren't interested in following laws in game. Having someone powerful hovering around (or a group of 300 someones and their assorted retainers and servants) watching you and being ready to jump down your throat at the first whiff of impropriety can be un-fun.
In my version of the city the necromancers show up with a lot of serious troups and a bunch of powerful offensive weaponry, troups of guards (and skeletons in full plate), and unfailing bodyguards within a few minutes of any serious conflict.
You could play that angle light though if you wanted to, without really changing too much. The necromancers would work as negiligent landlords without any real changing at al.
Night, ColonelHardisson & co are leaving me with precious little to say...
Deadguy said:
Port issues should be minimal. The volcano is optional, though you probably should have it near some kind of large rock unless you want to re-do the map. Its built on the site of an older city and part of the charm is that HF itself is smaller than the whole city. Its history is almost completely disconnected from the Divine war (though the refugees need to come from somewhere)
The city has been through several seiges and has magical water supplies, grows its own food inside (mostly vegitarian diet),etc
If anything -too- little was said about the routes to and from HF, road patrols, the relationship with the Hornsaw, etc.
I would change the word default to nessessity. It works best where 80% of necromancers are deranged nuts and the players characters would rather trek through a burning desert full of monsters than get near 'the-city-of-the-dead' then they get there and the good characters, who wanted to burn the city on sight, are forced to admit that (compared to the rest of the world) its actually just about the best, most egalitarian, place to live.Bagpuss said:
If Necromantic magic automatically forces your alignment toward evil it -does- work anyway. It just becomes 'rational' evil and the whole slant changes. (I love this concept but its a seperate post)
Their objections to Undeath were always more practical than ethical. Even their objection to torture and so on have sort of moral practicality that shies away from idealism completely and is brutally practical. Basically, "if you can torture somebody enough they'll say whatever you want. this is counterproductive to our purpose of discovering the truth."
They are scholars obsessed with truth over power and the city works best if you like playing up contradictions.
Nightfall said:
The necromancers favor skeletal servants, fully covered in armor (so the creepy parts aren't visible) but they do keep them around to initimidate vistors and troublemakers.
There are Marrow Knights in Drover's plaza and (I believe) skeletal guards outside of the third gate. The risen at the 2nd gate also scared the stuffing out of the PCs (but they had to fight one once). [Its not undead in the techinical sense but made-of-human-parts-and-animated-by-power-psychotic-spirits is kind of what most people mean when they say undead anyway]
And of course after dark all the guards are skeletons who attack people without citizenship tokens on sight.
If you can be creative there's a perfect mix. Given its authoritarian bent there can be lots of "things that fall through the cracks" type stuff. My pcs haveDeadguy said:
1. Investigated a bunch of murders of poor people (they were the first to notice it and then they gave up and told the authorities)
2. A missing farmer (techinically a non-citizen and thus not of too much interest to the city) outside of the city
3. Traded and wrangled with the necromancers for information and services
4. Got sucked into some religious intrigue
The ghost quarter/sewers allows for a surprising amount of combat.
The one thing that is true is that a lot of this conflict occurs under the watchful eye of the necromancers. Who will happily whip, fine, imprision and then exile you. And there are bunch of crimes for which your body is simply claimed for "research".
If you die your body is the property of the state.
In most fantasy games this will be stressful on the PCs. They will want to leave the city if you have other better choices (in SL this means they are perpetually planing on going to Lokil). Most gamers just aren't interested in following laws in game. Having someone powerful hovering around (or a group of 300 someones and their assorted retainers and servants) watching you and being ready to jump down your throat at the first whiff of impropriety can be un-fun.
In my version of the city the necromancers show up with a lot of serious troups and a bunch of powerful offensive weaponry, troups of guards (and skeletons in full plate), and unfailing bodyguards within a few minutes of any serious conflict.
You could play that angle light though if you wanted to, without really changing too much. The necromancers would work as negiligent landlords without any real changing at al.
