Telrhin Updates and Errata

Tinkering with a Twitter account for Telrhin: 140 characters is so much less daunting than a whole paragraph in the blog... so follow @Telrhin and see what we come up with to tweet. 

The current campaign has made the leap to the Borderlands of Wallendahr following their expedition to the Mad Labyrinth of Zen the Mad. This takes the Rahman Brothers out of the Lowlands for the first time, which will help expand the world design and development.

The Encyclopaedia now has over 700 entries. And I've finally finished migrating the 'S' section from the old version.

And for those of you following the blog: I made the final table at Origins! Go Catan! I then managed to squander my lead through a series of catastrophically poor moves.

Since last post many things have developed. The new HQ for Telrhin has moved cities for one.
 

RULES NEWS:

Playtesting the new spellcasting rules. It's coming along nicely. Magic as a 'gift' (both for mages but also 'true faith' for divine powers). This gift is class-independent, so the class of mage or priest is a form of specialist.

Die pool for casting, rules for 'subversion' and control tests, 'stealing vis' and other fun stuff. 
 

WORLD NEWS:

At long last I've finished the new Field Guide to the Lowlands, a player's guide to the main campaign region of the world. The old Field Guides, written over the years, had covered the whole world. And covered it poorly. So as I got about developing the re-imagined 'mark iv' I thought I'd keep it focused on one area. This also lets me keep a steady perspective and point-of-view based on the culture of the Lowlands.

Thought I'd tinker with rules again.  Not ambitious, mind you -- our in-house rules, affectionately called 'stabmaster', aren't meant to re-invent the wheel.  A happy blend of old-school nostalgia and story-focused simplicity. 

v7 was a cobbled re-imagining of the old broken house rules, band-aided and patched more than anything.  It did manage to simplify a little, which was a good start.  But it's time to re-work it all into something more congruous.  Well, as congruous as an AD&D inspired set of house rules can be. 

Origins starts today (well, last night really) and we all get to game and geek out.  Playing an indie narrative game tonight by Bully Pulpit Games called Fiasco. 

But that is all an aside.  The development on Telrhin moves forward.  Encyclopaedia is two-thirds complete.  The Lowlands Field Guide is 80%.  Sifting through the long years worth of notes, ideas and differing directions has been daunting.  It would have been easier to start fresh, but I wanted to reshape the world and keep its wealth of detail and story.  

This is a write-up of the story at the center of the world, the flavor and theme inside the structure. The Tale of the Ember Queens:

The Two Queens, first among the Old Ones (the Ethrings) and last vessels of the creation song. They are the soft silk of an ancient truth, a long thread of purpose in the tapestry of the world, shaped by the unfolding of years, the choices of man and the dreams of the Embrings as they slide into forgetfulness.

In their unfinished tale lie the secrets of the world.

The older incarnations of Telrhin were a rehash of the Tolkien story: once mighty civilizations, tarnished and diluted over time from change and the emergence of "man", battling an ancient evil in the form of the Black King, Talon.  There were gods and a cosmic struggle layered into this, and later in 'mark iii' the idea of a crossroads of fate emerged, determining the future paradigm.

This is where I'll be posting comments and notes on the process of designing an FRPG world, the travails and challenges, and a few details of the world itself for those who care.