The Lords of Fantasy (OOC Thread)

Lord of Fantasy

Congratulations! A curious ROB has dropped all of you in the head of young baron of Cerine, someone newly risen to his noble office. You are to act as his "spirit guides" as he faces some very unexpected challenges.

The old King of Cerine had recently died of illness, leaving his daughter, still a young child, as the only heir to the throne. His wife and close allies had been appointed as regents while the king was on his deathbed, but there were rumors of discontent and possible coups as the nation's leaders gathered for the coronation. These rumors had been percolating for years but your parents and siblings paid them little attention as they left for the far off capital, leaving you behind as you were recovering from a short illness of your own.

Then weeks later..... the earth shook and the skies burned as a powerful magic, something that originated in the capital, swept across Cerine. When the terrible magic came to an end and your people began to pick themselves off the ground they quickly noticed that the skies had changed... The constellations were utterly different. Riders, scouts, and messengers quickly brought word that while most of your domain, your fief, had come through intact the land around it was utterly different from what should be there. .... Your entire land had somehow been slung through space into a entirely different world.

NOTE: Some elements of this background may change depending upon which advantage wins the starting vote.

Rules:

- Standard command and control

- Vote for two actions and potentially one social action. Please use [x] to mark your votes.

- Ties broken by GM

http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/lords-of-fantasy-information-codex.237281/

Interesting.

[x]Male
[x]Dwarven Clan

Male and Great Temple (9)

[x]Male
[x]Dwarven Clan

[X] Male
[X] Great Temple (1)

[X]Male
[X]Mage- Offers best advantages imo. Dwarves comes with issues, and Priest with the requirement to keep an unknown God happy.

male
Mage's Academy

Magic we can probably eventually learn, but being dwarven or elven is probably the two advantages we can only pick in the beginning.

Actually, you can gain variants on pretty much any of the starting advantages through game play. For the elves and dwarves you could form an alliance with a group of them or asorb some of them into your lands and receive many of the same benefits.

I say:

[X] Male
[X] Mage's Academy

Having an educated populous without the requirement to keep a god happy is better imho.

By the way I will call the vote on our character relatively early tomorrow evening.

[X] Male
[X] Mage's Academy

[X] Female
[X] Mage's Academy

I don't care about the gender, so I chose randomly. My short analysis of the other close competitors:

* Great Temple: Gives us a good education bonus, and also a benefit to the land. However, I dislike randomly choosing a god without having any clue as to who they are. For all we know, we might get stuck with the god of Baby-killing. If given a quick overview of the gods, I would likely switch to this option.
* Dwarven Clan: Powerful defense, but the smaller land and lesser population put a big dampener on this one.
* Elven Kingdom: This gives a magic bonus and a defensive bonus, as well as giving magic items. It seems to me that the Mage Academy is overall better though, since that also gives an education boost as opposed to a defense boost.

None of the gods are evil, they are fairly typical. A couple examples on the list are the goddess of knowledge/secrets/wisdom/etc, the god of war or a female counterpart, or the goddess of fertility and life.

We can court some of the gods once we get started. Then we can actively choose which one to follow.

So far it looks like Male and Mage's Academy, which I might convert to having you be the guildmaster/mage-lord.

So starting off you'll have the Tower Guards (your professional troops - minor spellswords), War-Mages, and a few golems. That's on top of the milita that you get no matter what background.

Nice, i assume we will have plenty of magical equipment available.

Female [X]
Mage Academy [X]

[X] Male
[X] Mage's Academy

Okay, I am going to go ahead and call the vote as male and mage's academy since I will be gone this evening. Here's the info on your fief and military, please note that I switched it so that you are the guildmaster of the mage's guild rather then a separate lord. The IC thread will be up shortly as well.

I have a rough map of the fief that I will put up later.

IC Thread:
http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-lords-of-fantasy-ic.223815/

FIEF DETAILS (population counts are rough estimates)

Cheswest = 9,000

A large town or small city that is the center of your fief, and home to the mage's academy and mage's guildhall. Before the Cataclysm it was located along several trades routes, both by river and by land, and held a large bazaar every Friday. It is actually located near the center of your fief. Other then Spaldon and Coatsow it is the only fortified location in your fief, with an old stone wall surrounding the innermost parts of the town and an equally old keep that's been turned into the mage's guildhall since they were granted the royal charter to the fief. These defenses, which do bear some minor enchantments, have been kept repaired but not updated as it has been long decades since anything beyond some minor monsters directly threatened the town.

Riverside = 1,500

The second town of your fief, the unimaginably named Riverside is a port town that was located on the banks of the Silverfall River back in Cerine. (And to the east of Cheswest) Many goods were shipped up and down this river and the road between Riverside and Cheswest was frequently filled with traffic. Indeed Riverside was first settled as a fishing village that supplied the larger village of Cheswest with fresh fish. Luckily enough, Riverside has landed on the banks of another river, a larger and more powerful river then what they once sailed.

Blackbury = 700

The largest village in the fief, Blackbury is a farming community located on the fertile plains in the northwest of your fief. A great deal of the food grown here is destined for the market in Cheswest and for the hungry stomachs of the townspeople. The name comes from the many blackberries that grow in the area, which have become something of a local specialty.

Spaldon= 300

Spaldon is a fortified village surrounding a small, wood and earth, mote and bailey castle. Located to the west of Cheswest, it is always garrisoned by a small force of the Tower Guard. The fort was built to protect the western road to Cheswest by one of your predecessors and the village grew up around it. Thick nearby forests are the source of much of your fief's lumber, herbs, and animal products.

Chippening = 500

A hamlet dedicated to its many orchards, Chippening is an agricultural village to the south of Cheswest. The southern road to Cheswest runs just east of the village and used to run down into the heart of the Kingdom of Cerine. They were having some problems with bandits who were also attacking travelers on the South Trade Road just before the Cataclysm occurred, but you have had no further reports.

Coatsow = 200

Like Spaldon, Coatsow is a fortified village with a wooden motte and bailey castle. The castle was built at the same time as the one in Spaldon, with the intention of guarding the northern trade road out of Cheswest. A village soon sprang up just outside the fort's walls and it is generally garrisoned by some troops.

Rugland = 600

Rugland is a rough and tumble mining village to the far northwest of Cheswest, and the source of much of your ores. It is located near the border of your fief and you were quite thankful when a messenger arrived that it had made the transition as well. It is the furthest out village to have made the transition along with the rest of your fief. Its a rough area to live in though as the mines and surrounding terrain make excellent areas for monsters to make their nests. Militia drawn from this area tend to be tougher and harder to break then normal.

Various other tiny villages and hamlets, generally smaller and of no real significance.

MILITARY DETAILS

1000x Militia

These are basically conscripts and town watchmen armed with spears, shields, clubs, daggers, and bows. The royal charter required the guild to provide magical support in time of war rather then bodies, so the guild has never maintained all that large of a force.

100x Tower Guards

The Tower Guards are the guild's equivalent of the various temples' militant orders or the nobles' men at arms. They are career soldiers armed with boiled leather armor and metal breastplates, spears, and swords. While not as well equipped or trained as their counterparts they are all minor mages, spellswords who blend basic magic with their marital skills. They are also skilled at fighting magical creatures and enchanted warriors - a result of being called upon to deal with young mages' accidents. They are organized into squads of twenty, each led by a Serjeant, and the senior commander is known as the Guard Captain. One squad is always stationed at Spaldon and Coatsow, with the three squads at Cheswest.

20x War Mages

These are mages who have dedicated their studies to the arts of war and marital magic. While not as versatile as regular mages they are far more skilled with combat magic, especially of the more direct variants, and undergo regular physical combat training. They are equipped with leather armor, enchanted staves, and swords. Five are currently stationed in both Spaldon and Coatsow, with the other ten in the fief's capital.

10x Golems

Fairly standard fantasy golems built out of hardened clay and stone, could potentially be improved on but it would take research and time. Two are stationed at both Spaldon and Coatsow, with the other six at the capital. MUST HAVE A MAGE IN THE FIELD TO CONTROL THEM.

Just how powerful are War Mages and Golems?

Start erecting fortifications around the major villages and towns and increase the milita and the Guard, have the Guilde start training more War Mages and researching newer and better Golems (more of them too), we must first see to the safety of our fief.

Next, have the blacksmiths and woodcutters and other similar professions look into harnising the rivers and the power of steam to help increase the level of production, the resources that we are soon to require are going to be hefty and it is time to introduce Industry.

Wait, wouldn't steam power be a little bit out of nowhere? Considering we don't have the technology for it?

Those are all long-term projects. For now, we should focus on the tasks at hand, which is to deal with the immediate crisis and do reconnaisance.

We don't have the tech for complex steam engines, but we are not dependent on tech now are we? Moreover, 'simple' steam are quite old, so as long as we don't set our goals too high too soon we should be good.

Didn't we already start with a recon report? I'm personally find with sending people out to look for answers, but we need to give our people something to do...something that tells them that their safety is our first concern, and given how quickly simple fortifications can be built and/or weapons and armor made with the right processes, I don't know if the first one is all that long term.

The second one probably is, but we need to start somewhere.