Posted by:
Carl
on
6/18/2010 1:35:42 PM
These are five categories that I included on my references worksheet prior to starting this campaign. These categories are in addition to the food, mineral and animal references I've posted in the past. I've never talked about these, but I think now is as good a time as any.
These categories represent the basic things that are interesting to adventurer types. Based on the information I read about a particular locale, I put numbers into these categories for that area. Using an analog of Alexis' reference system, if I read about a god making an appearance somewhere, say founding a city, I put a '1' in the Gods column for that city. Same goes for the rest. The monsters category is a bit of a catch-all right now, but is meant to include any non-animal/mythical beast type encounters. For example, there's a beach on the Sicilian coast that Odysseus and Aeneus landed upon where they encountered Cyclopses. Since I found references to Cyclopses on this beach in two different sources, I put a 2 in the Monsters column for that area. The higher the number, the greater the likelihood that you'll encounter a monster there, and the more powerful the monsters will tend to be.
Tombs are similar, but they contain undead. Same deal for encounter frequency and difficulty. Wizards are references to magic users. Syracuse, home of Archimedes (an Archmage by anyone's measure) gets a Wizard reference. Given the number of times Archimedes is referred to, and the number of powerful apprentices and colleagues of his that live there, I should probably push that number up, but we're not in Syracuse yet.
The Military category is a lot less abstract than the others. Each number represents a legion, either Roman or Local. The more legions in a place, the more likely you'll have an encounter with the military.
This is one dimension of my attempt to create a meaningful playground within the campaign world. Italia is chock full of mystical weirdness, gods, monsters, tombs and so forth. Each of these represents an opportunity for the characters to make huge gains in experience through monetary gain, combat and acquisition of magic items. In essence, the whole world becomes the dungeon. See? No storyline needed. However, there may be a story there. For example, the Cyclopses on Sicilia are Vulcan's workforce.
Did I mention that Vulcan's Workshop is under Mount Aetna?
This brings me to something I had in mind when I started this post. Your character's knowledge of myth and legend is a lot more extensive than your own. I encourage you not to rely completely upon me to discover things about the mythical nature of the world in which we are playing. I think part of the reason that the Dungeon thing caused so much discussion among the group is that I look over Italia and see a place littered with gods, monsters, tombs, wizards and military, and you guys see a map with dots on it. You're looking for adventure, and I'm thinking, "Just walk about 20 miles in any direction and you'll find it."
I'll try to meet you in the middle by posting interesting bits that I discover about Italy from time to time. These could be considered adventure hooks that lead to something we might refer to as a dungeon. Or they could just turn out to be myths.
Here's something to think about for the next session, since you'll be sailing past it. The island of Tyrrhenia (now known as Ponza) once held a large and prosperous city, but at some point, mostly sunk into the Tyrrehnian Sea (notice the name similarity there?). Circe may still live there.
See you Sunday!
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