About the World

Back to the Campaign: Time of the Green Star

The Round Kingdom

The Round Kingdom is a realm of knights, ladies, bards and jesters. Until this summer, only the occasional ogre, griffon or wyvern made an incursion into its fair lands. For 126 years kinghts and village heroes have easily bested such foes. But now the Green Planet has swung again into its close orbit near the Good Creation , casting a baleful influence that boosts the power of weird magic, leads to the birth of monsters, and raises the dead from their graves.

Classes

Characters are bright young things who are sent to the border castle of Farkeep to hold the Pale there against monsters and invaders. Pretty much any medieval-themed class including clerics, who are the kingdom’s fighting clergy and worship the Arch-Angel Jaser, the world’s Keeper. Druids exist, but are priests of wild barbarian folk outside the Pale. A powerful force in the kingdom is the Flying Assembly of Witches. The clergy disapprove of these women, as they do most wizards, since they fear they draw too much on dangerous old powers. But the witches are tolerated because of their strength.

Common Races

• Humans

• Goblins–cunning but not always evil rivals of humankind (who combine the crafting and magi-tech abilities of canon DnD dwarves and gnomes). They live in domed villages.

• Pixies and other types of fey

• Ogres, half-ogres

• Satyrs. These are rogueish and sometimes wicked fellows in this world , but those less wild can be hearty companions

• Lizardfolk. An elite guard of lizardfolk axers once served the guild at Guildtown, but has since been dismissed.

Tolkienesque elves and dwarves do not exist

Pretty much anything you can imagine in an Arthurian/ chivalrous fantasy world.

This is a near- or partly Utopian world (prior to the Green Star's arrival) so while the society is quite traditional in everyday gender demarcations, there are no restrictions on those who wish to follow alternative male/female roles. Only the Flying Assembly of Witches absolutely forbid male membership.

System

we use a standard version of E6[1], in which advancement is capped at L6 but new feats can be bought with experience points. Play starts at Level 2, when the players have already won their spurs/ finished their apprenticeships, etc. Levels look like this:

L6 with many feats: legendary knight of legend, super-human wizard, fabled troubadour 
 
L6: heroic. First Knight, King's Arch-Wizard, barbarian hero.
 
L5: champion : Order of Champions Knight, master troubadour, Inner Council Wizard, Abbot of fighting monk monastery 
 
L4 elite :infamous bandit leader, famous knight, celebrated archer 
 
L3: veteran. Palace soldier, knight errant , veteran bandit, etc. 
 
L2: professional-professional soldier , newly-spurred Knight , barbarian warrior, working thief 
 
L1: commoner -serf, apprentice, squire, commoner, etc. Most common folk in the world. 
 

Magic level

The world is 'mid'-magic. Wizards and such can make scrolls and potions as usual, but only goblins or rogues will sell these things openly. Ritual magic is common among assemblies of priests, wizard and witches to cast higher level spells and perform unique forms of incantations. Even a group of aggrieved peasants might gather to do some rough magic according to some ancient village ritual.

Chargen Rules

4d6, best of 3. Assign how you wish. If the character is really junky, start again (but bad form to re-roll a single attribute!).

Hps. Max at level one, roll die thereafter ignoring 1s.

Starting wealth at level two (higher levels add 1000 gp/level) Choose class/ order. I really don't mind which as long as the character concept fits (a lord or lady will have to behave as such!) :
Aristocracy: duke, earl, baron 5,000 gp and estate. +2 weapon. +1 armour. Or equivalent. Bonuses to diplomacy rolls.
Gentry : most knights, witches, wizards: 1,000 gp. 1 +1 weapon and ((+1 armour or secondary weapon) or (3 lesser items e.g. minor potions, scrolls))
Lower orders: peasants, outlaws, barbarians, outsiders: 300 gp and one substantial heirloom magic item (+2 bow, spear, or wand, say, hopefully with a peasanty crafty feel)
Witches of the Flying Assembly: 1,000 gp and wand-broom. 3 lesser scrolls or potions.
Fighting Friars* of Jaser : 3 gp. medium armour and shield, sturdy clothing, one +1 mace, three lesser scrolls or potions. Holy paraphernalia, vestments, books. Standard adventure gear. Mule. Anything else that seems reasonable for survival as a fighting

Setting Class: Arthurian Wizard Variant

The wizard cannot use spells from either of the flashy , powerful conjuration or evocation schools. In return for focusing on subtler , setting appropriate magic the Arthurian wizard can prepare TWO additional spells per spell level each day. ONE per level must be from the divination school and ONE from the enchantment school.