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Party Foul
2010-09-10, 02:59 PM
Du Dydd Sul
Du Dydd Sul is an idea for a campaign that my friend and I came up with. This is more low fantasy and realistic than the normal D&D setting, so please don’t criticize it because there aren’t wizards blowing peoples heads off around every corner.
To make it more realistic, we totally changed the way gods work. In fact, there is no proof that there are gods in this campaign. So anything ranging from spells to items to races that are considered “holy” or “unholy” have been removed or modified to fit this setting. Clerics have been removed because if there is a god in this campaign, he doesn’t interact with anyone. So a cleric praying for a pillar of fire to fall on someone would be ridiculous. There is a church like organization and the priests of this organization are just the NPC expert class with knowledge history jacked up (because knowledge religion is gone too).
Another change is that Alignments mean a lot less. If you are good or evil, that only influences how you act and what kind of person your character chooses to be. Spells such as protection from/detect evil/good or anything of that flavor have been eliminated. and now paladin can't detect evil at will or do any of the holy stuff, we have decided to get rid of them too. Basically any spells relating to alignment have been removed or modified.
Also death and injuries are major things now. Being resurrected is much harder and there are very few people who can just regrow limbs for people. A new class that is being added called the alchemist can surgically attach new limbs but there are drawbacks and its a painful process.
We changed the whole flavor of magic. First of all, magic is now a VERY rare thing. You don’t walk down the street and see someone get roasted by a crazy wizard without batting an eye. If someone casts a spell it is a HUGE deal and it is so rare that many commoners don’t actually believe in magic, although they believe in witchcraft, which is considered manipulation of evil spirits by people who don’t take time to understand magic. Wizards are getting das boot also because 1st of all if you could just study for magic it wouldn’t be all that rare, and 2nd of all because they were overpowered anyways. There are still sorcerers and bards (with sorcerers being almost unheard of and bards fairly uncommon) and there are two other magic classes that I will cover later that will be added. All casting is spontaneous and basically takes the form of how sorcerers cast because you don’t pray to a god for spells anymore.
Many races just don’t exist anymore such as goblins, orcs, half-orcs, ogres, angles, demons, and basically everything of that flavor. Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves, Half Elves, Halflings, and Humans are the main and basically only playable races now.
The languages of the eliminated races don’t exist anymore, but there are two human languages added, one with a Welsh flavor and the other with an Russian flavor.

Ok so what changes were made?
- Wizards, druids, clerics, and paladins are gone.
- Monks and barbarians exist, but keep in mind that this is a city and therefore not ideal for either of them... so they are very rare.
- Variants on classes such as the urban ranger and Thug are options (suggested for our campaigns).
- Sorcerers lose their familiar in exchange for a rage-like ability, the difference being that they cast levels as if they were a level higher when they go into the rage.
- Quite a few spells have been removed or changed.
- Cold iron has been changed and given a much more meaningful role. If 1 pound of cold iron is touching your flesh, you can’t cast any spells or use any special abilities (such as a free runners teleports or a bard’s music).
- Classes added: Alchemist (the craft alchemy has been changed to craft chemistry), alchemedial warrior, free runner, witch, and prestige class witch hunter.

The World
Du Dydd Sul
If you can imagine a mix between Batman’s Gotham city and London, that is a very close description of the city Du Dydd Sul. It is sprawled out over a huge area and the streets are illogical patterns. It also has pockets of giant skyscraper-like towers and everything is made in the style of 14th and 15th century European architecture. The streets are an average of 10 to 15 feet wide except some of the more major ones and all of the buildings are crammed close together creating dark alleys. Most of the city is made up of buildings about 3 stories tall with a shop, workshop, or Inn on the bottom floor and apartments above that. The weather in Du Dydd Sul is normally rainy but not necessarily cold, but there is almost always a cloud cover. Basically what you get is a sprawling city with creepy streets, tall buildings, and crowded with many interesting characters.
The inhabitants of this city are mostly humans that call themselves Golav. The Golav speak a language based on Welsh as well as common. The city was originally called Dydd Sul, which translates into “The Sun” which is ironic because it rarely ever gets any sun. Dydd Sul is and has always been incredibly important for trade because it is right on the river Lleuad, which translates into “The Moon.”
The Golav recognized the importance of trade with other races and have special trade relationships with Elves and Dwarves. There is an Elven district in the city and Dwarves are commonly seen throughout the city. Other than humans, Halflings are the most commonly found race in Du Dydd Sul and they blend into the society seamlessly. Gnomes are welcome in the city too, but there are fewer gnomes in the city than most other races.
The prefix “Du”, meaning dark, tainted, or shadowed has only recently been added onto the names of Dydd Sul and the Lleuad by the Golav because of a hostile take over that will be addressed later. The Golav feel that their city has been wronged especially after having been so welcoming to everyone. The names will stay as such in the eyes of the Golav until the Arswyd, which directly translates into terror but refers to the other human nation who conquered them, have been removed from power.



Arswyd
The Golav dubbed the name “Arswyd” for their conquerors. The Emperor, Giffca, took the throne and started funding intense research in the field of Alchemy. He eventually made an alliance with a nation of gnomes, and together they managed to make significant breakthroughs in Alchemy. The first major thing they created was the Alchemedial Engine, which took an alchemist near it channeling a spell into it to work. With these engines they created Zeppelins and a while after they created a train system, but the trains came about 30 years later. Alchemists had always been able to adapt the human body, but an alchemist named Izuka figured out how to actually infuse someone with the power to grow and adapt body parts. These people were called alchemedial warriors and became feared killing machines. Now, the alchemedial warriors are used as a feared police force upholding the law and as assassins for the Arswyd. These new developments in the field of alchemy along with military tactics incorporating them made Giffca unstoppable.
After taking over most of the continent including Dydd Sul, there was an assassination attempt on Giffca. After being burned and killed, an Alchemist named Nergal did the seemingly impossible, he brought Giffca back to life, but because the art of resurrection was relatively untried, he went senile and ended up becoming a puppet to a council of corrupted high-ranking people. Now, Giffca basically sits on the throne drooling while the council acts in his name. The council is made up of five people: Almedha, Nergal, Olsson, Dheginsea, and Haar. Basically the council cracked down on any freedoms of conquered countries. (I wont get into all of the politics now but If you all want me to just post a comment.)
Arswyd limited the freedoms in the countries in several ways. One of them is by putting grain, money, and military personnel taxes on all conquered areas. There are is a colloseum like event going on where all traitors/ accused witches have to fight to the death as a form of entertainment and the winners get taken to a government training facility (this is where im going to have my players meet). Also, to maintain order, magic was made illegal unless used for the government. I am going to repeat that because it’s very important for this campaign. Magic is illegal unless used for the government. That means sorcerers, witches, alchemists, and free runners are to be arrested on sight unless they work for the government. (note: bards are not considered magicians because everyone assumes its due to the music, and although free runners don’t use magic, they are not understood and cause enough problems to be added to the list.) So if a player decides to play one of those classes, any commoner who finds out that they are Gwratch (which means an illegal magic user) is expected to report it. Also, because magic is so rare, many people don’t know or don’t believe that it exists.
Not only did the Arswyd make magic illegal, but they also kept anything magic related a highly classified secret and took young sorcerers to a “brainwashing” type camp to avoid risk. (note: if your character is a sorcerer you can choose to have gone through that but then run from the government or to have just been missed by the Arswyd.) They developed a variation (note: prestige class) on the alchemal warrior called a witch hunter designed to hunt down magic users.
Alchemal warriors are used as a police force causing fear in cities and killing anyone who defies the government. Arswyd has a particular interest in Du Dydd Sul because it is so big and strategically located.
(note: although this is not designed to play as part of the Arswyd, you are welcome to play from their point of view)



Aes Seren
Aes Seren literally translates into “The Righteous Shield” and is a resistance group in Dydd Sul. There are different ways the DM can run this, but the way we are going with has about 38 people who dedicate their life to it and other people who help out when they can. The leader of Aes Seren is Heyden, and older human who was once a fighter, but is renown for his wisdom and intelligence. He has six main officers: Liela, Nasir, Oscar, Astrid, Sephiran, and Legault. (I wont go into all of the details now, but I can describe the resistance in a spoiler later if you want, i just dont want any of my players reading it.)
The basic tactics of Aes Seren are to oppose the Arswyd whenever possible while staying as stealthy and undercover as possible. We are using basically a mission system and you can ask for help from other people in the resistance and some are more friendly some less so and the players actually have to work with the members of Aes Seren who often can give them advice or help.

Oustide people
Free Runners- There are six free runners in Du Dydd Sul. All of them are chaotic but they tend to side with the resistance when it comes to choices, but their first choice would normally be to escape in a dangerous situation. These six free runners all know each other. They don’t really have ways of contacting each other, but they can recognize each other on sight just because they have met before. The Arswyd hunts the free runners down because of all of the problems they cause, but since there is no way to recognize a free runner on sight and because they move so fast, it’s almost impossible to catch them.
Other than the six free runners in the city, there is one free runner working with the Arswyd and others around the world that might stop by for a while. The one working for the Arswyd is the only lawful free runner and his goal is to eliminate and resistance groups. The interesting thing about this character is that he is a very well kept secret, he reports only to Dheginsea and very few other people know that he is a free runner. (What my plan to do with him is to eventually send him into Du Dydd Sul and have a giant fight between all of the younger chaotic free runners and him where they are all teleporting around the city to ridiculous places causing a lot of damage and following each other.)
Witches- Witches are very hard to find in the city just because they are almost never there. But some witches have been known to come to the city and many to fly around in the cloud-cover over Du Dydd Sul. Its important to remember that not all witches are evil, some are, but its evenly split. Even if a witch herself isn’t bad, she is always looked upon as evil by normal NPCs. Witches take on an apprentice when they are middle aged that they basically treat like a daughter. (In some rare cases a son.) The witches either steal or find a very young baby and raise them to be witches too, and most apprentices follow the alignment of their trainer.

Communists- There is also a communist movement going on throughout the continent, It is led by Zihark and the only other major person to know is Raijaion or as Golav call him Daranov (thunder). Raijaion is renown for hunting down and slaughtering any alchemedial warriors he finds (including PCs so be careful!). He is one of the most powerful sorcerers known and he is a master of disguise.

Elves- Elves are viewed as exotic but very respected foreigners. Elves are originally from a different continent and most of them are still on the other continent. Despite that, there have been many movements to include them into the human continent like making an elven district in Du Dydd Sul. Elves are much more magical than any other race, even though magic is still rare for them. (Their favored class is now a bard.)

Half Elves- It is considered very lucky to settle with an elf if you are a human, but it is rare because elves tend to avoid commitments like a marriage especially when their partner would die hundreds of years before them. Having said that, half elves are normally respected in Du Dydd Sul.

Halflings- Halflings are like the gypsies of this land except for there are way more of them and they aren’t looked down upon. (Well yeah, they are but only in the literal sense.) They wander around and they are cheerful and happy, but because of the new restrictions by the Arswyd they tend to be more sympathetic to the Golav people.

Dwarves- Although dwarves do not outwardly oppose Arswyd, they harbor anyone who is running from the Arswyd and secretly help Aes Seren. Dwarves are known for being bankers and very rich, although the being rich part isn’t necessarily true.

Gnomes- not much about gnomes has changed.

Humans- There are two main races of humans, the Golav and the Arswyd. Golav tend to have fairer skin, blonde hair, and light blue eyes while Arswyd tend to have darker skin, eyes, and hair.

Free Runner- http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8347238#post8347238

Alchemist- http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153645&highlight=Alchemist+Redux

Alchemedial Warrior- http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9330435#post9330435


Ok, this is missing a lot of information and i have developed it without really updating this too much, but let me know what you all think of this and ask whatever questions you have and i will try to answer them.

Dante & Vergil
2010-09-10, 03:14 PM
I like your sorcerer idea, with the rage.

Party Foul
2010-09-10, 04:13 PM
thanks haha, we were just trying to get rid of the familiar because walking around in this city with a hawk following you around might seem a little odd... and since barbarians had a small part we decided to take their thing and pass it on to the sorcerer

The Big Dice
2010-09-11, 05:03 PM
It's been a long long time since I spoke any Welsh, but this inspired me to dig out my trusty Gymreag - Saesneg dictionary. That's Welsh to English...

Du Dydd Sul
This actually means "Black Sunday." Du being black, Dydd being day and Sul being sunday. Du Heulo would be "Black sun" or possibly Du Heulwen (Black Sunshine) might be better if you want something that literally means "black sun."


The Golav dubbed the name “Arswyd” for their conquerors.Arswyd translates as "terror, horror or dread. Nice touch. Shame Golav fan't be translated into Welsh, due to Welsh not actually having the letter V. Golaith has a similar sound to Golav and that means "evade."


Aes Seren
Aes would be "shield" and Seren is "star." It could be translated as "shield of stars" rather than Righteous Shield.

Lleuad you got dead on, that does in fact mean "moon."

Overall, I'd give the use of language a 7/10. I'm going to avoid a long lecture on Welsh pronunciation, simply because without being able to hear the words and work out shortcuts for how to say them, it's a waste of time :smallamused:

The world background is quite interesting too, with some nice touches. I'd definetly suggest doing a little research on Welsh history, though. It's been occupied territory (in the minds of the Welsh, at least) for a thousand years or so, and particularly in the Middle Ages, was a hotbed of rebellion and banditry. It sounds to me like Aes Seren could use a Llewelyn ap Gruffydd or Owain Glyndwr figure.

Party Foul
2010-09-11, 05:48 PM
haha thanks! i wasnt expecting a welsh lesson, but it much appreciated! :)
We basically are making the culture like france during the nazi occupation but with some differences... we are basically taking things from most of the major places in Europe for some part of the campaign. and actually the elves are modeled off of japan, just because we needed some outside trading influence