Celena - Muskets, Magic and Machiavellia

[sarez]

So here's a campaign setting I created a year ago to run a fantasy musketeer style game in.

First off the teaser story and the map:

The small town looked quite peaceful from up here on the craggy mountain path, nestled in the bosom of the valley where the tributaries of the Troun and the S’velle joined. The night lights glinting from windows un-shuttered in the warm evening air made the place appear like a cluster of sparkling jewels hung from the purple ribbon of the river waters.. and there, just north of the centre, the brightest jewel of them all – the grand mansion of the L’vesque family.

Above, not even a wisp of cloud obscured the stars or the moon in its smallest sliver, and for a moment it seemed as though the sky itself wore a bright blue smile as it looked down.

A breath of wind suddenly stirred from the pass behind and the horse beneath him snorted quietly. Shaking himself from his reverie he looked down to the dark form of the captain leaning on his musket on the road beside him.

“We can afford no mistakes Captain, for each one might stand against our future successes.” He looked back towards the sleeping town. “Half your men to the north with me, the others to the south with you. Take the garrison first, then see to the rest of the town, I will deal with L‘vesque and their familière.” He looked back at the captain, holding his gaze for a moment “..and tell your men again, we hold the commoners no ill will, but for this task we can spare no mercy... tonight no-one must be left alive.”

... ...



_{(click for large view)}

[sarez]

A brief overview of Celena and a few other nations of the world.

Nations.

[Malachi Lemont]

What a beautiful map! I checked out the Orbis RPG page and I was amazed to see some more stunning illustrations. Great work. I also enjoyed reading your description of Celena - it really gave a good impression of France in the time of Louis XIV. I think this is a fascinating period of history that makes for great RPGs. One question - Are Celena and Orbis part of the same world?

[sarez]

Hi Malachi,

No they're not on the same world, the Orbis project is something me and my co-writer have been working on for a while now. It's a complete rules system and setting and we're going to kickstarter very soon. :)

Celena on the other hand was a setting I created to run for my RPG society. I used a slightly altered version of D6 fantasy system. Basically the same but with slightly altered weapons and a completely new magic system.

I'll post the stuff in this thread soon, but first here's a more detailed account of the ten provinces and ruling noble houses of Celena

Provinces & Great Houses

[sarez]

A brief note concerning money in Celena...


(Click for larger view)

A number of different coins are in common use in Celena, five are produced by Celena's own mints:

1. Couronne (Gold) 1c = 80g
2. Noble (Gold) 1n = 40g
3. S’eclat (Silver) 1s = 20g
4. Paysan (Silver/Copper) 1p = 4g
5. Guiet (Silver/Tin) 1g = 1g

Plus a number of foreign coins are also found in wide enough circulation as to be accepted as currency without the assistance of a money-changer.

6. Dorusse (Gold: Espiyon) 1d = 160g
7. Russe (Gold: Espiyon) 1r = 80g
8. Escu (Silver: Espiyon) 1e = 8g
9. Volg (Gold: Pruska) 1v = 20g
10. Marx (silver: Pruska) 1m = 5g
11. Oro (Gold: Tagaria) 1o = 40g
12. Hilder (Silver: Oustany) 1h = 30g

The gold Noble is the most common larger denomination coin in use, whilst the Paysan and Guiet are both widely used for common day to day transactions.

A loaf of bread and a mug of watered wine cost around a Guiet each, and a common labourer can expect to receive a Paysan for a days work.
The average wage paid to a Celenan infantryman is one Noble per week, a skilled musketeer could expect half again or even double.

[Sabeki]

Very detailed. I can't download the Nations thing on my phone but the setting seems to be detailed, like that map you have.

[sarez]

Hi Sabeki,

It's a PDF file, but I can put it in a different format like .doc or even .jpg if your phone can see them?

[sarez]

So as I said, this setting used a slightly altered version of the D6 fantasy system. One of the things I changed was weapons and armour, to bring it more in line with the musketeer period I was aiming for...



A list of more common Arms and Armour in Celena

[Sabeki]

Hi Sabeki,

It's a PDF file, but I can put it in a different format like .doc or even .jpg if your phone can see them?

Switched to laptop and read through most of it. The Nations are Prussia, Russia, Scandinavia/Netherlands, England, Spain/Portugal and England, right?

As for weapons, the round penalty fro reloading looks fair and gives a good reason to use melee weapons other than nostalgia.

[sarez]

Switched to laptop and read through most of it. The Nations are Prussia, Russia, Scandinavia/Netherlands, England, Spain/Portugal and England, right?

As for weapons, the round penalty fro reloading looks fair and gives a good reason to use melee weapons other than nostalgia.

Yep the nations are all 'inspired' by a real world counterpart! :)

As for the weapons I did quite a bit of research on how many rounds a trained musket-man could fire off and came up with these numbers, certainly in the period I was trying to represent you'd almost certainly not get chance to reload and fire again if your opponent was within charging distance of you!

[sarez]

As well as the armour and weapons I created a magic system for the game:

Sorcelli

[sarez]

Concerning Ancient Languages.

After a lot of thought I settled on two 'classical' languages:

Old (High) Celenan. Around 700 years old, this was the language that all the formative writings of Celena were written in.
It's not used now, and though it is the root language of modern Celenan it would be almost impossible for someone who had not studied the language to pick out more than a handful of words they recognised. Still taught a little in its written form amongst noble families (usually as a purely academic exercise), but given that pretty much any text of worth will have been translated into modern Celenan, even that small usage is falling out of fashion.

Neray. Older by a century or more is Neray, the beautiful but complicated language of the Serayn faith.
Basically the ancient and archaic form of Nathay (though like old and modern Celenan these bear little resemblance to each other now). It is used universally for the text of the Barabas (the holy book of the faith), and in almost all other Serayn texts and communications. It is also spoken by its priests, though many could in truth only manage to parrot through high mass and recite prayers rather than hold an actual conversation in it.

[sarez]

..and a Calendar

[Palanan]

Your map is gorgeous, but I can only see the small version. Do you have a link to a full-sized map? Or did I miss it somehow?

[Malachi Lemont]

Gotta love the French Revolution Calendar. It's a shame it never caught on.

[sarez]

Thanks Palanan! ... you should be able to click on the small map above to be taken to the full sized version?

[sarez]

Gotta love the French Revolution Calendar. It's a shame it never caught on.

Yep - you certainly know your stuff Malachi!

[Palanan]

Well, when I hit this link--

http://www.orbisrpg.co.uk/LTonnerre/CelenaSm.jpg

--it takes me to a small image, but it's an isolated image file in the /LTonnerre folder, with no link to anything else. You've provided a pathway to display the small image file, but it's not part of a web page that would allow a URL in the code.

[sarez]

Well, when I hit this link--

http://www.orbisrpg.co.uk/LTonnerre/CelenaSm.jpg

--it takes me to a small image, but it's an isolated image file in the /LTonnerre folder, with no link to anything else. You've provided a pathway to display the small image file, but it's not part of a web page that would allow a URL in the code.

OK - sorry Palanan!
I don't know what I've done but for me that's not the link I've got in my post above, I don't know enough about web stuff to tell you why ???

Does it work to the big pic for anyone else?

..in any case the web address for the big pic is http://www.orbisrpg.co.uk/LTonnerre/CelenaLg.jpg

Please let me know if this gets you to the right place!

[sarez]

A campaign later I can happily say that I enjoyed this setting hugely.

We ended up challenging the Veilien for their powers, and engaging in a huge political battle to free the masses...

...so we started (if not finished) our very own revolution!

[Sabeki]

You know... Assuming you made that nap, I don't suppose that you'd be able to cook one up for Project 6, would you?

[sarez]

You know... Assuming you made that nap, I don't suppose that you'd be able to cook one up for Project 6, would you?

Yep, map is all my own work! :) (as is all the other stuff here)

I might be able to help you out with a map for your project, pm me and let me know what exactly it is you need?

[Sabeki]

Sure. Thanks a lot, we needed a map for the setting.

[sarez]

Sure. Thanks a lot, we needed a map for the setting.

I've got a lot on because I've just launched a Kickstarter but I do LOVE making maps... so I reckon i can do something for you! :D