Since I haven't said this yet, I should really emphasize it now: Gather Information and Knowledge skills will be highly useful in this campaign. Gather Information will keep you up to date and help you find accurate information about events in the city (both the actions of players and the other occurrences taking place throughout the city). Knowledge skills (particularly local, nobility, history, and religion) will give you more information about the city and its people, and may be instrumental in discovering the true nature of the Paling.
The following is information all characters likely know.
The City of Mazda
Spoiler
Mazda is the capitol of the kingdom of Nelra, and is by far the oldest and largest city in the known world. Its climate is very hot and humid during the day, but becomes more tolerable in the evening.
The city was built by some ancient civilization or other. Educated characters will know more about its history. It is commonly known that the Aran religion (or cult, as many consider it) is mostly comprised of the descendants of those who originally ruled Mazda.
The city (and kingdom) is ruled by the king and a council of sorts, comprised of roughly forty nobles who own large pieces of property in Mazda. The current king, Lanza III, has been in power for 18 years. His reign has been unremarkable to the common folk so far, but everyone who's old enough remembers the anti-Aran violence that erupted near the end of the reign of the last king, Nelssen X. It was the biggest chaos to strike Mazda for a long time, surpassed only by the current events.
The north side of the city is on the coast of the Holmic Ocean. The city itself is disorganized and difficult to navigate for foreigners; literally thousands of years of inhabitants have made the layout haphazard and crowded. Most food is imported from farms farther inland, but there are many famous gardens in the wealthier parts of the city.
Until the recent events, the city's nightlife was fairly lively; many people go about their business in the evenings or just after dusk to avoid the heat. The Paling affected many people caught out of doors on the first night as a result, and naturally all of the city's considerable number of homeless have turned as well. Many people have since been afflicted as well; even an open window or cracked door is apparently enough to allow the Paling into a house.
Almost all of the windows in the city are now boarded shut, as it has been discovered that cloth curtains (for those who have them) do not seem to prevent the Paling. Pales commonly stay hidden during the day; conversely, no sane human will be caught outdoors past late afternoon.
The Three Churches
The city of Mazda has three major churches: the church of Ara, the church of Ban, and the church of Nel. The majority of citizens are Nelan; a sizeable minority worship Ban and are called Banra. Arans are a small but still noticeable population; they are considered second-class citizens due to the conflicts between them and the ruling Nelans.
The following is common knowledge.
Ban
Spoiler
Banra (a word that can refer to both the religion and its practitioners) is a faith indigenous to the lands across the ocean to the North. Banra worship the god Ban, depicted as a corpulent man seated in the sky who feasts daily on the stars. Sunrise is referred to as Banfeast (as he has eaten the stars) and sunset as Banfast (as his new feast is being prepared. Banra are common enough that these terms have become slang among many citizens of Mazda. Interestingly, Banra also occasionally refer to the stars as people; the "starry host". Festivals are held yearly in reverence both of Ban and the starry host.
Ara
Spoiler
Arans worship the god Ara, the Mighty One. Ara is believed to be the only true god; all non-Arans are called heretics and idol-worshippers. Ara teaches a complicated doctrine of humility, grief, sacrifice, suffering, and wrath; it makes little sense to most outsiders. There are only a few thousand worshippers of Ara left in the city, making it the least common of the major faiths. There are no festivals to Ara; the only major celebrations involve sacrificing some of the little food the Arans have and praying loudly in their native tongue for long periods of time. Arans are treated as lower-class citizens; their faith clashes strongly with both the Banra and Nelan religions, and the Arans are vastly outnumbered. They are also considered somewhat backwards and primitive, as their traditions come from times before the Nelra Kingdom.
Nel
Spoiler
Nel is revered as goddess by most citizens of Mazda. She is known as The Daughter and Mother, the Virgin, the Maiden, and the Lady of Hope. The Nelan religion grew from the Aran; Nelan teaches that the god Ara was slain two thousand years ago by the "evil one", and the goddess Nel was born from his blood. Nel sealed away the evil one, but the world could not be healed. Massive festivals to Nel take place in weeks before and after the winter solstice and summer solstice; it is said that Ara's battle with the evil one began on the winter solstice, and ended with Nel's birth on the summer solstice. References to this battle and Nel's birth are commonplace; "Hold strong in the fight" is a common farewell, and "The Lady comes swift" is a common blessing. Women are generally held in high regard, though the kingdom is still patriarchal; it is practically blasphemy to disrespect a woman, particularly an elder and especially a woman with child.
Alignment in Famine
Put simply, your law/chaos and good/evil alignment has little significance in Famine. Instead, I'll be keeping track of your standing with various groups and individuals in the game world to determine everything that normally would be decided by your alignment.
There may be many factions in the city eventually, but there are only two major factors you need to concern yourself with: your reputation in the city as a whole, and your standing with each of the three major churches.
City Reputation
Spoiler
Your overall reputation in the city will be affected by the factors you'd expect: kill people and you'll be feared and hated, save people and you'll be admired. It's really very intuitive. The city will interpret your actions in the context of the current events, though; if you kill a person in the first day, while there is still order in the city, you will be a feared and wanted murderer, but if you kill one person in a day a while in, long after any semblance of law has failed (and that may or may not happen, depending on you), you will be feared, yes, but compared to everyone else roaming the streets you're probably just average.
This element of your reputation will behave pretty much as you expect, but there is one thing that may interest you: the better known you are in the city, the easier it will be for other players to gather information about your actions. This may or may not matter to you.
Church Reputation
Spoiler
The second thing for you to worry about is your standing with each of the three churches: Ara, Ban, and Nel. Your standing with the different churches will be influenced by your overall reputation, and each church will have different deeds and characteristics it respects as well; you can learn more by talking to church officials and especially by investing in Knowledge: Religion. If you have a religious character, you may start in good standing with a church, and possibly poor standing with another.
The way you all interact with the different churches will have an impact on the events in the city. Furthermore, any divine magic that is used in this setting will have its effectiveness based on the user and the target's standing with the church whose deity is being invoked.
It's really that simple, and quite intuitive, but it's something for everyone to be aware of.
A Pale needs roughly 5 pounds of human flesh and blood every day to be adequately fed. After two days without sustenance, the Pale must make a Constitution check every day, with a DC of 10+1 per previous check, to avoid taking 1d6 nonlethal damage. Once the Pale takes any nonlethal damage, they are fatigued until they next eat.
If anyone would like to link backstories or anything like that, now would be the time. In a little bit, I'll post the IC introduction, with a short blurb for each character, and after that you'll be free to sandbox as you choose.
As you go about your business, I'll be managing the in-game time. Near dusk, the Banfast bells will ring throughout the city. Any humans who do not find shelter before sundown will become Pales.
After sunrise, the Banfeast bells will ring to let you know it's safe to go out. I will also let you know if there are any rumors going through the city which you may be able to learn with a gather information check.
This will largely be sandbox, but there will be various events taking place throughout the city which I have already planned. Their outcome can be greatly influenced by your actions.
Did you ever answer my question about the crime rate? I believe I sent it over PM but I don't remember if you ever answered or not... so, if you don't mind, I'll be asking again:
How high is the crime rate during the day? And night?
Thanks for asking, that's something everyone should know.
Historically, the petty crime has been rather rampant throughout the poorer districts and the slums, but the guards don't actually bother with those crimes and few are reported anyways.
The primary duties of the guards are to patrol the market districts, protect the churches of Ban and Nel (Aran churches get little attention), and prevent crime in the upper-class areas of Mazda.
There have been no guard patrols whatsoever past the Banfast bells for the past few weeks. Guards are now arresting Pales seen in the daylight, because of the recent killings.
People won't look at you too hard during the day if you take precautions, because you're a member of the guard. At night, no one who cares that you're a Pale will be outside.
Not long after, he returned his armor to the guards, finding that his power created an invisible and weightless chain shirt, and his weapon, having a better one now. He explained the situation to the guard captain, only to find himself fired. The guard didn't want a pale on their forces due to the image that might bring to them.
Unless you state the captain of the guard wouldn't do that. In which case, I'd change my background up a bit.
Unless you state the captain of the guard wouldn't do that. In which case, I'd change my background up a bit.
That is absolutely my mistake, sorry. Yes, since you told the captain you are a Pale you would have been fired. The guard will still tend to ignore you as you are a former member and could cause bad publicity if brought to light. I will quickly provide you with another prompt.
A question. How are pales identified by the guard? I did a disguise check because I thought all pales have white markings. Am I mistaken? Are they just identified when using their powers?
"Have you heard the old myths about vampires and their kin, child?
They fed on flesh and blood just as we now must,
Yet the old tales say they had eyes of red and sharpened fangs.
Look at me, child.
I have feasted a hundred times since the moon first rose,
Slain more men than you have ever known.
I have no fangs. My eyes are brown.
I am simply human, exactly as humanity was meant to be."
Everyone exposed to the moonlight has developed strange splashes of white on their skin, and been afflicted with a gnawing hunger that no food can sate. Hundreds of well-fed men and women died of starvation in those few short weeks.
The above is in the same post. They seem to contradict each other.
Hmm... good point, I missed that. I guess they have splashes of white but other than that, are normal. But is it across the whole body or just in a random location? That's my question to MM.
My apologizes, guys. Pales all have splotches of white somewhere on their body, but other than that there are no visible effects; no red eyes or anything like that. The white splotches can be anywhere on the body, your discretion. Some Pales are very obvious, some are not. It varies greatly.
The amount of eating a Pale does, and the amount of hunting done at night, can cause the white to become more pronounced.
Is there anything in the shop worth selling besides the sword on Tordora's Sheet? I need to know whether I should tell the guy to look around or to place a commission.
There's very little in stock at the moment. He'll have to place a commission, and if you intend to use blacksmithing as a source of income, you'll have to start producing some stock.
A Pale needs roughly 5 pounds of human flesh and blood every day to be adequately fed. After two days without sustenance, the Pale must make a Constitution check every day, with a DC of 10+1 per previous check, to avoid taking 1d6 nonlethal damage. Once the Pale takes any nonlethal damage, they are fatigued until they next eat.
Samuel has it on his chest and belly. This development makes my choice of False Visage less useful. Oh well.
Edit: Also, is there a chance for a map? Doesn't have to be a masterpiece. Just showing where everything is.
Mundane disguises can be useful for other reasons.
And yes, working on a map in my free time. I'll try to get it up as soon as I can.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Linguz
MM, can you add this to the first post:
Yep, no problem.
There is one other thing. I've been making several rolls in secret using the srd's dice roller. Is that alright with you, or would you prefer I make my rolls on the forum's dice roller? I give you my honor that I will not tamper with the results either way.
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