The Status of Bryn Mawr and sundries

     Ive done the bulk of my posts on the blog about the world containing the land of Bryn Mawr. However having finally gotten to run Lamentations of the Flame Princess I've discovered the system I want to use for my world, as it definitely lets me play up story elements that tie into the Great Cataclysm. So until James Raggi gets the non limited edition of LoFP out, or I just create a pdf so the Players Guide, Referee's Guide, and Magic book are all ready to print out and hopefully have bound, Bryn Mawr is on hold.

     Which leaves me at a quandary of what do I run at GASP? Top options are

1) Call of Cthulu - I have several time periods I can run, and I got the rule book at the prize table at the con.
2) Savage Worlds - still need to re read the damage section, but the rules are cheap and flexible and Ive got a batch of campaign ideas
3) Gamma Worlds 2e - I have it, I love it, why not run it?
4) Dark Heresy - people enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, though this time people are making thier own characters
5) Alternity - good skills game but it might have limited appeal.

Before I go and toss the list on the GASP forums I have to see about how much space we will have for rpgs next year - I may end up finishing my Ambush Alley minis and run some 15mm counter insurgency play

Gaspcon Retrospective

not quite dead yet

Well with GASPcon behind me and one class finished I'm hoping I'll finally have more time to post on here, though given my poor time management skills I'm trying to not get my hopes up.


The convention has come and gone and I actually managed to play in a game I didn't schedule, though sadly it was Star Wars Saga edition with the worst parts of 4e D&D grafted on, in my opinion.
I plan to post about each of the games I ran, what worked and some notes about what didnt

plans, being made and those awry

Well like the title says things aren't quite going according to plans.

So onto changes.

1) I'm going to start an additional blog for my Battletech games. Into the Valley I plan on using the blog primarily for the Succession War era mercenary campaign I'll be Gamemastering the end of the month, along with occasional random posts as I work to fully paint my collection of Battletech miniatures.

2) I really need to schedule my geeky behavior better so I can get more done. Suggestions are welcome!

3) My initial plan for handling Bryn Mawr is not working as well as I hoped, leading me to think about something more like one page write ups of different topics.

back to work - religious thoughts

Well life has gotten in the way, again. But back to developing Bryn Mawr.

Thoughts about the gods
1. They do exist, but they manage the affairs of world with minimal direct actions.
2. They do not fight amongst the family but conflict between the family and the old ones is rather common
3. The family represents different aspects of a general philosophy, which is one of reasons honor is viewed relatively similar between races.
4. There is no afterlife in the land - the tribute a person has after they die is how they are remembered
5. Priests of the family are common and popular among the human tribes, but priests who serve a single diety are respected but considered odd.

A different way to play

In the massive amount of podcasting, much of it gaming related, I listen to to get me through the work day I've come across the concept of play by comment. Kind of similar to forum based play by posts, play by comment has the DM make a blog post setting the scene and the players respond by comments. This is a really interesting concept

We're all one big family or the Gods of Bryn Mawr

Well it seems that my plan to post something short every day is not going quite as planned. It is interesting to notice that the blog is turning into a development blog for my world building experiment - which I may have to split into a separate blog.

Anyways onto the meat of the post

The Gods of Bryn Mawr
One of my problems with most traditional fantasy games is how the gods are handled. In a game where clerics can perform miracles, which when you read the oldest versions of games like D&D is what clerical spells should be like, the religion and gods they serve is barely explored. These divine beings that give the power to change the world are reduced to minimalist descriptions that seem to exist in a vacuum from all the other divine beings. And I dont like that...

An idea I do like is from the novel the Curse of Chalion, where the gods are 4 members of a single family with one being outside the group who is responsible for everything that doesnt fit into the portfolios of the 4 main gods. So blatantly stealing that concept I'm going to write the religion of the core humans of Bryn Mawr as a collection of 5 divine beings; mother, daughter, father, son and the outsider.

Axla, the goddess of Flesh and Change - goddess of all the aspects of flesh like; healing, illness and mutation.She is directly inspired by this article by Zac over at Playing D&D with Porn Stars then just shifted some into my vision of the world I want to present. Oh and yes the blog has the adult content warning for a reason.So I plan to shift her a little towards milf status, so she'll be beautiful but not in a girlish way, but very much the ripe, fertile woman image of the traditional fertility goddesses.She'll most definitely rule over the growing season.

The Allfather - Im going to draw heavily from Odin here, so the Allfather is as much feared as worshipped, even the goddess of war is more well liked than he. He will have power over the winter, which should make him atleast somewhat a death god, in addition to covering those things which are expected but unpleasant. However to maintain the double edged theme I want to stick with he will also be the god that gives a man his courage, much like Crom does in Conan stories.

Master of the Hunt - The young man of the divine family, Im most unsure of what I want with this god. I want to cover either hunting, farming or trade and push him towards covering the spring season, the time of rebirth, not in creating but rather renewal.

Goddess of War - I just enjoy the image of the young female goddess who is the image of blood thirsty patron of blood and conquest. A major influence will be the Morrigan of Celtic legend, perhaps even as far as including the dark and disturbing images that go with that. The goddess will be ruler of harvest (much like war can be thought of as the harvest of man)

The Outsider, Hoarden The Other Seer-

Among the dwarves is a practice of ancestor worship. More tonight

Kobolds have their own pantheon, but it bears a suspicious similarity to the human pantheon

Kerpans are an animistic people with ancestor heroes

And there will be dark and terrible beings that some of the evil races worship.

Master listing of ponderings

Here is a break down of my ponderings into major topics to attack

1. The effects of magic
1. How does magic directly affect the economy?
2. How does magic affect agriculture?
3. How does magic affect food sources?
4. How is magic like polymorph treated in the legal system
5. Someone who wants to do you harm counts for the protection from evil scrolls
6. Are there any special rules or folk lore on how magic might or might not work?
2. What are the real world parallels of the cultures of the races? 
1.  What are the grains and staples of the races?
2.  what are the clothes of different groups like?
3.  What sort of architecture does each race favor?
3. Food
1. Ice houses - how is food preserved among the major races of the world? How is it prepared?
2. What sort of drinks (especially alcoholic) do the different races make or brew? For example Rat Lager of the Dwarves
3. Are there any cows or are deer, elk and fish the main sources of meat?
4.  What founder crops are there for each race?
5.  What are the unifying cultural meals of the races
6. What spices are in the land?
7. Does millet or sorghum exist?
8. what is drinking like
9. Do fish ponds exist in the land?
10. Whats Breakfast or Childs ale like? How common?
11. Do people eat seafood? How often and what sort?
12. Are there deer parks?
13. Building a deeper story through the judicious use of food
14. How does food and drink differ among the races?
15. are there religious taboos involving food, like Islam and alcohol or Judaism and pig products
16.  Whats food like? What sort of food?
4. Natural Events
1. Is there an Aurora in the world? How far south does it show, what colors?
2. How common are tornadoes?
3. are there Equinox ceremonies?
4. are sacrifices offered in times of natural disasters
5. Religion
1. The gods as a family unit in BM
2.  offerings and sacrifices to the gods
3. Is there an incarnation of the memory of the land?
4. What is the religions of the land like? Dualistic, monotheistic, or pantheistic?
5.  Is Borron treated as a great betrayer or a cleanser of iniquity? Are there differing views? Does anyone worship him?
6. are there sacred mountains?
7. The cunning man of a town lives beside a sacrificial tree, on which hangs animal sacrifices and tokens
8. How common is Human Sacrifice?
9. What is the role of Anchorites in the land?
10.  do the gods need appeased or hornored
6. Government
1. What are the standardized units of the kingdoms?
2. Are there city states in the world?
3. Are there any military colonies?
4. "He will keep who can" philosophy amongst humans
5. What sort of mines are in the land?
6. Are imperial gifts, ala the Chinese, in the world? Gifts that are part bribe part grease to maintain the government, known as pander diplomacy
7. What is the link between crafts and government?
8. What role do titles have in the land?
9. What are taxes and dues like in the land
7. Economy
1. Carved items as treasure
2. what is the basis of the economy of the the land? Barter, coin or a mix
3. What amount of the houses in the world are also storefronts and shops?
4. Are there fairs in the land?
5. How are markets handled?
6. How rare are diamonds?
7. Cattleraiding in BM
8. Symbols found on coins - perhaps marking purity and weight of coins
9.  Are there merchant houses?
10. Are there bloodfines?
8. Game specific
1. Division of control in BM - players control the story and the DM controls the setting
2. How are words found in BM pronounced? Pronunciation guide for BM
3. How is family treated mechanically
4. Allegiances instead of alignment
5. Could BM be on a ring world?
6. What is the feel of BM?
7. Are there any dungeons that are not normal, for example a crashed spaceship in the ringworld idea, but no one knows of it as a ship
8.  do props have a place in BM games? Propinomicon blog
9. How are family feuds handled?
10. How heroic are PCs expected to be?
11. the importance of genealogy and who you are related to
9. How big are the fields of the world? Perhaps the size of an American football field
10. Is there Ergot? do people know what it is?
11. The "Town Cryer of Carnegie Towers" as an NPC.
12. Mental illness, how common and how is it treated?
13. How common are taverns? Are they just places to drink or something more
14. How is death and burial treated by the races
15. Skiing in the land?
16. Where are the canals from the Great Empire?
17. What is know about the lake that exists at the site of the former capital of the Great Empire? What is weird?
18. Do the Nephillum have a place in the game? The children of man and angel.
19. does the fairy realm exist?
20. Do chariots have a role in the world?
21. whats paper like in the world?
22. Are there healing wells? Is there worship at these wells?
23. Are there fae and do they live in the hollow hills? What lives in the hollow hills instead?
24. What symbols are worn by different groups in combat to avoid fraticide
25. Do swords tell of their achievements and uses when cleaned?
26. Is there a Plain of Pillars from some ancient battle?
27. Are there faerie doctors?
28. What is the role of the giant in the land? Are they in decline, have they become corrupted?
29. Is there an equivalent to the Fomori? No
30. What role do Doorkeepers have in the land?
31. Cave filled with pictures of headless beasts and dancing figures - what does it mean and who made it?
32. A Cutter goes to kick a rock down on adventurers and stubs his foot instead. As he hops around in pain his companion laughs and then brains the wounded Cutter, throwing his body down at the adventurers.
33. statuary of the past in the land
34. tendays instead of weeks
35. ceremonial weapons in the land
36. roads

Ponderings on Bryn Mawr pt 3

Wow... I really need to start writing on the previous ponderings before I keep adding more to the list...

Anyways, here's some more thoughts;

• Cattleraiding in BM
• The gods as a family unit in BM
• Symbols found on coins - perhaps marking purity and weight of coins
• statuary of the past in the land
• Carved items as treasure
• what is drinking like
• what are the clothes of different groups like?
• what is the basis of the economy of the the land? Barter, coin or a mix
• tendays instead of weeks
• ceremonial weapons in the land
• roads
• offerings and sacrifices to the gods
• How does magic directly affect the economy?
• How does magic affect agriculture?
• How does magic affect food sources?

One of the reasons I keep trying to pound out these short posts is to get in the habit of posting, and consequently writing, a little bit each day during the week. Let's see how that works

Ponderings on BM pt 2

A short list of more random thoughts on the setting

• Building a deeper story through the judicious use of food
• How does food and drink differ among the races?
• are there religious taboos involving food, like Islam and alcohol or Judaism and pig products
• The cunning man of a town lives beside a sacrificial tree, on which hangs animal sacrifices and tokens
• "He will keep who can" philosophy amongst humans
• do props have a place in BM games? Propinomicon blog
• Cave filled with pictures of headless beasts and dancing figures - what does it mean and who made it?
• Could BM be on a ring world?
• What is the feel of BM?
• Are there any dungeons that are not normal, for example a crashed spaceship in the ringworld idea, but no one knows of it as a ship
• A Cutter goes to kick a rock down on adventurers and stubs his foot instead. As he hops around in pain his companion laughs and then brains the wounded Cutter, throwing his body down at the adventurers.
• Division of control in BM - players control the story and the DM controls the setting
• How are words found in BM pronounced? Pronunciation guide for BM
• How is family treated mechanically
• Allegiances instead of alignment
• Someone who wants to do you harm counts for the protection from evil scrolls