This is just a little extended micro-setting campaign pitch, tying in to my discussion yesterday.
You are Road-Wardens in the Wulfmarch. By the Prince-Elector’s Law, this means:
- You have the right to bear arms openly.
- You have the right to ask any on the Prince’s highway their business and destination.
- You have both right and responsibility to interfere in any – and only –situations that threaten the innocent, that disrupt traffic along the highway, or that subvert the Laws of the Prince-Elector or the Empire.
- You answer only to the Prince-Elector and his agents – at least in theory…but power, in the real world, is complicated.
You are Outsiders in the Wulfmarch. By virtue of the ancient Wolf-Curse, this means:
- Most locals depend on you, but many of them dislike you.
- Many people just want to be left alone, and most of them deserve it.
- Some people want your help, and many of them deserve it.
- You might be able to make things better, if you don’t make them worse. Unfortunately, there are several definitions of ‘better’ around here.
- In these woods, there are wonders and horrors beyond your understanding.
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| "Not to worry lads ... I'm sure them Road-Wardens ain't nigh..." |
I love the duality between the status of characters in the eyes of the law versus the status of characters in the eyes of the society.
ReplyDeleteI am curious; does this take place a renaissance society or more medieval?
Thanks! In many ways I'm imagining this as an alternate parallel setting to the Warhammer Fantasy Old World - so a bit of a flexible mishmash of late medieval and early modern, including renaissance. My intent is to write these in ways that could probably fit anything 'matching' central Europe between about 1350 and 1550.
DeleteOkay, I read your previous post, but wanted a time era.
DeleteActually reminds me of a seating I had on the boiler plate a few years ago. Essentially royal monster hunters in a no-man's land between two Empires in the far north. Think Finland north.
Might come back to it one day, but reading your last two posts remind me of it.
Yeah, I imagine this could work well for that.
DeleteHave you thought of looking into Jacques Callot's Les Grandes Misères de la Guerre for inspiration? I feel like some of his pieces could just be throw as scenarios for the PCs to react to.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Grandes_Mis%C3%A8res_de_la_guerre
If you can read French though, the article on their wiki is more extensive:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Grandes_Mis%C3%A8res_de_la_guerre
Very interesting idea! I'm checking them out now. These mostly present a state of conflict and disarray that (so far) my little anecdotes are hinting at/foreshadowing (that is, in 'my' version, a local petty war is likely coming, but not here yet). That being said, these are really evocative. As you suggest, I can imagine just handing a visual to the party and saying, "as you come around the bend, here's what you see in front of you..".
DeleteThanks!