Fire and Steel [WorldBuilding Questions]

[Odin the Ignoble]

I'm planning campaign that will take characters from our modern era and put them into a fantasy setting.

The game itself will use both D20 Modern, and 3.5 for the mechanical aspects.

Setting Info
Although the players wont know this until their characters have had a chance to explore the area, the setting is going to be based roughly on our history.

Ancient Greece was instead Ancient Draconian.

Elves will replace Romans, including the Ancient Elven Empire's Rise and fall. In the time of the setting, the settings equivalent of Italy will be the home to a hand full or warring Elven mercantile states and the seat of the Holy Elven Church and the Elven Patriarch. The Church itself worshiping the Orcish god Gruumsh, and his only son Ilneval.

The Holy Elven Empire will be populated with humans and German speaking Dwarves.

France will be populated by humans and "Hill Dwarves" which will end up being a homebrew sort of half Dwarf. With the humans primarily concentrated in Normandy.

England will have a Human Norman sitting on the throne. I haven't quite decided what fantasy race will populate the British Iles, but I might just say that they're all humans.

Spain will be the home of religiously enthusiastic halflings, who are at the moment trying to purge their lands of the Orcs/Moors. The Inquisition is working to purge anyone who doesn't worship Gruumsh in the right manner.

The Portuguese will be Gnomes.

The Orcish empire will take the place of the Ottoman empire. Mostly so I can have Orcish Sultans. Orcs will get a mechanical change as well representing a group of tough wiry desert nomads instead of strong unintelligent brutes. Also so I can include "There is no God but Gruumsh, and Bahgtru is his prophet."

Small Horc(Half Orc) settlements dot the area. A result of the the destruction and scattering of many Orcs following the destruction of The Grand Temple of Gruumsh.

In the event that the players ever make it that far:
North America is populated by Satyrs, and Centaurs.

South America is populated with various lizard races like Lizard Men and Kobolds.

The Far east is going to be populated with Ogres, Goblins, Hobgoblins, humans, and Oni.

Just about everywhere else is going to be populated with humans with perhaps a smattering of other fantasy races.

Other setting stuffThe setting is going to have some hombrew, mostly to represent whatever the players decide to try and recreate in the world they've been transported too.

The setting is also going to be low magic. Not E6, but low magic in the sense that magic is scarce, but not impotent. A noble family probably has a few magical weapons and armor, but they are trans-generational artifacts. There are plenty of wizards around but even the court magician of a major Kingdom probably isn't above level 8. Even the Pope/Patriarch of the Holy Elven Church, is probably only around level 16, and some of those levels are probably tied up in Aristocrat.





Questions:

A. Does anybody have a rough list of the costs of medieval items? Dnd has some pretty screwed up ideas of costs. Namely things like a 10ft ladder being cheaper then two ten foot poles and the like.

I'm looking mostly for the costs of mundane items, not magical ones.

B.I've also got some questions on Languages. I don't really like the way that the standard DnD setting does them. Investing the time and energy necessary to pick up a new language should be more arduous then investing a single skill point, that and it doesn't leave any room to represent people who only have a rudimentary grasp of the language.

Here's what I'm thinking so far. Let me know what you think.

I was thinking of having languages cost 3 points plus an additional point for literacy. You could buy the points up gradually for example.

1. Rudimentary Grasp- The Character would know all the important words like "Run" and "Surrender" but would have a difficult time understanding more complex ideas. They would have to make a check to understand what's being said or to communicate with the language. The difficulty of the check would be relative to the complexity of the statement or question. Failure would mean they don't understand, or in some cases misunderstand.

2. Firm Grasp- The Character has no difficulties communicating in day to day situations, but they might miss out on subtleties like humor, double ententes, or stumble over the more scientific or educated terminology. The character would have to occasionally make checks if they needed to understand more difficult or complex parts of speech, but will almost never have to make a check to get their point across. You need at least this level in a language in order to pick up literacy.

3. Completely Fluent- A character with this level of understanding grasps the language as well as any native speaker. They grasp all the complexities of the language and never stumble over things like verb tense or subtle uses of humor. Normally even a person who knows a language fluently has an accent that can show others their native language. With this level in the language, a character can make a DC 10 bluff check to hide their accent or adopt an accent from another language the character has invested points in.

Additionally, I was thinking about adding two new feats:

Linguist: A character with this feat automatically adds one point to any language skill they have invested points in.

Master of Tongues: A character with this feat automatically gains the Completely Fluent level in all languages he has invested points in.
Prequisite: Linguist

I was also thinking about adding in free bonuses to languages if you've invested points in a similar language. For instance someone who was Completely Fluent in Spanish, might get a free Rudimentary Grasp of Portuguese.

C. I'm expecting gunpowder to be introduced to the setting in short order.

I was thinking about having Cannons represented by a Save or Die rather then having them simply deal damage. The main reason for this was that I want even low level characters to have a chance of avoiding death via cannon, and to make them dangerous even to mid level characters. What do you think?

[Wyntonian]

This looks pretty interesting. I like your take on orcs, and I think i might just borrow your language system, if you don't mind.

[Machinekng]

First of all, I'm definitely stealing your language system, or using something similar.

However, I don't completely understand how many ranks it take for each level of fluency.

My ideas for a similar language system went something like this:

DC: 11-Simple words and phrases a semi-educated tourist would know
DC: 14-Rudimentary conversation. Can write and read simple senences using a limited vocabulary.
DC: 16-Able to carry on a casual conversation with not too much difficultly. Has a decent grasp on grammer. Can write and read about informal topics.
DC: 20-Able to carry on a formal conversation. Can read and write about non-complex topics
DC: 25-Able to talk about rather complex topics and understands obscure technical terms. Is more fluent than some native speakers. Can read and write on any subject

As for the campaign setting itself.

I like the orcs, but I don't really understand why the elves worship Gummsh (I do see the parallel with real-world religion, but that really doesn't explain it)

As for England, you could make it a very primal area, full of Shifter and Lycanthropes.

[Omeganaut]

I'd have the elves worship their normal god, or maybe the halfling god, have some dwarves converted and others worshipping a pantheon. There should be a few (representing Jews) who worship a different god such as Boccob or such. However, each god goes by a name that can be translated to a different language to mean the same thing. (gruumsh in Arabic would mean correlian in Latin and boccob or whatever in Hebrew). Also, have some horse-riding goblins represent nomadic horsemen from the steppes. Russia may be made of gnomes with bonuses to animals or survival instead of crafting. Illusions would still make perfect sense. There are my thoughts on the topic, I hope they help.

[Odin the Ignoble]

This looks pretty interesting. I like your take on orcs, and I think i might just borrow your language system, if you don't mind.

Thanks. I thought the Orcs/Turks went well together. The whole idea that the Turks were "a threat to all Christendom" meshes with the preconception that orcs are a constant threat to civilized lands.


First of all, I'm definitely stealing your language system, or using something similar.

However, I don't completely understand how many ranks it take for each level of fluency.

My ideas for a similar language system went something like this:

DC: 11-Simple words and phrases a semi-educated tourist would know
DC: 14-Rudimentary conversation. Can write and read simple senences using a limited vocabulary.
DC: 16-Able to carry on a casual conversation with not too much difficultly. Has a decent grasp on grammer. Can write and read about informal topics.
DC: 20-Able to carry on a formal conversation. Can read and write about non-complex topics
DC: 25-Able to talk about rather complex topics and understands obscure technical terms. Is more fluent than some native speakers. Can read and write on any subject

I like the DCs. How exactly would your system work?



As for the campaign setting itself.

I like the orcs, but I don't really understand why the elves worship Gummsh (I do see the parallel with real-world religion, but that really doesn't explain it)


In the setting, Gruumsh is the first deity who's worshipers claimed that he was the only real god.

The idea is that a sect of Gruumsh worshipers, converted a large number of people throughout the Elven Empire, most notably an Elven Emperor who made it the state religion.



As for England, you could make it a very primal area, full of Shifter and Lycanthropes.

Hmmm, I'll have to steal that one.


I'd have the elves worship their normal god, or maybe the halfling god, have some dwarves converted and others worshipping a pantheon. There should be a few (representing Jews) who worship a different god such as Boccob or such. However, each god goes by a name that can be translated to a different language to mean the same thing. (gruumsh in Arabic would mean correlian in Latin and boccob or whatever in Hebrew).[/qutoe]

I might do that. Although most of the European world would probably worship Correlian.

The Horks are supposed to be Jewish, they're supposed to be semetic like the Orc/Turks. Although I'm not sure what language they would use.

[quote] Also, have some horse-riding goblins represent nomadic horsemen from the steppes.

I was actually thinking of having Ogres take the place of the Mongols. Their physical prowess taking place of the mongols mobility. They'd currently be ruling over a massive but recently conquered empire of Goblins. Although the timeline wouldn't match up.


Russia may be made of gnomes with bonuses to animals or survival instead of crafting. Illusions would still make perfect sense. There are my thoughts on the topic, I hope they help.

I was thinking of having Eastern Europe being populated with Necromancers. The local peasantry constantly in fear of being "drafted" into the nearest undead army.

The idea might be a little high magic for the setting. But i kind of like it because then I could add an East Orthodox/Undead Friendly sect. Not to mention a certain Bloodthirsty Vampire Noble who's intent on keeping the Orcs out of Eastern Europe. Although he'd be out of place by about about 4 hundredish years.

I kind of wanted Halflings and Gnomes close geographically so that their physical similarities would make more sense. They're also the reason that I added Hill Dwarves so there would be a sort of slow transition from dwarves to halflings and gnomes.

[Machinekng]

I like the DCs. How exactly would your system work?


Simple. Speak Language is a skill like any other. To learn a language, you have to put ranks into the skill, with each language having its own skill. Putting a rank into the skill would represent the character picking up some of the language. The d20 roll would be like a knowledge check; it would determine if a character picked up particular phrases/terms/grammatical conventions. Instead of bonus languages, a character would recieve so many skill points (probably 2) per intelligence bonus to put into a speak language skill. A smart person may have picked up smatterings of several languages, but it's incredulous for one to be fluent in several languages.

I also feel that dead or obscure languages should require a feat to learn.

The only thing I would need to figure out is DCs, the one I posted are just estimates.

I'dalso say that if you have 5 or more ranks in speak language, you recieve a +2 synergy bonus to diplomacy and intimidation checks on native speakers of that language.

Finally, I advocate the removal of the Common language. It makes no sense that every sentient race can speak and understand a single language. In common's place, there would need to be regional languages, or something similar.

[erictheredd]

On the subject of languages.....

What will the time travelers speak? People who complain about shakesphere being hard to understand should realize he played a large part in creating modern english ... this is a ways before shakesphere's time.

How common will the ability to read be? most kings couldn't read, let alone commoners.

and on time differences in general....

what is the difference in magic levels between modern and medieval? What do the characters know about magic?

also, has the equivalent of the byzantine empire fallen yet? it fell in 1452 (the very last part), definitely after your rough time setting.

about costs.....

the middle ages didn't use money for the most part. The feudal system was the result of a king needing to reward loyal servants in a setting where money didn't mean much. When money came back into wide spread use it was in specific areas, such as Italy. While gold was valuable, most people would have to journey to the Mediterranean to spend their gold.

Clothes should be worth more, they were very difficult to make (only the rich had more than one outfit). Think about how hard something would be to make. a ladder is not difficult unless you got a good one. Ten foot poles should be essentially free. a metal lantern (which may be anachronistic) may be worth a bit more. anything that requires precision is expensive. don't think in terms of what it is worth today, think "if I had to make this by hand how long would it take", and "how much am I paying for precision". For armor and weapons keep the prices high, particularly for large blades. They were valuable stuff.

[Odin the Ignoble]

On the subject of languages.....

What will the time travelers speak? People who complain about shakesphere being hard to understand should realize he played a large part in creating modern english ... this is a ways before shakesphere's time.

How common will the ability to read be? most kings couldn't read, let alone commoners.

The characters will all get English as a free language, and they're free to take any others they want. If they're in a place that speaks an ancient form of a language they speak, they'd get either a 1 or a 2 depending on hoe nice I'm feeling. Whatever happens they're going to have a hard time comunitcating at least at the beginning.



and on time differences in general....

what is the difference in magic levels between modern and medieval? What do the characters know about magic?

also, has the equivalent of the byzantine empire fallen yet? it fell in 1452 (the very last part), definitely after your rough time setting.


By Modern Setting I meant a Real World setting. So they'd have no experience with magic, other then what they've read in fiction.

That's a good point about the Byzantines. I don't know how I missed them. I'd probably fudge time a bit so that the Ottomans are preparing to siege Constantinople around the time that the players would find out about the area.

Since Byzantium was largely Rome's successor state, would you think Elves? Maybe Dragonborn or something similar?



about costs.....

the middle ages didn't use money for the most part. The feudal system was the result of a king needing to reward loyal servants in a setting where money didn't mean much. When money came back into wide spread use it was in specific areas, such as Italy. While gold was valuable, most people would have to journey to the Mediterranean to spend their gold.

Clothes should be worth more, they were very difficult to make (only the rich had more than one outfit). Think about how hard something would be to make. a ladder is not difficult unless you got a good one. Ten foot poles should be essentially free. a metal lantern (which may be anachronistic) may be worth a bit more. anything that requires precision is expensive. don't think in terms of what it is worth today, think "if I had to make this by hand how long would it take", and "how much am I paying for precision". For armor and weapons keep the prices high, particularly for large blades. They were valuable stuff.

Thanks, that's pretty useful actually. I'll keep that in mind.

[erictheredd]

well, to do Byzantium properly it needs to be a balance of Roman, Greek, and Russian influences.

Russian because Byzantium was to Russia what Rome was to France and Germany. The two were culturally, religiously, and politically allied. The Empire was functionally Greek (I think it was their official language), but they did everything in the name of the Romans.

You could have Dragon Born who call themselves elves and practice a refined/restrained form of necromancy. It makes for an odd combination, but the place doesn't fit into common views of history, and was a transition from many ancient cultures to more modern ones.

oh, and are the characters supposed to run adventures in places or are they supposed to rule the world? If I were a character in this setting I would totally pull off a "Connecticut Yankee in King Aurthur's Court".

[Odin the Ignoble]

It's up to the players how the game goes. If they want to just get home, then it'll probably just be more of a string of adventures. If they want to upset the medieval order and become champions of the peasantry, then it'll probably be sort of like 1632 or the The Cross-Time Engineer series.

Or alternatively if they're just feeling power hungry they could bump off some local lords and set about forging their own evil empire.

[Omeganaut]

I feel like this game could be set in the early 1400's or late 1300's. This would allow players to have France as a place where local barons have generally more influence than the actual King, where England is battling wild Scottish barbarians, the remnants of ancient Welsh druids, and possibly some Norweigan raiders. Italy of course is feuding city-states. Spain is still in inquisition mode as well as trying to conquer the southern quarter of Iberia. Germany is feuding small nations. The Teutonic order is trying to bring their god to the pagan Lithuanians. The Ottomans and Mongols are starting to seriously threaten the rest of Europe, and Byzantium is falling apart.
In Africa Mali has strong power, but soon Songhai will contest this. Southern Africa is run by Great Zimbabwe.
In central America the Aztecs are taking over modern Mexico from other Americans. Some evidence is that there was a powerful merchantile alliance of city states in central USA that was more advanced than the natives found by the English.
In Asia, China is probably being invaded by mongols, who when finished will turn their attention west. Japan is isolated, India is the center of a battle between Muslims and Hindus.
Basically there are plenty of conflicts that can be used to get the PC's involved in changing the world for the better. They can fight the Mongols, help settle America, fight the slave trade, defeat the Ottomans, be surprised by the inquisition, and basically change world history. With a little encouragement I'm sure the PC's would love to help better governments over barbaric governments.

[Odin the Ignoble]

You know, I think your time range might work better.

I was planning on plopping them down in France, and if they want to go about world building, they'd probably be in better straights as far as the current situation.

If they can find a Baron to be their patron, they'd have a pretty good chance of building a big enough power base fast enough that they wouldn't have to worry so much about getting crushed before they can even start.

Not to mention the factionalization of the rest of Europe would make it easier to expand.

[Omeganaut]

Also, if you really want to mess with your players, right before they figure out what the world is, reveal that a major driving force in their time travel was the Spanish inquisition. After all, Monty Python references are always appreciated.

[Aux-Ash]

A. Does anybody have a rough list of the costs of medieval items? Dnd has some pretty screwed up ideas of costs. Namely things like a 10ft ladder being cheaper then two ten foot poles and the like.

I'm looking mostly for the costs of mundane items, not magical ones.

I can't give you hard numbers on anything but some things that might help:

First of all, like mentioned, money is practically not used at all. Only in cities is it of any real use. Serfs tend to "pay" their tithe with raw goods and service, rather than money. Nobles trade in favours or credit instead (individual smiths and the like are employed, merchants get the fief's production of iron instead of cash). In the cities though, it constantly circulates. Most people having only a little, the biggest expenditure being food for their family and tax.

Cloth is a luxury item, and whole cloth exceptionally so. In a way, people would consider buying new clothes like most people today would buy cars/homes (but with really unfavourable lending conditions). For relatively rich people, it'd be a once-a-year purchase... at most.

Shipping is primarily done by coast-hogging galley-variants. It's expensive, dangerous but really swift. It's the only practical way to travel far.

In the cities, the guilds control the trade. They don't just allow just about everyone in and they keep the prices fixed. The blacksmith by river-bridge will be just as expensive as the one by st. Whatevers cross. They protect their own (and run the city together with the merchants). They do however uphold a degree of quality and most respectable guilds have a stamp of quality on their products. Stuff is affordable mind (depending on what social class is expected to consume it)
In villages the local craftman either doubles as a small-time farmer or work in exchange from food by the villagers. They'll be trained at creating tools and stuff you'd expect to be needed in daily life. Not weapons/armour (that's a separate trade).

Purple is the perogative of the emperor and blue of kings. The other colours are cheaper (except certain tones and shades). Normal people will not wear just browns.

Most regular food is a handful of coins at most. Nothing that would require you to count past a dozen. Large game, eels, geese and rare animals are noble food only.

Weapons and armour is insanely expensive. Commoners could technically afford it, but it's like a massive investment. It will also be prohibited to wear it openly in most cities (especially armour). Unless of course you're part of a noble household.

In general, as a good rule of thumb. All prices can be calculated by how many days it takes to make it and the cost to acquire the material. The minimum cost is thhe price of the raw material plus for meals for everyone in the workshop (the master, his family, 2-3 journeymen and 3-6 apprentices).

As for raw materials. Iron and lead is "cheap" (except high quality ore), others are not so much. Many of the materials in the periodic table will be unheard of or impossible to produce effectively. Stone is expensive, wood is cheap (high quality will go to shipbuilding though). Clay and bricks depends on the area. Leather is -very- expensive.

Oh... and this one might be important: the symbols of mathematics will largely not have been created yet. The greek mathematics (based entirely on geometry) will still be considered the height of mathematics and expressed primarly though riddles. :smallwink:
This means that if your players try to use modern maths to try to explain something... even priests and architetcs will probably not be able to follow them.


C. I'm expecting gunpowder to be introduced to the setting in short order.

I was thinking about having Cannons represented by a Save or Die rather then having them simply deal damage. The main reason for this was that I want even low level characters to have a chance of avoiding death via cannon, and to make them dangerous even to mid level characters. What do you think?

To be honest, if you're hit by a cannonball you die. End of story. It's a rather cruel move I think to allow the players to get hit. It's just a luck thing after all, so unless they're blocking the muzzle with their body I don't see why they should ever be hit.

Also, if your players are the ones introducing the gunpowder. Make sure to make them painfully aware how unreliable experimentally-made gunpowder weapons would be. There's absolutely no way to check if the barrel holds impurities that would make it explode. No way to ensure the compounds used are pure.

Also... if you put them later than the mid-14th century then gunpowder weapons is already starting to enter circulation.

[Odin the Ignoble]

Thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated. Some of it I knew, but allot of it was new to me.

I'm not planning on putting the players in front of a cannon, it's mostly a mechanical thing for the people their likely to be firing at. But if the enemy gets cannons, they should understand their odds if they deiced to charge them.

The point about the math is one I didn't think of. lt'd definitely make things more difficult if they wanted to describe things in anything but the broadest terms.

[Jallorn]

if you're giving thought to the Americas, you should give some thought to Africa and Asia. Who are the Japanese? What about the Chinese? The Monols?

And if the Celtic peoples are human and the Germanic peoples dwarves, then the English should really be a half-human half-dwarf people.

[Odin the Ignoble]

I was planning on populating Africa with a large number Tribes and nations all with

The English, and French are going to have both Humans and Hill Dwarves. Which will be the settings half dwarves.

The mongols are gong to be nomadic tribes of Ogres. More like Warhammer Ogres then standard Dnd ogres. They'll be one of the few groups also to have gunpowder.

China will have been a Goblin Empire, which has just recently been conquered by an Ogre Khan.

India will have different Hoboblin's and Orc's rehashing the conflicts between Islam and Hinduism.

I haven't quited decided on Jappan yet. Although I'm thinking about having ogre like Oni allong side trieflings and asimar.

[Omeganaut]

I like tieflings and aasimar for Japan. If you do let the PC's get to china, then having china currently under invasion would probably be more exciting, however if you don't want them over there early, it might be better to have the mongols start to invade the middle east, with one of their main targets Baghdad. Also, the mongols rarely used gunpowder, only when they could not take a fortified city in an easier way, mostly they used other siege weapons. Even that was rare because of their reputation for slaughtering cities that defied the first call to surrender. Also, in this era, the only gunpowder weapons available would be cannons, and mostly used for ships (one gun on a galley, bigger ships not really ready yet) or sieges. Unless the PC's intentionally put themselves in the path of a missile, the ball would probably miss. And the PC's certainly couldn't fire those cannons without serious training.

[Jallorn]

I like tieflings and aasimar for Japan. If you do let the PC's get to china, then having china currently under invasion would probably be more exciting, however if you don't want them over there early, it might be better to have the mongols start to invade the middle east, with one of their main targets Baghdad. Also, the mongols rarely used gunpowder, only when they could not take a fortified city in an easier way, mostly they used other siege weapons. Even that was rare because of their reputation for slaughtering cities that defied the first call to surrender. Also, in this era, the only gunpowder weapons available would be cannons, and mostly used for ships (one gun on a galley, bigger ships not really ready yet) or sieges. Unless the PC's intentionally put themselves in the path of a missile, the ball would probably miss. And the PC's certainly couldn't fire those cannons without serious training.

Yeah, the Mongols are more known for horsemen and archers. Genghis Kahn revolutionized ranged warfare.

And as far as Japan, I would actually suggest having a duality between them and China. So maybe Aasimars in Japan and Tieflings in China? I only suggest those roles because of the Kamikaze, or Divine Wind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze_(typhoon)). So it seems that a divine association to Japan would fit that better. But that might have some negative connotations for China you probably don't want.

[Dr. Roboto]

Just a note on running the campaign:

You're literally assigning ethnic groups a set of stereotypes. Make sure you have a talk with your players before starting to reduce the chance of any of them feeling like you're being racist.
i.e., you have replaced the Christian/Catholic god with Gruumsh. Seeing as in normal D&D, Gruumsh is a pretty evil dude, any Christian players might feel like you're knocking their religion. While I know that that isn't what you have in mind, it could be misperceived.

Other than that, sounds like a great campaign. Good luck running it!

[Odin the Ignoble]

Just a note on running the campaign:

You're literally assigning ethnic groups a set of stereotypes. Make sure you have a talk with your players before starting to reduce the chance of any of them feeling like you're being racist.
i.e., you have replaced the Christian/Catholic god with Gruumsh. Seeing as in normal D&D, Gruumsh is a pretty evil dude, any Christian players might feel like you're knocking their religion. While I know that that isn't what you have in mind, it could be misperceived.

Other than that, sounds like a great campaign. Good luck running it!

I wasn't planning on letting them know that the characters are in a Semi-Historical Setting, although some of the history buffs might pick up on it.

I'm also going to make sure that all the NPCs are believable characters, not caricatures of racial/ethnic/religious stereotypes. So, all in all it shouldn't be too much of a problem. But I'll keep my eye out for any problems.

Once the game gets off the ground, I'll make sure to stop by and let you know how it's going.

[erictheredd]

Map: if you use a map that gets the geography right you'll need dense players to ignore where they are

[Omeganaut]

Good point Eric. Make sure your maps are inaccurate, whimsical, and tough to read. Look at some older maps from the period, they tend to actually have "here be monsters" and such on them.

[Wyntonian]

You might want to consider doing a PbP here. I'd definitely play this.

[Haldir]

I must say that I love the idea of Save or Die for ballistics. It intuitively represents the actual revolution that gunpowder sparked.

[Odin the Ignoble]

Map: if you use a map that gets the geography right you'll need dense players to ignore where they are

As far as maps go, if/when they get one, it'll be something like this:

http://www.mapsanddirections.us/medieval-map-770.jpg


@Wyntonian
I set up a recruitment thread, but got surprisingly little interest.

@Haldir
That's kind of what I was going for. Nothing really stands in front of a cannon and lives. Short of maybe a Tarrsque.

[Wyntonian]

Really? If you do another one, I'll get in on that. I can think of a couple other people who might be interested too. PM me if you do one.