Is anyone running a campairn based in Melderyn?

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The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

I am now....funny the direction players take. I am going to steer them in the direction of Rethem soon

IMC the players legged it down the Genin trail from Geda to Laket after some unlucky and injudicious moves in Geda keep. It was approaching winter, so they have 'wintered' in Melderyn. One character, an ovidshe shek-pvar travelled to Chyrefal chantry for research; the others centred around a Laranian priest character who used Harden and Thay as a base for persuing a temple/legal case against the newly created Bishop of Chybisa. From there the characters are following adventure leads to Cherafir; and are just pulling up to 'the alienage' with rumours of curfews, emabargoes and closed city gates travelling in the smoke....

There are Canon descriptions of Harden (Melderyn) and Chyrefal (in Harnlore...8 I think) and a good Fanon description of Laket in 'Keep on the borderlands'. Cherafir and Thay are in Cities of Harn.
This makes travelling from Chybisa through mainlaind Melderyn to Thay and beyond very well backed up and adventure full; a common facet of lovely lovely Harnworld.

I have never really adventured in Melderyn before; and will probably soon leave..so any help I may provide will be limited.....

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..

What time of year are they arriving in Cherafir?

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The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

My primary storyline is based out of Shomner and Telza manors in the Holosi Hundred. The feel is a mixture of Deryni, Tolkien, and the American frontier by way of Conan against the Picts. The Bujoc are the good Indians, the Solori can't decided whether to be good or bad, and the Lady of Paladins are the army troops trying to kill all the Indians and running roughshod over the peasants. Add in bandits, gargun, ivashu, the Earl of Harden prepping for an eventual rebellion, and the interfering busybodies known as the Council of Eleven, and you have it.

My secondary storyline, which is much less developed, is in Cherefir and features the politics between various churches, nobles, and chantries.

On the secondary campaign Could I ask what time of year it is and what year?

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The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

Fascinating. Are you using my Deryni house rules?

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The Melderyn Campaign

They are arriving in Cherafir in very early spring..........

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..

Say about the 27th of Nuzyael?

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The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

Unfortunately, the key word is storyline, not campaign. I haven't actually played any RPG in about 7 years, and it's been about 17 years since I did any real role-playing of note. I used to try and find a group to join, or to create a group with me as GM, but could only find AD&D players. Eventually I gave up, and no longer have the time to game regularly even if I could find players. I still buy the Harn stuff and continue developing my pHarn. Someday before I die I hope to finally publish my stuff, but finding time and energy to transfer all the ideas in my head to a coherent manuscript is difficult. Note to all: children may be the best way to get rid of extra time and energy, but buying a farm arguably works just as well.

I do have your Deryni rules, and keep them around for reference and inspiration. But, I prefer the Hero system, and so if I GM I'd use that. I'd be happy to play HM in someone's campaign, but don't have enough experience myself to feel comfortable as a GM. For me, it's more the feel of the Deryni stories and magic use that I go for, than the implementation. I like that magic is rare, not combat effective, not always popular, but is used openly, especially by the nobles. In my pHarn, all elves have psionics to some degree, but humans only rarely. Humans claim it is from elvish ancestors, while the elves know that *never* happens, and say the humans were touched by Siem.

Not a campaign, but a storyline. As mentioned in another post, I don't actual get to roleplay anymore, but instead tinker with my pHarn. I am slowly developing the Holosi hundred and characters there. I have developed a timeline of the area that incorporates the settlement of the Nuem, Lady of Paladins being granted manors, the Solori crusade, the Solori resurgence, the downfall and rebuilding of the Lady of Paladins, and the eventual rebellion of the sons of the Earl of Harden. All the big picture stuff is done and I'm now working on detailing local stuff that happens around the main characters. I seriously doubt I'll ever do an actual novel (I can plot and describe events well, but my dialogue needs work), so my plan is to eventually release it all as a campaign setting with extensive notes.

The Cherefir storyline is a campaign I once tried to start, but that never got off the ground. It never got beyond some basic notes, and I only have a broad idea of the direction, as it was to be decided mostly by player interactions. No set timeline or end result was ever worked out, so I don't have anything that could directly help you. Unlike the Holosi stuff which does not contradict canon at all, this storyline has the potential to do so depending on the implementation of details. In short, as punishment, the Azeryani Agrikian church has sent an unpopular high priest/grandmaster type to the temple in Cherefir, with orders to bring it back to the proper outlook, and increase the number of worshipers. In my pHarn, while Agrik isn't banned in Melderyn, it is unpopular, and the church is very very quiet (maybe hidden) and rather small. Think shrine, not temple. This new priest tries to change that, which is not a popular idea with many of the other churches and most of the nobility. Even within the church the reformation from a Rethemi to an Azeryani outlook is not universally accepted. Toss in numerous mages and chantries operating openly in Cherefir, their arguments with Save K'nor priests and scholars-mages about the appropriateness of open magic use, arguments over the level of influence certain churches have within the country, and internal conflict within the Laranian church about the Solori crusade. The campaign idea was lots of politics, back-room wheeling and dealing, and clandestine temple and chantry warfare. All players would be important people, but any combat would be handled by underlings off-scene in a PBeM sort of way.

An interesting notion - I might borrow it as the elven view IMC if you don't mind.

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The Melderyn Campaign

In my P-harn elves were created by the Earth Masters from human stock by a combination of advanced technology and arcane art. When the Earth Masters left they tried to hide this by powerful psionics and magic but a residue remained which is why elves are unconformable around Easth Masters sites ect. Perhaps we should threat this topic as a new thread.

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The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

Sure thing. After all, I've taken the Matasum - Huthor Thabel connection from Roland and incorporated it into mine. We all get ideas from each other, and all are better for it.

I'd like to limit this topic to campaigns based in Melderyn so I've started a new topic on the publulation of Kethira where we can talk about elves etc.

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The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

Moved to the appropriate forum.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

They are approaching Cherafir on about the fifth of Nuzyael I think....

You must have some interesting factoid on this date...please enlighten us all

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..

Peter the Skald wrote:
On the 27 of Nuzyael a ship with the hull form of a Karune and the strangest rig anyone had ever seen arrived at Cherafir. She had two masts both of which had an extra piece on top and what looked like a third mast sticking out of her bow at an angle of 30 degrees. She had yards crossed on the forward extra mast only and her other sails looked like venyn rig which had been cut off at the mast and attached to it with the main yard on the bottom. She was able to sail into the dock without help from the boats which "help" other ships to dock. Three persons left the ship as soon as she docked. One, her pilot by the look of him, went to the pilot's guild hall; another, a pudgy lad of about eighteen wearing glasses, went to the guild of Arcane Lore; the third a boy of fourteen, went to the mercantyler's guild hall and wrote on the board there: "110 tuns whale oil offered at 6d a gallon in tun lots only dock side the Maid, apply supercargo."
(this price is less then the usual whole sale price at Cherafir.)

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The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

Hello?? Did I just unwittingly engage in a play by Forum game

If I were a player the previous passage would no doubt intrigue me..especially the bit about someone 'wearing' glasses. Did he have a scar on his forehead

However, I am a bit confused about this unusual conversation being in Bazaar of the GameMaster in this current format.

If the esteemed Jwatson19 had said "I have got an idea about an unusual ship with unusual cargo and passengers/crew arrriving at Cherafir on a specific date...what do you think?":

I would have replied "It is a well used and useful conceit; and Cherafir as gateway to the mainland and wizards isle is a fair choice. However; I would never expect players to put clues together unless you force the point home. I would then say 'Have you seen the 64 dak and crew of the Lorkin in FFF...loosely based on the sci-fi series Firefly? It is very good.'

I would then go on to say that IMC the 'frisson' of the otherwordly has been overused by my good self historically; and I think my players might rightly say 'Oh it's a cannon or oh it's a clockwork watch' for example unless handled with care in the storyline. Like when the special effects add nothing to the story?

Also; my players might rightly say Whoooah! How do we know where these characters went? Did we say we were following people who came in off ships?

I could however finesse it to slip it in to the own character's story arches...Inn's are gossipy places and whores full of pillow talk...but by then it becomes an adventure in itself usually

In short (well, not quite that short) I think the presented conceit certainly has legs; and the importance of the date intrigues me. It could serve as an adventure hook. If there were pictures and maps I might indeed use it. As a GM however I like things well developed..rather than to be drip fed scene to scene. After all the final denouement could involve the star ship enterprise and Adolf Hitler for all I know...and I would end up having to make up my own ending

(P.S. when I said "As a GM however I like things well developed..rather than to be drip fed scene to scene." It was not a dig at CGI or Kelestia productions. Honest. )

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Plots and schemes are the same thing..

In a way it is an adventure hook. There's the ship, the cargo, the guy with glasses and more. But you have to ask to find out.

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The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin