Campaign Idea (Osoerde) Hey Mar [Archive]

Mark A Vandermeulen

09-22-1999, 05:29 PM

On Wed, 22 Sep 1999, Tommy Ashton II wrote:

> Hey all!
> Where is Mark in this thread. I know Mark had an extensive writeup
> about Oesorde for his campaign (nobility, motives etc.) Mark didn't you
> already have an online Oesorde sourcebook, Oh master of Oesorde and the
> Shadow World?

Mostly spending what little time I have trying to edit my Treatice.
Unfortunately, rather than editing it, I mostly appear to be making it
even longer, and thus requiring more editing...
I really need to get a firm grip on my creative tendencies and just
relegate any new ideas to later chapters.

While I have created nothing so organized as an Osoerde sourcebook, I did
publish a list of lesser nobility for Osoerde which I developed to flesh
out the "political setting" of my Osoerde campaign. It should be on the
Netbook. I also described one of the adventures I placed in Osoerde on the
list here, but that probably didn't make it to the Netbook, as it was
couched in a regular e-mail format rather than in an easily-recognizable
adventure format. This adventure, called "The Green Flask" is one I'm
kinda contemplating writing up as a Dungeon entry someday, so I should
probably keep that one to myself for a while. Of course, I have about 4
Dungeon article ideas, and none of them have come very far off the drawing
board yet, so maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up.

My advice for playing in Osoerde: start small. Pick one of the provinces
and start by role-playing conflicts between the nobility that supports
Jason and those that still support William but cannot do so publically.
Create a climate where there are plenty of people who WANT to do what is
right, but are hamstrung by those in power, verses a few who are reveling
in their new-found opportunities and taking advantage of it in any way
they can. Osoerde is in a somewhat unique position in that it essentially
has no outside enemies, only inside ones, so run with the ideas of
clan-warfare or blood-feuds between noble families which are thinly-veiled
excuses for factional conflict.

Decide on the role of the Church of Cuireacen in the conflict: are they
reveling in the conflict that's wracking the nation, supporting the blood
feuds as "trials of worthiness and manhood," or are they appalled at how
things turned out. My approach was to subject the church to a profound
schism (deftly manipulated by Raenech) between these two factions.

Also, decide what justification Raenech is using to legalize his seizure
of the throne. He almost certainly has one, even if everyone realizes its
patently false, because there's a Church of Haelyn in Osoerde, and they
would call for Raenech's head if they could ever PROVE that he was a
Usurper. That's a good set up for the PC's: can they gather the evidence
needed to PROVE that Raenech committed the Regicide that put him on the
throne. My guess is that Raenech killed the Duke and cast the blame on
William Moergen, and that the "Official Word" is that William is wanted to
"stand trial" for the murder of his father. That neatly places anyone
helping William as guilty of "treason," for which summary justice is
usually carried out by a duly appointed agent of the Duke's Law (such as
that Gryphon guy, is that his name?) on the spot.

Actually, now that I come to think about it, I might have some more stuff
on Osoerde that I could post tonight when I get home. I was saving it for
some reason, and had forgotten it. If I can find it, I'll post it. If I
recall correctly, it was an examination of Osoerde before the war and
after the war. I think I named the former Duke (and William's father)
Varghas Moergan, since I couldn't find a name for him in any other the
materials.

Well, that's some pretty quick rambling that might or might not be useful.

More later, hopefully.

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu
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