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| PA/Fantasy/WW1 Mashup; It may sound ridiculous but some opinions would be appreciated | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 26 2011, 10:55 PM (433 Views) | |
| Gasmasked Mook | Dec 26 2011, 10:55 PM Post #1 |
Vault Dweller
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If you have absolutely no idea what caused me to start this piece of insanity, you may want to check out the Bar for my request for RPG advice. If you don't really care, it is not necessary to read any of it. And a thousand thank-yous to one David Weber. His book: Hell's Gate is perhaps the only reason I was able to put this together and I have quite blatantly borrowed a lot of his stuff (names of things and guns especially). The magic is my own idea as I thought it would be easier to integrate that sort of magic into a gun heavy game rather try the other way around. Maybe. I don't know. Anyway, I hope you like it. Any help at all would be massively appreciated. -0- Background Fifty years ago, the world, Elysia, was torn apart by a war between the Sharonian Empire and the Union of Arcana. Sharonia was a nation built on the principles of Newtonian Physics and the scientific method while Arcana built their civilization upon a phenomenon that can only be described as magic. While Sharonia was native to Elysia, the Arcanans were fleeing from some terrible disaster in their old homeland. A tragic series of misunderstandings and mutual fear resulted in the outbreak of war. For ten years, the war had worn on. The Sharonians were equipped with bolt action rifles and machineguns, a terrifying opponent for the sword and bow armed Arcanan soldiers. But the Sharonians could not possibly have expected the Arcanan use of tamed dragons or Reavers, mages capable of reaching through the heaviest fortifications and extinguishing the lives of the men inside as easily as one might snuff out a candle. For all intents and purposes, the war seemed to be endless, the two opponents too even in terms of martial prowess to secure ultimate victory. Realising that continuing this bloody farce would destroy Arcana as utterly as any alternative, the Arcanans authorised the use of Necromancy against major Sharonian cities. The Sharonians responded with their own weapons of last resort: poisoned gas. In the space of a few weeks, both great nations died. But that was all fifty years ago. While the old cities are desiccated ruins and the frontline a sickening scar in the landscape, the rest of Elysia has gone on. New towns have sprung up, new factions have arisen. Magic and technology have forgotten their previous conflict in an effort to survive in this lawless new world. |
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| Gasmasked Mook | Dec 26 2011, 10:59 PM Post #2 |
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Vault Dweller
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Magic Arcanan magic is split into two types: organic and inorganic. All humans display some level of organic magic (with a few notable exceptions). They share this trait with certain animals, the most prominent of which being dragons. This magic is described by the Arcanans as one's core although the Serians may be more familiar with the term soul. It is this link which allows for empathy, a trait solely exhibited by creatures with some organic magic. Each person's core/soul has a safe limit which cannot be exceeded and the user must wait for his or her core to regain strength before attempting to us it again. Magic can theoretically be used for anything although there are things for which it is impractical or simply too costly on one's core. For these activities, inorganic magic is required. Inorganic magic is not bound to any particular living thing but appears rather as a continuous flow of magical energy through the universe. It is the Arcanan belief that when someone dies, their core/soul returns to this great flow until it is time to be reborn into a new body. This magic tends to accumulate in various places and in different ways. Knowing enough about this allows a skilled enough user of organic magic to interface with inorganic magic and accomplish tasks that his or her own magical core could not sustain by itself. This school of sorcery is called Elemental Magic as most users are associated with a certain magic attracting element which they have studied extensively. Elemental Mages tend to be useful for farmers, especially those with strong associations with earth or water. They can make crops grow faster and in harsher conditions than usual. Fire Mages are considered quite warily, having been used to appalling effect during the war. They do however make excellent substitutes for coal in the maintenance of old Sharonian factories. Air Mages are quite rare although communities near the poison clogged ruins of old cities might employ them to keep the toxic gases from spreading. Otherwise, their main source of employment is helping crackpots and mad inventors in trying to get Sharonia's old fleet of biplanes flying again. The same link between organic and inorganic magic that Elemental Mages manipulate is used in Empathy Magic. Empaths can sense the magic of others and hence have an exceptionally keen awareness of any people around them. Technically all humans are low level Empaths although the term is generally used for people with a more advanced grip on their powers. Empaths can also gauge other people's emotions and intentions from this link although no Empath has ever been able to extract specific thoughts. This does give Empaths a decided advantage in most social interactions and they are sought after as lie detectors (although their utility in such situations can be imperfect). Yet Empaths are also frequently distrusted. Not only are their powers considered a violation of one's mind, high level Empaths have the capacity to become Reavers. Reavers use much the same process as conventional Empaths but instead of merely observing the subject's magical core, they grab hold of it and yank it out of the subject's body. Doing so immediately kills the subject. There is no real defence against it apart from having a sufficiently powerful magical core, making it a truly terrifying weapon. It is however, very difficult to do and utterly exhausting to the core of the Reaver in question. There also exists Enchantment Magic in which a person with a substantial enough core can give magical properties to a previously mundane object. This can be far more useful than Elemental Magic as it tends to be more based around the will of user rather than simply redirecting more basic energies and therefore gives the mage far greater control over what the enchantment actually does. It also can be performed regardless of location as it is independent of external, inorganic magic. On the other hand, it is on a far smaller scale. Enchanters tend to be in very high demand. They can be used to strengthen mechanical parts or to enchant ammunition to fly faster and straighter. They are also seen as the least dangerous of all magic users and are therefore more widely trusted. Sort of Spoiler: Necromancy is the final type of magic and universally considered the most terrible. While the other three are built upon the use of one's magical core or the use of the natural flow of magical energy, necromancy is based on the destruction of a core/soul. The safe amount of magical energy a core can release is a small fraction of its potential. Hence by using the full potential of a core, one can produce an impossibly huge amount of magical energy, enough to perform truly astonishing feats of the other three magical branches or (the practice which gives this type of magic its name) fashion a new magical core for a corpse, resurrecting it. While this does kill the person whose core is being used, that is not the reason why it is frowned upon. Based on the old Arcanan principle that all magical cores eventually return to the continuous flow of inorganic magic, destroying a core/soul is essentially akin to destroying a piece of magic. The core can never return to the flow and be reborn. It is simply lost. And since the flow is a closed loop, doing so permanently and irrevocably decreases the amount of magic in existence. Even if the necromancer uses this energy to fashion a new core, the practice is greatly inefficient; the new core is always much weaker than the one from which it was made. |
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| Gasmasked Mook | Dec 26 2011, 11:00 PM Post #3 |
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Vault Dweller
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Guns The Sharonians produced a wide variety of military and civilian firearms, varying from simple double barrelled hunting shotguns to advanced and temperamental auto-rifles. The following is simply a brief outline of their weapons: - Revolvers. The most basic and widespread sidearm found today, revolvers range from the civilian .35 Polshana to the military issue .46 H&W single action. Ammunition is widespread and still in production in many towns capable of supporting a factory. Most people have at least some familiarity with the weapon, especially in the country where bandits and other scum are quite widespread. -Automatics. Unlike single action revolvers, automatics do not need to be cocked after each shot and have a much more forgiving trigger pull than double action, giving them the advantage in terms of rate of fire and they are also quicker to reload. However their ammunition tends to be less powerful and harder to find and their parts are more difficult to replace. -Shotguns. Most shotguns are double barrelled hunting affairs, using either 20 or 12 gauge lead shot. Pump action military guns like the Model 7 combat shotgun also exist and are not altogether uncommon. Most veteran merchants prefer to carry at least two per party due to their rugged nature and their deadliness at medium-close range. - Rifles. The Sharonians had just finished re-equipping their troops with the Model 10 bolt action rifle when the war started. The lever action Model 9s are also quite common as a hunting weapon as well as a vast array of civilian weapons. The Model 9 and 10 both use .40 calibre rounds, the most common piece of ammunition to be found in Elysia. Most towns produce both the fully nickel jacketed solid tipped rounds as well as the military issue jacketed hollow points and some may even produce Enchanted variants, which tend to increase the price quite dramatically. - Auto-rifles. The Model 11 was just entering mass-production when the war ended. Very rare and highly prized by those who use them, the Model 11 is perhaps the only semi-automatic rifle in existence. It uses the same .40 calibre rounds as its predecessors but most have since been rechambered for the much kinder (albeit rarer) .30 calibre, making the gun even more exclusive. - Machineguns. Machineguns are perhaps not as rare as one might think. The standard military Faraika I is essentially two Model 10s side by side, with the recoil of the neighbouring rifle being used to reload and fire the one next to it. The widespread availability of Model 10s makes the Faraika very easy to maintain. The Faraika I’s larger cousin, the Faraika II uses the much larger and rarer .54 round and five rotating barrels, proving more of a problem. Far more devastating and powerful, it is also very rare and only used by the militia of large and prosperous towns or by the remnants of Sharonia's military. Complete list to be completed... when I feel less tired. |
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| Gasmasked Mook | Dec 26 2011, 11:01 PM Post #4 |
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Transport The most common form of transport in Elysia is simply walking. Most prefer to walk in the company of travelling merchants who can provide a warm fire and a bite to eat in exchange for an extra gun and pair of eyes watching for bandits. Empaths are especially welcome in such parties for their abilities at detecting ambushers and most Empaths find themselves quite happy at living the merchant life where their uncanny social skills and scouting abilities are put to excellent use. Horses, donkeys and bicycles are also very common. While an Enchanter can make a pack feel far lighter than it actually may be, there is always a place for pack animals or bicycles. Horses are far more needy than bicycles and may even require a special gasmask when entering certain areas but also are not quite so put off by rough ground. Especially in the deep country where good roads are few and far between, animals are widely preferred. Steam trains are not as rare as one might expect and are especially frequent for short links between large towns. Most are military type transports, armoured against dragon attacks and fitted with gunports, features which generally dissuade bandit action. These locomotives are a frequent employer for Fire Mages as coal is quite a difficult commodity to get one's hands on and charcoal is much less efficient. Tickets are expensive and the accommodations are generally less than comfortable but it is by far the quickest and safest way of making long journeys. Plot The plot is still in the embryonic stage but I have the vague outline of a straight forward but hopefully quite satisfying plotline involving biplanes, airships and some pissed off dragons. I would prefer to wait and see if the background is solid before developing it further. |
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| mattblackgod | Dec 26 2011, 11:41 PM Post #5 |
Big boss warlord dude!
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Interesting stuff. It should meet your groups interests. |
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| shady13 | Dec 27 2011, 12:47 AM Post #6 |
...nowt' special...
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theres a Dan abbnet gaunts ghosts book called straight silver which you might like its got a 40k setting but is set on a kind of steampunk WW1-ish world its a good read, but dan bbnets my favorite modern author so i may be biased:) |
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