Sunday, February 19, 2012

What the West is Like

Stealing from Jack yet again.



The West
Precis: Petty lords feud and scheme against each other while dark things lurk in the woods;  A Game of Thrones meets Averoigne

Conspectus: Four (?) kingdoms: the Iron Kingdom, the Realm (Holy Roman Empire), the County of Averoigne (France), and the Kingdom of Kars (England); tournaments with painted lances still take the lives of foolish nobles; poachers and bandits hunting the king's deer; court wizards; competing high pontiffs fight over the Church of Law through poison and proxies; ancient, pagan shrines that still hold some measure of magic and terrible monsters; trial by combat; chivalry and courtly love side by side with treachery and rape; plague and famine; peasant revolts; witch burnings; constant, but petty, warfare; bloody dynastic struggles; cheap death; troubadours sing and spy for monarchs and counts; foolhardy knights ride out to slay dragons and other local monsters; knightly orders; dancing banners splashed in blood; secret, heretical cults plot the downfall of the Church; burning fields and cattle raids; self-made men who gain position through fire and sword; boar hunts and great feasts; wilding and robber barons

Taste, Sound, Image: Cassoulet and hard cider, Pentangle "The Hunting Song," the Morgan/Maciejowski Bible


8 comments:

  1. You're on fire, man!

    (Also, have you read Seasons They Change? As a Pentangle fan I think you would dig it.)

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    1. Your "What X is Like" set up makes it easy to express half formed ideas in my head. I try to do the same with my "Unfocused Thoughts on X" stuff, but those tend to be a bit longer and slightly more labor intensive.

      Anyway, thanks!

      I haven't read the Seasons They Change, but I'll make sure to hunt it down.

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    2. Yeah, "What X is Like" was helpful for me for the same reason--and all I ever have is unfocused thoughts, really.

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    3. I've begun doing this as well -- Jack, your method really is the best way I've seen of delivering information about a setting to players (a notoriously fickle, attention-deficit breed!)

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  2. "Kingdom of Kars" puts an image in my head of a used car dealership with a wacky mascot salesman dressed in knightly plate armor.

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    1. Technically they're pronounced differently. Kars has a soft "s" noise instead of a hard "z" noise at the end like cars does.

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  3. That tapestry style art is wonderful. Where did it come from?

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    1. It's actually a part of an illuminated manuscript. It is the Morgan/Maciejowski Bible mentioned in the post.

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