Contents
Foreword
Article: Welcome to Taste the Flavor
Dark Dreams: An Introduction to Nightmare
Dark Dreams: Dreaming in the Darkness
Afterward: Tell Your Friends!
Welcome to the third issue of the Modular Gameworld Newsletter! As always I’d like to thank those of you who have joined up since last week, and direct you over to our archive to see our previous newsletters.
I’d like to start by apologizing for the lateness of this newsletter. Inventory at work, double shifts, and no days off didn’t give me the time to put together the newsletter on time, nor time to get the content I wanted to present this week finished in a fashion I felt comfortable sharing with you. Instead I decided to share the first posts from our sister blog, Taste the Flavor.
Taste the Flavor is our companion, offering modular campaign setting material the same way we offer modular content on the newsletter. Check it out at http://modulargameworld.com/, it updates every other Sunday (alternating with the newsletter).
Next week we will start back on our normal schedule of newsletters and blog posts, but for now enjoy some Taste the Flavor goodness, and small piece of a personal favorite setting of mine entitled Dark Dreams.
Article: Welcome to Taste the Flavor
by Ronny (ModularGameworld.com)
I’d like to welcome all of you to Taste the Flavor, the second piece of the Modular Gameworld Project.
On Taste the Flavor we will be delivering to you quality setting content for you to use in your games. Each post will have a modular (self-contained) setting tidbit for you to easily deposit into your games. Though each of these posts are built to be plugged directly into your campaign world, they build on each other to create a fully detailed campaign setting.
Each setting will start with an introductory post, which will give you the premise of the setting and some basic information about the world. This is to let you see very quickly if this setting is something you would be interested in, or if you would simply like to check back later to see our other settings.
This blog will start on a biweekly schedule with new posts on Sundays, with special guest posts made as they become available. Several people have expressed interest in writing guest spots about their settings, and if I can get enough I will start posting guest posts every off Sunday.
The part I am most excited about bringing you is the community aspect of this project. Not only can you comment on your feelings about pieces of the setting, I encourage you to do so! These settings will change and grow based on the feedback I receive from all of you! That way you can see and experience more of what you enjoy, while I can minimize and change the things you don’t enjoy. These settings are constantly growing and evolving, lend us your hand in molding it to what you would want to play!
I hope you’ll enjoy our efforts, and have a great time at Taste the Flavor!
Now onto our first setting, Dark Dreams!
Dark Dreams: An Introduction to Nightmare
by Ronny (ModularGameworld.com)
You remember that place somewhere between awake and asleep, that place where the line blurs between dreams and reality. Dark Dreams is alive in that place, where your brightest dreams and your darkest nightmares are but a stones throw away.
One man banished the old gods from our world, chaining them beyond the ken of mortal men. From the ashes of their world he forged his empire. An empire of strength, of justice, of freedom.
A millenia later strength has turned to oppression, justice has turned to corruption, and freedom has turned to tyranny. The ageless Emperor still reigns, silently sitting upon his dark throne. In his stead corrupt officials and unjust dictums rule the Empire, while powerful nobles vie for favor within the Council of Lords. The Emissaries, Seekers, and Inquisitors expand the bounds of the Empire, converting or killing any who stand against the imperial power.
Within this world though there are those even the empire still fears. Banished the Chained may be, but they still wield great power. They touch our world, entering the dreams of the willing or the ignorent and whispering promises of power, glory, and wealth. Worship of these dark beings still occours on the fringe, in areas far beyond the laws of the empire. And some of these dark beings still walk free, ungodly creatures formed from the stuff of dreams and nightmares. The empire christened them the Unchained, nightmares given form.
On the fringe life is lawless with dangers on every turn, but only there is hope still born. Only there do people still remember how to dream. Some dream of a world within the light, a world without tyrants and unjust laws, a world that seems to be just beyond the next sunset…
The collapse of the empire is unthinkable, overthrowing the empire is unimaginable, but the end of the empire is inevitable. Change is coming. But beware what the revolution brings.
Explore a world of gothic fantasy, unimaginable nightmares, and endless possibility. Welcome to Dark Dreams.
Dark Dreams: Dreaming in the Darkness
by Ronny (ModularGameworld.com)
Whether influenced by the blessed touch of the Black Sun, or corrupted by the hands of the old ones, dreams are a powerful force within Dark Dreams. Within a dream the line between reality and fantasy is blurred, and in that blurring amazing things can happen. Inspirations can come to you, prophecies can be gifted to those worthy, but in those same dreams darker things can come to nest. In that blurred, in-between state creatures from beyond the mortal world can speak. And their speech is as dark as their motives and minds. Some call them the primordials, some call them the old ones, most commonly here they are known as the Chained. They are creatures sealed far beyond this world, and creatures forever striving to break those chains and return to claim their domain.
Many people throughout the world can manipulate the power inherent in dreams. The black inquisitors of the empire scour the sleeping minds of their targets to find the truths they seek. Dark shamans on the edges of the world speak to their Chained deities through dreams and visions. Fringe rebels coordinate through daydreams, passing on information vital to their survival. And finally those rare serfs who learn the art of lucid dreaming simply revel in a place they can finally be free.
The Church of the Black Sun, the monolithic religion of the empire, considers dreaming to be a dangerous state. They have several practices to prevent ‘dangerous’ dreams within the empire. The most common of which (at least among the lower and middle classes) is the eating or smoking of the spice Arora’s Root (named after Saint Arora, an ancient monk who discovered the root’s dream prevention abilities). This spice, when ground up and mixed with food or wine, has a slightly bitter and earthy flavor. When ingested the herb prevents all dreaming from occurring for up to three days, though it’s effectiveness varies from person to person. Other effects of the spice are feelings of satisfaction and both mental and physical lethergy. Long term effects of the spice include depression, a lack of purpose, and a sapping of energy. These side effects increase in severity over long periods of time. The spice is mildly addictive, though few serfs ever have the opportunity to break the habit. The nobles fair better in their protection, as members of the church they are gifted a special amulet. A symbol of the faith, it blocks outside interference into the wear’s dreams while also granting the ability to control his dreams (commonly known as lucid dreaming).
Dreams in Gaming: Here are some great ideas on how to integrate dreams into your campaign setting!
1) Instead of having the party run into an the questgiving mage in a bar, how about have the mage speak to one of them in her dreams? A call for help from within a dream is a great (and rather underused in tabletop gaming) way to get your players involved.
2) More commonly a problem in a certain horror movie franchise, how would your players fight an enemy that attacks from within their dreams? Do they seek out an ancient psion to aid them against the enemy, hunt down the creature outside of the dreams, or try to beat it at it’s own game. This unique problem lets the players get creative, and encourage that! There are a lot of different solutions to their problem.
3) How would your campaign’s cultures evolve differently if the power to control dreams was known and common? I try to answer that question in one way with Dark Dreams, but there are thousands of other interpretations. Would duals in dreams become common, a less lethal trial then traditional dueling; or would the establishment police the dreams of it’s denizens (much like the Sunless Empire)? I’d love to hear how you integrated dreams into your campaign, please comment/collaborate with your ideas!
Afterward: Mistakes and Moving Foreward
Once again, welcome to the afterward!
I said last week I would be using the afterward to talk about my progress in Zen to Done ( Click here for Zen to Done). Talking about my progress in the newsletter is one way for me to hold myself accountable for my own progress. So I’ll start by saying I screwed up.
I underestimated the time commitment inventory at work was going to take, as well as overestimating the energy I would have after finishing work. As such I dropped the ball on my major weekly goal, producing the newsletter and blog posts for you.
I would like to promise this will never happen again, but I can’t guarentee that work won’t catch up like that again. Instead I am going to strive hard to create a buffer of newsletters, so I can always be a couple weeks ahead of schedule. That way when times like this crop up I will have something to fall back on.
As always we at The Modular Gameworld feel that the best advertising is word of mouth from people like you. To quote one of my favorite authors: Talk is cheap, advertising is expensive.
Feel free to plug our newsletter or website on your blog, social networking site of choice, or just tell your gaming group. We promise we won’t feed them to our beholder armies.
As always please e-mail your content, ideas, or concerns to ronny@principlefactor.com. I would love to hear your ideas and we may feature you in our newsletter!
Well that closes the book on the third issue of the Modular Gameworld Newsletter! It’s a pleasure having you with us, good gaming!
-Ronny