Dungeon Fantasy Basic Orientation
This campaign uses GURPS, in a lightweight format focused on dungeon exploration and simple light role play. I want to recreate my earliest memories of gaming, where the only thing in the dungeon was monsters, enemies and loot; and us, the reason for it being there. I'm not interested in deep fantasy, or heavy role play, or the intricate political maneuvers required to pass a senate law, or even having a list of shopkeepers' names. Go to the dungeon (conveniently located under the backdrop city), kill the monsters and take their stuff.
The Backdrop:
The great city of Vlolk, the greatest economic center in the world, built on the ruins of a dozen generations of preceding cities, filled with regular humans going about their lives. Think a combination of Paris, New York, Adrilahnka, and Ankh-Morporck, with a germanic language basis (it's all still common, though!) for names and places, and a vast population of transients, coming and going on ships, caravans, and feet (or hooves, or barbed insect claws) and taking wealth, knowledge, and skill with them. Ancient ruins dot the city, mostly plundered for stone and materials, but sometimes built over another building, or cave. The subterra contains all of these, as well as cults with no popularity above and monsters who have lived in the darkness for centuries, accruing power and wealth. Few, if any, of the population know of the world under their feet, but of those who do, many see it as a great opportunity to do something that's not a job; it's an adventure.
A few thoughts on why a single city, over the dungeon: It minimizes travel time. It allows the players to mostly adhere to my rule of 'no exp until you get back to your lodgings' which in turn is built around a desire to have a easily swappable episodic adventure whenever we can run it. Players can keep a stable of adventurers, and swap them in and out by taste, or necessity. This way I don't have to come up with convoluted stories for how Bill the Barbarian, our new player, met us in the 3rd story of the Ancient Kilsplashi temple, just in time to fight the 3 headed wasps. It allows easy dumping of treasure, for money. Alternately, it allows almost any item to be constructed, ordered or enchanted, providing players with a near-infinite supply of 'good things to hit monsters with' and 'things we wear so monsters don't hurt us'. Some lag time might be involved (order it this week, it'll be ready next game session) but for most common or medium rare items, you pay your money, you get your Dragonbone quarterstaff, balanced, spiked, and with a +2 Accuracy and +3 pussiance.
The great city of Vlolk, the greatest economic center in the world, built on the ruins of a dozen generations of preceding cities, filled with regular humans going about their lives. Think a combination of Paris, New York, Adrilahnka, and Ankh-Morporck, with a germanic language basis (it's all still common, though!) for names and places, and a vast population of transients, coming and going on ships, caravans, and feet (or hooves, or barbed insect claws) and taking wealth, knowledge, and skill with them. Ancient ruins dot the city, mostly plundered for stone and materials, but sometimes built over another building, or cave. The subterra contains all of these, as well as cults with no popularity above and monsters who have lived in the darkness for centuries, accruing power and wealth. Few, if any, of the population know of the world under their feet, but of those who do, many see it as a great opportunity to do something that's not a job; it's an adventure.
A few thoughts on why a single city, over the dungeon: It minimizes travel time. It allows the players to mostly adhere to my rule of 'no exp until you get back to your lodgings' which in turn is built around a desire to have a easily swappable episodic adventure whenever we can run it. Players can keep a stable of adventurers, and swap them in and out by taste, or necessity. This way I don't have to come up with convoluted stories for how Bill the Barbarian, our new player, met us in the 3rd story of the Ancient Kilsplashi temple, just in time to fight the 3 headed wasps. It allows easy dumping of treasure, for money. Alternately, it allows almost any item to be constructed, ordered or enchanted, providing players with a near-infinite supply of 'good things to hit monsters with' and 'things we wear so monsters don't hurt us'. Some lag time might be involved (order it this week, it'll be ready next game session) but for most common or medium rare items, you pay your money, you get your Dragonbone quarterstaff, balanced, spiked, and with a +2 Accuracy and +3 pussiance.
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