The Midlands in One Page

Posted on by S J Grodzicki

A one page overview of the Midlands, a Low Magic Sandbox Setting I’m working on for Low Fantasy Gaming (draft!). I’d love to hear your thoughts.

midlands-in-one-page

Map Snippet (c) 2016 Randy Musseau, used with permission.

 

10 thoughts on “The Midlands in One Page”

  3. It’s brilliant. I can’t wait to read more. My suggestion would be that there’s no debate about the existence of gods, everyone believes they’re there whether they are or not. I’m not sure Mathieu would sit well in the midlands.

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    1. Very true. I have presently (draft) given the Nydissian Empire a bit of a twist on that issue… they are ruled by the Lucentum, an agnostic order dedicated to logic/reason and do not worship gods. They accept magic exists, but abhor it, with a small order of inquisitors who hunt sorcerers/witches/magical objects (and burn/destroy/secretly study (?) them).

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      1. Agnostic? I get the impression they would have a firm opinion one way or the other rather than hedge their bets.

        How about their gods are distant, cold and uncaring. It’s best to fly under the radar and go unnoticed?

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  5. Just got into Low Fantasy and ran across this. Fabulous and I can’t wait until it’s completed. It is EXACTLY the type of campaign I want to put together.

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  6. Thanks for all your hard work Steve & company on LFG thus far. I’m also really looking forward to a campaign world for it. Unlike some GM’s, I don’t have much time so I prefer more information rather then less and I’m willing to pay for it. Some personal observations/points and wish list:

    1->I really like the old style quality artwork. I know color is ‘kewl’ but vintage quality black & white works, even more so with the darkish setting I think. Having a collection of artwork and being able to reference them for encounters for the setting both monster and places would be great.

    2->Current political relations between races and areas would be extremely useful.

    3->Pass history and politics

    4->PC/NPC pack. As I get older I find many of my players along with myself either don’t have the time or don’t want to spend the time creating and maintaining characters. Having a ‘goto’ reference for notable NPC’s and NPC’s that can be used as adventurers would be nice. A mix of low, mid & high level characters. Some back ground and notable equipment would be a plus.

    5->Completely frivolous but custom LWG dice set and/or dice bag (at some point) would be righteous

    6->I see you now offer a hard cover version of the rules which I will be buying along with some more softcovers for potential future players. Having the hard cover option is appreciated.

    7->A more comprehensive magic item (artifact) generation system along with suggested tables of powers and drawbacks. Perhaps include a mechanic for leveling the magic item with the player.

    8->Since magic items are so rare and potentially powerful it seems like they may play a role in politics or at least some adventures in themselves

    9->Suggested placement(s) for created adventures in the setting

    10->Potential adventure paths to take characters through a number of levels with a suggested storyline(s).

    11->Magic user supplement. Suggestions on how to more specifically work in the class abilities of clerics, rangers, paladins, etc that are suitable to the setting.

    Guess that’s it for now. I’d be happy to share ideas and information with you if interested. If not, I won’t be offended as it’s your masterpiece.

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  7. Just found your ‘Tavern Tables’. That’s perfect. The ‘Patrons’ table is a great NPC starter. I like how you include the NPC’s current objective/purpose. Naturally a GM can choose to replace it with his own but one can choose to use it by default or browse the list and select something that he likes. In any case, the information is readily available. You may even consider creating a separate table of ‘objectives’ to be used for NPC’s.

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  8. Stephen – thanks very much for your feedback and suggestions, I really appreciate you taking the time! Yes I will be sticking with the b&w artwork 🙂 A past history and general relations between the various nations/cultures are in the book. Re NPCs – there are a stack in there, but not PCs – which is a great idea thank you – I will add some class pregens at various levels, I can see how they’d be handy. Because it will be a “sandbox setting” there will be heaps of mini adventures with location suggestions relevant to the region map, and yes magic items will play a role in some of those. A magic user supplement, adventure paths and expanded magic item rules would all be great – but might be a while down the track I’m afraid!

    Very glad you like the Tavern Tables and the NPC Patrons list – my main objective with this book is to make sandboxing as easy as possible for GMs – to do the heavy lifting with NPCs, tables, etc – giving the GM the support/tools to improv and make the campaign their own.

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