Graphic inspiration vol. XV

Two booklets for the Barbaric Frontier

I've made up my mind about the form I'd like to publish my Barbaric Frontier materials. As I was suggested in the comments in one of my previous posts, I will split my materials into two booklest - one with setting information and hex description and the other with all house rules I'm using and new classes, spells etc.  

Now I have around 80 hex entries and 15 new spells. I cannot establish any reasonable release date, for the time being. I'm doing everything by my self - writing, formating and illustrating so It'll take some time.

Organizations of the Barbaric Frontier cont'd

Rangers of the North

Rangers are a military organization established by the emperor’s decree. Their sole job is to scout and protect Groβe Reich citizens from the denizes of the Barbaric Frontier.

Merry Company

Merry Company is a gathering of deserted soldiers of the Reich, rebellious peasants and downright bandits. They operate around and in the Blackwood Forest, mostly robbing merchants' caravans of their goods comming from the Groβe Reich and to it. 

Helmüt’s Raubritter Company

It’s almost an army of knights denounced of their nobility, some peasants and all kind of scoundrels, strictly ruled by Helmüt von Koch, ruthlessly raiding and pillaging Nordmark.

Mystic Cabal
Cabal of witches, alchemists and sorcerers, which try to rule the Known World. Nothing more is known, probably descendands of the magic-users, who started the Sorcerers' Incursion millenium ago.

Halfling Border Watch
Halflings are among civilised people, who live in the northernmost part of the Known World, constant struggle against wild animals, monsters, barbarians and even unfavorable nordmarkians forced them to establish scout-like militia- mainly to protect their borders and sometimes set aside disputes among their kin.

Ordo Malleus
Ordo Malleus is a knightly order of the Church of the One, their main goals is to protect believers, converting resistant pagans and help Ordo Inquisitorum fighting heresy.

Ordo Inquisitorum
Ordo Inquisitorum is an institution subservient to Church of the One, for whom they fight heresy and deamonic cults. 

Graphic inspiration vol. XIV

Opinion request concerning Cossacks and Tartars

Well my gentle readers, I have a dilemma concerning my upcoming game - Cossacks and Tartars. Do you prefer  an old-school ruleset with indepth view of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth(its army, society, culture etc.) or    rules+some guidelines on reading list?

This will make a huge diffenrence in time of its release, since If you prefer first option, I will have to write the background and make some thorough research and write it. If you prefer second option all I need to do is to find a english native speaker who would be kind enough to proof-read for free(sorry I'm low on the budget) the final script of the game, and then soon the game would be published for free.

Cossacks and Tartars: Scoundrel class

Scoundrel

Prime attributes: Dexterity; Charisma

Hit Dice: d6/level; +1 hp after 9^th level

Scoundrels are a very broad group of people, who could be on the one side a magnate’s firstborn living by the fortune of his family, outlawed noble, tavern drunkard etc. Scoundrels achieve their goals by means of their wits and charisma sometimes supported by their wealth.

Level	Experience	Base „to hit” bonus	Hit Dice (d6)	Saving Throw
1	0	+0	1	14
2	1,500	+0	1+1	13
3	3,000	+0	2	12
4	6,000	+1	2+1	11
5	12,000	+1	3	10
6	24,000	+1	3+1	9
7	48,000	+1	4	8
8	96,000	+2	4+1	7
9	192,000	+2	5	6
10	288,000	+2	5+1	5

Information-gatherer: Scoundrels are well-rounded in social interactions, thus they roll twice on rumor tables when gathering them. Also they can try to obtain useful knowledge about people, their whereabouts and secrets by making a saving throw by discretion of the Referee.

Process of "evolution" of the Barbaric Frontier

Lately I'm doing trying to add some new concepts to the Barbaric Frontier to make it more versatile. So I've decided to trace back the orgins of the Barbaric Frontier and add some bits from the base of its concept.

2009

First concept of creating a setting of noir-ish sword & sorcery adventures(inspired by novel "Without mercy" by Miroslav Zamboch) with weirdness akin to this of Twin Peaks series

Concept of age of deamonic rule over mankind taken from Monastyr Dark Fantasy Roleplay

Reading "Crusades against  the Hussites" by Andrzej Michałek - decided to set my campaign in the fantasy equivalent of central europe of XV century

2010

Getting back to the pulp roots of my interest of fantasy literature. Re-reading Conan, Solomon Kane novels and Moorcock's books.

Groβe Reich and Verezzian city-states created.

Disassembling Warhamer Fantasy Roleplay's setting, looking at the sources of its inspiration. Trying to incorporate this in a "higher volume" in my setting.

Ordo Malleus and Ordo Inquisitorum created

Base outline of the religion of the One

2011

Swords against the Outer Dark blog - this was one of the best attempt at incorporating Cthulhu mythos into fantasy milieu. 

In places deep blog - this blog gave me energy to create whenever I was lacking of motivation.

Watching first season of  the "Game of Thrones" series - changing the climate of the setting to the frozen north nearly subpolar

Reading "First fantasy Campaign" by Arneson helped me to envision the landscape of what will become the Barbaric Frontier

Demi-humans as space-faring races, who lost their ability of space travelling

Basic outline of what will become the Barbaric Frontier created

Picts taken from Conan novels

Barbarians inspired by Cimmerians and Wfrp's Orcs and by Bisley's art

Reading about finnish mythology helped me to concieve elven culture

Helmüt’s Raubritter Company inspired by tales of lower silesia's raubritters of XV century

Rangers of the North inspired by Dunedain

Merry Company inspired by the tales of Robin Hood and peasnt's rebellions of XV century and "Hussite trilogy" by Andrzej Sapkowski(the author of the Witcher novels)

Dwarves taken from the Hobbit comic book with admixture of icelandic sagas

Re-reading "History of Western Slavs" by Andrze Michałek, chapter about guerilla wars between polabian slavs and germans inspired me to create Neuvolk.

Sorry for a messy organization

Most inspirational rpg products

Lately I was thinking what rpg rulebooks, supplements and modules inspired the most in the process of creating campaigns.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition

This game is my biggest inspiration. I love to read it, immerse in the scenes presented in pictures. Every page of this book is literally dripping with ideas for adventures. I love it's moorcockian weirdness and gonzo-style perfectly meshed with common high fantasy tropes.

Monastyr Dark Fantasy Roleplaying game

This one maybe not familiar for my english-speaking readers - it's a polish game set in dark fantasy version of the 7th Sea with heavy inspiration from the swedish Gemini game. My vision of inquisition and religion of the Barbaric Frontier is shamelessly stolen from this game.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess

For me LotFP is what Wfrp 2nd ed should have looked like. It's weirdness and innovative yet oldschoolish rules makes me wanna play all the time. Oh I have a big love for the Referee's book, and it's attempt at managing bestiary.

Realms of the Crawling Chaos

Maybe not used very much by me, but simply skimming through it makes me want to run a fantasy cthulhu campaign. Love the rules for forbidden books.

Renegade Crowns - supplement for WFRP 2nd ed.

Tables, tables and again tables. This book is all about them. For me it's the best presentation of a campaign setting without to many details, perfectly customizable, yet dripping with flavour. That's the way I want to design my tables.

Gentle readers - what are your most inspirational rpg products?

Dwarven npcs

EDIT: wow, it's my 100th post!

Warlord Gnaar pic

Graphic inspiration vol. XIII

Demi-humans of the Known World(of the Barbaric Frontier)

The Known World of the Barbaric Frontier is mostly populated by humans as are typical worlds of sword & sorcery genre. However I couldn't resist to use standard high fantasy races like dwarves, elves and halflings(because my love for the dwarves). 

Haflings are the most widespread demi-human race in the Known World - their population is app. 100 thousand, their communities could be found in the biggest cities of the continent. They mesh with the social landscape pretty well, however, humans will never treat them as equals.

Dwarves are the second most populous demi-human race in the world, app. 60 thousand of them live scattered on the continent. Their are considered curiosity, nothing more. 

As for the elves - their population is app. 15 thousand and all of them live in the Barbaric Frontier. In most parts of the Known World they are mere legend.

Human population of the Known World is around 50 million people for comparision.