DCC #35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms

[frank5471uk]

Hi all

It's been a while since there was anew post on this thread. I hope you all check in now and again.

Not sure if this has been asked before, but was there a reason for omitting a description of the goddess Denithae from the GMs Guide ?

I know that Cillamar has a temple to Denithae, so she is a fairly important deity in the Northlands. Is there a description anywhere in the DCC line that I can use ?

Thanks in anticipation.

Frank

[Mike_Ferguson]

Hi all

It's been a while since there was anew post on this thread. I hope you all check in now and again.

Not sure if this has been asked before, but was there a reason for omitting a description of the goddess Denithae from the GMs Guide ?

I know that Cillamar has a temple to Denithae, so she is a fairly important deity in the Northlands. Is there a description anywhere in the DCC line that I can use ?

Thanks in anticipation.

Frank

Just skip back two pages. The answer you seek is right there.

Or, you can just click on this link:

http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/vie ... c&start=75

(You just need to scroll down a few posts, and you'll see Jeff's answers to your questions.)

[frank5471uk]

Mike

Thanks very much for the response and apologies for wasting bandwidth on an already discussed issue.

THe description posted by Jeff is just what I was looking for.

Frank

[Mike_Ferguson]

Thanks very much for the response and apologies for wasting bandwidth on an already discussed issue.

No need to apologize! Just glad we could point you in the right direction.

[Sir Clarence]

I'm late to join the ranks of those who adventure in Aereth but I certainly will do so later this year. First off let me say that this is the finest setting that I have seen in a while. It's written in a truly evocative style, has beautiful artwork and - most important - describes a world that invites to game in it. I'm a diehard Greyhawker since 1982 and this is the first time since I play D&D that I'm going to change my standard setting.

One question though: I noticed that the world is missing something like a common calendar with names for months and days of the week. Was this done on purpose? I could easily write one myself of course but would like to use something official if I can.

Thanks a lot,

Clarence

[Mike_Ferguson]

One question though: I noticed that the world is missing something like a common calendar with names for months and days of the week. Was this done on purpose? I could easily write one myself of course but would like to use something official if I can.

Regarding the calendar - I think it's been mentioned before, but if not ...

Basically, we didn't develop a calendar for the Northlands because a few of the earlier DCCs made reference to months in the standard Gregorian calendar (March, July, etc.). So rather than rewrite "history", so to speak, we left this alone, so we could have some consistency. There's passing mention of a sidereal 365 calendar for the Northlands (pages 3 and 4) of the Gazetteer, as well as a few holidays, but that's why we didn't detail out the calendar for the Northlands.

The Southlands, however, uses a unique calendar (mentioned on pages 44 and 45 of the Gazetteer book) and the Lostlands also has a unique calendar (mentioned on pages 44 and 45 of the Gazetteer book).

If there's some sort of different calendar that fits your campaign better, by all means use it. We won't be offended. Our approach with Aereth was a "toolbox philosophy" ... just use what you like or need, and ignore what you don't.

Hope this helps!

[Sir Clarence]

It helped. Thanks for answering, Mike.

[Voadam]

The population racial percentage breakdowns are also copied over from the freeholds one.

In Green Ronin's Pirate's Guide to Freeport (published after DCC35) the population is about 10,000 people in Freeport. The PGtF is set a couple years after the big freeport modules including one that has a barbarian invasion of Freeport so I don't know if the population was greater pre-invasion.

This population struck me as low for a D&D mercantile hub city that supports its own powerful fleet, but IMO it fits well with a city mainly dependent on trade for its food supply.

Harley,

I've got a question about the population for the Freeholds. It is listed as being 42,601, which seems really low... and, it just so happens, is exactly the same population as Freeport, which is the next entry. They even have the exact same percentage mix of races.

It seems to me that the population figures for the Freeholds were accidentally copied from the population for Freeport. Can you post the population figures for the Freeholds here? Thanks!

Let me check my notes and post the proper data. Good catch!

//H

[Harley Stroh]

I've been a long time delinquent on this one. Let me see if I can make good this week.

On a related topic, when it came to populations in the Áereth, I put a lot of pressure on keeping the counts low. It's more of mud-and-hovel world than say, 3.5 Forgotten Realms. I really wanted the sense of distinction that comes from a band of peasants eking out a living around some smokey huts in the woods ... and then out of the woods rides a warrior with actual armor made of metal and a thick-bladed spear that has seen battle. Doesn't matter if he's first level or tenth --- to the peasants, this warrior is a vision of heroism and self-determinism, a standard that they could never hope to reach.

It all defaults to the world's base assumptions. Good or bad, the PCs are viewed as heroes. They're the focal point whether they want the spotlight or not.

//H

[frank5471uk]

when it came to populations in the Áereth, I put a lot of pressure on keeping the counts low//H

I can only speculate then that the whiskey bottle was open the night you decided to define the population of the Free City of Ternyziem as 438,250

Whilst I am making devilment Harley, could you comment on where the boundary betwen the Northlands and Lostlands actually lies. The Gazeteer specifies that Punjar is in the Northlands, but if I was a world designer (and I am not), I would have made the Lirean Sea the boundary between the two continents. Obviously, you have something else in mind.

Frank

[Jeff LaSala]

frank5471uk, the Northlands, Southlands*, and Lostlands aren't actually universally acknowledged, sovereign regions with specific boundaries. Most boundaries between legitimate kingdoms, baronies, and principalities are constantly contested as is.

*For example, the Southlands are just what the Northlander explorers first termed the Xulmec peninsula, because it was relatively south of their understanding of the Known Realms at the time. In time, it was revealed just how big the Southlands were, and some of them are actually quite "north" after all. It's just how things develop through history; they don't always work out neatly on maps. We actually went for a realistic approach to labels in that regard. Like how Native Americans were referred to as Indians, when really they were nowhere near India. But the name stuck.

[Harley Stroh]

when it came to populations in the Áereth, I put a lot of pressure on keeping the counts low//H

I can only speculate then that the whiskey bottle was open the night you decided to define the population of the Free City of Ternyziem as 438,250

Whilst I am making devilment Harley, could you comment on where the boundary betwen the Northlands and Lostlands actually lies. The Gazeteer specifies that Punjar is in the Northlands, but if I was a world designer (and I am not), I would have made the Lirean Sea the boundary between the two continents. Obviously, you have something else in mind.

Frank

Heh. Ugh.

Sounds like it time for a 4E DCC world, to me!

//H

[AstroCat]

And, when would that be coming? I could really use it, I think, for my upcoming Punjar campaign...

[frank5471uk]

frank5471uk, the Northlands, Southlands*, and Lostlands aren't actually universally acknowledged, sovereign regions with specific boundaries. Most boundaries between legitimate kingdoms, baronies, and principalities are constantly contested as is.

*For example, the Southlands are just what the Northlander explorers first termed the Xulmec peninsula, because it was relatively south of their understanding of the Known Realms at the time. In time, it was revealed just how big the Southlands were, and some of them are actually quite "north" after all. It's just how things develop through history; they don't always work out neatly on maps. We actually went for a realistic approach to labels in that regard. Like how Native Americans were referred to as Indians, when really they were nowhere near India. But the name stuck.

Thanks Jeff. It's details like this that make Aereth one of the best ever D&D settings if you ask me.

In Aereth, I am sure that the important boundaries for the inhabitants will be the national boundaries, not the continental boundaries. I can't see too many residents of Punjar worrying over whether they live in the Northlands or the Lostlands. I can see them worrying over who this months taxes should go to though.

However, for my tiny ordered mind, it would help to have a working definition of the Northlands/Lostlands boundary. For my players, I am considering defining the whole of the Southern Province (i.e. north of the Akhneten River and west of the Sentinels mountain range) as part of the Northlands. Everything else east and south of here is the Lostlands. Does that cut across anything you have planned guys ?

Frank

[frank5471uk]

Heh. Ugh.

Sounds like it time for a 4E DCC world, to me!

//H

Sorry Harley, it was a low blow. I've modified the population of Ternyziem to 1/10th of that in the campaign I am running.

WRT a 4e Gazeteer, I am torn. Whilst I would love to see a Gazeteer Mk II more than anything, I would like it to offer lots of new stuff, not rehashed stuff from DCC 35. I am perfectly capable of editing small details in DCC35 that are 3.5ed specific and need tweaking for 4e (e.g. Deity Domains and the absence of Dragonborn). What I am hungry for is more detail such as that that came out about Morrain in DCC51. I had high hopes of the Punjar gazeteer, but it did little more than whet my appetite.

There are some (loads of) unexplored corners of Aereth. I would like to see some of them start to get filled out (e.g. the origins of the scourgelands, the history of the Theocracy of the Lance, the stories of the Elves and the Druids as they rebuilt from the tragic end of the War of Divine Right, the backstory for the Soulgrave, additional information about The Graves/Sireal Citadel (the prison island off Crieste), who were the Mages of Nemfar and just what are the Nagas up to down in Zimala these days).

There are days where I feel like offering to write some new Gazeteer material myself as I am so impatient to see some more I have written some small amounts of stuff for my own campaigns (you might remember the integration I did of Freeport into Aereth last year, which I eventually posted). I also have successfully integrated the "Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde" campaign into my version of Aereth and am very proud of the outcome. Having the Knights of the Sable March and the Ordo Arcana vying for power in the Valley of Obelisks in central Crieste was a real blast. However, I have refrained from anything too creative/ambitious as I don't want to define anything that will stop my own version of Aereth being backward compatible with your version.

Hope this helps (and makes sense)

Frank

[Harley Stroh]

No worries, Frank. I took it in the spirit in which it was delivered --- with whiskey.

Good input on 4E DCC world. For certain it will need to include enough new material to make it worth the while of all the folks that have been there from the start. This doesn't bother me overly much. It's a big world and there are still many big adventures to be had.

//H

[AstroCat]

Is there any info put together yet about the Gherdian Forests south of Punjar? Thanks!

[dragnsteph]

Hi All

Having spent some time preparing some starting material for the start of my Aereth Campaign (using 1st level characters in the WoTC adventure Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde), I have found that it is not easy to readily explain the geography of Aereth without unleashing the poster sized maps. Even then this gives the following issues

1) The paper maps give away more info than I want for the players

2) The paper maps aren't too good at showing the spatial relationships between the three continents (very confusing for newcomers)

3) They are a tad unwieldy.

4) Scale is not apparently obvious to the players

I therefore used the PDF maps supplied in the electronic version of DCC35 to create the following two maps to orient my players. Each prints out readily on Letter sized paper.

The first map is a modified version of the players map showing the continent names and scale.



The second map is a modified version of of a couple of PDFs to show the entirety of Crieste, again with scale.



There is a 3rd map, which is a modified version of the Valley of Obelisks from SGoS, but I won't post that in case WoTC get worried about copyright. Joseph has already given me permission to post the GG derived maps here.

Hope you find them interesting

Frank

Frank,

I would have PM'd you but I'm too new, and can't But searching through this thread, I was wondering if you still have the files for the Aereth maps you did, with scales, etc, from the above post? They'd be a huge help to me as I am starting the homebrew portion of my Punjar-initiated 4e campaign, and the PCs are about to start traveling around the Empire of Crieste. Hope you see this!

Stephanie

[Warren1965]

I'll engage in wishful thinking and hope I am wrong but, Are there dead tree versions available, or is the description under the adventure finder only there for completeness? I do own the PDF but I wouldn't mind spending the $70 for a physical copy if available.

Thanks,
Warren

[Leo Bao]

Is their anyway to buy a PDF of the maps in The Known Realms Box? I assume that the PDF on RPGNow has the maps, but I do not want to pay that price just for the maps. Then I can just print off the area in which my characters will be adventuring
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[GnomeBoy]

Is their anyway to buy a PDF of the maps in The Known Realms Box? I assume that the PDF on RPGNow has the maps, but I do not want to pay that price just for the maps. Then I can just print off the area in which my characters will be adventuring
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Wow, now that's an unusual post -- on-topic spam.

[DCCfan]

Is their anyway to buy a PDF of the maps in The Known Realms Box? I assume that the PDF on RPGNow has the maps, but I do not want to pay that price just for the maps. Then I can just print off the area in which my characters will be adventuring
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Wow, now that's an unusual post -- on-topic spam.

I guess the evil spambot has gotten smarter. It has humans working for it now.

[Treebore]

a member of my group has combined all the PDF maps into one image. Would Joe be interested in it, to add to the PDF Bundle?

[JediOre]

a member of my group has combined all the PDF maps into one image. Would Joe be interested in it, to add to the PDF Bundle?

Treebore! Wow, I didn't know you visit these boards. You are a major player on the Troll Lord boards. Happy to see you.

If Mr. Goodman hasn't responded within a week, I'd suggest private messaging him. It seems the Goodman Game crew is enamored with Google +.

[GnomeBoy]

...It seems the Goodman Game crew is enamored with Google +.

I don't know if the Dark Master is on G+ or not... but he does respond to e-mails (info@...) if it comes to that.