Canonfire!

Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:34 am Military Campaign Discussion

Hello all,

Anced has me doing the development for the military campaign and I wanted to run a few things by everyone. First though, I'll introduce myself.

I'm Mikel (pronounced Micheal), and I've been roleplaying for almost 11 years in one format or another. I'll admit greyhawk has always held a mystique for me, but it likely never would have become a passion for me if Anced hadn't asked me to help. My experience with the various Dnd worlds is limited to Ebberon, Dragonlance, Known World/Mystara, and Forgotten Realms. I also have quite a bit experience with some non-DnD worlds, such as palladium Fantasy's world, and through secondary means, the world of Warhammer Fantasy. What this adds up to is someone who has a broad base of knowledge with very little actual greyhawk experience. I'll have to ask you to forgive me for any indescretions I may unintentionally make. Those I intentionally do I ask no forgiveness and no quarter. *grins*

Now, on to my reason for posting. As part of the adventure I am suggesting that the player group come up with the name of their company. "The Silk Swords of Shiboleth" or something of that vein. What I want is some suggestions from everyone, and maybe we can include a famous company or two in the actual text description of the Army. The "Iron Dragoons of Nighley" might have held off a major giant invasion and saved the entire region, etc.

Let me know what you all think.

Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:58 pm Names

Well one of the conventions that is yet to be posted (sorry) but that Hammar has been working one is just this... a regiment naming convention.

The rough outline is basically this... Each town has a regular number of soldiers it is expected to muster. Each of these is grouped up into units, each of which then muster in togeather. In theory, the army does not take in indavidual soldiers, but rather groups of say 50 or 100. These go through basic training togeather and form regiments. A regiment does not have an absolute size as those from larger cities, such as Shiboleth, are more numerous than those of Locks Heath for example.

These units then transfer around togeather, unless of course they are decimated and are too few to then count. This only happens if the unit is destroyed in a single fight, and has no time to rotate in replacements. If the damage occurs over several months/years, then replacements can be had.

Those units which have been completely decimated are remembered in song and in the veterans halls which dot every city, town and village in the Gran March. It is in these very veterans halls that the regiments really gain life, as all veterans/reserve groups are organized by regiment.

Again, this is roughly what we have been talking about. Thoughts? This convention will be spread among the other campaign arcs, and it would be a common way of identifying a person in the March, "oh, you are with the Commandants Shields from Hookhill, eh? Good work you fellows did in Chendl. Have a glass of wine, just in from Orlane!"

BTW, the town of Nighley's name has been changed to Orsiti's Wells. You will see the reasons in the Mages of Gran March, to be posted shortly.

Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:10 am

Mikel, welcome to CanonFire!, Gran March and Greyhawk. It is nice to hear that Greyhawk is now a "passion" for you. There is plenty to explore.

I did not know that there were already player groups. I think your idea for naming, with some tweeking, can work with Anced's convention, only that it would be unlikely that the characters of the players, as opposed to the players themselves with DM approval, would come up with a name.

For example, if the players wanted and the DM agreed (not that it would be likely in this example), "the Commandants Shields from Hookhill" could be commonly known as "the Dusty Shields" because they never see any action- and of course, given the lack of water, it could actually be true.

Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:08 pm Wolfsire

There are not technically player groups. We are starting to assemble playtesters. However, we are also currently discussing the release of the Gazetteer in the next few months and following up with the campaign arc as a second installment. The size of the beast has just gotten too big. Mikel is helping with the Arcs, but there are to be three seperate ones that lead into a single epic arc, and they just cannot be done by the end of the 1st quarter, which is only 30 days away. It is hoped that we can begin releasing the general website for peer review by March 30, and have a PDF for release by May.

Then, i would envision a playtested set of campaigns in the Early Fall. These would take a character from 1st to 25th level. There would be three sets of adventures, traditional D&D, War Campaign (Heros of Battle style), and a political intrigue path. The hope is that a DM could move the characters back and forth on these paths as they progress in levels.