Haunted Islands three approaches to race and some arts

As envisioned the islands were intended to be an isolated humans only monoculture, but I don’t like restrictions that inhibit fun.

I racked my brains on how to go about this, but I think I’ve come to a satisfying solution

Race and Class

Three Approaches

1. The citizens of New Urveon are one and all, human and native to the islands. Classes available are listed below. This is what we used when we playtested. 

2. Foreigners from every part of the Dreamlands pass through the port of Stoker and, as such, the individual GM must decide which races and classes to allow.

Note: Although considered equal in the eyes of the law in regards to unpaid debt and other crime foreigners are not allowed to hold office, serve in the military, conduct business beyond trade or own property. They may move freely about the countryside, but should expect to be under the watchful eye of the authorities at all times. 

3. The islands are still a monoculture but exist at the edge of the Dreamlands. Everyone can play whatever race or class they want with no further explanation. I call this the Muppet option. It’s my current favorite. 

Arts

Coming for Holloween and (not related) What’s up with Mars.

I’m working on Honor of the Dwarves, but The Haunted Islands is another one on the crest of being done. It’s been play tested even. My wife suggested I get moving on it so I can get it out on time this year.

Mars: waiting on proofs to show up in the mail. That’s it.

And now onto the show:
As many of you know, I am fascinated by Deep Time, and tend to think in geological terms instead of smaller increments. Now just aint that important.

However, I am also fascinated by the 19th century. I’ve always been keen on the scientific revolutions of the period. (Watson got fucked by classism and by Darwin, yo, and we continue to ignore that he got there first). But Jack Shear turned me onto Dickens and I became even more interested in life on the ground.  If you can’t look at the every fucking day horror of it all, compare it to today and find some hope for the future, you have presentism and a victim complex, in short your shit is all fucked up.

The influences of The Haunted Island are for the most firmly rooted in the Anglo-sphere of the 19th century.

Haunted Islands preview

Haunted island, haunted blog

Above: the ghost takes on new flesh!

(It was my intent to post the complete map, but I lost a day due to stuff...)

This blog is haunted by the ghost of unfinished projects past and future. The time has come to finish some stuff.

Haunted Island, however, is 100% written and playtested. Sadly, it has art and maps that date back to 2014 all of which must be redone. Last year I tried to get it together for holloween, but Mars and Cosmic Tales intruded on it -and one another, as well. This year, I am going to try again, and if I'm not done not by Holloween perhaps we'll come ashore on Madman's Beach and have an ill advised look at the Asylum at Gorngard not too long after.

An excerpt regarding the Asylum's most famous resident:

Five years ago, wealthy, well regarded and eager to earn a knighthood, Captain Lazlo Bismarck embarked on an expedition, aboard the Starlight, to the Polar Regions to the far south- the supposed location of the lost city of Mu. Eighteen months later, a merchant cog found Starlight adrift several days south of Hefód. Bismarck, the sole survivor of the expedition, returned to Stoker in disgrace. Worse yet, a savage madness seized him in the days that followed, and he embarked on a rampage of lethal violence. The spree came to an end when he was subdued and apprehended in a slum tenement of Stoker, the bodies of his final victims strewn limp around him.

In the trial that followed, unexpected facts came to light. The crew of Starlight had indeed found the ruins of Mu, where they endured a strange and violent adventure, culminating with the discovery, at the center of the ruins, of a cluster of giant statuary of an unwholesome and extraterrestrial design. The sight of the statues drove most of the crew mad, filling their brains with unbearable silent noise, overwhelming their nervous systems with an alien tone. Violence ensued, and only Bismarck and two others escaped the island with their lives. In time, though, the alien tone overcame even them and homicidal madness took hold. In the end, Bismarck, last of all to succumb, found himself delivered unto civilization alone and a prisoner within his own skull, forced to watch as the alien tone drove his physical self to acts of violent cruelty and evil.

Once these shocking facts became established, the judge called for an extended recess and summoned experts in possession and demonology. Through the effort of the legendary Witch-Finder, Sirus Moth, the alien tone was exorcised and Bismarck’s volition restored...

But that was not the end of it...

NEXT WEDNESDAY- Some Maps and perhaps critter.

TOMORROW- I Return to the Ruinlands, the first setting I ever worked on here!

FRIDAY- MARS.

 

Old Island/ Haunted Islands, calrification, update, .pdf and preview

I forget, sometimes, that anyone looks at the stuff I post here and, as a result, I tend not to go out of my way to arrange things for easy consumption. Anyway, I was looking at stats this morning, something I have not done in like year, and I noticed the my recent Old Islands posts are among the most looked at in the site's history.  I then realized that the largest of the Old Islands posts were not labeled as such and may have been missed by somebody, somewhere who for whatever reason, whether it be drunkenness or insomnia, may have wanted to see such things.

To that end, here are the two .pdfs I released last week, they cover the Haunted Isles, which is part of what The Old Ilands evolved into as I worked on it.

Player's Guide

Adventure Part 1


The thing continues to evolve during play, having grown pirates and a haunted house just this week; here are some notes from Sunday's session as a preview of additional stuff that I intend to work in to the final version of this thing.  These notes actually have stats and, were your judgement impaired, you might even be able to use some of this stuff as is.  The second floor of the Scooby Doo house is drawn at a right angle to the rest of the map, because Picaso.

In the fullness of time, there will be a third document, or rather I will release the whole thing at once when it's done. My eventual goal is to have a polished, fully illustrated free product ready for Halloween.  I'll be working on a similar Metal Earth  region book at the same time, but I have no real idea of when that will be complete.


More maps, soon to be redrawn:

We might get an AP sometime this week too, but that is dependent on one of the players.