Character creation guidelines and other game information:
1. Start at 1st level. 15 point buy. Pick 2 traits, no Finding Haleen. Only humans are available, I'm sorry to say.
2. Please try to provide at least two paragraphs (8-10 sentences) of backstory, ideally at least 3. This game will certainly have its fair share of action, but I feel that the plot and characters are just as important as the fighting.
3. If you're unsure about anything or want to try something unconventional, feel free to ask me. I'm happy to let you fill in the details of the world with your own imagination, but please try to stick to the feel of the setting. I may have to ask you to revise details about your character; don't take this personally!
4. This probably goes without saying, but just to be clear: no joke characters or characters who exist solely as a vehicle for you to smash stuff. If you want to make a flat character and are mostly here for the fighting, that's fine by me; if you want to make a funny character who likes making jokes and isn't always serious, that's okay too! But try to avoid extremely flat characters--a little nuance goes a long way.
5. This is not going to be on a first-come, first-serve basis. I will choose the four characters I find the most interesting. Please don't take it personally if I reject your character--I hate saying no just as much as you hate being rejected. :\
6. We are using the so-called E6 rules: characters progress only to sixth level, and earn a feat for each five thousand experience points past that. This is done in order to keep a “low fantasy” feel to the game, as past sixth level the game tends to quickly become something of a superhero game where common people are outmatched to an absurd degree by the player characters, who are capable of destroying previously fearsome beasts with nary a thought. More details
here.7. Alchemists, Arcanists, Summoners, Monks, Magi, Gunslingers, Samurai, Ninjas, Wizards, and Investigators are off the table for setting and balance reasons. If you seek to play a bard, I strongly recommend you try a Skald for flavor reasons, although you are by no means forced to do so.
8. We will be using a few variant rules:
Called Shots and
Wound Thresholds should spice up combat a bit.
Alignment will be replaced with the “Loyalties” system, specifically the “Subjective Morality” variant described at the bottom of the page.
9. Some changes are made to the rules for equipment:
9a. The following weapons are no longer available: Kukri, Starknife, Rapier, Kama, Nunchaku, Sai, Siangham, Double Orc Axe, Spiked Chain, Elven Curve Blade, Dire Flail, Dwarven Waraxe, Gnome Hooked Hammer, Dwarven Urgrosh, Bolas, Shuriken, Whip, and Halfling Sling Staff. These weapons are completely fictional, tied to significantly different settings, or both. The following weapons cost twice as much on start, due to rarity in Mungarđr: Scimitar, Bastard Sword, Falchion, Greatsword, Ranseur, Guisarme, Halberd, Crossbows.
9b. The following armor is no longer available: Full Plate, Banded Mail, Tower Shield. Steel shields and bucklers now cost 1.5 times their original price, but wooden bucklers are now available for half the cost. All non-buckler shields now provide double AC (light shields provide 2, heavy shields provide 4.)
I prefer to write the exact specifics of the game’s beginning once I have all of your characters ready, so that I can tailor it to them specifically rather than fumble with a cookie-cutter “you all start in an inn” opening, but in order to give you something of a direction, the basic idea behind how I want the game to start is to have all of your characters be raiders on an outing for glory and gold; perhaps you are a first-time raider, eager to make a name in battle, or an old veteran, maybe a bit rusty in their skills but still hungering for battle. In any case, you will be under the command of a professional military leader chosen by a Mungarđer king, working with a small army of raiders to pillage key spots along the Righlandian coast.
I intend to refer to the days of the week by their Germanic-god-based/celestial-body-themed full names: Sun's Day, Moon's Day, Tyr's Day, Odin's Day, Thor's Day, and Freyja's Day. (Seriously, look it up if you don't believe me.) Saturday, being derived from "Saturn", is for our purposes "End Day", because "Saturn" is called "Cronus" in the Greek myths and in this setting nobody cares about Greek mythology but the Theosans.
Also, the "traditional" languages (e.g. Common, Dwarven) are, as you may expect, no longer relevant. In their stead, various other languages are available, here sorted by alphabet and listed alongside their real-world inspirations and equivalents. For all intents and purposes, replace "Common" with the language of the nation the character in question spent their formative years in. For most characters, their native tongue and either knowledge of Algedun or a friend who speaks Algedun will suffice.
Runic Languages - These languages use the runes of the North, a sharp and angular alphabet.
Mungarđa - The language of the Northmen, spoken throughout Mungarđr and the surrounding islands (save Righland.) Based on Old Norse.
Old Mungarđa - The ancient languages of the Northmen, spoken throughout Mungarđr in ages past, and still remembered by priests and wise kings.
Western Languages - These languages use the alphabet of the Siglanders, which resembles a curvier version of the runic alphabet.
Seannga - The language of the Righlanders. Spoken almost exclusively in their lands. Resembles a pidgin of Welsh and Irish Gaelic.
Algedun - The language of the Siglanders. Spoken in most parts of their empire, though with considerable regional variation. Also used as a common "trader's tongue", for when international merchants in Haligern do not speak the language of the place where they are trading. Based on Anglo-Saxon English.
Old High Algedun - The ancestral language of the Siglanders. Spoken by the priests and learned men of Sigland and Vostoch, as part of religious rites and scholarly work. Based on Frisian.
Eastern Languages - These languages use the alphabet of the Vostochi, which is similar in shape to the Siglander alphabet but shares almost no symbols.
Vostochi - The language of the Vostoch republicans. Spoken in the "official" territories of the republic. Based on Russian.
Silnblese - The language of the South Vostochi. Spoken almost exclusively in South Vostoch, and even there is on its way out. Based on Polish.
Theosan - The language of Theosa. Spoken primarily in their empire, and not uncommon in the nearby lands of Ershterna and Vostoch. Based on Greek.
Altmenshi - The language of Ershterna. Spoken almost exclusively in their kingdom. Based on Yiddish.
Spoken Languages - There is no accepted consensus on how to write down these languages.
Ihmiset - The language of the Ihmiset. Spoken in their tribal lands. Based on Finnish.
Tongue of the Forest - The language of the flowers and the trees, the hills and the mountains, the birds and the beasts. A magical language known only to those most in tune with nature itself. Can be used to communicate with the creatures of the forest and the spirits of nature, but as the trees and hills have no eyes, they rarely have anything useful to say, and animals are not always the friendliest or the most articulate. Replaces the "Druidic" language, and as such cannot normally be learned by the average person, but the ability can be granted to non-druids through certain divine quests and strange magic. Based on the sound wind makes when it blows through leaves.
Far Western Languages - These languages use the flowing script of the western continent, which is written from top-to-bottom, left-to-right.
Kabmiri - The language of the people of Kabmir Hurrina. Spoken as the vernacular in their Grand Emirate, as a priestly and scholarly language throughout the West, and as a "trader's tongue" by the people of Haligern when they go west to sell their wares and buy rare goods. Based on Arabic.
Dargharbi - The language of the Dargharbi. Spoken mostly in Dargharb. Based on Persian.
Altani - The language of the Brother Kingdoms. Generally exclusive to these kingdoms. Based on Turkish.