The World of Ukarea

I have finished the base map for The World of Ukarea (TM) and have roughed out the Dominions of Humanity based on some guidance on the S&W Forum for sizes and such. I did not strictly go by the suggestions, as they seemed to be aimed more toward a traditional Middle Ages breakdown and I wanted a rougher chaotic fantasy feel.

I do want to take a moment and thank everyone at the Sword & Wizardry Forums who has given me some great advice and have shown so much tolerance for a S&W noob ~ Thanks you!

Now that the map is done, I have settled on using The Kingdom of Thuslean as my starting point and have decided to focus on the Grand Duchy of Duvallae', one of four dominions in the kingdom. I intend for the Kingdom, and it's subordinate fiefs, to be some of the youngest established lands of humanity in the world, with vast regions of inhospitable areas and limited technology.

I still have not settled on an overall technological level for The World of Ukarea however. I have thought of advancing some of the older dominions to as far along as a Steam-Punk-Fantasy-Society. I am unsure at this point, but I have to decide now, if I do do that, how do I limit the subsequent Humanity's Ruin dark fantasy setting from becoming too wrapped around the discovery of 'lost tech'?

Things to ponder as I drill down on my maps and my notes. I can't wait to destroy it all as well when I make the 'ruined' kingdom area....

That's it for now.
Best,
TB

The Plan Changed

Somewhere along the way, the plan changed. I initially was shooting for a Dark Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy setting that was devoid of humans (or nearly so). Hence the initial name; Humanity's Ruin. While trying to develop the setting, and the myriad of ruins of former human civilization, I discovered that I was doing as much work on the time of humanity as I was on the time of it's ruin. So I decided to combine the effort that I had already put into it and start from the get-go. Combining the two to become; Humanity's Reign & Ruin (TM).

What I envision for release initially will be a Setting book that will, in lose terms, cover the time of man prior to its downfall as one setting and the time after as another. Released together in a single PDF / Print-on-Demand Book. The time of Humanity's Reign will be a Human Only setting. What I mean by that, is it will be a history of Humanity; from its conception, through its trials and tribulations to overcome monsters, while surviving the hardship of the world to eventually reign supreme. A more 'traditional' fantasy, though I haven't quite decided on a level of technical advancement for humanity before its downfall...

The second half, if you will, will be a Demi-Human Centric setting after the fall of man. A much darker setting of survival, chaos, plotting, and discovery: political and religious. Humans will be lost as a whole, but some will have survived and will be looked onto with suspicion and awe...

More to come as time allows,

TB

In the Beginning (aka About Me)....

I have been a long time, on-and-off-again role player. I started with the Classic Red Cover Basic books when a friend brought them, and some other D&D stuff, into Art Class and I wanted to know, "What is that?"

I played a couple sessions with him before purchasing my own copy of the rules (BECMI) and set out designing my own dungeons and adventures. I played most of the way through high school when the big AD&D push came along. I wasn't in a position to get those rules at the time, and thankfully didn't. I discovered in college that it was just too complicated for my meager mind. Not really complicated I suppose, I just could not grok why I needed an additional book, Uneartherd Arcana, to play a Paladin. To me it was just a Fighter that lived by a Code. A Code that should, IMHO, just be role-played. I didn't need a book for that...

After many years of hiatus, I discovered PbP RPing and began to try my hand at playing some with the SRD of version 3.5. I lost interest in that due mostly to the 'Munchkin Mentality'. When I was playing with the SRD, or trying to, everyone else was checking the 'acceptance' of this or that book with the D/GM. I built non-maximized characters based on a concept. You would have thought that a novel idea, but I continually got emails and PMs telling me how to make my character 'better'. "You should take THIS Skill, or you won't be able to get THAT Feat until Level WHATEVER!" or "If you make your character THIS RACE you will get a benefit TO THAT and be able to max out on UBER COOL STUFF!" Shoot me now!

From there, I began searching for 'Old School' D&D and ran across Labyrinth Lord and subsequently Swords & Wizardry: White Box. Which I have become grossly enamored with at the moment ~ and will probably be the focus of this blog. Well, actually, I am sure it will be the main topic of this blog! Since I am old, have a family, and live so far from anywhere, I get to do very little actual gaming and have decided to spend my time working on a setting for Swords & Wizardry entitled: Humanity's Reign & Ruin (TM)

I suppose that is it for now,
TB