Help Create a Campaign Setting

[JohnnyWeird]

From the sound of it Britain is very much caught up in its own internal struggles. This may profoundly affect the colonial efforts. To my mind, that puts the great Imperial powers of the age as France (who can mercilessly wage war in the deserts of Africa with troops that need not worry over heat or thirst) and the Ottoman Empire (which was doing quite well expanding its territory until those pesky Brits and Russians horned in for their piece). I like the idea of an industrialized Islamic nation that stretches from the Crimea to Caracas. With a force like that on their side, the Central Powers seem like they've got a much more fair fight on their hands.

[JohnnyWeird]

Russia: Fire and Ice: In the vast realm of the Tsar a new technology is taking hold. Using the curious effects of lodestones on copper, Russian industrialists are powering their factories with engines that are powered by aritificial lightning, while generals begin crafting cannon that can destroy targets miles away without powder. As a string of increasingly brutal winters raise the price of wood and coal, some see this new 'electrical' power as the hope of a nation that has lagged behind its Western brethren. Others, like the young demagogue Vladimir Ulyanov, see this as a chance to follow France into a bold future without kings...

[Eanwulf]

I like this idea a lot tech-wise - though I have had my own ideas on Russia playing an important part in the war by having the long since thought dead lich-sorcerer Grigori raising a former German General of great renown and infamy (General Meinhard) and placing him in charge of his troops (a group of bestial neanderthal brutes known as Trogs) Grigori himself rides atop a giant dragon/wyvern whilst Meinhard leads his troops atop a giant flaming nachtmar (nightmare).

Sorry for my lapse in activity here but work has been a bitch and I have had hardly any time for my other 2 games let alone to post anything here. But it DOESN'T mean that I have given up on it!

Think of Russia as a land where instead of using their scorched earth policy, they resort to a Barren earth - populating it with bestial Trogs and the undead via the Tsar's right hand man Grigori.

Rob

[JohnnyWeird]

Very magic-heavy, for the other side at least. Hopefully we can use enough gadgets and gizmos to offset their advantage.

[Eanwulf]

Yeah I kind of wanted the gist of the campaign to be science vs sorcery with a healthy hybrid of both but no one more powerful than the other (i.e. a bullet in the head will keep you from casting all those pesky spells)

[JohnnyWeird]

Do cold iron and silver have the effects we associate with them in this world? That might DRASTICALLY change the history of German metallurgy - silver is more valuable than gold, meteoric iron filed into shrapnel and released in mines or ground to powder as a chemical attack, etc.

[Eanwulf]

Heh you're catching on brotherman!

Remember we will be using the Risus and thus simpler rules so all of this will be accounted for and up to players/gm to describe in effect - but yeah you have the right concept.

[JohnnyWeird]

Excellent. Clearly, the Central Powers will need to get pretty intense if we hope to defeat fae, undead, robots and gnomes all at once.

[Deadman]

I have an idea for the Ottoman Empire. What if, in ancient times when they were more powerful, the rulers plundered their subject nations for magical artifacts and sorcerous knowledge.

Now they've lost pretty much all knowledge of how to cast magic, but they still have a great deal of magical items left over they use to enhance their mundane human army. Since items are unique and irreplaceable they're very careful about how to use them and who to given them too. Magic weapons and talismans are reserved for their elite soldiers, who fight alongside normal gun-wielding battalions. One sniper with winged boots, or a master swordsman with an invisibility ring can do a lot to turn the tide of battle.

They also have a few artifact-level things, such as a giant golden tablet housed beneath Constantinople that gives them weather control over the surrounding area, letting them smite approaching ships and enemies with cyclones and lightning, and the Red Blade, the most powerful weapon in the world that makes its wielder incredibly fast and strong, and supposedly immortal. Wielded by their Prince, this sword makes him singlehandedly as mighty as an army.

There's still not enough magic items to go around, and the nation is desperately trying to industrialize so that they need not rely on the dwindling spoils of yesterday. Whether their cache of items is enough to offset their otherwise military inferiority remains to be seen.

[JohnnyWeird]

Artifacts might be good. Another possibility is a tradition of pharmaceutical research that started with the Order of Assassins and is now coming into its own with the development of chemical enhancements a la Hourman from the Justice Society - short-term enhancement combined with combat skill. Maybe the armies of the Empire are small on purpose; a few elite men in a squad that could decimate a battalion.