World Creation: 4E Game,The Second Age (partial); The Map

Here is a scan of the map that was the result of the First Age (part 2) and the second age (partial) activities. As you can see using the correct rules for "Shape Land" (16 squares instead of 4) made a big difference: Both in the coast line and the terrain within the lands.

I do look forward to seeing the world completed, and to show the players a world littered with atlantian ruins. (I personally, look forward to strolling through the forest of glass).

World Creation: 4E Game,The Second Age (partial)

We continued into the Second Age using the Dawn of World's Rule system, however, we lacked the time that evening to get to a sensible stopping point, so we ended it after the completion of turn #2. Hopefully, the next time my group meets we can complete the world so that we can start playing in it.

Log of Events:

Turn 1
Snorkey	Creates Goblins (mass 1), Orcs (mass 2), and Kobolds (mass 3), all evil
Stephen	The Sleeper (now known as the Scales of Balance) creates an order made up of all races, devoted to creating balance in the world (neutral in outlook)
Andrea	Half-elves plunder Atlantean colonies for secrets of seafaring, creates 2 more fleets
Bill	Seductive Evil spawns race in own image (Halflings - evil on landmass 1), City of Gray Skies spawn sub race of Atlanteans - the free-willed undead, corrupts race (undead to evil)
Rob	First Born's offspring on crystal city cannot maintain it, it crashes into sea - First Born and followers become race of aboleths (evil)
Laura	Avatar commands uncorrupted Sunborn to hibernate, small groups go into long sleep to awaken to disseminate knowledge periodically after the dark age is over
Dave	Elven army retreats from Solstice, leaves behind a sub race of "Gold" elves, elves advance in SCIENCE!, builds a wonder in Eldar - the Great Library of Eldar (mass 3)
Turn 2
Snorkey	Creates order with Dis, The GodKillers (evil)
Stephen	Commands order to raise an army, avatar raises army, Sunborn in hibernation become corrupt (to neutral) as their souls slowly decay
Andrea	Creates avatar - a giant Kraken, who then creates race of Merpeople (good) advanced in weapon smithing, creates coral reef along west coast of mass 1, Merpeople raise armies - half elves raise armies and create city (Dawn's Glory), half-elves advance in literature
Bill	Gold elves contact evil outer gods via library's gates and are corrupted to evil, take new name Drow, Dwarves are created in depths of earth (neutral) and go on quest for sky to reach the surface
Rob	Aboleths establish city of the Throat in Fang Isles, create race of Sahaugin
Laura	Hibernating Sunborn are purified (back to good but retain air of superiority), creates order who establishes New Atlantis (city)
Dave	Avatar creates army in Aldar, army heads back to Solstice to take care of Drow (and elvish civil war begins), elves advance in music

World Creation: 4E Game,The First Age, Part 2

With two players absent for the first session of world building and filling too little of the world when we "shaped land" or "shape climate" actions, we as a group, decided to continue the world using the First age point values and just weave the new players into the flow.

Log of Events:

Turn 1
Snorkey	Pass
stephan	Pass
Andrea	Created a cove with islands surrounded by mountains on M1
Bill	Added mountains & forest to M1
Rob	Commands Scaled Order to build City of Dragons (a wonder) in the depths of the forest; Creates Cove of Brass on M2; Clarifies tundra in North of M2
Laura	Commands Atlanteans to share knowledge of magic, etc. with other races; Command City of Mol to create space elevator; Atlanteans spread to areas on M1 and M3
Dave	Elves discover engineering
Turn 2
Snorkey	Creates sub race of Hungry called the Humans at the ancient site of the City of Brass
stephan	Creates avatar known as "The Sleeper"
Andrea	Creates avatar - an underwater dragon dwelling in the big cove on the west of Mass 1, avatar makes race of seafaring half-elves (neutral)
Bill	Avatar advances elves in the art of sexuality and creates the Order of the Small Death to serve as divine prostitutes
Rob	Scaled Order begins to breed with dragons creating the "sub race" of the Dragonborn
Laura	Create Order of the Mythos of the Outer Darkness - an evil order spurring off of the Sunborn
Dave	Elves discover Architecture
Turn 3
Snorkey	Command humans to create city: Bronze (atop ruins of Brass)
stephan	Pass
Andrea	Avatar founds city (J) on mass 1, of the half-elves, named Twilight Crown (because when the sun sets it looks like it sets in a crown of the surrounding mountains)
Bill	made forests and jungles on mass 1
Rob	Pass
Laura	Order of Mythos of Outer Darkness creates gates in each of the Atlantean libraries
Dave	Avatar raises army of elves on Mass 2
Turn 4
Snorkey	Pass
Stephan	Pass
Andrea	Avatar creates order of holy priests to protect Twilight Crown (devoted to underwater dragon), called Twilight Order
Bill	Pass
Rob	Made massive coniferous forest spanning width of mass 2, north of Brass (taiga) and makes the taiga band sub-arctic, made huge bay into mass 1
Laura	Catastrophe - gods of the Outer Darkness are nastier than they thought in Atlantean arrogance, tsunami rushes through Molldavean Sea, wiping out Atlantean cities
Dave	Elven army loots and pillages reeling Atlanteans, overruns city of Solstice, take over the top spot in the art of instruction
Turn 5
Snorkey	People of Dis explore city of Zoe, trip something up, transforms city and surroundings into glass, Humans go into city of Moll
Stephan	Pass until after Dave
Andrea	Commands Twilight City to create school for seafaring and raises a fleet
Bill	Outer god makes appearance at Atlantean library on mass 2 (in the taiga) causing its destruction and leaving a massive crater and treefall
Rob	The First Born gathers army to conquer flying City of Crystal from Atlanteans and take it over
Laura	Avatar and Atlanteans spread knowledge throughout the world in hidden caches
Dave	Pass
Stephan	Magic goes away, replaced by life essence of caster to power it, arcane, psionic, and divine arts become harder to perform and much more costly, these arts enter a dark age, caused by The Sleeper (who also symbolizes renewal and balance)

World Creation: 4E Game,The First Age; The Map

This is a scan of the graph paper map that my group produced during the course of the First Age.

Comparing it to the battle map image it is much harder to make out subtle features such as the forest to the south of Lake Pon. There was also not a lot of room to label items, so we keyed cities and such and placed the actual titles in the marginalia of the map.

I currently plan to trace out the this map to a battle map (assuming we continue this world, which is the leading favorite), using colored pens.

World Creation: 4E Game,The First Age

Log of Events:

Turn 1
Snorky	Pass
Dave	Put river and delta on land mass #1, named it the Perfume River
Bill	Put mountains on land mass #3
Rob	Made avatar - the First Born - a golden dragon, living in mountains on mass #3
Laura	Pass
Turn 2
Snorky	Pass
Dave	Extended river, made Lake Pon, made river delta tropical
Bill	More mountains, tropical NW of mountains on #3
Rob	Jungle to SE of mass #1 (around delta)
Laura	Made avatar - a being of light (named Moll of Atlantis) - who created "Atlantean" humanish race in delta on #1, neutral aligned
Turn 3
Snorky	Made single (BIG) mountain on mass #2, called it "Hope"
Dave	Made avatar - a female elf (named Athyns) - and the race of elves (good), west of mt range on mass #3
Bill	Pass
Rob	More mountains on #3 (a true continental divide)
Laura	Atlantans build city (called Moll) in delta area, they become advanced in magic
Turn 4
Snorky	Created race at Mount Hope, the Dis (evil), and put small desert around mountain
Dave	Made area on mass #3 east of moutains temperate and rainy
Bill	Created avatar - Seductive Evil - fair to look on, fair to hear - who taught the Atlanteans forbidden magic (corrupting them to evil)
Rob	First Born creates race of dragons (neutral), sect of elves become dragon worshipers (The Scaled Order), puts tundra on north part of mass #2
Laura	Makes class of Atlanteans - the Sun Born who lead and purify the race (back to neutral), the Atlanteans advance to become masters of psionics, but limited to the Sunborn sect
Turn 5
Snorky	Made city (named Brass) at foot of Mount Hope
Dave	Temperate rainy area becomes a forest (rain forest)
Bill	Makes southern edge of mass #2 tropical
Rob	Makes river and delta on mass #3, NW of continental divide, puts in jungle around river
Laura	Atlanteans advance in commerce, temperate band goes around the jungle delta and city of Moll
Turn 6
Snorky	Dis civilization advances in warfare
Dave	Commands avatar to influence elves to expand across central sea (the Sea of Twilight), made a Aldar River on mass #3
Bill	Creates Obsidian Order within the Atlantean civilization, dedicated to the preservation and expansion of necromantic arts
Rob	Puts mountains halfway around Lake Pon
Laura	Pass
Turn 7
Snorky	Commands city of Brass to raise an army
Dave	Mount Hope erupts on the eve of the City of Brass's moment of triumph, the pyroclastic flow destroys Brass and the people scatter, creates city of elves (Albian) on south coast of #2
Bill	Adds more desert to mass #2 near Mt Hope
Rob	First Born creates city of Cristal in mountains (location A on mass #3), and finishes surrounding Lake Pon with mountains
Laura	Atlanteans advance in sailing, Moll of Atlantis makes a city on mass #3 in river delta, Zoey the Beautiful
Turn 8
Snorky	Creates 2 cities on mass #2, named Requiem and Dirge, and makes a temperate zone
Dave	Mt. Hope caldera fills with water and small river (Brass River) flows from it, founds new city (Aldar) for elves on mass #3,
Bill	Avatar of Evil founds City of Gray Skies on Lake Pon, a city of refugees (the dead)
Rob	Makes Silverbark Wood (with ancient silverbark trees) in middle of island #1
Laura	Purifies the Atlanteans and establishes 2 cities, on mass #2 - named Eclipse and Solstice
Turn 9
Snorky	Makes sub race of the Dis, the Eaters (presumably also evil)
Dave	Tropical rain forest established on south end of mass #2
Bill	Region around Lake Pon takes on arctic climate
Rob	Puts series of jagged islands south of mass #1 - the Fang Isles
Laura	Puts islands into inland sea - the Molldives, as well as spread race around the Sea of Twilight
Turn 10
Snorky	Makes sub race of the Eaters - called the Hungry (presumably also evil)
Dave	Puts mountains in middle of island 2 and west to the sea
Bill	Obsidian Order withdraws from the cities of the Atlanteans, City of Gray Skies advances in the art of healing
Rob	Shapes land - and defines coastline of mass #1
Laura	Atlanteans develop a magical floating city

World Creation: 4E Game, Introduction

Though I have covered world creation with the "Lands of the Seven" articles my group actually started with a world creation exercise for my up and coming D&D 4E game. I figured that by having active participation by my group in the worlds history I would get more player "Buy in" when it actually came time to play in it. Besides, as a working professional with grand kids to chase after, I don't have a lot of time or inspiration to come up with world and history by myself, not that I haven't tried.

During the first age of this game we made some mistakes:

• We used a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch graph paper (this is only because we didn't know any better).
• When affecting something that had a one inch measurement we only affected 4 squares on quarter inch graph paper, instead of the full 16 squares.
• I drew the initial continental outlines (three of them). I feel that this limited player creativity, boxing them in so to speak.
• I failed to initially name each of the land masses, and as a result in the upcomming posts, you will see entries about "land mass #1". Having names would have been better.

I hope you enjoy it,
Snork

World Creation: Lands of the Seven: The Final Map

This is a photo, admittedly a little low rez, of the final map of the "Lands of the Seven" game.

Using the battle mat was very helpful in that it kept the three primary players focused on what was happening and we could easly tell what was going on.

I started some work in Campaign Cartographer in an attempt to try and map it there. The second image is what I currently have.

In retrospect a slightly higher rez camera would have been nice. It would have also been interesting to be more diligent about capturing the map at each stage in its development.

Irregardless, I think it worked out very nicely.

World Creation: Lands of the Seven: Third Age

Log of Play:

Turn 11:
Snorky	The Hidden City crafts and captures Outreach to power their civilization.
Dave	Morn build The Great Library.
Stephen	Outreach and The Hidden City cause a huge explosion, destroying cities, and all of the armies. The resulting cataclysm creates the Extinction Sea, and the continent of Do'Karr.
Andrea	Passed
Turn 12:
Snorky	Creates Avatar: Spite, the last Eldar, affected by the explosion, merging the traits of the Eldar, the Heirs, The Gor, The Aron, and Metallic Dragons.
Dave	Arandell creates an army of Gor. The Gor expands into the Xob dessert, and build the city of Talen.
Stephen	The Child orders The Heirs to build a city near Talen, named Talen-el. Some of the Heirs move into the Frozen Savannah to live with the Sheenar. The Heirs advance in Commerce (+1).
Andrea	Passed
Turn 13:
Snorky	Spite creates the race of the Hungry Dead (-1) on Do'Karr. The Hungry Dead create the city of Ressurection on the Extinction Sea. The City advances in Divination (+1).
Dave	Arandell leads the army of Gor to destroy the Monestary of Hate, and renames it the Monestary of Enlightenment. Aron create the city Dawn on Vardo, and create the Wonderous Ship, called the Dawn Catcher. The Dawn Catcher sets sail to find the dawn.
Stephen	The Child creates Dawn-el. Advances The Heirs in Diplomacy (+1).
Andrea	Passed
Turn 14:
Snorky	Advance the Hungry Dead in Fate Magic (+1). Spite creates the city of Gateway.
Dave	Arandell leads the army of Gor to destroy the Monestary of Pain, and renames it the Well of Soothing. Aron advance in Architecture (+1).
Stephen	Dawnchildren make the Well of Soothing their home. Advance the Sheenar in Nature Magic (+1) and Wilderness Lore (+1).
Andrea	Passed
Turn 15:
Snorky	Spite creates Kar-Morn near Morn. The Hungry Dead create Kar-Goran and Kar-Talen.
Dave	Arandell commands Gor to create a Wonder, the Valhalla, a Gothic cathedral built into a cave with a fire that cannot be extinguished and needs no fuel. Gor Advance in the Arts (+1).
Stephen	Advance The Heirs in Metallurgy (+1). Create Order of The Remembrance. The Child convinces the other avatars to leave the races to their own, promising to come to their aid should they ask. Spite leaves behind a hand, an eye, and his tongue. Sheena gives no response and is presumed dead.
Andrea	Passed

World Creation: Lands of the Seven: Second Age

Log of Play

Turn 6:
Snorky	Corrupts the Eldar (-3) as they turn the other races to livestock.
Dave	Creates the Gor (+1). Advances Aron in Engineering (+1). Advances Gor in War Magic (+1).
Stephen	Creates The Heirs (+1), a sub race of the Eldar, whose capital city is Outreach. Advances Heirs in Practical Immortality.
Andrea	Passed
Turn 7:
Snorky	Corrupts to Eldar (-4) as he introduces blood magic.
Dave	Advances Gor in Warfare (+1).
Stephen	The Heirs advance to True Immortality. The Ancient makes them trade for their immortality, making them barren.
Andrea	Passed
Turn 8:
Snorky	Advances Eldar in Blood Magic (+2).
Dave	Creates Dragons (0) on Vendee. Gor build the city of Goran on Zhassana.
Stephen	Advances The Heirs in Healing Magic (+2). The Ancient leads the Heirs to build a new city, Goran-el.
Andrea	Passed
Turn 9:
Snorky	The Eldar capture and cannibalize The Ancient to power their civilization.
Dave	Creates Sub race of Dragons, the Metallic Dragons (+1). Advances Aron in Literature (+1).
Stephen	One of the Heirs gives birth to The Child, the next incarnation of The Ancient. The Child leads the Heirs to build a city near Morn, Morn-el, a reunited the Dawnchildren with their parent race.
Andrea	Passed
Turn 10:
Snorky	Event - The Hidden City grows, the curse grows with it. Population boomed as The Ancient Fueled their civilization. There was a failed attempt to abduct Arandell.
Dave	Arandell orders the Aron to create an army. The Gor also create an army. Advanced Aron in Shipbuilding.
Stephen	Advance The Heirs in Flight (+1). The Dawnchildren join the armies. The Child commands the Heirs to build a city on the continent of Vendee, Dragon-el.
Andrea	Passed

World Creation: Lands of the Seven: First Age

Log of Play

Turn 1:
Snorky	Created 2 land masses: Thon and Hearth
Dave	Passed
Stephen	Created Avatar: The Ancient who created the Eldar race - Neutral Alignment
Andrea	Created land mass: Barda
Turn2:
Snorky	Created Order: The Despisers of the Elder's
Dave	Created land mass: Shasta
Stephen	Created the Hidden City on Heart land mass and advanced them in illusion (+1). Change land mass Thon to Thun and Hearth to Heart and Barda to Bihrd
Andrea	Created land mass archipelago the Broken Islands and changed middle of Shasta land mass to Desert of Hope.
Turn 3:
Snorky	Corrupting the Hidden City - Alignment -1 and Command Despisers Order to create a Monastary of Hate in the Mountains next to the Desert of Hope on Shasta
Dave	Created avatar: Arandell created the race called the Aron on the Bihrd land mass
Stephen	Command Avatar to command city to create a curse around the city that affects those that enter the city that have ill intent are struck blind and deaf with the vision of the Ancient. Adds onto land mass Bihrd and changes name to Vard. Shasta becomes Zhassa. Thun becomes Dohn. Heart becomes Kaerth. Desert of Hope changes to Hope Desert.
Andrea	Creates Avatar: Sheena and creates race on the Vard land mass in the mountains called the Sheenar with alignment neutral.
Turn 4:
Snorky	Corrupts the Eldar (-1) by instituting slavery, Corrupts The Hidden City (-2) by introducing blood sports. Despisers creat second monestary, Monestary of Pain on Vard.
Dave	Creates Aron city, Morn. Creates volcanic continent of Vendee.
Stephen	The ancient creates the religious order Dawnchildren (+2) in the Aron to guide them. Vendee becomes tropical jungle. Turned mountains on Vardo to Glacier, the Frozen Savannah. Vard becomes Vardo, Zhassa becomes Zhassana, Dohn becomes Dohna, Hope Dessert becomes Xob Dessert.
Andrea	Passed (At this point Andrea, drops out due to exhaustion)
Turn 5:
Snorky	Corrupts the Eldar (-2) as bloodsports become pervasive.
Dave	Passed
Stephen	The Ancient creates Outreach (+1), a city of good Eldar as a haven for freed slaves. The city brings the protective shell with them, only it is flawed: it kills instead of curses.
Andrea	Passed

World Creation: Lands of the Seven

One Thursday in early December 2008 our primary host and his wife needed to cancel, as did one of the other players, so we went to the backup location and did a simple world building exercise using the Dawn of Worlds rules with the following modifications with 4 people (though, this host's wife left the game somewhere in the first age:

• We used a battle Map instead of a sheet of graph paper.
• We started with a blank map instead of a set of pre-drawn continents.
  
• The Good/Evil became a spectrum, without limit, instead of a simple good, neutral, evil scale.
• When advancing a City or Civilization we chose to allow it to be open ended.
• Each Age was exactly 5 rounds long.
• We, inadvertently use a modification on the spend bonus rule, such that any one at or below 5 points at the end of the turn, received a bonus point instead of the escalating bonus.
• Linguistic changing of names was done for free.

In a little over 3 hours we managed to advance the world through all three ages and had a lot of fun doing so.

In retrospect, I should have brought my camera (7 mega pixels) as the photos of the battle map were a bit low res. I should have also brought my digital recorder as the record keeper did not entirely capture the actions of the turn.

More to follow,
Snork