Developer Diary: Gwendellor

Ah, Gwendellor. This brings back memories as the first ever campaign in Centuria took place in this country.


The idea with Gwendellor was a frontier nation at the edge of civilization. Monsters and beasts lurking in the forests and hidden secrets deep in the mountains. A little Scandinavian touch but a bit more mysterious; the land should feel foreign and dangerous even to those who called it their home.

The Order of the Falcon was at the heart of the concept of Gwendellor. I can't recall exactly where the idea for the orwellian order of assassins came from, but there are plenty of historical references to draw upon such as the hashashin and the knightly orders of the crusades.

What I do recall is that from the start I envisioned Gwendellor as a land the humans had wrestled from the orcs. Indeed I decided that the human cities were still housed within walls once built by the orcs. It was something that would give the orcs, a very stereotyped race, an interesting history - something for those serving the Order of the Falcon to consider and dwell upon as they fought with orcs; the orcs where there first. And they weren't just primitive savages; they'd have cities - an empire even. And this gave birth to the idea of Orchiag - the ancient orc empire that spanned the length of the Northlands. This suited just fine with my aspirations to make Centuria a game where things weren't just black and white.

I wanted Gwendellor to be a fairly sparsely populated nation. Manpower would be a scarce resource. This would explain why the Order was prepared to put so much effort into every recruit, and also why those that survived to become full members of the Order enjoyed such benefits. It also helped form a picture of the Order's relation to the overall population of the country: the people was a resource; nothing more, nothing less.

One more thing I wanted from Gwendellor was a multicultural environment with equality between the sexes. It made sense then, that the nation was formed as part of the Empire's initial expansion into the Northlands. Gwendellor had been the furthest that the human armies had ventured in their quest to defeat the orcs. But how had the land fallen into the hands of the Order of the Falcon?

The idea I came up with was that the Order of the Falcon was just one out of several orders which had formed the backbone of the imperial invasion. Naturally, the Order of the Falcon had been in charge of intelligence and espionage, but it would then make more sense for it to exist in Damasa or Gothia. Historically I believe far flung outposts have been benefical to those who wanted to be able to do things their own way. So, the Order had been expelled from Damasa during the civil war but rather than retreat and operate under the queen in Menlor the leaders of the Order decided they'd do better by handling themselves - acquiring new land to manage their own recruitment pool might have been a strong incentive. Gwendellor probably wouldn't have been a first choice, but available land is scarce and the Order would have picked what it could get its hands on.

So the story of Gwendellor is pretty simple, yet very appealing (at least I think so). And that was really the goal of it; to create a very interesting place for a campaign with lots of possibilities (forest exploration, battles with the orcs, assassination missions and so forth). As the Order is described as one of the few to combine combat training with magics (at least in the Northlands) it was also an excellent opportunity to try out a very wide range of rules for the game.

You could say Gwendellor was the trailer for the entire game and it is still one of my absolute favorite settings, particularly in the Age of Steel!

Developer Diary: Damasa

I created Damasa to be a rival to the nation of Menlor. As I envisioned the two to be the major powers of the Northlands and so I imagine their conflict was similar to that of France and England during the middle ages, with the Damasa strait making it difficult to hold on to any gains on the other side.

The first thing was to design a reason for the hostility between the nations. I had already decided I wanted the nations of the Northlands to be multicultural (that is, several human cultures present) so it was logical that they would have a common ancestry. I envisioned that human civilization had been spread north from the Southlands by a great human empire that dwelled there. To give the nations claim on each others' lands I decided that most human nations in the Northlands had once been part of the same empire. As two factions came to claim the throne a civil war lead to the rise of several independent states.

With a story in place, I could build on that foundation. Geographically, it made sense for Damasa to be the first place for humans of the Southlands to make landfall (as Alvor was already set aside for the elves). Thus Damasa would be the heartland for human civilization in the north; resembling the Empire in the Southlands in both architecture and culture. I wanted it to be a contrast to Menlor on several levels and though I envisioned the queen of Menlor as the rightful and just ruler I didn't want to create a black and white scenario with Menlor being the good and Damasa the bad.

I found a good place to start to be the government. If Menlor was a feudal monarchy then I could make Damasa something like a republic or democracy? Inspired by the Persian-Greek conflict of antiquity I decided that if Menlor was inspired from France and the Empire would be some Roman-Persian mixup then it made sense to give Damasa a greek-inspired culture. So I made Damasa a meritocracy, though under the rule of an emperor which was largely seen as benign. As this image more and more clashed with the very traditionalist plans I had for the Empire I needed an explanation. The traditional factions of the Empire I had imagined as wizards, the army and the Temple. Given that I intended for the emperor to be a wizard it made sense that the wizard faction would be on his (the emperor would be male to balance out Menlor's queen) side. As the Temple was a moral institution with strong ties to the queen they would be the emperor's enemies. It seemed plausible the emperor would have banished them from the land (perhaps to gain the favor of the wizards?). Granting its wealth to the people could have prevented civil unrest. Then remained the army. As the emperor had managed to force the queen from the northern heartlands it seemed logical at least a large portion of the army had been on his side. But it was hard to imagine the traditional generals happily going along with the emperor dissolving the Temple and openly flirting with the wizard faction.

This created the foundation for an internal conflict. I imagine that to overthrow both the Temple and the army in one go would have been too much. The sensible solution to such a problem would seem to keep both sides content - and historically soldiers are best kept from causing trouble at home by being abroad fighting. As this suited the storyline just fine it was a given choice: the emperor sent his soldiers forth to try to claim all lands in the north for himself. But Menlor's knights would have been quite effective against legionnaire style infantry forces. The emperor is running low on troops but military tradition prevents him from recruiting freely.

This is really a turning point in Damasa's history - both in-game and off-game. Having reviewed what has been written so far I decide to postpone Damasa's cultural revolution. The emperor claimed power through adhering to the Empire's traditions, not overthrowing them. Those who ally with the emperor do so because they see themselves as part of the Empire and want to remain loyal subjects. This doesn't change the end result however; the emperor still battles the queen but starts to run low on soldiers. What does he do? He's a powerful mage so one response would be to summon an army - an army which is not so susceptible to attrition. Undead fit the bill just about right. So the emperor turns to raising undead and the whole war turns into a horror story. Great background stuff!

So how to merge this with that democracy-social revolution idea? Well, it seems likely the emperor gains more and more enemies over time. The Order of the Falcon eventually manages to assassinate him (they are on the queen's side anyway). Then what? With the undead falling apart Menlor gains the upper hand. Damasa is still strong in wizards but it needs a new army. A new emperor rises and appeals to the people: it is time to throw off all those who wish to rule them and create their own nation! The Temple is friendly towards the queen so gets thrown out. The wizards are the most powerful faction so they offer to assist in return for more privileges and autonomy and the remains of the army grudgingly joins the people and fight off the invaders. Almost there now!

Naturally, as the country is restored the army wants to reclaim its former position but the new emperor realizes this could lead to the same scenario once more and refuses. The new army will be raised from the common people. In protest the remaining soldier families decide to leave the country - they will then be the foundation for the militaristic state of Cenowar. But Damasa is now where I wanted it: it is a nation with a strong sense of national pride, a strong wizard community, a reformed army and with little or no influence from the Temple. In a sense the historical roles have been slightly reversed; Damasa now resembles revolutionary France while Menlor would look more like England in the Hundred Wears' War.

We're on to a great start!

Developer Diary: Menlor

Beginning the Developer Diary by talking about nations in the Age of Steel. It feels natural as this is where Centuria really began: with a map. At that time, admittedly, it wasn't intended to become the project it is today. It was another fantasy setting for another adventure campaign, but from the start the world stuck and here we are now...

Menlor was at the heart of the political and geographical design of Centuria. While the very first campaign in the game took place in Gwendellor that was a backwards place at the outskirts of civilization. Thus there was the need for some more powerful, more advanced civilization elsewhere in the world; preferably with a prime position on the map. This would be Menlor.

Since I wanted a classical fantasy setting at the core of the game, Menlor is deeply inspired by the European middle ages - particularly France. It shares the function of a cultural center, in this case for the ideas of chivalry, monoteism (The Temple) and feudalism. Menlor is known for its knights and its support for the old imperial bloodline (I refer to the Core Rule book for more reading on this subject). All this pretty much matches historical France to one degree or another.

However, there are also some important differences. With Centuria I wanted to explore some alternative social concepts. One of them is equality between men and women. Since Centuria contains several mortal races there's plenty of opportunities for inequalities that might yield interesting game play, so I also strived to achieve the opposite. As a consequence I envisioned Menlor as a nation ruled by queens rather than kings and in which men and women are seen as fairly equal in most fields. This state of affairs is explained part through cultural heritage and part by magic; which has helped to improve life to a more bearable state for the overall population compared to the actual middle ages. I theorize this would help bring power to women, as the dangers of childbirth (at least for the upper classes) are greatly reduced and magic can also contribute with fairly effective (if expensive) contraceptives. The lives of the women of Menlor are thus not as strongly affected by these factors as was historically true.

Partly through this equality, which I imagine creates a more open and understanding society, and again partly through magic Menlor also has a strong streak of meritocracy; a character can make it to a different level in society through hard labor and a bit of luck. The end result is thus a nation which can be seen as fairly benign; it is certainly not evil. Sure, it wages wars and tries to impose lordship over its neighbors but it is not the rich taking advantage over the poor - in fact the motivation of Menlor to intervene is often the opposite. With its queen the country acts like a protective mother to those around it, which pretty much matches the written story of how the nation came to be. So if Menlor was a person it would be someone you'd not always agreed with, but you knew he or she acted with good intentions. It would be a person advocating security and morality at the expense of individual freedom (pretty much the opposite of its main rival: Damasa).

Most lore about Menlor is a direct consequence from what has been established above. The country is friendly with the dwarves (who, however, remain suspicious as Menlor's equality between the sexes is very different from the dwarven society) - the progress of their relationship will eventually make Menlor a leading nation in technological development. Their other ally is Gwendellor, which also supports their queen's claim to all human lands in the Northlands, but as the methods employed by the Order of the Falcon are quite clandestine it puts a strain on the relationship as Menlor favors honesty and chivalry. The neighbors of Arbea and Tala are balancing their interests of having friendly relations without getting absorbed into the country. All in all, it is a country which provides a solid base for designing the international relationships and also a solid introduction for new players and game masters as it is similar to many other fantasy settings. Personally I therefore find it a little bit on the dull side compared to some other locations but it is still a cornerstone for the whole Age of Steel setting.

While Menlor is certainly at a disadvantage against its rival Damasa in the Age of Steel it is destined for greatness (or at least expansion and progress) in the Age of Knowledge, as it absorbs Arbea and becomes the nation of Gothia.

Developer Diary: First Post

LinCon 2017 is at an end and though it will be a great memory the aim is already set for 2018. For two years now, Centuria has been running some rather advanced scenarios featuring two Game Masters and separate groups of players. While very fun they have also presented some serious challenges from a Game Master perspective. This, along with feedback from everyone involved has inspired the creation of what will (hopefully) be a series of blog posts relating to the design and development of Centuria. The idea is to cover different angles: from game mechanics to world design to adventure and character creation.

First out I'll delve into some of the nations of the Age of Steel; what are they inspired from and what do I hope that they will contribute with to the setting as a whole?

Kragor the Merc: Epilogue

Yeah, yeah, I know you're wondering what happened next. But just so you all get it: I'm a merc - not a fucking loremancer. I don't got all the details.

From what I pieced together it wasn't a flawless victory. GERO had been looking for something out there - some elvish ruin or artifact or whatever. And in the end they got it. But on the other side they took a heavy punch too; our little party must have put them back a few weeks and a girl I know - she's the silent type - apparently cashed in big on assassinating the heads of the corporation. So Dormicas is pretty much back the way it used to be - with bad jobs from many corps and everyone fighting over scraps and all that. But its the way I prefer it to be. I guess GERO still made a shitload of money on their grab but hey, its not like I would have gotten it anyway; or the people of Dormicas for that matter. It would still just have lined the pockets of some Union bigshot 2'000 kilometers away. So who the fuck cares?

It would be the end of Freelance, at least as we knew it. Juron had seen something dark in himself those last days at GERO and apparently wanted to continue on his own journey. Can't say I ever really liked the man, but I wish him luck none the less. The Falcons went away of course and for the rest of us sticking around and throw a welcome-home party to the Demon's Head just didn't suit any of us. So we talked about just selling the place and move somewhere else, set up a new shop and start over. At least for a while. The big city will always have its lure. But long story short, that's how I ended up in this bar in this little town. You better believe it.

And if you ask me to repeat anything of what I just said ever again I'll nail your head to the fucking ceiling. Ed's the guy for repetitive blather. Me; I prefer the silence.

...

Kragor took a good look around him before he continued. He wanted to be -absolutely- sure no one was following him when he reached the locker.
A few moments later he found himself in front of it - a door exactly like the 20'000 others in the storage facility, and that was just one of the floors. He took out his digital keycard and entered the 10 digit code. He opened it, left a small parcel and then closed it again.
A minute later he was gone.

...

The door to the small shop opened and shut quickly. Keria finished her meal and went to deal with the customer.
"Kragor? What are you doing here?"
"Saying 'goodbye'."
"So the shit has really hit the fan?" she gave him a disapproving look.
"No, it hasn't. I'm just tired of the city for a while."
"Never thought I hear -you- say that."
"Goodbye Keria. And good luck."

...

"Hello sis."
The half-orc woman almost spilled her drink.
"Holy shit, is that you Kragor?"
"You don't recognize my pretty face?"
"Haven't seen your pretty face since you were 12. You need money or something?"
"No."
She gave him a scrutinizing look. For once he didn't put up his façade.
"By all the cursed devils... you're just here to see me?"
"You disapprove?"
"No, but well... you know," she switched to her sarcastic tone, "if the kids would see you they'd have nightmares for years."
"I won't be staying long."
"You know I didn't mean..."
"Don't worry. But I'll be heading out for a while. But I'll be back."
"I've never trusted you when you'd said things like that," she grinned at him but he could also see a slight mist to her eyes.
"I got 30 grand put away in a locker in downtown - I'll be back alright."
"Finally struck some gold, eh?"
"Eh, yeah, you could say that," said Kragor, for the first time feeling a bit uncomfortable about where the conversation was going. "Even got some extra."
He handed her a small credstick.
"I don't want your money Kragor."
"Its not for you - its for the kids."
After a moment's hesitation she nodded and took the stick.
"Goodbye sis."

...

Kragor stood before the unmarked grave.
"You knew it would end this way, Kronaug. One cannot be stupid and criminal for very long."
Though he knew it was true it didn't feel quite right as the last words to someone he'd known for so long.
"But you died for a good cause, I think. It could have been worse."
He turned and walked away.

...

The night air was cold and he was surrounded by trees. In the distance the dark water of Noldoa-Seni reflected the light of the stars. Between him and it lay an ugly little town; most lights out at this late hour but still a few chimneys poured dark smoke into the air and some moving lights could be seen reflecting off the buildings. Kragor didn't believe in happy endings and he knew that one day - probably not so far off - the town of Sodor would feel too small and the lure of Dormicas would draw him back. But right there, right then, he felt quite content.
"And once I put my shotgun to your face, Dwavor, I promise by the gods I'll be happy for a full day."
Whistling a tune, the scarred half-orc started walking towards the town, the auto-shotgun resting on his shoulder.

Kragor the Merc: Not just another run

It was the longest and most hellish countdown of my life. I've worked for some pretty fucked up people over the years, but seeing it on a grand scale... people never cease to amaze, that's all I can say.

We did jobs for GERO for a week - mainly patrolling the area and driving other people off the land - waiting for the damn Falcons to give the go sign. Every time I saw Boyan my trigger finger itched.

Then came the day, or rather evening as we had already pulled a full day's work. The hot-shots from GERO showed up and picked us for two top-notch escort vehicles and sent us off to a pick-up site. Boyan and a lady friend of his with similar levels of empathy was calling the shots and split us up between the vehicles. To my disappointment I get to go with the lady. With me was Juron, Erza and Lucas.

The drive to the pick-up was uneventful enough and would prove our only chance to get some sleep for quite some time. The place seemed to be some type of old facility - probably abandoned due to a fire. There were quite a few other mercs there, watching as we arrived. A truck was added to our convoy and we took position behind with Boyan and his team in front. Another long drive awaited - but now we were instructed to stay sharp.

I saw something behind us, probably because I expected to see it. Juron appeared to notice it too. There were at least two monobikes following us - and I could swear it was Hawk riding one of them. What followed wasn't a high-point in my career as a tactican, but I guess after the Falcons keeping us in the dark I wanted something to happen. I alerted our superior to us being pursued and she ordered the vehicle stopped and us to move out and take up positions. I wasn't the only one to be trigger-happy it seemed, for practically as soon as we'd gone out Erza gave the word to terminate our leader. Juron was quick on the notes and despite whatever job GERO had put into her she went down in a few seconds. The driver, who'd seen what had happened was shocked and I guess not to leave any loose ends we put him down too.

As Hawk and her companion rolled up they pointed out that we'd put ourselves in a bit of a conundrum. They wanted to know where the current cargo was heading - and GERO would probably have some difficulties trusting us given what had just happened. To be frank, I didn't give much of a shit: I had just got the opportunity to hammer someone who deserved it badly. The fact that the Falcons didn't tell us what they were planning was their fucking problem - we did our best with what we were given. On that note I called in and reported the casualties. Boyan sounded less than convinced, but told us to stick to the mission. I took over the driver's seat and soon we had caught up with the truck.

We drove for quite some time until we reached another installation which reached into a mountain side. It looked mostly like some type of mine with a few hastily constructed buildings with a small concrete wall with a watch tower protecting the entrance to the mine itself. We were taken to the barracks but weren't given much rest. Boyan came around and picked out Erza. I wanted to follow to see what was happening, but at the same time I didn't want to jeopardize our position further. But a few minutes later Boyan was back - without Erza - and this time he took Juron. It was clear some type of interrogation was going on and as I knew deception wasn't the prime skill of everyone in our team it smelled like trouble. Charles, speaking for the Falcons, agreed but insisted that he attempted to rescue our team mates while he tasked me, Ed and Lucas with blowing up the entrance to the mine.

We didn't get far until we were set upon by Boyan, who silently knocked Ed out of the game. Our excuse that we were just out to take a late night shit didn't quite go home and he tried to put his knives in Lucas, who elegantly backed away. As for myself I had been prepping for this moment for a damn week. The shotgun was in my hands almost before I knew what was happening and I pulled the trigger hard, basically turning the bastard's arm into minced meat. It didn't stop him and instead he turned his focus on me, but I had expected this should he survive and managed to dodge every attack he made. Next thing Lucas perforated his skull with a well-aimed shower of magrail bullets. Unfortunately my shotgun fire had put the guards on alert, but in that moment I was way too high to feel down. I put another round of bullets into Boyan's corpse before we dragged the unconscious Ed into the woods and started to make our way towards the mine entrance.

We managed to find some sort of mining vehicle which we used to create a ramp over the concrete wall. Inside we hid in a shed which proved to hold just what we needed: large cases filled with explosives. Unfortunately they were securely locked and while we managed to bring them into the mine our best option seemed to place them and then fire away and hope it worked. At this point the Falcons made contact and provided a better option as soon we had Hawk at our side.

Apparently the others had been busy, for our supposed sniper cover was busy elsewhere. Good thing we had a sniper of our own. Once the charges were set I made a run for it, while Lucas did a good job in taking down anyone posted in the watch tower. I understood from our com-channel that there was a communication disk that needed to be taken care of before we could call it a day and apparently that was what all the fighting outside was about. I saw a couple of guards near the disk and decided it was a good time to play a stupid orc, so shouted something about explosives in the mines and sabotage. It got their attention but before I could capitalize on the situation someone shouted "Juron, Fire!" on the com and that could only be translated as 'run like hell'. The com disk exploded in a million pieces as I threw myself towards the ground. Soon after the mine itself went 'kaboom'.

Even then, there, lying on the ground with bullets and small pebbles flying all around and pieces of broken equipment burning it felt like a B-rated action virex. But it was a virex approaching the end; those that needed to be put down had been put down and that which needed to be blown up had been blown up. Affected by this strange feeling the next couple of minutes felt like everything happened in slow-motion, with every sound as heard through a wall or a pillow over the ear late at night. But soon we found ourselves in a terradyne, driving away - back towards the city.

It would be the end of the adventure.

New print: The Age of Steel has arrived!

Say hello to the latest print of the Core Rule Book! At roughly 400 pages it is a solid piece with mostly text but a number of maps, short stories and item sketches to lighten things up. Hopefully more art can be added later on, but as that is not my area of expertise it will have to do for now.

It has been a lot of work and there are still two more books to go, but it feels very solid to finally have this in hand. The result was better than expected - particularly the hardback cover with many thanks to Sissela Lewitzki Andersson for the artwork!

As the author of these I can't say anything else than that I'm quite proud. For the achievement of actually getting this delivered to my doorstep, but also for all that last minute work put in to correct spelling mistakes (oh, there were lots of those), bad mathematics (don't ask) and the overall layout of the book. Now, don't get me wrong: I'm sure there are plenty of errors in there still - but at least they had to fight for survival.

So, I'll enjoy this milestone for a few days and then its back to work on the Age of Information rulebook!

Interested?

If you're interested in getting your hands on one of these books please leave a note at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CenturiaRPG/.