[TSA P&P RPG] Setting/History collection Thread

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Kellais

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« on: December 01, 2013, 11:44:59 pm »
In here i hope we can gather all the TSA Hivemind knows about the setting, cultures and history of Earwa.

And also discuss what periods are suitable for play etc.
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Somnambulist

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« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2013, 01:04:30 am »
And also discuss what periods are suitable for play etc.

My personal opinion regarding timelines is that anything is game, from the heyday of the cunoroi all the way up to the current book.  There are so many interesting periods of time in the history of this world they should all be open for play.  That being said, from a universally accessible standpoint, I think the years just previous to the First Holy War are ideal for adventure.  All the old intrigues are present, Kian is a powerful threat to the south, the cishaurim are still around, there's relative free trade and travel even between Inrithi and Fanim lands, the Consult is still a shadowy, elusive threat, Moenghus is conditioning the land, etc etc. Endless opportunities versus, say, the monolithic hegemony of the New Empire.  Though any and all periods in history could be great fun in their own way, I feel like that particular time frame lends itself pretty well to pnp rpgs.
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Kellais

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« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2013, 10:56:41 am »
I agree, Somna.

The one and only problem i see is that we have very few informations for some of the time periods. This is not a problem for a GM who wants to tell his own stories anyway and who doesn't give a damn about canon, but for someone (like me  ;D ) who is primarily interested to have a very close approximation to the real Earwa, this is a problem. I am not saying i want to replay the books! But i like the world to be as earwan as possible and not just 3% Earwa and 97% made up shit to fill the wholes  ;D
Now, this is just stating a problem i see for game-play. Please do not let that discourage you from talking and theorizing about the different ages in Earwa that are hinted at in the books etc. . I'd really like to see that stuff in here.

Anyway...i was wondering...does anyone have the appendix of PoN in an electronical format? I mean i have the book (TTT) but i would very much like to have a pdf or similar format to be able to print out the appendix and have it spread out around me when working on the P&P  ;)
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Madness

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« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2013, 02:35:39 pm »
Top right of this page (or any page on this site) there is a link to the Prince of Nothing wiki where some plucky user transcribed the TTT Glossary (among much else from the books) to the wiki.

Also, I feel very much that the period prior to the First Holy War is actually one of the more documented Earwan periods.
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Callan S.

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« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2013, 02:37:29 am »
How do they refer to firstnames, when they put surnames first, generally?

Somnambulist

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« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2013, 04:16:41 am »
How do they refer to firstnames, when they put surnames first, generally?

I believe a 'first name' is referred to as a given name.
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Callan S.

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« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2013, 08:55:37 am »
I don't remember that in the books, but I'll run with that - I'd forgotten that RL term, heh!

Somnambulist

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« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2013, 01:27:56 pm »
Sorry, I misunderstood.  Given is real-world, don't know if Balked actually had his own term for it.
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Wilshire

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« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2013, 12:19:17 am »
I think Somnambulist and Kellais summed things up nicely. The farther back you set the game, the more it can be "chose your own adventure". The closer to the books, the more you might want to think about canon.
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Wilshire

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« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2014, 11:46:48 pm »
Well I missed the first half of TDTCB, but here are some notes I've taken so far. Let me know if this is what you had in mind, or if you want more, less, something different, etc.

All spoiler tags are to reduce post length.
Ecosium Market [Sumna] —
(click to show/hide)

Sudica [Area between Sumna and Momemn] -
(click to show/hide)

Batathent [ Ruins between Sumna and Momemn] -
(click to show/hide)

Gate of Pelts – “Immense tan towers”

Karian Way and Pon Way [Roads between Sumna and Momemn] —
(click to show/hide)

[Outside Momemn]
(click to show/hide)
Ainoni
“Ainoni drama held in an ampetheartere near Carythusal”

[Cultural Dress]
Galeoth, stripped to the waist and painted for some festival that apparently confused winter for summer
Thunyeri, sporting the black-iron hauberks they never seemed to shed;
Ainoni nobleman, whose elaborate gowns looked positively ludicrous amid
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Kellais

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« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2014, 04:47:50 pm »
Very cool, Wilshire. Thx! Hope you'll keep it up.
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Wilshire

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« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2014, 05:14:51 pm »
It has occurred to me that post the information like I have done may be frusting later on. Yeah, there is no way getting around teh fact that we need to amass large amounts of data before we can start crunching it into a usable format, but maybe there is a better way to start that process as I (of anyone else) collects info strewn about the books.

We should figure out more specifically what information we want, and how it will eventually be broken down, so that we can try to vaguely catagorize it as we gather the info.

Grouping information by geographical area may be useful, so I was thinking something like below.


  • Country/State (Nansur, Ce Tydon, Ainon, etc)

    • Ruling Dynasty (current)
    • Ruling Dynasty (past)
    • 5-tribe ancestry (might be the same thing as Race?)
    • Boundaries (Current)
    • Boundaries (past)
    • Cities
    • Provinces/estates (if known)
    • Land features (perhaps included in boundaries)
    • Major Families
    • Alliances/Wars
    • Dress (Upper, middle, lower, slave)
    • Laws (explicitly stated or unique)
    • Religion
    • Customs (anything unique)

This is the kind of information that we will need to generate characters properly. Background, race, traits, careers, starting equipment, etc. all need a lot of basic information of geography and culture. Listed like this might make it easier to find.

If you find a piece of information, catagorize it as much as possible. Even just listing it as:

Religion: text from book

or

Country X, Upper class dress: text from book


will make things much easier... you know, if someone other than me starts doing this :)
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Kellais

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« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2014, 04:08:05 pm »
That sounds more than reasonable, Wilshire. But it is also more upfront work (but a lot less work after the information collection is over).

At the moment, i do not think i will be able to contribute a lot to this data-collection-project. There is just no time for a through reread. I think my contribution will be mainly in the rpg conversion itself than in the facts-collecting work. Hopefully we will get enough people for both sides of the "equation". I appreciate your efforts a lot, so thank you, Wilshire.

If only we could convince Scott or his publisher to gift us the TTT appendix as a downloadable pdf or something. That'd be a biiig help.
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"GoT is TSA's less talented but far more successful step-brother" - Wilshire

Somnambulist

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« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2014, 04:24:00 pm »
Re: the TTT appendix.  If you have an e-version of the book, and if you have the program called Calibre, you can open the book in Calibre, copy the text and paste it into Word.  I started doing this some time ago, but only got through 'A' before I decided to move on with my life.  lol

I will gladly share what I've already done with anyone who wants to continue the effort.  I don't know if I have the OCD requirements for it... 
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Wilshire

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« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2014, 05:01:30 pm »
I might feel bad posting so much text onto the forum, but you can PM me what you've got so far. I'll be getting to the appendix after I've read the first 3 books (maybe someone else will start that without me :P).

I will probably have the ability to digitize the whole Appendix with some effort, though I was planning on only transcribing the parts that directly effected the RPG. I also won't likely post it on the forum (since then no one would buy TTT as an e-book)
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