Location: Village of Edward’s Fields

Location: Village of Edward’s Fields

The Village of Edward’s Fields sits at a T-Intersection between two roads that are both trade routes. The main road goes East to West, and the other road travels South.

The village consists of two Inns, one right at the Intersection called Ebony Hearth, the other on the “edge” of the village on the Southern Road is named simply “South Inn.” South Inn is the bigger and better of the two, while the Ebony Hearth serves low quality food and is quite drafty.

There is also a Stable that buys and sells horses, manufacturers and sells tack, and repairs wagons. The stable has room for up to fourteen animals. Two of  the stalls are frequently occupied by animals from a local farmer that are for sale.

Next to the stable is a small blacksmith shop. The blacksmith, Olward Spothearted is young and has mediocre skills. He reluctantly took over the shop from his father who died in an accident before passing on many skills.

North of town is a large graveyard. Most of the gravestones are worn and unreadable. There are roughly ten thousand gravestones still present, but there is evidence that many more are missing. Local rumors say that it’s the final resting place of a defeated great army.The same rumors also state that the graveyard is home to witches, goblins, vampires, ghouls and all sorts of other beasts. Yet there has not been an actual sighting of any such things in known history.

Next to the graveyard entrance is a small church. It has room for about twenty worshippers. Near the entrance is a small room for a priest. One wall has a built in bookshelf and another has a small fireplace setup for cooking and heating. The church is kept clean, but is not dedicated to any one god.

North of the Graveyard lives Nelshell the Witch. She is little more then a hedge wizard who knows some herbs and healing. She lives very simply, her hut is dug into the side of a hill. The front walls are old sticks and branches laid next to each other. The door a simple piece of scrap canvas to keep out the weather.

On the Southern side of town, past the South Inn are two tobacco farms. The smaller one on the west side is about two acres in size. At each corner of the field is a small, ancient, statue of a man with a long mustache in prayer. The statues face inwards. A small farm house is next to the field, but as far away from the road as possible.

Across the South Road is a larger farm of ten acres. No farm house or statues are in evidence, and the overall field feels shabbier then the one across the road. There are evident gopher and squirrel holes, along with many weeds.

Adventure Seeds:

  • The Southern Road suffered a washout some time ago and has stopped being used as a trade route. This leaves the Southern Inn with little to no business. Rumors say that the washout was not a total accident though.
  • Acting on Rumors of Evil in the Graveyard, an Militant Order of Paladins takes over the small church. The Villagers are not too happy about it, and are not believed when they tell the Paladins there is no evil there. The Paladins begin to suspect that the Villagers are in on the Evil.
  • The smaller tabacco farm grows much better quality products then the larger one directly across the road. The owner of the larger field decides that the small statues bless the smaller field and thus plans to steal them.
  • Nelshell the Witch is more then she seems. She is actually a powerful Wizard who has been hiding out for many years. Upon rumors that her former rivals are coming through Edward’s Fields, she plans to take over the body of a young girl living nearby with one of her remaining magical artifacts to change her identity and continue hiding.
  • Evil is present in the Graveyard. Each night the two opposing sides battle each other in ghostly form. The former losers can only be satisfied by having their bodies properly buried. Unfortunately they were buried in a mass grave.
  • Olward Spothearted never wanted his father’s Blacksmith shop. He wanted to be an adventurer, or at least a soldier. One night as he’s cleaning the shop, he finds a hidden compartment. Inside is a glowing longsword, and there just happens to be a merchant in town who is short of Guards.
  • GM Help: RPG setting ideas

    GM Help: RPG setting ideas

    One of the strengths of the D20 systems is the wide range of settings it can be used in. Between Dungeons and Dragons, Modern, Future, Cyberpunk and the Past supplements just about any setting can be run fairly effectively. I’ve so far ran a Time Travel Fantasy game, a Steam Punk/Victorian Era game, and a near future high tech space game with this system. Here’s a list of some other settings that I think would make a great game.

    Torchwood – United States

    A new rift has opened up in whatever major city you’re most familiar with. Captain Jack is in town to check it out and see how big it is. Unfortunately he finds that it needs a 24/7 team to watch over it. This is where the PCs come in, they can either be drafted or coerced by Captain Jack, or be members of a secret military organization or even private company dedicated to such things. This could be a Bureau-13 type setting with aliens, time-travel, and unexplained monsters, along with the very occasional siting of the good Doctor. Having this be over seas from the main part of Torchwood gives the characters the ability to get some occasional help or specialized equipment when needed, but not be totally dependent on them.

    Roadmarks

    Based on the book of the same name by Roger Zelazny, Roadmarks is the story of a couple who travel a road through time. Characters can be police from some where in the future tasked with patrolling the road. Or they could be hapless travelers from any era who turned off on the wrong road and ended up here. Perhaps they’re looking to just get back, or possibly they’re trying to make a profit off the road by (illegally) running artifacts from the past to the future. Or possibly providing modern guns to participants in ancient wars.

    Space 1899

    This was a game system from the 1980’s that had a great background, but wasn’t too popular for some reason. The discovery of liftwood allows the building of ships capable of space flight. This fueled further colonization of not only Earth, but Mars which was essentially a Colonial-era Africa in Victorian times. Using the D20 Past rules, some various D20 Steam Punk settings, and a bit of research into Victorian eras a great game could be built.

    Zompocalypse

    Zombies have risen, and are eating brains. Use D20 Modern and a basic Zombie template. The Zombie outbreak could be a localized event or a world wide event. This would be a great setting to play boringly “normal” characters who have been trust into an extraordinary  situation. The area of conflict can be an entire town, or an office building, mall or school. Characters have to use makeshift weapons and depend on whatever supplies they can find. This could be a one off game, or an entire campaign as the PCs explore and father clues to find out how the got Zombies started.

    As can be seen, most any setting can easily be created in the D20 system. So go take advantage of it! And have fun!