allgeektout

My mind has a tendency to wander just a bit. The underground world of Allein was originally a home base for the adventurers, intended to only be a stepping stone in the campaign world of in medias res, but what happened was it became so much more in depth than I originally intended. It is still only scratching the surface of what most published cities have to offer, but I hope that you can utilize it in some way. Check out Allein after the jump.

One of the things I had decided on before I even started thinking about Allein was that I wanted it to have an nontraditional meeting place; even though I went into it thinking that Allein was a fairly standard city (besides being underground), I was bored of the tavern where the adventurers always meet. I ended up deciding on a fountain, after reading the excerpt from E1: Death’s Reach on the Wizards of the Coast website. Having a fountain also meant that there had to be a water source nearby (not to mention that the inhabitants needs water to live).

I also needed to come up with some economy; although it’s a bit of a cliché, I came up a rare gem that they mined for in the city, called aether. This immediately sparked another idea; mining is an awfully dangerous activity, so what if there was an accident that caused the earth underneath part of the city to collapse? A pit in the center of the city would do nicely, and I bet that it would probably be considered cursed by many of the villagers, and that all mining would be carried out outside of the city. The village leaders probably were located in the center of the village, so the past decade or so since the accident has probably been somewhat disorganized, and is only just beginning to reform itself.

At this point I had just enough ideas to start drawing a map, which I’ll try to get up later this weekend.

As I drew it I came up with a few extra features. “The Great Gate” is believed place where the people originally came from the surface; access to it is strictly controlled and you can only go through with a special permit. There are also settlements surrounding Allein, but they are so small and so dependent on Allein that they might as well be considered part of it. Finally, the river flows into the pit, and the former mine shafts are now used to carry the water to the other settlements. The accident may have killed many people of Allein, but it also helped them by making it easier for the survivors. Before the accident, all of the water was redirected to a basin, where the government is beginning to rebuild itself.

All that I’ve thought of so far leans towards a low-magic setting. In Allein, sorcerers, those with innate magical powers, are rare, and wizards who have to study for years to gain those powers are even rarer. The more that I think of this, the more I think that Allein is actually just the first base for the PCs. As their power grows, and they become deeper entrenched in the war, they will form allegiances and bases in other planes. This leads to me an important part of this entry.

THE REVISED PITCH

I posted my first entry in the column to the amazing community at 4eTopia, where Gamefiend, the creator of the board and blogmaster of At Will pointed out a flaw in my original pitch.

It seems that the “war that you have no place in” conflicts with the definition of epic you’re using. Epic is all about players owning a large chunk of the action. In the elevator pitch I feel that you might want to focus on that player ownership. The players may start out in the middle, but maybe explain how they are going to take center stage in the pitch.

After giving it some thought, I cleaned up the pitch and added in the details that Gamefiend suggested.

Upon discovering a hidden portal to other realms deep in the underground land of Allein, you are thrust into the middle of a war that has been going on for centuries between the mystical Althars and the dark and treacherous Primah. Tasked by the leader of the land to find anything that can be of use to Allein, and to destroy everything that may cause harm, you travel to different realms, discover unusual creatures, find wondrous magic and technologies, and rise in power as you are forced to choose sides and take charge in a war that will change all of reality.

This revised pitch introduces two more themes that I want to add to my Theme Sheet: “Rising in Power” and “Taking Charge”. Rising in Power is reflected by Allein only being the first home base. Taking Charge, meanwhile, is an expansion of “Choosing Sides” from last week. As Gamefiend suggested, the original pitch only implied that they were minor forces in an otherwise massive conflict. But now it is clear that although they may just start out as pawns in the war, they will eventually become one of the most powerful forces in existence.

Come back next week when I look at the leaders of Allein.