Monday 28 July 2014

Frozen Skies Setting Rules v1.0

A draft of some setting rules along with Hindrances, Edges and some vehicles for the Frozen Skies setting. Will be adding additional rules and making tweaks depending on feedback, feel free to have a look and try them out.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwiYZKQvknnWemRGdU12dnNiaTQ/edit?usp=sharing

Wednesday 23 July 2014

New Gwentia

New Gwentia

New Gwentia is the main area of settlement and the heart of the Commonwealth on the Continent of Alyeska, it is where one can expect to find reasonably reliable telephones, electricity and radios in addition to a few luxury goods.

The southern part of New Gwentia feels like a well developed country, but the rest of the region gradually has more of a frontier feel depending on the direction you're heading in. There is a fairly extensive road and rail network linking the towns and a few of the larger villages, there are also fully furnished airfields with paved runways as opposed to a dirt airstrip and a few huts.

Morrdun

Morrdun is the largest settlement in Alyeska, its capital and only actual city. It is densely populated and feels very strongly like an industrial city with high rise tenant blocks and giant factories, it boosts at least two airfields and an urban railway network. Though despite seemingly being made up of slums and tall brick buildings, Morrdun does have a more grander side in the form of the Crown District home to mansions and of course Alyeska's Governor-General.

The city has a growing district simply known as the Military Ward, effectively a giant army camp and mini-city in it's own right. The Military Ward features warehouses, barracks, messes and a giant central parade ground. It sees hundreds of soldiers move through it every month as part of the ongoing conflict in the Wulflands.


The Wulfwall

Marking the western boundary of New Gwentia and separating it from the Wulflands is the fortified line known as the Wulfwall. It is a wide, twenty foot high wall with towers at regular intervals along its length. There is a single gate about halfway along the wall and it is heavily defended with machine posts. On the New Gwentia side there is barracks and artillery positions, supported by a narrow gauge railway line that runs the length and moves various supplies and munitions.

Wednesday 16 July 2014

The Wulflands

The Wulflands

The Wulflands is the region formerly called West Alyeska that made up the western part of the Continent of Alyeska (hence its originally unimaginative name). The main settlement of this region was from New Gwentia in the east and along the southern coastline, but gradually outposts and homesteads crept ever northwards. After a few years the region was recognized as the Territory of Western Alyeska and had its own Lieutenant-Governor appointed, subordinate to Alyeska's Governor-General. For a time it looked like Western Alyeska would become a prosperous region.

Then came the Wulvers.

The Wulvers 

 

Pair of charging Wulvers.
It is believed that the Wulvers existed long before Man first arrived on Alyeska's frozen shores, certainly the Windryders tell tales of the 'Beast in the West'. Though they weren't sighted during the first few years of the Colonial Era, they may never had been discovered had it not been for the curiosity of Man.

History does not record the names of those who stumbled across and inadvertently freed the Wulvers, though it may be for the best. Though it is generally known that a team of explorers, eager to map the extremes of the Alyeskan Continent, took an expedition into the wilderness of Western Alyeska close to where it met the Bastion Peaks of the Highlands. They came across a gorge that had been deliberately blocked, curious they cleared the boulders and pushed finding a valley on the other side of the gorge. According to the expedition's survivors, it wasn't long before the ran into the Wulvers which tore them limb from limb and chased those left from the valley. It didn't take long for the Wulvers to discover that their prison had been breached and they soon spilled out to ravage the unsuspecting homesteads.

It was a slaughter that went down in history as 'The Night of the Wulf'.

Western Alyeska soon became too dangerous a place to live and the Commonwealth was forced to evacuate those who remained and then construct the Wulfwall to protect New Gwentia. Though the Wulflands, as the region became known, wasn't entirely abandoned as the Commonwealth established military outposts to at least keep the Wulvers in check and formed two new units; the Wulfbane Commandos and the Alyeskan Outriders.

Wolfbane Commandos

 

Wulfbane Commandos in action.
Created as the direct response to the Wulvers once it was realized the scale of threat they posed, the Wulfbane Commandos is the Commonwealth's most blunt tool against the beast. The Wulfbanes' job is quite simply to hit the Wulvers and hit them hard, they were typically have a large amount of firepower backing them up.

The Wulfbanes typically man outposts in the Wulflands in company strength, though an entire battalion mans Fort Bainsbury on the far western coast of the Wulflands. There are of course other units stationed in New Gwentia and Eastern Alyeska, though all units rotate through all the regions of the Continent. They maintain a rapid response force thats ready to move at a moment's notice in response to a major Wulver threat, aircraft known as Gyro-carriers that can land and takeoff without needing a runway are used to move these units around. To date their only real major action has been the Defence of the Wulfwall when it suffered a major Wulver assault, for three days the beasts threw themselves at the 'wall but the Wulfbanes held firm.

Alyeskan Outriders

 

Outrider trucks at an Alyeskan airstrip.
In complete contrast to the Wulfbanes is the Outriders, relying move on stealth rather than brute force to complete their job. The Outrider's role is simply watch and report on the movements of the Wulvers, occasionally conducting hit and run attacks on small packs in their machine gun armed trucks. Though from time to time they have helped the Wulfbanes deal with larger packs.

Originally the Outriders rode on horseback, acting as the Commonwealth's scouts but they embraced the motor engine soon as it arrived to let them be more mobile and outrun irate Wulvers.

The Outriders do tend to conduct long patrols, often for weeks at a time where they do require resupply at rough airstrips in the Wulflands, Though extremely dangerous and tense affairs, the Aerial Corps does pay a fair bit to those who are willing to risk being ripped limb from limb to deliver rations and petrol to the odd patrol.

Wednesday 9 July 2014

The Commonwealth

Flag of the Commonwealth

The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth is the Darmonican nation that the Continent of Alyeska finds itself claimed by and forms part of. Though to most Alyeskans it is a distant thing that has very little effect on their day-to-day lives.

It is known that the Commonwealth is headed by a monarch, namely Queen Lothwyn Boudica Cathmore II, and its capital is called Lindun.

The Commonwealth in Alyeska

The Commonwealth's presence in Alyeska is split into three different groups.

The Commonwealth Military

Due to the Wulvers posing a huge threat in the western reaches of the continent, the Commonwealth has a very large military presence in Alyeska mainly located in and around the Wulflands. The Wulfbane Commandos and the Alyeskan Outriders are the most well known parts of the Commonwealth's military, though there are thousands of ordinary soldiers and also the Aerial Corps that forms the basis of air travel in the frozen north.

The Governor-General

The Governor-General, presently Sir Douglas Fredrick-Davenport, is the viceroy and thus Her Majesty's representative in Alyeska being empowered to act on behalf of the Monarch. Though the Governor-General actually wields very little power, he generally has a ceremonial role but does perform some constitutional duties such as appointing a new Alyeskan Premier. He is also allowed to use the title Commander-in-Chief of the Alyeskan Militia (Alyeska's own military force) in the name of the sovereign.

Fredrick-Davenport technically has three deputies in the form of the Lieutenant-Governors of each of the provinces that makes up the Continent who act as viceroys at the provincial level. Though the reality is there is only one in the form of Sir Broone Langworth who is the Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern Alyeska. Of the other two provinces Fredrick-Davenport chose to temporarily fill the role for New Gwentia after the previous post holder vanished, whilst Western Alyeska is under military control and so the position is instead a military governor and is currently filled by General William Bartlett.

The Royal Alyeskan Air Police

Coming into being after the arrival of the aircraft, the constables of the Royal Alyeskan Air Police have built a reputation for themselves in the short time they have existed. The Air Police has a presence in most settlements across the continent with Broken Spires and the Wulflands being the obvious exceptions. In minor settlements, this is typically in the form of a small garrison of a ten man section commanded by a Corporal. Larger towns tend to boast a platoon of three sections, with densely populated areas, such as Gravenburgh, having a battalion sized force patrolling its streets. It maintains a sizeable Air Wing manned by full-time pilots flying a number of fighters and transport planes, with scout planes are used to patrol the more remote areas of Alyeska.

The Air Police are very highly regarded, even by those on the wrong side of the law. Very few people have managed to outrun the Air Police for long, and those who have, usually either end up eventually turning themselves in or has their frozen corpse discovered during the spring thaw. To date, Ryland Flinch remains the only man to avoid arrest successfully, having been on the run now for over two years. Originally wanted by the Air Police for questioning over illegal hunting, Flinch opened fire upon the constables that came to question him and embarked upon a one man war against the law which has become a legend in its own right, its fame spreading throughout the Commonwealth. Flinch's story has most certainly been blown out of proportion and romanticized by overzealous reporters and writers, but spending two years on the run and surviving alone in the Alyeskan wilderness is still an impressive feat by itself.

Saturday 5 July 2014

Alyeska, A Regional Guide

Alyeska is the northern most continent of the world of Darmonica, due to its location it is often referred to as either the 'rooftop of the world' or 'Darmonica's Cap'. It is a land known for adventure, danger, mystery, vast untamed wilderness and prolonged winters.

Regions

There are four distinct regions that make up the continent, though there is still plenty of areas that remain largely unexplored.

Alyeskan Highlands

The northern and central most part of the continent, dominated by towering mountain peaks and largely unknown thanks to the presence of the semi-permanent storm known as the Maw. To date expeditions have only skirted the edge of this region and on it's eastern edge sits the eerily flat Chillwynd Marches that seemed to have been carved out of the mountains. 

It is rumoured that the outlaw haven of Broken Spires is located somewhere amongst the towering mountain peaks and twisting canyons.

Eastern Alyeska

Located on the continent's eastern edge is the Territory of Eastern Alyeska, though most local folk just call it Alyeska which tends to confuse outsiders. The Territory's capital and main settlement of Gravenburgh is wedged in between the eastern arm of the Dragonspine Mountains and the Jagged Coast, though it sits at the head of a large bay formed by the Dragonspine arcing from the south-west through to the chain of islands and rocks in the east called the Needles.

Most of the other settlements here are clustered round Wicked Antler Lake located tens of miles north-east of Gravenburgh and is ice free for much of the year. Aside from mining or logging camps the only real other settlement of note is Prospector's Reach which sits on the northern coast next to the eastern boundary of the Chillwynd Marches.

New Gwentia

Covering much of the southern part of the continent is the Territory of New Garrack, the main area of settlement and the center of the Commonwealth in the northern reaches of Darmonica. It is here where the First Settlement of Morrdun and New Gwentia's capital for all intents and purposes, the bulk of the Commonwealth's administrative functions in Alyeska are based here as well being the headquarters of the Commonwealth's military Alyeska Command.

The western part of the Territory has a very strong military presence due to the neighbouring Wulflands.

The Wulflands

Originally called 'Western Alyeska' during Alyeska's early Colonial Era, it quickly became dubbed 'The Wulflands' due to savage, wolf-like creatures called Wulvers. A few settlements were established here but they were overrun in only a handful of years, leaving only stubborn homesteaders, the military and of course the Wulvers.

The Wulflands are notable for being the main area of operations for two of the Commonwealth military's most elite units; the Wulfbane Commandos and the Alyeskan Outriders.

The Wulfbane Commandos is the Commonwealth's answer to large, roving packs of Wulvers that pose a serious threat. The Wulfbanes' job is very simple; Search and Destroy. They are usually very good at it.

In contrast the Outriders' role is more covert, they're only meant to observe and report on the Wulvers' movements by a mixture of patrols and static watches. On occasion they do conduct Hit-and-Run attacks on small to moderately sized packs, either to scatter them or keep them busy until the Wulfbanes arrive.