Witt and I are tinkering with a battle system based on Burning Wheel Gold’s Bloody Versus.

Aaron and I are getting together online to play a game to test it out. He’s playing a mercenary captain. The setting is largely inspired by the flowery in-character writing from the Burning Wheel Codex kickstarter updates (all comments about how much you hated that writing will be deleted).

UPDATED: Link to AP thread

The E-mail Blurb

King Artoos Heofonfyre from the city of Fyrstead (everyone calls it The Hub), the 5th of his dynastic line has died and left no heir.

Up and down the Goldwine, the river dukes are beginning to occupy their ruined castles, which are largely unmapped, having been destroyed when the Heofonfyre army threw down the River King.

The 4 great and holy wheels are needed to consecrate any king and the dukes are scheming and getting their armies together. Wherever there is a castle or a fortress, there is a duke.

Yes, the Heofonfyre dynasty was trying to turn the island into a 5-spoked wheel, just like their Wheel of Fire, the Burning Wheel, that adorns their banners. The last road that would have led to Elf Bay is still under construction. The elves have gone west and their citadel is an abandoned ruin overlooking Elf Bay, said to be guarded by their ghosts.

The island isn’t that big. You could get from Olde Shida to Brenan in a few weeks by horse and even less time if you took boats.

Maybe you start in Hub City as the dukes start to mobilize. It is the night the king is announced dead and dukes are beginning to move for the crown.

Questions? Thoughts?

Too much?

The Map

Names on the map pillaged from this site.

Follow-up

Let’s say that at an average castle, the duke can muster 25 to 50 knights, 50 to 100 foot-soldiers and 100 to 300 peasant levvy, also on foot. Knights are on horse and usually have a small retinue with them.

At a fortress or a city, it is up anywhere from 75 to 100 knights, 150 to 300 foot and 500 to 1000 peasants.