November 16, 2016 by juddthelibrarian

Traditions of the Swordlords: The End

The End

We started our Burning Wheel campaign using the Kingmaker Adventure Path more than 2 years ago.The game started with Zora and Hajek traveling south to the bandit fort. Then we saw it all again through Ivo’s eyes as he traveled south and saw the effect Zora and Hajek had been having. Then we saw it all again when Cyril came into the game and we get to experience the Riverlands through fresh eyes, with knights on the map. We’ve been re-contextualizing the journey from Restov to Olegton, southward to Spider Hill and finally to Fort Hajek for two years and it has been fresh and new and exciting every time.

Zora was a idealistic knight, ill-suited to bringing people together peacefully after a life of war and battle. Hajek was a jaded soldier who wanted to see the best in people and gave up his life serving a Swordlord who he believed would be a truly noble leader. Ivo came to the Riverlands having seen the worst of the rulers of Rostland.

He had little faith in the system Zora was trying to salvage and so he helped her build something new.

In the History of the Charterlands it is Swordlord Zora’s ability to find solutions that obviated bloodshed and her deftness at picking up the sword and leading her soldiers when necessary that shaped these provinces as much as Ivo’s love of the common folk and willingness to take harrowing chances on epic level sorcery and summoning.

In the last game, Ivo realized that his apprentices would learn Sorcery within the next month and smiled; he used his powers to help his friend have a child, also an heir that would bring stability to the region for another generation at least.

In the last game, Zora won a Duel of Wits with an angry Swordlord whose bitterness threatened to tear apart what she had built and through her curt, effective words – ended the argument the way she ended her battles.

Meanwhile, back in the real world…

I knew Rachel and I knew Drew before the game started but we weren’t as close as we are now. In the two years during which our game took place I got married and shifted over to a different library. My consistency has been negligible in all areas of my life – physical culture practice, jujitsu and writing. The main consistency in my life has been this game.

Traditions of the Swordlords has had a huge effect on the way I think about world building and basing games on established material.It deepened my understanding and love of Burning Wheel.

More important than any of that, 2 good friends became dear friends. Rachel would start some games by saying, “I missed your faces!” Aw.

Meanwhile, back in the Riverlands

We’re hitting the fast forward button and coming back to the Riverlands as elves. They will see their favorite characters and their work through new eyes, re-contextualizing everything all over again with fresh eyes, coming back to this place we’ve made decades later…

April 25, 2016 by juddthelibrarian

Traditions of the Swordlords: the Murk

To the west of the Riverlands is another Swordlord with his own charter to worry about. Swordlord Grahl has been a peripheral NPC, father of Squire Irenka, first mentioned in this blog post. He has two other daughters with him. He married a matriarch of a local swamp clan to strengthen his ties.

Now his daughter is a knight who has given birth to a demi-goddess, her home has been sacked by orc and he has rallied the Murk-folk to support his neighbor. He will join the effort to take back Spearpointe after its fall. It was time to think about where he is coming from and who he is bringing with him.

Swamp

The Murk-folk are a group of quasi-feudal swamp tribes. They pray to their own fickle swamp gods, a few sword saints and sometimes they are known to call on the Dragon Gods. In the troll-haunted swamps, you call on whatever works.

Once they prayed to one of Erastil’s siblings but he died centuries ago during a war with the Brevosi that ended in blood and dragon-fire (oddly, I made that up BEFORE Erastil died). That sibling was said to have given them the gifts of slingstones, axes and druidic magic in the same way that Erastil gave the Riverlanders the bow, spear and hunting.

A few tribes claim to be “descended from the Sword-Crowns” and some worship that descendant as Rostlanders would pray to a Sword Saints. Swordlord Grahl has married into one such tribe and they see his sword as a holy relic, a tether to their proud, lost heritage.

Their highland tribes in the nearby mountains are their constant rivals with feuds often nearly becoming wars until cooler heads prevail.

Note: The above image is from NYPL’s Digital Image Collection.

April 21, 2016 by juddthelibrarian

excerpt from The Military History of the Riverlands Swordlords by Norwich O’Ber

alexander-minze-thumler-character4

Sgt. Jitka is one of the few soldiers to have fought in every engagement of The Swordlord’s Westerly March. She dragged several comrades to safety, one out of the very maw of a Great Wolf during the Spearpointe Arrival.

She road with the Swordlord and caved in her share of orc chattel’s heads during the Sellen River Orc Drowning, chosen due to her limited experience on horseback at a time when riding skills were rare. During Spearpointe’s Fall she galvanized the Little Goddess’ Spears and helped them find a path for their deity to safety once the desperate call to retreat was sounded.

Her Lieutenants have held off on promoting her to sergeant because of how dependable she is on the scout and because she claimed she would bloody an officer’s nose to be busted down if she received her stripes, not wanting the responsibility. After the orc invasion the stripes and the responsibility that came with them could not longer be avoided.

I love this picture found for our Traditions of the Swordlords Pinterest board by Alexander “Minze” Thümer, had to write something about it from our Burning Wheel game.

January 22, 2015 by juddthelibrarian

Traditions of the Swordlords, Book 1

The Traditions of the Swordlords campaign has picked up full-steam this year, so I wanted to put all of the Book 1 AP threads in one place with links and quotes. The above link will take you to the tag in the BW forum. Continue reading →

September 24, 2014 by juddthelibrarian

Swordlords into the Rivermark, Wyrdmark, Daggermark and Eastmark

Rachel, Drew and I are playing a Burning Wheel campaign inspired by the Kingmaker Adventure path. I was just thinking about the other posses who have ventured out into the Stolen Lands and thanks to Pinterest, I had some art inspiration.

The Swordlords of Rostland’s way of life is about to be destroyed by the Brevosi Dukes.

Four posses were sent into the Stolen Lands to the south, chartered to not only guard Rostland’s southern border, for as long as it continues to exist, but to be seeds so that Swordlords might continue and some piece of their culture might live on.

Lady Zora Kucera ventures south with her loyal man-at-arms Sgt Hajek. The Rivermark is plagued with bandits and is even rumored to have a dragon within its borders.

Lady Zora Kucera

Sgt. Hajek

Lady Eva Kucera, elder sister to Kora, is chartered to settle the Wyrdmark, where it is said elves and fey folk dwell. She ventures forth with a wizard friend and her loyal companion and squire.

Lady Eva Kucera

Tamryn the Sorcerer

Antoni the Thousand Year Squire

Sir Bohdan lost his taste for dying nobly for Rostland when the Thousand Saint Church deemed his wife sinful and refused to allow her to be burned according to Rostland religious tradition. By refusing her funeral rites, they also refused her entry through the Black Gate where swordlords go for their final well deserved rest.

Sir Bohdan and his daughters will venture into the Eastmark, about which very little is known.

Sir Bohdan Gral

Lady Anna Gral – Anna the Red

Sister Gabriela of the Thousand Sword-Saints Member of the Holy Order of Saints

Squire Irenka Gral

The third posse has been chartered to settle the Daggermark, on the western border that is thick with Numerian barbarians.

They are all mystery knights, men and women who wear their helms as cowls and masks, guarding their identities as they travelled through Rostland and beyond, winning tournaments and destroying bandits before taking up the oaths and charter.