Easthalen – Introduction and Plan of Action

Long time followers of the blog and myself will be vaguely familiar with Easthalen. It is the nominal game world I use to home all the Chunks series and other items, spells etc. It’s something I have been tinkering with on and off for a few years. The older blogs will give some insight it to what has gone before and my direction etc.  I feel that I am ready mentally to finally start transforming it from rough notes and ideas in my head to something much more tangible. Now, it’s time to get comfy, because this is going to be a long one (Those inclined may now giggle)

The basic concept behind Easthalen is as follows:

The World Barrier was constructed almost 1500 ago to contain a mad god, Halen, to prevent him from undoing existence. Halen had somehow bound the whole of reality to his life force. If he died, so did everything else. So he was imprisoned instead and kept asleep.

This prison was built on the site of his capital city, Franner and covers it and an area of the continent on which it resides. It also sadly meant the gods had to be in the prison with him, along with some of the location population. They sacrificed themselves so that their creation was spared as nothing can get past the World Barrier. Nothing. In fact, time and space get mixed up and the rules of reality are bent to breaking point and beyond making it dangerous and unpredictable to even approach it.

Attempts at travelling into the past, to before the creation of the World Barrier met with messy results. It was during these attempts to escape by the population that the two worlds discovered each other.  Within this area, this prison for a mad god, the two twin worlds resides. The two dimensions could not be more different, yet similar. Geographically they are the same, but one is filled with magic, dragons and supernatural beings. The other with science, mutants and technology. Often people and beings who exist in one world, exist in the other, even though their personality may be different. Travel between these two realities is quite easy but heavily regulated by those in control.

The creation of the World Barrier had other, unplanned effects. In the arcane world, magic energy started to build up, allowing almost all the population to be able to cast spells of some description, but only those trained in the arcane arts can cast a spell without a side-effect. In the science world, this odd energy manifested in the form of mutants and mutations. Almost everyone has one, with the vast majority of them being something trivial like odd coloured eyes or hair. Some are not so lucky.

This is the world of Easthalen. Forced to share a prison with a mad, slumbering god and each other.

Originally, as you can read in , there was also going to be a secondary plane/world that was more sci-fi but I figured out an idea and way of linking them, whilst still technically keeping the world separate. Having two sperate, yet linkable worlds can help to prevent the “kicthen sink” approach and focus drift.

My plan for the future development, not only of Easthalen but of the kitchenUnnamed Scifi Game (USG) is as follows:

1. Decide what game system to use
2. Finish rough introduction
3. Expand the notes into something useable
4. Playtest the rules and system, get feedback, suggestions etc. Until official  release any notes, playtests and such will be free, my only “fee” will be that you give feedback when possible
5. Tweak what is needed, go back to playtesting when required
6. Finalise the content
7. Get it edited, laid out properly, including artwork etc
8. Whilst doing most of the above, drum up publicity, maybe do a stream or two set in the world to show it off etc
9. ????
10. Profit

The last two points are not to be taken seriously, but so far, the first important step is deciding what game system to use. This will help shape the rules and in a way, the games feel and layout,  so I need to think carefully about this one.

So far, I have narrowed it down to one of several options. These have been picked for several reasons:

1. Familiarity – I know or have been able to grasp the basics of these systems quickly and are more popular with potential GMs and players
2. Flexibility – Their core rules are easily adaptable to my needs
3. License – These systems have, in some way, a system for allowing “Homebrew” settings to be commercially released.

The top three contenders are, in no particular order

1. DnD 5e/Pathfinder
2. Open Legend
3. Cypher System

I was considering a 4th option a “Fluff” only one which can be tailored to other worlds, but I feel that having an existing rule-set to work with is better, at least to start off with.

Tomorrow, I’ll be covering how the two game world will be separate, yet still linked and the major features of that one. My aim is to have the 3rd week of the month as Easthalen/USG updates. As with anything, this is dependent on other factors such as my health, workload etc, epically as I have to do everything in Ennead Games.