Quest For Chevar (my TTRPG WIP)

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, Okay, several folks have expressed curiosity about this project when I've talked about it in various threads, so I want to compile information about it, post here, and eventually post links to playtest documents and the like, as well.

I'll make a couple top posts so it's easy tokeep it organized.

This post is for links and overview.

Basic Premise (What is Chevar, and Why You Should Quest For It)

Elevator Pitch: Optimistic Hidden Worlds modern-day fantasy where secret societies work for their own ends, entropic monsters haunt the borders between worlds, where a troll investigator, a human alchemist, a were-fox warlock, and an alfar champion of the norse god Frey, can all stand together to protect regular folk from the darkness beyond reality.

Just about every creature in folklore exists, magic is real, there are 9 Realms, and 90% or more of the human population has no idea about any of it. All Realms exist within the boughs and roots of the great tree Yggdrasil, the First World, and within every world exists Crossroads. Crossroads connect realms, but require knowledge to access. Every realm has crossroads between itself and the world of Chevar, sometimes called the Ninth World, which is separate from the other worlds but also exists within them. This means that Chevar has always been a place where knowledge and treasures from all the other worlds has been gathered and hidden, and occasionally a battleground between other worlds.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Player Characters

PC's in QfC are referred to as Rangers, though some are more allies of the rangers. I'll get more into that in a later post, but basically the rangers were formed in the early 1890's in the American Southwest, and the term is used in a manner similar to territorial rangers of that time and place. That is, someone who ranges over an area and protects the people both from outside threats and from themselves.

What this means for a group of PCs is that while you have a life outside of your work as a ranger or an allies of the rangers, you have a loose infrastructure you can rely on for information, resources, etc, who also know what you know about the world, and who can call upon you to provide backup and information in turn.

Mechanically, each PC has an Origin and an Archetype, and some assorted stuff outside those.

Origin: Ancestry, Upbringing, and Occupation form your Origin, and determine a good chunk of your resources and capabilities.

• Ancestry is essentially your race. It's the species or type of creature you are. This ranges from Humans, to trolls (not dnd style, more big scary strong beings that are part of the land), to vaettr and djinn, beings of spirit who take physical form in order to pursue a goal or task.
• Determines 2 of your bonus attribute points, base speed, gives you a couple skills that you have a knack for, and gives a few features.
• Upbringing is where and how you grew up. I'm working on moving some stuff from Ancestry to here right now, like languages.
  • Grants 2 contacts, a few skill ranks, an area of familiarity (a place you are knowledgeable about, know your way around, know people, etc), and some suggestions for starting kit.
• Occupation is currently somewhat vestigial, but I'm working on writing up some examples and giving it more relevance. It's what you do when you aren't dealing with supernatural stuff.
  • Gives you a Contact, some knowledge, and a skill rank.

Archetype is what it says on the box. It's the kind of hero you are.

• Biggest feature package at character creation. Gives two special skills, and 4 additional skill ranks, an "Archetypal" trait, and a short list of other traits to choose 3 from (traits are major, moderate, and minor, you get one each), 2 more contacts, a few subjects about which you're knowledgable, and more suggested starting kit.

Other Stuff: You get to pick 6 more skill ranks, and 3 more traits (one of each again), and determine your Vulnerability, and describe your home and vehicle. For most characters, home and vehicle are just flavor to start with, but some archetypes make them into special traits that help define your character, such as a home that has an extensive library or a laboratory, or a special vehicle that is magically or technologically enhanced to aid you in your adventures.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

On Magic, Technology, and The Nine Worlds

The Nine Worlds (names not set in stone)

• Yggdrasil- The Great Tree, which holds all the other worlds but is also it's own place. From here you can see, if you have the skill and courage to climb the Tree itself, each of the other worlds, except for Ginnungagap, and Chevar. The Eternal Void has no place within Yggdrasil and instead exists outside of it and around it. Chevar appears in the sky as a sort of blue and green moon. Goblins don't originate here, but their home, the great city of irrational architecture and impossible dimensions known simply as Goblin Town, is nestled in the great forest that surrounds the tree itself.
• Midgard- Our universe. Space, all of it. Chevar exists here as a planet orbiting a sun much like ours, in a distant portion of the Milky Way Galaxy. Theories in later eras suggest that Chevar exists in every galaxy that is home to sapient life and spirits.
• The Otherworld- The world of the fey, home of the Alfar and Svart Alfar, Gnomes, Djinn, fairies, Puca, and many others.
• The Spirit World- A place where the dead dwell, as well as the home of all spirit folk. This is the closest place to our world, and the only one that can be accessed without Crossroads, by sending your spirit out from your body.
• Nidavallr- Home of Dwarves and other being who love the deep places, a world that is inwardly infinite, and whose surface is completely covered in dense vegetation through which the sun is rarely visible. Chevar can be found by the lucky and brave of this world by delving very deep, and following certain signs and portents, and finding an impossibly large cavern at the center of which slowly spins a spherical world. And then figure out how to get to it from the entrance you've found to the cavern.
• Jotunheim- Home to giants, fir bolgs, trolls, ogres, and various other creatures of the land itself. Many dragons dwell here. Jotunheim surrounds Yggdrasil in a great ring. One one side of the ring is a land of eternal winter, and opposite it is a land of eternal flame. Nearly all living creatures of this world live in between. The passable land at each extreme is a very thin strip of land at the inside of the ring.
• Ginnungagap- The World That Is Not, The Eternal Void, The Empty Night. Here, the oldest beings that exist dwell. The First Gods, who were woken by the beginning of the universe, before which there was only the Void. Beings of hatred, madness, and hunger, though a few here and there adapted and became more like the later gods. These are often the source of mythology's most ancient monsters which the gods must defeat in order to establish their realms.
• The Cosmic Realms (Asgard, Hell, etc)- This is a realm of thought, of unfiltered conscious Will. Mortals who come here without preparation risk madness, unless they are protected by a god or other being who dwells here. Here, the soul, or spirit, or Will, of a person, exists unfiltered by physical properties. Angels, demons, gods, etc, exist in their unfiltered truth here. In many ways it is a realm just as alien to mortals as the Void.
• Chevar- The Ninth World, The Hidden Door, Chevar, is a world much like Earth, from the perspective of a creature living in it. You can see stars at night, there are moons and a sun, the laws of physics are much the same. However, Chevar is a planetary Crossroad that touches every world, and as such it has collected unimaginable secrets, treasures, ruins, and beings.
  • The sun is a Crossroad into the Cosmic Realms, not a ball of burning matter. Indeed, though it is incredibly hot, and does all the things a star needs to do to sustain life on a planet orbiting it, it doesn't ignite the gas that surrounds it (see below).
  • Most of the moons of Chevar are actually other Realms. If you approach them physically, you will eventually find yourself somewhere in the world you are approaching, and may not have an easy way back to Chevar. 3 of the moons are, instead, inhabited worlds.
  • If you venture into the space outside the atmosphere of Chevar, you will find it quite different from the space around Earth, or indeed nearly anywhere else in Midgard. The entire solar system is encompassed in a breathable gas cloud composed of oxygen, nitrogen, and most of the other gases found in Earth's air. There are stories about dragons flying between Chevar and it's moons, as well as mortals building fairly primitive machines of flight and doing so.
  • The humanoid inhabitants of Chevar are almost entirely not native. The only intelligent species known to come from Chevar are the dragons, and the Keldari or Florelan, a short statured people who resemble humans, and travel throughout the 9 worlds. The population is a mix of people from every world, albeit in small numbers, and with more mixed ancestries than most places.
  • Stuff like lost worlds, islands that disapear and reapear, people who disapeared with no trace, have all been attributed to Chevar over the centuries, and some of it is true. While Atlantis is not intact on Chevar, many humans whose lineages have been on Chevar for centuries came there via Atlantis. Avalon is a place in Chevar that is strongly tied to Earth. Airplanes and ships have found themselves in strange skies, and eventually discovered that they were in a different world, ending up in Chevar.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

More On The Mechanics

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Glossary of Terms

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Assorted Links

Here I will post links to threads and tangential posts wherein I talked about the game and had folks express interest in what I’m working on.