Aioskoru Adventure seeds

Aioskoru Centaur Region Adventure Seeds

For this blog post, I wanted to present a few adventure seeds for thee Ekouinmanus Kapos region of the world, to help progress the adventurers into the content. The world content can be found on the Aioskoru World section. Statistics for the NPCs can be found in various sources. See the monster reference page for details. Specific regional info can be found on the Ekouinmanus Kapos page.

Goals: Meeting the centaurs, gaining trust, meeting secondary main figures, meeting scorpion centaurs, meeting the goblins.

1. The adventurers are surrounded by a patrol band of centaur. If the group tries to negotiate a way to prove that they are friendly, the leader will ask them to scout out and confront an enemy scorpion centaur camp which has been making their way too close to their area a few hills over. In return, they will allow their entry, escorted to the nearest village to meet a village elder.
• During the adventures observation of the centaur, they see a messenger come. A few minutes later, it or another one leaves the camp
2. The patrol band's scout report several dead from several local horse free ranging horse herds. Freedom from horse slavery is important to the centaurs. They would like the adventurers to investigate, find, and bring the culprit to justice.
3. A great illness has broken out in one of the small centaur tribes killing a few older centaurs, far away from even a medium villages. Their tribe lacks a healer. The chief would like you to go get help from the healers in the closest village. The send with you a token as a sign that you are sent representing their tribe. 
• The healer send the adventurers into hills inhabited by goblins and giant bees to collect ingredients to make a healing antidote.
• A mystical mortician has arrived at the tribe to perform the death ceremony. After that, the corpses of the dead must be escorted along with the mystical mortician  to the centaur cemetery to insure safe passage into the Plains of Grazing. The centaurs believe that any interference or successful attack on the funeral procession means that those that died will not reach the Plains of Grazing.
• Naraxeth, head of the mystical morticians is coming to observe the one that the adventure party helped escort. He is son of the last king, nephew of the current king Cykr
4. A messenger has arrived. The medium village or local guard post is expecting the arrival of Iletrel, military leader of the entire centaur land tomorrow. Any help to prepare them to receive the military leader would be helpful: cleaning, gathering wood, organizing, getting food together for the dinning halls, etc.
• Rumors may be over heard either by the leaders or soldiers of increase in goblin infestation.
5. A farmer needs tools to help prepare for the upcoming planting/harvesting/fertilizing (any season except winter) of alfalfa - the staple food of centaurs. His/her normal help has been out injured/sick. He/she has a list of tools needed as well as the damaged tools. 
• The adventures can go to the tool vendors or ironsmith to try getting the tools repaired. The smith may ask them to procure iron ore and or coal from the mines. On the way to the mines or in the mines is a good place for confronting goblins. Once dealt with and raw materials obtained, the story can lead into the field work, with more interaction with goblins and enter into a the goblin story arch.

Expanding Fate Approaches

Normally, Fate Accelerated (FAE) uses Approaches instead of abilities and skills.

A few alternatives expand the approaches. This blog post looks at a method to expand approaches.

Approaches

Approaches are defined as

"there are six approaches that describe how you perform actions."

The six approaches are careful, clever, flashy, forceful, quick, and sneaky.

Approaches vs Abilities (stats) and Skills

I see approaches as already accounting for natural abilities and learned skills mixed together forming "how" a character performs actions, normally separated in other games. A few proposals have attempted to expand or explain the dynamic interaction of approaches

One common expansion of Approaches

Some people expand the approaches by adding modes or categories of skills. These categories sort of mimic skill bonuses to a point. To me, that type of system moves away from what FAE does in the first place. It almost uses the approaches as ability scores.

Bidirectional Approaches

I was interested in expanding the types of approaches. Rather than having one approach, have two polar opposite values for each approach. Having two methods of doing actions might add an interesting dynamic towards storytelling. A character can either do it one of the established methods, or a method opposite of the established method. Doing so would create contrasting methods of doing actions.

Normally, the approaches are unidirectional. As the approach rating increases, it means your character gets better in how they perform the action. However they perform the action in one manner or quality.

Rational of Bidirectional Approaches

When I looked at 'Clever', what came to my mind was that psychology says that there are 'thinkers' and 'feelers'. Thinkers think out their solutions, but feelers follow emotions to solve their problems. Clever, I thought, focuses on thinking rather than feeling. Feeling out solutions isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is just different than thinking.

I then looked at 'Careful'. Careful to me is someone cautious and alert. I thought about the opposite is being carefree and spontaneous. Sometimes it is better not to think about things and just to jump in and act. Sometimes a person can overthink things out and miss opportunities due to delaying action.

'Flashy', although dramatic in groups, doesn't help when a character is in isolation. In fact, a highly flashy character should struggle when there are no people around, like many charismatic social butterflies. Quiet social introverts would thrive when trying to do things on their own. They are self starters.

Does someone always have to be forceful? What about characters that want to heal or be helpful? Someone that doesn't want to be aggressive, rather passive. Someone that is friendly and has higher degrees of friendliness - which isn't the same as charismatic flashy characters that put on a show.

Is being quick always a good thing? Sometimes slow is better. Someone that is accustomed to doing things quick has a difficult time slowing down. They can be impatient. Just as someone slow from the countryside can have trouble speeding up when they go to a major city.

While sneaky and deception is good for backstabbers, sometimes being upfront, direct, and to the point is better, calling out battles and confrontations. Direct people get to the point and don't skirt issues.

Basic model of Bidirectional Approaches

• alert/casual, for careful
• brainy/instinctive, for clever
• social/lone-wolf, for flashy
• hostile/friendly, for forceful
• speedy/slow, for quick
• deceptive/direct, for sneaky

Psychological basis - Meyer's Brigg & Five Factor

careful - sensing 
clever - thinking/feeling - conscientious
flashy - extrovert/introvert - extroversion
forceful - perceiving - agreeableness
quick
sneaky

I consider two additional Approaches to complete a standard psychological model.

adaptable/unchanging, for innovative. 
based on - intuitive - openness

willful/crazy, for stable. 
based on - judging - neuroticism

A Bidirectional Approach model

careful - alert/casual
clever - brainy/instinctive
flashy - social/lone-wolf
forceful - hostile/friendly
innovative - adaptable/unchanging
quick - speedy/slow
sneaky - deceptive/direct
stable - willful/crazy

In another post I will continue this proposal continuing to how this model could be used dynamically and how they relate to Fate Core skills.

Creating a fantasy language

Several popular fantasy languages exist in different fiction worlds.

Tolkien's Quenya, Valarin, Dwarven, Elfin, Black Speech, Mannish, Adunaic and several scripts are widely known as structures that underlay the very foundation of his Middle Earth writings.

The structures lead to a naming system that remains somewhat consistent throughout the series.

For Aioskoru, I wanted to use less known and more ancient languages as a basis.

For humans, I had heard of Proto-Indo European is the theoretical language spoken at the latest before 3500 BC. Older than than many languages. It is the common ancestor of Latin, Greek, Celtic, Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Armanian, Balto-Slavic, Anatolian, and Albanian with generally accepted confidence. I would find what I could about known words and then add my own vocabulary, based on the same families of languages. I would simplify my own grammar if the real grammar seemed too complex. In a nutshell, I would take what I could, and create what I needed.

For elves, I saw that Proto-Austronesian would be interesting. I know Filipino rather well, and so I could fill in the holes with my existing knowledge of one of the important Austronesian languages. It is a related cousin of Malaysian, Polynesian, and Oceanic languages.

For Orc and Goblin, I decided to corrupt the human into goblin and elf into orc languages.

In the future, I have plans of making the dwarf languages out of ancient Middle East language.

Quick free world maps using GIMP filters and Donjon fractal maps - Part 2: Getting different types of maps

Quick free world maps using GIMP filters and Donjon fractal maps series:

Part 1: Getting a fractal map,

Part 2: Getting different types of maps,

Part 3: More accurate 3D maps with mountains,

Part 4: Zooming and resolution,

Part 5 Expanding the Zoom Limits.

Part 6: Quick outline maps



Available from Google Play Books.
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Ken_N_Wickham_Quick_free_world_maps_using_GIMP_fil?id=tvZmDAAAQBAJ

Also available on Kindle and RPGNow
https://www.amazon.com/Quick-world-filters-Donjon-fractal-ebook/dp/B01H131XPY/

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/187006/Quick-free-world-maps-using-GIMP-filters-and-Donjon-fractal-maps

Part 2: Getting different types of maps

In the last tutorial in part 1 (here), I showed you how to find a map, record the seed #, change the water and ice levels, make layer, and make 3D top perspective maps using GIMP.

With that seed that you recorded in part 1, I will now show you how to find additional types of maps for your world.

Take the your seed # from the Fantasy World Generator to another Donjon map maker, the Fractal World Generator. http://donjon.bin.sh/world/ 

Although they look very similar, this tool will create different types of maps. It will not create the grid or biome terrain maps.

It will create polar and other maps.

Donjon Fractal World Generator

Verify that you have the correct map, change the seed #, % water, # ice, and iteration to 25000 settings to find that map.

1. Enter your seed # into the Random Seed box to replace the new random seed #.
2. At first we will keep the Map Projection and Atlas at Square and Atlas so that we can verify that we have the correct map.
3. Make sure to enter the same % Water and % Ice as your prior map.
4. Image height is the size of the map. At 400 (pixels) your map will be small, 400 pixels high. The maps that you downloaded and saved from part 1 were 2000 pixels high, which is the max size. Use 400 at first until you verify that you have the correct map. Change it to 2000 later to get a full map.
5. Iterations is something new. The default of 5000 will be wrong for the map that you saved. 25000 will be the correct iteration for your prior map. If you entered the correct seed and changed the iteration, you should see your correct map in the preview window. Iterations seems to be sort of like geographical changes over time. If you count back from 25000, you can see the world change slowly and sometimes even rapidly like volcanic activity and land forms sinking into the water. For now, keep it at 25000.
6. Rotation will actually change which part of the planet is center to the map, up to 360 degrees. 0 degrees should be your default from the prior tool. So if you didn't like your default center from part one, with this tool you can change the center of the map.
7. Click Create to see what is created.
8. If the map is the same, except smaller, as your prior map, then you have the correct settings. If not, check your seed # and your iteration 25000. Also make sure your rotation is at 0 for now. Double check your water and ice settings.

Now that you have the correct seed and settings, you can now find more maps for the same world.

Map Projection:

Atlas is the default view

Mercator cuts off the poles and creates linear longitude distance lines. This will stretch the east west land forms as the distance away from the equator increases. It will look very similar to your first map.

Transverse Mercator uses the current rotation longitude as an equator and piles the world horizontally around that longitude showing both poles. So it acts as a vertical map, instead of a horizontal map.

Aioskoru Transverse Mercator map

Icosahedral shows how the polar areas could be unpeeled if more 3D diamond shape, instead of a flat world to account for the polar distances. 

Aioskoru Icosahedral map

Mollweide Maps use an oval instead of the peeled diamond shape

Aioskoru Mollweide map

Sinusoidal maps use a combination diamond and oval shape.

Aioskoru Sinusoidal map

Spherical maps will create two hemispheres depending upon where your Rotation setting is set. My 0 degrees is center of the first hemisphere. 180 degrees is center of the 2nd hemisphere. If you change the Rotation setting it will put center whatever your rotation in degrees and center the 2nd will be the opposite side of the world. Remember to save both spheres if you are saving them with different names to your world folder.

Aioskoru Sphere 1st hemisphere

Aioskoru Sphere 2nd hemisphere

Three types of Polar Maps

Polar Orthographic, Stereographic, and Gnomonic. I will only post the first one.

Aioskoru North Pole

Aioskoru South Pole

Animated Map

I skipped over and will do last because it takes up more space. I will only show a 100 pixel version of the world. You can build yours with a larger height and size. Be aware that large animated GIF globes will take longer to load and take up more space. Now you can see your world alive and moving.

Aioskoru animated map 100 pixel version

Use the part 1 tools on these new maps

With many of these maps, you can use the techniques from part one to make layer and 3D maps.