I recently started a campaign in Kaldor. I bought the supplement, I have the Asolade Hundred, and also Jedes. I'm feeling a bit swamped with all the detail. I've read a goodly part of them all. I've not read the more out of the way settlements in Asolade and Kaldor for example, but I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information.

Would I be better off running 'The Warrior's Grave' in Chybisa? Am I right in thinking Chybisa is a much smaller setting?

Thanks all

Smaller, yes.

As to whether you would be better off, that's really a matter of perspective.

You don't have to absorb everything at once. Focus on the adventure in front of you and have fun with it. Then, as you are comfortable, expand your circle of details to include the next adventure, and the next. You can easily overwhelm yourself by biting off too much.

And remember that the location of most adventures is fairly flexible. Just because the text says it takes place in village XYZ, there's no reason you can't make that another village more suitable to your campaign.

That said, there's nothing wrong with starting a campaign in Chybisa. Even if you don't, it's not hard to find a reason to travel there. It just depends on what you want your game to be about.

Chybisa is really, really small. A lot of GMs like this - it has more of that "Prince Valiant" feel - a limited number of characters, and the royalty and the peasantry aren't so clearly divided. It's easier to justify a middle-class (or even low-class) character advancing up the social ladder when the ladder is only about three rungs tall. It's easier for the players to track who's who. And there is plenty of adventure around.

I would bet if they had a poll for GMs asking what was the most popular place to start a campaign, Chybisa would be near the top. I think that would be especially true for GMs new to Harn.

You get used to it.
Not necessarily so.

Yes, Chybisa as a kingdom is smaller, approximately the size of an kaldoric earldom.
Chybisa as a setting? It all depends on your effort and your campaign style.

In example, if you compare Jedes with the Lerenil article, the volume of information and detail is nearly the same. Jedes has the big advantage to provide you with an introduction adventure and six well-rounded sample PCs.

Don't forget, you don't have to use all information and adventure hooks. If you play "A Shower of Silver" with the sample PCs as a start for a campaign, you only need Jedes first (as campaign base) and later the characters home villages (to let them relate their great deeds to their families). Then graduately expand the horizont to other villages. Later if the PCs made the right friends and contacts let them travel to other towns in the shire or to Tashal and beyond.

This expanding of 'operation range' could also be done with Chybisa (or any other place) but as a GM you have to prepare more. On the other hand this offers you more freedom.
The one advantage of Chybisa is: It's easiler to get access to top officials and nobles as the whole level of sheriffs and earls is missing. A goodpoint of departure for political intrigues, international diplomacy and spy games.

BTW, if you skip the Shenadun connection, "The Warrior's Grave" could also be located south of the Osel river.

_________________
Michael - visit Tales of Chybisa.com.

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

Thanks all for that information

I might as well stay with Jedes and A Shower of Silver. Especially now since I took the playrs on the adventrue Talisman of Valon.

I modified Warriors Grave, and used part and parcel In Osel Shire.

The tomb was in the burial mounds near Kobing.

I started with Jedes and Asolade. Also if you can find a vhs or dvd copy of The Warlord, the Chewintin article can be a lot of fun...

The best thing about Asoladem is the feeling of being grounded, and surrounded by people you know.
Play up the fact that the PCs Know everyone, or are known (If locals)

Let them get to know a few faces in Jedes and Bromeleon, then a few manors at a time.

Have them attend a Vassals Court and meet each manor lord at once. You can then play up to the Annual Horse fair, where you can begin to introduce people from outside Asolade Hundred, or even Kaldor. Use is as a means to share news that they wouldnt have heard otherwise. (This is a chance for you to let the players know there is a wide world out there....) These can be plot hooks or just fluff..its up to you.

Keep inundating the players with local news...the Sheriff died only a few months ago, and the new sheriff is brother to the Bailiff of the Hundred in Asoalde, Sir Arrys.

Play up the missing Earl....Let the players start to believe that something nefarious is going on nearby....(again, use it for scenarios or just fluff)

Certainly introduce the Kath and the Pagaelin threats.....

There are tons of local plot hooks in the Asolade article....find a few that grab you and build them up...

If you want some help or ideas hit me up... just Private message me

Thanks DucatiDon, I may take you up on that. And thanks for those tips.

I have a question, if you play once per week, how quickly do the days go by in game? I was thinking of using one real day as one day in the game, then moving the days on as needs be when playing.

For example, 6 days have gone by since the last game played, but then during the game (for whatever reason), 3 days may go by.

As it suits the story. Sometimes we needed 3 highly intensive sessions for just one day of our story, sometimes we move from the last chapter of our campaign (i.e. playing in late spring) to the next chapter (playing in mid summer) in just 15 minutes, skipping the "Business as usual" daily routine of the characters.

If you do the fast forward, develope beforehand the daily routine of the characters together with your players. Even Indiana Jones has to lecture, correct his students exams and write papers, although he is reluctant to do so.
If you want to jump to the next exciting part, ask what each characters wants to do in between beside his normal tasks, why and how: Flirt with the neighbours daughter, heal his injuries, learn to swim, improve his standing with the captain of the guard, forge his own sword, etc. pp.
With a few dice rolls and a little bit roleplaying each of this mikro chapters could be done in 5 minutes before you procede with the main story.

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Michael - visit Tales of Chybisa.com.

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

Our (DucatiDon, et al) group has a yahoo group set up, and we handle most of that "in-between" stuff in a play-by-forum format. We also use the yahoo group to "clean up" after an adventure ("Let's see . . . who took the ivory-handled dagger? Let's check those healing rolls.") and to set up the next. (""We want to go visit that beadle who was acting suspiciously.") This helps keep the live game more focused on the important stuff - bad puns, double entendres, movie quotes, and exaggerated stories from past games.

We're probably "slower" than most. In about 40 sessions we've passed about 8 months. We've had single days require multiple sessions. At the time we joked about the events of the Jedes Fair being played in "real time", like the show "24". We weren't far from it.

I find it helpful to also consider what the players are like. My former group of players wanted slow character development and intense detail about background. It was almost more like a writers group than a player group. So with them a village or something as setting to start would do, the more detailed the better. With my current group I started with an adventure.

Kaldor is a very tempting setting. You could use Joe Adams' Getha, Vemion, Gardiren or any number of other regions, and simply adapt the adventures.

Increasingly, we play in real time.

We can and do fast forward when there's little to actually play. For example when the characters are simply passing time, waiting and sleeping in their cabins for the voyage to end. Or when everyone has described what their characters do, and then it is assumed each takes several hours to accomplish what they're doing. But when play happens, it's pretty much real time. That means the "thought speed" actions plus some descriptive blabber from the GM add up to a total playing time roughly equivalent to the time spent in-world.

We seldom use game mechanics, especially simulative fighting, because it slows things down and often results in boringness. Fudging and dramatic close-ups of key moments give us the tensity without the bone and math grinding. Back in the times when we used intensive game mechanics (e.g. Harn Master) continuously through situations where game mechanics had a say, we could play slower than real time. It was akin to boargaming, fun as is.

-ile