For anyone keeping up with our modifications, the setting revisions are almost complete. The only piece left undone is the political section, which is still underway. Please take a gander at each of our write-ups and read through all the new additions! We are very excited to bring you the refurbished Verre Zon.
Last Updated on Saturday, 10 July 2010 22:13
Latest Update!
Tuesday, 03 November 2009 01:38
Karsimir and I are working hard to revamp the setting. Thank you to everyone who gave feedback! There's now a new setting write up on the native people within the region, and the city write up has been updated. We're still working on figuring out this Joomla nonsense be we're getting there.
In the meantime, thanks for your patience! We're always welcome to new ideas and players!
"Hey guys, your friendly neighborhood admin here. Karsimir and I have been discussing an idea and I wanted to run it by the board for your input. There aren't terribly many of us right now so if there's any time to make a change, now is it!
Every active member gets a say in this decision, so whether you've been here for two months or the full year plus your voice will be heard.
In some ways this change wouldn't make much difference. In others it would make a huge difference. To put it simply, we want to move the board from Europe to somewhere in South America.
Why? Two reasons. First, Europe is overly done. For some reason every fantasy board ever always uses Europe. We used it too. But I think we have the opportunity to do something different.
The second is, historically, I find the idea of an American colony more interesting and relatable. Europe has its fair share of depressing history but the Americas has some horrific stuff too. Native unrest, religious persecution, mass genocide, all of these topics were taken to new levels of depravity within the "new world." Also, Verre Zon is a new city, which fits more in my head with the "new world" than the old European world.
(A third less board-related reason is that your friendly admin has a minor in Latin American studies and would love to have the board set in that area so she can incorporate more of that culture in. Entirely selfish and entirely what I want!)
What would this change? Primarily, the location and surroundings of our fair city. The city itself would remain largely unchanged except perhaps for some architecture modification and a higher slave population. This is not intended to turn Verre Zon into a Latin American city build by Aztecs, but a European-derived colony that is now situated in an awkward location - just like what happened in real history. The history of Verre Zon would be tweaked to fit the new setting but not overhauled. The military might be overhauled because Karsimir wants to incorporate some Native American features. The Conclave remains. In fact, a majority of VZ's features remain. Still a port city, still a trade hub, still immigrant and merchant-heavy. But now surrounded by "bloodthirsty savages" who may or may not eat you before they sacrifice you to their Sun God (or whatever other god they might have).
The surroundings will change dramatically. Instead of rolling plains there will likely be rain-forests and swamps, American desert and the occasional rolling mountains. We could even go further south and be located off of what becomes the Amazon in our globe's layout. Everyone loves a good piranha story, right?
The culture may change too, in the sense that racism might be heavier. I would consider this feature within the setting to be partially a player's choice. If you really don't want to play racism up, you don't have to, but your character would need to make sense in why that's not a facet of their life. Same for slavery (just like the board is now, with slavery. If you don't want to play it, just don't!).
How does this affect your character? Well, that depends entirely on you. Characters who migrated in just migrated farther. Any active plots or threads that you want to continue on with, you can. If your thread happens to be in the Trade Routes (I don't think any active ones are right now), well, the Routes just got a lot more trees and mud. Native characters we currently have can remain the same since the city would essentially be the same.
Instead of listing a line of things Karsimir and I might work on as a result of this change, I will leave this post at that. What do you think of the idea? Hate it/love it? Please tell me your thoughts. And remember: saying nothing means I will just do it, and then you're not allowed to complain!"
