[To Playtest] Colonization of Qek
Eero Tuovinen:
Hah, that's an excellent viewpoint! We had something sort of like this in the Finnish edition - there was this evil jungle-shaman-necromancer in the illustrations created for the book that was just dripping evil. I didn't realize it at the time, but now that you mention it, he was obviously going to travel and become an antagonist in the innocent southern lands and not just some curious sideshow for people coming to Qek.
I'll definitely have to put this suggestion in the book. I'm going to try to write frankly about some ways to use the setting, and this is certainly a fruitful viewpoint.
dindenver:
Eero,
OK, so this is the idea I had for a basis for factions in a Qek Colonization campaign:
I see the central conflict is resources.
The key for the colonizing nations are:
Wealth - There really isn't any other motivator. It is not in a strategic location. It is not any more or less fertile than its neighbors. And with the obvious exception of gems and people, it doesn't have anything to offer. I think if there were an expedition to Qek, it would be very profit oriented. I think you and I are on the same wavelength, I had the Boer Wars in mind.
The hold ups would be:
Who to send - I think it would be an interesting way to deal with political dissidents, send them to Qek to get them out of your hair. But you would have to send real patriots in order to make sure it doesn't become a hotbed of rebellion
Pacifism/apathy - I think that a lot of people would hesitate to support this kind of invasion
Capitalism - I think others would hesitate taking the wealth, when it might be more beneficial to trade for it
Inner turmoil - Others might use the colonization as a way to secure more influence on the home front
The key to Qek Resistance would be:
Protecting their family
Protecting their homes
Protecting their trade
The barriers to resistance might be:
Inner turmoil - Some people will be apathetic to the plight of others and still others might not react until the colonization affects them
Trade Shift - Some Traders might see a benefit in trade with the shift to colonization and/or war. these people will not be interested in resisting the colonization
Curiosity - I think these people will want to get to know their new neighbors.
I think the real trick here is that the Qek in this campaign and the Khale in the other campaign are filling nearly parallel roles. Staunch defenders. In the end, it might be more interesting to use one over the other.
If this overview is right, I'll make one of my spreadsheets and show you what I have so far.
Eero Tuovinen:
Yes, I agree that the parallel nature of Khale and Qek as far as their relationships to other places go is a bit of a problem for trying to figure out what use they are. My best bet in this regard is to use them as foils and contrasts for each other. So whatever your campaign is about and in whichever place, the other place illustrates other choices and other possibilities. I'll probably say this in the book - when you need an individual barbarian character or a whole nation, it's basically a toss-up whether you should use Khale or Qek to fill the role. Use whichever you want, or even leave the nation unspecified and combine the two - I could well imagine playing a whole Maldor campaign where the difference between Khale and Qek never came up; individual "barbarians" could even be statted as amalgam characters with traits from both all nilly-willy to illustrate the Maldor-centric, civilized mind-space. It's not like the Romans are going to distinguish between the Gallians and the Germans in their internal situation, after all.
One factor that seems potentially pertinent in Qek is the idea of mystery and unknown forces at work. There are plenty of hints about forgotten cultures and hidden powers in the jungle, and it sort of seems to me that the Qek colonization will have to address this in some way - do the Qek know about these powers and are they able to harness them against the invader, or are such powers inimical to all humanity, for instance. In the Helsinki campaign they played in December, for instance, the guys ended up dealing with hermit walozi and gorillas of the misty mountains which neither were really friendly to Qek or colonizers either. They were just these forces that waited to be awakened to adverse consequence.
dindenver:
Eero,
Brilliant!
I'll fold in that hidden theme into my faction write up, wil probably have to wait til tomorrow, the rest of my day is pretty busy.
dindenver:
Eero,
I added a Qek tab to the existing sheet at:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pJsDLey3h-2nedS1jQtnLSg
Basically, I see a lot of people coming there for different reasons and then it all shaking out in the end.
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