All right, I've been refreshing myself on the Chronicle system, and here's my pitch for a game:
Sword Chronicle: Lords of Misrule
Quote:
The bonds of kinship are put asunder, brothers and sisters defile crowns with blood. The world turns cruel, treachery rife. It is a sharp axe age, a ready sword age. Shields are riven, vows broken and noble lines cut short. It is a raging storm age, a hungry wolf age. It is the age of the Lords of Misrule.
Foretelling of Wythling by-RefnThe Terrwyn Isles have seldom known peace. Invaders as implacable and endless as the waves of the tempestuous sea have come at its shores – the sly, mystic, woodsy Muredalish; the warlike, unyielding Waerric with their blue hair and warpaint; the imperious Kraetons on their holy mission to conquer the furthest corners of the world; the resolute and loyalty-bound Ulthern; and the haughty Connolk, as adept in the ways of court and chivalry as swordplay and battle.
But now, a century after the bastard Duke Cruancorr of Parnessy crossed the Dragonback Strait and brought unity and rule to much of Terrwyn at the point of a sword, it seems an age of stability, if not peace, has dawned. King Haemark Fairhand, grandson of Cruancorr is renowned as a stern but effective ruler who has strengthened the institutions of justice and taxation, promoted men and women of talent first rather than mere good breeding, and balanced the ambitions and petty rivalries of his magnates to keep their feuds suppressed. Certainly, the clanlords of the Waerric highlands and free princes of the Muredalish woods and valleys are as insubordinate and prone to raiding as ever, and many of the Ulthern commonfolk and lesser nobles chafe at their Connolk overlords. The great houses unsheathe tongues rather than blades to cut each other down, all rallying their vassals and sworn knights to back their cause, yet some chroniclers dare to hope that this is the dawning of a golden age of peace and prosperity.
They are wrong. This is the age of the Lords of Misrule, as spoken of by the prophetess Wythling by-Refn. Disaster is coming, and with it chaos, disunity, war – and opportunity. Can you taste it on the wind? It tastes of salt, of blood and sea-foam.
OOC:
* As per the default assumptions in the rules, this would be a game focused on a single, collaboratively created house, with PCs playing family, heirs, advisors, knights, vassals and other members and hirelings of the house. The system does allow for vassal and cadet houses, so that is a possibility if some players would rather be big fish in a tiny pond than small fish in a medium-sized one.
* Humans only, with different ancestries representing nationalities/ethnicities rather than fantasy races. Honestly, elves, dwarves and ogres are so thinly implemented in
Sword Chronicles you're not missing much.
* In the same way that
ASOIAF was
based on loosely inspired by the War of the Roses, this setting is
based on loosely inspired by a period of British history called
the Anarchy. Emphasis on loosely, so don't feel the need to dust off your medieval history caps.
* The tone and magic level would be similar to early-mid
Game of Thrones, before the dragons and zombies got everywhere but after the introduction of a few characters with supernatural abilities. Magic exists but is weird, indirect, superstitious and often illegal or taboo, depending on the culture. Monsters and dire things exist in the forsaken corners of the world.
Who's interested?
