Category Archives: Background

The Village of Rosegard

Originally, I had planned to have one more Mapping Rosegard video here that covered adding in the labels for the roads and making the black and white version of the map you’ll see below but for some reason, the audio didn’t record, only the video.  Since I didn’t want (or really have the time) to do a voice over, and it’s not that important of a topic, I decided just to drop it.  Also, it is something I can easily cover in a future series.

So instead, you’re getting the post that I had originally planned for the beginning of next week, the final maps along with the write-up on the town proper.

Rosegard

Final rosegard map in full color with labels
The final Rosegard map. Click for full sized image (~6MB)

History

Rosegard is located about 400 km northwest of Point True.  It was founded shortly after the Great Sathar War as part of the resettlement effort initiated by the Pale government.  It originally consisted of six human families that set up homesteads in the valley using the agriculture subsidies the government provided to encourage development of farming to supply food for the population.  Over time, the small village has grown to include 13 families, many of the additional families are children of the original settlers that went away to school and then returned.

While there is no shortage of technology in the village, it is still primarily an agricultural center.  Most of the actual agriculture work is done by robots but supervised by the towns inhabitants.  The technological specialists in town keep the robots, vehicles, and computer systems running to manage the farm production.   Every week, trucks arrive to pick up crops to take into the larger population centers to sell.

About 18 years ago, one of the villagers was up exploring in the mountains and discovered a vein of gold that had been revealed by some recent erosion.  Lacking the infrastructure to properly mine the valuable resource themselves, the village brokered a deal with Streel (formerly known as Streele Mining before the war) to lease the company the rights to the mine.  The mine proved to be more lucrative than either party imagined and is still active to this day.

The village’s income from the mine amounts to several million credits every year.  That money is held in trust and used to maintain the village infrastructure, pay for primary and secondary education for all of the village youth, and other expenses as needed.

There is a very good relationship between the workers at the mine and the city.  In addition to providing additional revenue to the village, the mine employs the village’s technical workers (the technician, roboticist, and computer specialist) to help assist with work at the mine in addition to their own staff. The mine staff also takes advantage of the medical facilities provided in the village.  Reciprocally, the village invites the mine staff down for any town activities and has integrated them as part of the community.  The youth often go up to the mine to see operations there and the mine staff often come down to teach mini-lectures in the village school.

Inhabitants

Original Homesteading Families

These are the senior members of the community who originally founded it.  Their houses are located around the circular loop at the north end of town.  These families primarily work the agriculture portion of the village’s activities.

  • Genio & Kathy Washy – Genio is the town mayor. They have two older children living at home.  They live in the home on the same plot as the General Store.  Kathy is a horticulturist and is responsible for tending the rose hedges in the central part around the gazebo.  It is these rose gardens that gave the village its name.
  • Martin & Jenne Lexand – They have two children living at home. They live in the home on the same plot as the Technician shop/Garage.
  • Steven & Janie Hite – They have three kids living at home.
  • Matthua & Julie Colly – They have three kids living at home.
  • Jon & Jessa Smeson – They have a single child living at home
  • Reme & Kayelyn Marte – The youngest of the original settlers, they still have four children living at home

Newer Families

These families are younger, many of them being the older kids of the earlier settlers.  Their houses are built around the block on the west side of town.

  • Rickern & Mikaela Bennez – Mikaela is the second child of Jon & Jessa Smeson and the town’s roboticist having studied at Pale University. Rickern helps manage the Smeson farm.  They have three children.
  • Mese & Braealyn Washy – Mese is the oldest child of Genio & Kathy Washy. They run the town’s General Store and have three kids, ages 17, 14, & 12 who also help out at the store when not in school.
  • Larroy & Camryn Tinnett – Camryn is the daughter of Steven & Janie Hite and is the town’s computer specialist having studied at the Triad Institute of Technology. Larroy is a veterinarian and works with the village doctor.  They have a single daughter, Allyssa, age 12.
  • Rickey & Ilana Cooker – Rickey and Ilana met Camryn at school and she convinced them to move to Pale when she returned home. Ilana is the town doctor and also has some veterinarian skills.  Rickey helps work the Hite farm with his in-laws.  They have four kids.
  • Benjoe & Abbil Leray – Benjoe is a childhood friend of Rickern Bennez and became enamored of the quite life in Rosegard when visiting one year. Both he and Abbil are teachers and work at the village’s school.  They have five children
  • Joshua & Miya Welley – Josh and Miya are the newest members of the village and the only ones that didn’t have an immediate connection when then arrived. As the village grew, the need for a city clerk arose and Miya was hired to handle the administrative affairs of the growing village.  She works in the City Center handling a wide variety of tasks for the town.  Joshua is a teacher and works with the Leray’s in the town’s school.
  • Mikkel & Danielle Lexand – Mikkel is the son of Martin and Jenne Lexand and is the town’s technician running the garage/tech shop in town. Danielle helps out on the Lexand farm.  They have one child.

City Buildings

General Store

This building contains a wide variety of goods that are used regularly by the small village.  While a lot of the supplies are foodstuffs and farming supplies, there are a number of small high tech wares as well.  Larger items, such as robots, most weapons, and vehicles, have to be special ordered in from Point True but the store has access to the full Streel and PGC catalog and anything ordered will arrive in 2-4 days.

Technician/Garage

This is where Mikkel keeps all the village’s vehicles and equipment running.  It has room inside to work on three vehicles at any one time.  It is a fully equipped and modern repair shop and any Technician skill checks performed using this area gain a +10% bonus.

City Community Center

This large building consists of two stories, unlike all the other buildings in town.  The lower level is a large gathering hall used for town activities and celebrations.  The upper level contains the city offices where Miya works as well as the village’s central computer system.  There are also half a dozen guest rooms that function as the village’s inn when they have overnight visitors.  While most of the rooms can be used by any race, one of them is specifically appointed with furniture designed for the Vrusk anatomy.  Across the street to the north, and directly east of the building are large grass fields used for outdoor activities as well.

School

The village’s school is where the younger kids spend their day getting their primary education.  It is divided into several small classrooms where specialized classes can be presented dependent on age and ability level.  Because of the small number of children in the village, there are not really “traditional” classes and each child has a workstation where they receive individual and tailored instruction based on their needs and interests.  The school is very high tech and state-of-the-art.  A lot of the village’s mine revenue has gone into its education facilities.  As such the children in the village are often smarter and sharper than would be expected for their age.

Computer/Robotics Shop

Mikaela and Camryn share this building to work on the villages computers and robots.  While the building is mostly given over to tech space to work on the various agriculture robots used by the village, there is also some space given over to computer repair as well.  This building also houses a backup computer system for the village.  If PC’s are looking for computer or robotic parts, they are more likely to find them here than at the General Store.  The facilities here are top notch and any computer or robotics repair or upgrade attempts receive a +10% skill bonus.

Doctor’s Office

This small office has a small operating room, and three patient rooms in addition to the foyer and waiting area.  Dr. Cooker has a small office here as well.  The building is designed for patients of the core four races and while they do handle veterinary duties, those occur on location outside the office.  Like the other areas in the town, the facilities here are of an higher than average grade and all medical checks made in the facility gain a +10% skill bonus.

 

Alternate maps

In addition to the main map above, I created one with no labels and another one in black and white.  These two maps are presented below.

No Labels

Final full color map with labels removed
Final map with the labels removed. Click for full sized image (~6MB)

Black & White

Black and white version of full map with labels
Final Rosegard map in black and white (with labels) – Click for full sized image (~2MB)

And that’s it for Rosegard for now.  Next up I’ll be shifting gears back to the Ghost Ship Osiris module and you’ll be getting some information on the star system the adventure takes place in.

Pale Background Information

What follows is player background information for the Death at Rosegard adventure.  This is information that it is assumed the PCs would know from living in the Frontier and on the planet Pale where the adventure takes place.  It covers a bit bit of history, planetary data, and socio-political information.

The adventure is written as if it takes place after the first sathar incursion into the Frontier but before the Second Sathar War begins.  As such, instead of referring to the initial sathar invasion as the First Sathar War as is common in the rule books, the text refers to it as the Great Sathar War since there hasn’t been a second one yet.  Expeptions occur when providing GM information designed to help modify the adventure for a different time period.

History

Pale is a new old planet.  It was first colonized 176 years before the founding of the United Planetary Federation.  It had a medium population before the Great Sathar War that led to the founding of the UPF.  At that time Point True had a population of several hundred thousand inhabitants.

During the war every major population center other than Point True, as well as most minor population centers were destroyed by orbital bombardment.  Even small villages and farmstead were destroyed by aerial bombing.  There is basically just a big crater at the location of every city, town, village, or farm that existed before the invasion.  In Point True, the old military base was nuked leaving several large craters and damage to remaining structures but the rest of the city was left relatively intact.  There are still signs of the Sathar occupation that can be seen throughout the older portions of Point True.

The sathar were in the process of exporting the inhabitants off-world when the Frontier forces arrived and the sathar were defeated and driven off.  Many thousands of the inhabitants of Point True were taken away in sathar ships and have never been heard from since.

After the war, the planet rebounded, partially due to the influx of people coming to help rebuild and partially due to aggressive development by Streel Corporation (known as Streele Mining Corp before the war).  At the time of the adventure, about 40-50 years after the invasion, the population has grown to nearly its pre-war level.  While the population is predominantly human, there is a significant representation of the other three major Frontier races. The racial breakdown is 46% human, 23% Yazirian, 18% Dralasite, and 13% Vrusk.  However, since the war, the population is much more concentrated around Point True.  Some portions of the planet are still completely uninhabited.

Planetary Rotation and Timekeeping

Snow-covered landscape with a small river and the sun low on the horizon.

Pale orbits its primary, Truane’s Star, in the outer portions of the star’s habitable zone. This causes the average temperature on Pale to be fairly low resulting in cold and severe winters and cool summers. Pale is also a slightly smaller world with a surface gravity of only 0.9 g.

In addition to the cool weather, Pale rotates very slowly on its axis, completing one revolution every 55 standard hours. As such the local population has divided the day into four working time periods:

  • Day-day: Corresponds to the 13 hours starting roughly 1 hour after sunrise on the planet’s vernal equinox at Point True. This is the typical working time when the sun is up.
  • Day-night: This corresponds to the next 14 hour period and is typically a rest period although the sun is still shining. Because this rest period occurs during daylight hours, all houses on Pale have windows or curtains allowing rooms to be completely “blacked out” to simulate darkness and nighttime even though the sun is still up.
  • Night-day: This is the 13 hour work period occurring during the local night. Since this is a time of major work and transportation, all the streets and buildings of Pale are well lit to provide a semblance of daylight during this work period. When seen from orbit, the cities and towns of Pale in the Night-day part of the cycle blaze with light.
  • Night-night: This is the final 14 hour rest period that occurs during the local night time.

The extra hour is added in to either the Day-day or Night-day period depending on the season, the hour being added to the Day-day in the summer when the days are longer and the Night-day in the winter when the nights are longer.

Typical work periods are 10 hours long during the Day-day and Night-day periods although there are many graveyard and swing shift positions that run during other hours.

Sathar Presence on the Planet

As part of their invasion, the sathar seeded the biosphere around the planet, especially around Point True, with a number of their bio-constructs and attack monsters. Despite efforts to clean up after the war, some of these creatures are still loose on the planet. While quickdeaths and slithers are the most common, there are also a few other creatures that can be encountered when ranging away from the population centers. There are even still some cybodragons (and their descendants) running around although the cyber features are no longer functional due to lack of power. There are bounties for the elimination of these creatures paid for by the Pale government.

In addition to sathar bio-constructs, there are rumored to be some small pockets of sathar still living on the planet.  These are remnants from the sathar army that was driven off and mostly destroyed when the planet was liberated.  They survive by foraging and by hypnotizing and controlling members of the population to provide food and materials as needed.  It is unknown how many of these sathar still survive and how active they are but the numbers range from a few dozen to several hundreds.

While rare, it is still possible to find some sathar technology from the war.  It is rarely intact or functioning but any such finds are almost immediately collected by Star Law as soon as the discovery becomes known.

Politics and Corporations

Streel Corporate logoStreel is by far the dominant force on the planet.  After the war, Hilo Headrow took over Steele Mining and expanded its operations – first on Pale and then across the Frontier.  While Streel doesn’t officially control the government, the government and its policies are fairly favorable towards the company and it is rumored that a majority of the government’s officials are “owned” by Streel in one way or another.  Despite the potential negative aspects of this situation, Streel’s touch on the government is surprisingly light-handed given the tactics the company employs elsewhere around the Frontier.  Much of the work of the government is environmentally sound and intelligent.  Thoughtful practices are put into place that benefit all companies on the planet not just Streel.  In fact, the planet is strong on fostering new ideas and companies.

While Streel is the dominant player, Pan Galactic Corporation still has a sizeable presence and even dominates in a few areas on the planet’s surface.  In addition, a number of new emerging corporations have offices and operations on the planet.  Names like StarPlay, WarTech, TransTravel, and Universal Households are becoming more common.

Miscellaneous GM Notes

The adventure takes place during the events of Laco’s War, the corporate war between Streel and PGC.  While that conflict actually has no impact on the adventure, it should be kept in mind when PCs are interacting with outside agents.  There is some tension between to two corporations.

Most of the other corporations listed in either the Knight Hawks Campaign Book or Zebulon’s Guide to the Frontier exist at this point although they are not yet considered mega-corps.  Only Streel and PGC currently have that status.  That said, they are growing and their presence is being felt on Pale.

By the time of the Second Sathar War, the population has rebounded to its pre-war level and is pushing into the heavy population category.   If you set the adventure at another time period, adjust the size/number of towns and the population accordingly.

 

That’s it for the general background.  I have a whole other section of background and detail information on the village of Rosegard itself but that will be another post.  Feel free to share your thoughts on the planetary background in the comments below.