Trying Out Mythic Magazine #49's Society Crafter: Creating Agthany

 

One of the ideas I have had for the past several months of this blog was to take some time each month or so and try out at least one tool from the most recent Mythic Magazine. Nothing too hectic or too detailed, just play with some new toys and see how they fit.

Recent Mythic Magazine material does show up, at least here or there, in my sessions (I use the horror-themed tables a lot, for instance, and have folded in the Mystery elements). The first time I recall was all the way back in the currently final arc of the Ick + Humb series, where I used The Villain Crafter from Mythic Magazine #41 to figure out what was really going on with the Warlocks. It was very helpful and essentially transformed the entire outcome of the campaign.

Wordmmill games Patreon backers got issue #49 today and that includes two tools: (1) A society crafter and (2) a new-to-solo-play article. The latter is interesting for a couple of reasons but can wait for the moment. I want to get a feel of how The Society Crafter works.

With that in mind, let us use it as written to generate some new content.

Creating [Agthany]

In my The Bloody Hands' "The Stone Crack'd" story arc the heroes are traveling across The Shallow Plains to try and find an ancient site of power. The Shallows take up an amount of land nearly the same size as the entire Veil covered New Khelia, but have been mostly abandoned by the Arcane Order leaving many places bordering on a fantasy equivalent of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. A few small villages essentially went unnoticed during the wizard war and some towns have rebuilt. Others are struggling. There have been hints of some large city south along the River Lumin that is acting as a new hub for The Shallows' economy and travel. A few people have come from that city (including the librarian Wren and her people). We know the guards from Jorn left on an escort mission to take some money and merchants to it, down river.

While The Society Crafter is a bit bigger picture (in principle) than a single city, this city has become effectively a society on its own in the 150 years since the collapse of Old Khelia.

All the way back in the first The Bloody Hands session we find out that Yarlken is along a river. Later, in the first part of "Sink or Swim" we learned of another river, the River Regas, which is the western edge of The Sundered Plains (a place inherent in great magic and sort of the source of The Troubles). There was an intention (that seems to have never been written down on the blog) that Regas met up with Yarlken's river at some point south of Yarlken. Then, Yarlken's river flowed down from Lake Khel towards some ancient Ulet research stronghold called "The Lighthouse." Humorously, what has consistently been the most important waterway in the entire campaign seems to have never gotten a name.

For now, we will say that it is the River Yarl. It flows south from Lake Khel. At one point it merges with the River Regas and grows quite a bit larger. Then further south it cuts across The Shallows and merges with the River Lumin (fed by Lake Kalbarn). At this convergence is the so far nameless city. Then, south, the River Yarl will continue some distance (short or long is unknown) until it hits the Onnalian Sea which is where the Ulet Lighthouse is near the edge of the quite sizable river mouth.

For now, let's make the city and found out what kind of "other hub" might show up in some later adventure or just act as some future backdrop.

Step One: The Beginning

The first step is to determine the beginning. There are 2 basic parts to this step: rolling on a Beginning Focus Table and then rolling on Meaning Table "History." The goal is to answer the question: how did this society begin?

• Beginning Focus table → 93 Action Tables (as in, roll on the default action tables) → 36 Distrust 35 Friend.
• Meaning Table "History" → 61 Prepare 19 Crisis.

Beginning Interpretation: I think in the context of the known timeline, this leads me to think [City] grew up during the wizard war because it distrusted the fairly distant Khalid City for protecting the people of The Shallows. It knew that people needed protection to be prepared for the crisis that was coming.

Keywords: Distrust, Friend, Prepare, Crisis.

Step Two: Productivity

The next question is: what does this society produce? Like the first, it has two parts. There is a Productivity Focus table and a Meaning Table "Production."

• Productivity Focus table → 92 Action Tables (again) → 92 Transform 48 Intellect.
• Production → Battle.

Production Interpretation: [City] makes it money by gathering up the lore and information the Shallows and transforming into a military purpose. Let's add at least one more production word → 96 Training. Ok, that fits right in with the first so we won't dig. They are figuring out how to train people in using some of the old ways to use a perhaps more manageable version of the old magic. In this light, they will be directly opposed to the Arcane Order's goal of controlling magic.

Keywords: Transform, Intellect, Battle, Training.

Step Three: When It Flourished

The question to ask is when the society flourished. This is the part where the society—or city, in this case—actually grew and became more self-sustaining. This time there are three parts: (1) Flourish Focus, (2) History [again], and (3) Meaning Table "Society Growth".

• Flourish table → 63 Discovery (it flourished due to some discovery or breakthrough).
• History → 96 Vengeance.
• Society Growth → 31 Demand. Let's add at least one more — 33 Disaster.

Flourish Interpretation: Despite [City] being opposed to the Order and New Khelia, it does not feel right that they went to war with it. Instead, as [City] was growing one of the old wizards [a contemporary of Komodulus] found out [City] had made some breakthrough in old magic and showed up to claim it. Rather than collapse under this disaster, they brought other local towns and villages together and repelled the attack which helped to establish [City] as a safe place. The people of [City] went on to fight against the remaining wizards and are why The Shallows, abandoned by the Order, were able to grow out of The Troubles.

Keywords: Disovery, Vengeance, Demand, Disaster.

Step Four: Covenants

What is the society's most important agreement. How did they transform a quest for vengeance into become a hub of trade? What agreements did they make with the others along The Shallows? Again, three parts: (1) Covenant Focus, (2) Meaning Table "Actions", (3) Meaning Table "Noble Houses."

• Covenant Focus → 55 Internal Truce. Internal conflict led to a truce.
• Actions → 40 Energize 1 Advantage.
• Noble Houses → Enemies.

Convenant Interpretation: After [City] carried out its first goal of rising up to reclaim The Shallows from the remaining wizards, it nearly collapsed under its own promise: the various houses which had joined together started to turn on one another and threatened to create a new variation of the wizard war. However, a city consitution and order was made to keep the houses working together and growing [City]. Still, to this day, the various houses are opposed to one another and treat each other as rivals.

Keywords: Truce, Energize, Advantage, Enemies

Step Five: Culture

Now to find out something interesting about [City]'s way of life. It grew up opposing wizard's, flourished by organizing an area's thirst for revenge, and nearly fell by repeating the past. While it still traffics in being a new hub for magic and teaching various people how to fight with magic, there are other elements. This time, there are three: (1) Culture Focus table, (2) Meaning Table "Culture Descriptors," and (3) Meaning Table "Character Actions: General."

• Cuture Focus → 36 Garb Regard (known for their way of dressing).
• Culture Descriptors → 72 Religious.
• Character Actions, General → 53 Inspect.

Culture Interpretation: [City] is known for its culture of wearing elaborate religious decor dedicated not only to the Khel religion (a monotheistic belief) but also to the various Khel saints. Each house has its own patron saints and there is a rivalry—bordering on pretentious—where people are judged for not wearing the proper saint's colors and symbols for the season.

Keywords: Religious, Inspect.

Step Six: Name

In this case, we just come up with a name. I'll let the Meaning Table "Names" do the work for me. Let's try 3 rolls.

• 04 Ahg
• 83 Thah
• 59 Nee

[City]'s name is Agthany.

Step Seven: Events, Legends, Keywords

There are also tables for generating various events and legends in the society. For the events, part of the ideas is to take the keywords generated throughout the process and make a 20 word table. If you have not generated enough keywords, roll some on Meaning Tables "Civilization Descriptors" to fill out the gaps. Discard duplicates. Going with what I have above, mine would look like:

1. Distrust
2. Friend
3. Prepare
4. Crisis
5. Transform
6. Intellect
7. Battle
8. Training
9. Discovery
10. Vengeance
11. Demand
12. Disaster
13. Energize
14. Advantage
15. Truce
16. Enemies
17. Religious
18. Inspect
19. 92 Suppressed
20. 44 Failed

The two new additions suggest that Agthany's system of conflicting houses and lack of anyone to have any more revenge on are showing the cracks. Perhaps in a repeat of the Order, the hedge magician types are starting to be cracked down upon. The houses are controlling the various magics to various degrees. Not so much that it is a defining trait but beginning to show.

Creating a Couple Quick Legends

There is also a Meaning Table "Legends." You combine one word from it with one word from the society's event/keyword list. Each "pair" (as always you can roll more than one) are interpreted.

• SE 7 Battle + Legends 25 Decrease → 75 years ago, the houses threatened to go to war against one another to determine the true leaders of Agthany. However, a Khelian priest introduced the Third Concord which laid out rules for houses to settle their conflicts is more controlled competitions.
• SE 3 Prepare + Legends 53 Historical → 100 years ago, the Agthanian Library was founded to gather the knowledge building up in the city. It was originally a place to gather The Shallows lore as well but as Wren has shown, it became a repository for House bragging rights and cared little for more dispersed knowledge.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed that. It has quite a few hooks and ideas that can be expanded upon. The only idea I had for the city was "merchant hub." It is still that but now it's a city where various houses spend more time showboating fashion and "sport magic" while living in the promise to defend The Shallows if another war breaks out.

It will likely show up in a future story but for now, it'll just be referenced here or there instead of saying [City] in my notes.