Mikan

Mikan Prefecture

Mikan Prefecture

Mikan prefecture is governed by Onishi Clan. Southern parts of prefecture produce a lot of rice, fruits and meat from its fertile slopes and valleys. Prefecture is also known for its excessive mining. Shirokō and Genkaisha steel are plenty in mountains. Mountains are also the home of widely spread Yukisaru monkeys and many creatures such as Inugami and Baku.

The prefecture is divided to southern temperate broadleaf forest region, mountain region which spans from the center towards western border and northern swamplands region. Kurokawa River runs across the Mikan prefecture border and its banks are filled with farms and villages. City of Mikan, which is built next to Kurokawa River, is home of Onishi Clan.

Another two large cities are Shibushi and Dorodani. City of Shibushi was founded by Onishi Clan as an outpost in northern mountains to protect Mikan prefecture from dangers of Kuro no Mori. Shibushi was originally only a fortress with small community of farmers but after discovery of large gold and Genkaisha steel deposit from the nearby mountains, the small town started to grow. Castle city of Dorodani was built in wake of demon incursions from Kuro no Mori few hundred years ago. Along with Mikan, Shibushi and Ōyodo they form strong line of castles which ward the densely populated south.

Onishi Clan

Onishi Clan has long history as former society of warrior monks. Onishi Clan honors their past and standard Onishi Clan garb resembles the warrior monk outfit. Clan has great knowledge of channeling arts and martial arts and they are very secretive about their teachings. Great punishment falls to those bushi who are caught to teach their clan’s secrets to outsiders.

Onishi Clan is obliged to defend the Northwest side of Kuro no Mori against demons and outlaws which terrorize the north. Onishi Clan has little obligations outside their guard duty in north. The clans Pursuits towards human mental and physical perfection are cornerstones of Onishi philosophy. Martial arts and meditation are important expertise among Onishi Clan. Clan samurai constantly test their strength in duels. Independence and vigor are virtues among the Onishi. Clan has always had mixed loyalty towards Shogun. Onishi values their own tradition and autonomy over the ruling Clan.

See you next year!

Genkaisha

Genkaisha Prefecture

Genkaisha Prefecture

Genkaisha prefecture is the smallest prefecture in Tentaika and unlike any other prefecture it is not ruled by a samurai clan. Genkaisha prefecture is instead ruled by a five member council. Outside its governmental system Genkaisha prefecture is best known for its mining that produces large amounts of Genkaisha steel and black Genkaisha stone. 

Genkaisha Prefecture is located on rocky peninsula on eastern edge of Black Sea. Prefecture’s capital is well known across the Tentaika. The city is the biggest and most important spiritual and religious hub in entire Tentaika. Genkaisha’s priests and priestesses are known for their vast knowledge of channeling and ritualism and thus many wealthy samurai families send their children to train in Genkaisha. The city is also favored by rich artist and they produce a large quantity of first-class art. The city also offers the services of its demon hunting warrior priestesses for other prefectures.

Genkaisha High Council

Unlike other prefectures Genkaisha prefecture is not ruled by a warrior clan. Genkaisha prefecture is instead ruled by the Genkaisha High Council. Under normal circumstances the High Council has five members, the head of the warrior priestesses, the treasurer, the politician, the religious head and the mundane head. The five bodies of Genkaisha are led by these five members.

 

The five bodies of Genkaisha are official governmental organizations of the Genkaisha prefecture. These organizations handle different aspects of Genkaisha prefecture’s main functions just like in any other prefecture. When in other prefectures all of the official governmental organizations work either directly or indirectly under one person, namely the daimyo of the prefecture’s ruling warrior clan, in Genkaisha each body works under one High Council member and these members have almost daimyo-like power over their body.

The organizational structure of a body is similar to any other official organization in Tentaika. The High Council member that leads the body has full authority over the body. Under the council member works a number of lower ranking officials that answer directly to her.  These officials are usually given power to make independent decisions on smaller things that fall under their specialization and only the most important decisions are made by the council member.

Official positions in a body are usually granted for life and they cannot be inherited. However it is common that certain official positions stay in a single family for multiple generations. This is because officials can give recommendations for their successor when they are retiring and usually high ranking officials train their heirs for the position they work in.

See you next Sunday!

Rozushito Prefecture

From this week onwards we will be talking about the different prefectures and their ruling clans in Tentaika. This day’s topic is the Rozushito prefecture, which is also the capital prefecture of Tentaika. In Tentaika every prefecture is named after its capital city. As a note all the maps and names of places may change in the future.

Rozushito Prefecture

Rozushito is the center of Tentaika. The Capital city has over five hundred thousand inhabitants. Rozushito is one of the few cities in Tentaika which are capable to handle such population. The city has an ancient water system which supplies it with fresh water. These ancient aqueducts bump life into the huge city which is filled with luxury amenities.

City of Rozushito is divided into five districts. Kogane district is the administrative district which houses residences for every samurai clan when they are making visit in Rozushito. Kogane district is also home district of Satake clan which is the current ruling Shogun clan of Tentaika. District also offers relaxation services for samurai.

Kaigan district houses large commercial docks. Most of the Rozushito’s traders live in the Kaigan district, and it is often referred as “merchant caste district”. Arata district is only real district outside the main city walls. Arata district was originally a suburb which was governed by samurai clan Kojima. Arata district is usually referred as “poor man’s district”. Illegal gambling and shady underground activities are common, and other clans of Rozushito often criticize the Kojima clan for being part of the illegal activities or just ignoring them. Momiji district is built around fortress which is located on the banks of Kurokawa River. Momiji district is governed by samurai clan Daishi. On other side of the river, lies Shinju district which is home of Sakagami clan.

Outside the capital’s walls, prefecture has idyllic mid-Tentaikan feel with hillsides and many small villages. Most of the Kurokawa River area is heavily populated by farmers and fishers. Population density in the prefecture is among highest of the entire Tentaika.

Satake Clan

Satake clan is the current ruling clan of Tentaika. Satake has reigned in peace for last three hundred years. Satake clan values tenets of bushido and samurai rule over ever growing power of merchant caste. Satake clan has weakened dramatically after Black Dragon Coup three hundred years ago. In fact, Satake clan has only retained its position as Shogun clan due to the high respect which they receive from all other warrior clans.

Satake clan takes cunning steps in everlasting dance of politics and game for power and ultimate rule for Tentaika. Unlike in neighbor country of Aleria where politics and the struggle for power is more aggressive, Tentaikan politics are formed around honor and respect towards other clans which is far more subtle than Alerian politics. Satake clan trusts to their good relations with other clans to retain their seat to power.

See you next Sunday!

Ritualism overview

Ritualism

Today’s topic is ritualism. In a nutshell ritualism is the skill of borrowing and manipulating the power of gods. Each of the ten prime gods is almost omnipotent, however each of them is specialized in certain elements and different broad concepts such as sun which covers light, heat, fire and so on. For ritualists it is much easier to draw powers from a god under whom the element falls under.

In Mundus RPG most of the rituals are short and can be used in combat. Soldiers usually call these rituals combat rituals and for common people they are simply known as spells. These “combat” rituals range from offensive to defensive and healing rituals and almost all of them can be cast in five seconds or less. Ritualists usually specialize in one or two gods and they are unable to cast rituals that fall under other gods. However some ritualists are able to cast rituals from all five gods from either Acernos or Ascendes.

There are also enchanting rituals which are used to permanently imbue the power of a god to a weapon or some other object. The enchanting process usually takes several hours to complete and the length and difficulty of this process is determined by the amount of power imbued to the item. Enchanting rituals are most commonly used to enhance weapons.

See you next Sunday!

Channeling Arts

Channeling

Today’s topic is Channeling. In Mundus RPG Channeling is one of our main features. Channeling is the art of controlling one’s life force, Genki, in order to enhance one’s body for short durations or to manipulate one’s surroundings with pure energy. Concept of Genki is quite similar to concepts such as Ki, Chi, Chakra etc.

The color and feel of the Genki are individual. The color is usually a shade or mix of the three primary colors. This color is almost never pure white or black and colors such as brown and gray are also very rare. The color of the Genki is inheritable. Color of the child’s Genki is usually mix of her parents Genkis or if one of the parents is a strong channeler or has a very rare colored Genki it usually passes to the child almost unchanged.

Channeling has always been a known art, but on the plane of Mundus it was almost completely lost and forgotten during the Cataclysm. Roughly thousand years ago Lady Ryusaki Ume taught Channeling to the founders of Genkaisha. From there it took hundred years or so for Channeling to spread across Tentaika. Considerably later Channeling also spread to Aleria, however it has never truly seen wider use there.

Self-Channeling

Self-Channeling is used to channel Genki inside the body to enhance it. Self-Channeling can make its user faster, stronger and more agile. For example an adept of Self-Channeling can leap over a wall or momentarily gain the strength of a dragon. Like all channeling arts, Self-Channeling exhausts its user quickly. Self-Channeling is known for its very specialized Channeling techniques. One of these techniques also gave birth to Hybrid techniques.

Outwards Channeling

The art of Outwards Channeling pushes the Genki out of its user’s body. The basic uses for Outwards Channeling are accelerated healing and restoration and inflicting energy based damage. These basic uses are easier to master than the basics of Self-Channeling, however Outwards Channeling has extremely difficult advanced techniques.

See you next Sunday!

Astral Planes

Today we will shortly introduce the two other planes in Mundus RPG. Previously we have been talking about the human inhabited plane of Mundus from which this game takes its name from. Now we will scratch the surface of the two astral planes governed by gods.

Where Mundus does not have gods that directly influence the plane both other planes do. However people on Mundus worship gods from both of the other two planes. This is because people can harness the power of gods with ritualism and some gods indirectly influence Mundus through their servants.

Ascendes

Ascendes, the astral plane with two suns and no moon is governed by Matinia goddess of Birth, Libera goddess of Freedom, Amicia goddess of Concord, Luca god of Sun and Cael god of Sky. Due to the two suns Ascendes is a very warm and bright plane.

Native people of both planes governed by gods are called demigods due to their unnaturally long lifespan when compared to humans. Demigods of Ascendes are dark or black skinned and tall people with eyes color of their life force which is a natural characteristic for demigods. Their culture bears resemblance to Roman and Greek cultures and their native tongue, Lingua Domini, closely resembles Latin and it is considered the language of gods. Domini is also used in Mundus and Acernos as a language of scholars and ritualists.

On Ascendes civilization is centered around huge cities with few million people living in each city. This is made possible by advanced sewerage and healthcare systems. To produce enough food to support such large cities slavery is common throughout Ascendes and most of the flat landscape around the cities is farmed.

Acernos

The dark, sunless plane of Acernos is ruled by Inmicus god of War, Terra goddess of Earth, Agura god of Water, Lumia goddess of Moon and Morte god of Death. Acernos is much darker and colder when compared to Mundus and Ascendes due to the lack of sunlight. However, the smaller of the two moons, Lumi illuminates the Acernos with the help of bright stars and grand auroras.

Demigods of Acernos are tall and pale people with dark or white hair. They have a clan based culture which bears some similarities to imperial Chinese culture, most notable being their native tongue, architecture and customs. Due to their clan culture Acernos only has few larger cites which compete in size with the large cities of Ascendes even though both planes have similar technology available.

See you next Sunday!

Aleria and Seigrike

Today we will give you a short introduction to the other two countries on the plane of Mundus. These countries are Aleria and Seigrike. Both of these countries are located north of Tentaika. Aleria shares a border with Tentaika and the more distant Seigrike is located far north at the Arctic Circle.

Aleria bears strong resemblance to medieval European countries and their native tongue closely resembles German. However the Alerian court and high nobility draws some of its inspiration from the early Renaissance. This mostly affects clothing, art and architecture. Alerian people are very clearly divided into poor commoners and wealthy nobles and merchants. Unlike in Tentaika, Aleria has no public healthcare and the poor are oppressed by the wealthy castes and plague is a common blight among Alerian peasants. Tentaika trades with Aleria, but Tentaikan people are xenophobic towards Alerian people and these two countries are in a continuous cold war and border strifes are common.

Seig are the cursed inhabitants of the icy Rim Oyer. Seigrike draws its inspiration from Norwegian Vikings and Nordic tales. Because of their curse Seig must die in battle or their corpse is reanimated as a nearly immortal Draugr. Due to this fact, Seigs commonly raid shores of the northern Aleria. Seigrike and Aleria are basically in a constant war, but the icy sea between the two countries negates the possibility of open war. Seigs and Tentaikans rarely meet due to the distance between the two countries and when they meet Tentaikans usually see Seigs as large and hairy Alerians.

See you next Sunday!

Tentaika

Today we are going to talk little about the country of Tentaika. Tentaika is the main setting for Mundus RPG and for the time being the rest of the game world is seen through the eyes of Tentaikan people. For now we will just scratch the surface of this subject and in the future blog posts we will go deeper in to few of the topics we discuss today.

The main inspiration for Tentaika is feudal Japan, but we have romanticized the world and made some modernizations to the regime and to the overall philosophy of how people live and think about each other. In short, by medieval standards Tentaika would be considered a welfare state. However the caste system still exists and the samurai caste rules the country leaving little to no chance for the common folk to make a difference.

What makes Tentaika a welfare state is that thanks to channeling, ritualism and advanced medieval medical science healthcare is cheap or free and it is easily accessible even in small towns. This considerably reduces epidemics in more densely populated parts of Tentaika. The health care is mostly offered by local temples and shrines as they are tasked by the local samurai clan to offer medical help in return for the funding they receive from their prefecture.

Tentaika is divided into eight prefectures each governed by a warrior clan, with the exception of the prefecture of Genkaisha. Warrior clans are powerful samurai clans that have sovereign rule over their prefecture and they pledge their loyalty to the ruling shogun family. Each warrior clan has multiple smaller samurai clans that work for them and have pledged their loyalty to the warrior clan, and each samurai clan has samurai families under them.

In the future we will talk more about channeling, ritualism, samurais, astral planes, prefectures etc. If there is a certain topic you wish to hear about post it in the comments or in the Facebook page and it will be taken into consideration when planning this blog.

See you next Sunday!

  

Gameplay

Gameplay of Mundus RPG

For Mundus RPG we have created a system which allows diverse gameplay opportunities. To achieve this, we have decided to ditch the classical D&D styled class system and instead to use more flexible skill based rules. This means that characters don’t gain levels, instead they use experience points to increase their skills, attributes and other abilities as they wish.

Mundus RPG uses two six sided dice and is based around attributes, skills, traits and perks. Attributes consist of Strength, Endurance, Agility, Perception, Concentration, Intelligence and Charisma. We also have a special attribute called Luck. Skills are divided to Primary and Secondary skills. Primary skills are mostly combat skills and they gain special perks as they level up. Perks are special bonuses and abilities that are gained for free at fixed levels and some of them allow characters to customize their skills. Secondary skills are mostly non-combat fluff skills such as Art, Riding and Swimming and they have only four levels instead of the total 20 levels of primary skills. Traits are character’s special quirks or features which can either benefit or hamper the character.

The rules of Mundus RPG revolve around combat and we prefer to leave most of the non-combat character interaction for the players to actually roleplay. By this we mean that players actually need to speak and interact instead of just rolling some dice. For the combat we decided to go with a more detailed approach. This means that combat is best in one-on-one duels or in small groups of 3 vs. 3 or 5 vs. 5 etc. More about combat in future blog posts.

By having multiple combat skills with levels from 0 to 20 we have made it possible to play the game at multiple levels. By this we mean, with characters that have their combat skills at level four or so are considered to be normal humans. Gameplay-wise this means more Seven Samurai styled combat. At skill level 10 characters are considered to have achieved human perfection in the given skill. Forwards from the skill level 11 characters are considered to be inhumanly skilled and at these levels combat starts to be more Bleach- and wuxia-like with gravity defying jumps and stone crushing sword swings.

See you next Sunday!

Introduction

Introduction to Mundus RPG

Well, straight to the point. We are two game dev students from Finland and we’d like to introduce our tabletop roleplaying game which we have been developing on our free time since July 2011.

Mundus is a classical pen & paper RPG which is set in the medieval Japan-esque country of Tentaika. For the game, we have drawn inspiration from movies like Seven Samurai and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and games such as Jade Empire and of course from manga like Bleach, Naruto and Vagabond.

Even though one would think, that Seven Samurai and Bleach would never mix well together we think that we’ve managed to achieve our vision. In the following blog posts we are going to enlighten you about the setting and the gameplay of Mundus RPG.

- Ville Huohvanainen & Eetu Röpelinen