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The Urban Journey: An “Ex Novo” City-building Quest

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City Name: Cradle's Rest



Ex Novo is a game for between 1-4 players that revolves around constructing a community. This could range from a new fresh settlement to an ancient bastion of civilization, a farming village to a great metropolis. This is done by creating the starting conditions of the settlement and then going through a series of major events in community's history. By going through these key events of the city's past, we slowly build up the shape, size, major landmarks, resources, and influential factions into a dynamic, more realistic community.

Outcomes are normally randomized with the use of six-sided dice and tables listing the different options conditions and events. The descriptions on the tables influence things that are added or removed from a map of the community or a list of involved factions and their relative power in the city. They also include prompts in the form of questions that can help with story creation.

Early roles are mostly 2d6, but history roles are based on a "d666" system, where the player roles a d6 for each of the digits of a three-digit number. For example: on a 3d6, the player gets a 4, a 2, and a 5. The player then looks up event #425 on the Development table.

The game goes through four basic phases as described by the creators:
  • Discussion – Setting the Assumptions and Expectations
  • Founding – Creating the setting and original purpose of the community
  • Development – History shapes the community
  • Topping Out – Wrapping up loose ends
If you would like to check it out, it is on itch.io at Sharkbombs

Your Role as Questers:
Hopefully providing feedback and suggestions, which I fully welcome! I will also ask for rolls to decide the random elements of the game and votes on options I will provide based on those rolls and story outcomes. Collective decisions will be done based on majority vote unless I specify otherwise. I also encourage you to try out writing or drawing omake based on game events!

My Role as QM:
Since we sadly cannot be in the same room together, I will be the map-master. I will be providing an up-to-date map and table of factions and current resources here on the opening post. I will also create and build upon the results in the form of a chronicle or potentially zoomed in vignettes about events. It partly depends on what kinds of events happen!

Further information on things and organizations in the world can be found here!
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Expectations and Building the Map
  • Threadmarks
    • hessan_yongdi

    hessan_yongdi

    Pronouns
    He/Him
    Hello everyone and thank you for joining me in building a community! We are going to use the game/world-building tool Ex Novo created by Sharkbomb Studios to create an urban setting for future fiction & quests. I hope that this journey through the history of this settlement will prove to be just as interesting as future stories that may take place in it! Basic Information about how Ex Novo works can be found in the thread header.

    Assumptions and Expectations:
    I would like to create an ancient city roughly 1,000 years old, so the technology level will evolve over time. The technological level by the end will be roughly early 20th​ century, so we will be starting with early medieval tech with some low fantasy elements. Since I would like this to be an ancient city and let the size be decided by events, we will start the maximum number of potential citizens and the largest map size.

    If you have any original recommendations for sentient non-human species to introduce into the game world as we start, please add them to your posts! However, racism or assuming that the various species are cultural monoliths in our city (or quest thread) will not be tolerated! The factions in the game will not be based on species differences.

    ------------------​

    The Founding Step:
    Now it is time for us to start building our map! The first part you get to help me with is deciding the basic geography of the region. Normally, this would be decided by a die roll. Instead, we will put this up to a vote. Please pick one of the following options and feel free to discuss the attached questions in your post!

    [ ] Inland: The settlement is surrounded by plains and sky as far as the eye can see. How do we handle the vastness?

    [ ] Valley: Hidden and nestled in the mountains. Who found this valley? What was hiding in this valley already when we arrived?

    [ ] Peninsula: Surrounded by water on three sides. What do the citizens believe shaped this land?

    [ ] Special: This was such a strange place that we managed to find and settle. What makes it unique and how did we get here? (Think of this option as being like a write-in for really weird recommendations, so mention it in your post.)


    To keep us from getting bogged down and get into the city-building as quickly as possible, I also will need 4 people to roll 2d6 to pick terrain features that will decorate our map. I will let you know the results once we get our four rolls.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Peninsula: Surrounded by water on three sides. What do the citizens believe shaped this land?

    Setting up by the sea sounds nice, managing to create some form of sea trade routes might take a while, it sounds promising in the long run.
    Also not because of the fact I'm a huge nerd for Phoenicians, baka!
     
    [X] Crater: A deep carter created by an ancient super meteor, though there is a hazy feeling surrounding it, weird.

    As for more species, Solicus is a species of living silicon that are shaped into a sphere, and characterized by their two crimson gem eyes and low population, they live long lives.
    OBrien threw 2 6-faced dice. Total: 6
    1 1 5 5
     
    [X] Peninsula: Surrounded by water on three sides. What do the citizens believe shaped this land?
    Water is a massive advantage for any society
    Easter threw 2 6-faced dice. Total: 5
    1 1 4 4
     
    [X] Peninsula: Surrounded by water on three sides. What do the citizens believe shaped this land?
    - [x] Built on spit between two huge rivers (think Amazon, Volga, Congo, Nile), with a fortress built on the high cliff and overseeing vast water meadows. A sea is relatively close to the city (about few hundred km).
    permeakra threw 2 6-faced dice. Total: 5
    4 4 1 1
     
    [X] Peninsula: Surrounded by water on three sides. What do the citizens believe shaped this land?
    - [X] Our people believe that the Goddess formed these lands for her first child, a cradle upon the ocean who was rocked into slumber by the waters. Now grown the child takes their place in the heavens as the moon, continuing to rock the waters so all may be soothed.

    Don't want to name anything really not sure on our people's culture, but its very reasonable to have a divine explanation that the first settlers would use to explain these lands.
     
    Imma go ahead and change my vote.

    [X] Peninsula: Surrounded by water on three sides. What do the citizens believe shaped this land?
    - [X] Our people believe that the Goddess formed these lands for her first child, a cradle upon the ocean who was rocked into slumber by the waters. Now grown the child takes their place in the heavens as the moon, continuing to rock the waters so all may be soothed.
     
    Results of Terrain Feature Rolls
  • Threadmarks
    • Thank you everyone for your rolls, votes and feedback so far! Here are the results from the terrain feature rolls:
    • 8: Lake - A larger lake or a series of smaller ones, maybe an oasis. What formed this lake? What creatures frequent it?
    • 6: Woods - An area of forest, maybe rainforest or grasses that grow as tall as a human. What grows in the shadows of these trees?
    • 5: Hills - One big hill or an area of rocky or rolling hills. What hides among the grasses and trees here?
    • 5: Hills - One big hill or an area of rocky or rolling hills. What hides among the grasses and trees here?

    I plan on incorporating several of these awesome ideas people suggested. Currently, the second hills feature will be a set of cliffs or ridgelines that mark the perimeter of an ancient crater depending upon which regional geography ultimately wins the voting. I also like the connection to a moon deity to help start building the city's culture.

    I will keep voting open for the next 24 hours and I hope to have a map posted before midnight EST on Dec 4th.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Some Questions:

    So in terms of the fantasy portions of this game, what sort of range are we anticipating? Low/Middle/High fantasy? I know we're allowing some amount of fantasy races, done tastefully with a lack of monoculture. I understand if we don't really know what limits we should have in mind at this point, but if you had any I think such could be helpful to know.

    Or I forget reading lines of the opening post that specify Low fantasy.

    Edit for more Productive Questions:
    - When providing Non-human species concepts what type or level of details would you be interested in?
    - Should we assume, if classical races such as Elves/Dwarves exist in this setting if none suggest them? If so can individuals suggest changes from the norm for them?​

    Would it be reasonable to suggest ideas like, "Within the woods flowers grow white as fresh snow, about the roots of some trees, which have various medicinal uses."
     
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    [X] Peninsula: Surrounded by water on three sides. What do the citizens believe shaped this land?
    - [X] Our people believe that the Goddess formed these lands for her first child, a cradle upon the ocean who was rocked into slumber by the waters. Now grown the child takes their place in the heavens as the moon, continuing to rock the waters so all may be soothed.
     
    [X] Peninsula: Surrounded by water on three sides. What do the citizens believe shaped this land?
    - [X] Our people believe that the Goddess formed these lands for her first child, a cradle upon the ocean who was rocked into slumber by the waters. Now grown the child takes their place in the heavens as the moon, continuing to rock the waters so all may be soothed.
     
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    Clarifiying About Suggestions
  • Informational
    • ComiTurtle said:
    - When providing Non-human species concepts what type or level of details would you be interested in?
    - Should we assume, if classical races such as Elves/Dwarves exist in this setting if none suggest them? If so can individuals suggest changes from the norm for them?​

    Would it be reasonable to suggest ideas like, "Within the woods flowers grow white as fresh snow, about the roots of some trees, which have various medicinal uses."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Sorry, I should have been a bit more clear when I said, "original recommendations." I have no intention of including any of the typical TTRPG fantasy races (i.e. elves, dwarves, halflings) unless a suggestion makes them compelling and significantly different from their origins and the human baseline. As for smaller recommendations like your flower, that is good! Just keep in mind that I reserve the right to not incorporate or make minor modifications to any suggestions to ensure it fits the narrative and setting.
     
  • Informational
    • The Starting Map
  • Threadmarks
    • Thank you all for your votes! Peninsula was a clear first place along with the myth about a goddess and her child who becomes a moon deity. However, I have also found a way to integrate the suggestion of a crater. Here, I present the Cradle of the Moon!



    To the west (left) of the map, you can see the outline of a very large crater mostly under the surface of the water. According the religious legends, the Moon goddess Thekbol needed to hide her recently born child, Olpan, though the reason varies between versions. She hid him in this area with one of his parents while Thekbol and her other spouses pretended Olpan had been killed by the disastrous impact that created the crater. (see note #1) Later, Olpan returned to the heavens as our planet's second moon also called Olpan. The crater is also where the Bolthad come from, a silica-based sentient life-form named for their glossy bodies that are laced with bands and splotches of earthy and metallic colors. There were here before anyone else and there are always at least a couple dozen living on land at any one time. They don't talk about why they casually walk in and out of the sea, disappearing for months or even decades.

    Because of the presence of Olpan in this area, the lake is called "Olpan's Bath" or just "The Bath." It was created by the crater wall damming up a river that used to flow to the sea. It is still fed by those original streams that come from a pair of springs in the mountains to the north. It drains through a channel worn in the canyon wall, forming a waterfall into the sea.

    Much of the western portion of the peninsula has not recovered from the impact. It is quite rocky with little top soil. As such, much of it is only covered with moss, lichen, and small patches of grass. One exception is the roqumpan. Roqumpan are large mushroom-lichen similar to Prototaxies from Earth's past, reaching up to 6 meters (20ft) in height. At the moment, I intend on these giant mushroom "trees" to be a potential food source for the Bolthad. On the map they are represented by the green, lumpy things since I have not decided on what they should look like. Any artists among the questers?

    The hills on the eastern side of the peninsula are lush and green in contrast to the rocky eastern half, but I have not decided anything about them beyond that. Maybe our next rolls will make them interesting!

    To clarify, I intend on the number 5 being sacred to the starting dominant culture, the Nerlekthad. This is reflected in the family structure with a traditional Nerlek family nucleus being two husbands, two wives, and a third-gender spouse. This models the divine marriage of Thekbol and her 4 spouses. All parents are just referred to as "mer" regardless of gender. The fifth spouse, following in the footsteps of Olpan's parent who raised him in the Cradle of the Moon, is traditionally in charge of raising the children of the household between their weaning and when they become old enough to become adults and choose who they will be in the community.

    -----------​

    Now, the next steps are to decide why this was a useful location for a settlement and why the initial settlers came here. For the former, please vote on one of the options below. This will help decide on our city's starting resource. For the reason why the initial settlers came here, I will need someone to roll 2d6 when they vote.

    [ ] Ruins of a former settlement – An old fort or a temple? What do people think this place was? What legends tell of the former inhabitants

    [ ] Valuable natural resources – Gold, Gems or pretty shells. Something of Value can be found here. What risks and opportunities does the extraction of this resource bring?

    [ ] Useful natural resources – Metals for War or wood to build. What useful materials are present? What makes them so valuable? And has anyone claimed this place before?

    [ ] Culturally important location – A holy place or the site of ancestors. What make it so important? What rites are practice here? What claim do the settlers have to this holy land?
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Ruins of a former settlement – An old fort or a temple? What do people think this place was? What legends tell of the former inhabitants

    Such a sacred site certainly had a temple built for its holy history. Of course, that leads to the mystery of why said temple is now empty, which has its own myth cycle to go with the earlier myths...
    Happerry threw 2 6-faced dice. Reason: Required Roll Total: 8
    4 4 4 4
     
    [X] Ruins of a former settlement – An old fort or a temple? What do people think this place was? What legends tell of the former inhabitants
    -[X] An overgrown and dilapidated walled palace complex, composed primarily of limestone and granite, notable for their great domed ceilings representative of some advanced architectural and engineering knowledge. Large frescos decorate the walls of some of the structures within the complex but many are horribly damaged. Outside this complex small clay brick housing has been located but it is very simple and even more dilapidated.

    And an idea for another species for the world:
    The Raanel (Plural: Raanelli, Adjective Raanellian) are a species of raptor-like sentients, small of stature often around a meter in height but often double in length. Much of their length is composed of a muscular tail that supports them as they move. They use their tails as both whips for combat and defense, and even as a fishing lure, due to fish being a staple in their omnivorous diet. They are often prized as messengers and couriers, due to their maneuverability.
     
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    [X] Culturally important location – A holy place or the site of ancestors. What makes it so important? What rites are practice here? What claim do the settlers have to this holy land?
    -[X] The Cradle of the Moon while always sacred had been considered to be the land of the unwanted. Exiles, unwanted children, and the infirm have landed here for a new start, to rest and recuperate for the next trial ahead, or to live their final days in deep contemplation to the gods especially Olpan who is considered to be the patron and defender of the unwanted. His priesthood within the Cradle was in charge of taking care of the unwanted while his wandering priests would ask for donations in their holy duties and trade when able. It is said in the founding poems that by the Grace of Olpan five wandering travelers heeded a vision sent forth by the god to meet each other in his cradle. There the five met and lived together after a few years more people came and settled in the Cradle but most of them are those unwanted and they lived in abject misery before settling the peninsula. Another vision sent by Olpan told the five of a great trial ahead where one should stay and guide those who were unwanted while the other four would procure supplies for the settlement that would eventually grow. In the intervening years, the four bargained and pleaded for supplies for the settlement while also gaining a following on those who were followed and protected by Olpan so when they returned to the Cradle it was filled with enough supplies and followers that a temple dedicated to the god was built and was able to house those who were guided by the one left behind as well as the new followers. This is how the council of five was formed where five of the most senior priests would guide the order to ensure the teachings of the five wandered would still be remembered and honored for the Glory of Olpan.
    ALanos threw 2 6-faced dice. Total: 5
    1 1 4 4
     
    [X] Useful natural resources – Metals for War or wood to build. What useful materials are present? What makes them so valuable? And has anyone claimed this place before?
    -[X] Alloy Coral Reefs. From the edge of the coast on the opposite end of the crater great jutting spikes of a strange colored coral shoots into the air in a giant reef. This is no ordinary coral however, these are the valuable Alloy Coral Reefs a form of coral changed greatly by the great meteor impact as they have become partly silicon-based with great veins of a myriad of different metals from copper, to tin, to iron, lie within the coral. As long as the species are not wiped out they will continue to grow indefinitely, producing a near limitless, if slow to build up, amount of resources.

    Glepings: A distant yet kin race to the Bolthads, they live beneath the waves and their bodies show a differing evolutionary path as opposed to the Bolthads with dark blue being the dominate color of their crystal make up and skinnier bodies with which to move through water swiftly. Isolating themselves from the world above the waves and whom give worship to strange ancestors and even stranger gods to the land dwelling Bolthads, they are... amiable enough, yet oddly paranoid and skittish and posses an extreme territorial nature from which the Bolthads are not immune.
    UwU threw 2 6-faced dice. Reason: Rolling Rolling Rolling Total: 5
    1 1 4 4
     
    [X ] Culturally important location – A holy place or the site of ancestors. What make it so important? What rites are practice here? What claim do the settlers have to this holy land?
     
    [X] Valuable natural resources – Gold, Gems or pretty shells. Something of Value can be found here. What risks and opportunities does the extraction of this resource bring?
    -[X] In the presence of The Bath, a unique type of herb can be planted and nurtured, it offers only one thing to those that consume it, and it is full remembrance of their dreams, every single detail and absurdity can be remembered if this plant is consumed just before sleep.
     
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    OBrien said:
    [X] Valuable natural resources: In the presence of The Bath, a unique type of herb can be planted and nurtured, it offers only one thing to those that consume it, and it is full remembrance of their dreams, every single detail and absurdity can be remembered if this plant is consumed just before sleep.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I'd suggest to format this like
    [ ] Valuable natural resources – Gold, Gems or pretty shells. Something of Value can be found here. What risks and opportunities does the extraction of this resource bring?
    -[] In the presence of The Bath, a unique type of herb can be planted and nurtured, it offers only one thing to those that consume it, and it is full remembrance of their dreams, every single detail and absurdity can be remembered if this plant is consumed just before sleep.

    Just with the X's in the brackets, a consistent pattern helps things just work clearer.
     
    [X] Ruins of a former settlement – An old fort or a temple? What do people think this place was? What legends tell of the former inhabitants.
    -[X] What can only be inferred to be a massive and ancient city of what was once splendor and power now lies nothing more than mere rubble and ruin. A shadow of what was. It's buildings towering and colossus, made from once clean and pristine stone and marble. Many buildings, statues, and even epitaphs exhibit an immense show of Avian iconography. The city, or at least what's left of it, seems to have been surrounded by a wall of some sorts, utterly torn down and broken as of the moment, rubble just like many of the city's inner structures. Yet despite it's seemingly ruined and utterly desolate nature, such a place is not without plunder and gain for the new and the young. What buried secrets must lie within these ruins? Lost forgotten tech of a more enlightened era? Treasures without end? Something else more devious? Only time can tell.

    Edit: The dice gods must hate me and my birds.
    MurderChicken threw 2 6-faced dice. Reason: Papa needs a new pair of birds Total: 2
    1 1 1 1
     
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