Herenkoa: An old Design Brief: Just Copy & Pasted

Herenkoa

A world before time began.
Man, monsters, myths and legends had to start somewhere.

Outline Design:

“Designer Note”. These are facts about the game universe. They are to be hidden from the game player. They will gradually be unveiled over the course of the series. With each new region and age that comes and with each new tribe the story will show that the planet is earth and discover how it came to end will unfold.

“Public Note”. These are things the players will be told and shown through stories, art work and models.

(Designers Note) This is a cut down variation of the Final Earth game mechanic. Removing the Tribe control and bringing the game into a larger scale battlefield. Using squads and units, with hero’s leading the charge. Weaponry is still bronze/Iron age, though some of it will be out of time due to the “Guardians” controlling the tribes. All species are baseline humans, though they are altered through the “Guardians” influence and events that have happened on the planet till the start point of the game.
The game is somewhat tongue in cheek as it will be playing with deity ideas and varying degrees of rethinking the myths and monsters of the world by asking questions like did Zwercs have beards? Was there only Werewolves? And why do vampires combust in sunlight?
A heavy mix of science and messing around in the back ground and stories to create these ideas should be used.

(Public Note) Welcome to some point in the history of the world when things kind of began then ended. Only to start again, one of those experimental points in time where things didn’t always go as they should have done. The possible reason behind memories of creatures lost in the myths of time and why we think these beings might have existed. Somewhat of a Dark Age if you will, shortly after the Dinosaurs but before the Garden of Eden.

(Designers Note) I will be honest the idea for this game actually started as a design for the war in the heavens between good and evil, Angels Vs Demons, I just didn’t like the idea, and thought it might be a little bit too narrow a vision. So I decided to do it a little differently, a hand full of “Guardians” and a world as there playground.

The game starts during the first great defence of the humans against the surrounding hordes of monsters, and altered humans on the planet, fighting for survival on a war torn island of Pandora.
Each guided by a “Guardian” attempting to find the best way to keep their people alive.

While wandering the vast realms of space and time a young God came across a barren universe, unclaimed by another and left to spiral on the distant arm of an undiscovered galaxy.
As he journeyed further out towards the edge of this galaxy, the young God came across a line of nine planets orbiting around an unblinking yellow star.
The God decided that the planet closest to this gas giant was too volatile to sustain any form of life so he continued to move outwards away from the gravitational pull and fiery arms of this life giver.
The next planet along on this traveller's journey was far enough away for life, at this point, to be seeded.  Yet realising that the planet would be swathed by the expanding star in fire and flame within a few million years the God decided to pass onto the next barren rock.
On arrival at the 3^rd mass, the God came to the conclusion this was not ready for life as it was still in its early creation phase and as such moved on once more to allow this place to settle itself down. Yet before leaving the young God left behind a single rock, to begin the process once it had reached its state of readiness.
At the 4^th planet the God rested a while and took note of the vast oceans and well formed land masses, the ice at both poles and mild climates around the central regions that made this an ideal area for the creation of life, yet deciding to see what the 5^th planet held once more this enthralled entity moved on.
The 5^th planet was filled with rich ores, minerals and all manner of different superficial rock formations. It was also a cold and barren world. Deciding that life would never be able to establish this far from the warmth of the glowing star the god decided to shatter the planet spilling its content to the planets within the pull of the sun, and forming a protective shield to cloud the slowly forming life below from the view of other Gods.
Once this was done the God decided to return to the 4^th planet and create a life force to guard the 3^rd planet from invasion by other Gods and their minions while it had time to settle and create its own life cycles.
Millennium passed and the God grew older and decided that it was time to wander the galaxy once again looking for more regions to form life on. Before leaving the divine deity passed to the two most trusted generals a large proportion of power, and a request to guard this planet from all outside interference and to make sure that the new life forming in his image would be protected.
More centuries passed and the guardians became bored, nothing had happened for millennium, the two generals started to fall out over the way these Humans were acting, and as such started to manipulate them in different ways.
This slowly turned into a war between the two acting heads. As the bitter struggle got more and more fierce one of the generals decided to desert their home planet and move to the 2^nd planet in the solar system. The war raged and though unable to grow old or in fact die of natural causes the planet ravaged its new inhabitant; the God had been right in the fact that as time passed this planet would become less and less inhabitable.
Meanwhile on the 3^rd planet now called Earth by its inhabitants, the creatures had become folklore, some referred to them as Gods, others as Angels or Demons.
The war was becoming more and more intense, sometimes actually spilling over to the 3rd planet as they used the humans to try and manipulate each other and in a few cases attempts were made to turn them into what the guardians were.
As the two planets fought the middle planet slowly got sucked into the vacuum of this interstellar war.
The humans below turned their attention to the skies in order to try and better understand their reasons for being.
With this certain members of each faction took it upon themselves to visit this slightly backward world, in an attempt to try and coax this primitive species that they had neglected for so long into helping them in their quest for glory.
As empires on the surface of this planet were forged so were monuments, temples and shrines to different members of each faction. Whichever one had gotten there first and made his claim had in turn gained a following. Some had created whole new races to help them gain power and make these humans worship them through fear. 

Amarrit had gifted his followers with skin like stone, great size and strength. Unfortunately this had also hampered their intelligence, but this was the birth of the Trolls.

Bane, seeing what Amarrit had done, passed on to followers the ability to be controlled by their inner beasts. So creating the Ware's, unfortunately though now gifted with the great powers of their inner beasts they were unable to return to human form and as such were always cursed to be bipedal animal human half breeds.

Norastu had noticed the majority of worshippers seemed to dwell in the dark, and so granted them improved senses, and altered the blood chemistry so they didn't need light to function like most mammals do. The unfortunate side effect of this was that the blood cells died faster than normally, and also if they got into bright light or to hot they would erupt in flames as their bodies could not cool them fast enough. So were created the first of the Vampires.

Tanararia did nothing with the people of the tribe, just offering to help and leaving them to get on with it on their own. Sometimes Tanararia would advise, other times help craft, But the main role played out was to make sure order was kept, and everyone was safe, happy and content.

Scrall on the other hand wanted the riches from the fifth planet and so forced the minions and slaves to go deep into the rock to dig, realising that the regions of these resources were so narrow she began playing with the original design of the species, and so created short muscular cruel twisted beings, known to this day as Zwerc.

Keldra wanted to keep nature and beauty and as such wished to portray this within the tribe; as such they became lean and strong, agile and graceful, with an understanding of nature and the ability to blend into the environment and to understand what each of the plants and animals could do. As such they became known as the Huldra.

We sat and watched the rock

“For millennium we sat and watched. There was nothing more to do, than sit, wait, and watch. Occasionally one of my fellow guardians would throw something at your little rock, causing a tidal wave, or flood and even in the most extreme of cases an earth quake.” Taken from Tanararias account of what happened before the humans appeared.
As the planet moved, the land mass shifted and broke, slipping apart to form large seas, different creatures began to evolve on the surface. Each of the guardians started to take more interest in these beings forming on the surface of the once barren rock.
With time they travelled to the surface to influence their own chosen tribes with ideas and gifts, in an attempt to bend their ways of thinking so that they would be more understanding to their own needs.
After millions of years of being alone and isolated on their own planet, just waiting for something to happen the guardians had slowly bore grudges towards each other, though some had become close and worked to improve different things.
Once they had their own little tribes to manipulate and fashion though, there started to be intense arguments among them, so much so that a few decided that for the benefits of their own self preservation and that of their newly formed minions they should leave the Red rock and try and set up a base of operations on the second planet.
Tanararia cloaked in robes, wandered out of the desert and into a small shanty town of animal skinned tents, standing nearly 8' in height the humans saw this apparition as a giant and cowered before it.
A sound softly but with authority came from within this mass of twirling leather with nothing but darkness underneath. Slowly the humans relaxed, and listened.
Norastu wandered along the mountain trail, the air was thin but fresh and clean. Screams could be heard from a nearby cave, these wailing cries cut deep to the nerve. Standing in the door way as only a giant could do, Norastu made his presence known. The humans hunched over in a circle turned to see this entity filling the entrance to their shelter.
Bane enjoyed the time on this earth as it had come to be known, revelling in the ability to take other forms, and be able to run as the wild through the lush forests and across the plains. Of all the guardians Bane would use her abilities for pleasure, some days running with the Deer as one, others hunting them like a Wolf. Though she enjoyed this something was missing, and that was companionship, none of the other guardians saw her activities as worthwhile and so did not partake. Yet Bane had just found huddled together starving a small group of humans.
Amarrit was the power house and defensive force of the guardians, when he had been created by the God it really had been for one reason and one reason only, to guard. Amarrit though over the millennium had learned and though not overly bright to begin with had taken time to work everything out, still a little slow in the thought process but always got there in the end had decided to leave for the 2nd planet, due to the harshness of the world, the fast winds and constant storms, his overly toughened hide had all manner of minerals deposited on it giving a texture of stone to the behemoths skin.
Scrall had become bitter and twisted over the centuries, she wasn't as tall as the other guardian, she wasn't as powerful, and jealousy and rage over took her. Believing that the God had forsaken her, she wanted to make amends and set about trying to reclaim all of the precious materials scattered in the beginning, yet to do this a work force would be needed, and so travelling to the Earth, she enslaved and manipulated a fairly large group of humans to mine for her.
Keldra was one of the first to leave the 4th planet, sickened by the fighting and the disarray of her fellow guardians she created a place for herself on the 2nd planet which she soon had to abandon as the harsh effects of the world ravaged and disfigured her. Settling on earth in her hideous form she found kindness in a band of beings they nurtured her back to health, though her form would never reside once more in its original beauty and figure.
Though all the guardians had found tribes they could teach, lead and help there were still a few groups upon this planet without a guardian, and their attentions had started to turn to the heavens in worship for something that was not there. As their energies grew and they cried out with their minds for a mighty power to lead them their tribes grew as did the powers of their minds and slowly this power took form, so the Witch guardian was fashioned, with no allegiances to guardian or God. Alas lacking the astral powers, but still a formidable foe, the tribe gave this entity of human creation a name and that was Degraa.
As each guardian helped shape and granted gifts to their followers their powers grew, each tribe was slowly shaped and warped away from their original human form, into that of their guardians.
Norastu realising that these cave dwellers could not function properly within the confines of their darkened sanctuaries began granting them the power of night vision, and altering their blood chemistry so that they would not need or gain any advances from the light of their sun. Unfortunately, the more time spent with the fledgling race, the more they became corrupted by the powers of there would be savoir, slowly their minds warped they started to urge living blood for sustenance, in this the first race of Vampires began to terrorize the world.

A cry came out from this sheltered tribe they were being massacred by the followers of Norastu. There small village nestled within the foot hills and forests below the mountains and caves which housed these newly created monsters. As they ran from their village, into the woods that surrounded the villagers attempting to get away from these abominations from the mountain they all slowly found themselves huddling into a clearing, one by one they arrived, shocked and scared, at the far end of the clearing stood a great Wolf, though this animal should have instilled fear into the hearts of these tribal people though it did not. The towering wolf moved forward, and no one ran, slowly it began to rise up on its hind legs, and the hair on its back matted round and formed that of a robe. A low, dullest voice rose out of this newly formed being “I shall protect you my children, behind me so that I might avenge the few that have fell.” The disciples of Norastu started to mass on the edge of the clearing, seeing that they numbered many and this giant numbered but one they charged. The giant that was Bane stood ground, and deflected each attack with mighty claw. Limbs and heads were rendered from the shoulders of the vampire's, the Norastu followers began to fall back they were no match for this being. Though there speed was great, strength was immeasurable, and senses heightened they could not bring Bane to the ground.
Bane spent many hours after that day with the tribe that worshipped this animalistic entity.
With time they began to alter, not through Banes doing but through spending time around one with such power. The energies that created Bane and held this God like creature in place slowly passed to the humans within the tribe, yet as they were not one with the powers, they could not control it and so became stuck halfway between beasts and half way between men.
This was bane's curse to the followers and as such they would become known as the Wares. 

Amarrit landed at the most northerly region of the planet, he had spent so long on the 2nd planet with its winds and the heat he needed to cool off and so headed into the frozen regions of Earth. Due to the layers of debris that had now coated his body he was glowing white hot and so the snow under foot and for several feet surrounding turned to water as he walked. Amarrit was a giant even by the standards of the guardians; Bane was the only one to come close to the height of Amarrit and then she was still dwarfed by the power house.
Amarrit had his first encounter with a human tribe, some way from where he had placed himself to cool off. His wandering had taken him across mountains and plains, the snow and ice that had melted behind the giant had started to refreeze now flowing as a glacier. The village he came upon within the plains of ice and snow had seen the giant coming, it wasn't hard their look outs had noticed this behemoth object moving across their flat lands. Originally they had believed it to be a mammoth and so the hunting party had formed up with weapons and ropes to capture it. Once it had come into combat range though they thought it to be a living mountain, the humans being as they are, did not understand this, and slowly fear set in, and as is known if you don't understand something you fear it, if you fear something you’re going to attempt to destroy it. So this is what the tribe attempted to do.
Amarrit stood arms folded across his gargantuan chest and waited. The humans threw everything they had at him, spears, rocks, arrows, but nothing would penetrate his thick stone hide. Eventually he bellowed “Are you quite done?” The humans closest to Amarrit were knocked backwards by the force of his voice. Slowly though the humans lowered their weapons and sat in front of this giant waiting to see what would be said next.
Days and nights passed and Amarrit stayed with this tribe, learning and teaching, explaining and helping. Slowly though the humans started to alter as once more the powers that tied the entity to the mortal plain passed into his followers, this in turn brought forth the birth of the trolls.
Scrall sat, she just had no idea what to do, she was the smallest of the guardians, she felt she was the last to be created and she was right she was. Her plan was to appease her lord and creator by collecting up all the precious materials scattered upon the Earth and to return them. This would not be easy, much of these materials had fallen into the frozen wastes of the north, and she know that Amarrit had this area fiercely guarded, yet there was a tribe just outside of their region and it was growing rapidly. This would be her force of war. The humans that would allow her to take the north and secure the riches that it held.
Yet how, she looked no more intimidating than a human, yet she had power and abilities far surpassing a mortal man. That was how she would do it, she would alter them, make them bitter twisted and greedy, but also small and plentiful. Sheer volume of numbers would be the way to defeat the defenders of the north. So her plan was set into motion, from the shadows of the tribe she would begin, playing with their minds and altering their bodies before, slowly adjusting they form and shape and size, the emotions and their brains. Then she would do what she must to take control of the tribe and take the fight to the trolls of Amarrit. She would have her armies, her slaves, and her wealth.

Tanararia only wished to watch, but with the other guardians slowly taking control of the tribes and passing gifts and curses of their form action had to be taken. So the decision came, that a tribe would need to be taught, helped and guided by the outcast angel. No cures or gifts would be passed to this race of man, purity would have to prevail. Only words of wisdom and help could be given to the humans that remained.
Out of the desert the entity stepped, towards the race of man not yet corrupted by the guardians.
Keldra had been taken in by the forest dwelling folk, they had nursed her to health, treated her wounds and asked for nothing. This in turn had led Keldra to greatly believe in protection of the planet, and its resources, its wild life and its nature, not just the race of man.
So as Tanararias tribes slowly encroached into the woodlands of the Huldra to gather wood and animal hides the two races fell upon each other, one side strongly wishing to hold harmony, the other after much needed supplies. The skirmishes were bloody and quick, each side raiding and ambushing the other, so many wounded, even more murdered and obliterated in the heat of battle.
As the Huldra are the closest species to Human and the Human tribes cover much of the lands and are so varied and different. The Tomb of the Chosen shall show the remains of the few.

 

Species Brief:

Humans:
Are human, average height of around 6’ scale 32mm from base to eye.
A cross between caveman and desert nomads would be the best description of the humans of the world, technology advanced through the help of the guardians, advancing historical timelines incredibly quickly for the tribes on the planet.
Humans are generally found in the arid region towards the centre of Pandora.

Zwerc:
Were human once, average height of around 4’ scale 21mm from base to eye.
Though slightly wider than an average human, increased size is due to the colder climate and keeping warm deep underground. Technology advances make them masters of metals, allowing them to create magnificent works tools, weapons, and armours out of metals of all descriptions. Their Guardian controls more than advise though within the Zwerc.
Zwerc are found in the mountain regions to the north of the human tribes.

Huldra:
Were human and could still be said to be, average height of around 6’ scale 32mm from base to eye.
Huldra are slightly more elegant than an average human, more delicate, the Guardian of this tribe cultivated art, and style, morality and conduct into them. From a distance you would think they were a pure human tribe, but as you come into close contact with them you notice tiny difference. Ear and eye variation, lighter skin tones. They have a great understanding of nature, how to cultivate and maintain the balance between animal and plant, using both to their advantage. Eye sight, hearing, and even touch all increased over normal human levels.
Huldra live within the forests to the west of the human tribes.

Vampires:
Were human but through a mixture of own Guardian and another’s destruction are warped far beyond recognisable human now. Vampires vary in size from 4’ to 7’ in height depending on how much they have been touched by the Guardians. Scale wise they vary from 21mm from base to eye to 37mm from base to eye.
The vary in levels of technology and advancement, being faster, stronger and more animalistic than humans they can use their abilities better than weapons and armour to survive in battle, though they do have some advancements and are trained in many different things with help from their Guardian.
Vampires unlike the other “Monsters” on the planet have agendas and plans, they are not beasts as such, and they learn and progress to advance in the possibility of being the ruling species.
Vampires live in the cave region in the south.

Trolls:
Were human once, average height of around 8’ scale 42mm from base to eye.
In comparison to their original human form Trolls are massive. As a protector for a fallen Guardian they have to be. The muscle mass is greatly increased and they have skin like stone, which ruptures and cracks as they move, technology wise they are not that advanced, but with great strength and incredible resilience they don’t need to be. Capable of ripping a tree from the ground and using it as a club is an easy fete for a troll to perform.
The Trolls are found north of the Zwerc hiding deep in the mountains attempting to protect their fallen Guardian as he heals.

Wares:
Altered beyond all recognition as ever being human Wares are three different races.

Kiriti tribe were turned into rodents as punishment. Average height 4’ scale 21mm to eye.
The rodent tribe heartless, merciless killers, using their small size and rapid speed to ravage the lands with no respect for anything or anyone, they roam the world trying to survive.

Raccs tribe were actually approached and the Guardian attempted to gain their loyalties and trust. Average height 6’ scale 32mm to eye.
 She granted them gifts of a feline nature; higher senses and better vision all manner of cat like properties. Though this seemed to enrage them and they turned on the Guardian.
Making them another roaming tribe.

Shovegs tribe was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The guardian last ditch effort to survive created the Werewolves which stand at nearly 8’ tall scale 42mm from floor to eye.

Though the Wares are wandering tribes they will stay close to their original village regions, these are in the west, they don’t like to move to far from the food sources, and through they fight each other constantly, they fight the Hudra, humans and Vampires greatly too. As three tribes border the forests of the Wares.

  

Economy:

There is a world economy, is slightly slanted and for game play terms and army building it only really touches on what is available to different tribes and how expensive or what quality the equipment they use is.
Zwerc are miner and have vast resources of metals, while Hudra are forest dwelling and have vast access to wood and stone, while humans as a whole are quiet wide spread and may have to trade with each other to get the materials they need.
This means that while Zwerc may have cheaper metal weapons, if they have wooden components, they may be more expensive, and Hudra may not have any metal weapons at all.

This is how the cost of armies is controlled. With the expense of the equipment though the weapon is a better model.
It is possible for there to be different types of weapon, a spear could be wood, very simple to make but not as reliable or as deadly as an Iron spear. The extra cost of the weapon would be demonstrated by the improved stats for the weapon.

Different characters with in each group will also be able to increase weapons and armour both through the cost or reliability. Though the character will have an elevated cost to show this.

The Game:

The game will be for two or more players, each player will select the army of their choice using the models they have collected to represent each force on the table top.
The army’s will then play through a scenario or just play a straight up battle.
Scenarios in the book will lay out ideas for how the game area should look, along with special rules for the battle and the rules of combat. The game will be played over a number of turns and actions will be taken through each turn, the results of which will be determined by the use of dice and tables with in the rule book.

This is a medium sized war game, using units of troops. To show a part of a larger battle.
Though scenarios will be played it is also a thought to put in some “Historical” battles for gamers to be able to get their own teeth into and to allow expansion of the story lead narrative for the world to continue to expand.

This is a battle game heavily narrative lead with extensive backgrounds for each tribe and character driven game play. It has less of a role play feel than some of the games that are to be written, allowing for a faster set up and shorter debrief at the end.

The Models:
These should be customisable but as rank and file troops are the main choice of model then they should also have uniformity to them.
Weapons and armour should be clearly different depending on the material it is produced from and this should also be noticeable on the models.
The scales should as written in the species section should try to stand, a Werewolf should look intimidating to a human as should a troll, and to a Zwerc they should clearly be massive in size.
Monsters though more powerful than humans will also be more expensive in points terms, meaning less monsters on the table than the smaller Zwercs, Hudra or Humans. Vampires on the other hand vary greatly and there statistics and models should show this.

The Rule book should hold all the information for the Game and the basics of each tribe. Each tribe though will also have an expanded “tribe” book, advancing them in the terms of troop choice armour, weapons and background history and some advanced history from the game starting. Though the rules they gain or abilities they are allowed should never alter from the original rule book.

This game has a start and an end. As such it is fairly stagnant and will never evolve past a certain point. Though models will improve and story and history will expand.

(Designers Note) The End: The Deity returned to see what his experiment had lead to; he was horrified to discover what had happened to his world. Broken Guardians, Twisted Humans, Abominations running free, in a fit of rage he withdrew all the guardians and shattered the Island, sat and began to fix the mess that had been created. Maybe a Garden would be nice?