ORIGINS OF GAMANDRIA

 I found this map the other day. It is the original hand map I made of southern Gamandria (couldn't find the northern portion), which was the basis of the hex maps in the Sertorius rulebook. 

As you can see, resources played a big role in figuring out the overall sense of the world. I love historical atlases, and especially love when they provide details like natural resources, trade routes, etc. I wanted resources and trade to be important. 

Gamandria was based on a lot of different things. The ancient setting, the pre-sertori era, was based on Thai history and culture (which carried forward with the elves and ogres). While the present day era of Gamandria was largely based on classical and late antiquity. A lot of the big ideas were already formed before I sat down to make the map. One of the big ones was the language groups and the people who spoke them. I charted out their development over a rough sketch of the continent over time periods, to get a sense of what the language landscape would be in the present. You can see this in the names on the map.  

Everything in Gamandria was kind of a thought experiment. I tried to think through all the implications of the cosmology and the way magic worked, the history and let the logical conclusion be the results. 

When we sat down to work on Sertorius, we gave ourselves 2 years. There was actually plenty of discussion and material leading up to that (at least since 2010 between me and Bill (with some of the content even going back to things I had fiddled with in 2007 in personal campaigns). But for the most part the things we settled on keeping were the gems, and everything else got junked. So when we got together with Dan Orcutt to design the game, we settled on a two year period to write it. This was the start of a big change, where we began focusing on releasing books less frequently so we could spend more time working on them. 

When we first established the concept of Sertori, they were really more like glass cannons. They had powerful magic but we didn't imagine them being physically powerful. This changed for a few reasons. I think Bill was always a little skeptical of the glass cannon idea (I remember him saying how can we describe them as powerful if their bodies are so weak). If I recall, Dan raised the initial objections to this concept in the meetings that ultimately led to reworking. Because Sertori were essentially magic wielder's whose magic came from divine energy inside them, it actually made sense that their bodies would be more powerful than a normal mortal's. We also decided to truly focus on Sertori as the only viable character type. You can play Ogres or Mortals, but those have caveats and are not the expectation. Initially our plan was to do a more classic fantasy set-up with wizards, warriors, etc. However the Sertori were so exceptional and powerful, it became clear the setting would revolve around them. A Sertori being present in a city for instance, had big implications. 

Everything in the setting largely became about how the cultures responded to the presence of Sertori, and how Sertori responded to one another. In most places, some kind of order or tradition would arise to at least mitigate their ability to destroy and control. In some places, where the conditions were right, they would be persecuted (but this required a lot of thought because the idea that people this powerful could be so easily hunted down, required explanation). 

One of the big developments in the design of Sertorius was the Followers system. Once it was clear how significant the divinity of the Sertori was, the possibility of them becoming minor gods was obvious as well. So we devised a followers system that, in my opinion at least, is quite solid. Creating systems like this is tricky. One big issue is they can deviate from what is actually happening on the ground in the game. I ran into this with the crime system in Crime Network (which is why it went through a number of revisions over the years). Here I feel like we managed to make a system that didn't fight the details of campaign. It fit in easily with what was occurring in the game world as the characters interacted with it. 

A major influence on the way we approached followers was the movie Agora. I cannot understate how influential this movie was in general. I love movies set in the ancient world and in late antiquity. Rome is a particular interest of mine. But Agora stands out. There are a handful of movies and media that rise to that level for me. The original Spartacus, I Claudius, and Agora remain my favorites in this genre. 

Agora, with its depiction of early Christianity and religious conflict in Alexandria during Roman rule, helped set the tone for religious movements surrounding Sertori. If you have never seen Agora, I highly, highly recommend it. It is about Hypatia of Alexandria, a philosopher, who was brutality murdered by a Christian mob (the film downplays the violence of her death). It perfectly balances being a movie about characters and their interpersonal drama and the forces that take over their lives. It works on both the large and small scale. 

Agora helped give a foundation for the kinds of conflict Sertori cults could produce (even for the Sertori who are leading them). 

I have only gone back to Sertorius indirectly since we release Beneath the Banshee Tree. When Bill died, I don't think me or Dan really wanted to do much in the setting. I ran a campaign after he died (effectively taking over the play group he was running) and it was a very, very dark series of adventures. After that, it never really felt comfortable working on it further. So all of our returns to the martial have been using it as a source for other settings. Ogre Gate originates with an event that occurs in Gamandria for example. And I am working on another project that has a similar genesis. 

I will try to post a part II to this in the near future.