A game for The Black Road
Some fair "warnings": The game is intended to be a classic Everway scenario; i.e. it has nothing to do with Amber. There is also a random mechanic in the game (the Fortune Deck), even if I tend to use the cards mostly as inspiration.
This page will hopefully be updated with some information regarding the rules and setting used in the game. (To be honest I decided to run the game so close to the game submission deadline that I haven't decided if I need a website for the game yet.)
Direct all sorts of questions regarding the game to olof.dahl@telia.com.
The setting is pretty close to rule-book Everway. I will nontheless try to describe it here in my own words, especially since there are a number of differences between my version of the world and the official one. Most of the session will take place in the realm called Pastoral, described briefly below.
The universe of Everway is built out of thousands of worlds (or spheres), connected by gates. (aka dimension portals) Often one speak of the gates as connecting two realms, rather than two speres. A realm can be a kingdom, a forested region, a group of duchies or any other more or less well-defined, homogenous area on a sphere. Examples of realms are:
Roundwander, containing the city of Everway, see below.
Stone city, a realm consisting of a seemingly endless city of mostly uninhabited ruins
Tales, a real where storytelling is considered as the highest art form.
Pastoral, a newly found realm, see below
A realm can hold one or several gates although no realm holds nearly as many as Roundwander. (With over 80 known gates discovered so far) New gates are found continously, especially in realms far from Everway, where few spherewalkers go. It seems plausible that there are spheres without any working gates, although it has not been proven. There are also speculations that powerful magicians can create new gates or destroy old ones if they have the right tools.
Only a small percentage of all people can travel unaided through a gate; those people are called spherewalkers. (Many of these can also guide "normal" people through. The spherewalkers generally use their ability in one way or the other: as merchants, swindlers or adventurers in general. Many also have other supernatural abilities. All player characters, or heroes, are spherewalkers.
The tongue: In almost all spheres people speak a common language, The Tongue. Other languages, like the language of the dragons, are known, but rare. There are numerous writing systems, though.
Time & the stars: Time flows at the same speed in all spheres, and travelling through a gate takes time (usually a week or two, depending on the gate). How long time the journey through takes can be seen in the position of the moon, sun, stars and planets on the other side; these are common too.
Gods & Godesses are often worshipped in several realms across different spheres. Many of these gods and godesses have been worshipped here on Earth at one time or the other. Normally only gods from one specific pantheon is worshipped in each place (Examples: the Aesir, the Egytpian gods like Anubis Osiris, Isis, etc.) Most people believe in some kind of reincarnation.
The tech level in all known spheres is roughly medieval or more primitive.
Names of places and people are normally ordinary words, that might in one way or the other descirbe the person/place. Only the Gods have "special" names. Examples of persons names (from the pregens to All growing things): Wildfire Crookstaff, Sequoia, the giant and Blacktail Crow.
Everway City is by many considered as the center of the multiverse; with more than 80 gates. The city is bustling with goods, people and creatures from far off realms. Roundwander is ruled by the king of Everway, currently King Horizon Emerald, but much power also sits with the Council, with representatives from seven of the most powerful families in the city. There are no guilds in Everway city, instead different trades are controlled by different families. Examples:
The family Digger are mostly merchants, trading in ore and metal.
Crow are merecenaries, soldiers, guards and some family members compete in the arenas. Crow is one of the seven families in the Council
Emerald is the Royal family.
Crookstaff have a chair in the council, and are known for their arcane knowledge and mysterious ways. Many are magicians.
The family Splash ran the public baths until a few years back, when it was discovered that they use the baths as a cover for criminal activities. they have now fled the city.
The library is an important place in the city of Everway. It has the largest known collection of books. Also it emplys spherewalkers to explore other spheres and bring back knowledge, books and contacts; these spherewalkers are members of Chamber Platinum.
About two years back every known world lived through a few very strange hours. Weird nightmarish creatures appeared, whole villages vanished and the physical laws didn't seem to hold up. It all ended with a terrible earthquake that shook every world. After the earthquake, some gates vanished, other gates led to new places, and some new gates seemingly sprung out of thin air. One of these were the gate leading to Pastoral, from an island outside Everway city.
Pastoral is a newly discovered realm (see above), that can be reached from a two years old gate directly from Roundwander. It consists of an area of fertile farmland, until recently ruled by a king, surrounded by an impenetrable forest. Rather soon after the gate appeared people in Everway realised that Pastoral had the largest known deposit of metoritic iron, a highly valuable substance, and the family Digger soon started a mining business there. Some friction with the local nobility has been reported, as has the existence of a desert-like area surrounding the gate.