Eire Campaign

The Ficke Adventure GURPS: Lon's House Rules

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This is a campaign that I have been running on-and-off for several years. The first iteration of it was AD&D with my group from GD. A couple of years later started it again with my Beckman gaming group using GURPS. This is the iteration that I will describe here.

Campaign Setting

Eire is a High Fantasy campaign with a lot of magic and a low Tech Level. Society had risen to a near Renaissance level about 300 years ago. Then there was a big war with some foreign power. Over two-thirds of the population died. To end the war the great heros of the time all gathered together and launched a great offensive against the foreign homeland. They never returned, but neither did the invaders. The heros also took most of the great magic and the knowledge of the time with them. The people that were left behind came out of the hills to find so much gone. They were poorer and far fewer. The lost contact with one another and focused on just the farming and what was needed to survive.

After 300 years, the people of Eire have reclaimed many of the keeps that their ancestors had left behind. They are trading and fighting with one another as they always have. The craftsmen are making fine weapons and magic, but the best stuff is still from the lost ancestors. Their world is the land of Eire and nothing exists for them beyond the land they walk.

Society is an early feudal society. The craftsmen are very dependent upon their lords to protect them and arrange the trade of goods with the nobles from others areas. There are no trade guilds, thieves guilds or merchant class. The towns are small and usually right near the castle of the lord that protects them. Everyone in a town pretty much knows everyone else there. Most of the travelling and actual trade is carried out by the nobility. They know each other well. Fostering children with the neighboring nobles is common practice to maintain alliances. Each Baron or local noble is pretty much autonomous; there are no overlords. The High King in Dublin is a hollow title that has been passed down through the years. He is a little wealthier than most because his fief is wealthy, not because he collects any tithe from the rest of the nobility. He does have a court and visiting noble do bring gifts, but again this is more traditional than required; the High King has no real power.

History of Clan Finnbhar

Name	years	notes
parents
Finnbhar MacFergus	256-299	father
Jocolyn	260-299	mother
siblings
Bridget	282-...	married the Captain of the Guard at Donegal
Finnbhar	283-299
Fergus (Pat)	287-...	A druid; the classic image: thick beard, long leather jacket, staff, crow on his shoulder. He is always barking at the dogs and whinnying to the horses.
Meadhbh	288-...	married to Llewellyn, the heir apparent at Castle Llewellyn (south-east of Donegal)
Kieran (Rich)	289-...	An albino bard; human but dresses like an elf.
Conner	293-294
Aiden	297-...
friends
Bruce (Dave)	286-...	Baron Donegal's bastard son fostered out to ? in Loughrea
Devon (Silas)	?-...	a strange pair from near Conwy
Beolach (Oscar)	?-...

The game history centers around the Barony of Donegal, a small barony on the edge of civilization in northwestern Eire.

Baron Donegal had favorite knight, Finnbhar MacFergus, to whom he wanted to bestow the privileges of the landed nobility for the service Finnbhar had done. In 284, Baron Donegal charged Finnbhar MacFergus with rebuilding the port town for the barony. In return the port would be re-named Finnbhar in his honor and Finnbhar (and his descendents) would hold the land rights. By 294, the stone quay was complete. The community numbered almost 50. They had a stone longhouse and several stone outbuildings. But no 'ships'.

On the winter solstice of 299, during a fierce winter storm, Erik the Viking raided Finnbhar. Finnbhar MacFergus, Jocolyn, Finnbhar (Jr.), and most of the townsfolk died in the raid. Jocolyn sent Bridget with the rest of her siblings to run to Donegal through the night. Fergus and Kieran (ages 12 and 10) defended their sister from the raiders and helped the family safely escape to the woods.

The Baron of Donegal (whose name is also Donegal, not a coincidence) has taken the children in and raised them alongside his own. They've had many adventures; however I have only recorded Kieran's in detail

a timeline of recent events leading to a confrontation with Erik the Viking

Character Guidelines

• The existing characters are lower echelon nobles. Your Status is assumed to be "Knight or minor noble". This means "un-landed"; you don't have any income from lands you own. However, Donegal has always been generous, you can use anything in the armory. Then again, this is a small community. There is no plate-mail. If you want "any" magic item, you will have to adventure for it. But then there is a lot of magic out there.
• The communities are small and completely dependent upon the local noble. There is no merchant class; the nobles to the bargaining for the goods produced by their community. There is no "thief" class; the community is small, so no stranger goes unnoticed. And there is no local market for stolen goods, it would be recognized. And travel to the next town is dangerous.
• There are no 'schools' of magic. You must learn from a master which we would have to define. Spell availability is narrow. But there is a lot of magic in Eire. And a lot of magical creatures.
• The Barony of Donegal is a human community. There are dwarves in the far southeast of Eire. One or two my come to Donegal every couple of years. There is a fairly populous elvish region to the south. But they don't visit very often. Which leads us to ...
• Elves - The Elves in Eire fit the classic (Tolkien) image. They live long; they love nature; they love the arts; they are decadent. Which leads me to conclude:
  • they have a very low fertility rate. They like sex but there aren't many of them, so they must not have many kids. Kids would be very protected since they are so rare.
  • they are arrogant. With all those Tolkienesque traits, they really look down their noses at all the other races. They enslave most other races, especially goblins (my substitute for Orcs) because the goblins breed like crazy.
  • They don't really care about the rest of the world; why should they care what the lower life forms are doing?
• Goblins - the local bad guys. A tribal, low-tech culture. Their language defaults to Elvish-2.