What's different with the World of Conclave?
The aim of this site is to fit the World of Conclave and the d20 system of the SRD together as closely as possible, but there are a few fundamental differences between Conclave and the default setting implied by the rules. It is possible to play in the World of Conclave without considering these differences, but it is also simple to convert.
Money
The most common form of money in the Empire of Splendour is the yen. This is a representative coinage made from glass. Trade secrets of the Guild of Glassblowers impart tiny embedded images in each coin, which are tear-shaped with a hole in the tapered end for fitting to a purse string. Denominations of coins are shown by the colour of the glass and the image within. 1 yen = green, 20 yen = red, 100 yen = blue, 200 yen = silver and 1000 yen = gold.
Different nations produce their own yen. The 'standard' is now the Merchants League yen, minted in Llaza. Imperial yen have devalued somewhat but are still common. Smaller nations like Oksa, Nirhamsa and Kronlordan also mint their own yen, but League coins have the strongest economy behind them.
One yen is roughly equivalent in buying power to one copper piece. Across the lands, different goods have different values, and different yen have different buying powers but the simplest method is to convert values as given below.
- 1 copper piece = 1 yen
- 1 silver piece = 10 yen
- 1 gold piece = 100 yen
- 1 platinum piece = 1000 yen
Thus a greatsword, costing 50 gp in the standard rules, costs 50x100= 5000 yen. Costs are given in gp and yen throughout this website.
Alignment
Kalog 'the Knife', a member of the Black River Society criminal cartel runs an establishment where patrons can bet on death matches. He extracts money with menaces, sells drugs to the desperate and deals in slavery. And yet if you cast detect evil on him, he does not register.
Alignment in the World of Conclave is not so concrete as the default setting. Mortals still act with cruelty or kindness, may support freedom or order, but their proclivities are not strong enough to register as a readily discernable thing. By their actions will you know the people of Conclave.
The Immortals, on the other hand, are more strongly tied to the fundamental powers of the universe. A Red Jade Spirit is a spirit that possesses mortals and transforms them into ravening beasts that gain powers through drinking and bathing in blood. A Red Jade spirit might register on a detect evil spell. On Conclave, the dichotomy between Chaos and Concordance (Law) is more important than Good and Evil: there are no specific locations in the cosmos where Good and Evil reside. Not all creatures from the Underwater Darkness World are Evil, and not all members of the Celestial Bureaucracy are Good. There are many shades in between.
This has two ramifications to the rules:
1) Spells and effects that rely on alignment. One recommendation is that these only work on spirits, Immortals, outsiders and the like that have strong alignments - Chaos rather than chaos and Good rather than good, if you like. This limits the use of these spells slightly, but allows greater intrigue. It is a lot harder to find an assassin if you can't check the alignment of everyone in the room!
2) Character classes with alignment requirements. The simplest method is to ignore these. It will be no great game-breaker if you allow lawful bards or non-neutral druids. The trickiest class is the paladin. This is partly a class that does not sit well in the World of Conclave, and in future an alternative may be posted on this site. However, continuing the theme of upper and lower case alignments, a gamesmaster may expect a paladin character to act in a lawful and good fashion (upholding justice, charity and so on) without, in mechanical terms, being Lawful Good. Alternatively, a high level paladin may be such a paragon of these aspects that she becomes classed like the Immortals and spirits.
NPCs on this site have been given an alignment, for greater integration and as a convenient shorthand for their nature. These should not be taken as absolute indicators of morality, however. Generally you will find that the NPCs have little or no alignment-based spells or effects prepared.
(c) 2006 The Creative Conclave.
Contact us.
