Sunday, November 7, 2010

The Dying Earth RPG: Kaiin, The Old Town

Here's a tiny portion of the map of The City of Kaiin, one of the largest cities of The Dying Earth.

This portion of the Kaiin map shows 'old town' -- crumbling ruins which lie north of the city proper, just outside of the city gates. It is the the haunt of Chun the Unavoidable, who wears a robe of eyes. Gary Gygax drew his idea for AD&D's Robe of Eyes from The Dying Earth tale of Liane the Wayfarer and Chun the Unavoidable.

Several of the crumbling structures in Old Town were built to resemble the people who commissioned the buildings.

The Dying Earth RPG's world, regional and city maps are absolutely gorgeous, with lots of visually interesting detail, buildings and ruins. Kaiin itself is ancient city, filled with cynical, obtuse, selfish residents, who are not above swindling, murdering or enslaving naive visitors.

I've been giving some thought to Pat's Red Box Calgary campaign, and would love to use old town as the site for my adventures, since it is largely undeveloped, but its numerous ruined locales suggest mystery and adventure.

4 comments:

migellito said...

That's a great looking map! I've never had a chance to look at the Dying Earth rpg stuff, but I'm more desirous now than ever.

Aaron E. Steele said...

I love painted maps. I found the complete set of maps of The Dying Earth RPG at my FLGS, and the maps are gorgeous.

christian said...

That's a hell of a map. I need to read those novels some day.

Scallop Skulled Skald said...

Gary Gygax drew his idea for AD&D's Robe of Eyes from The Dying Earth tale of Liane the Wayfarer and Chun the Unavoidable.

That's an interesting detail- I'd always assumed that it was inspired by hundred-eyed Argus.

The map is lovely, I really need to find a copy of the game now.