History of The PBM game Loremasters of Corlean
The Campaign world first saw the light of day many years ago (1985 ish) when I decided to become self employed. As Play By Mail roleplaying was quite popular at the time and a hobby I enjoyed I decided to have a go. So I designed a world from scratch and a roleplaying system and the rest is history.At it's height Lorematers of Corlean had 50 or so paying customers/players and good reviews in two national roleplaying magazines.
So Corlean would not lie down and die (even though I destroyed it pretty spectacularly at the end of the campaign, a god of Volcanoes getting annoyed usually does it for your average planetoid). It came back as firstly an AD&D campaign and then a WHFRP campaign. And now this. Well what started off as a drunken idea in a pub while staring blearily into another beer has become a little bit of an obsession. I hope you all enjoy it. I was often asked if Corlean was based on this novel or that novel. The largest influence was from Hugh Cooks novel Wizards and Warriors but there are many others. I hope it has some originality.
The world of Loremasters of Corlean
The game is set on the continent of Genhanok, which is situated on the world of Corlean. Genhanok is divided into three main countries. They are; Dakria to the North a cool temperate country whose northen edges brush the polar area, Melchelan, which is south of Dakria and becomes sub tropical to the south and finally Atula (Pron. At-oo-la) which is mainly a desert country with some tropical rainforests. There are other islands and countries primarily Yarvan and the islands called "the Spines"to the north of Genhanok, Lucorsk a large landmass to the east and the islands of Nars and Sarul to the south of Atula. This is the known world as far as your character is concerned.In terms of technology Genhanok is roughly equivalent to Europe in the 1500's although it must be remembered Corlean is a fantasy world and so not everything works exactly the same. So it would be useless to compare Corlean to our own world in any way other than it has a Sun a moon (well three actually) and some of the plants and animals look similar. The best way to experience Corlean is to suspend disbelief and adventure there, and that is the purpose of this handbook.
A word of warning. Corlean is a bloody, vicious place and your characters when they begin are going to be relatively weak. So either play nicely or develop a relaxed attitude to Character mortality.
