Brainstorming

Here's some brainstorming I did over a few days. I've been keeping my notes in Google Docs so I can access them everywhere.

I started off with a high-level view of the setting.

• Larger state composed of smaller states, free cities and a mercantile league that controls cities (like Hanseatic League)
• limited elective monarchy, where a Kaiser is elected by the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) from among the noble houses.
• Currently there is a deadlock in the electoral group and the country is without a Kaiser.
• Kaiser is not all powerful.
• Free states might be feudal principalities (governed by princes) or Free Cities.

At this point, I realized I was starting to make a lot of major decisions about larger aspects of the campaign, and I wanted to start small. I shifted gears and started on the town where the PCs would start.

• Small town, primary export is beer
• hops, barley grown nearby as cash crops, other food crops too
• Hammerstein beer is regionally famous, but not hugely popular.
• Townsfolk of note: braumeister, brewery owner, burgermeister and family, PCs relatives, smith, general store owner, largest two landowners, innkeep, priest of primary temple
• Establishments: temple to agricultural god, inn (doubles as town hall), brewery, smith, general store, 2 large farms, many small farms, mayor's home, brewery owner's home
• mayor is hereditary role in this town
• near the foot of the mountains, with farms spreading out away from them
• main road leads east towards a larger city.
• Near the edge of the Empire, but not in a particularly hostile area.

That's a little better.

A few days later, I was back to some high-level overviews. I had this stuff kicking around in my head and I needed to get it out. I also need some of this stuff sketched out, but I want to make sure I don't get down into the smaller nitty-gritty details of say, the personalities of politicians in the Hanseatic League equivalent.

• Hanseatic league = merchant guild of wizards and alchemists, with political control over several cities. (Needed to work in more magic - I don't want this to be a historical game.) The wizards use divination and magic to control trade ("futures" is sometimes quite literal - they know where to be to make a profit). I want a good name for them. Leauge, trust, syndicate, cartel. Maybe "brotherhood of diviners and braziers" shortened to Braziers, altered to the Brazen for their business techniques. The Brazen (symbolized by two brass orbs), are the dominant mercantile power in the north. They control a few free cities and have immense influence in some others.
• The other main mercantile power is a group of Knights that follow a god of commerce and trade. They started out as a group escorting caravans, and eventually started running the caravans too. Now they provide protection for travelers all over the empire and even to surrounding areas, but only for a price. Their warriors are considered one of the finest fighting forces in the empire. Priests and monks handle the trade and actually run the order. The order is very rich. The only reason previous emperors have allowed them to continue is because their vows require them to take no direct part in the governing of a state, kingdom or other political body. However, that doesn't stop the Knights from influencing politicians...
• The symbol of the Empire is the double-eagle (same as the Holy Roman Empire), but it will be referred to as the double-raven (doppelraben).
• In Hammerstein, there is a temple to the god of trade and a representative of the knights. He's a former caravan guard, and mean but fair. He holds official weights and measures used in business, to insure fairness. He employs an acolyte to record business transactions.

I've found that if I write down my ideas, they get out of my head and are now permanent on (e-)paper. That's good in that I can move on and think of other things, but it's also bad because I stop thinking about it. It derails my though processes, so I need to find a way to get it started again.