I am planning a Sellswords and Spellslingers mini campaign, inspired by the brilliant (and weird) Boglanders created by Curtis at Ramshackle Games link
I picked up the entire range as a Kickstarter and have used some of them in different games but I thought that they deserved a setting of their very own. I'll be using some models from other manufacturers for things not covered in the Ramshackle Games range, like giants, trolls etc, but for the most part I will be using Curtis' lovely little weirdoes.
Here is the background setting I'll be giving the players (some of it lifted from Curtis' booklet of the Boglanders).
Bogland is a strange place. A kind of low magic and the pitifully mundane are blended in the mud and grime of the bog. Some small part of Bogland exists across the planes, mostly in the land of the mortal, but a tiny part in the province of the fey, in fairyland. So, the people of Bogland too are some part of the realm of magic, yet most part mortal, and of the filth of their country.
Ruled by Bortrand, eighth of his name, and Nigle, the second of his name, the two kings who wear the crown simultaneously encompasses both the Bringer of Peace and Bringer of War. This makes the kingdom unpredictable, sometimes welcoming visitors and at other times shunning outsiders with lethal force. The King's faction, the Reds, try to follow his erratic orders but often struggle.
This unpredictability is not helped by the consort, Queen Vulpia the Cunning, The Great and Knowledgeable, She Who Reads, Patron of Bogland University.
Queen Vulpia the Cunning, who is wise and benevolent, has
ruled for many years. She is part of the were-folk—part human, part animal—and
leads her faction, the Blues. Though they are arrogant and insular, Vulpia
strives to teach them honour and care for others.
Most Boglanders worship Sunface, Ruler of the Sky, the Bright Sun, creator of the world and of life, and Jenny of the Bog, the god of renewal and of plants, and of building, and protector of children, and the god of the dead to whom she grants a second life. The bogs of Bogland are revered by the inhabitants as sacred places. The bog is the source of food, of water, of the valuable peat that is burned and, also the place where the dead are buried. Jenny of the Bog judges the dead who are interred within the bog. If she decides they still have work left to do, then she will send their souls back to the land of the living.
Despised and feared by the more powerful states that surround it, Bogland would have been long ago wiped from existence, if it was not for the nature and difficulty of the terrain. Warlords have led armies of men, dwarves and orcs into the mists of Bogland, only to see the cream of their warriors drown in the marshes or be picked off one by one in ambush. Now the neighbouring princes try to pretend that Bogland does not exit, whilst mounting guards on their borders to fend of raiding parties from the misty bogs.
But in recent years, disturbances in the Northern Mountains have led to giants, trolls and all manner of monsters to descend into Bogland and plague the inhabitants. They desecrated the shrines, destroyed the pitiful farms and devoured the livestock (and often the farmers too). Worst of all they stole the necklace of Jenny of the Bog from her shrine. This necklace, which seems a mere bauble to the viewer, is a source of powerful magic that protected the Bogland. The necklace has been torn apart and the pieces carried off by the raiders.
King Bortrand and Nigle has offered a reward for any hero that could find the pieces and reunite the necklace. Many have sought the prize only to be crushed by giants or eaten by trolls, and on more than one occasion, executed by the Bolanders when Nigle, Bringer of War, achieved dominance over Bortrand.