Gadora
2009-02-13, 09:48 PM
First of all, I guess I'd best be listing the books that I have available.
I have the three core rulebooks (3.5), Savage Species, Player's Handbook II, Heroes of Horror, the Dragon Compendium, Arms and Equipment Guide, Races of {Destiny, the Dragon, the Wild}, Sword and Fist, Tome and Blood, and Defenders of the Faith. I also have Libris Mortis and Cityscape on the way from eBay. I want to keep things somewhat close to base D&D, because of the three of us, I've played a PC only at conventions, and previously DMed two sessions at the local library (bit of a story, that), the second person has played D&D once, and the third hasn't played since (I think) the Eighties.
Anywho, what I've got so far is pretty bare bones in my opinion, but I'm running with city-states (governments undecided, leaning towards plutocracies) and dangerous wilderness. Each city is surrounded by farmland, and is protected by a dragon. The dragon lairs just outside, if not in, the city, and is given wealth to add to its hoard in the form of a "dragon tax" on all goods and services within the city's lands. Travel is mostly accomplished by the airships found in the Arms and Equipment Guide.
I am not yet sure what populates the wilderness, but I like the idea of dinosaurs, dire animals and immobile monstrous plants more than my idea of "things with the Create Spawn ability." I want the wilderness to be dangerous so that I have a way to naturally contain the PCs within the cities until mid-high levels when I should hopefully be comfortable with overland travel.
It looks I've got a total of three weeks before we start up a campaign and I'm somewhat stuck as to where to go from here. Could people help me flesh this out a bit more? Maybe help me decide on what is out past the farms? As to the campaign itself, I've got a BBEG (I'm modifying the dragon from this module (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20040227a)), a way to bring the party together that avoids taverns, and a few ideas for the later levels, but, at least until Cityscape arrives, I'm stuck for ideas as to adventures at levels 2-4.
Edit from 2/17:
When I was compiling my list of which dragons are most likely to serve as Protectors (note the imaginative title they've been given), I noticed that the only one that has forests listed as its environment, was the green dragon. Since cities, in this setting, that lack dragon guardians are unheard of, I began to play with the idea of elves being evil, thus justifying the fact that they are guarded by evil dragons. When I mention this idea to one of players, he became quite opposed to the idea that they would not be evil. After running this past my other player, I found that he has no particular fondness for elves, and that he could go either way on this.
So, to sum up, elves are now evil, probably LE.
I have the three core rulebooks (3.5), Savage Species, Player's Handbook II, Heroes of Horror, the Dragon Compendium, Arms and Equipment Guide, Races of {Destiny, the Dragon, the Wild}, Sword and Fist, Tome and Blood, and Defenders of the Faith. I also have Libris Mortis and Cityscape on the way from eBay. I want to keep things somewhat close to base D&D, because of the three of us, I've played a PC only at conventions, and previously DMed two sessions at the local library (bit of a story, that), the second person has played D&D once, and the third hasn't played since (I think) the Eighties.
Anywho, what I've got so far is pretty bare bones in my opinion, but I'm running with city-states (governments undecided, leaning towards plutocracies) and dangerous wilderness. Each city is surrounded by farmland, and is protected by a dragon. The dragon lairs just outside, if not in, the city, and is given wealth to add to its hoard in the form of a "dragon tax" on all goods and services within the city's lands. Travel is mostly accomplished by the airships found in the Arms and Equipment Guide.
I am not yet sure what populates the wilderness, but I like the idea of dinosaurs, dire animals and immobile monstrous plants more than my idea of "things with the Create Spawn ability." I want the wilderness to be dangerous so that I have a way to naturally contain the PCs within the cities until mid-high levels when I should hopefully be comfortable with overland travel.
It looks I've got a total of three weeks before we start up a campaign and I'm somewhat stuck as to where to go from here. Could people help me flesh this out a bit more? Maybe help me decide on what is out past the farms? As to the campaign itself, I've got a BBEG (I'm modifying the dragon from this module (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20040227a)), a way to bring the party together that avoids taverns, and a few ideas for the later levels, but, at least until Cityscape arrives, I'm stuck for ideas as to adventures at levels 2-4.
Edit from 2/17:
When I was compiling my list of which dragons are most likely to serve as Protectors (note the imaginative title they've been given), I noticed that the only one that has forests listed as its environment, was the green dragon. Since cities, in this setting, that lack dragon guardians are unheard of, I began to play with the idea of elves being evil, thus justifying the fact that they are guarded by evil dragons. When I mention this idea to one of players, he became quite opposed to the idea that they would not be evil. After running this past my other player, I found that he has no particular fondness for elves, and that he could go either way on this.
So, to sum up, elves are now evil, probably LE.