How Interesting Is This Setting?

[imp_fireball]

This thread is a rating system. People post their homebrewed settings and others rate them on a variety of factors that they determine, which can be anything, including:

A. Simply interesting.

B. Novel material.

C. Would GM.

D. Would love to have a PC live in.

Rating is 1 - 10 or dirt poor - awesomely amazing.
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To start things off, here's my setting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112461) (view the OP and setting details for the actual girth of it).

Warning: Posted settings will likely involve a lot to read, so you should probably only rate if you have a lot of time. To avoid scrolling through too much text, settings should either be spoilered or linked (or both).

You are also free to comment and not rate at all.

[arguskos]

imp. fireball, here's my rating of your setting:
A. Simply interesting.
6/10. I like the idea, but it's not my cup of tea.
B. Novel material.
I assume for a book? If you got a good writer, 9/10. I'm thick, you meant unique! Well, it's pretty unique, so I'm a fan. 9/10 anyways!
C. Would GM.
1/10. I would not DM for it, since it's not something I enjoy enough to run and I couldn't do it justice.
D. Would love to have a PC live in.
6/10. I'd try it once. I might keep going, circumstances permitting.


My Setting, HIGHLY incomplete.

Working Title: Zaaman-Rul, the Twilight World

Genre: Exploration/Xenophobia/Struggle
Thematic Priorities: Grit/Xenophobia/Struggle
Magic Level: Medium to High (there aren't Wizards, but full casters do exist)
Tech Level: Low at best (one race has magipunk-like technology, but most people keep to magic and tried-and-true methods)
Psionic Level: None
PC Races: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Dragonkin (custom), Illithid (custom), Goblinoid (goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear, kobold, all custom), Orog (custom)
Human Percentage: 35%
Primary Antagonists: Magitech machines, Xenophobia
Geography: Complex. The world is a one-face world, since the other half was blasted into space by the moon colliding with it. Now, the planet is slowly dying, as the magic that sustains is begins to fail and the effects of the global dust shroud from the moon impact begin to be felt on a wider level.
Primary Religion: None. Each race has their own god(s) as they see fit.
Cosmology: The other planets in the Zaaman-Rul system are well known via magical sensor, though they have never been visited. Beyond that, nothing is known about the exterior of the dust shroud. A Zaaman-Rulian human knows nothing of the stars.
Politics: Humanity has a sprawling empire that conflicts with the goblinoid tribes to the south in a never-ending war of genocide. The Illithids have a trade empire in the east, while the elves practice a policy of isolationism. The dwarves live deep underground and are feral and savage. Dragonkin are the magically created humanoid spawn of the true dragons, who have no interest in the affairs of mortalkind and made the dragonkin to speak to mortals for them. Finally, the orogs are the remnants of the recent world-spanning war that the above races united to defeat. Though beaten, the orogs were granted the right to live, but not much more than that.
Advanced Classes: I've altered the base classes significantly. I've also added 5, and plan to add a good number more, including one for each race that is unique to them. Prestige classes are on a case-by-case basis at the moment.

I'm taking criticisms, though make them constructive. Keep in mind that my main source material is Warhammer 40k for the feel of this, since I like that sort of desperate, dark, grim gritty feeling.

[lesser_minion]

I tend to use the same setting for every single one of my games, so I'll see if I can compile and post it at some point during vacation.

As for your setting:

Simply Interesting: I quite like magic/technology working together, and the idea of struggling against extinction intrigues me. I'll give this an 8/10

Novel Material: I'll give this a 9/10. The idea of playing exclusively as orcs and goblins is pretty interesting, and overall the setting seems pretty cool. It could potentially make an interesting book.

Would DM: I tend to stick to my own setting, but I'd consider it if I wanted to try something new. 7/10

Would like to play: I'd say somewhere around 7/10.

[Lappy9000]

Imp_Fireball:Simply Interesting: Nothing of ground-breaking interest, although it's hardly standard fantasy fare: 7/10.

Novel Material: Also fairly average, hardly boring, but not super interesting: 8/10.

Would DM: Of course: 9/10.

Would like to play: I wouldn't mind playing it: 8/10.

Arguskos:Simply Interesting: Xenophobia, magitech, and a dying planet fueled by magic with godlike dragons. Sign me up: 10/10.

Novel Material: Pretty good, but it's so hard to tell from such tiny write-ups: 8/10.

Would DM: It's just a personal thing that I'm not good at doing dark or gritty. It's like Eberron; love to play it, not love to DM it: 7/10.

Would like to play: Hecks yes: 9/10.

[afroakuma]

Should I post my setting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96183) here, or is that cheating? :smallamused:

[Otomodachi]

Arguskos:



Simply interest: OK, all the pros and cons of your admitted GRIMDARKtm inspiration aside- half-a-planet dying a choking death as it eventually spirals into a star is just great. 8/10

Novel Material: Well, other than that awesome image I have seen most of it before, but nothing's new anymore... and there's a lot of homebrew, you say, and it's got sci-fi in D&D so 7/10

Would I GM it: Probably not, for one thing I hate using other people's homebrew about 75 percent of the time. 4/10

Would I play it: Hell yes, I love WH40k, all I wanna know is can I be tau. ;) 9/10

[Juhn]

afro: Considering there's nearly 150 pages of reading people would have to do to get as much disclosure as the rest of your audience?

[afroakuma]

afro: Considering there's nearly 150 pages of reading people would have to do to get as much disclosure as the rest of your audience?

Hehehehehehe.

[Serpentine]

B. Novel material.Wait... I interpreted this as being novel= OH MY GOD THERE'S A CARTOON ON AT 3.50AM THAT I REMEMBER SEEING YEARS AGO *ahem* as novel referring to "new" or "original". Sounds like that's not right?

[afroakuma]

That's kind of what I thought, too...

[arguskos]

afro, your setting:
A, B, C, D: Stop cheating and get back to work! :smalltongue: 13/10.

Lappy and Otomodachi, thanks for the encouraging words! I'm working on the setting now, and though it isn't very complete, it's a good ways in. I've been bogged down for a great while now with life, but I'm getting back around to it. :smallwink:

[Lappy9000]

I've been bogged down for a great while now with life, but I'm getting back around to it. :smallwink:You'd better :smallamused:

[arguskos]

You'd better :smallamused:
Well, if you're interested, I tend to base my work out of my private site for homebrewing. You can find it through my sig and comment, should you wish to. :smallwink:

[Vadin]

Anyone care to rate my setting NeoRome (http://docs.google.com/View?id=dghcgxgd_47cr8qdjgs)?

[Thajocoth]

imp_fireball -
A. Simply interesting. 8/10 - I really like that the focus is not on humans and their buddies like most campaigns are, but is still open enough to allow for just as wide a range of players. Redcloak would certainly be happy to see it.

B. Novel material. 9/10 - It's novel to the best of my knowledge... And there's a lot of detail.

C. Would GM. 1/10 - Firstly, I'm not really a 3.x player... And secondly, if I were to GM something like this, I'd open it to more creatures normally considered evil in most campaigns.

D. Would love to have a PC live in. 4/10 - 3.x isn't my thing, but an adapted version might be fun.

arguskos -
A. Simply interesting. 6/10 - It's a little depressing for my tastes, but I can see how a lot of interesting things can be done with it.

B. Novel material. 3/10 - Really, any description that short is going to be similar with lots else, but you've already said you're still working on it. With more detail, it could be the newest stuff I've ever seen.

C. Would GM. 1/10 - A doomed world is a bit depressing for me...

D. Would love to have a PC live in. 1/10 - It's still a bit too depressing for me...

Vadin -
A. Simply interesting. 3/10 - I'm not really a history buff, and I find humans incredibly boring to play, especially without magic.

B. Novel material. 5/10 - I've seen quite a few "Such and such empire never fell" stories. An episode of Sliders inwhich ancient Egypt ruled the world is the first thing that comes to my mind, but I've seen a lot of others. However, these stories don't usually bring in fantasy elements like trolls or basilisks.

C. Would GM. 1/10 - It's not really the sort of game I'd play.

D. Would love to have a PC live in. 1/10 - Not really what I'd play.

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My campaign setting can be found here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114648

As my first campaign setting, I'm curious as to how poorly I made it and how I could improve for future settings.

[DracoDei]

Well, this isn't a full setting, but I think it is interesting and complex enough to include in this thread none-the-less...
Tell me what you think of the alignment-locked version of Were-world (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/printthread.php?t=88923). (Unfortunately you kinda have to read most or all of the thread to get the idea since we built as we went and didn't put everything into the first post).

EDIT: Managed to put a little bit more of the stuff from latter posts into the first one... other stuff would be too hard to insert easily.

[arguskos]

Vadin:
A: Simply Interesting - 5/10. Alternate histories are pretty neat, but I've seen a "Rome never fell" more than a few times before. Well executed, but not my thing.

B: Novel Material - 2/10. It's a commonly explored concept. Like I said, well executed, but it's been done before.

C: Would GM - 1/10. Nope, I like high fantasy.

D: Would play - 6/10. I'd give it a shot, just to see what it turns out to be like.

Thajocoth:
Sorry it wasn't to your liking. I understand it's not everyone's thing, but thanks for the feedback in any case. :smallsmile:

[Owrtho]

Well, I recently remembered this setting I came up with fluff for a while ago and started thinking about trying to make make rules for it for D&D. Haven't made any crunch yet, but I know it would be more modern, slightly on the sci-fi, side, no magic, and only humans as a race (but given how the setting is thats not much of a constraint). That said, here's the fluff I'd made:


Setting name: Degradation

General Back story:

It all began with the year 0AP, the start of the so called Age of Progress. So called because of the multiple scientific breakthroughs. It was started by a little known scientist named Carrel Simons. He invented a device capable of scanning a person’s body & converting their entire makeup into digital data. The idea had been to use these human blueprints to determine problems before starting the surgery. However, it wasn’t long before the potential of such a device was found. That same year the first functioning teleportation device was built. It would scan someone on one side, then transmit the data to the other side where a vast store of organic compounds were kept and used to reconstruct the object teleported using the blueprints. The original object was destroyed and the compounds in them added to the stores of that sides TD. It was a nearly instant process. Soon they were being installed everywhere.
It wasn’t long however before the technology started being hacked into. Now not only was it possible to use TDs for quick transport, but for a reasonable price, you could buy a device on the black market to store someone’s blueprints so that if an accident occurred you could simply have he TD rebuild them for you. This form of cloning in turn led to more spin-offs. Soon it was possible to get small devises (known as body jammers or BJs) that would partially jam the scanner and allow you to change your hair color, or your eye color, or other similar features of your body. And of a more perverted nature, instant companions. When used it would cause the TD to create a companion to do whatever they desired. It was in these that the degradation was first made. The degradation is what it came to be called when the blueprints were altered in such a way that after a specified amount of time the body would begin to decay and fall apart. It was first made so that those that made companions would not loose customers after a single purchase. All it took was for the companion jammer (CJ) to have a small self destruct feature that activated upon use, & the companions to have the degradation, and the customers would have to keep buying new ones.
Another important event was the coming into being of splicers. Splicers used a device that was similar to a BJ, but much more sophisticated. The device, known as a splice jammer or SJ, operated on the same concept as the BJ, but instead of small changes such as eye color, it would cause drastic changes such as giving wings or changing limbs. Though it took some difficulty creating new functioning body blueprints, it soon came to be that many black market vendors would specialize in it and splicers were soon moving around with the only human part left being their brain. The brain was the only thing that couldn’t be tampered with and still leave the person with their personality and memory. Not that people didn’t make things to modify it as well. It was only illegal to be found with a jammer on you, otherwise too many people would need to be arrested.
It is now the year 247AP. The moon, Mars, and Venus have been colonized through the use TDs, and a new form of the degradation has come into existence. It is not known where it originated, but this new form acts like a virus, both organic and digital, which has given it the name the viral degradation. Though it is not contagious by any form of contact, when an infected person enters a TD, it is somehow able to infect the TD, so that anyone who uses that TD will be infected as well. It has a 6 hour time limit before it causes them to degrade, and unless they manage to teleport through a TD that is not infected, which will reset it, before that time is up, they will degrade and die. The government, which is now universal, seems to be turning a blind eye toward this. When they do take notice, it is only to say it is likely the work of some hacker who they will attempt to track down and it is likely to soon go away. Thus the problem has progressed for three years.
Fortunately an illegal black market device has been invented that, while expensive, is able to clean someone of the viral degradation when used. This device has come to be known as a VDI and can unfortunately only be used once after which it stops working. One thing to note however is that the use of any of the various jamming devices will prevent the degradation in body parts that are modified by it. This causes an interesting effect in full body splicers as only their brain will degrade if they freshly splice. This causes them to become like zombies and berserk attacking anything in range until they are killed. Many SJs have also since added a feature that, though unable to cleanse the splicer of the viral degradation, will when used reset them to 6 hours even if they use an infected TD. Also by the same mysterious inventor of the VDI is TDC or teleportation Device cleanser. When used on an infected TD it remove the infection from it, though it takes about five minutes to do so (it fortunately is automatic once activated & requires no manual operation).


Technology list (and other terms):

TD – teleportation device – term used to refer to a device that seemingly instantly moves a person from one location to another. It does so by scanning a person’s body and creating digital blueprints of them. These are then sent to another teleportation device which constructs the body there. The original body is destroyed after being scanned. These TDs are not mobile, but are cylindrical chambers about two meters in diameter and of average ceiling height though some are four meters in diameter and 6 meters in height (these are usually black market ones used for large splicing). Beneath main chamber in which a person stands in, is a large tank about 8 meters in diameter and 8 meters in height. These store the materials used for constructing the bodies of people teleporting to the TD (they are also where the material of the destroyed body is put so that it can be reused). Since its invention numerous devices have been made to hack it and modify the digital blueprints.

DBP – digital blueprint – term used to refer to the blueprints made by a TD when it scans a person. Various illegal systems have been made that allow fake DBPs to be made. These can then be fed into a TD which will cause it to create whatever they are.

BJ – body jammer – a device that partially jams a TD’s scanner and instead feeds it incorrect DBPs for the part it is blocking. These have minor effects, usually cosmetic, such as changing eye or hair color and are not illegal.

SJ – splice jammer – these are much more sophisticated BJs that will drastically alter portions of the body or even the entire body. These are illegal.

CJ – companion jammer – these cause a TD to read another person as being in it by giving it false DBPs. These cause the end TD to create another person (or whatever the DBPs are for). Thy usually have a degradation in their DBP and will also usually self destruct after use. They are mainly designed for perverted reasons but have also been made for such purposes as instant pets or temporary body guards or servants. Most are illegal but there are some legal ones in pet stores or agencies that hire out work.

MSJ – Modified splice jammer – a SJ that has been modified to carry multiple DBP that can be selected by the user. Often times it has the ability to download more DBPs (some even from other SJ or MSJs).

Degradation – the common term for an effect that can be placed on DBPs that will cause the object made by a TD using them to be unstable and as such after a given period of time it will start degrading and, if it is living die.

Viral degradation – the term used to refer to a new form of degradation that infects TD’s and causes it to be applied to anything using that TD. A TD becomes infected by an infected object using it. It has a 6 hour time limit on it before the object degrades. This limit can be reset by using a TD that is not infected or by using SJs with a special addition to the DBP designed to reset the time limit. The use of jammers when using an infected TD (or if you are already infected), will prevent (or remove), the infection from the part of the body it modifies. Its origins are unknown, and the government seems to be doing nothing to prevent it.

Splicer – the slang term used to refer to a person you uses SJs (and occasionally used toward people who use a lot of BJs) to change their body. Though splicing is illegal, it is only punishable if someone is found carrying a SJ. Many splicers carry MSJs that carry DBPs for multiple forms allowing them to change their appearance easily. Such splicers also often have their regular human DBP in their SJ as well.

FBS – full body splicer - This is used to refer to a splicer to not only changes a part of their body, but the entire thing except for their brain (some even change that). Almost all of them carry MSJs & likewise almost all have their regular human DBPs in it. If a FBS is infected by the viral degradation and has used their SJ (or MSJ) when they last teleported, only their brain will degrade. When it degrades, instead of dying, they will often become like zombies and attack anyone around them.

VDI – viral degradation immunizer – despite its name, it does not immunize one to the viral degradation, but instead only cures them if they are already infected. It is an illegal item only available on the black market. Its inventor is unknown. For some reason all VDIs stop working after a single use. Despite its illegality, people are usually only punished for being caught buying or selling them and it is not uncommon for police to use them as well.

TDC – teleportation device cleanser – Another invention of the same mysterious maker of the VDI, this device can be used to remove the viral degradation from an infected TD. Like the VDI, each TDC can only be used once. A TDC takes 5 minutes to cleanse an infected TD.

Owrtho