Share your campaign setting!

[Ozreth]

So I'm getting ready to create my first campaign setting from the outside in, but need some inspiration. Anybody have a campaign setting of their own published on the net (google docs or something)?

Not trying to steal anything, just want to look over peoples work and see the creative ways everybody lays things out etc.

Also, I came across a web site awhile ago that is used like a d&d wiki/campaign creator thing, looked very helpful but I cant find it anymore. Any ideas?

Thanks : )

[Volthawk]

Here you go, here's mine, or at least, the bare bones. I tend to make up the rest as I go:
"Nobody really knows when it happened. Or why. Not even the gods themselves. One day, the whole planar system went south.Planes starting colliding, new planes appearing out of nowhere, the whole multiverse becoming unstable... Weird stuff happened, to say the least. Epic battles between angels and demons, vestiges breaking into the world from their imprisonment... But somehow, things survived. Dwarves and Kobolds dug down, and resisted some twisted Earth creatures. Elves retreated to the forests, and tried to fight off the corruption and mutations spreading across the multiverse. Humans fortified themselves in huge cities, holding out. Now, however, it's started to die down. Many have died, but some still survive. Trade has been re-established, the planar movement means, with the right magic and rituals (and some extraplanar help), people can walk from plane to plane. Some aim to profit, and mercenary companies have sprung up. War and chaos still reigns, but in contrast, there is still Good and Law. The bounaries between planes are still strong, despite them all bordering now, but they are starting to influence each other. Demons are now not always Evil, and angels Good. New planes have sprung up. Gods, Demons, Devils, Elder Evils, Vestiges... They all are around, and most have a way of crossing planes. People have already started to call it the Disruption, and it's only been a week! All in all, this is the dawn of a new age, but will it be a bright age? I don't know..."

[Mushroom Ninja]

I've not nailed down many specifics, but for a while now I've been working up a low-magic campaign setting based on Russia during the Kievan Period.

[Ozreth]

I've not nailed down many specifics, but for a while now I've been working up a low-magic campaign setting based on Russia during the Kievan Period.

Well! Share away!

[Ozreth]

Here you go, here's mine, or at least, the bare bones. I tend to make up the rest as I go:
"Nobody really knows when it happened. Or why. Not even the gods themselves. One day, the whole planar system went south.Planes starting colliding, new planes appearing out of nowhere, the whole multiverse becoming unstable... Weird stuff happened, to say the least. Epic battles between angels and demons, vestiges breaking into the world from their imprisonment... But somehow, things survived. Dwarves and Kobolds dug down, and resisted some twisted Earth creatures. Elves retreated to the forests, and tried to fight off the corruption and mutations spreading across the multiverse. Humans fortified themselves in huge cities, holding out. Now, however, it's started to die down. Many have died, but some still survive. Trade has been re-established, the planar movement means, with the right magic and rituals (and some extraplanar help), people can walk from plane to plane. Some aim to profit, and mercenary companies have sprung up. War and chaos still reigns, but in contrast, there is still Good and Law. The bounaries between planes are still strong, despite them all bordering now, but they are starting to influence each other. Demons are now not always Evil, and angels Good. New planes have sprung up. Gods, Demons, Devils, Elder Evils, Vestiges... They all are around, and most have a way of crossing planes. People have already started to call it the Disruption, and it's only been a week! All in all, this is the dawn of a new age, but will it be a bright age? I don't know..."

Sounds epic. You don't have any maps/cities/points of interest worked out yet?

[Volthawk]

Sounds epic. You don't have any maps/cities/points of interest worked out yet?

Nah, well if really got 2 games with this (on the forums).

One really has standard planes and places (like Brass), the other hasn't really started yet.

It's basically the base world, just a bit f***** up.

[Starscream]

I'm still working on one. It's sort of a generic setting that also has areas that more closely resemble other settings (though I've changed quite a bit to mesh with my extensive house rules and personal story style preferences).

So while most of it is standard D&D, there are countries that include stuff borrowed from Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Rokugan, etc. So basically any sort of campaign I want to run can be incorporated with minimal difficulty.

I'm not done fleshing out most of the southern areas, but here's the map. It's probably too large for this forum, so I'll just link to it: here (http://i39.tinypic.com/r0cyn4.jpg).

Please forgive some of the punnier names. It was very late.

[The Rose Dragon]

My most recent one. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145755)

[Totally Guy]

My current campaign is set in a city called Art-Cackles. The players are the city watch.

The city itself is the first settlement on a new continent. The main kingdom is across the ocean.

The city has a sophisticated thieves guild that originally liked conducting experiments but they allowed their own labs to be taken by powerful players within the city. They did this so they could spy on all the most powerful people in the city.

And that's it.

The players test their knowledge skills to know anything more about the setting. They present a feasible statement, I set the difficulty, they test the skill. Success makes it canon. Failure means I say yes but I twist their original statement like an evil genie. It's pretty fun (and not a lot of work).

[Dr Bwaa]

I don't have time to post any of my actual setting here, but I can tell you some of my inspirations:

Southern Russia/Mongolia/Northern China is a fantastically rich and reasonably unexploited place as far as setting details go. Fun fun fun.

I've pulled a tremendous amount of inspiration from reading Magic: the Gathering novels. Most are pretty poorly written, but the stories themselves; the characters; settings; etc are fantastic (especially the earlier ones). My setting includes a Gnomish society based heavily on the Thran (as presented by J. Robert King in the eponymous book) as well as a subcontinent with Jamuuraan influences.

I like Eberron & Kingdoms of Kalamar for politics, and Faerun for detail-oriented work. Planescape for cosmology inspirations.

I tend also to take inspiration from freeform games I run or play in. A few games of Evo 6 run by Zweanslord have provided me on separate occasions with a homebrew race and a couple of deities.

EDIT: Maps! You'll need to make maps! Frankly, just find something that works for you--any decent editor (better than Paint, say) with the capability to create brushes will work to make a good map. Tutorials for making the brushes are out there; I suggest the following layers to keep everything straight at a minimum:
1- landmasses
2- vegetation/terrain (including mtns, rivers, etc)
3- political boundaries
4- cities/sites/labels (including names of cities, rivers, seas, etc)

More layers will probably be necessary for all the various other things you'll want to do. Here's (http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/6489/kasshairngoldendaysofthec8.jpg)a link to an early map of my setting. Hope that helps!

Look! A magnificent concluding paragraph!"

[Ozreth]

I'm still working on one. It's sort of a generic setting that also has areas that more closely resemble other settings (though I've changed quite a bit to mesh with my extensive house rules and personal story style preferences).

So while most of it is standard D&D, there are countries that include stuff borrowed from Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Rokugan, etc. So basically any sort of campaign I want to run can be incorporated with minimal difficulty.

I'm not done fleshing out most of the southern areas, but here's the map. It's probably too large for this forum, so I'll just link to it: here (http://i39.tinypic.com/r0cyn4.jpg).

Please forgive some of the punnier names. It was very late.

Hey cool map! What did you make that with?


My most recent one. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145755)

I know next to nothing about exalted, looks deep though.


I don't have time to post any of my actual setting here, but I can tell you some of my inspirations:

Southern Russia/Mongolia/Northern China is a fantastically rich and reasonably unexploited place as far as setting details go. Fun fun fun.

I've pulled a tremendous amount of inspiration from reading Magic: the Gathering novels. Most are pretty poorly written, but the stories themselves; the characters; settings; etc are fantastic (especially the earlier ones). My setting includes a Gnomish society based heavily on the Thran (as presented by J. Robert King in the eponymous book) as well as a subcontinent with Jamuuraan influences.

I like Eberron & Kingdoms of Kalamar for politics, and Faerun for detail-oriented work. Planescape for cosmology inspirations.

I tend also to take inspiration from freeform games I run or play in. A few games of Evo 6 run by Zweanslord have provided me on separate occasions with a homebrew race and a couple of deities.

Look! A magnificent concluding paragraph!"

Good advice! Thanks : )

Keep em coming! Im looking for some pretty fleshed out worlds here. I guess I should start with a map, Im not too good at photoshop though : /

[Yukitsu]

Player made nations in my DM's overall setting. Because at least 3 of us like politics.

The Union is a galactic democratic communist organization, where magic reigns supreme. Standard citizen is human, without the free feat (instead they get magical training and precocious apprentice as racial feats). Mana is taxed off of citizens, syphoned off every night before they go to sleep, and this magic is used to power the city ordinances and to provide essential resources and services. It's a loose coalition of relatively independant city states that at least follow the general constitution. Planar wise, it's strongly allied to fey (all courts) and Celestia. They're officially at war with the abyss, hell and have a very sketchy peace with the other two player made nations. They are the official lawful good nation of the setting.

The next is the merchant empire. It's a capitalist to the extreme, where money is everything to everyone. Expansionists, they incite wars, and then buy out the losing side to protect them from the "agressors". They are officially allied with the nine hells, have loose ties to fey. They're iconic citizens are the mercane. They are at war with the Ga'ruk, which is the last player made faction, and have tense relations with everyone else due to rampant expansionism. Is the evil Empire of the bunch.

Lastly is Ga'ruk. A psion hive mind thingy followed by billions of offspring. Based around a guy who ran around mind seeding everyone to make more of himself. Is currently in decline due to efforts laid out by others to prevent his propogation. The remnants are hiding throughout the multiverse, a significant number in the Union. The epinonimous creature is currently the Urk, a self replicating plant like slave race that does nothing but fight. Heavily inspired by 40K orks. The upper echelon races of Ga'ruk are more intelligent, and do most of the scheming. It's the swarm (though one that recently lost a war) and a neutral evil. It's tolerated by the Union currently, because it helps keep the Merchant Empire busy, and the citizens of the union don't want to get drawn into the conflict. Otherwise, it has no particular allies, but is generally disliked by everyone they come across.

These groups were fashioned over the course of several campaigns, and are the result of our characters leaving their mark on the world. We later commented that this is in some ways similar to starcraft, with the union being like the Protoss, the Ga'ruk like the zerg, and the mercane like the Terrans. Specifically the evil, selfish Terrans.

In a campaign context, most of the games this DM creates are in union controlled space, but on neutral backwater planets. As such, we tend to see Urks hiding out, and union personelle, but rarely the Merchant Empire. Typically, the Urks are an encounter, or they serve as an indication of something bad happening. The Union is generally a neutral faction unless we deliberately join them (4 seperate players did) or try to fight them.

[Kobold-Bard]

I offer the history of my generic world. It uses the Great Wheel cosmology and Greyhawk Pantheon.

The World of Imon

Imon is essentially one super-continent with various outlying islands. The main continent is a land that has the most eclectic landscape imaginable. You won't walk from desert straight into snow, but it's pretty close. A system of mountains runs right across Tor, separating the various climates and regions. They are known as the Elreif Mountains.

DC 10 Know (History)
The story goes that the Gods had originally planned for Imon to be the land where they would seed the Mortal population. However they were challenged by a group of powerful Elementals. The Gods were victorious, but could not kill the Elementals entirely. To this end they created the Ereif Mountains to contain the Elementals and keep them seperate, sacrificing Imon for the necessity. The Divine power of the mountains quelled the Elemental's wrath, and they began to sleep. As they did so their essence seeped into the continent, and the deserts, wasteland and forests were formed. Seeing this the Gods decided to continue with their plan, and forged the world as they saw fit.

The Mountains are a sort of barrier system, they divide the world into so called "Spheres". Spheres vary in size, but the biggest is the Southlands, which is approximately the size of France, Spain and Germany combined. Crossing the mountains is quite possible, but requires fortitude as the journey is long (crossing between adjoining spheres takes at least three days on foot) so some people never see outside the sphere they were born in, though some people dedicate their lives to helping others through the Mountains, either directly or indirectly (such as expeditions to seek easier paths that might be added to maps). The Spheres are –

The Northern Wastes: An icy wilderness, frozen through and through. Outsider's rarely come here, though there is a very real population who live quite successfully (think how tv shows Alaska in the middle of winter). It is approximately the same size and shape as Sweden (though inverted to point northwards.

The Barren Land: Sphere due South of The Northern Wastes. For reasons mostly forgotten to the general populace this Sphere is essentially a post nuke site. There are a few ruined cities that have long since been picked clean, but the entire area (which is about the size of India) is essentially lifeless. Only a few scholars retain the knowledge of what happened here, because most people simply don’t care.
DC 25 Know (History)
The reason The Barren Land became lifeless is a great apocalypse known in the aftermath as The Awakening. A mass gathering of Psionically powered beings gathered together in an attempt to unlock a higher form of consciousness. However the manifestation went horribly wrong and an explosion of energy was released, wiping out life as it was in The Barren Land (originally called
[DC 30 Know (History)] The Azure Realm)

The Great Wood: West of The Barren Land is an enormous forest that covers almost the entire Sphere. This is the Elf home territory, those Elves and Half-Elves born outside are known as Ethrenier; Unfortunate Ones. Smallest of the Spheres, the land contains only a single country made up of one Capital city, and three other towns, though individual villages exist across the entire Wood.

The Southlands: The biggest of the Spheres this is the supposed birthplace of Humans and Halflings. It makes up the entire South-West corner of Imon, and is for the most part hilly grassland. There are dozens of nations with it, ranging from the city state of Orth to the great nation of Menrana, the most powerful in The Southlands (and where it not for the more united areas like the The Great Wood, probably the world). The Southlands also bears Selphur; the sole permanent portal to the Multiverse; passing through it is said to bring great fortune, though which Plane you’ll end up on and what’ll be around when you get there is a bit of a gamble.

The Expanse: A great desert that from above looks sort of like a lazy “M”. It completely borders The Stone Centre on two sides, and is just as inhospitable as The Northern Wastes. The few locations that provide water are closely guarded with regard to outsiders, but the native people have developed a sort of agreement with regard to them. Everyone can take what they need whenever they need it, but any more is liable to cause difficulties between people.

The Lush Land: A dense jungle that’s mountain border joins it with The Expanse all along it’s north, the Southlands to it’s east, and to ocean to the south. While it is cooler than The Expanse, it is consistently humid, making the journey between the two unpleasant all-round for non-natives. Savage monster prowl the ground, so the inhabitants have adapted to living in the trees.

The Stone Centre: The middle of Imon is an enormous mountainous hub, from which all the branches of the Elreif flow. Ancestral home to Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins, Kobolds and Trolls, at times this can become an awe inspiring battlefield.

The Fragments: A mass of small islands that are spread across the entire south of Imon, as well as a few that are much further afield around the continent. The outlying islands are usually autocracies, and for the most part considered part of the Sphere to which the are closest. The southern Islands on the other hand are made up of three ever warring empires; controlling their lands from one of the three largest islands, with the islands between them changing hands like a coin at a busy market. Brutal storms sweep through the island chain often, so those that live there are hardy and quick witted.

The Warped West: A small area that makes up the North-West tip of Imon. Energy from the Psychic Isle has mutated the land here and left it uninhabitable except by horribly deranged and uncontrollable monsters.

The Psychic Isle: An island of unknown proportions to the North West of the supercontinent, and the only place known to mortals that isn’t considered part of Imon. It is sealed off from the world by a powerful barrier, and is for the most part ignored. Ships avoid it because the barrier is incredibly destructive to anything that comes into contact with it. The Isle is home to the almost absolute majority of Psychic power and beings. Some exist within Imon, but they tend to keep their heritage or abilities secret, revealing yourself to be a Psion is very dangerous in some areas. However some believe the barrier is weakening, The Warped West is proof (so they say) that Psychic energy is leaking through.

I have a map, but it's in pen and I'm too lazy to make one in paint yet.

The rest is added as the players go on, sometimes their additions are kept in and used in later games, others are not.

eg. There has since been the addition of an abandoned and wrecked Mages Keep North of the city of Qiln. It contains a flesh golem.

[Starscream]

Hey cool map! What did you make that with?

Photoshop and a lot of caffeine one night.

[Ozreth]

Photoshop and a lot of caffeine one night.

Darn, I need to work up my photoshop skills.

[PurinaDragonCho]

Here's mine. I've written up lots of stuff that isn't on here, because I give my players info that other characters wouldn't have. For example, only the rogues know about the thieves' guild (known as The Court of Shadows).

http://greenshield.wikispaces.com/

This is largely inspired by the Red Hand of Doom and Stuff I read in the DMG II. I also subliminaaly ripped off some names from other settings, I think.

[Dr Bwaa]

Darn, I need to work up my photoshop skills.

See the edit in my post--any program with the ability to move layers around and create brushes should do just fine. There are brazilians (punny!) of tutorials on any given photoshop-like operation all over the internet; it's not too bad once you get used to it (does take some time regardless).

[Lord Vukodlak]

Here's just a bit of history of my setting.
History of Terra'Nara

In Terra Nara there are two basic types of divine beings those who draw power from worship and those whos divine power is gathered by simply existing. The gods of worship are called the Elder Gods. The gods of life, death, justice, tyranny, sun and dark, strength and war are all counted among the Elder Gods. As are the deties such as the Gods of the Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Orcs etc.
The Elder Gods make up the standard type of pantheon of the world.

The second those who gather divine power by simply existing for so long are called the Old Ones, The Great Old Ones are ancient creatures of immense power. Most are also colossal in size. These beings are not as powerful as the Elder or Outer Gods, nor do they have as much influence. Nonetheless, they are served by devoted congregations of worshippers, made up of both human and non-human cults. Unlike tradional deities they do not draw power from worship but instead divine more coalesces around them due to age. As Dagon appears as a giant Deep One and Cthulhu appears much like massvily sized Starspawn this theory is givin some credit. Some maintaint the Old Ones evolved from lesser races the share appearances with. That any starspawn that lived long enougth would become like Cthuhlu.

Other scholars claim they the exiled servents of the Outer or perhaps even Elder Gods who were cast away for some past offense or punishment.
The Great Old Ones are currently imprisoned—a few beneath the sea, some inside the Earth, others are imprisoned on one of the moons or beyond the stars.
The reason for their captivity is not fully understood but the leading theories.
(1) they were imprisoned by the Elder Gods, beings such as Kalar, Pelor or Obad-hai. for committing past transgressions. Concidering the complete disreguard for humanity many of the old ones appear to have. Its qutie understanding why the gods wouuld seal them away.

(2) Fear, according to this theory they are not trapped but simply stay hidden by chioce. They can not match the power of the Elder or Outer Gods. And interfearnce in there domain could earn them there wraith. The destruction of Cthulhu at the hands of mortals shows that the Great Old Ones while powerful can be destroyed by a united effort of mortals. Cthulhu was the most powerful of the Great Old Ones
(3) Hibernation the Great Old Ones are meerly sleeping. Awaiting the time they can come forth can claim the world for there own. This is the leading cause of people turning to them for worship. They fear the day the Old Ones will awaken so they pledge there aligence to them in an attempt to curry favor and perhaps surrive the coming cataclysm. When Cthulhu awaken he tried to awaken the other Old Ones and bring forth the Outer god Azathoth to remake the world.

Sages believe their to be at least 30 Great Old Ones spread across Terra Nara and countless among the outer planes. All Great Old Ones posses a spark of divine power ranging from quasi-deity to the upper levels of demi-god. Cthulhu the most powerful of the Great Old Ones was nearlly a lesser deity in stature.

The Old Ones and Outer Gods are the "creators" of creatures such as Kou-Toa, Mind Flayers, Beholders, Krakens, Deep Ones, Star-Spawn, Yuan-ti, Drider, Naga, Aboleth, Oozies and just about any very alien creature evil or not is the result of some Old One or outer god. The sinister subraces such as Duragar and Drow are also the result of Old Ones taking members of other races and infusing them with there own corruption.

All divine beings of Terra Nara posses divine rejuvenation should there flesh ever falter they will regenerate in time. To actually slay a deity requires great effort. No mortal save the 10,000 year godslayer may cause permanent harm to a deity.

*For future reference, Old Ones are refered to as gods except by there worshipers.

The 3 Moons of Terra Nara
The First Moon of Terra Nara is called Kaiser and its a large white moon which takes 55 days to complete its orbit.
The Second Moon is called the Ruby because of its bright red color and the way it shines like a gem. It is two thirds the size of Kaiser and takes a full 42 days to complete its orbit which is slightly higher in the sky then Kaiser. Ruby is also the moon that has an effect on Lycanthropes.
The third and smallest moon is Omarna and it is half the size of Ruby and its orbrit is lower in the sky then Kaiser and takes 30 days to complete its orbit.

Ruby and Omarna are both full on the same day every 7 months
Kaiser and Omarna are both full every 11 months.
The Three Moons are both full every 6 years and 4 months.

Kaiser and Ruby are never both full on the same night with out there sister Omarna with them.


By far largest continent is called Quel’Shar and contains countless nations types of terrain. The continent is divided into regions based on the geological environment. The great swamps and large forests of the Feninarers are at the center of the continent with the great deserts of Ivory Valley to the south, the frozen tundra of the northlands above. Both borders are guarded by mountainous terrain To the east you find the heartlands with its great rolling grasslands dotted small to large forests. The classical New Zealand style fantasy feel.
Between the Feninarers and and the western seas lies the rolling hills and pine forests make up the The Bathzar Coast.

The basic shape of the continent could be called a T.
The heartlands are most of the l of the T, while the Ivory Valley, Feninarers, and northlands make up the — of the T.
The northlands expand all the way to frozen glacer. I used to have a great map but that was destoryed a year ago when my hard drive died. The scanner doesn’t work anymore so I can’t put up the hard copies.



Lands outside the main continent include
Khazadorm
To the east of Quel’Shar lies the much smaller continent of Khazadorm
A thousand years ago the Great Kingdom of Akallabêth ruled most of Khazadom, It was known as the Great Kingdom and was a shining becaon of light for the world. During the dark war that light was extinguished and for centuries the land was ravaged by civil war, until the founding of the Garr Emprie 700 years ago. Today the Garr Empire’s population is counted at over 45 million.

The Islands of Char’Tor
Across the western sea are the islands of Char’Tor. It is a collection of si islands of various sizes. It is the land of spices and silk. The Land has grown rich from the export of spices and silk. Like Quel’Shar it is a collection of many nations some occupy a single island while others

Lycanthral
Across the eastern sea lies a small continent or perhaps giant island.(about the size of Madagascar) The land contains mountains rich with rare metals such as mitherial and adamantine. The mountains aside majority of the land is covered in trees, the southern peninsula containing grasslands. I’m sure the question of the name is burning into your brain right now. Yes Lycanthral has something to do with Lycanthropes. The primary in habitants are true lycanthropes. With a population of around 350,000 near xenophobic lycanthropes ready to set aside thier own differences to defend the island. Getting at that those mountains is a near impossible task.

Krag’morr
Krag’morr is a desolate island to the south of Quel’Shar. Containing numerious volcano and giant rifts in the earth that run as deep as a mile. Few things live in the enviorment of ash and death. Somewhere hiddin among the black spires spuing fire and ash. Is a valley containing the bones of countless dragons. A dragon grave yard. Anyone who travels to Krag’morr is either trying to hide something or find the resting place of great wyrms.

Avalon
Avalon is known only by name, and its location is a complete secret. The last of the elves in Quel’Shar left for Avalon centuries ago. It is believed by most to lie beyond the western sea. Beyond the reach of any ship. However some of the elves left through the eastern sea so that leaves to explanations the world is round or the ships travel to another plane.


A few of these places like Lycanthral and the Garr Empire have much longer histories written up.

[Ozreth]

See the edit in my post--any program with the ability to move layers around and create brushes should do just fine. There are brazilians (punny!) of tutorials on any given photoshop-like operation all over the internet; it's not too bad once you get used to it (does take some time regardless).

Youre right, I might as well start learning. Thanks : )

[dragonfan6490]

Here's mine. (http://www.4shared.com/file/243610802/449566c8/Campaign_Setting_Legacy_of_the.html) It still needs a little fleshing out but it is functional as is.

[SongCoyote]

One of my favorite settings was one I cobbled together from the basic D&D pantheons and races plus some home-brewed stuff of my own.

The main campaign area was (very) loosely based on Chinese geography and was called Cathay. The PCs headquartered in or around the Sister Cities, Han, Cho, and Mai, three grown-up trading towns on the mouth of a great river to the east of the Worldspine Mountains. Across the ocean was a country about the size of Australia that was a Westernized Nihon (Japan). West across the mountains was a great plains that was mostly desert, having been blasted in an ancient war.

Humans were the most common race in that area, but the Worldspine had many Dwarves, Gnomes were in the forests between the Sister Cities and the mountains, and there was a large goblinoid community north of the Gnomes (still between the cities and the mountains) that at one time led by the Bone Woman, a powerful Goblin shamaness who was later killed by the PCs. Elves and Halflings were rather uncommon in Cathay.

Dragons were very rare in this world, and one of them was a recurring villainess who plagued the PCs for over 3 real years (more than that in game time) before the found the wherewithal to track her down and kill her. Other major events were the rising of a Demon Tower in the wasteland west of the mountains, a desperate cry for help by the sea Elves south of the straits between Cathay and Nihon (a lock holding an ancient evil had broken, and they needed help restoring it), and the discovery of a series of breeding and mutation experiments between black and green dragons, lizard folk, locathah, and others on the southern tip of the country, orchestrated by a sahuagin.

It was a really fun campaign, and took 5-6 players from 1st to 14th level before we decided to retire it and move on to Arcana Unearthed (and later Evolved) since we liked the world and system. I could tell quite a few stories from our adventures!

Light and laughter,
SongCoyoet

[Ozreth]

Here's mine. (http://www.4shared.com/file/243610802/449566c8/Campaign_Setting_Legacy_of_the.html) It still needs a little fleshing out but it is functional as is.

Whoa! This is great stuff! How long did you work on this for? How many games have you run with it? Did you fill it out as you went or all at once before playing any games?

[AmberVael]

My personal campaign setting is Triad, (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130893) which is a desert-ish/Egyptian setting with Low Magic.

I also highly recommend Krimm Blackleaf's Nation of the Dead (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38868) which inspired me to actually work on mine and finish it (I also used his formatting method, which worked very well).

[Kobold-Bard]

My personal campaign setting is Triad, (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130893) which is a desert-ish/Egyptian setting with Low Magic.

I also highly recommend Krimm Blackleaf's Nation of the Dead (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38868) which inspired me to actually work on mine and finish it (I also used his formatting method, which worked very well).

Nation of the dead seems really good. Played in it briefly until the game died.

[Kallisti]

Let's see...I used to run a game based on George Orwell's 1984 a la The Tippyverse, but it collapsed. I kept it going for a while, but I was needing to throw up new recruitment threads far too often. It was like a braindead campaign on life-support.

More successfully, I run a game face-to-face with my friends on Sundays set in a world of my own creation, which I created by taking bits and pieces of everyone else's worlds and sewing them together haphazardly. Symbols runs rampant, clues are dropped in completely meta contexts (though my players always seem to miss them:smallsigh:), things happen inexplicably, everyone but the PCs seems to have knowledge of the real world and the power to break character, and the characters feel like they're being herded through a prewritten story against their own objections, which they are, because The Plot itself is my BBEG. It's, well...plotting against them:smallcool:(I can hear the groans from here).

[TheYoungKing]

The Plane of Darlu, The Land of Ahranzeb.....

The Plane of Darlu is intriguing in that it appears to be a material plane where a creator simply stopped about halfway through. The world is a rough and uneven disc, warped and distorted at its edges before falling off into nothing. But despite its haphazard construction, it has seen life and the seeding of sentient races common to other material planes.

The Great Mountains of Al'Araaf lead directly into the Afterlife and all of its labyrinthine chambers. The Dreamlands, a changing landscape of rift valleys and tumbling mountains, lets the waters fall from the world or flow into the River Ahranzeb. The Great Sand Sea pulls reckless travellers into its course over the edge of the Disc. The Imayal Mountains somehow stand as a sturdy curved projection into the nothingness past the Disc. The Shifting Steppe, advancing and retreating against the Disc's boundaries, always offers new paths as it swallows up the old.

But that is not where the world of intrigue and adventure lies, though one can quest for it there. No, the land for adventurers is squarely in Ahranzeb, the fertile lands named for the river which ambles its way through the unforgiving deserts. The River Ahranzeb.

Bounded on the West [1] by the Line in The Sand, a grand canal carved into the bedrock beneath the sands, it keeps the Goblinoids who once ravaged this land at bay, leaving them to die in their infertile Waste. Bounded on the East by the Mountains of al'Araaf, where Dwarves still guard the Gates and build their gardens in the mountains, although it is hinted that Dwarves may soon be fading from the world. Bounded on the South by the jungles of al'Azif, a creeping eldritch jungle that seems to claim more and more land every passing year and sends forth the blackgrass, able to live in even the most choking of heat or sand. And to the North lies the One Sea, mostly empty now, although legends speak of grand ages past where great empires with powers over the Mind ruled in those lands across it.

Ahranzeb was the land where all life began on this plane, if its natives are to be believed. The bhuka [2], the aboriginals of Ahranzeb, claim that they were once masters of the world, gifted to them by the World-Mother, from the Mountains of al'Araaf to the clouded peaks of Imayal, before the Dwarves passed from the Gates of al'Araaf and locked up the waters of Paradise. The Deltafolk [2] say they once lived in all of the wetlands of the world, before being pushed into the Delta they now call home. The savage Elves say that the Painted Forest they call home was once alive and not merely dry fossils and mosses. The Dwarves say they built the world in stone and deigned to let the other races live in the low places. The Gnomes and Halflings say all the world is built on the paths their Elders once walked, and the shape of the world came from their stories, tales and fabrications. The Humans don't care much for origin stories, they merely know that they took the world and deserved to do so....


Eh, more later maybe.

-----

Some less fluff stuff:

-It is a divine-magic heavy campaign setting. Part of this is the complete lack of Wizardry (sorcerer and warmage are the standard arcane classes) and part of it is also the harsh desert environment inclining itself more toward the protective aspects of the divine. High level divine magic is thus far more common than high level arcane. (Cleric/archivist are the common divine casters)
-Dragons are dead. That is also in the fluff, but it also changes around some of the big boss stuff.
-Druids are almost always weird fanatics or mundane shepherds. No adventuring Druids, really.



[1] Cardinal directions for simplicity, I don't need Pratchett injections here
[2] See Sandstorm for a physical description
[3] An LA +0 croc-folk race I made

[TheYoungKing]

My personal campaign setting is Triad, (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130893) which is a desert-ish/Egyptian setting with Low Magic.


Ooh, I may have to crib things from you, as Ahranzeb is meant to be sort of Egyptian (although more Arab Egypt than anything else)

[Thane of Fife]

Hmm. Here's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90629) Ketemia, which is a setting I mostly made for fun, as I've never run a game there. It's intended as an epic struggle against all odds, by heroes struggling to free their homeland from orcish overlords.

If you want inspiration though, let me recommend this (http://web.archive.org/web/20020928015537/www.astrofantasy.com/fantasy_world/World_Creation/create_world_vision.htm) page. It's sort of a random world generator, but it only provides the barest of bones, and I've found it to be a great spark to the imagination.

[Lappy9000]

Yeah, sure. It helps that I have no shame :smallwink:

Still under construction: The Lords of Avramir Campaign Setting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114832).

For me, I try to separate things into basic building blocks. Example:

Setting Type: High Fantasy, Gaslight Fantasy
Historical Influences: Pax Romana, Han Dynasty, Inca Empire
Cosmology: Planar Tree
Magic Level: Moderate
Power Level: Low
Government System: Nation States
Primary Antagonists: Monsters of Man
Human Population: Less or equal to 50%
Unique Primary Races: Bornura, Soulstitched
Unique Classes: Engineer, Symbol

You could fill in that list with your own things, ranging from whatever fits your fancy. Hope I could be of help!

[dragonfan6490]

Whoa! This is great stuff! How long did you work on this for? How many games have you run with it? Did you fill it out as you went or all at once before playing any games?

Well, this is my third or fourth draft of the beta setting. I've run 3 games in it, worked it out as a combination of filling it out as I go and just coming up with things on my own. The map of the main continent is in its 13th draft. This draft was started in January of this year, but I've been working on it for three or four years.

[Ozreth]

My personal campaign setting is Triad, (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130893) which is a desert-ish/Egyptian setting with Low Magic.

I also highly recommend Krimm Blackleaf's Nation of the Dead (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38868) which inspired me to actually work on mine and finish it (I also used his formatting method, which worked very well).

Whoa! That nation of the dead setting is awesome. Im diggin yours too, Im readying it right now. Very unique.

[GallóglachMaxim]

My campaign setting started off as reminiscent of interactions between Southern European/North African/Near Eastern states in the thirteenth Century, then expanded what it drew in a bit more in time and area.

Covo-Nashu (map (http://sayiamyou.deviantart.com/art/Covo-Nashu-158532321)) was created as a fairly young world, not all of which has been settled or explored yet. The elves are declining, in the traditional manner, but are still a dominant political and economic force. Their Achaemenid-era Persian aesthetic and Zoroastrian-inspired religion spill over into a few of the other cultures.

Main conflicts are between the Sun Elves and the empire of Riojaz (fifteenth century Spanish, with some Roman elements) in the West, not quite outright war yet, but there's been agitation for a long time. Then there's an ongoing conflict between most other people and pirates based out of Shiskar in the Southeast. Then there's smaller things, border disputes, extraplanar refugees (Centaur) or colonists (Ifrit) moving in, the usual troubles of monsters (except Dragons, which were as far as anyone knows, exterminated some six hundred years before game time), a race of psionic parasites trying to take over the world, that sort of thing.

Most races have their own religion, ranging from the ethnic nationalist Roman-style gods of Riojaz, the tribal spirits of the Qolimbi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilombo), Hinduesque complicated pantheism in Shavatta through to a form of monotheism in the Qraysh. I developed the setting mostly as an excuse to geek out about history, culture, language and religion, which sometimes works out very well (the conflict between lawful evil government and chaotic neutral/evil pirates in Shiskar) and sometimes just creates a lot of work (Centaur base-fifteen number system).

I have plans for three campaigns using the world basically as it is, one that is getting close to the end and then two more that will follow on from there, all three of which will (ideally) change the political and racial map of the world.