Sir_Mopalot
2012-03-14, 11:22 AM
So I've been kicking around ideas for a game I've wanted to start for a while in the old fashioned "hexploration" genre, essentially a sandbox with a hex-based world map that the players will run around, adventure in, and explore, with the ruins, secret lairs, and so on placed ahead of time. I'm working up random enounter tables based on ranges of CRs, which will then be applied to different regions of the map (I.e. right outside a city adventuring is pretty safe because the city guard keep anything too big from forming, you might find kobolds or goblins running around, but a level one party isn't going to get wiped by an army of ogres within sight of the city gates. Unless the city is invaded). The deepest problem with this is that Dawn of Worlds (http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf), the collaborative world building I prefer, doesn't work because if the players were there to generate the history of the ancient civilizations, they'll have a much better idea of where to look for their ruins, and I can't trust my group to not use that OOC knowledge. So I needed enough inspiration to come up with a world all by myself. So I did what all great artists do, and stole. I'm creating a campaign world based on the Mass Effect series of video games, translated (very roughly) into a fantasy setting.
The highlights of the world, as a result:
There is a massive city called Bastion at the center of the transportation network. It was left behind by a mysterious race that came before all known races, and far surpassed the known races in magical and mundane artifice
A race of militarized, warlike Orcs were crippled thanks to them and their homelands being cut-off from magic. Unbeknownst to them, this was done by another one of the races. Note that these are not the savage, chaotic orcs typical of D&D, and in fact I'm drawing on what little I know of feudal Japan to design their culture.
Praetorian (the race that came before) ruins are spread around the map, rare, but containing some of the most potent treasures and arcane secrets. Astute explorers will detect references to an even older race of invaders who to all appearances are responsible for the Praetorian's disappearance.
All the races live within a certain radius of the Bastion, because a tower within it appears to be the source of all magic in the world, and it is this magic that has given the civilized races the edge necessary to not be eaten by monsters.
A race of cold-attuned human like beings lived in a great city in the north, but created a race of sapient golems who (it is believed) turned on them and forced them from their home, and they now live in a massive caravan.
The Valanar (Salarians), Elves (Asari), and Dwarves (Turians) all exist and have cities on the map.
So have I made any massive blunders from this (fairly short) summary? If you have knowledge of the game series, am I missing anything that you think is critical to the world?
The highlights of the world, as a result:
There is a massive city called Bastion at the center of the transportation network. It was left behind by a mysterious race that came before all known races, and far surpassed the known races in magical and mundane artifice
A race of militarized, warlike Orcs were crippled thanks to them and their homelands being cut-off from magic. Unbeknownst to them, this was done by another one of the races. Note that these are not the savage, chaotic orcs typical of D&D, and in fact I'm drawing on what little I know of feudal Japan to design their culture.
Praetorian (the race that came before) ruins are spread around the map, rare, but containing some of the most potent treasures and arcane secrets. Astute explorers will detect references to an even older race of invaders who to all appearances are responsible for the Praetorian's disappearance.
All the races live within a certain radius of the Bastion, because a tower within it appears to be the source of all magic in the world, and it is this magic that has given the civilized races the edge necessary to not be eaten by monsters.
A race of cold-attuned human like beings lived in a great city in the north, but created a race of sapient golems who (it is believed) turned on them and forced them from their home, and they now live in a massive caravan.
The Valanar (Salarians), Elves (Asari), and Dwarves (Turians) all exist and have cities on the map.
So have I made any massive blunders from this (fairly short) summary? If you have knowledge of the game series, am I missing anything that you think is critical to the world?