Ichneumon
2012-11-18, 12:22 PM
I’m currently designing a new homebrew campaign setting that I plan to use for my future campaigns that will be run using either D&D 4e, D&D Next or some other version of the D&D rules. My main baseline is that I want the setting to be accessible, meaning that players can jump right in without having to read a novel of setting information (a small 2-3 page player handout would have to be the max to get into the game) and I want to give the players what they expect to see when they come play D&D, so the world shouldn’t deviate to much from a ‘generic’ D&D setting with all it’s standard races and classes and such.
At the same time though, I don’t want the setting to be bland and uninteresting. I’d like some input/ideas on what I’ve developed now and maybe some ideas on how I can expand upon it / improve it. My main focus has been on creating a setting that stimulates the players to choose sides on different (social) issues within the game world, as I think that's an effective way of getting the players involved with the game.
Here is the information I'd give the players at the start of the game, in the form of a handout. I'm currently planing on starting the campaign in a desert area, so that's what the hand-out assumes.
Legends of Holdareth
Introduction
Setting: The desert of Holdareth on the Southern Continent. A hot barren wasteland, filled with nomads, roaming monsters, raiding bandits and slavers.
Location: The trading post of Fain-Mun, build around an old oasis, at the edge of the desert. Merchants, nomads and traders arrive daily in caravans from all over the Southern Continent and from other parts of the desert to bring new and trade exotic goods.
Politics: Fain-Mun falls under the rulership of a larger city: the city of Bod-Mun, ruled by a tyrant warlord, Lord Utstesh. His soldiers are permanently stationed at the trading post, keeping peace and he has appointed the highest acting officer, Captain Khanu, to be the village reeve, to adjudicate disputes and collect taxes for him. For years they encountered little resistance, but recently a charismatic local half-elf, a young merchant, known as Mahomi, has been stirring up the crowd and speaking in favor of violence and opposition. Rumors say he’s leading a conspiracy to assassinate Captain Khanu.
Divine magic & religion: The gods are mostly absent and most people don’t actively believe in them anymore. Their worship is more done out of cultural tradition and habit then out of real conviction. Divine magic is in the commoner’s eyes just another form of arcane magic. The influence of the churches within the community has slowly been diminished and they face the threat of soon becoming irrelevant. Traditionally the people worshiped abstract concepts, like “the god of rain”, or “the sun”, “the mother” or “the night”. Priests and paladins are under large pressure to prove both the existence of the gods and their own social relevance.
Arcane magic & ‘the dark arts’: The local community reveres those few who posses the arcane arts and wizards can perform their magic openly. This is different though for the more dark forms of arcane magic. Not only are they mistrusted by the common folk; they are also actively hunted down and killed, if found. Clerics, paladins and other religious groups, who see warlocks, necromancers and other dark magicians as dangerous, since they make pacts and deal with the unholy, encourage this behavior. They actively seek out and try to eradicate practitioners of the dark arts and such magic-users need to hide and practice in secrecy or else face witch-hunts, persecution and death by burning at the stake. Although the church is losing much of its influence, the support for their hunt against dark magicians is still strong.
Other races: For centuries the human settlement of Fain-Mun has had a small elvish community. Although the elves have never caused much trouble, the tension between both groups has been growing for the past few years (humans claiming the elves are stealing all the good jobs) and incidents of hate crime against elves are also becoming frequent. Recently a large number of dwarven refugees have appeared in Fain-Mun, fleeing from their war-ridden homeland in the West. Other races are uncommon in Fain-Mun, although not unheard of, coming with the caravans from all over the world. Rumors talk of tribes of elusive tiefling horsemen deep in the Holdareth desert and savage goblinoid bandits frequently raid caravans.
As you might have noticed, I'm taking an "inside out" approach to building the campaign, first creating in detail what the players will encounter first and then broadening it. I've already thought of some things do:
Geography: I haven't made a map yet, but I've already said it takes place on "the Southern Continent", this implies there is another continent, maybe a Northern one. I'm thinking of leaving most of the Northern Continent unexplored, a kind of mysterious land, that I can use to justify things that have otherwise no place in the campaign world, for example if players want to play races or if I need a monster that fits nowhere else, I can say 'it comes from the Northern Continent"
Cosmology:I was planning on using a cosmology inspired by the non-geocentric cosmology of Philolaus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Earth The central fire could be the place where all the souls go to when you die, there they get “reshaped” into new souls (reďncarnation, meaning there is no real afterlife). I’ve yet to come up with a name for “Earth” (the material plane), but the idea is that the Counter-Earth will be an alien Far Realms nightmarish kind of place, the source of aberrations. The aberrations would be horridly deformed, because somehow they are souls that where meant for the other earth, but got on this world because of some cosmic mistake and don't quite "fit" here. This could also be linked to some people developing psionic abilities, as the source of psionics, they somehow have a connection to this counter-earth at the other side of the great “soul fire” that gives them these abilities, maybe even linking them to another soul on that earth. I’m also thinking about having the other planes of existence move around the central fire as well, as planets and moons. The Plane of Shadows could actually be THE moon, the one people see in the sky. Still need to work on that.
At the same time though, I don’t want the setting to be bland and uninteresting. I’d like some input/ideas on what I’ve developed now and maybe some ideas on how I can expand upon it / improve it. My main focus has been on creating a setting that stimulates the players to choose sides on different (social) issues within the game world, as I think that's an effective way of getting the players involved with the game.
Here is the information I'd give the players at the start of the game, in the form of a handout. I'm currently planing on starting the campaign in a desert area, so that's what the hand-out assumes.
Legends of Holdareth
Introduction
Setting: The desert of Holdareth on the Southern Continent. A hot barren wasteland, filled with nomads, roaming monsters, raiding bandits and slavers.
Location: The trading post of Fain-Mun, build around an old oasis, at the edge of the desert. Merchants, nomads and traders arrive daily in caravans from all over the Southern Continent and from other parts of the desert to bring new and trade exotic goods.
Politics: Fain-Mun falls under the rulership of a larger city: the city of Bod-Mun, ruled by a tyrant warlord, Lord Utstesh. His soldiers are permanently stationed at the trading post, keeping peace and he has appointed the highest acting officer, Captain Khanu, to be the village reeve, to adjudicate disputes and collect taxes for him. For years they encountered little resistance, but recently a charismatic local half-elf, a young merchant, known as Mahomi, has been stirring up the crowd and speaking in favor of violence and opposition. Rumors say he’s leading a conspiracy to assassinate Captain Khanu.
Divine magic & religion: The gods are mostly absent and most people don’t actively believe in them anymore. Their worship is more done out of cultural tradition and habit then out of real conviction. Divine magic is in the commoner’s eyes just another form of arcane magic. The influence of the churches within the community has slowly been diminished and they face the threat of soon becoming irrelevant. Traditionally the people worshiped abstract concepts, like “the god of rain”, or “the sun”, “the mother” or “the night”. Priests and paladins are under large pressure to prove both the existence of the gods and their own social relevance.
Arcane magic & ‘the dark arts’: The local community reveres those few who posses the arcane arts and wizards can perform their magic openly. This is different though for the more dark forms of arcane magic. Not only are they mistrusted by the common folk; they are also actively hunted down and killed, if found. Clerics, paladins and other religious groups, who see warlocks, necromancers and other dark magicians as dangerous, since they make pacts and deal with the unholy, encourage this behavior. They actively seek out and try to eradicate practitioners of the dark arts and such magic-users need to hide and practice in secrecy or else face witch-hunts, persecution and death by burning at the stake. Although the church is losing much of its influence, the support for their hunt against dark magicians is still strong.
Other races: For centuries the human settlement of Fain-Mun has had a small elvish community. Although the elves have never caused much trouble, the tension between both groups has been growing for the past few years (humans claiming the elves are stealing all the good jobs) and incidents of hate crime against elves are also becoming frequent. Recently a large number of dwarven refugees have appeared in Fain-Mun, fleeing from their war-ridden homeland in the West. Other races are uncommon in Fain-Mun, although not unheard of, coming with the caravans from all over the world. Rumors talk of tribes of elusive tiefling horsemen deep in the Holdareth desert and savage goblinoid bandits frequently raid caravans.
As you might have noticed, I'm taking an "inside out" approach to building the campaign, first creating in detail what the players will encounter first and then broadening it. I've already thought of some things do:
Geography: I haven't made a map yet, but I've already said it takes place on "the Southern Continent", this implies there is another continent, maybe a Northern one. I'm thinking of leaving most of the Northern Continent unexplored, a kind of mysterious land, that I can use to justify things that have otherwise no place in the campaign world, for example if players want to play races or if I need a monster that fits nowhere else, I can say 'it comes from the Northern Continent"
Cosmology:I was planning on using a cosmology inspired by the non-geocentric cosmology of Philolaus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Earth The central fire could be the place where all the souls go to when you die, there they get “reshaped” into new souls (reďncarnation, meaning there is no real afterlife). I’ve yet to come up with a name for “Earth” (the material plane), but the idea is that the Counter-Earth will be an alien Far Realms nightmarish kind of place, the source of aberrations. The aberrations would be horridly deformed, because somehow they are souls that where meant for the other earth, but got on this world because of some cosmic mistake and don't quite "fit" here. This could also be linked to some people developing psionic abilities, as the source of psionics, they somehow have a connection to this counter-earth at the other side of the great “soul fire” that gives them these abilities, maybe even linking them to another soul on that earth. I’m also thinking about having the other planes of existence move around the central fire as well, as planets and moons. The Plane of Shadows could actually be THE moon, the one people see in the sky. Still need to work on that.