Parliament of Creation - Discussion Thread

[LordotTrinkets]

I'd like to see if there's any interest in this crazy idea I had for a contest. Basically, I've been wanting to start my very own thread for the spawning of a campaign setting, but I haven't really been able to come up with a way to make this one interesting and unique. It then occurred to me that it might be fun to do it in contest fashion!

The contest will take the form of multiple contests that each build off the former. The winning idea(s) will be made into a permanent addition to the campaign. No new idea will be allowed to contradict a previously voted idea. Voting systems will almost definitely vary according to how many winners be allowed.

Here's my basic idea on how the order of sub-contests will go:
Context: The core idea of the setting
(These ones are in a semi-coherent order)
Deities
Planes
Races/Monsters
Nations
Relations
Potential Conflict
History
Unique Characters

Questions/comments/snide remarks are all welcome to the formation of this contest (although the first two are preferred :smalltongue:).

[qazzquimby]

A collaborative brainstorming exercise might be more useful than a contest. People can still put out their own ideas (not dogpiling on the first thing said, like the normal trend for collab threads), but if you have an interesting addition to an existing idea you can contribute that, without worry of which person 'wins'.

That being said, some ideas:
Binding like vestige binding, but with living creatures. The strong can rent a fraction of their power out, or have it stolen.
Powerful artifacts are common, but often come with major downsides, and are quickly gathered by local authorities.
Shadow magic exists.
Gods live on the material plane.
A military superpower is beginning to aggressively expand into its peaceful neighbour.

[LordotTrinkets]

A collaborative brainstorming exercise might be more useful than a contest. People can still put out their own ideas (not dogpiling on the first thing said, like the normal trend for collab threads), but if you have an interesting addition to an existing idea you can contribute that, without worry of which person 'wins'.
I'm having trouble understanding what you're suggesting. First you say that collaborative brainstorming is the way to go, but then say it would somehow be different from other collab's. Do you mind giving an example or explaining a little more?



That being said, some ideas:
Binding like vestige binding, but with living creatures. The strong can rent a fraction of their power out, or have it stolen.
Powerful artifacts are common, but often come with major downsides, and are quickly gathered by local authorities.
Shadow magic exists.
Gods live on the material plane.
A military superpower is beginning to aggressively expand into its peaceful neighbour.

In the mean time, I'll weave an idea of my own into those ideas:
Most of the world is culturally and medically like ancient Egypt. Strong lawful disposition, lack of knowledge about what the brain does, etc.
Through cunning, Mind Flayers have placed themselves at a prominent state in religion/government. Feeding off of the brains of the mummies they make and the slaves that the 'lesser' races gift them.
These artifacts were made by binding the spirit of an Illithid to either an object or a body part of the slain Mind Flayer (the body parts are known to be the rarer and more powerful of the two varieties). These were all made by a now extinct enemy in a war long-forgotten. Mind Flayer track these down to destroy them, often employing adventurers to do the work of destroying them.

What's binding? Is that your own idea or some sort of Incarnum? Never Mind! I get what you're saying now.
Interspeciary relations are looked down upon, ranging from disapproved to illegal.
Half-breeds still occur, but they always require intervention in the form of binding. A small spark of the donor is permanently given to the child while in the womb. Despite all these efforts though, the child is always hideously deformed in mind and body.

[qazzquimby]

I meant for a middle ground between the two extremes I often see, which seem inefficient to me. The first is contests, in which you're discouraged from building on another's idea, since you'd just be helping them win. The second is "___ builds a ___" which always builds off the first idea given, and each idea is set in stone without looking at alternatives.

I'm saying there should be more natural brain storming, where one suggests what they think sounds cool, whether its related to an existing idea or not.

Ancient Egypt is a great idea because it comes with such strong imagery and culture.
You might find this (http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-culture.html) useful for culture ideas, as it's both coherent (since it's historically accurate) and doesn't fall into stereotypes.

Perhaps each race could be set into a different caste, without necessarily racial hate, but great racial distinction.

Birth of a half-breed requires binding to something outside your race while pregnant? That would allow (deformed) crosses between any race and any creature powerful enough to bind to, which could have interesting possibilities. The government could secretly breed gross human/dragons, or worshipers could have satanbabies.

I like the illithid artifacts, I'm not sure a lot of unique artifact ideas would fit into the maker's motivations. If they're mysterious, they can do whatever the DM thinks of, but if we know where they came from, they need to have a purpose. I like the concept though, I'd just use it in a different way.

Lastly, if illithids are playing a large role, I can forward you a collection of PMs I was sent summarizing the vast and deeply complex subject of illithid ecology.

[LordotTrinkets]

I like that, brainstorming by throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks. My original idea was kind of to see if campaign building could be done in a contest style. Maybe there could be a combination of the two? Competitors all split into teams to build a campaign, then everybody votes for which one they like the best at the end. Come to think of it, that seems much more akin to what I was originally thinking of. People could build their campaign in whatever fashion they want to and it keeps the competition feel I desire.

I think you sent me the wrong link, it's for Aztec culture, not Egyptian.

First, a quick idea for a lesser rule for the binding, only women can perform the binding ritual successfully. The idea of this basically resulting in someone with two mothers. Binder might even be referred to as the 'second mother'

That's a pretty good idea for the half-breeds there, especially when you consider that, assuming that you're binding the child to a demon/dragon/whatever, the effects on the child would likely only manifest psychologically. This would maybe result in half-templates (half-fiend, half-dragon) not having any physical distinguishments, giving extra reason to why inter-speciary relationships are so frowned upon. Not only does it go against the rigid caste system in place, but since half-breeds always require binding in order to be born, you never know whether that one standing next to you is really a half-troll or some other nasty killer.

This ancient race was the discoverer of the binding process, often stealing life force from their illithid enemies to make themselves stronger. The attempt to bind entire illithid spirits to magical items (and thus making the artifacts) was their downfall. The devices worked incredibly well at first, but malfunctions began to occur and some intelligent artifacts manged to turn entire regimes against each other. So basically, they wanted really powerful weaponry, but it didn't turn out as they planned.

I do have the book 'Lords of Madness', so I have at least a basic understanding of how they think. Some extra history and culture ideas would be appreciated though.

[qazzquimby]

Competitions in teams would still discourage helping the other team, but the amount of words I've spent does not reflect how much I care :p

Yep, the link was aztec. I'd been reading it recently for non-dnd reasons, and thought about how well it would work as setting material.

Could you elaborate on how only women can perform the binding ritual? Does that mean you can only bind to women, or only women can bind to things?

Having only psychologically different half-breeds is interesting, but removes monstrous looking characters that sound really cool to me. Perhaps both could be possible somehow? I don't understand the process enough to make a suggestion.

[LordotTrinkets]

With the way this is going, it seems that this discussion should be migrated over to the brainstorming sub-forum.

Ok, took a look at that article and have at least a vague idea for culture. Basically, keep the Egyptian artistry and have an Aztec-style caste system only without the royal class with a purely religious caste. Each god will have influence over one city, their servants multitasking as priests and legal officials of all stripes. Any race can join this class by divine invitation, but are otherwise divided into jobs according to racial skills. There will be merchants, craftsmen, farmers, soldiers, and the 'outliers'. The last is only regarded as an outcast because they were once part of the order, but were thrown out because of bizarre politics that nobody can really keep straight.

On the topic of cultures, perhaps the warmongers could be some kind of analogue of Rome, or perhaps Babylon/Persia/some other conquerer of the ancient world.

I'm not saying that all binding must be performed on women period, I'm saying that the binding involved in creating a half-breed would have to be perform by a female binder. Basically, nature provides a way for somebody to have two fathers, so it seems like an interesting idea for magic to let someone have two mothers, effectively opening up the possibility for someone to have two moms and two dads.

For a more in game explanation? In Egyptian mythology, the soul had five parts, one being the "Ib" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_concept_of_the_soul). This piece of the soul can only be given by the mother at birth. Complications in the birth of a half-breed child result in a small bit of extra Ib needing to be provided, thus requiring a second woman to donate via binding.

In that case, how about that being a more drastic method of binding? Half-templates require a form of binding that's more like a metamorphosis, the 'patient' being filled with so much of the donating creature's spirit that it affects the body as well. The breeding process will still have only psychological effects, but it will provide a weaker template. Satan-babies would have the fiendish template, dragon creatures would have the Draconic template, etc.

Also, on the topic of shadow magic, it appears that the Egyptian soul also a component that was the shadow. It seems like that idea could easily be integrated as manipulation of that part of the soul.

[qazzquimby]

Outliers should also come from divine intervention sometimes, and it should be kind of like being given the career of beggar, only allowed to do the smallest tasks.

The Rome idea is good. I don't know much about the other cultures. I think its important that the conquerors are not evil from their perspective. Expansion is a necessary part of building an empire, and when they're done, it will be a happier place.

I think I agree with what you're saying about the binding. I think I said if they were binding something to themselves while pregnant, the first time, which kind of implies they're female.

Dragon people should be huge and should be able to clumsily fly, and choke and vomit up their breath weapon. I actually have a (messy and slow) homebrew system for finding the halfway point between any two objects or creatures. So if you want to splice ducks with brooms, or sheds with bumblebees, I can do that. Given the stupid nature of it, it might be best if I build examples on request, rather than making you learn to use it.

I think all standard magic items should be replaced with lesser artifacts. Instead of finding a +1 flaming sword, the sword you find will grant some great benefit you can't ignore, while damaging you while you hold it, or shortening your lifespan, or misdirecting crit fumbles to hit the most innocent creature within 60ft, or whatever.

[LordotTrinkets]

The brainstorming thread is now up. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?400910-Splatboard-Campaign-Let-s-see-what-sticks&p=18881435#post18881435) Hence forth, discussion of this campaign shall be moved to this thread.

Now allow me to contradict myself:smallbiggrin::

Certainly, but I also want the outliers to have a culture independent of the main society, sort of a nomadic group that is found wandering the desert. They possibly produced a traveling culture in order to avoid the cruel conditions they'd be otherwise relegated to.

I didn't want the Romans to be the only option out there. Babylon and Persia both actually conquered small portions of Egypt, so they'd still be appropriate for the role of superpower. Sure, Rome might be the most famous conqueror of Egypt, but that's no reason for it to be the only option.

Maybe the Mind Flayers are the secret proponents of the upcoming war? Either in a Tarquin-esque plan of world domination, or because the peaceful nation has something that the Mind Flayers want. If this is the case, the superpower is just playing puppet to the machinations of the brain-eaters.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the idea of binding with inanimate objects, but I am. An example would be appreciated. Who knows? These objects might just be modern attempts to replicate the processes that made the artifacts. We might just have a new item-creation feat on our hands.

Again, it would be appreciated if further campaign building discussion is moved onto the thread linked above. Thanks.