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AnBe
2016-08-08, 02:43 AM
Lately I have noticed that my D&D campaign setting lacks a certain...something. It already has religion, politics, a plethora of different playable races, and a few weird and crazy locations, but it just doesn't feel quite right yet. Maybe these things just take time, or maybe I just haven't been fueled with the right creative ideas yet.

Perhaps some of you are struggling with the same problem with your own Campaign Settings? Please, share some ideas you may have that could spark a setting and really bring it to life.

Jallorn
2016-08-08, 03:03 AM
I'm much better at specific advice than general, perhaps tell us a little about your setting?

I'm also a fan of the Socratic method, so here's a barrage of all the relevant questions I can think of at 2:50 AM.

What do you feel is missing exactly? It seems like you're not sure, that you just feel that something is missing, but if you've got specifics, we can help.

Do you feel you've fallen short with building a living world, or with building a campaign setting? The two are not precisely the same, though the best are often both. The former is much harder to do and, at least in my experience, is just a matter of constant refinement of both the setting itself, and yourself as a storyteller. The latter is going to depend more on your goals for the campaign.

To that end: What kind of campaigns do you want to run in this setting? Big good hero games? Villain games? Anti-hero games? Gritty street fights? High fantasy, world ending crises? A mix as your mood suits?

At a certain point, I find that building a campaign, not just a setting, brings a lot. A campaign is really more an objective than a story, but it is equivalent. The campaign gives the setting context and purpose in the same way a story does for its setting. It can be fun to simply read about a world, but how much more fun is it to have the context? "Oh, that's why this noble was such a jerk to this character when they met." And it gives a good direction when you're lost and overwhelmed, which sounds like something you might be feeling a bit of. That is: there is always space for you to add more details. More characters, more specifics about economy, or another hamlet somewhere, and it's all of it kind of overwhelming, because the question becomes, "why?" A campaign provides that why. If you decide you want to build a villain who will threaten the structure of the setting in a way you want the PCs to fight... well, actually that can be a big task too. But you can start there.

With my current setting, I started with, "I need an adventure to get this group started at first level," and came up with, "Missing heirloom macguffin related to the theological background of this nation was stolen. Players are hired to retrieve it." And suddenly I had all sorts of questions I needed to create the answers to. Who stole it? Why? Who has it? How did they get it? Who else may have been involved but doesn't now have it? What are the clues my players can use to track the macguffin? And from there I created a number of characters I didn't know existed in this setting, but in the context of this adventure, they make it richer. And then I made one and went, "That's it. He's my villain, and this macguffin ties into his plans like so."

Yora
2016-08-08, 03:11 AM
My experience is that for a setting to feel special, it has to be special.

Giving a setting a strong and unique identity starts with picking a clear concept what kind of world it is meant to become. Medieval western Europe with elves, dwarves, orcs, and dragons is not going to feel special unless it also has something really unique that plays a very prominent role throughout the whole setting. Dark Sun is a generic D&D world, but magic kills all plant life and has turned the whole planet into a desert. Everything else that is special and unique about this setting are consequences of that one impartant change as people had to adapt to survive in such a world.

To get a really interesting setting, you need some kind of strong theme that influences what society is like and what adventures will be about. In theory anything could work, but you have to decide on one.

TheFamilarRaven
2016-08-08, 03:11 AM
Probably the thing you want to ask yourself is, "how is my setting different from others?". If you find that your setting matches up pretty much with another more established one (not just talking about Table top worlds like Forgotten Realms, could be video game RPG settings like Tamriel of the Elderscrolls series, or maybe Norath), with only a few things that are different ("In MY world the dark elves are GOOD guys!"), then that's probably whats got you down.

Not that there's anything wrong in crafting a world like that. As long as it's not for publication, and you and your players enjoy the world, then there's no problem. Also, nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from those settings either.

However, without knowing ANYTHING specific about your world, here are some things you could try:

1) Eliminate core races - Humans? BOOOOORING! Anything that remotely resembles a human is out. No dwarves, halflings or elves. Gnomes... maybe... 'cause they make me laugh. Making non-standard races the norm is a good place to start making your setting fresh.

2) Magic works differently - You don't have to scrap the vancian system of DnD, but adding a little something more, well, mystical to magic can help spice things up. In the Dark Sun setting, when you cast arcane magic, **** dies around you which really sucks when your whole world is a desert.

3)Malleability - When players make their characters, they should be able to affect the world around them. Try to think of ways the players can insert themselves as major characters in the world's history. The easiest answer is through the adventures and campaign that take place in this setting.

4) Start a thread - Seriously, there's a world building sub-forum located in the Homebrew section, check it out. There's lots of brainstorming games that go on there that you can draw inspiration from. If you're not feeling bashful you could even post parts of your settings details and have them critiqued.

Hope that helped.

AnBe
2016-08-08, 03:19 AM
That was very helpful, Jallorn. It really made me think. Yeah, you do make a good point about the campaign giving the setting a sort of meaning, an answer to the question of, "why?"

As for what I am going for with the setting, I am not entirely sure yet. I made a system of rules to match the setting as best I could. Key terms in the system include a "Sanity" stat and an "Honor" stat. So I guess what I am going for is a setting with horror themes (hence the "Sanity" rules) and also a sort of knightly, heroic, "Honor" theme to it as well. I'm not really sure that it mixes very good, but we'll see.

But I guess the problem I am having is that the setting doesn't satisfy the "Honor" part of it or the "Sanity" part of it as well as it should. It feels a little too much like a simulation and not enough of its own stylized world. When I think about the setting or play in it, I feel nothing (except for maybe a tinge of frustration). And that's not what it should be.

I feel like I need a really big push to make it into what I want it to be, but I feel indecisive and clueless. Still, your post, Jallorn, is helping me to crack the code.

Sian
2016-08-08, 03:21 AM
2) Magic works differently - You don't have to scrap the vancian system of DnD, but adding a little something more, well, mystical to magic can help spice things up. In the Dark Sun setting, when you cast arcane magic, **** dies around you which really sucks when your whole world is a desert.

On this one, refluff Psionics slightly, go full psionics/magic transperency and call it a third distinct but recognized type of magic, just as (un)common as Arcane/Divine ... Same could easily be done (thinking 3.5 here so bare with me) with Shadowcaster (ToM), although that probably would need a bit more handheld fine-tuning to be bought up to speed in terms of competence

Sian
2016-08-08, 03:24 AM
Given your mentions of Sanity and Honor, considered looking into what Oriental Adventures did? They had a strong decent (if underutilized) Honor subsystem, and the seeds of what would later become Heroes Of Horror Taint. Its honor system might be a good baseline to evolve from.

goto124
2016-08-08, 03:26 AM
1) Eliminate core races - Humans? BOOOOORING! Anything that remotely resembles a human is out. No dwarves, halflings or elves. Gnomes... maybe... 'cause they make me laugh. Making non-standard races the norm is a good place to start making your setting fresh.

I feel this is likely to just end up with races that are impossible to understand or interact with, causing frustration for your players because how are they supposed to react to the NPCs that doesn't end up with 'wait why would they do that? I can't wrap my mind over how they think! Do I just go back to murderhobo again'?

Imagine if the PCs can't speak the language of the NPCs, and vice versa. That's a lot of interaction cut out already. It's a pain to handle, and thus language typically gets glossed over in games.

Human(oid) races are popular for a reason. There's making a setting fresh, and there's making things (such as the NPCs) so comprehensible that the players try everything they can think of and pray it works.


4) Start a thread - Seriously, there's a world building sub-forum located in the Homebrew section, check it out. There's lots of brainstorming games that go on there that you can draw inspiration from. If you're not feeling bashful you could even post parts of your settings details and have them critiqued.

I recommend this.

Yora
2016-08-08, 03:38 AM
Sanity rules are always problematic, just like fear mechanics. It frequently leads to things being less unsettling because the GM tells the players what their characters are feeling. It's not the players who decide what their characters should be feeling based on how they perceive the situation. The effect is a disconnect from the characters and situations, which is the opposite of what such mechanics are intended to do.
The key to making things spooky are doubt and uncertainty. Mechanics that tell the players when something is frightening or not do the opposite. They make everything more mundane and less ambiguous.
A better approach is to fill the world with things that the players can't explain and whose threat is difficult to interprete and judge.

If you want insanity in your setting I assume you want to do a world in which eldritch and alien forces are at work. That would be a start to find a theme.

TheFamilarRaven
2016-08-08, 03:58 AM
I feel this is likely to just end up with races that are impossible to understand or interact with, causing frustration for your players because how are they supposed to react to the NPCs that doesn't end up with 'wait why would they do that? I can't wrap my mind over how they think! Do I just go back to murderhobo again'?

Imagine if the PCs can't speak the language of the NPCs, and vice versa. That's a lot of interaction cut out already. It's a pain to handle, and thus language typically gets glossed over in games.

Human(oid) races are popular for a reason. There's making a setting fresh, and there's making things (such as the NPCs) so comprehensible that the players try everything they can think of and pray it works.


All valid points. Perhaps I over exaggerated mine by saying "eliminate anything remotely resembling a human". I merely meant that by doing away with races that feel like "human with pointy ears", "short human that drinks a lot and mines" etc. and replacing the standard races from the core rulebook with more unusual (still humanoid) races can be good way to make things unique. And most (if not all) of these non-standard races begin play with "common" as a language, so unless the OP does away with that language, there's no problem.

It can create interesting scenarios like "what if Kobolds ruled the earth?" or "what if ifrits and undines are locked in a bloody war?"

Jallorn
2016-08-08, 04:15 AM
1) Eliminate core races - Humans? BOOOOORING! Anything that remotely resembles a human is out. No dwarves, halflings or elves. Gnomes... maybe... 'cause they make me laugh. Making non-standard races the norm is a good place to start making your setting fresh.
I often see this sort of advice, and while it can help to differentiate your setting, and truly original, well thought out races are always a draw, I find I almost always disregard it. For one, I never create a setting without Humans because Humans are the base line. Humans are the self-insert, the people we understand, and through whom we can understand the other species, primarily by how they interact with humanity. There's also a huge player learning curve to new races. The classic races are a kind of short hand. If I was creating a setting for a book, I would absolutely create a new species, but for a TTRPG, decreasing the learning curve for players to discover your setting makes it more likely that they will find the things that are really important, the twists of originality that really make the setting shine. For my part, I am a fan of making twists on the classic races, using most, but not all of the shorthand they represent. Whether its barbarous Elves who don't have overpopulation despite never dying of age because they are so violent, or desert dwelling, nomadic Dwarves rather than the traditional subterranean variety, I like my twists.


That was very helpful, Jallorn. It really made me think. Yeah, you do make a good point about the campaign giving the setting a sort of meaning, an answer to the question of, "why?"

As for what I am going for with the setting, I am not entirely sure yet. I made a system of rules to match the setting as best I could. Key terms in the system include a "Sanity" stat and an "Honor" stat. So I guess what I am going for is a setting with horror themes (hence the "Sanity" rules) and also a sort of knightly, heroic, "Honor" theme to it as well. I'm not really sure that it mixes very good, but we'll see.

But I guess the problem I am having is that the setting doesn't satisfy the "Honor" part of it or the "Sanity" part of it as well as it should. It feels a little too much like a simulation and not enough of its own stylized world. When I think about the setting or play in it, I feel nothing (except for maybe a tinge of frustration). And that's not what it should be.

I feel like I need a really big push to make it into what I want it to be, but I feel indecisive and clueless. Still, your post, Jallorn, is helping me to crack the code.
Hmm, here's what I'm hearing the setting is about: This is a setting with great horrors and monsters, where the darkest qualities of humanity are reflected in the fearsome brutality of the world (for good horror is always a reflection of our own inner darkness), but where, despite the bleakness of the setting, there is incredible hopefulness. Because the darkness of the setting really just serves to make a place where humanity's true beauty and glory, its honor and goodness, can shine all the brighter for being in the dark. This is a setting where, yes, life can be short and painful, but people, especially the heroes, can be glorious ideals to aspire to.

I like this as a premise, though it's a tricky beam to balance on. These are the kinds of stories from the WH40K verse I like the most, but they often benefit from the other stories, the ones that are just bleak darkness, because having that pure darkness reminds you that although this character will always come out okay, he really is special. It's a quality I often try to emulate in my campaigns, but not always successfully, so take this with a grain of salt, but a high NPC kill count, and maybe one or two apparently permanent wounds to a PC or two, and you may be able to keep that edge to their fear without necessarily having to kill a PC. Especially if you can make them care about NPCs, and care about keeping them safe.

All that said, it sounds like there's room for a lot more details. It sounds like you've got a theme, so now you need to decide how that theme is reflected. Is this a fantasy setting, or a mundane one? Or perhaps something of a blend, where the fantasy is limited to the horror elements? What time period is it set in? How apparent is the darkness of the world to the average person? Is there some kind of masquerade, is the world a gloomy mistrustful place where the risk that a stranger is a monster is just prevalent enough to caution the average person, or is it a world under siege, a la a zombie apocalypse or either WH setting? Are the heroes the only beacons of light and hope? (I'd advise not the only ones, since you can never be entirely certain how they'll choose to act, and because your setting should mostly work with or without the players in it.) Just generally explore how the basic premise of your world impacts and colors the details.


Sanity rules are always problematic, just like fear mechanics. It frequently leads to things being less unsettling because the GM tells the players what their characters are feeling. It's not the players who decide what their characters should be feeling based on how they perceive the situation. The effect is a disconnect from the characters and situations, which is the opposite of what such mechanics are intended to do.
The key to making things spooky are doubt and uncertainty. Mechanics that tell the players when something is frightening or not do the opposite. They make everything more mundane and less ambiguous.
A better approach is to fill the world with things that the players can't explain and whose threat is difficult to interprete and judge.

If you want insanity in your setting I assume you want to do a world in which eldritch and alien forces are at work. That would be a start to find a theme.

I would say that a Sanity tracker is decent for adding a mechanical element to the scars of the setting, a limitation that reminds players every time they factor it in that this world is dangerous, and letting your guard down has a cost. I think that it should be applied organically, perhaps at certain benchmarks you discuss with your player how their character's recent experiences have effected them, and how best to represent the stresses as a mechanical effect. One player may feel that the recent interactions with Cthulhu cultists has given him a phobia of water, perhaps manifesting as a general discomfort and distraction in small amounts such as a glass of water, while another may decide that they have developed severe survivor's guilt, and attempt to cleanse themself of it through some form of self-harm or flagellation, incurring a penalty to stamina.

Worgwood
2016-08-08, 04:54 AM
In my opinion, a good setting needs drama and mystery. You can populate it with outlandish races, send the players to wholly alien environments, remove humans as the default race, turn magic on its head - but without some kind of drama in the world, the setting feels (or at least, can feel) boring; and without some unanswered questions, be it "what happened to the progenitors" or "why did the prince die last summer", I find a setting can lose a lot of its drawing power.

As an aside, I find small details help characterize a setting a lot. Things like unusual traditions or laws, a culture's myths and legends, recent history, etc. can give someone a great deal of insight into a setting, while also giving them strong foundations on which to build a character.

HammeredWharf
2016-08-08, 06:48 AM
In my opinion, a good setting needs drama and mystery. You can populate it with outlandish races, send the players to wholly alien environments, remove humans as the default race, turn magic on its head - but without some kind of drama in the world, the setting feels (or at least, can feel) boring; and without some unanswered questions, be it "what happened to the progenitors" or "why did the prince die last summer", I find a setting can lose a lot of its drawing power.

I'll second this. A good example of such a mystery is the disappearance of the dwarves in The Elder Scrolls and especially Morrowind. Dwarves are normal and a bit bland, right? Now they're gone, no one knows why, and suddenly they're really cool and mysterious.

mikeejimbo
2016-08-08, 11:40 AM
I create really interesting settings, full of subverted cliches, political intrigue, unique twists on default races, deep, detailed histories and backstories, and highly allegorical themes.

My players disagree and think it's boring and dry. They don't want English class, they want to smack monsters in the face.

So, as you're designing an interesting setting, make sure that it's something that will capture your players' attention. If you should be so lucky to have players who would enjoy a Sanity system, go for it. Personally I really like the sound of having both an Honor and Sanity system as you try to keep your honor in the face of insanity - and personally I would want that to be a sort of losing game where keeping your honor leads to your inevitable demise - but I know that my players would hate everything about that.

I need to find new players...

(Edit - if it isn't clear I'm being tongue in cheek vis a vi my players' vs my interest. Yes I do think my settings are interesting but I don't actually think that they are objectively interesting, or that my players are actually that murderhoboish.)

nrg89
2016-08-08, 12:38 PM
My experience is that for a setting to feel special, it has to be special.

This. And try to keep it very coherent and short. This is how my favorite setting Planescape is marketed;

"Discover the multiverse! Enter infinite universes of infinite variety, worlds beyond the prime-material settings of the AD&D game. Explore Sigil, the City of Doors, filled with portals to every layer of every plane."

And I immediately know that this is a setting for me. I know that I'll visit creatures from other planes in Sigil and visit strange new worlds, that's the flavor that captures my interest. When I keep reading and find out that there's several philosophical factions vying for power I know that these are the movers and shakers that give me stuff to do.

But the most important reason to have a brief, simple and clear pitch for your world is that it reveals what's not in your world. If you say that it's a Sword and Sorcery setting you imply that a regular person has not seen magic. If it's an under water setting you imply that the characters will not visit the desert. When you say that the entire setting is a city you imply that ordinary druid adventures are not happening here.
So, do a brief summary of your setting idea. Write some things about your setting and never be afraid to take something away. A desert setting isn't necessarily better for people who like desert settings when you add sea monsters in an oasis. I'm exaggerating here, but keep your setting focused. The kitchen sink is, in my opinion, a bad bet because the world doesn't have a distinct flavor, nothing stands out.


In my opinion, a good setting needs drama and mystery. You can populate it with outlandish races, send the players to wholly alien environments, remove humans as the default race, turn magic on its head - but without some kind of drama in the world, the setting feels (or at least, can feel) boring; and without some unanswered questions, be it "what happened to the progenitors" or "why did the prince die last summer", I find a setting can lose a lot of its drawing power.

This is also true. Without drama there's no demand for heroes who'll help out and without mysteries with leads there's no motivation for characters. And I mean leads, not answers. Make the players discober details about the big mystery but keep the main mystery under a tight lid.

goto124
2016-08-08, 07:14 PM
Personally I really like the sound of having both an Honor and Sanity system as you try to keep your honor in the face of insanity - and personally I would want that to be a sort of losing game where keeping your honor leads to your inevitable demise - but I know that my players would hate everything about that.

Personally, I would call the GM insane :smalltongue:

On a more serious note, do you think you can pull off a game with both Honor and Sanity systems? So far it sounds like a good way to frustrate your players to no end. Players worrying and squabbling over the mechanics of keeping both their Honor and Sanity points would likely kill the intended mood of the game.

It could be done, but are you writing a campaign setting, or an entirely new system? I doubt there's a system with both Honor and Sanity systems, seeing how those two thing are going for dramatically different feels.

AnBe
2016-08-08, 08:08 PM
These posts have all been good, thank you guys.

I'll shed a little detail on how the Honor and Sanity systems work in my game. There is a Code of Honor that I have written down. Each player character starts with 10-20 Honor Points, varying depending on that character's concept and backstory. In the Code, there's a number of ways you can gain more Honor points, but there's also plenty of ways to lose them. The amount you gain or lose depends on the severity of the offense or how glorious the success. I remember someone once said, "In life, without Honor, there is nothing." I guess I'm kind of building my system/setting based on that quote. Also, if your Honor gets high enough, Those Who Dwell Above will notice and offer great reward to you. Not to mention your reputation is also affected greatly by your Honor level. So there is incentive for players to go the honorable route.

On the other hand, Sanity does affect the game in a big way too. Each player character on average starts with 20 Sanity points, though it might start with less based on their backstory (if they have a really tragic or trauma-ridden backstory then it will be lower). Each time you encounter a truly disturbing monster for the first time, lose a Sanity point. Each time someone you love dies, lose a Sanity point. Read a Forbidden Tome to increase your stats? Lose a Sanity point. Each time you encounter a situation that is stressful or overwhelming, you roll a Sanity check for your character. Simply roll a d20 and add your current Sanity points to the result. If it equals 20 or higher, then your character keeps their composure and suffers no negative effects. If the check doesn't quite add up to 20, then an insanity effect goes off (still not sure what exactly the insanity effects will be, but for now I'm leaving it up to the players, as it is their character who is experiencing it).

sktarq
2016-08-10, 08:34 PM
Take a look at Ravenloft - there is a 3e version that came from a non WotC source but was rather good (beyond that I never bothered to find out)
What drives the sanity and corruption systems in that game could have links to the honor system as well-

With the Ones above you could have links to a reflection of the corruption found by the dark powers of ravenloft - thus extreme examples of honor or corruption become magical humanoids and icons. . .

Lacco
2016-08-11, 01:06 AM
What I always wanted to try is a sanity system fully in control of GM. Basically - the GM knows the exact amount of sanity points, and just modifies the perceptions of the player's character based on the amount of sanity left and the impact of the current sanity loss.

It would be an additional pool to take care of, but still...

Especially in PbP, where you can write down two paragraphs (one for the "sanity impaired" PC, one for the others) it would be doable - at the table it would be a bit harder.

It's mainly because I agree - if you give the player hit points, he'll think of them as resource, not as "ouch, that must have hurt"... if you give him sanity points, it will be "damn, lost another one?" instead of "what? I see what in the doorway???".

LaserFace
2016-08-11, 08:48 AM
Lately I have noticed that my D&D campaign setting lacks a certain...something. It already has religion, politics, a plethora of different playable races, and a few weird and crazy locations, but it just doesn't feel quite right yet. Maybe these things just take time, or maybe I just haven't been fueled with the right creative ideas yet.

Perhaps some of you are struggling with the same problem with your own Campaign Settings? Please, share some ideas you may have that could spark a setting and really bring it to life.

I'll ask you questions that I lifted from a cool youtube dude who talks about videogames and setting.

Is there cultural or religious conflict?
Is there injustice?
Conflict between Haves and Have-nots?
Any political intrigue?
Economic struggle?

Not just in the present, but have these things happened in the setting's history as well? Were things better or worse in the past? Maybe both?

Answering this stuff might help you come up with a more lived-in setting that makes use of the pieces you've already set up on the board.

nrg89
2016-08-11, 08:57 AM
I'll ask you questions that I lifted from a cool youtube dude who talks about videogames and setting.

Link to video or name of uploader? He sounds like a guy who has a lot of good things to say.

LaserFace
2016-08-11, 09:00 AM
Link to video or name of uploader? He sounds like a guy who has a lot of good things to say.

He does.

mrBtongue's video from which I lifted the body of my comment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZUynhkal1I)

Cozzer
2016-08-12, 03:36 AM
I think a good setting starts with a single, simple and powerful concept. Strange races, crazy locations, weird powers, special rules... they're important, but you need the core concept first. This way, all the other things will be (more or less) bound to the core and actually relevant, not just "things that are there".

First thing, I think you should ask yourself "In a single sentence, what is my campaign about?" Take the answer to that question, and look at it from every possible point of view.

Let's take a simple case, with default D&D clichès: the core concept is "magic is slowly disappearing, PCs need to find out why and decide if they want to stop it". How will everybody react to this? Barbarian hordes slowly growing in power as physical strength becomes more and more relevant, elves desperately trying to find ways to preserve at least their own magic, evil necromancers becoming more and more desperate and dangerous, clerics having their faith tested as they wonder why their gods don't grant them as many spells. Gnomes becoming politically relevant as their tinkering with technology suddenly becomes an hope for the future. And so on...

Then you start putting in more things. Maybe there's a particular kind of elves that isn't losing magic power. Why? Maybe there's a cult that believes their god is the one behind what's happening, and that it's actually good for the world. Are they crazy? Are they evil? Are they right? Maybe there are ruins of a past empire that had magic way more powerful than now. Did they have something to do with what's happening? Maybe there are regions with monsters way more powerful than the norm, that can only live there because the "magic background radiation" is stronger in these places. What's the deal with that? And so on...

Jallorn
2016-08-12, 04:07 AM
I think a good setting starts with a single, simple and powerful concept. Strange races, crazy locations, weird powers, special rules... they're important, but you need the core concept first. This way, all the other things will be (more or less) bound to the core and actually relevant, not just "things that are there".

First thing, I think you should ask yourself "In a single sentence, what is my campaign about?" Take the answer to that question, and look at it from every possible point of view.

At the same time, don't feel yourself bound by the initial decision you make. My current campaign setting very much started from the idea, "I want a world of islands and huge oceans," but that element, while obviously still hugely influential to everything in the setting, isn't what I consider to be the central theme at this point. It's a world both on the edge of an apocalypse, at least a local one, and a post-apocalyptic world. It's a region surrounded by dangerous people and monsters, not to mention being under siege from beneath the waves, but also one of the wealthiest and most powerful thanks to having the most landmass on a water world. It's a region ruled by the elven empire, but the balance of powers is rather fragile, with the internal threat of the subjugated skarn, the ever chaotic, and potentially unpredictable humans growing in might rapidly, and the slower promise of the definitely hostile, growing drow nation, that dominance could in jeopardy. Yet even then, half the region's people worship the elven pantheon, and one of the other two major, organized religions has clear influence from the culture of the elven beliefs. I could go on for a while.

The point being that this is a setting on the edge. Everywhere you look, there's a delicate balance just waiting for a PC or a villain to come along and tip it, many of which could be the focus of whole campaigns easily. Perhaps this may simply be good world design, to have so many possible hooks for adventures, but it's a definite theme, that in this world, nothing is really stable or secure. In another well designed world, you might have some bastions that the players can count on, however the world changes, and some balances already tipped, wars in action, a subjugated people, who, despite still holding out some resistance, really are beaten and have no real hope of freedom this generations. Certainly there will be those delicate balance things, teetering on the edge of disaster, but in my setting, that is the central theme; everything could fall to disaster soon, but for the heroes.

That's not a central theme I'd have known how to work with from the start, but I'm glad I stumbled into it. that original seed of, "water world," certainly colors everything, but it's not where the emphasis goes. I have only one, maybe one and a half, truly nomadic people, and they're in airships, so for being a water world, the sea isn't all that central.

Cozzer
2016-08-12, 05:29 AM
True. The first phase of your campaign might even be "introducing a few things, trying to decide what I REALLY want the central theme to be". It's not that bad if the first few low-level adventures are a bit generic or disjointed, since the players are probably deciding how to roleplay their characters too.

mikeejimbo
2016-08-12, 11:14 AM
Personally, I would call the GM insane :smalltongue:

On a more serious note, do you think you can pull off a game with both Honor and Sanity systems? So far it sounds like a good way to frustrate your players to no end. Players worrying and squabbling over the mechanics of keeping both their Honor and Sanity points would likely kill the intended mood of the game.

It could be done, but are you writing a campaign setting, or an entirely new system? I doubt there's a system with both Honor and Sanity systems, seeing how those two thing are going for dramatically different feels.

I'd actually like to play in that setting as a losing game! I wouldn't try to GM it unless my players all also wanted to, which seems unlikely... but I like it when my characters succumb to their tragic flaws, usually hubris. As a player, I have had the rest of the players demand that they take my soul for safekeeping, otherwise I'd probably sell it.

TheFurith
2016-08-12, 11:43 AM
Having things happen in the background can really add to the game. Even really simple cliche games.

Say you have a group in a tavern and they hear about bandits harassing caravans and a small town that has an issue with giant spiders. If the group goes to deal with the bandits, when they get back to town the hear about how that small town was wiped out and is now inhabited by giant spiders. Or if they go and fight the spiders the bandits gain a stranglehold on trade and now the town is short on supplies when they get back.

Have the world carry on without them. Like they are part of the world, not the center of it. Just hopefully a lot less cliche than my example.

2D8HP
2016-08-21, 10:19 PM
Lately I have noticed that my D&D campaign setting lacks a certain...something......
-snip-
Please, share some ideas you may have that could spark a setting and really bring it to life.
Is that what your players want?

My view is admittedly skewed, given that I am not at all jaded by old-fashioned Dungeons & Dragons, and that after I heavily playing RPG's in the late 1970's until the early to mid 1990's, I then Rip-Van-Winkeled until recently,
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpnhA6GfrR-_AfSeGN2Sp644hMIIsj1L3TVQ1Nz-_QUL-33bwa
but to me it looks like the general trend over the years has been away from interesting settings, and towards increasingly boring ones, but with increasingly super-powerful special snowflake PC''s.

Except maybe for Castle Falkenstein (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Falkenstein_(role-playing_game)), I just haven't seen any settings as, wild, wooley, and just plain weird as the early Dungeons & Dragons games we played that incorporated:
Arduin (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduin),

All the Worlds Monsters (http://www.chaosium.com/all-the-worlds-monsters-1-pdf/), and

Empire of the Petal Throne (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Petal_Throne),

Rich settings in which our PC''s began as mostly indistinct regular mortals that usually became a monster's lunch.

When I left the hobby in the 1990's, with the partial exception of Shadowrun, all the tables I could find ran games with modern day (or nearly so) settings, but the PC''s weren't mere mortals from the start.

Champions?
Comicbook Superheroes in a modern-day setting.

Vampire?
Supernatural hidden monsters in a modern-day setting.

Cyberpunk?
Bionic psychopaths in a setting of the "Dark Future" with criminal gangs, computer hackers, and Mega-Corporations. Just how was that setting fictional?

I wouldn't be surprised if someone published "Postal Worker: The RPG" sometime during the '90's.

Thankfully in the 21st century people will play D&D again, but there actually seem to be less setting books than there used to be in the 20th century, but now they're books full of super-powerful PC classes instead!

The situation is probably more complex than what I perceive, but it looks to me that players are now less interested in exploring worlds where "Here be Dragons", than they are in having PC's be the Dragons.