5e Mechanics for "Toxic Seas"?

[Armored Walrus]

Anyone interested in collaborating on stating up some creatures for the Toxic Seas setting for 5e mechanics? Also, we can brainstorm the mechanics of the fog itself here. My initial thoughts are that at the top layers it simply interferes with the long rest mechanic, and then gets more severe below that layer. It would allow short adventures into the thin fog without any mechanical differences other than they would need to "surface" in between adventures.

[JNAProductions]

Details on Toxic Sea?

[SilverStud]

I'm running a 5e campaign in toxic seas.

[Armored Walrus]

Details on Toxic Sea?

Sorry, here's the thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?503122-Let-s-build-another-setting!-(Toxic-Seas)) this came from, and below is a (somewhat) brief synopsis.

0. Recap of known world

- World is blanketed a greenish (slight color changes depending on season (temperature) miasma/fog. Known civilization lives in cities, towns, etc. located on mountains.

- Civilization - Most cities, towns, etc. are built into the mountains, meaning Dwarves are generally well respected due to their natural talent in mining and creating homes within solid rock. These mountain homes never dig below the 'fog level' for fear of breaching into the fog and 'flooding' the inside with fog. Because of this, most societies within mountains see the poor living at the bottom (least sunlight and fear of collapse) and top (lightest air/poorest oxygen). The richer you are the more in the middle you live, with greater space, and the 'best of both worlds'....though even the best isn't too great.

- The Fog - The Fog itself becomes more toxic the lower you go. Some people are able to live in shallow fog areas, typically outcasts, criminals, cults, or others who don't want to live under typically oppressive laws of civilization's remains.

- Under the Fog? - Errant winds occasionally reveal gently swaying copses of what might be (at a stretch) considered large plants...or fungal fruiting bodies, filamentous mineral "trees" or physical manifestations of mortal sin, depending on who you speak to about the subject.

- Fog Ghosts - Fog like elemental of unknown original and purpose, absolutely deadly, and only beatable if dispersed with wind.

- Shreikers - Snakes with 4 wings, terrors in the sky. Varying in size from a small viper to a constrictor, these beasts 'fly' with the help of the winds and storms between the mountains. They are viscous and extremely aggressive. As they breathe through their skin, any contact with the fog guarantees death within minutes...despite this, they can recklessly touch the fog when frenzied or dive bombing travelers on paths or balloons.

- Fog Water & Bottled Fog - Fog water is used as a potent hallucinogenic drug -- very illegal.
Fog itself is bottled for use as a weapon (large quantities do not maintain themselves when bottle or transported for some reason.

- Descender are people who enter the Fog (on purpose!). They wear obscenely expensive suits made by greatest priests & scholars of the Grayhair Peaks. Typically these are used to recover trade goods from a lost ballon.

- Ballons! Ballon Corp. hold the technology behind the only device able to travel over the fog between mountain tops. A lethal organization, often exacting absurd prices or demands to ensure a powerful monopoly and position (if not iron grip) in the politics of numerous mountain tops.

- No Ballons!? Most people see the seasons as changes in wind patterns, as this dictates when most people can travel between mountain tops -- when wind currents change and certain footpaths open between certain mountain tops. Typically nomadic people, and typically family units.

- Going by Foot - The Penninites - Often considered the greatest warriors alive, these men and women are also the most chivalric. They help travelers traverse mountain tops and trade paths when they are open, not just as guides, but in maintaining the paths, and defending those in need. They only accept donations for their efforts.



Nations/Organizations/and more
- Kingdom of Imtaraya: Largest stretch of habitable land, ruled by dwarves, wealthy, powerful, ambitious, and more militarily advanced then most any other known civilization (King)

- Elven city of Cinaedhdonwei - Small but well traveled at the center of numerous trade routes. Wealth, and known for an unmatched spy network. Home of the Starlight Thrones (King & Queen)

- Neo Oroseros - A small city state famed for is faith in the winds and world renowned stone sculptors. Any charm or statue of notable worth was likely carved here.

- Theocracy of Anuar - Ruled by three living gods upon a massive temple at the zenith of the mountain. These gods were secretly three adventurers who found powerful artifacts (perhaps in the fog) and have since passed the artifacts on to successors, keeping their myth alive generation after generation...the artifacts do grant some incredibly, maybe even god like powers (especially in a world 'capped at level 6'!...hello control weather and wind wall, as a spell like ability once a week in a world dependent on wind!?"

- The Unmakers - A world wide organization who's only belief and goal is that there is a way to unmake (remove) the fog and restore the world.
- Church of the Sacred Mist - A cult who believes the Fog is divine, and meant to punish and test the faith and characters of mortals. Removing or tampering with the fog in order to weaken it is heresy.

- Grand Temple of the Clerics of Brindarnas - Carved from white marble, this temple and it's followers carries glass balls of air, look to the sky, excel in the realm of ritual magic, and are often visited by astronomers from around the world. Though very small, and lacking in most resources, they produce the finest silk in the world. The silk worms hang much like starts in the night sky, illuminating their temples. For some reason, they fall lazy and unproductive when moved away from this mountain...some say because of a gargantuan cocooned silk worm deep within the mountain, which while biding it's time till it's next stage in life riles it's smaller brethren above. Some say the Clerics actually worship this massive worm instead...but that would just be ridiculous... right?

- Snown - The edge of the known world! A small eastern town, which no one has ever managed to travel beyond. There is a giant marble hand barely visible further to the east, more visible during and right after storms. The Church of the Sacred Mist occasionally lead others to for a ... 'proper'? death. (Fanatical devotees of the church of the sacred mist frequently take sacrifices, apostates, and volunteers to the hands palm to be consumed.)

- Baron Noveliss - Leader of the greatest group of pirates in the world. Rumored to be on her way to become the biggest producer and distributor of the Fog Water drug.

- Naga Viper Hot Springs - A popular tourist spot (Especially for the wealthy/elite), with notable influence from Baron Noveliss, the drug trade, and the Damned(!). Famous for hot springs, as well as hallucinogenic fog water hot springs

- The Damned - a Nihilistic extremist group broken off from the cult of the mist. This group, though currently decentralized, believe the fog is not only meant to test or punish, but destroy humanity for it's sins.

- Strongbreath Monks - A group of monks who live near the shallows of the fog, with the monasteries building deeper into the fog -- the highest members of the order living in the lower most floor (typically 3 main levels/tiers).

- Ajuran Mountain State - Near the equator, where hurricanes and storms are constant, lies this small Mountain state built almost entirely within the mountain. During the right window, or for the brave/stupid captain, one can visit any buy exotics such as mangos, bananas, coffee, coca, and more. The Oracles of Aju, a pre-fog religion still alive in Ajuran (Aju, The Thousand Armed One) frequently clash against cultists of many types and cement their authority over the citizens through a series of byzantine societal codes.

[SilverStud]

So there's a few important things you should know about the Toxic Seas setting.

It was designed for E6 rulesets. If you don't know, E6 is a mod where progress basically stops at level six. This means that it is an extremely low-magic setting. In 5e it's called "Mortal Overhaul"
Spells that break economies, like Create/Destroy Water or Goodberry etc., DO NOT EXIST.
The poison FREAKING KILLS YOU.


A minor rant about that last point. Back when I added to that thread (I was the first or second reply), the poison was basically a no-go situation. Don't go there: you will die. But, as with all amateur (as in, made for fun not profit) fiction, the minute you decide some place is impossible to live, people rush in to make exception. Well THESE people live here because they've acclimated to the thin stuff on top. Well THESE people have acclimated EVEN BETTER!!

The reason this is a problem (also, it is impossible to blame one person for the shift) is because it creates the impression that a ton of people live in the uppermost strata of the fog. That could not be further from the truth. Only the dreggiest of the dregs of society live in tiny little villages beneath the fogline. These people have short, sickly lifespans, but they do technically survive.

Sigh.

tl;dr I'm interested in collaborating with you, since I've already got a campaign running in it.

[Armored Walrus]

So in your campaign I assume you've taken the idea that the fog is simply not to be explored without some specialized equipment? ie. the layers etc that were added earlier on are probably not part of your setting?

That being said, I assume at some point your PCs will get access to some magic or some equipment that will allow them to explore below the fog a bit? What might they find there? I'm thinking about combat encounters, but also, simply descriptive flora and fauna. Or is it simply barren wasteland in your version?

[Knaight]

The reason this is a problem (also, it is impossible to blame one person for the shift) is because it creates the impression that a ton of people live in the uppermost strata of the fog. That could not be further from the truth. Only the dreggiest of the dregs of society live in tiny little villages beneath the fogline. These people have short, sickly lifespans, but they do technically survive.

This. The handful of people that have barely penetrated the very top of the fog have been detailed, because they're exceptional. There's also details on the various people who have fallen out of airplanes without parachutes and lived, it doesn't mean that falling systems in games should be written around them. Those Strongbreath Monks hold some absurd views, have a high mortality rate, and have only barely chipped into the uppermost layer of the fog by virtue of what is effectively a multi-generational human breeding campaign.

In short: You want in the fog, you can take a feat.

[Zorku]

So in your campaign I assume you've taken the idea that the fog is simply not to be explored without some specialized equipment? ie. the layers etc that were added earlier on are probably not part of your setting?

That being said, I assume at some point your PCs will get access to some magic or some equipment that will allow them to explore below the fog a bit? What might they find there? I'm thinking about combat encounters, but also, simply descriptive flora and fauna. Or is it simply barren wasteland in your version?

I got the impression early on that the setting was meant to be very high (exotic) seas. Even as people were writing the diving suit styled stuff, it still seemed more suicidal than the kinds of bad decisions adventurers regularly make.

Going into the fog ends up being an easy place to look for high level content, but this is E6 so there's never any reason you need to go looking for world ending threats like that.

[Armored Walrus]

Hmm, I can't really imagine capping this at level 6 and saying "sorry folks, you'll never find out what's under all that fog, or why it happened, or ever get the chance to return the world to its pre-fog state." I understand those are the starting parameters, but I, and my players, immediately responded to "the world is covered by toxic fog" with the question "what's under it?" So the campaign I'm running is going to delve into that question, as well as delving into the intrigue and politics going on in the surface world.

That being said, I don't think we need to go sub-fog right away, and I'll alter my starting scenario to be a mission to traverse one of the open passes, rather than immediately going scuba diving into the fog. So they only thing I'll need to stat up at the beginning are the shriekers.

I'm envisionsing several "sizes" of shrieker at different CR's, as well as a Swarm version, and then the Python version.

[Cluedrew]

Hmm, I can't really imagine capping this at level 6 and saying "sorry folks, you'll never find out what's under all that fog, or why it happened, or ever get the chance to return the world to its pre-fog state."You can find out more. I mean maybe you can ask the King under the Fog* for the answer. But you have to get there, and in this setting that would be the campaign. You would probably have to research and build new descender suits, and to fund that you might have to break the Balloon Corp. monopoly and become the second major trading guild forming an alliance with the Agrarians... so yeah...

Its not impossible, but you cannot do it just be clearing the dungeon floor by floor. There is a bit more to it than that.

Of course this is assuming that you don't just tweak the setting for your group, which is an option.

* The King under the Fog is an official part of the setting, but I don't think there is a way for the players to get there and actually see that... there are some odd things about this project.

[SilverStud]

Yeah I'm not capping it at level six (Mortal Overhaul didn't appeal to my group), but all the enemies they fight are low CR, so they will level very slowly.

As for collaborating, did you want to just kinda discuss it a lot here? Or did you want to make like a Google doc or something? I know they're making a wiki, but it is for E6 3.5 rules. A 5e version deserves its own thing, perhaps?

[Zorku]

I, and my players, immediately responded to "the world is covered by toxic fog" with the question "what's under it?"
"After a few adventure arcs we'll see if your characters care about that."

If you're going with the setting as it was proposed (you already said you're not in part of the quote I snipped out, but still,) then you probably don't return the world to a pre-fog state because there's a super volcano that will blot out the Sun for something on the order of "the entire known world." This is not necessarily the only thing standing in the way of removing the fog, but for basic story telling purposes it is probably closely connected to several other reasons.


But let's say that you ignore or solve every problem standing in your way and you remove the fog. In what way is this setting still interesting and/or unique?

[Sybracus]

Yeah I'm not capping it at level six (Mortal Overhaul didn't appeal to my group), but all the enemies they fight are low CR, so they will level very slowly.

As for collaborating, did you want to just kinda discuss it a lot here? Or did you want to make like a Google doc or something? I know they're making a wiki, but it is for E6 3.5 rules. A 5e version deserves its own thing, perhaps?

The wiki is primarily for the fluff, the actual stats for this stuff should be going into separate pages specific to the system being used. For example, if you want to run this game in your own system, you can create a page with stats and charts specific to that system or find one that will have already been written up, if anyone actually gets around to it. To be honest, I'm not seeing that any time soon.