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PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-12, 01:52 PM
The more I DM and world-build, the more I find myself using certain patterns, shortcuts, themes and default assumptions. Ruts, if you will. These may be things that I avoid or things that show up, whether I intended them to be there or not.

A few of mine are
* Gender-egalitarian societies. I'm more likely to include a matriarchy (usually biologically-inspired) than a classic primogeniture, women-are-property/can't hold positions of power sort of society. Most of mine don't care about gender at all.
* Hidden media references (usually in names or in obscure puns).
* The relationship between sacrifice and power. When involuntary this is blood magic, but voluntary sacrifice has tremendous power.
* Very few (if any) irredeemably evil villains (even fiends). My BBEGs tend to either be individuals doing what they think is best or outright insane (by common standards. In reality, it's more often Blue and Orange morality at work). A large percentage can be talked out of it. Often there's a clash of people who believe that they're good (and may even be), but the two different ideas of what is right are incompatible.
* Tentacles. Eldritch horror/body horror seems to come up a lot...:smalleek:

What are some of yours?

N.B. I'd like this thread to be the positive counterpart to the "Tropes I hate" thread. Please focus on things you do because you like, rather than things you avoid because you don't like them.

Frozen_Feet
2017-11-12, 02:21 PM
If you mean to ask "which things I like to include in my settings?", then:

1) surrealist dream world and dream sequences. In pretty much all games I run, there is a place or situation where ordinary logic takes backseat to hazy nonsense people experience while asleep.
2) long treks through wilderness. I like hiking in the real world and I heavily draw from my real experience to give a feeling of being there for my players. Lately, this has primarily involved drawing from my experience of being lost in the woods, because my players don't have enough real life experience of hiking to bring with them a map and a compass. :smalltongue:
3) giant lizards, especially komodo dragons. Because giant lizards are cool. And weird.
4) giant spiders, because those are a classic.
5) wolves, bears, deers etc. normal wildlife, in abundance.
6) vast underground cave systems with glowing fungi, edible moss and pale cave-dwelling creatures.
7) Mermaids/Deep Ones/Sirens/Zoras. Ambiguously aligned fish-snake-people living in the unreachable depths of the ocean, inhabiting sunken ruins of humanity and ruling their own shadow society built from the scraps of the surface world.
8) Sailing ships! Piracy! Cannons! Fighting against nature as you sail from island to island!
9) Vague allusions to Panspermia and that life, and especially deities, are from Outer Space.
10) Faceless Death Gods.
11) societies with inverted, subverted or just plain weird gender roles, contrasted with others of more familiar sort.
12) Vast, unchallenged Empires who are, if not the good guys, at least not the obvious evil sort. And definitely not something a ragtag bunch of misfits could topple.

RazorChain
2017-11-12, 03:07 PM
I love smart villains, the mastermind. Especially when they have little personal power but use charisma, social leverage or just their cunning and intellect to thwart the PC's.

The humane villain, the better arguments for their actions the better the villain. Those times the villain gets, almost gets the PC's aboard with him/her or just sows dissent among the PC's because the rationale of his/her actions is priceless.

Complex plots with lots of politics, backstabbing, manipulations, betrayals and grey moral choices.

Far reaching consequences

Power corrupts and giving the PC's the chance to get power at a price.

Darth Ultron
2017-11-12, 03:09 PM
Well, lets see:

*Fantasy Racism-Lots and lots of this.
*Not so hidden media references everywhere (but you'd need to know my personal ones to get them all)
*Religion of each god in a very real divine way
*The Afterlife and what will become of a character after they die.
*Dark Humor.
*Things are Not Always What they Seem.
*Pure Evil is vile, dark, horrible and monstrous.
*Pure Good is pure, light, nice and friendly.
*Actions have Consequences

Bulhakov
2017-11-12, 03:58 PM
- rehashing scenarios from tv shows or comic books that I know none of my players watched/read (you'd be surprised how well some episodes of "Charmed" work as World of Darkness adventures)

- morally grey competent but not too genre-savvy villains (they are ususally well intentioned extremists with clear goals in mind)

- father-like "good" and competent bosses (I feel a need to give players a "safe harbour")

- prophetic visions and rumors (especially used to "cold read" my players - I feed them a vague vision, and they feed me tons of potential ideas where to take the plot)

- family, childhood friends or comrades at arms relation between PCs (really helps party cohesion)

Vitruviansquid
2017-11-12, 06:49 PM
1. There is no generic medievally-flavored-Western-ethics-and-values society. If there is an option for players to choose what kind of society their characters are from, none of them will seem like modern day America or Europe. I once ran a game about the players being dwarves and fighting their ancestral enemies, the goblins. Dwarves in the setting literally spring from deep, dark places undergound, and have a society built on conformity, doing what you're told by elder dwarves, and warring with goblins. Meanwhile, goblins in the setting also literally spring from deep, dark places underground, and have a society built on conformity, doing what you're told, and warring against the dwarves. At every turn, NPCs insist that the other culture is the complete opposite of them and must be destroyed without mercy.

I'm currently working on a setting shared by three cultures - one is a medieval city-state with intense class stratification, one is a society evolved from a province having become a battleground for 2 centuries, the last is a tribal culture that was totally enslaved for two centuries and only recently became free again.

2. Magic is ambiguous. Nobody's throwing around lightning bolts from their hands in my setting, but there is a "Lightning" spell that dramatically increases the caster's initiative for a round. Is the effect of the incantations to make him faster? Is it something more like a special technique? There'll never be a canon answer.

3. I like to keep the story on a small scale. You are not ever trying to save the world. You may be trying to do something personally fulfilling to your characters, make a quick buck, save a town, possibly save a city at the most. I find keeping the stakes relatively small and personal makes the struggle more plot more relatable.

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-12, 07:27 PM
I love smart villains, the mastermind. Especially when they have little personal power but use charisma, social leverage or just their cunning and intellect to thwart the PC's.

The humane villain, the better arguments for their actions the better the villain. Those times the villain gets, almost gets the PC's aboard with him/her or just sows dissent among the PC's because the rationale of his/her actions is priceless.

Complex plots with lots of politics, backstabbing, manipulations, betrayals and grey moral choices.

Far reaching consequences

Power corrupts and giving the PC's the chance to get power at a price.

I'm not one for political plots--I can never keep them straight. Oh, and I haven't had any players who were interested in such things. They get bored easily and are super snarky. Chutzpah is their MO.


- rehashing scenarios from tv shows or comic books that I know none of my players watched/read (you'd be surprised how well some episodes of "Charmed" work as World of Darkness adventures)

- morally grey competent but not too genre-savvy villains (they are ususally well intentioned extremists with clear goals in mind)

- father-like "good" and competent bosses (I feel a need to give players a "safe harbour")

- prophetic visions and rumors (especially used to "cold read" my players - I feed them a vague vision, and they feed me tons of potential ideas where to take the plot)

- family, childhood friends or comrades at arms relation between PCs (really helps party cohesion)

I take lots of inspiration from books or movies (more books, because I don't watch as many movies). Mine is more phrases and visuals inspiration than plots or scenarios though. My portal network--it's a vertical ring with symbols on it and a pedestal in front of the actual portal ring.


1. There is no generic medievally-flavored-Western-ethics-and-values society. If there is an option for players to choose what kind of society their characters are from, none of them will seem like modern day America or Europe. I once ran a game about the players being dwarves and fighting their ancestral enemies, the goblins. Dwarves in the setting literally spring from deep, dark places undergound, and have a society built on conformity, doing what you're told by elder dwarves, and warring with goblins. Meanwhile, goblins in the setting also literally spring from deep, dark places underground, and have a society built on conformity, doing what you're told, and warring against the dwarves. At every turn, NPCs insist that the other culture is the complete opposite of them and must be destroyed without mercy.

I'm currently working on a setting shared by three cultures - one is a medieval city-state with intense class stratification, one is a society evolved from a province having become a battleground for 2 centuries, the last is a tribal culture that was totally enslaved for two centuries and only recently became free again.

2. Magic is ambiguous. Nobody's throwing around lightning bolts from their hands in my setting, but there is a "Lightning" spell that dramatically increases the caster's initiative for a round. Is the effect of the incantations to make him faster? Is it something more like a special technique? There'll never be a canon answer.

3. I like to keep the story on a small scale. You are not ever trying to save the world. You may be trying to do something personally fulfilling to your characters, make a quick buck, save a town, possibly save a city at the most. I find keeping the stakes relatively small and personal makes the struggle more plot more relatable.

I guess I'm just the opposite. I don't really plan stories--I at most plan arcs and those on the fly. And mine tend to involve much more long distance travel--my longest-running game has been to both coasts of a North America-sized continent over the course of a year (plus a few months) in universe. CF "Portal network".

PhantasyPen
2017-11-12, 07:33 PM
I personally enjoy really high-power fantasies. Usually things that follow the feeling of ancients sagas and epics of mythology in terms of scope or scale.

I also generally enjoy my campaigns to end on relatively high notes, both in terms of tone and power, so my players usually finish their campaigns with at least once ancient horror/deity slain at their feet.

Beyond that, I write societies with somewhat strict honor codes, or with complex codes of conduct based on the environments they developed in.

This one is a bit more recent, but my last two campaigns have features Shifters as a race of nomadic raiders. The previous one had them based around the ancient tribes of africa, with a little bit of viking thrown in, while my current one has them as a dinosaur-riding Mongol horde.

Vitruviansquid
2017-11-12, 07:49 PM
I guess I'm just the opposite. I don't really plan stories--I at most plan arcs and those on the fly. And mine tend to involve much more long distance travel--my longest-running game has been to both coasts of a North America-sized continent over the course of a year (plus a few months) in universe. CF "Portal network".

... Huh?

I know what each individual word means, but string them together like that and they don't make any sense to me.

How extensively do you think I'm planning these campaigns?

NichG
2017-11-12, 08:43 PM
- Things that receive a lot of emotional attachment end up becoming sentient at some point
- There is usually some way that the underlying concepts that form reality can be altered permanently, and plots often involve someone accidentally stumbling on one of those ways without realizing what it is
- Setting-wide problems usually involve inherent tradeoffs rather than conflict resolution.
- Creative endeavors tend to imbue things with the local magic equivalent
- There will be some kind of combinatoric or word-game subsystem where coming up with clever combinations lets you create new abilities
- Weak but permanent effects are used to signal when the players are getting close to the real serious stuff. Gaining a non-removable point of a taint, permanently losing 1hp, stuff like that.

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-12, 09:04 PM
... Huh?

I know what each individual word means, but string them together like that and they don't make any sense to me.

How extensively do you think I'm planning these campaigns?

I mean that I make no attempt to keep things small scale. I only really know what they're doing one, two sessions ahead, and my plots tend to me more proactive than reactive--my long-running group had one person who wanted to save the world (as in, that was his character's goal), and they have. Just not from the threats I was thinking of. I thought they'd stay small and local...and was totally blindsided. So I gave up planning :smallwink: That's all.

Malimar
2017-11-12, 09:51 PM
My villains are almost always polite, likeable, affable people. Good guys are the only ones allowed to be jerks (but aren't always).

Sometimes environments in my setting just Go Bad. A forest turns hostile and malevolent (but not necessarily evil), the dead rise of their own accord in a tomb (either improperly-consecrated or the consecration has worn off or you just built the tomb in the wrong place), a manifest zone acquires crude sapience and starts doing bad things to the surrounding environment.

I like to use a broad variety of succession schemes. There is all of one nation in the setting that uses agnatic primogeniture (eldest male child inherits), most of them are more fanciful. There are two matriarchies (the drow and the merfolk) and everybody else is gender-equal.

I like to subvert expectations regarding queerness. Setting canon: 90% of NPCs (who have an orientation at all) are bi, the remaining 10% are evenly split between straight and gay. Though this is mostly a.) to maximize romance options for PCs who want to go that route and b.) just to be doing something different; being a good social message is a distant third. (I have managed to twist Pathfinder's similar proclamation from the writers that "all NPCs of Golarion are bi unless explicitly stated otherwise" to rules-lawyery ends -- the unnatural lust spell gives a +4 bonus on the save to resist it if the target of the spell would not normally be attracted to the object of the spell, and said proclamation means hardly anybody gets that bonus.)

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-12, 10:12 PM
I like to subvert expectations regarding queerness. Setting canon: 90% of NPCs (who have an orientation at all) are bi, the remaining 10% are evenly split between straight and gay. Though this is mostly a.) to maximize romance options for PCs who want to go that route and b.) just to be doing something different; being a good social message is a distant third. (I have managed to twist Pathfinder's similar proclamation from the writers that "all NPCs of Golarion are bi unless explicitly stated otherwise" to rules-lawyery ends -- the unnatural lust spell gives a +4 bonus on the save to resist it if the target of the spell would not normally be attracted to the object of the spell, and said proclamation means hardly anybody gets that bonus.)

I'll admit, I don't do romance in games. I'm bad enough in real life with that...I don't think I'd be comfortable with it in game. This also means that I don't touch on sexual orientation. It gets left vague, although in canon many halflings are bi or lesbian (it's a genetically female dominated race in my setting).

I did have a character (suck up high elf rogue) disguise himself as a pretty woman to try to infiltrate a cult base once. It's on the list with "don't talk to dragons with tentacles coming out of their backs" on the "don't do again list".

Pex
2017-11-12, 10:41 PM
Important non-villain NPCs know who the party is and treat PCs with respect as levels and adventure successes increase.

PCs becoming the Important People.

Vitruviansquid
2017-11-12, 11:34 PM
I mean that I make no attempt to keep things small scale. I only really know what they're doing one, two sessions ahead, and my plots tend to me more proactive than reactive--my long-running group had one person who wanted to save the world (as in, that was his character's goal), and they have. Just not from the threats I was thinking of. I thought they'd stay small and local...and was totally blindsided. So I gave up planning :smallwink: That's all.

Okay, I think I'm getting where the disconnect is.

From my perspective, you don't need to attempt to keep things small scale, you need to make the attempt to make things large scale. If the PCs are going to travel a continent, you need to think about what's there on the different locations of the continent.

But yeah, alright. That sounds like a pretty interesting way of running the campaign. You have the players decide what enemies are the most important ones, and then expand those threats in the background to meet their expectations?

Tanarii
2017-11-12, 11:54 PM
Members of Evil races & tribes, especially LE humanoids, especially Kobolds and Hobgoblins, being willing to ally with PCs against other enemies. Including sometimes PCs assisting them in revolting against or taking over their own tribes. They're invariably willing to strike a bargain that means they'll have to start working with Demi/Humans in the area afterwards in a non-hostile way in return for PC assistance. Although often said Demi/Humans aren't all that happy about the situation. :smallamused:

Allows the PCs to succeed where they'd otherwise potentially fail if they just tried to murder everything, as is their wont. As well as be a kind of peacemaker in ways other than 'slaughter everything'. Requires the PCs either not be Good, or be able to understand that sometimes making concessions to and working with a lesser Evil against a worse Evil is better than trying to fight them all and lose. That certain kinds of Evil can be dealt with, when its necessary business.

As I've said recently in another thread: after all, I give my business to Lawyers and Mechanics all the time. :smalltongue:

Of course, Evil is still Evil. Not butterflies and sunbeams. It's always possible Good PCs might be forces to come back and apply some judicious murder-heroing later on.

LCP
2017-11-13, 01:01 AM
Choose your team - The PCs get thrown into a struggle between three or more factions and have to choose sides. No side is obviously in the wrong at the beginning of the game.
Class struggle/feudalism - characters who aren't highborn themselves have to kneel and scrape to their betters. Modern concepts of fairness don't apply; the common people are inured to their condition and 'know their place'.
Magic is scary and untrustworthy - supernatural threats tend to be rare and deadly in equal measure. Ordinary people treat magic with a mixture of skepticism and fear.
They walk among us - major villains tend to be mobile and mingle with the rest of the NPC cast, rather than providing a purely external threat.
Too clever for their own good - characters' greatest strengths are often also their downfall.
Do we have a deal? - bargains that seem too good to be true almost always are. Characters in extreme circumstances agree to things they later regret.
There's no justice, there's just us - there's no order or divine providence to the game world. The gods are remote enough that it'd be reasonable to doubt their existence. Happy endings and poetic justice have to be imposed by the players.

NovenFromTheSun
2017-11-13, 01:02 AM
Long time before I'm ready to GM anything, but I have made up some worlds and put a couple to words.

-Past sins and dark secrets. Long in the past some person, group, or other form of existence messed up badly, and the scares of that event still harm the world. Most people don't know what happened or the full extents of the event's concequences, however, as they are kept as a closely guarded secret.
-Large stretches of untamed, often dangerous wilderness. Many places are corrupted by dark influence, though in my "main" setting there are good locations too.
-Strange phenomena that happens largely on it's own. There's one instance of a cave with DNA-like rock formations. This can even happen to artificial constructs, like a highway that goes farther than it should, not because it was intentionally enchanted but because the magic attatched to the dying souls who cough a battle there never left.
-All things have the spark of what we the viewers would call magic, but the inhabitants of the world don't see it that way because they've always lived with it. Basic magic is very common, but there are often higher techniques or phenomena that most people don't know about. An idea I've played around with more recently was that experiences phenomena causes it to "stick" to you in some way.
-Another recent idea is that people can often be worse to member's of their own species that those of others.
-Interesting,but dangerous, stuff happening underground.
-"Evil" (usually one of the results of the past sin) species are treated in a tragic light. After all, it's not really their fault that they're trying to kill you.
-Beings that, while powerful, are observers rather than actors in evens (not always voluntarily).

Anonymouswizard
2017-11-13, 06:07 AM
My standard settings? Hmmm...

-Humans only, or humans+creations. While I'm not against aliens and the like, all my favourite stories have only humans as protagonists, and so I limit players to humans and human derived beings. It also makes roleplaying easier for them.
-Pro-intellectualism, there is nothing that man is not meant to know. Yes, you're even supposed to know that, go on, it's how you use the knowledge that matters.
-Ethical conflicts, not moral ones. I like shades of grey and for all characters to have understandable viewpoints, even those with a viewpoint of 'kill everything that isn't me', although that's a really hard one to pull off.
-The players aren't going to be shiny heroes. Less an intentional one, more an observation.
-There's probably something about technological advancement in there, at the forefront of my science fiction (no matter if it's pulp or hard) more of a background detail in my fantasy.
-No definitive divine power. If I have magic-using priests each religion gets the exact same spell list.

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-13, 08:34 AM
Okay, I think I'm getting where the disconnect is.

From my perspective, you don't need to attempt to keep things small scale, you need to make the attempt to make things large scale. If the PCs are going to travel a continent, you need to think about what's there on the different locations of the continent.

But yeah, alright. That sounds like a pretty interesting way of running the campaign. You have the players decide what enemies are the most important ones, and then expand those threats in the background to meet their expectations?

Basically. My villains tend to have long-running plots. Slow, incremental growth of power rather than invading armies or cataclysmic destruction (that usually results from PC actions :smallbiggrin:). That means that there's lots of villains scattered about wherever they go, and I observe which plot seeds (less strong than plot hooks) they're interested in and develop those. Often I'll create an area with only a one-or-two sentence note about what's there and why they're going there and build the rest as they interact with things. Once it's built its solid, but until someone visits it's fuzzy.

As an example, let's take my long-running group. The campaign premise was "You're all in jail in a conformist society. Tell me why." They were then given the sentence to work as adventurers until they died (normally 1-2 missions, but PCs are special). The first two missions for their assigned town were pretty forced--they were ordered to do X and Y. How was up to them.

The third was where things got interesting. All I knew was that there was a set of ancient towers (from before a cataclysm) that had appeared on an island in the lake. I knew that there were cool things there and the basic layout, but I built it as they went along. As they interacted with pieces of the setting, the details of why those towers were there and why they hadn't been there before became clear. Why was there a divine barrier keeping the party from leaving? I knew it had something to do with demons, but it clicked that there was a demon imprisoned in the bottom of one tower being used as a living power source for the towers. Who had imprisoned it? Why had the towers vanished 200 years ago? Those came later and introduced a villain I hadn't planned on there being. Where had she gone? It wasn't until later that I realized where it made sense she had gone and why. A throw-away factoid (humans are descended from goblins!) turned out to be a key world-building element that explains almost all of the other races.

Basically, the world is in an indeterminate state until they explore and express interest in things. Then I build out from there. If they express strong interest in a "side-quest," then I'll find reasons that make sense for that to be strongly connected to the main quest, even if only in theme or as a consequence of other things. I'm not building a plot as much as reacting to what they do and building a world around that.

I also talk OOC to my players and ask what they want to focus on. What kinds of plots do they have in mind, what kinds of enemies do they want to face. There's threats and interesting things everywhere. The only question is which ones come on stage and which stay in the background.

Pex
2017-11-13, 12:48 PM
Members of Evil races & tribes, especially LE humanoids, especially Kobolds and Hobgoblins, being willing to ally with PCs against other enemies. Including sometimes PCs assisting them in revolting against or taking over their own tribes. They're invariably willing to strike a bargain that means they'll have to start working with Demi/Humans in the area afterwards in a non-hostile way in return for PC assistance. Although often said Demi/Humans aren't all that happy about the situation. :smallamused:


Major fan of this ever since Sunless Citadel and the kobolds made us honorary members of their tribe for getting rid of the goblins.

More recently:

In my cleric game we got a truce with the goblins of Phandelin and able to walk through their guards without incident because we agreed to take out their Big Boss. When we were successful, the goblins left on their own accord in peace and two joined our party as NPCs, one later promoted to PC.

In my paladin game set in Silvery Moon I soon have to start negotiations to forge an alliance between Silvery Moon and the Cult of the Dragon against invading orcs and fiends. We previously had cordial encounters with them earlier in the game with two of their bosses - a black dragon and a lich. I literally had tea with the lich as we discussed matters at hand about the orcs and fiends.

Max_Killjoy
2017-11-13, 01:37 PM
Let's see...



Good and evil are not cosmic forces.
Good and evil are not determined by one's birth or blood, they're determined by one's actions.
Good and evil do not come with easy markers -- darkness is not evil, light is not good, etc
Deities are not good or evil, they're motivated by what they're "the god of" and take actions accordingly.
Deities do not have a "divine right" to proclaim morality, nor are their actions justified by fiat.
Both settings done in detail had cataclysmic battles between deities in the deep past, that were caused by the deities themselves, not mortals
The lives of mortals are not determined by fate or destiny -- free will exists.
There are multiple intelligent species or subspecies.
They will not be standard D&D "races".
Species and race are not synonyms.
Species and culture are not synonyms.
Ethnicity and culture are not synonyms.
Cultures are not all equal or equally valid.
Gender equality varies between cultures and species.
Prejudice and bigotry exist in varying degrees by culture and individual, but not in the cartoon fashion promoted by "fantastic racism".
Low-end magic is somewhat common, high-end magic and attack magic are rare and special.
Differences from the workings of the real world are reflected in the details of the setting.
History matters.
Economics matter.
No narrative causality.



Will keep adding more as I think of them.

Tanarii
2017-11-13, 02:03 PM
Major fan of this ever since Sunless Citadel and the kobolds made us honorary members of their tribe for getting rid of the goblins.The last time I ran this (way back in early 2000s) the kobold started off by shooting the living hell out of the (all human) party from the darkness with their crossbows, dropping the party Monk ,and showing them exactly how dangerous Kobolds could be. The party still ultimately ended up not getting into a knock-down, brutal, fight to the death with them, although I can't recall if they active became allies or just decided on a live-and-let-live truce.

bulbaquil
2017-11-13, 06:19 PM
- Allies.
- Capture over kill, at least for humanoid villains. (And for the party, too, when it makes sense that the enemies wouldn't actually go for the TPK.)
- Megafauna. On Earth, there are thirty thousand wild rhinos in the world; in my setting, there are baronies with more than that.
- Almost everyone is some stripe of neutral - including the gods. "Good" and "evil" are, to a large extent, in the eye of the culture or, in the case of a paladin casting Detect Evil, of the deity.
- Altered laws of physics. "Not magical" doesn't necessarily mean "could exist in the real world" - and "exists in the real world" doesn't necessarily mean "possible in the setting".
- Regional plots. You're not going to be saving the world, but you may well save a kingdom.
- It's not so much "medieval stasis" as it is a technological oscillation between the Iron Age and pseudo-Dieselpunk that averages out to medieval, in the same way that the average of (the years) 1950 and 250 is (the year) 1100.
- Deities are like CEO's of large corporations in terms of the sort of things they address vs. what their underlings address. They're close enough that their existence is not in doubt, but remote enough that their natures and wills often are.
- Magic is renewable but limited - a resource in the same way water is (use too much of it in too short a time and the well will run dry).
- Bad things can happen to good people, and good things to bad people. Bad things can also happen to bad people, and good things to good people. And don't expect the afterlife to resolve this in all cases, either; the universe can end with your karma still unbalanced.
- Time marches on. Ignore a quest for too long, and either the questgiver will have hired some other adventuring party to do it, or the situation associated with the quest will have deteriorated.

Pex
2017-11-13, 06:31 PM
Redeemed villains. An enemy the party fights into surrendering eventually becomes Honest True friend and ally as he mends his ways and joins Team Good Guys even if only becoming Neutral from Evil.

Tanarii
2017-11-13, 06:34 PM
Redeemed villains are fun. But also ...

Cartoonish Villains. The bad guys that it's okay to go full on murder-hero on. Effectively, a big sign from the DM that says "don't worry about moral quandaries on this one, guys".

(Star Wars is big on this one. Despite the third movie.)

Cluedrew
2017-11-14, 08:22 AM
Let's see:
Humans and Others: I seem to break this into two major groups. Either humans are the only race/non-humans are actually variant humans and as still pretty rare. Or humans are pretty small in the grand scheme of things, even if they are the POV.
Power of Body: I tend to have a lot of powerful non-casters, martial artists, swords masters and really good crafters. Sometimes magic is involved, but not in the "I have studied the secret arts" way.
Active Good: This one is odd for narrative reasons, but there is often an established force for good out in the world making the day better. The rarely are enough (and when they are, the characters are part of it).
Other/Other-Other: Ever since the Tribe of One's elfling (Elf/Halfling) I have enjoyed characters of very mixed heritage where no part of that heritage is human. Its not something done very often, possibly because it lacks both the "stock" nature of it all and the human connection.
Things are Different: Some assumption you know about the world is wrong here. Or there is some addition that I have let seep into the cracks and corners of the world.
Don't Do it Like That: One common source of inspiration for me is something that I feel was done wrong. Or could be done in more interesting away. I'll take a crack at it and if I like the way it turns out it will often end up in some story or setting.
That is what I got for now.

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-14, 08:29 AM
Redeemed villains. An enemy the party fights into surrendering eventually becomes Honest True friend and ally as he mends his ways and joins Team Good Guys even if only becoming Neutral from Evil.


Redeemed villains are fun. But also ...

Cartoonish Villains. The bad guys that it's okay to go full on murder-hero on. Effectively, a big sign from the DM that says "don't worry about moral quandaries on this one, guys".

(Star Wars is big on this one. Despite the third movie.)

I've done both of these. One group is dealing with a probable case of one of these right now--a parasitic thought form that entered reality as a group trying to destroy it but has fallen in love (ironically, she embodies the idea of improper desire/lust) with reality and is trying to repent.

Other villains have included a goblin boss (at low levels) who was engaged in...non-consensual activities...with prisoners when the party walked in (he literally had his pants down). The uniform consensus of this group (who would talk to everyone) was "string him up by his guts" which they promptly did.

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-14, 08:33 AM
Let's see:
Active Good: This one is odd for narrative reasons, but there is often an established force for good out in the world making the day better. The rarely are enough (and when they are, the characters are part of it).
Other/Other-Other: Ever since the Tribe of One's elfling (Elf/Halfling) I have enjoyed characters of very mixed heritage where no part of that heritage is human. Its not something done very often, possibly because it lacks both the "stock" nature of it all and the human connection.


I have used the first extensively--sometimes in conflict. I have a group who liberated an empire and is working toward making the universe better for mortals. Their methods are causing somewhat of a celestial cold civil war and might be having other side effects, but their motives are good and they only kill confirmed, unrepentant evil-doers. The party isn't quite sure if they're good guys, bad guys, or just extremists.

On topic of the second, I use goblinoids as my base for crossbreeds. Humans are magically-altered hobgoblins, halflings are magically altered goblins as are gnomes. All the other races except elves and dwarves descend from goblins in some way or another.

2D8HP
2017-11-14, 03:38 PM
The more I DM and world-build, the more I find myself using certain patterns, shortcuts, themes and default assumptions. Ruts, if you will. These may be things that I avoid or things that show up, whether I intended them to be there or not.

A few of mine are
* Gender-egalitarian societies....

....I'd like this thread to be the positive counterpart to the "Tropes I hate" thread. Please focus on things you do because you like, rather than things you avoid because you don't like them.:
Um "positive"?

Well I positively don't like too much complexity, and basically I just have just two setups, one is "You meet at a tavern to loot a Dungeon" with an intro like this:


100 years ago the sorcerer Zenopus built a tower on the low hills overlooking Portown. The tower was close to the sea cliffs west of the town and, appropriately, next door to the graveyard.
Rumor has it that the magician made extensive cellars and tunnels underneath the tower. The town is located on the ruins of a much older city of doubtful history and Zenopus was said to excavate in his cellars in search of ancient treasures.

Fifty years ago, on a cold wintry night, the wizard's tower was suddenly engulfed in green flame. Several of his human servants escaped the holocaust, saying their rnaster had been destroyed by some powerful force he had unleashed in the depths of the tower.
Needless to say the tower stood vacant fora while afterthis, but then the neighbors and the night watchmen comploined that ghostly blue lights appeared in the windows at night, that ghastly screams could be heard emanating from the tower ot all hours, and goblin figures could be seen dancina on the tower roof in the moonlight. Finally the authorities had a catapult rolled through the streets of the town and the tower was battered to rubble. This stopped the hauntings but the townsfolk continue to shun the ruins. The entrance to the old dungeons can be easily located as a flight of broad stone steps leading down into darkness, but the few adventurous souls who hove descended into crypts below the ruin have either reported only empty stone corridors or have failed to return at all.
Other magic-users have moved into the town but the site of the old tower remains abandoned.
Whispered tales are told of fabulous treasure and unspeakable monsters in the underground passages below the hilltop, and the story tellers are always careful to point out that the reputed dungeons lie in close proximity to the foundations of the older, pre-human city, to the graveyard, and to the sea.
Portown is a small but busy city 'linking the caravan routes from the south to the merchscant ships that dare the pirate-infested waters of the Northern Sea. Humans and non-humans from all over the globe meet here.
At he Green Dragon Inn, the players of the game gather their characters for an assault on the fabulous passages beneath the ruined Wizard's tower.


Another is "You find a treasure map" like this:


“In the Year of the Behemoth, the Month of the Hedgehog, The Day of the Toad."

"Satisfied that they your near the goal of your quest, you think of how you had slit the interesting-looking vellum page from the ancient book on architecture that reposed in the library of the rapacious and overbearing Lord Rannarsh."

“It was a page of thick vellum, ancient and curiously greenish. Three edges were frayed and worn; the fourth showed a clean and recent cut. It was inscribed with the intricate hieroglyphs of Lankhmarian writing, done in the black ink of the squid. Reading":
"Let kings stack their treasure houses ceiling-high, and merchants burst their vaults with hoarded coin, and fools envy them. I have a treasure that outvalues theirs. A diamond as big as a man's skull. Twelve rubies each as big as the skull of a cat. Seventeen emeralds each as big as the skull of a mole. And certain rods of crystal and bars of orichalcum. Let Overlords swagger jewel-bedecked and queens load themselves with gems, and fools adore them. I have a treasure that will outlast theirs. A treasure house have I builded for it in the far southern forest, where the two hills hump double, like sleeping camels, a day's ride beyond the village of Soreev.

"A great treasure house with a high tower, fit for a king's dwelling—yet no king may dwell there. Immediately below the keystone of the chief dome my treasure lies hid, eternal as the glittering stars. It will outlast me and my name,"


But I'm considering a "campaign arc"



Viking kids vs Morlocks ...

The PC's are adolescents and very young adults in an isolated village where two summers ago all the fighting age men, and many of the women left on a "trading" mission, and have not returned, so the elders of the village at a moot in the godshall have some of the youth accompany "old Ragnar", a one armed former Viking (who will die of natural causes soon after they set sail) as their guide.

What they find is that nearby they are de-populated and sometimes burned towns with no bodies and little evidence of what happened.

Upon returning home (assuming they do), they find their village simillarly emptied, with cooking fires still smoldering, and in the distance a low thumping sound, like a muffled hammering.

If they seek out the source of the sounds, they find what look to be new wells outside the village, but they see no water at the bottom, and ha hand and foot holds along the sides, and descending and exploring leads them to discover albino "Goblins" leading the enchanted people of their village deeper into the earth, and then....
....well basically the Goblins are the Morlocks in the 1895 Time Machine novella, and the 1960 film, led by albino Drow/Elves not unlike the character played by Jeremy Irons in the 2002 film.

Further exploration by the PC's leads them to find tunnels made by digging machines (like in At The Earth's Core), and locales like in Journey to the Center of the Earth (ruins and dinosaurs!), and a civilization a bit like the Selenites in First Men in the Moon.


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/be/cd/be/becdbe61eaa6aecd066a697cbef57715.jpg

https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/2x/z2tm2qgh2h31.jpg

https://ingeld.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/stave-church11.jpg?w=218&h=300

https://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9wv1dc6LR1r9gwhe.bmp

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w1U7VldXczM/VtcnnDjKVdI/AAAAAAAALGk/dVZdltN5_vM/s280/Eoli%2Bunderground.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/0e9aca8fe922c2ef369ba370d70a66be/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo7_500.png

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e247703f22fbaa609cf56741365b1706/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo1_500.png


https://pre00.deviantart.net/6570/th/pre/i/2004/09/e/b/morlock_emerging_from_a_hole_.jpg

https://pre00.deviantart.net/0caf/th/pre/i/2012/057/2/2/here_be_morlocks_by_mattpocalypse-d4r2eg6.jpg


https://68.media.tumblr.com/2022bb37f8ba55fe62daadcbc61a1df2/tumblr_o2afjzv7Ek1syptjoo4_500.png


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_s8l-yu7AZLM/SVppXmlmMYI/AAAAAAAAFdM/_uaE0SOEVds/s280/tm13.jpg

http://pages.erau.edu/~andrewsa/sci_fi_projects_fall_2015/Project_1/Charalab_Constantine/Updated_Project_HU338/Morlocks.jpg

https://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-x8dfmo/products/11724/images/34773/Jeremy-Irons-in-The-Time-Machine-2002-Premium-Photograph-and-Poster-1023101__47680.1432433158.386.513.jpg?c=2

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/011.jpg

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/FIRST-MEN-IN-THE-MOON-Bedford-and-MoonCalf-300x147.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TRju1TnYfxU/TN5ipt5ZoqI/AAAAAAAAAjY/GCUVQIL_CO0/s280/Mushroom+forest.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TRju1TnYfxU/TN5iQWoLrxI/AAAAAAAAAi4/mXGlR6nEiyU/s280/cave+5+-+Alantis.jpg

http://cdn.thinglink.me/api/image/515889167041822721/640/10/scaletowidth

http://www.pellucidar.org/moleh3.jpg... :
...if I'm the DM, I only allow humans and half-humans as PC's, and the assumptions would be:



Most anything that is not a human dirt farmer is monstrous (and they are as well, when the Druids tell them the harvest demands a sacrifice):

https://resizing.flixster.com/V6duubU8VhV-GcC9bJSLCxmIRcg=/300x300/v1.aDsxMDY2NzQ7ajsxNzUwNjsxMjAwOzM3ODA7MjgzNQ

https://resizing.flixster.com/nnf-f5Ji_-PFTY8WcUqkcTm09FY=/300x300/v1.aDsxMDY2NzU7ajsxNzUwNjsxMjAwOzM0NTI7MjMzMA

Dwarves are underground dwellers who make cursed items (The Ring des Nibelungen (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen)),

Elves are child stealing near demons ( the "Fair Folk" (https://www.tor.com/2015/10/21/five-reasons-not-to-piss-off-the-fair-folk/)).
"Elves are terrific, they bring terror"

When in doubt, just assume that they're going to torture and kill you.

(Basicly all Elves are pasty Drow/Fey)

Goblins?

Steal your cattle, and poison your wells in the night.

Kings?

Take your crops, and maybe your children for their wars.

Gods/Goddesses?

Out of spite they turn you into spider or a tree, and make you suffer eternally.

Best to stay in the fields you know, keep your head low and escape "the high ones" notice.

Failing that?

Grab some iron, and cut the bastards!


I'd tell my players that:

"Your PC's don't know what's in any D&D book, they know the Fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers, Greek and Norse myths, and to cross themselves and touch iron when the speak of 'the kindly ones'"

"Your race is human, or close to one, with a background of "has sword wants loot"


"Now past some tree roots blocking it you see an opening that's leading underground...."

:amused:
Let's explore!


So a basic "swords against sorcery" theme.
How to turn that "positive" in @PhoenixPhyre's terms?

Well in "sword using times" as now, I believe some societies had more and some less gender inequality.

The Scandinavians, for example, were known to be more equal (as attested to by Arab traveller Ibrahim ibn al-Tartushi for example).

In fact some Viking graves, that contained weapona as grave goods and consequently were originally thought to have held men (Assigned male at excavation?), were actually women ("shieldmaidens"/skjaldmær) (https://www.tor.com/2014/09/02/female-viking-warriors-proof-swords/), and that's been the cause of some speculation, true or not I'ma gonna run with it.

Even if someone says a dóttir wasn't as likely as a son to pick up the family sword, my game, my rules Berserker women are more fun, I picked Viking-ish for a reason.

Some parts of old Scandinavia weren't fun, slavery for example (yes I know probably not as brutal as the old sugar plantations of Barbados, but still too brutal to be fun, I don't want to go full Game of Thrones), so I hand wave then away.

Why not go more fantasy and less expy?

Because I"m lazy as a GM, and as a player I dislike "homework" (reading a big fat lot of setting information) before we can get to the part where the GM says, "What do you do?".

Why not a swashbucklimg Caribbean settimg, pirates are cool?

Yes that would be cool, but I want to make use of Norse myths and monsters.

How about Ninjas, they're cool?

Yes Ninjas are cool, but homework is involved in fitting them in the initial setting.

How are you going to have Druids then?

I'll get to that.

I don't want to play some pasty-behind Scandinavian named Astrid or Ragnar, verily you sucketh 2D8HP!

That's a good point.

One reason I chose Viking-ish is because they had battle-axes, and they....
....okay that's pretty much the reason.

Sorry!

Oh wait! It's because Vikings are familiar enough that players, may just get into character without doing much homework, and besides who doesn't want to shout out "By Odin's sagging bits, you will taste steel!"?

Dude, I don't know Norse mythology! How about Greek or Egyptian? Hekate and Osiris are cool!


Hmmm, they really are.

Okay, how about this: A melting pot Empire, or collection of City States (decide when it comes up in game) sends out merchants and missionaries all over, and they settle amongst, well everywhere, so you have families in the village who aren't pasty, and have Italian and Spanish names, so you have Rodrigo the blacksmith next to Signe the leatherworker, and the imported wine merchant is a cleric of Dionysus.

Oh that's a little better..

...what a minute!

Italian?

Spanish?

Not Egyptian and Greek?

Well those names are harder for me to pronounce, 'sides someone has to be able to be called Inigo Montoya.

What if someone just wants to be called Jane Thatcher or William Weaver?

Fine, the village is Anglo-Norse then.

Hey! You still haven't 'splained the Druids. Hark you still sucketh 2D8HP!

Oh right. In the woods, and some nearby village there's Celts with Druids.

So your using the Celtic pantheon as well?

Um., no I can't pronounce those names

Can I play a Tabaxi Bladesinger with a bonus Feat?

No.

Bogus! Totally lame and un-positive 2D8HP!

:redface:

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-14, 03:53 PM
@2D8HP

I only meant that those were elements I find myself using a lot for whatever reason. The positive reference was to avoid "I try to avoid X" responses--I want to know what you do, not what you don't do, things you include, not things you exclude. There's already a thread for the things people dislike or think are overdone.

This thread came about when I was thinking about how I DM and worldbuild and saw repeated patterns that intrigued me. I wanted to know what patterns other people saw.

IcarusWulfe
2017-11-14, 08:19 PM
I seem to have a subconscious compulsion to always hint at the nature of a boss long before the players face it, but throw them off by giving the boss a "twist" or gimmick. (memorable example being the time the players were hunting a great beast that they correctly concluded was a werewolf lord, but their collective jaws dropped when they realized it was experimented on and thus has the half golem template) I also seem to have a love for having plots revolving around discovering ancient magic/technology/weapons/knowledge/magitek.

Anonymouswizard
2017-11-15, 06:11 AM
So a basic "swords against sorcery" theme.
How to turn that "positive" in @PhoenixPhyre's terms?

Well in "sword using times" as now, I believe some societies had more and some less gender inequality.

The Scandinavians, for example, were known to be more equal (as attested to by Arab traveller Ibrahim ibn al-Tartushi for example).

In fact some Viking graves, that contained weapona as grave goods and consequently were originally thought to have held men (Assigned male at excavation?), were actually women ("shieldmaidens"/skjaldmær) (https://www.tor.com/2014/09/02/female-viking-warriors-proof-swords/), and that's been the cause of some speculation, true or not I'ma gonna run with it.

Even if someone says a dóttir wasn't as likely as a son to pick up the family sword, my game, my rules Berserker women are more fun, I picked Viking-ish for a reason.

Some parts of old Scandinavia weren't fun, slavery for example (yes I know probably not as brutal as the old sugar plantations of Barbados, but still too brutal to be fun, I don't want to go full Game of Thrones), so I hand wave then away.

Why not go more fantasy and less expy?

Because I"m lazy as a GM, and as a player I dislike "homework" (reading a big fat lot of setting information) before we can get to the part where the GM says, "What do you do?".

Why not a swashbucklimg Caribbean settimg, pirates are cool?

Yes that would be cool, but I want to make use of Norse myths and monsters.

How about Ninjas, they're cool?

Yes Ninjas are cool, but homework is involved in fitting them in the initial setting.

How are you going to have Druids then?

I'll get to that.

I don't want to play some pasty-behind Scandinavian named Astrid or Ragnar, verily you sucketh 2D8HP!

That's a good point.

One reason I chose Viking-ish is because they had battle-axes, and they....
....okay that's pretty much the reason.

Sorry!

Oh wait! It's because Vikings are familiar enough that players, may just get into character without doing much homework, and besides who doesn't want to shout out "By Odin's sagging bits, you will taste steel!"?

Dude, I don't know Norse mythology! How about Greek or Egyptian? Hekate and Osiris are cool!


Hmmm, they really are.

Okay, how about this: A melting pot Empire, or collection of City States (decide when it comes up in game) sends out merchants and missionaries all over, and they settle amongst, well everywhere, so you have families in the village who aren't pasty, and have Italian and Spanish names, so you have Rodrigo the blacksmith next to Signe the leatherworker, and the imported wine merchant is a cleric of Dionysus.

Oh that's a little better..

...what a minute!

Italian?

Spanish?

Not Egyptian and Greek?

Well those names are harder for me to pronounce, 'sides someone has to be able to be called Inigo Montoya.

What if someone just wants to be called Jane Thatcher or William Weaver?

Fine, the village is Anglo-Norse then.

Hey! You still haven't 'splained the Druids. Hark you still sucketh 2D8HP!

Oh right. In the woods, and some nearby village there's Celts with Druids.

So your using the Celtic pantheon as well?

Um., no I can't pronounce those names

Can I play a Tabaxi Bladesinger with a bonus Feat?

No.

Bogus! Totally lame and un-positive 2D8HP!

:redface:

What I see from this:
2D8HP: Guys, here's an awesome campaign idea.
Players: Can we make it less awesome? Also, what about druids.
2D8HP: No, vikings are cool and less homework.
Players: But I don't know a mostly unnecessary element.
2D8HP: Fine, I'll make it less awesome.
Players: Can I play something that doesn't fit.
2D8HP: No.
Players: Evil GM, forcing us to play a fun game with fun characters.

Cozzer
2017-11-15, 06:48 AM
* Some of the following points refer to D&D rules and concepts, because that's what I GMed until now.

* Mid-fantasy settings. In terms of D&D, nobody can ever go past level 10-11, and spells don't go past 4th or 5th level (higher level spell slots still exist, and can be used for metamagic). If I include 5th level spells, I avoid or add restrictions to a few of them (revive and teleporting spells are the first that come to mind).

* On the other hand, magic is widely available and more similar to science than to something mysterious. Every rich family probably employs a few mages for protection, research, making useful magic items for daily use...

* It's unclear whether God/the gods actually exist, if they're legends, or if they're just embodiments of abstract concepts (and thus have been created by mankind, rather than the opposite).

* If outsiders (angels, demons, and so on) exist, there's some sort of rule preventing them from acting in the material world unless a person actively requires their help (and even then, there are strict limits). I will focus more on the Law-Chaos conflict than on the Good-Evil one. Lawful Evil outsider, for example, will be creatures that believe in Law but commit Evil acts in its name, rather than Evil creatures that happen to follow rules.

* There are a lot of factions in the world, most of them neither completely good nor completely evil. Each faction has its extremists, though, and they are always evil, or at least dangerous.

* Related to the above, the major conflict will have at least a bit of moral grayness into it. There will be simpler conflicts along the way, and unreedemable, genuinely evil people exist, but the major villain will probably be at least a bit reasonable (while still being committed enough to whatever he wants to do that he needs to be defeated).

* When the story happens, the world is on the brink of some important change. Maybe a new form of magic has been discovered, or the balance between two nations is about to break, and so on. The important thing is that long-lasting balances are about to be shattered, which means that a group of determined and competent people, doing the right (or wrong!) thing in the right place at the right time, could become very important, way faster than usual.

* The major villains are usually teams, just like the PCs, with their own internal disagreements and struggles that the PC can exploit to break the villains' teamwork and gain the upper hand.

Pelle
2017-11-15, 07:32 AM
* No clear good and evil, default alignment neutral for all races/species including monstrous humanoids, cultures can differ.

* Geography and cultures inspired by certain European regions and history.

* Few high level npcs, low magic.

* No kitchen sink, i.e. limited availabilty of races/monsters.

* No stupid D&D monsters, like Beholders and regenerating trolls.

* Jazz references, like npcs named Duke Ellington, Count Basie, King Benny the Good, etc...

Cozzer
2017-11-15, 09:05 AM
Oh, and very importantly:

* I'm horrible at names, so there will be secondary characters/places that I named in very stupid ways, because I had to come up with them on the moment. Then, after a lot of time, they will suddenly become extremely important because of unforeseen player choices and then their stupid names will ruin all the drama related to their newfound importance. :smalltongue:

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-15, 09:19 AM
Oh, and very importantly:

* I'm horrible at names, so there will be secondary characters/places that I named in very stupid ways, because I had to come up with them on the moment. Then, after a lot of time, they will suddenly become extremely important because of unforeseen player choices and then their stupid names will ruin all the drama related to their newfound importance. :smalltongue:

I'm with you there. I'm horrible at creating and (more importantly) remembering names. Even of player characters. Even if I wrote them down.

Joe the Rat
2017-11-15, 11:13 AM
For the few things I've actually built...


Significant Numbers: If there is an important count of something (2 courts, three alignments, Seven Evil Wizards, etc.), it will be a recurring theme in other features or areas (everything in a duality; seven cities/ tribes/ astrological signs; Four Races, Four Seasons, Four Kingdoms, etc).
Matriarchal Elves: I tend to favor Queens and Ladies over Kings and Lords when it comes to the pointy-eared treefolk.
A Deep Mystery, A Grand Explanation: I like to have an underlying Big Issue - something broad and distant in lore, or a Big Dumb Object, Lost History, or a recurring Thing that is relevant to the setting, and might explain quite a lot when you dig into it.
Morally Ambiguous Allies: Mortals* are not wholly good or evil, or lawful or chaotic - and are not one big happy family. I try to give every big player positive features (just ruler, encourages trade, seeks to bring peace to the land), negatives (long history of violence, conquest-motivated, easily manipulated, kicks kittens), and quirky (unusual habits or tastes, fondness for spies, is secretly a dragon). There is no good guy side, though I do like a few out-and-out villains.
Levels of Villainy: Bandits, Undead Warrior-Kings, Angry Mad Scientist with a Mechanical Spider or a Flying Death Ray, Monstrous Hordes, Mass Mind Control Necromancers, Beings from Beyond Time. All of these things will be going on, and most of them are not involved in one another's plots, though they may be connected by history or resources.
Rivals and Shadow Archetypes: The PCs are often not the only "players" in the world; I like to introduce other similar groups as antagonists, competition, or potential allies.
Puns and References: I like to throw in some place names with real world meaning (and an in-game explanation), and drop a lot of allusions to elements of Gaming History. If you ever meet a cat named Gygax, be on your toes.

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-15, 11:18 AM
For the few things I've actually built...


Significant Numbers: If there is an important count of something (2 courts, three alignments, Seven Evil Wizards, etc.), it will be a recurring theme in other features or areas (everything in a duality; seven cities/ tribes/ astrological signs; Four Races, Four Seasons, Four Kingdoms, etc).
Puns and References: I like to throw in some place names with real world meaning (and an in-game explanation), and drop a lot of allusions to elements of Gaming History. If you ever meet a cat named Gygax, be on your toes.


1) Yeah, for some reason my main setting is all about the number 4 (and multiples of 4). 9 is considered an unlucky/"bad" number (because there were 9 primal entities and one went bad), so 8 (and by extension 4) is holy.

2) Absolutely. I just had a greedy villain named Ja Ba. He didn't live in a hut, but...

Tanarii
2017-11-15, 01:55 PM
(Funny stuff)When I was conceptualizing a 5e dungeon (Tier 1) to wilderness (Tier 2) setting for an open table combat as war campaign (and ultimately vaguely west marches style), one specifically trying to recapture the feel of BECMI, I was very tempted to use the "fantasy pantheons" in the back of the PHB as the backdrop. Norse (rustic seamen, explorers, raiders) based in the North, Celtic (rustic land warriors, druid/bard leaders) in the Central/West, Greek (civilized) in the South-East, and Egyptian (decadent civilized) in the far south. And of course deadly plains horse archers to the East. With the melting-pot frontier/dangerous wilderness area being smack dab in the middle where the adventures occur.

Eventually I realized I didn't need that to be explicitly defined. For purposes of this kind of campaign, better to let players define this stuff by asking questions as they build stuff, and fitting it into the campaign world around the edges. Holistically growing it, so to speak. Plus it would have felt far too much like Runequest.

RPG Factory
2017-11-22, 03:55 PM
...places you can explore, I mean really explore. Not just another room, and another room... I like a rich and vibrant city that you can also explore during campaign quests. All the old book adventures had these, take Blood Sword as an example :)

Jama7301
2017-11-22, 04:01 PM
I avoid corruption in local government at the start of the game. I don't like starting a game off with the starting area for the PCs to be inherently looking to screw them or the people over.

Yora
2017-11-23, 04:37 AM
Good and evil are not cosmic forces.
Good and evil are not determined by one's birth or blood, they're determined by one's actions.
Good and evil do not come with easy markers -- darkness is not evil, light is not good, etc
Deities are not good or evil, they're motivated by what they're "the god of" and take actions accordingly.
Deities do not have a "divine right" to proclaim morality, nor are their actions justified by fiat.
The lives of mortals are not determined by fate or destiny -- free will exists.

Ah, the familiar ring of existentialist philosophy. My stuff also always strongly leans in this direction.

When it comes to fantasy, I like to look at how the whole world has lived for the last 10,000 years and not at how Europeans thought the world is for the last 1,000 years, and how it should be for the last 200 years. What we consider the default is really a period and region specific anomaly. When I imagine an alternative world, I like to base it more on generalities of human society and culture than the specifics of one unique example.


Good and evil are not actual things that have a real presence somewhere in the universe.
NPCs don't even use the ideas of good and evil. Instead I have them regard actions that are done out of anger or cause needless harm to others as bad, and the people who do them as dispicable.
Religions are not gods. There are many religions whose believes about the world and the gods tend to contradict each other in many of the specifics. Gods are too different to simply ask them for easy answers.
People are very tribal. Most societies are quite egalitarian when it comes to "us", but have little in the way of compassion when it comes to "them". People discriminate a lot, but it's not actually about people's birth, but about what group they currently belong to. If you are from a non-hostile group you can be a guest and become a friend, and eventually a member of the group. With all the good and bad consequences that come from that. Allied groups can be extremely different while enemy groups can be almost identical. (If you really want to have an intense and long standing animosity to someone, it really helps when they are your neighbors.)
Wildlife is inspired by Earth animals, but with the exception of small birds, rodents, fish, and insects doesn't consist of it. All the larger animals with which PCs can have meaningful interactions with are nonexistent on Earth. The setting is more like an alien planet than an alternate Earth. (With fish, birds, and so on it's just not worth the effort to create replacements.)
Humanoids are also only mostly human, but not actual homo sapiens. The dominant races are usually effectively humans with only minor cosmetic changes.
All humanoids have basically the same mental capacities and free will. Not quite what one would expect on a planet with multiple intelligent species, but I really don't want to deal with superior and inferior humanoid races. There are also not many types of them (usually 6 to 10.)
Wilderness is much bigger than civilized lands and I want to make players aware of this vast difference in scale. Humanoids peoples don't rule the world.
Long distance travel times matter. I don't bother too much with the logistics but track the passage of weeks and months to show the players how much has been happening while they were away and how much is happening while they are waiting for reinforcements or supplies. (Which might actually never come.)
Magic is not flashy fire and lightning and teleportation. Magical powers are limited to mental effects, body changes, and the summoning of supernatural creatures.
People have quite little knowledge about the outside world and the past. They live in the here and know with little sense of their place in the big picture of the universe. (And neither do I. I much prefer the ambiguity.)
Supernatural forces and ancient wonders simply are. In most cases, players have no means to discover their real origin.
Magic items are not simply made in a workshop. With the exception of potions, all magic items are unique relics holding powers from one specific individual.

Arutema
2017-11-23, 05:10 AM
Let's see, still world-building my first non-prewritten campaign and maybe a one-shot, but I'm already noticing some trends:

* Lots of LGBT NPCs.
* Limited races: The campaign will have a world with just Halflings/Elves/Dwarves/Catfolk/Tengu and maybe a couple others. The one-shot I may go all-dwarves.
* Dragons as potential allies.
* Sexism/racism/classism and similar are traits reserved for explicitly villainous characters.

VoxRationis
2017-11-23, 05:15 AM
I like temperate rainforests, filled with moss-dripping fir trees. I also like sticking my elves there. (This is unabashedly the result of my Oregonian origins).

I have a tendency to make my cosmologies quite secular. The gods tend to be cultural artifacts more than agentive entities in the setting. It takes a fair amount of conscious effort for me to make a setting, or even an aspect of a setting, where the gods are actually doing anything.

Tanarii
2017-11-23, 10:05 AM
I avoid corruption in local government at the start of the game. I don't like starting a game off with the starting area for the PCs to be inherently looking to screw them or the people over.
Interesting. I try to avoid government completely at the start of the game. And towns. Towns are for recuperating, off screen only.

Unless, of course, government corruption or the urban environment is the entire point of the starting adventure. Or campaign. Or game system.

I mean, I heavily run D&D, but that generally holds true for games I have run in Palladium's Robotech or Rifts or Heroes Unlimited/NaSS, and Warhammer RPG. Even in Beyond the Supernatural or Call of Cthulu, which I almost always start off Urban, I rarely *start* with obvious government corruption. It's inevitably revealed as a deeper and darker corruption later on.

Conversely if I was going to run AW it'd almost certain focus on the post-apocalyptic disjunctional town right out the gate. And lack of real government except strongmen (hard holders, gang leaders, etc.).

Cozzer
2017-11-23, 11:11 AM
Interesting. I try to avoid government completely at the start of the game. And towns. Towns are for recuperating, off screen only.

Huh, I'm kind of the opposite. I try to force myself to insert a few "explore this unexplored place" adventures for variety, but my standard plot involves factions fighting each other in an urban area (or a whole region/nation, when the scale gets bigger). Even in my "unexplored place" adventures, the interesting part will probably end up being meeting the locals and interacting with their elders in their village, or something.

Tanarii
2017-11-23, 11:48 AM
Well, like I said, if the specific adventure, or something happening necessary to the adventure, involves the town or interacting with NPCs, then of course it's relevant to the adventure.

What I'm not a fan of is wandering around interacting with the town and NPcs just because it's there. I like to keep table time focused on stuff relevant to an adventure. But I recognize for some people that's a necessary part of making the RPG experience more real, so for them it's all relevant to the experience as a whole.

Cozzer
2017-11-24, 08:23 AM
Oh! Ok, that makes sense, I'm like that too. I like having a "base" for the PCs, with recurring secondary characters with their very small side plots that go on in the background, to make these parts more interesting.

Max_Killjoy
2017-11-24, 09:40 AM
Well, like I said, if the specific adventure, or something happening necessary to the adventure, involves the town or interacting with NPCs, then of course it's relevant to the adventure.

What I'm not a fan of is wandering around interacting with the town and NPcs just because it's there. I like to keep table time focused on stuff relevant to an adventure. But I recognize for some people that's a necessary part of making the RPG experience more real, so for them it's all relevant to the experience as a whole.

And then there are campaigns that are 90% "about the town" (although usually not about wandering around aimlessly?), like many VTM campaigns.

Just goes to show that we (and I include myself) shouldn't make assumptions about what a "good" or "fun" campaign is, or is not.

Cozzer
2017-11-24, 10:32 AM
I think what Tanarii meant was less about "the town", and more about the players roleplaying with random NPCs that have nothing to do with the plot, for the sake of roleplaying and making the world feel more real. Like, drinking contests in taverns, haggling with shopkeepers, chatting with strangers about what's happening lately, and so on...

I like to do such things in extremely small amounts, but other players need them to get immersed. I think it's about whether you're more of a "narrative" type or an "immersion" type.

Max_Killjoy
2017-11-24, 10:54 AM
I think what Tanarii meant was less about "the town", and more about the players roleplaying with random NPCs that have nothing to do with the plot, for the sake of roleplaying and making the world feel more real. Like, drinking contests in taverns, haggling with shopkeepers, chatting with strangers about what's happening lately, and so on...

I like to do such things in extremely small amounts, but other players need them to get immersed. I think it's about whether you're more of a "narrative" type or an "immersion" type.

My statement holds, I think, even in that context -- and I think you and I are saying the same thing to some degree.

Tinkerer
2017-11-24, 12:24 PM
I think what Tanarii meant was less about "the town", and more about the players roleplaying with random NPCs that have nothing to do with the plot, for the sake of roleplaying and making the world feel more real. Like, drinking contests in taverns, haggling with shopkeepers, chatting with strangers about what's happening lately, and so on...

I like to do such things in extremely small amounts, but other players need them to get immersed. I think it's about whether you're more of a "narrative" type or an "immersion" type.

It is one of the trickier ratios to get down because not only does it vary from person to person but it also varies within a person from scenario to scenario depending on the world and the type of character that they are playing. I usually put this sort of scene at about 10% or so of the gaming time as a default and adjust it from there.

The nice thing about it is since it usually requires such a high amount of player initiative to instigate it is really hard to accidentally put too much in unless you are one of those GMs who is really attached to their pet projects. Plus it is one of the easiest situations to be able to read the table and see what their reactions are.

The horrible thing about it of course is when you have some players who love it and some who loathe it. Then it can get quite tricky. One tactic that I used many years ago was to have the ones who love it start playing a while before/keep playing a while after the ones who didn't (assuming that we ended in a fairly peaceful situation).

bulbaquil
2017-11-24, 12:49 PM
Magic items are not simply made in a workshop. With the exception of potions, all magic items are unique relics holding powers from one specific individual.

On that note, I have noticed (in addition to previous post):

- Magic items that aren't consumables (potions, oils, etc.) are generally traded via brokerage. You hire an agent to find a seller or buyer, rather like you would when selling or buying a house
- Naming conventions: heavy on Germanic (including English), Italian, and Greek-sounding names, with a smattering of Celtic, Arabic, and Indian.
- Numeric themes. 4, 6, and 17 are cosmically-impottant numbers (17^3 total planes, 17 moving lights in the sky, 4 moons, 6 continents, societally-significant birthdays are often multiples of 4 or 6 or numbers ending in 4 or 6).

Tanarii
2017-11-24, 03:23 PM
My statement holds, I think, even in that context -- and I think you and I are saying the same thing to some degree.
Ya, I got that your post wasn't really a contradiction, but rather an expansion and commentary.

I definitely agree on the assumptions part. I started the whole sideline on hostile governments / home bases / urban adventures etc because on reading someone else's post,I realized that the way I personally approach games is so very specific.

Piedmon_Sama
2017-11-24, 03:53 PM
e: FWIW all my games have been either 3.5 or Pathfinder and deal with the expectations set up by those systems.

1. Points of Darkness, not Points of Light

>1a. Era of (Relative) Peace & Stability, Exploration

>1b. No big centralized governments

>1c. No big powerful churches either

2. Attention to "How" (engineering, agriculture)

>2a. Every community will have some fleshed out culture--material and traditional; most will have diversified economic activity; self-sufficiency is a big deal

>2b. Things you'd take for granted like wheelbarrows, forks, doorknobs, etc. don't exist but ridiculously advanced machining tools usually do (advanced firearms would be impossible otherwise!)

>2c. I will virtually always have recorded what kind of stone, wood etc. is being used for whatever material e.g. that is a walnut desk, the threshing barn is walled with slats and supported by poles of pine (treated, ofc.) and its floor is granite, etc. In other words a lot of attention is payed to materials.

3. Human and humanlike societies are basically egalitarian

>3a. Sexism is at worst 20th century-style "ha ha a woman accountant!? how droll!" And there will be plenty of NPCs around to shatter any such illusions

>3b. If a non-monstrous society such as Dwarves or Elves is defined by rigid roles or classes and intrinsically NOT egalitarian, there is virtually no chance of them getting much screentime/focus.

>3c. Monstrous or alien appearance will never be conflated with evil. Lizardfolk, for example, are virtually always benign. While values may wildly differ (the Myconids, for example, see no moral reason not to use the corpses of dead animals as servitors and guards) alien species will usually not be so dumb as to crassly break through each others' ethical boundaries if they have any reason to know of it (e.g., lizardfolk won't bring up cannibalism around humans, elves won't call humans short-lived self-aggrandizing pondscum, etc.)

4. Gun fetishization. If guns exist in the setting at all, they will never be treated as rare, unreliable or difficult to operate or understand.

4a. Disdain for giant weapons. If you see anyone carrying a six foot long greatsword rest assured that character is an idiot who will be easy to take down.

>4b. Close-fighting, acrobatics, and gadgets will be fetishized at all costs. A rogue with a poisoned knife, brace of sleeve-pistols and climbing gear is probably going to be the scariest (or at least most frustrating) enemy you'll ever face.
----------->subsection: while "epic" combat, dramatic swordfights or big slug outs certainly can happen in my campaigns, I don't treat them as the norm and here's where the assumptions of standard D&D and I part ways. I WILL edit and mangle the rules as needed until it is possible to garrote a 10th level Fighter---called shots, asphyxiation checks, if you fall more than 50' I just fiat declare you dead, etc.

>4c. No such thing as "mooks." Any intelligent opponent will enter a fight looking to stay alive. If they are no match for the PCs in straightforward combat, this will quickly be noted and accounted for.

>4d. No fights take place in a vacuum. Terrain, elevation, three-dimensional spaces will always be factors. Most fights will begin at long range.

>4e. If magic is reliable, repeatable, and relatively inexpensive, expect it to be everywhere. Any warrior of level 3+ is probably going to have at least a few potions. This kind of ordinary magic will be well-worked into the setting enough so that things like potion sleeves and quickfeed devices (including magic oil release switches on weapons) will be common.

>4f. There will always be some contrived BS reason why full casters aren't thick on the ground. i.e, they mostly live in magic schools located on demiplanes, they swear oaths not to interfere in war and politics, they're just not interested, etc.

---aesthetics--
1. I prefer a broadly 16th century, early-Tudor era kind of look to be the default as it weaves a nice balance between late medieval and early modern. Thinks we would recognize as coats and trousers now more-or-less exist, but fanciful cuts, patterns and the look of "chivalry" is still plentiful. And slashed clothing is just cool, y'know?

2. I generally prefer to be some two hundred years in advance of Henry VIII's time in terms of "science" however (e.g the late 17th Century, the age of Robert Hooke) to better explain the prevalence of firearms and alchemy, fine mechanical parts and necessary lubricants. Educated people will generally speak in terms of "animalcules," "vapors and aires," and "spontaneous generation" (of maggots, goblins etc.)

3. In terms of broader cosmogony I borrow from Lucretius and De Rerum Natura. At one point everything was mixed up, then all the elements basically decanted, and you got the universe (with its attendant outer planes, which have greater concentrations of certain kinds of stuff than the center, natch). Pretty much all my settings have some variation on this basic model which elevates, basically, the Law of Gravity (or kinetics) and deelevates Gods. It also probably says a lot that I consider the question of "what is the origin of things/the role of the gods" in my settings to fall under aesthetics.

I could probably go on but this post is already too long!

Jay R
2017-11-24, 04:29 PM
Actually, very little, since I try to make worlds different.

Every fantasy game has a specific reason why much of the world near the PCs is a wilderness filled with ruins, although the reasons have varied a great deal from game to game.

There are always tribes, independent villages, free cities, and a moribund (usually slowly dying) empire. That wasn't a decision. I just noticed that I like having differently organized societies.

I have one villain who has been in every game I've ever run (though far away, and only a couple of characters ever encountered even any of his minions). And I mean every game, including medieval fantasy, post-Renaissance musketeers, and modern superheroes. He is Lord Victor, a technologist wizard, and the only person in the world who has managed to combine the two. He is an absolute ruler of a small kingdom in the mountains, and is usually seen wearing full plate armor (with many gadgets built in, both scientific and arcane), and a green cloak overall.

And yes, his full name is Victor von Doom.

Anonymouswizard
2017-11-25, 05:17 AM
- Numeric themes. 4, 6, and 17 are cosmically-impottant numbers (17^3 total planes, 17 moving lights in the sky, 4 moons, 6 continents, societally-significant birthdays are often multiples of 4 or 6 or numbers ending in 4 or 6).

I tend to go with powers of two myself, normally 2, 4, and 8 because they require less work to fill out, but my next setting's heaven will be run by 64 angels (hell's likely going to have 729 rulers, and yes there's a link between the two numbers). In a science fiction setting it's more likely to be a power of two minus one, because one more would require an extra bit in each index number.

Cluedrew
2017-11-25, 08:00 AM
I think I got it: its 26 rulers of heaven and 36 rulers of hell. And of course 6=2*3 which may just be a coincidence it does imply a connection between the two. There are probably more important things I could be talking about but stating 729 has significance without saying what it is just seems like a challenge.

Anonymouswizard
2017-11-25, 08:43 AM
I think I got it: its 26 rulers of heaven and 36 rulers of hell. And of course 6=2*3 which may just be a coincidence it does imply a connection between the two. There are probably more important things I could be talking about but stating 729 has significance without saying what it is just seems like a challenge.

oh, 6=2*3 was arbitary, but yes the connection is X^6, it's a setting where Hell is a corrupted version of heaven so whenever there's a certain number of things I take the formula I used to give the heavenly number significance and change the value by one. I was more stating that there was a link to explain I hadn't picked such a massive number with no reason behind it.

PhoenixPhyre
2017-11-25, 08:54 AM
oh, 6=2*3 was arbitary, but yes the connection is X^6, it's a setting where Hell is a corrupted version of heaven so whenever there's a certain number of things I take the formula I used to give the heavenly number significance and change the value by one. I was more stating that there was a link to explain I hadn't picked such a massive number with no reason behind it.

*My angels come in powers of 2: 2^12 (4096) total, 2^8 (256) per Legion, 2^4 (16) Legions divided between 2^2 (4) Hosts. These numbers are fixed--killed angels are reborn instantly into new bodies.
*There are 16 (2^4) major gods.
*There are 5 (2^2 + 1) devil Territories with 9 (2^3 + 1) Families (think Mafia families) per Territory.
*The Dreamer (creator over-god) created 8 + 1 primordials, each embodying a concept. The One (embodying Change) rebelled against the Eight, bringing about the Dawn War. 4 (and by extension 8) are holy numbers, 9 is the number of evil.

So I guess what I'm saying is that we have similar habits, except mine are powers of 2. :smallsmile:.

Samzat
2017-11-25, 03:52 PM
My DM is a lovecraft fanboy, but rather than using the aestheic (tentacles, so many tentacles) he uses the structure (investigative, mysterious, often without a complete explanation by the end) of Lovecraft novels to make thriller adventures for various intrepid heros.

As for me, my style focuses mostly on fable and mythology-esque understandings of fantasy. Magic items are all 'artifact-tier': unique, rich in history, and immensely powerful, but sometimes at a cost. In fact, all magic has its costs, whether concrete and up front (consuming hp or money or something) or esoteric or distant (someday the caster will meet a horrible fate/ lose something dear to them). I prefer villains wrought of extreme passion and low self awareness, and those forged of hubris combined with cold calculus. These are the villains most likely to think themselves heroes, because they may have once been heroes. I also enjoy low fantasy, because it requires less suspension of disbelief.

bulbaquil
2017-11-25, 10:47 PM
In a science fiction setting it's more likely to be a power of two minus one, because one more would require an extra bit in each index number.

Couldn't you just index from zero instead of one and get the full 2^n instead of 2^n-1?

Shackled Slayer
2017-12-20, 07:28 PM
1) your alignment doesn't actually matter much. I always felt alignment was a limiting factor. If protection from chaos/law/good/evil becomes a thing in my game it will count against that, but otherwise your character should act as they would, not as how their alignment dictates. (I.E. alignment is just a spell condition modifier)

2) recurring allied NPCs. I color this as reincarnation or family lines, but i have a cast of familiar faces the players love or, on occasion, loathe. Examples include Dundr hammeranvil, the eccentric inventor arms smith, kalden amikiir the haughty noble elf whom the players hate with burning vitriol, or zeera do'urden, the sexy drow borderline psychopath who started as a PC booty call that followed him around and caused him to regret his Man-slutting. No matter how many times i use them the players love to see familiar, well developed allies from past lives.

3) a reincarnation "sea of souls" concept where each player has their last few characters as past lives that they can be made aware of.

4) necromancy isnt universally reviled, in some places being considdered just another school of magic and even having a regular convention called "necronomicon" (i love playing a necromancer so i provide necromancer support more than the usual GM)

5) you can buy, sell, and own property and land in a more free market way of things, allowing you to have a flippin' cool house/home base, and I have made a homebrew cantrip that lets you teleport home. Yes could be abused but my players never use my homebrew stuff it seems *le sigh*

6) the grab bag of madness. My beloved magic item homebrew is 10 lists with 100 items on each. Some are useful, some aren't, some are party killers (like an ancient red wyrm), and with 1000 possible pulls you never know just what you'll pull out. There are sessions where everybody just keeps rolling on the list for the heck of it. 3d10, one a percentile.

SkipSandwich
2017-12-20, 09:45 PM
I like putting players in situitions where they have to mediate between hostile or at least compeating factions, typically at least 3

I like to make a point of making non-humans physically alien in lifecyle. For example, Dwarves are literally sculpted from clay and have life breathed into them by an agent of the dwarven gods.

Orcs and goblins are the same species, with orcs being the female and goblins the male. "Half" orcs are intersex, sterile, and considered to be blessed by Grummish, often ending up in positions of leadership.

martixy
2017-12-20, 10:11 PM
The more I DM and world-build, the more I find myself using certain patterns, shortcuts, themes and default assumptions. Ruts, if you will. These may be things that I avoid or things that show up, whether I intended them to be there or not.

A few of mine are
* Gender-egalitarian societies. I'm more likely to include a matriarchy (usually biologically-inspired) than a classic primogeniture, women-are-property/can't hold positions of power sort of society. Most of mine don't care about gender at all.
* Hidden media references (usually in names or in obscure puns).
* The relationship between sacrifice and power. When involuntary this is blood magic, but voluntary sacrifice has tremendous power.
* Very few (if any) irredeemably evil villains (even fiends). My BBEGs tend to either be individuals doing what they think is best or outright insane (by common standards. In reality, it's more often Blue and Orange morality at work). A large percentage can be talked out of it. Often there's a clash of people who believe that they're good (and may even be), but the two different ideas of what is right are incompatible.
* Tentacles. Eldritch horror/body horror seems to come up a lot...:smalleek:

What are some of yours?

N.B. I'd like this thread to be the positive counterpart to the "Tropes I hate" thread. Please focus on things you do because you like, rather than things you avoid because you don't like them.

Too out of the loop for references and not as much emphasis on personal sacrifice, but 100% on the rest. Tentacleeees (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0URLGsf1e0).

The most significant challenge to the default assumptions is the way my world's population works. Firstly, the "shtick" of my campaign is that it's a monster world. Humans and all PHB races take a back seat in favour of everything else. Though I find myself having to bring that fact very constantly because when I say "a guy", the default image that pops up in everyone's head is some human.
Second, I go out of my way to avoid mono-culture races. Orcs have nations of barbarians and honourable samurai clans. Minotaurs are good allies of the dwarves, a good chunk of which are traders instead of miners. And minotaurs serve as the elite guard of a nation of lesser marilith(in D&D parlances) - lamia, snek people I mean. Etc...

Also, alignment doesn't matter much. Evil spells do not make you evil, poisons are not inherently evil, you can be a good assassin or a chaotic monk, necromancy isn't evil, just misunderstood and subject to prejudice(I actually have a necromancer PC). Morality isn't black and white, etc.

What else... the demands of challenging my high-power party mean I use a variety of monsters and terrain features just so they don't roflstomp every encounter.

Yora
2017-12-21, 02:33 AM
My DM is a lovecraft fanboy, but rather than using the aestheic (tentacles, so many tentacles) he uses the structure (investigative, mysterious, often without a complete explanation by the end) of Lovecraft novels to make thriller adventures for various intrepid heros.

I think there's quite a big difference between original Lovecraft and mainstream Cthulhu Mythos. I believe Lovecraft used every creature only once, except for references to Yog-Sothoth, and the whole classification system of eldritch beings doesn't exist. I like the original Yog-Sothothery much more than the expanded Cthulhu Mythos.
Less is so much more, when the subject is "the fear of the unknown".

Agrippa
2017-12-21, 12:36 PM
To Piedmon_Sama:

So I take it that zweihänders (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zweih%C3%A4nder), Landsknechts/Landsknechte (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsknecht) and Doppelsöldner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppels%C3%B6ldner) don't exist in your world.