Worldbuilding a Martial Campaign

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey y'all!

I'm going to shift the worldbuilding discussion for this thread to here, since the 5E-specific questions have been answered. For now, this is a stub, but I hope to expand on it soon!

[Emongnome777]

As I read your descriptions in the previous thread, a few thoughts or questions came to mind. By the way, it all sounds really fun, I'd play in it in a heartbeat with the class / feat limits you've imposed.

First, I wasn't clear on how the druids dealt with or interacted with the false dragons. Do the druids want to wipe them out as an unnatural plague on the world or are they willing to use them somehow to support their return-to-nature mission? (just curious)

This may seem crazy, but in your world, it's likely there's a cult of some kind that worships these false dragons. Perhaps some intentionally use arcane magic as much as they can just to "ascend" to a false dragon. Perhaps they leave sacrifices to these dragons as an act of worship. Doesn't matter if the false dragons are bestial and eat whatever / whoever they want, someone will deify them and others will follow that person.

Lastly, I also see some secret society that captures and studies them. Perhaps they seek a way to restore the person that's transformed, or maybe they want to harness arcane energy from them or learn more to use them for nefarious purposes. Or uses their body parts for eldritch experiments?

More lastly (LOL), there could be people selling a form of snake oil as a cure to people who's son or daughter has started converting through illicit arcane magic use.

I'll quit here before I need my high waders on from how deep into this I get.

[Petrocorus]

I feel that racial feats could be unlocked by default. They are already limited by race and many of them are just an improvement of natural capabilities.

BTW, is there limits on races available?

[Sparky McDibben]

As I read your descriptions in the previous thread, a few thoughts or questions came to mind. By the way, it all sounds really fun, I'd play in it in a heartbeat with the class / feat limits you've imposed.

First, I wasn't clear on how the druids dealt with or interacted with the false dragons. Do the druids want to wipe them out as an unnatural plague on the world or are they willing to use them somehow to support their return-to-nature mission? (just curious)

This may seem crazy, but in your world, it's likely there's a cult of some kind that worships these false dragons. Perhaps some intentionally use arcane magic as much as they can just to "ascend" to a false dragon. Perhaps they leave sacrifices to these dragons as an act of worship. Doesn't matter if the false dragons are bestial and eat whatever / whoever they want, someone will deify them and others will follow that person.

Lastly, I also see some secret society that captures and studies them. Perhaps they seek a way to restore the person that's transformed, or maybe they want to harness arcane energy from them or learn more to use them for nefarious purposes. Or uses their body parts for eldritch experiments?

More lastly (LOL), there could be people selling a form of snake oil as a cure to people who's son or daughter has started converting through illicit arcane magic use.

I'll quit here before I need my high waders on from how deep into this I get.

Thanks for the interest! The false dragons have a complicated relationship with the druids. Mostly, the druids see them as a useful bludgeon to drive back civilization in this area. When one threatens them, the Circle of the Blood Moon usually hit back hard...but not hard enough to kill the creature, just hard enough to drive it away somewhere's else.

The dragon-cult is absolutely not crazy! That's awesome! I'm guessing like 90% of the cult mostly just offers veneration the same way you would a hurricane or a tornado ("Please don't kill me!"), but there's like 10% that really want to turn themselves into a dragon. And there are fiends just waiting to tell them how!

Cult of the Wyrmlords is definitely going to be a group of antagonists. Thanks so much!!!

As for secret societies, I'm not sure? I could see some of that if society itself hadn't backslid so much, but what if the society was grounded in a group of divine casters? Actually, nevermind that - already got one of those. But what if it was people who profit from having more arcanists running around? Alchemists, potioneers, component-harvesters, that sort of thing? Ooh...that sounds like we're one bad day away from creating a super-soldier serum!

This is an awesome comment, thanks so much!!

I feel that racial feats could be unlocked by default. They are already limited by race and many of them are just an improvement of natural capabilities.

BTW, is there limits on races available?

Thanks for responding!

Yeah, I guess that racial feats are probably "unlocked" by just leveling up. As you become "more drow," it makes sense you would gain access to Drow High Magic, too. So that solves a whole chunk of feats I was going to have to place! Thanks for the advice!

As far as racial limits, only the PHB, XGtE, and TCoE are available as character creation options.

***********

As to the actual setting, I wanted to avoid a vanilla fantasyland, so I rolled, and I got jungles and mountains. I'm thinking that for real-world analogs here I can draw on the Congo, the Maya, Papua New Guinea, and both the Mughal and Gupta empires. Sooo....that's a lot.

Please let me know if anyone has any ideas on how to narrow this down, good recommendations for reading up on any of these, and/or good recommendations on other civilizations I could draw on.

I've got a map drawn on Inkarnate, but for some reason, GitP won't let me upload an image unless it has a URL attached. If anyone has any advice on how to get 'round that obstacle, let me know. :)

As far as campaign structure, I'm thinking this will be a hexcrawl, with the goal of keying adventure content to every hex. Now, the map has 188 hexes, so that's a lot of flipping adventure. Some of those will be feat trainers, some of them will be towns and villages, and some of them will be dragon lairs. But there's also renegade magi on the loose, two volcanoes (one of which is a true red dragon lair), and a portal to the Beastlands (which means this jungle also has dinosaurs running around, some which are disguised druids).

[Petrocorus]

Yeah, I guess that racial feats are probably "unlocked" by just leveling up. As you become "more drow," it makes sense you would gain access to Drow High Magic, too. So that solves a whole chunk of feats I was going to have to place! Thanks for the advice!

You could even think about adding them to the list of feats available at level 1.

As far as racial limits, only the PHB, XGtE, and TCoE are available as character creation options.

No Volo or EEPC, then.
I'm asking because this setting would be perfect for a pure Monk party.

As to the actual setting, I wanted to avoid a vanilla fantasyland, so I rolled, and I got jungles and mountains. I'm thinking that for real-world analogs here I can draw on the Congo, the Maya, Papua New Guinea, and both the Mughal and Gupta empires. Sooo....that's a lot.

There are probably enough in Indian history to fuel dozens of settings.
And depending on where you're from and what you're used to ("you" being plural here), that may be quite a change of scenery.

[Mostlymad]

This may seem crazy, but in your world, it's likely there's a cult of some kind that worships these false dragons. Perhaps some intentionally use arcane magic as much as they can just to "ascend" to a false dragon. Perhaps they leave sacrifices to these dragons as an act of worship. Doesn't matter if the false dragons are bestial and eat whatever / whoever they want, someone will deify them and others will follow that person.

Speaking of Monks... I was imagining that, as things developed, an outlet for this corruptive magic would manifest into the Ascendant Dragon Monks sub-class. The monks found a way to vent the magic into their Draconic Disciple and Breath of the Dragon features. Could make for an interesting web of cults each following their own color of dragon.

Lastly, I also see some secret society that captures and studies them. Perhaps they seek a way to restore the person that's transformed, or maybe they want to harness arcane energy from them or learn more to use them for nefarious purposes. Or uses their body parts for eldritch experiments?

A secret society of Drakewardens perhaps?

[Emongnome777]

Speaking of Monks... I was imagining that, as things developed, an outlet for this corruptive magic would manifest into the Ascendant Dragon Monks sub-class. The monks found a way to vent the magic into their Draconic Disciple and Breath of the Dragon features. Could make for an interesting web of cults each following their own color of dragon.

A secret society of Drakewardens perhaps?

In 5E, every new setting must come with exactly 2 new subclasses. No exception. The WotC overlords demand it!

But seriously, a dragon hunter ranger would be a great setting-specific subclass (more like the monster hunter than the drake warden).

What about a second subclass? Seems custom made for a druid subclass of some order (blood moon order, was it?).

Not sure what else you could do. Maybe a kind of cleric domain?

[Petrocorus]

In 5E, every new setting must come with exactly 2 new subclasses. No exception. The WotC overlords demand it!

SCAG had a new subclass for almost every class. Eberron has a whole new class with 3 subclasses. Wildemount had 3 subclasses.

But seriously, a dragon hunter ranger would be a great setting-specific subclass (more like the monster hunter than the drake warden).

I second this.

Not sure what else you could do. Maybe a kind of cleric domain?

A subclass for a class players are not supposed to use?

[Emongnome777]

A subclass for a class players are not supposed to use?

LOL, whoops.

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey y'all! This is going to be a bit rambly - sorry in advance.

Y'all are awesome! I've done some research through 2nd ed and some of the others to see if there are any Indian-themed campaign settings, and I have been stunned to see that there aren't any?

I was thinking about why and I think it has to do with Bollywood - specifically, that Bollywood didn't really get going till the late '90's - early '00's. That was well after Gygax and Arneson were using Kurosawa and wuxia films to inspire the monk and Oriental Adventures, so an entire subcontinent got missed. C'mon, guys.

So, one problem with using Indian stories as inspiration is that obviously many of the names are very unfamiliar to me, and presumably to my players.

However, I got an idea from watching the Overly Sarcastic Productions synopsis of Journey to the West (playlist here - check it out, it's awesome). For many of those places, the narrator uses the English translations of the place names / titles - "Flower-Fruit Mountain," "Male-Undoing Mountain," etc. And some of those places are really cool-sounding. So that's the direction I'm going.

So that area that's a magic portal to the Beastlands letting in dinosaurs? It's now called "The Wood of Thundering Death."

I've got about half the content either fully keyed or with at least an idea. I've now got about 90 hexes to key, and I'm using Worlds Without Number to give me ideas. I also picked up the little brown books on WebDM's recommendation, and lemme tell y'all, I did not expect developing adventures using those books to be that much fun. Really loving how complete the books feel, for lack of a better term - there aren't really any places where the DM is told to "figure it out" with the treasure tables, for instance. Not nearly as much ambiguity.

However, now I'm still kind of stuck with about 90 hexes I have to key. If you have any ideas, please let me know! These don't have to be actual published adventures, either (though those are always great!) but even if you just have "Those undead pygmy things from Mummy Returns were cool," that's more than I've got right now. :)

[Sparky McDibben]

Well, it took me a solid month, but I finally have this done! Encounters, hazards, weather, all 188 hexes are keyed; the whole shebang is ready to go. Now comes the hard part - convincing my players to let me run it for them!

Thanks to everybody who contributed! I really appreciate all the feedback!