hafrogman has it right. I am looking for a single group, although it could potentially be more fluid than a traditional adventuring party. Living EN World looks great, but it is too much structure for me, and my proposal gives players a greater impact on the world.
hafrogman and Alexandros, I would love to have you both along for the ride. I'm not really sure whether this will work or not, but I have always wanted to give shared world-building a try. The way I see it, a big advantage of the format I propose is that there are two parts to this campaign, the in-character, and the world development. If you log in one day and no one has posted anything new in-character, you can always feel free to try a thought experiment with world development. Obviously, players will get out of this project what they put into it.
Part of the beauty of this is that we don't need to create an entire world, just a big enough portion for the adventure. As the campaign begins, characters will be low-level and unable to influence events on a geopolitical level anyway, so one kingdom or region would suffice. Details on a few geographical features and adventuring locales would be plenty for early exploration.
If you still think this kind of thing is right up your alley, let me know what kinds of ideas you'd like to try. I'm going to attempt to be as hands-off as possible. I may occasionally step in on something silly like a land where dwarves live in the clouds and sing songs all day, but for the most part, I will merely offer editorial advice. And I will be developing some of my own bits of the world myself of course.
To start with, here is an idea for a city run by an assassin's guild. It takes part of the requirement of the assassin prestige class and molds it into the world.
Narovan
Narovan is a city shrouded in fear and darkness. By day, the city seems normal enough. Merchants peddle their wares and travelers move to and fro, but when night falls the local citizenry knows that to be caught out late means almost certain death.
The reason for this the Crucible, a practice of the Midnight Guild in which a target is selected at random for assassination for entrance into the guild by a prospective member. Aspiring assassins have three nights in which to track down and eliminate this person. The murder must be performed under three conditions: 1) the applicant must act alone, 2) the murder must take place after sundown, and 3) the murder must take place outdoors. Because of the latter, the assassin is often forced to lure his target out into the open. This is widely considered to be the most challenging aspect of the Crucible because the entire populace is paranoid about the dangers of being outdoors after dark.
The town is ostensibly run by a council of five elders who are elected for life on an as-needed basis. However, their power to stop this barbaric practice is limited. They are in-truth, a puppet government. The Midnight Guild always ensures that at least three elders are assassins themselves, thus securing a majority for any critical votes.
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