Create a Setting : Using Existing d20 Resources!

BigFreekinGoblinoid · Aug 25, 2005

I have always thought that a great way to create a detailed Campaign setting would be to popluate it with locations (I'm thinking initally about cities) that already exist. Sure anyone can drop Freeport into an exiting setting, but how about a setting that also has a place for Liberty ( Green Ronin/Game Mechanics "quarter series ), Bluffside, Ptolus, Cauldron, etc... ? That would be a fun project.

I had considered not dropping in any WotC setting specific cities ( Sharn, Waterdeep etc... ), but I suppose those could find a place too.

Although needing some modification, and creative backstories to tie everything together in a coherent way, this project could provide DM's the most detailed Campaign world ever.

There are dozens of small towns detailed in Dungeon magazine alone that could be placed in this setting.

Before my hard drive crashed, I used to have a .jpg for top level city map of Windhaven - a project that was never launched, and the map was removed from the website. If anyone still has that, I would appreciate them emailing it to me at ( stokenATmailDOTcom ).

What other resources can you think of that might port over well for such a project?

Anyone interested in brainstorming details for how such a Frankenstein setting might work?

Varianor Abroad · Aug 25, 2005

I think that most of these could fit together. You just need a really cool backstory to make it work. Maybe, just maybe, the magic is such that when the belief system changes (you cross borders) the magic changes? This explains system tweaks. Otherwise, I think a world populated with chunks of other worlds by a mad god is good. If you want a "unified" setting then it takes a bit more work. I think I'd want to toss Lhankmar into that mix you propose.

I'm A Banana · Aug 25, 2005

Sounds like OATHBOUND!

Psion · Aug 25, 2005

My "Baelish" (a subset of my River of Worlds setting) was designed pretty much with this principle in mind. It wasn't intended solely to be published stuff, but it was intended to tap into published stuff heavily, and features Freeport, Naranjan, Bluffside & Burning Sands, AEG's Mercenaries, and others.

RodneyThompson · Aug 25, 2005

For the last 14 months I've been running the Shackled City campaign in just such a campaign setting. Since that campaign wrapped up last night (good timing!) I'll also be running the Age of Worms adventure path in this same campaign setting. The original idea was that I had a bunch of books sitting on my shelf that I'd never used except for research, so this campaign was tailored to allow me to use more of those books than ever before (some time, if anyone's interested, I'll explain how I did that to an even greater degree during party character creation).

Cauldron is located in an equatorial jungle region at the southern edge of a relatively small (only one hemisphere) continent. To the east of these jungles lies the land of Khemti (from Green Ronin's Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra). A couple hundred miles north, on the west coast of the continent, is the city of Liberty (from The Game Mechanics' Thieves Quarter and Temple Quarter books), which I will use as the "Free City" for Age of Worms. To the southwest of Liberty, in the western ocean, is Freeport (again from the Green Ronin book of the same name). Far to the east, across the "civilized" portion of the continent is a mountain range that blocks of the Land of the Dead, at the center of which lies Manifest (from WotC's Ghostwalk). I've left a lot of "open space" for things from the Age of Worms adventures (and even the next adventure path).

Across the ocean to the west lies the Far Continent, populated by a slightly different set of dominant races. I've been setting up the Far Continent as the locations where I will drop cities whose sourcebooks have not yet been released, including Ptolus and the World's Largest City. I'm also considering using the City-State of the Invincible Overlord (I think that's what it's called) on the Far Continent, since that book looked super sweet.

So far it's worked well, and has given my party a really distinct feel for each city. Now the cities are no longer just random places to go with big buildings, they have a vibrant life and motif all their own, a rarity in a lot of campaign settings.

philreed · Aug 25, 2005

This is the exact sort of thing that I write my PDFs for. I like to think that someone out there has scattered bits of pieces of my various PDFs in just about every setting currently available.

Angel Tarragon · Aug 26, 2005

Before Oathbound there was Chanak. Which did exactly this.

BiggusGeekus · Aug 26, 2005

You could make a nice triangle with Bluffside, Freeport, and pretty much any other big city.

People buy adamantite in Bluffside and sell it in City X. Pirates from Freeport raid the ships going between the two cities.

Hand of Evil · Aug 26, 2005

AEG's DM Toolbox would be useful as a filler product. Streets of Silver, City State of the Overlord, and Mongoose has city (light detail) books out.

nothing to see here · Aug 26, 2005

Kamikaze Midget said:
Sounds like OATHBOUND!

In terms of providing a backdrop setting that explains any inconsistencies between the resources you're raiding, you're right...Oathbound is the best one out there for d20. You'd still have to do the legwork of placing all the different locations...it's sure be fun though.

I wonder where in Oathbound each of those resources could be dropped? I must ponder.