Psion
Adventurer
Okay, everyone. I have a little world building project that I could use a few ideas for.
My first DMing experience used the Blackmoor map in the back of the OD&D expert set. As you might imagine, we found this map woefully incomplete at the time, so I mapped off the edges of that map and made lots of new stuff. I eventually became concerned with my own creations and pretty much moved away from the blackmoor stuff, and called the world "Aphrodomis."
Eventually I became disgruntled with this world and decided to start from scratch. Well, almost from scratch. I wanted a new world, but liked the religions and characters background. So what I did is arrange an apocolyptic magical war called the Chaos wars. The central nation in the setting fled through gates to another world before they got consumed by the warfare. They fled to Trinalia, which would become my campaign setting of choice.
That said, I am at a point in my campaign that will require the characters to revisit Aphrodomis; Drakar, the oppressive villainous empire of Trinalia, has found a way back to Aphrodomis and has been unearthing weapons of the chaos wars. To find a way to stop or defeat these weapons, I want to run a game that will take them back to this world.
So the question would be: what would this world be like? It is 1000 years after the Aborians left Aphrodomis for Trinalia, and probably a similar amount of time after the Chaos Wars reduced all remaining civilizations to rubble. I pictured something like a world recovering from an ice age, similar to the Magic the Gathering Ice Age setting. I picture most of the land to the north as eternally glaciated, but there has been enough of a thaw that some kingdoms are forming around some relatively Ice-free ports to the south. But I need a few more ideas to throw in as flavor and interesting encounter points. Any ideas?
To give myself a fresh start, I broke out the old World Builders Guide and started in on some basic world details. Someone on another forum came up with the thought that perhaps dwarves, largely living underground, would have an advantage weathering such a disaster, so I decided to make dwarves the dominant race.
I also came up with the notion to make vermin a more everpresent threat in this setting. Thri-kreen are one of the races listed below, but I am trying to conceive some insectiod race that can serve in their stead, in addition to any non-intelligent vermin threats.
World Hooks:
The first two world hooks are Arctic climate and post-apocolyptic history. I rolled for a third one to see what I came up with and the result was psionics. Perhaps the dwarves and other races honed psionic talents to deal with the increasingly harsh environment.
For races and cultures I rolled and/or decided (these are not set in stone, just a starting point):
Dominant Race:
Dwarf (3 cultures)
Major Races:
Giant (3 cultures)
Centaur (2 cultures)
Thri-kreen (3 cultures)
Goblin (2 cultures)
Ogre (3 cultures)
Minor Races
Taer (a 2e race) (2 cultures)
Giant (2 cultures)
Kobold (1 culture)
Hobgoblin (1 culture)
Halfling (2 culture)
Elf (2 cultures)
Doppleganger (2 cultures)
Troll* (2 cultures)
Orog (1 culture)
Human* (1 culture)
I decided to make the second human race the Talaire, who have an outpost here... and it fits with the psionic theme.
I think one of the troll races will be ice trolls, from the 1e days (and updated in the creature catalog). The orogs will be remnants of the chaos wars. I am planning on various other remnants of the chaos wars remaining behind and being threats.
Any thoughts? I just need a few ideas on how to work this into an original world. I don't need lots of details... there will only be a few adventures spent here (perhaps more in the future), but ideas revolving around a few of these races, possible hazards, or the prevailing situation would be nice.
My first DMing experience used the Blackmoor map in the back of the OD&D expert set. As you might imagine, we found this map woefully incomplete at the time, so I mapped off the edges of that map and made lots of new stuff. I eventually became concerned with my own creations and pretty much moved away from the blackmoor stuff, and called the world "Aphrodomis."
Eventually I became disgruntled with this world and decided to start from scratch. Well, almost from scratch. I wanted a new world, but liked the religions and characters background. So what I did is arrange an apocolyptic magical war called the Chaos wars. The central nation in the setting fled through gates to another world before they got consumed by the warfare. They fled to Trinalia, which would become my campaign setting of choice.
That said, I am at a point in my campaign that will require the characters to revisit Aphrodomis; Drakar, the oppressive villainous empire of Trinalia, has found a way back to Aphrodomis and has been unearthing weapons of the chaos wars. To find a way to stop or defeat these weapons, I want to run a game that will take them back to this world.
So the question would be: what would this world be like? It is 1000 years after the Aborians left Aphrodomis for Trinalia, and probably a similar amount of time after the Chaos Wars reduced all remaining civilizations to rubble. I pictured something like a world recovering from an ice age, similar to the Magic the Gathering Ice Age setting. I picture most of the land to the north as eternally glaciated, but there has been enough of a thaw that some kingdoms are forming around some relatively Ice-free ports to the south. But I need a few more ideas to throw in as flavor and interesting encounter points. Any ideas?
To give myself a fresh start, I broke out the old World Builders Guide and started in on some basic world details. Someone on another forum came up with the thought that perhaps dwarves, largely living underground, would have an advantage weathering such a disaster, so I decided to make dwarves the dominant race.
I also came up with the notion to make vermin a more everpresent threat in this setting. Thri-kreen are one of the races listed below, but I am trying to conceive some insectiod race that can serve in their stead, in addition to any non-intelligent vermin threats.
World Hooks:
The first two world hooks are Arctic climate and post-apocolyptic history. I rolled for a third one to see what I came up with and the result was psionics. Perhaps the dwarves and other races honed psionic talents to deal with the increasingly harsh environment.
For races and cultures I rolled and/or decided (these are not set in stone, just a starting point):
Dominant Race:
Dwarf (3 cultures)
Major Races:
Giant (3 cultures)
Centaur (2 cultures)
Thri-kreen (3 cultures)
Goblin (2 cultures)
Ogre (3 cultures)
Minor Races
Taer (a 2e race) (2 cultures)
Giant (2 cultures)
Kobold (1 culture)
Hobgoblin (1 culture)
Halfling (2 culture)
Elf (2 cultures)
Doppleganger (2 cultures)
Troll* (2 cultures)
Orog (1 culture)
Human* (1 culture)
I decided to make the second human race the Talaire, who have an outpost here... and it fits with the psionic theme.
I think one of the troll races will be ice trolls, from the 1e days (and updated in the creature catalog). The orogs will be remnants of the chaos wars. I am planning on various other remnants of the chaos wars remaining behind and being threats.
Any thoughts? I just need a few ideas on how to work this into an original world. I don't need lots of details... there will only be a few adventures spent here (perhaps more in the future), but ideas revolving around a few of these races, possible hazards, or the prevailing situation would be nice.