Let's talk about your homebrew world!

FXR said:

I don't play video games, so I couldn't tell. My gaming group is made of French-speakers, so my setting, titled "Les Contrées sauvages", was written in that language. For the purpose of this thread, I translated the name to the closest English equivalent I could think of.



There are quite a few myths from which I stole, sometimes consciously, sometimes not (I also plead guilty to stealing the riff between the dwarves from Dragonlance).

When I wrote my setting, I decided to have the distant past be mysterious, in the spirit of old school D&D and weird tales of the 1930-1940s. If you re-read my post, you'll notice I never said the Progenitors created the 144 humans. Perhaps they did, or perhaps they had found them elsewhere, perhaps the Progenitors were human themselves. I thought of a few theories, but decided to leave it open.

One devious theory I had was the the Progenitors were mind flayers (aliens one, with superior technology) and decided to have the Savage Lands as some sort of game reserve. They would come back in force, when Humanity was more numerous, a bit like some people stock lakes with fishes, let them multiply and fish them afterwards. The most obvious theory is that the Progenitors saw humans as their ultimate creation, but then, as the Black Book explain how to create new species from existing ones, not create ones whole cloth, so from what specie did humans evolve?

For the sake of mystery, I also decided to left the cause of the Wrath of the Gods as an unsolved mystery. Most inhabitants believe it's the gods (it isn't), but there are other theories. What if the Progenitors always kept a watch on Humanity and decided it was a time to put an end to their grand experiment?

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Would "Les Contrées sauvages" actually translate to, "The Wild Countries," or "The Wild Lands?"

A Progenitor is like a relation of something, correct? Like something that came before? Kind of like a Wolf might of been a Progenitor of a Dog?
It reminds me of the Anunnaki creating humans because it is said to of worked this way - the Anunnaki were masters of gene manipulation, and DNA, or so it is said. It is also said the Anunnaki mixed/fused their DNA with either the apes of this planet to create modern humans, or other human like people, such as Neanderthals or Cro Magnum as an example.

It might not be correct to your lore, but just from your story, I go an imagination that the Progenitors came to the planet, mixed their DNA with whatever other creature/race, and Humans are what became.

P.S.
The Anunnaki apparently made Humans in their image, aka using their DNA to make the perfect "slave." This story on the 5,000+ year old tablets gets a lot deeper, and can be found out more through The Epic of Gilgamesh. If you haven't read it, take a look at it, it is some interesting stuff. Though a lot of conspiracy theory surrounds it.

Slit518 said:

Would "Les Contrées sauvages" actually translate to, "The Wild Countries," or "The Wild Lands?"

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Yes. Your translation is better than mine, but I feared "Wild countries" sounded like a was a amateur country-rock band.

A Progenitor is like a relation of something, correct? Like something that came before? Kind of like a Wolf might of been a Progenitor of a Dog?
It reminds me of the Anunnaki creating humans because it is said to of worked this way - the Anunnaki were masters of gene manipulation, and DNA, or so it is said. It is also said the Anunnaki mixed/fused their DNA with either the apes of this planet to create modern humans, or other human like people, such as Neanderthals or Cro Magnum as an example.

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That could be an idea. Neanderthals exist in my setting, but they are confined to a small lost-world type valley. I originally thought that these humans had regressed during the years, but your proposal makes a lot of sense.

It might not be correct to your lore, but just from your story, I go an imagination that the Progenitors came to the planet, mixed their DNA with whatever other creature/race, and Humans are what became.

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As I purposely left the Progenitors mysterious, your theory is as good as mine.

Thanks for your comments!

P.S.
The Anunnaki apparently made Humans in their image, aka using their DNA to make the perfect "slave." This story on the 5,000+ year old tablets gets a lot deeper, and can be found out more through The Epic of Gilgamesh. If you haven't read it, take a look at it, it is some interesting stuff. Though a lot of conspiracy theory surrounds it.[/QUOTE]

I use Greyhawk blue box as a base, but besides some of the historical canon the official stuff is only a rough baseline.

Tech level is quite modern like in 30 years war but w/o firearms, but PCs can buy things like watches telescopes and compass.

I would have loved to include gunpowder muscets and cannons but one of my players objected, so these are different crossbows and war machines instead. (The players can absolutely buy war machines). Scenario is unstable ceasefire with city of Greyhawk trying to maintain neutrality, but being drawn into the conflict Furyondy vs. Iuz.

Old school as I am the race class selection is pretty limited also combos.

Players can be human, half-elf, gnome, halforc (grown up in human society) or tiefling (only with lawful heritage means devil ancestor). None of my players chose one of the last two races though.

Allowed classes are Fighter champion, battlemaster, eldritch knight (half elf only)
Several clerics of greyhawk deities, every domain of the standard PHB is represented at least once but racial filtering applies e.g .gnomes (like dwarfs) would be Ulaa clerics
Druid (moon only) (Obad hai)
Ranger (hunter only human / halfelf only) (Elonnah)
Warlock book blade only (humans and tieflings only)
Rogue thief , swashbuckler both subs human only , assassin (human/ tiefling only) arcane trickster gnome halfelf only
Wizard all except necromancer and illusionist (human only)
Enchanter and diviner half elf only
Illusionist gnome only
Necromancer (Human and tiefling only)
Paladin LG human only (Heironeus)
Bard Lore Valor (human and halfelf only

Elves and dwarves do exist but most are remote. Halflings are more common but they are depressed and not available as a PC race.

Everything is based on silver, you can buy a wide expanded variety of weapons and armor as well as every available wizard spell on scrolls. The economic system is such that the players need their silver and have a real incentive to do tasks which are rewarded with silver.

The world I created for my current campaign is known as Jiaka.

Before everything came into being, the fey and the demons (along with their orc slaves) warred with each other endlessly, to the pleasure of The Blood God. Then two infinite but opposing forces, Gaia and Kai, collided and through their destruction the universe was born. Many of the fey caught up in this change were remade into celestials, while many of the demons became devils. The worlds that were formed were crude in shape and form, but the Builders (a race about which little is known) immediately began separating the waters from the land, reshaping the worlds. They created for each world a Guardian, a being of immense power whose sole duty was to protect that world from world-destroying threats.

Ages passed and gods (who would later be known as the Old God's) arose. Then came Harbris, a sorcerer of unmatched skill. She somehow learned of the slumbering Guardian's existence and succeeded in siphoning its power for herself. This gave her unparalleled command over the essence of the universe itself, and she began absorbing the power of Gaia and Kai (from which all things arise). This nearly unraveled and ended the universe but for the intervention of the Old Gods, who assumed corporeal form in order to battle Harbris. Though it was costly, they did prevail in the end, and Harbris was destroyed.

Unfortunately, the gods are spiritual beings. They were unwilling to abandon their bodies, and were corrupted by all manner of physical temptations. What initially seemed a new golden age, quickly devolved into a war of the gods that devastated Jiaka for 100 years.

The Guardian had been in stasis during this time as its stolen power gradually returned. Though it had only ever been meant to deal with external world ending threats, the essence which had melded with Harbris and now returned to it was altered, and in turn changed the Guardian. It redefined its own purpose and set out to save the world. It first stripped the Old Gods of their names, denying them the ability to draw power from their followers. As a result, they withered to nothing. They are now known only by their titles. For example, the name Vecna is not remembered by any being or recorded in any tome. He is most commonly referred to as the god of secrets.

But it could not take the name of the Blood God, a primordial being with no name to take. Nor could it abide such a potential threat. Therefore, he lured the Blood God to the world with a blood sacrifice of staggering proportions, and trapped him. The land where the Blood God was trapped was shattered by his fury, and would later be known as the Crimson Isles.

After this ensued a dark age. Without the gods, the world was left bereft of much. The Guardian, meanwhile, began manipulating the world with its power, seeking to ensure that mortals could never again threaten the safety of the world (as Harbris once had). However, it was frustrated to no end. Most mortals were enkindled (meaning having a soul) and therefore possessed free will. They often reacted in unpredictable ways. Therefore, it created the goddess Ananke, as a means to understanding mortal behavior in order to better manipulate them. In order to comprehend free will, she had to possess it herself, and she soon began to rebel against her creator as she grew to empathize with mortals. As a result, the Guardian tormented her in order to obtain her cooperation. With her help (however unwilling) it was able to greatly expand its shadowy influence. It created five additional gods, known as the Divine Hierarchy, which were nothing more than puppets for the will of the Guardian.

The stars heard Ananke's pained cries. They had long observed Jiaka with detached interest, but now resolved to act upon the goddess' behalf. However, their light was much diminished across the vast divide of the void, and they could not oppose the Guardian directly. As such, they reached out to the mortals of world, hoping to grant them the freedom to find the path to their own salvation. As such, each star of fortune offered the mortals a virtue to espouse. By being true to these virtues, they could fortify themselves against the Guardian's manipulations.

Unfortunately, worship of the Divine Hierarchy rapidly expanded on the continent of Roanar, and these followers formed the Hierarchical Theocracy. They peacefully converted those civilizations they could, and conquered those they couldn't, although the monstrous races and barbarian tribes were left to their own devices during this period. However, as soon as the Theocracy had united the kingdoms of Roanar, their attention would turn to these hold outs.

The outcome of the war was inevitable. The survivors were rounded up into camps and given the choice of conversion or exile. A great many chose exile, and were sent to the savage lands of the Crimson Isles, which had not been successfully settled in recorded history. If the exiles died then the Theocracy lost nothing. If they could take the land, it would be easy to take it from them given that they'd already been conquered once. The most formidable airship in the Theocracy's flotilla, the Dreadnaught, was stationed to ensure that the exiles didn't attempt to build a navy and return to Roanar, and that was that.

Obviously, a lot of the info above is campaign secrets the PCs must discover for themselves (or not).

The PCs start as one of these exiles, having been commissioned by the struggling government as road wardens, with broad jurisdiction to ensure the peace and protect the interests of the exiles. The campaign is intended to be largely a sandbox, with players able to explore the various islands as they please. Hypothetically, defeating the Guardian could be seen as the end game goal, but it's purely optional. Slaying the Guardian would have its own consequences, as that would leave the world vulnerable to world-ending beings (who currently steer clear of Jiaka because they sense the presence of the Guardian).

I allow all of the WotC published races as well as many homebrewed races. I reworked the lore of the PHB races to integrate more closely with the setting.

For example while tieflings are sometimes the result of infernal pacts, more commonly they are the descendants of those who guard the hellholes, and slay the fiends that emerge from those holes. Exposure to that blood tainted those valiant warriors over generations, transforming them into tieflings. As such, tieflings in Jiaka are respected, not feared. (Except by the Theocracy, which allows them to continue to guard the hellholes but otherwise considers them to be corrupted.)

My favorite of my homebrew race is the Unwritten. These are beings who should have existed but for the Guardian's manipulations. Though they can somewhat recall the life they should have had, rather than existing they are shunted to the Nether, a place of lost and forgotten concepts. Most such souls fade and become a part of the Nether. However, those with a strong will to survive can assemble a body for themselves from the abandoned conceptual rubbish and claw their way free of the Nether, back to Jiaka.
The way it works mechanically is that you make one choice from four categories: type, body, locomotion, and aberration. Each of these comes with some advantage and oftentimes some disadvantages as well.
I've had three Unwritten so far:
A giant origami mantis.
A floating ceramic doll, who cracks when struck to reveal a decaying body within.
A woman with chuthulean tentacles for legs.

As for classes, I allow all of the published WotC classes and archetypes, as well as a number homebrewed by myself. I suppose my favorite of my archetypes is a 5e version of the 4e brawler fighter (the Unwritten origami mantis uses this one).

I like offering a lot of options, and it fits the campaign since one of the overarching themes is diversity and working together to common benefit despite differences.

I wanted my group to have a difficult start. So, I searched for a secluded part of a continent. After some searching I picked the continent Celanta map https://www.cartographersguild.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5425&d=1216843299 and picked the Island of Kells in the South West.
The Kingdom was a former penal colony that only became independent after the wizard dictator of the whole continent was killed. After independence from the mainland was secured (No one wanted to fight over Kells, since it had no resources), the island came under half-elf rule. Due to inbreeding, the line was not the most stable and the population of the island started to lose respect for the sitting queen. Furthermore, SP's was the highest currency available and although everything was relatively cheap, they got paid considerably less.

When the heroes started playing, the forests of the island became sought after because of rare material components and the mountain tunnels leading towards the forests were found to have massive amounts of silver.... Mix in evil dwarves and good orcs and we had fun for 4 years.

''How are the gods in your world?
Present? Dead? Non-existent? Gods that are around but don't mettle in mortal affairs?''

All the gods were in stasis (that became the main story quest) with only 2 available. Can only recommend it

Hooooo boy, here we go.

Well, my game world comes to life, as all other multiverses before it, thanks to Uhluhtc, the Primordial Force of Creation. He is, also, tired of his mirror being, Cthulhu the Primordial Force of Destruction, devouring all his multiverses and the beings within to make mini versions of himself that eat matter and souls. So he splits himself into eight parts and creates the Weave, which he uses to trap Cthulhu and allow his children to shape the world as they see fit through magic (details here).

After that, over the course of not-so-many millenia, the world came to be what it is.

The most notable event, apart from the usual wars between races as they are born and discover each other (dragons v giants, dwarves v elves), is the Sky War.
Tharizdun, god of eternal darkness, is, though a child of Uhluhtc, a servant of Cthulhu. He desires to free the Great Devourer and destroy the multiverse one last time. He almost made it once. You see, The Illithid are
chroniclers of the history of the multiverses; they were the first race ever created, and they followed Uhluhtc on his journeys between the empty spaces of the void, anchoring their spaceships on him like a swarm of giant insects. They have witnessed everything that has ever happened in all of creations. The race possesses a sort of limited hive mind, with elder brains being the "neurons". In the current instance of the multiverse, they at one point created a planet and plane-spanning empire, but then suffered a massive collective psychosis, allowing the gith to destroy it (they were supposed to record history, not make it).
Their technology is beyond the wildest imagination of any mortal in the multiverse, surpassing even magitech in most fields.

Long story short, Tharizdun took advantage of a casual meeting between the Illithid and Humans to make one teach their tech to the others, and then united them in a world-spanning conquest, summoning devils along the way. The gods wanted to prevent the world from being utterly swamped by fiends, so they used their power to block off the Material Plane. With their power so utilized, they hadn't the energy to stop the devils invading Mount Celestia. So a group of adventurers back on earth had to unbind the energy protecting the Material Plane, sending it back to heaven like a god-sized nuke, killing many many fiend and blasting the rest out of the plane, where the gods blasted them with a curse that would make them fall forever in an endless Abyss (yes, new plane created right there).

Then the debris from the battle fell from the heavens unto the earth, causing massive devastation (destroying a whole region and turning it into an archipelago - the Shattered Lands), while the magical shock wave blew out close to all magic and killed many many magic users in the world, leaving it thousands of years behind what it had been.

Magic has never truly recovered, or at least the knowledge of it hasn't. Arcane casters are exceedingly rare, and none but the most ancient beings in the world have witnessed magic above 5th level, which is considered to be the pinnacle of magical mastery.

Gods
oh so many. I have like 50 written down, and I haven't even decided on the regional ones/all the racial ones yet.

Notable regions are:
Klastor- huge empire, used to cover the whole Old World. All other regions except Koroka were once imperial provinces. A mix of medieval Russia and the 40k Imperium.
Lamven, Chadal- old imperial duchies, now independent, basic human kingdoms. North of these lies the kingdom of Giants
Koroka- created by the gods after the Sky War to keep an eye on planar threats, has immense resources, houses hundreds of dragons and is ruled by the Crystal Dragon (who also happens to be a 20th level caster on top of crazy stats I haven't written down but that are crazy). Basically feudal Japan otherwise.
Shattered Lands- pirate setting, threatened by a red dragon who wants to take over the world
Dynamia- new world colonies, have discovered old magitech texts and have made their new home super advanced. Unknown to the outer world.


Playable races are:
Humans
Elves (no drow)
Dwarves
Half-orcs
Half-Elves
Halflings
Tabaxi
Goliaths
Gnomes
Dragonborn
Tieflings

Classes are all the official ones except Arcane Archer, Hexblade Patron and Oath of Redemption.
Additional Classes are Inquisitor and Samurai. PHB Ranger is replaced by this also, there's another Barbarian path available for anyone who likes grappling.

There are two features of my homebrew that I figure are worth sharing:

1) There are a bunch of demiplanes that cycle through the Ethereal plane. They are all associated with a different monster type, and when they get close to the world, monsters of that type "spontaneously" appear. That isn't so special in itself, but it is fairly easy for PC's to hitch a ride from one campaign world to the next on these demiplanes (easy doesn't mean safe however). I am pretty lazy about the specific worlds, so they might go from "loosely FR" to "loosely Dark Sun." By midlevels, the party tends to be pretty cosmopolitan.

2) I might have the cruelest afterlife in fantasy role playing. Souls go to the Outlands, which are really just 8 filters/cheese graters. All the LG parts of a soul get sliced off and go to Mt. Celestia, all the CE parts go the Abyss, etc. What's left over stays in the Outlands. The biggest part of the soul becomes the core of an outsider, and the second biggest part can merge with someone else's second biggest part to become the core of an outsider. Everything else is raw material that the planes are made of (and that outsiders build their bodies out of). It takes 200 years for a soul to hit the first filter. You can bring someone back after that time, but you have to find all the pieces. Gods can intervene and collect the biggest and/or second biggest parts of a soul to make minions out of, but they usually only take one or the other. The 8 big realms tend to have too much stuff, so they overflow, and the overflow between adjacent realms tends to mingle into transitive realms (like Arcadia, Pandemonium, etc.). Gods tend to like the transitive realms (you don't have endless demons or angels under foot telling you what the "desires of the plane" are and expecting you to conform), so that is where most of them hang out (there are a few outsiders hanging around any transitive plane, as the bigger planes regard their transitive planes as being under their "spheres of influence.") Some gods have dual citizenship (like Asmodeus and Lolth) so they are regulars in the big realms.

Slit518 said:

For those of you who DM, and for those of you DMs who have a homebrew world, do you care to talk about it?

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Not really, because there is nothing particularly original about it, but since you ask some pretty basic questions I'll answer those.

If so, what classes are allowed in your homebrew?

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Akashic, Champion, Cleric, Explorer, Fanatic, Feyborn, Fighter, Hunter, Paragon, Rogue, Shaman, Sorcerer, Wizard. There are also several NPC classes generally not well suited to the adventuring life, but which I'd let a player take if they had a good reason: Brute, Commoner, Expert, Scholar, and Warrior.

Any new classes that you use instead of a reskin of an old class?

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Champion, Explorer, Feyborn, Hunter, and Paragon are new homebrew classes. Fanatic is a more or less reskinned Barbarian, which is no more different than say a Pathfinder Barbarian is from a 3.5 era Barbarian. Explorer and Hunter are two different takes on a magicless Ranger, that emphasis different aspects of the class, with Explorer being a sort of jack-of-all trades class skilled at two-handed fighting, and Hunter being a ranged weapon class with favored enemies. Explorer also has aspects conceptually of the old Dragon 1e AD&D Mariner class, and in fact was necessitated by the fact that I expected Mariner to be a concept supported by the rules which in fact had weak support in base 3.0e D&D. Champion replaces Paladin and a bunch of other classes, and could be considered a reskinned version of the 3.0e Holy Warrior class from Green Ronin's 'Book of the Righteousness', but in fact is so extensively revised that its roots are barely recognizable and it is vastly more flexible than even the Green Ronin class. Shaman is the Green Ronin Shaman from their Shaman handbook, except that the class spell-list has been revised to look more like the Druid spell-list, owing to the fact it doesn't need to compete for space with the Druid but in fact replaces it. Akashic is Monte Cook's class from Arcana Evolved, only slightly revised to fit with the setting.

The fighter, cleric, rogue, and sorcerer classes have modifications compared to RAW to move them up or down a tier as necessary to improve balance. For example fighter gets more feats, and has access to more powerful feats, plus a number of generic fighter class abilities, additional skill points and a selection of class specific skills. The cleric gets fewer spells per day, and has a limited selection of known spells. And the rogue gets a very slight boost in abilities at higher level and even more skill points.

What races do you allow in your homebrew?

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Changling, Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Half-Elf, Half-Goblin, Hobgoblin, Human, Idreth, Orine, Pixie, and Sidhe. In general, nothing else is allowed, but if I had a very experienced player who'd proven their RP chops and had absorbed enough of the setting I might entertain suggestions for a non-standard race.

Any new races that you use instead of a reskin of an old race?

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Changling (no relation to the Eberron race), Idreth, Orine, Pixie, and Sidhe could be considered fully homebrew, and Idreth and Orine entirely exist within my world with no outside influences. The other races are largely familiar from their 3.0e counter-parts, with only slight quirks unique to the setting.

How expansive is your world?

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In my head, it's whole world, but very little of it has ever been highly detailed because I don't do a lot of world-building outside the needs of a game and because I have an annoying habit of losing notes or maps I've made over the decades.

How are the gods in your world?

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Mortal scholars suggest that there are '1000 gods', but what they mean by this is 'a very large number'. They are very active in mortal affairs, at least as active as those of the Greek myths or similar mythologies. Most mortals can expect to have a god intervene directly in there affairs at least once in their life. Divine intervention is common, and seeing a deity of some sort while probably a once in a life time event, not wholly unusual. Actually having a face to face conversation with a deity and having some sort of relationship with one is considered a great honor, and those that receive this honor deemed 'saints' - a term that implies nothing like the real world idea of 'saintly' but rather has more in common with the modern notion of 'celebrity'. You simply will not play a campaign on my world where there aren't gods as thick as fleas on a camel's butt. Religion is enormously important and pervasive within my campaign world, so much so that the importance of the Catholic church to Medieval Europe would be deemed inferior. I consider the setting 'Etruscan' in flavor, with Hinduism as it was practiced in pre-modern times being the main influence on my thinking about a polytheistic setting, but also some influences from the Urhobo people of West Africa. You can kind of imagine the setting as Europe where the Baroque Etruscans and not the simple pragmatists of Rome were the great successful Empire, where Carthage never fell, and where Hinduism and not Christianity was the dominate religion, and where like ancient Egypt there was a long succession of Golden and Dark ages.

While there are few dozen deities that are more or less fleshed out in my head and an outline of a cosmological/mythological history that frames everything, it's not at all unusual for me to invent a deity every time a player wants to play a cleric.

In other words, it's very much a 'kitchen sink' sort of setting with regards to culture. Everything is a mismatch, with inspiration coming from where ever I can find it.

Savage lands is a name for a hidden prehistoric world in Marvel comics - that might be the familiarity of name.

My world:

Post cataclysm. The gods had a war - there were 13 gods (all good aligned) - one turned traitor an allied himself with the underworld creatures, and was eventually killed. That threw the world into a different orbit and changed the climate. The remaining gods used a huge amount of their power to keep the planet intact, and get a stable orbit. Before the cataclysm, the gods were like FR or Greek type - getting involved in the day to day affairs of certain mortals and being very close to the free races. The war (and the loss of personal power) taught them the error of that approach and the removed themselves from day to day running of the world.

This is background to set up a "points of light" kind of world, and to set up the religious feel I want for the campaign.

High Fantasy tone, with the PCs expected to be heroes, not self absorbed adventures - almost superhero in attitude. This was agreed upon by the group. Only good aligned PCs, no neutral, no evil. Good vs Evil is big, the law vs chaos is more the tone of your good or evil, and doesn't have much conflict with each other.

Religion - one religion that is the true church - it worships the 12. Think Catholic Church in many ways, but without most of the historical corruption. People revere the 12, but can focus on 1. There is no conflict between the 12 gods. There are no evil gods - evil comes from the lower plane dwellers, demons and devils. Other churches have sprung up, and faith is enough for clerics - so we have the equivalent of the many protestant churches, as well as those that worship ideals, or not unlike modern Wicca. This is a pretty important part of the culture. All the other churches sprang up after the cataclysm, when the gods stepped back.

Points of light setting - the world is just coming out of the after effects of the cataclysm. I steal liberally from any campaign setting info I can - I have Waterdeep (with a different background) and Undermountain. But I have lots of pieces of other campaign worlds too. There are great artifacts from elder civilizations - things like long range teleport circles that people are learning to use, as one example.

The world is a hollow world -within the hollow world it's Swords and Sorcery, dinosaurs, sand and sandals vibe. Magic isn't as prevalent there. Using pieces of Hollow World for Mystara, Primeval Thule and other such things.

Planar structure is a pretty classic for the inner planes (energy planes, elemental, astral, ethereal, shadow etc) but outer planes are very distinct. Pretty much one good plane, one evil, and limbo.

Races - I'm all for pubs in larger cities looking like the cantina in Star Wars. I use most all races in WotC books, plus stuff from a number of third party books (Scarred Lands and Midgard are big ones), and some homebrew and DM's guild.

Classes - at this point I only have the core PH classes, but use subclasses from lots of sources.

Mechanical changes - I have feats and Ability increased - as I feel feats are a great way to personalize the character. Both come at a slightly slower rate, but by 20th, there are a total of both that is significantly greater than core. I don't mind the power up - none of my players are serious optimizers.


I have the world map and the hollow world over-maps, and fill in what is needed for the characters.

Slit518 said:

For those of you who DM, and for those of you DMs who have a homebrew world, do you care to talk about it?

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The world has been kicking around since 1982.

If so, what classes are allowed in your homebrew?

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Whatever classes are allowed in the edition I'm running. It was last used with 3.5. All the base classes and a few prestige classes were supported.

Any new classes that you use instead of a reskin of an old class?

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No.

What races do you allow in your homebrew?

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It was last set up for human, elf, dwarf, gnome, half-orc, and halfling. More exotic denizens appear in larger cities and/or specific regions so other races aren't hard to fit in should a player want to try one though they won't find much cultural support outside their home turf.

Any new races that you use instead of a reskin of an old race?

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No.

How expansive is your world?
1 city? 1 country? 1 continent? A few continents? The world? A few worlds?

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It's based on the Greyhawk Darlene maps because I'm a crappy mapper and there is more than enough political boundaries/terrain types to fit pretty much anything in. Some areas "off the map" have been fleshed in over the years; lands west of the Sea of Dust and Amedio Jungle are extended.

The world itself isn't a sphere, but more a bicycle tire on its side and the continents are the tread. It has a lot of space for areas "off the map". I generally don't run there, but I've had a few limited-duration campaigns with very different cultures that I've placed in other sections. Additionally, there are a handful of alternate prime material planes and demi-planes that have been mapped and have permanent gates on the map. I find that players rarely bother going too far afield unless they have a specific purpose though.

How are the gods in your world?

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The gods are very much present and involved. Each race has its own pantheon that get substantial worship. There are three primary human pantheons in the Greyhawk section: Greek (the established older culture in the east), the Norse (a younger more vibrant culture in the west) and the Finnish (primitive cultures that cling to less habitable areas). Babylonian and Egyptian religions are underground and persecuted unless you happen to be in the very small areas where they are openly supported. Egyptian and Indian cultures have large expansive cultures elsewhere that players have found. Some scholars believe that the same beings represent different gods in the various religions. For example, some sages believe Hanali Celanil, Aphrodite, and Frigga are merely aspects of the same divine being expressed differently to mirror the priorities of the culture.