My dark fairytale post-apocalyptic fantasy campaign...

cybernetic · Jan 11, 2004

We all go to sleep and dream at night (whether or not we remember them or not). What if the essence of the dreams and nightmares we do not remember were syphoned off into a void and formed a whole other world of magic and fantasy....what if all the fairy tales and myths we've heard were not fiction...but the babbling of people who had actually experienced a this whole other world!

Imagine you wake up one morning and go about your regular routine. You eat breakfast you get dressed for work...but that when you notice something..your wife doesn't seem to notice you standing right next to her...and everything seems to have started to take on an subtle purple-ish tint. You yell and wave your arms, but no one hears or sees you...and then after hours of trying to get the attention of another person...you start to feel it. At first its just a slight pinch in your chest....your head....your arm...then comes the gut-wrenching pulling sensation as your whole world is swallowed by a swirling purple/blue void just like something out of the twilight zone.....and then you slam hard against something....and you can definatly tell that your environment has changed....no longer are you in the comfort of your own home...or the safety of your city..... you're laying in a forest. The thing you hit is a boulder the size of your car. Your head throbs with pain as you realize that there are dark clouds in the sky in all directions and its raining. The trees around you are gigantic...and seem ancient as if something out of a movie...and then you notice you're not alone. There's a girl of unearthly beauty standing no more than 10 feet from your present location...she's wearing a dark cloak and weilds a long intricatly carved bow...and its aimed directly at you! Then you realize....you're not in kansas anymore!

Thats how humans come to be in the setting for my next campaign...its a world built from the very essence of mortal dreams and nightmares....where humans are actually rare!

Human characters will actually be less emphasized in this campaign....but for those who do want to play humans, there will be a special human only core class called the Lost Soul. This class will actually give humans the ability to manipulate the world around them in various ways (as it is a world built on their species' own lost dreams).

The world is actually divided into to realms of adventure...the Underworld and the Overworld. Most advnetures will take place in the Underworld..which is actually what is left of the surface of the Grymn (thats what he world will be called). While the Overworld is a entire realm of floating continents, enclaves, and cities....most of which is ruled by the High Elven Seelie and Unseelie Kingdoms...

In ancient times...the elves dabbled heavily in the arcane arts of magic and drew vast amounts of energy from the Realm of Shadow...this ended badly as the Realm of Shadow's very essence was unleashed upon the world of Grymn, destroying much of the lands and leaving it in its rotting decaying post-apocalyptic state it is today....it was a human pulled from the real world, a powerful Lost Soul, that finally forced the Shadow essence back into its own realm...but he was consumed and corrupted by the power of the shadow realm..and he turned against the world he had saved and began to enslave it under his rule...he is known only as the Grymn. The high elves used took what magic they had left and left the decaying land and built a new realm in the skys above the posioned shadow clouds that cloaked the world....this was in the ancient times...few relics of this time exist now....and those who weild the arcane magic arts are shunned, feared, and hated by those not under the sway of the Grymn.

There will be three other realms as well to repesent the world's cosmology...the Realm of Shadow is a combination of the Plane of Shadow and also the lower planes...it is where fiends and arcane magic come from. There are the Spectral Realms, which is a combination of the astral, the ethereal, and limbo...then there are the Divine Realms, which holds the upper planes and the inner planes....

next up will be races of Grymn.

Dirigible · Jan 11, 2004

Sounds interesting. Will the Underworld be an Underdark/Arx Fatalis -y kind of place, or something more friendly?

When I envision it, I think of a series af vast, low caverns rather than cramped passages, with ambient, sourceless lighting, rain and wind that makes it very habitable. Probably because of the fairytale angle.

cybernetic · Jan 11, 2004

Dirigible said:
Sounds interesting. Will the Underworld be an Underdark/Arx Fatalis -y kind of place, or something more friendly?

When I envision it, I think of a series af vast, low caverns rather than cramped passages, with ambient, sourceless lighting, rain and wind that makes it very habitable. Probably because of the fairytale angle.

Actually the Underworld is actually the Surface of the world...its cloaked in perpetual dark clouds consisting of dangerous magical maelstroms...in turn drowning out much light...making it a gloomy place...that kinda feels like your underground...

The Overworld is somewhat considered to be a myth in the Underworld....as it is located above the clouds in the beautiful light of the sun...and consists of floating continents, floating cities and enclaves..etc.. all held aloft by powerful magics. As a side affect, the magics that maintain the Overworld continue to cause consequences for the Underworld.

The best way I can describe it...is the Underworld is a fantasy version of the desert of the real from the matrix movies...with the Underworld above black clouds being a virtual floating magical paradise.

cybernetic · Jan 11, 2004

Character Races if Grymn
Grymn is not going to be your typical DnD setting...there are quite a few changes as far as races are concerned. Elves are the dominate species of this setting. In fact, in the ancient times of Grymn, before the ascension of the High Elves...the Seelie and Unseelie Kingdoms rules the whole of Grymn.

As Grymn will be a somewhat low magic/ high combat setting of survival in a dark desolate fantasy realm, the characters races are actually going to be somewhat more powerful than normal. In fact, they'll be the equivelant to an ECL +1, but with them all at the same ECL, that will not actually affect character advancement...because all PC's will be balanced with each other..but it will kinda skew CRs slightly, as PC's should be figured as one level higher for XP gain. This is intentional, so I can add a few higher power races at 1st level and it will help 1st level characters survive the gritty campaign I intent to run...

Note: You'll notice that there are several different races of elves...elven blood is present in many of the species of Grymn. Also some races have favored classes from Complete Warrior from WotC...the only books that will be used in this campaign will be the 3 Core books and Complete Warrior.

Aasimar
The aasimar are actually the typical aasimar...paladin is their favored class. Though not all aasimar need be good in Grymn. They are a Grymn native human hybrid who can trace their heritage back to a celestial being from the Divine Realms as well.

Dragon Elves
The dragon elves are an ancient breed of elf spawned from the ancient dragons of Grymn. They are powerful humanoids they are powerful and wise humanoids that typical bear features that show both their elven and their draconic heritage. Their favored class will be monk.

Dwarves
Although they greatly resemble the standard dwarves, Grymn's dwarves are even more industrious than standard ones and they also have a more structured society not unlike feudal japan. In fact, dwarves can select between Fighter and Samurai (from Complete Warrior) as their favored class.

Half-Elves
Half-elves are actually taking the place of the human in this setting. They are the most adaptable of all the races due to their mixed hertiage. They the result of the union of a human Lost Soul and one of the elven races...like standard humans they can select any class as their favored one.

High Elves
High Elves live in the Overworld above Grymn's desolate Underworld. They are powerful arcane spellcasters and are basically a regal version of the standard elves. Some High Elves have choosen to live in the Undeworld...most of which tend to keep their magical arts a secret in fear of being imprisoned or slaughtered. The High Elf favored class will be the Arcanist (equal part wizard and sorcerer).

Humans
Full blooded humans are somewhat rare in the world of Grymn. All humans tend to have advanced mental abilties (high int, wis, and cha) which is more then likely why they (or their ancestors) were pulled into Grymn. Only those who are pulled into the world are become Lost Souls. There are humans who were not pulled through as well, they are simply descendant from those who were...which two humans meeting in the world is pretty uncommon....making most descendants of Lost Souls half-elven. Human's favored class will be Lost Soul.

Goblin
Goblins are not the same as you all might be used to. They take equal parts halfling and equal parts gnome and wrap it all up in a short green skinned long pointy eared shell. They are tricksters and theives and inventors. They are not all evil...mostly they are considered a nuisance. They are fairly common as well, as they seem to breed like rabbits. They are fairly intelligent with high dexterity. Goblins can choose either Bard or Rogue as their favored class.

Orcs
They are still gonna be brutish barbarians...but they are more akin to a cross between Tolkien Orcs and Warcaft Orcs...not all evil...just very Tribal and they are actually decandant from an ancient elven bloodline. Teh Orc favored class will be barbarian.

Shadow Elves
Part High Elf...part Shade...they are the elves who's ancestors didn;t manage to escape the corrupting power of the realm of shadow...they are Shadowtouched...Many of the Shadow elves have attempted to attone for the destruction of their forefathers and have turned to the divine magic of the Druid in order to try to restore the land...a hopeless cause. There are still others who choose to embrace their corrupted nature and continue with the sorcerous ways of their forefathers... Shadow Elves choose between either Druid or Sorcerer.

Tieflings
Much like the Aasimar, they are human hybrids that trace their lineage back to fiend blood from the Realm of Shadow. Their favored class will be the Hex Blade (from Complete Warrior)

Races not present in Grymn
You'll notice that some standard races are not present...like gnomes, halfings, half-orcs.....Some of the new races actually take the place of these missings ones...mainly because of personal preferences...and the way I've envisioned the setting..for those of you who want to use my setting and want to include left out races or new ones...just remember that the races I've put together for grymn are actually ECL+1...so you may need to give a little something to added races to put them on par with the ones I've worked on... (in most cases a positive ability modifier or two can help that out).. Besides...my players were'nt really interested in them and wanted new options instead of them..

I'll post stats when I get some stuff finished...I'm primarily wanted to post the concepts and ideas at this point..while I work on the mechanics and rule based info....

next up... Classes of Grymn (quite a few changes)

Hypersmurf · Jan 11, 2004

cybernetic said:
Character Races if Grymn

This all sounds familiar... did you post about this once before looking for ideas or something?

-Hyp.

cybernetic · Jan 11, 2004

Hypersmurf said:
This all sounds familiar... did you post about this once before looking for ideas or something?

-Hyp.

Nope....I just put this together last night....but I do have an identical thread on the wizards.com d20 Fantasy Thinktank...

cybernetic · Jan 11, 2004

Classes of Grymn
Grymn will have heavy modification to some of the classes and total remakes of a couple. The only classes that will be untouched, are those that have no overt magical ability. The Underworld of Grymn, despite being very magically ambient, is actually a relatively low magic setting....arcane spellcasters are fairly rare (and in some places are outright slaughtererd or imprisoned oout of fear and hatred.) Divine magic is the only "accepted" magic to many who live in the Underworld...and most never see any magic at all.

The barbarian, the fighter, the monk, and the rogue of the PHB are all available and unchanged. Also, the Hex Blade, the Samurai, and the Swashbuckler from the Complete Warrior will be available, andd they will be unchanged as well. (The Hex Blade will be the only hybrid spellcaster to retain spellcasting features of their class.)

With magic being somewhat rare in the Underworld....it tends to be rare and hard to learn...to simulate this the spellcasting classes are somewhat changed into something that is more than just a Core Class...but not quite a Prestige class...they are core classes that have level can only be taken through multiclassing into them after meeting specific requirements...This causes spellcasting class to be 17 to 19 levels long and limits the magical powers slightly...enough that actually does lower all magic power some...but not enough that classes cannot acheive greatness...

Also, the hybrid casting class... Bard, Paladin, and Ranger will be replaced by variants with new class features in place of spellcasting abilities... The spellcasting classes are overviewed below..

The low-magic aspect of the setting will be largly in the DM's hands (mine in the case of my campaign)..and it will be the DM's responsibilty to maintain the low-magic feeling...

Druids
Druids are going to be changed somewhat...they'll have a larger spell list (with most of the cleric spell list being available to them in addition to the druid list). They'll also be able to select a Druidic domain (same as Cleric domains). The Druid's spellcasting, however, will be changed to spontaneous casting, not un like sorcerers. Druids will take the lead role as the primary spellcaster within the world. They still retain much of their normal feel though, armor limitations, wildshape abilities, animal companion..Druid will be a 19 level class that can be taken at second level, requiring the character to have 2 ranks in Knowledge (Nature). All races are able to harness the power of the Druid.

Sorcerer
Sorcerers are the most feared and hated of all arcane magic users. They are tainted by the Realm of Shadow, which is where their power is derived. Sorcerers will gain class features that will reflect their connection to the Realm of Shadow. Pure-blood humans cannot be sorcerers. To be a Sorcerer, the character must take the Shadowtouched feat at first level..and then must have 2 ranks in both Knowledge(Arcana) and Spellcraft.

Arcanist
Arcanists will replace wizards...they are those who learn to harness arcane magic. Primarily, Arcanists come from the High Elven species (more specifically...the Overworld.) but any race can learn to use magic as an Arcanist, even humans. The way an Arcanist will cast spells will be somewhat different than th wizard. They will still have a number of spells per day like the wizard, but they memorize arcane formulae each morning instead of individual spells, which are in fact small spell lists... an Arcanist can cast any spell off their currently memorized arcane formulae spontaneously. In order for a character to become an Arcanist, they will need 3 ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) and 3 ranks in Spellcraft...and they must find a "teacher" in game to learn to harness magic. This "teacher" can be another Arcanist (probably a Overworlder) or a rare ancient tome that describes the methods.

Prestige Classes
All Prestige Classes from the DMG and Complete Warrior will be available in some form in Grymn...but I'm going to have a heavy emphasis on in game development of characters..so if wanna be a Spellblade...you got know one.

Krieg · Jan 12, 2004

cybernetic said:
Human characters will actually be less emphasized in this campaign....but for those who do want to play humans, there will be a special human only core class called the Lost Soul. This class will actually give humans the ability to manipulate the world around them in various ways (as it is a world built on their species' own lost dreams).

Do you have a copy of Grimm from Fast Forward Games yet?

If not, you need to take a look at it ASAP.