Has anyone run a campaign where the world is still in its diapers, so to speak?

Altalazar said:

2000 years is rather a lot of history still - I was thinking more of a world with like 2 years of history. Perhaps where the first magic item is forged. Perhaps where the very first magical library is being written. Perhaps where the characters, as they get above mid-level, are the first individuals to reach those levels EVER. Which makes for interesting magic - all spells are new, researched fresh. Perhaps a handful of wizards in the world - all of whom are in contact, by letter, sharing what they know to build the list of spells that exist. Even evil wizards and good wizards may cooperate to a degree, because there are so few wizards and it is all so new.

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This sounds more like "when magic starts" than "when history starts." If the world has only been around two years, you've got a lot to work on with having everyone in the world be two years old.

I'd have no Gods, only elements to be worshipped, or the Sun, the Moon and the four Elements.

I'd make a fictional star-map of the world and allow the players to trace pictures and name the first constellations.

The players would be able to become Gods if they worked hard enough. Maybe the Sun would be trying to stop them and when they got to a high enough level it would go out, due to jealousy, trying to kill of the race that is reaching too high.

Then the higher level campaign would be to become a God before civilization is destroyed by the sunless sky. When the party become Gods, they will have to re-light the sun or ride the Sun chariot across the sky or hold the great orb aloft. Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, Orcs, would all be player races. They wouldn't know what would happen when races inter-breed and wouldn't really yet understand that some were longer lived than others.

The campaign would begin as the first bronze swords were forged.

Fun.

"Two days ago, Rain was created. The God of the Sky drew up a cloak of gray, and water poured down, getting everything wet and cold. Yet it was not unpleasant.

#12 got over into the next valley recently, too. He says he can see the edge of the world, where the God of the Land is still creating. He says it is a big windstorm, with great brown giants and hulking stones, quite unlike the green things that grow here.

We've heard words from out Seers that the Dark God has given birth to some hideous creatures at the edge of the land, and is starting to thwart the advancement of the great stone creatures. They came asking today if anybody would be willing to help the gods against the monstrosities, but one of our Seers is nervous. He says that this is just a distraction, that he's seen things lurking in the shadows beneath our very feet -- designs of the dark god with scales like the lizard's, yet wings like the bat's, and with a breath of thunder. We are scared, but last time this Seer saw something well out from the ground, it happened to be the Gnomes, and they seem to be an amiable enough bunch."

Kamikaze Midget said:

"Two days ago, Rain was created.

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Nice, Mr. Midget, nice.

I posted this puppy on rpg.net probably right as you were writing this.

Enjoy:

And on the 8th Day We Adventured (a Young World Campaign Setting)

The world is young. The stars twinkle in the sky, new to the void. The sun grows used to its path as the moon shows us its many shapes for the first time.

There are two dieties, the Sun and the Moon. The first war may very well be fought between those who wish to say our dieties are male or female or from this delta or of that race. Already, black rocks to be found near the smoking mountain are being sharpened.

The Sun and the Moon would be the only dieties for now. A fictional map of the stars of this world would be given to the players so they can name stars and draw in constellations.

If this is a D&D game I would have the non-human races worship the earth (Dwarf), wind (Elf), water (Gnome) and fire (Orc) but would make a plot point out of humans not worshipping those things out of fear that doing so will bring their attention onto them, thus bad luck.

Praying to the dead would be permitted also but the list is short, only one generation before this one and a scared generation at that.

Names are power and many things are not named yet. There is power in names and so some fools trek away from the tribes in hopes of naming a creature or a mountain or a tree, in hopes that none have done so before. Naming a thing gives one power over that thing. They call this art, the art of naming the hidden things of the world, magic.

This would be a tangible in-game mechanic, giving the PC's pluses while on the mountain they have named or charming the beast they have named or killing the monster they have named.

History is what has come before now but nothing has come before now. The first men and women are dying from the world and their memories yield next to nothing.

Old Prom stole fire from the Gods. They say he is the first hero and the first adventurer. Mothers point to him, bound to a rock, buzzards eating his eyes while he still lives in order to show the young ones what happens to adventurers.

The past is no mystery. It is easy for anyone to find an elder and talk to them about what has happened since the second generation has been born.

I'm really hesitant to make the adventurers of the second generation. Maybe they should be the first generation of mankind. I want no backstory at all, no meta-plot other than the total lack of a meta-plot. A world poised to begin just as the players are made.


Sorcerer (the RPG, not the class):

Humanity - How civilized you are. When you hit zero you become just another animal without a name. Your friends can remind you of your name but it is a bitch and a half.

Demons - Fire, Stars, a stone axe, a sharp stick, an animal you named - a mountain you named - a concept you named.

Binding rules for finding something no one's ever seen before and naming it, therefor binding it. Neat.

The Riddle of Steel (another indie RPG I dig) :

I'd show how much stone weapons suck but revel in the brutal combat and the dangerous magick, handed to the first spellcaster character directly from the Moon her/himself. SA's would be urged to be about building the world.

D&D 3.whatever:

I'd run it just like it is with the PC's first adventure fighting the buzzards eating Prometheus as they go forth to find him and talk to him, the world's first adventurer.

I'd make the thread of a D&D game the Sun's jealousy as the characters go up in level. At around 8th level or so, I'd have the Sun go out, in jealousy of the mortals who have dared to rise so high. Then the players would have to become Gods and take out the current Sun go so they can raise the orb into the sky or ride the sun chariot, or throw the shining boulder or whatever and save civilization from a cold, sunless death.

It sucks that I think in D&D terms easier than any other system but such is life.

Anyway, thoughts, comments, crits?

candidus_cogitens said:

Have you heard about Dawnforge?

It's a new campaign setting, from fantasy flight games. I have no idea whether it is any good or not. I just saw an ad for it in Dragon, which says "a newborn world coursing with magic."

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Yes. Might want to take a look at this one.

My next campaign will be a pre-history campaign. In fact, they have no even invented swords or the wheel yet! It starts in March. I will post a story hour when I do it.

Dave

Norfleet said:

Well, it depends on how you define "in its diapers". Does this mean the world consists of barely-evolved simianoids that have barely begun to walk upright, and that it would be quite an achievement for the PCs to even possess a loincloth and a sharp stick, or something more like a medieval world where the fantastic elements have just recently appeared?

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I'm thinking of a medieval world where the fantastic elements are just appearing - in the form of magic and technology.

It is cool to think that the ancient, first wizard of that world will actually be one of the PCs. And so forth.

You could then over the course of the campaign build the world's ancient history and characters and lore as the players actually live it and build it as they go.

If you're really ambitious, you could then play a conventional campaign later, using the "history" you created - and now when the party hears of artifiacts and old ruins, you REALLY know about where they came from. This could work with the same group - who would find it interesting because they lived the "past" - this could also be interesting with a different group that didn't know it, but discovers some of the history (as needed) for various adventures.

I read about Dawnforge, the new setting by Fantasy Flight Games that was set in a young world and I thought it was genius. But then I read the preview, and while it sounds great and I'll no doubt buy it because Midnight was fantastic and FFG puts out a slick, beautiful and well-written worldbook, it had history.

What about a game that has no history? A setting, where the entire premise is that the players are the first. That is why I was hesitant to even put a Prometheus in the game's setting. Like it or not, once you name someone, once you have a character who isn't your PC's and who is part of the setting, while not necessarily part of the player's story, you have metaplot.

I wanted to make a setting where there was no such animal. Prometheus, the players should steal fire. Eff Romulus and Eff Remus and all the rest of the founding myths. We're making new ones and we're doing it at the table tonight.

That is what this game would be about, creating, discovering, founding and establishing a world by doing.

Slaine is set in a very young world... It's one of my favorite D20 settings/books.

Tsyr said:

Slaine is set in a very young world... It's one of my favorite D20 settings/books.

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The folks who made Slaine are the ones who are making the new Conan d20, yeah?

Sounds good, may have to pick those up at some point. I was a fan of the comic as a kid.

Thanks for the tip.