Relaunching the Dusk setting, Looking for Advice, Suggestions and Help

Mike, I applaud your decision to re-start Dusk. Go for it.

On the blog thing. Your decision, but I'd recommend opening up a community site. Lay out the basics, and invite people to join the community. Get discussions going and use the best bits you find.

On the Bronze Age Stuff: Sounds like you're going for the Late Bronze Age. Hittites are just coming on the scene, the Assyrians just got their butts handed to them for the first time, and Egypt and Babylon are the top dogs in the Ancient World.

Oh, and the Achaeans and the Trojans have this little trade dispute going on.

And off in some little corner of the world the Shang are getting the whole Chinese thing going.

You are going to find lots of source material for this.

Good luck.

Little Research material to understand both where I want to go with magic and alignment.

Read these in order for best effect:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr43
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr57
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr84
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr109
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr133

This is also an eye-opener
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/14

Okay here are my two (maybe three) cents:


Possible Contributions:

-- I can do maps! I am also willing to work on the final document as far as layout is concerned, to make the PDF nicely formatted with pics nicely inserted, etc.

-- I would be willing to work on a document (i.e.: actual writing) compiling OGC character classes that would apply to the setting (there are many around there!).


Comments and Suggestions:

-- Is setting to be inspired only by Ancient Greece (Spartha, etc.) or also Byzance? A setting inspired by Byzance would be really great and original. Plus in Byzance was the Varanguian guard of Viking mercenaries, so in Dusk could be similar big barbarian mercenaries. I suggest you to read the uber-excellent Byzantium by Michael Ennis.

-- Races: Please no elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings in a Greek-like setting! Why not take inspiration from Arcana Unearthed races (at least their game mechanics are OGC), or other similar sources. Elves and the like do not promote a Greek flavor IMO. Elves and dwarves promotes a Tolkien or Norse feel. On the other hand, some ideas could be borrowed from an old out-of-print "Atlantis" d20 supplement to make specific races.

-- Classes: Could borrow from the OGC Arcana Unearthed classes, especially as they have no arcane vs divine. They could be adapted to your "five magic" system.

-- Atlantis: including something Atlantis-like would probably be cool as well.

-- Alignments: I did read some of your previous posts on alignments. What I suggest is to turn them into allegiance (d20 Modern system) with clear benefits for any allegiance, and those people who don't have an allegiance (as it would remain optional like in d20 modern) are treated as pariahs.

Well, part of me wants to make sure that a player can bring in as many characters from the PHB as possible. Dropping multiple races therefore isn't something I'm keen on doing. Note also that I'm not starting entirely from scratch - and each of the D&D races has a history in the setting that I'd like to respect, retain, but refine.

So there are elves. But Dusk elves are more likened to wood elves. However - it's not that they don't understand how technology works, it's that they have a dislike for it. Racially they have a long memory. Yes, there is an Atlantis - Balcridan (same name as one of the outer planes). The elves remember what happened, and blame unnatural techno-magics for it. They are iconic of Aborea - Green Magic.

And there are dwarves. But rather than lawful, stodgy, master artificiers Dusk dwarves are rambunctious party going types. They enjoy living life to the fullest and never refrain from speaking their mind and showing how they feel. They have great loyalty to the clan and the orders of their direct elders - but have little to no respect for laws handed down by outside agents. They are iconic of Shunria - Red Magic.

Gnomes? Gnomes are the exact opposite of each of these groups in many ways. They love gadgets, technology. To them "what is" is less important than "what might be." Gnomes tend to be the ones that are aloof and distant - but in the manner of an absent minded professor, not a "haughty elf." Friction between these groups is assured.

Halflings are already changed - oyasini. They are a selfish lot, though while their society is very "me" driven, they don't infight as much as might be supposed by their Sodrean (black magic) tendacies. When a halfling goes bad though, they tend to go real bad. Instead of thinking necromancer though think Han Solo, or Bart Simpson. They can be nice and all, but the first words out of almost any halfling's mouth are likely to be "what's in it for me?"

And humans, instead of being neutral, gravitate to white magic in the setting. They are the civilzation makers and laws are rules are more a human passion than that of any other race.

Note though that this doesn't mean humans and dwarves are at war even though their alignment tendancies are opposed. It just means they *tend* to get on each other's nerves. Further, individuals are not bound to any alignment. Elves can be Balcridian aligned or gnomes can be Shunrian.

At least you could give the races specific names. By the way, "dwarf" has a bad connotation in our modern society, calling someone a "dwarf" sounds to me like calling someone a "n-e-g-g-e-r". You could well keep all your descriptions, but just come with neat names and forget about "elf", "dwarf", "gnome", etc. Why not "Daikinis" instead of "halfling" or "gnome" for example?

Ok, Maps

Maps - I gots maps.

Some notes. The black dots that appear in some of the maps are CC2's distance markers. They are 20 miles apart from each other.

Each change of shade is 1000 ft elevation. The highest mountains in Carthasana are over 30,000 ft. high.

Well the "halflings" do call themselves the oyasini - they don't consider themselves half of anything. Other races have their own names for themselves I suppose - but I'd rather concentrate on cultures first and worry about names later.

More Maps. These are dumped out of the same CC2 file, a testament to the power of vector based maps (sorry, but Dundjinni would be pixelated to death at these varying resolutions).

Ok, Rooting around here, thinking of roles and changes for classes in a greek setting's setup.

Barbarian - Should be ok.
Bard - Will be moved to prestige class
Druid - Removed
Cleric - Removed
Fighter - Should be ok.
Monk - I've been explaining this class with the story of the Listralan way - so they can remain
Paladin - UA prestige class
Ranger - UA prestige class
Rogue - Should be ok.
Sorcerer - Removed
Wizard - Removed

The major spellcaster classes need removing to a common spell user class or three to reflect the three ability stat casting methods: INT, WIS, CHA; but the balancing of these classes can't be done through spell lists. Difficult.

What should I dig up next? I don't want to talk to a wall. I can do that in secrecy.