D&D 4E A (free) setting for 4E - Seven deadly sins

[sunmaster]

Hello,

As the fourth Edition of D&D will be a new beginning for me with D&D I began
to write a setting for it. This is not 100% percent true. I made some
thoughts about this setting earlier but _the announcement_ made me sit down
and breath a soul into the flesh

Some notes about this setting:
As we - the D&D community - get the infos only bit for bit I can only create
my setting bit for bit along each new info we get. My setting will be created
along and for the core rules and core setting. Each element of 4E D&D will be
in my setting. It is planned to finish the setting the day the shops start
selling D&D 4E.

The whole content I will write will be under the GNU Free Documentation
License. I don't want to start to explain what this exactly means as I don't
have the Skill Knowledge(Law). Please, look into Wikipedia for the GFDL.

I will look into posting game info, design notes and TODO notes in one reply
more or less every day in this thread until the day 4E comes.
You all are invited to make your corrections and personalizations for this
setting as comments. Let's create something cool together for 4E, okay !?

 

[sunmaster]

The Backstory

Let us begin with the back story as all things base on it:

In ancient times on our humble Earth seven mystics from seven cultures made a
secret meeting. For a long time now each of them observed the mankind and held
secret conversations with each other to find
a way to breed a ruler caste of mankind which would stand under their command.
Now they found a way: Make a sevenday long ritual which will send seven men and
seven women from seven distinct cultures to seven mytical planes. Each of the seven
planes stand for the seven sins with one sin as the main theme of it. There the seven
men and women should fight to live and fight to die. And the best one of them will
be taken back to our world by the mystics to form a new ruler caste.
And so it came that following the seventh night after the seven mystics met a magical
wind blew over our world and seven times seven men and women disappeared...
...to wake up on one of the planes...Their live changed...They have now one goal:
To Survive!



Design Notes:

The target of this game for the characters will be : TO SURVIVE.
Each character is one of the progeny of the seven men and women who sent to the
plane (which one is chosen out of the seven planes by the GM) by the mystics.
The adventures are one shots in which the PCs try to build a relationship to overcome
the many traps in the life on one of the seven planes.
The PCs are all from the race Human but they will encounter the other races in their
adventures (the GM will be given rules to make adventures from the view of the other
races).



TODO (for tomorrow):
- Give the seven planes a name
- Make clear how which roles the races and classes of D&D play in this setting.
- Give an idea of how the planes are




Copyright (c) 2007 sunmaster.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".

 

[sunmaster]

Now we will look at the planes.

The Planes
==========

The planes are the places where the seven men and women and their
progeny are exposured to the seven sins. They have to live and breath
the seven sins so after called home - to our world - by the seven
mystics they can use their sinful characteristics to gain power on our
earth as the mytics discovered that the rulers of mankind are always the
most corrupt, most selfish and so on men and women.

There are seven planes.

Luxuria
-------
This plane is broadly underworld. A warm to hot and stuffy place
traversed by little steams and some lakes, where the most plants and
even the water have some drug like effects. You can find in the vast
caves many things to eat, places where it is cold are rare.
Many underworld beasts are living here - some dangerous some not - and
intelligent beings are dark dwarfs, dark elves and tieflings among
many others who developed a culture where adultery, bestiality and rape
play a big role in the society.

As you can see, the theme of this Plane is "Lust". But as with any other
planes the other sins are playing a role here, too. For example Wrath
can be playing a greater role in some adventures as the players bring
this over a clan of dwarfs or elves after one of them has committed a
rape.

The men and women who were sent here have to learn that the "Mastery
over the flesh" is one of the paths to reign.

Gula
----
Try to imagine a sub-tropical land with fully intact nature and at the
edges great mountains with cold crests.
A land which gives its inhabitants many things to eat and consume, and
eat and consume. Ad infinitum.

This is Gula. The plane of Gluttony.

Avaritia
--------
A land of endless hills, many forests and thousand lakes where every
imaginable and unimaginable element can be found is Avaritia.
As a land which gives many things to its inhabitants to enrich themselfs
- silver, gold, diamonds and many thingsmore - Avaritia is the plane of
Greed.

Acedia
------
This is a plane of a vast and (it seems so) endlessly forest. This
forest is inhabited by many plants and fruits, many eatable animals and
wonderful rivers with fresh water. A very median climate with regular
rains gives a place where living is easy as possible.

This plane is the plane of Laziness and Sloth. To survive here means to
bring others to hunt and collect for yourself as everyone tries this to
find maximum comfort.

The mystics want the people to learn that only with Charisma and letting
others do what you should do you can really reign.

Ira
---
Ira is an ice desert with some grass steppes sprinkled in.
Where the grass steppes have more milder weather they are cold
nevertheless. On Ira it is unfriendly and even antagonistic to life.
To survive here means to take what others have. And because these others
try to protect their things it means to bring real wrath over them to
get their things (meals, wears, houses, places).

Ira is the plane of Wrath.

The mystics want to teach the "Way of the fist" which each ruler has to
master and use to really reign.

Invidia
-------
A vast and endless ocean with thousands of islands of which some are
cold with big mountains with many elemental richness and some have
tropical forests with many things you need to feed yourself. Some
islands are closer to another and some have many, many sea miles between
them. This is Invidia.
The plane of Envy.

Superbia
--------
A magical land of great and hot deserts with many oases, thick and dense
forests, rivers of honey, lakes of gold, mystical fountains of which
some give health and longer life and many more magical places (Imagine a
Fantasy Africa) is Superbia - tha plane of Pride -.


Design Notes:
I am using the seven sins as the base for themes and mood for the planes
because the most players of RPGs (at least ) know Christianity and many
artist wrote and drew very popular artistic things about the sins (for
example Divine Comedy).
Then it is easy to come up with good descriptions for places on the
planes and inhabitants of the planes. And with this adventure ideas are
also easier to come up with.

TODO:
Give detailed examples of places of every plane with places where
inhabitants of every race live.
Give detailed examples how the inhabitants live on the planes.
Also make the cultures and social life clearer.



Copyright (c) 2007 sunmaster.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".

 

[sunmaster]

Now I will describe "The Spell".

With The Spell we will name the ritual which the seven mystics performed
and especially the effect of this ritual.

At first The Spell abducted seven men and seven women to each seven
planes.
But it was a very mighty spell. So it stays, and every year on our Earth
seven times seven men and women are abducted and transported to the
planes. And every seven years on our Earth not people are brought from
our Earth to the planes but also inhabitants from the planes are also
brought to every other plane - mixing and "shuffling" the races and
cultures of every plane -.
The plan of the mystics was to get the people to every "life of sin"
possible to grow and get the best possible rulers.
There is only one thing which is not working: How to bring the people
from the planes to our Earth. Not only are the mystics searching, but
also some of the abducted people are searching for the way back.

TODO:
Write a way with that the mystics who performed the ritual in the
ancient days are giving their knowledge to the next generations. So that
the search for getting some chosen people back from the planes can
extend through the history of our Earth.

Design Notes:
With The Spell I want to build a bridge between our Earth and the planes
so that GMs can also make adventures an our Earth with cults, sects and
other "heroes" who try to understand The Spell, or break it or try other
things imaginable with it.



Copyright (c) 2007 sunmaster.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".

 

[sunmaster]

Now we will look at the classes. And make some notes about character
creation.

All things begins with the GM. He makes following the normal rules of
D&D 4E seven men and seven women characters. The progeny is created by
mixing the attributes of the respective father and mother and giving
some points with which the attributes can be shuffled on point for point
basis. The skills are determined in a somewhat similar procedure. The
exact procedure of all this has to be written.
I think this is a good way to "visualize" how a daughter or a son gets
things from the father and the mother.
How many generations are created is determined by the GM.

The players then choose from all the GM created men and women a father
and a mother and create following the above mentioned procedure a
progeny to them.

All the people on the planes have classes following ancient professions:
farmer, smith and similar. The classes of D&D are roles which they want
to take when it is time for them to get more influence of one or other
kind on the planes (speak adventure time).



Copyright (c) 2007 sunmaster.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".