Describe your homebrew in one sentence.

[der_kluge]

I've been pondering what I want from a campaign setting lately. I've toyed with different ideas, and have gone a lot of different directions (in my mind). I've not put anything to paper yet.

It was actually Henry that led me down the path where I am currently, and makes me the most excited about the potential. At the NC game day, I was talking about a HARP product which I'm currently writing, and I included in the product the concept of 'snake oil'. And in that product, I have a chart that is a "random snake oil name generator", so you can make up names like "Adelaide Cartwright's Fabulous Elixir" on the fly.

Henry said, "what if all the potions in your world were named like that." And that got me to thinking.


So, the homebrew that I'm currently pondering would be something like this:

An alternative America, set in the early 1900s, with an in-tact monarchy (think King George Washington), the existence of magic (albeit somewhat rare, and mostly misunderstood) and the lack of an industrial revolution.


What is the one-sentence description for your homebrew?

 

[Ambrus]

One sentence? Damn. Umm... It'll have to be a run on sentence.

A high fantasy campaign centered around a large multi-kingdom cosmopolitain empire founded by a race of eight fallen-angel-elven houses as its nobility (who live on large flying cities), one half-elven house as its merchant-trader bourgeosie, scholarly gnomes as its engineering-craftsmen caste all resting on its human peasant farmer foundation with an ongoing millenia long cold war with a subtaranean dwarven kingdom and far distant dragon-controled lands all of which exists on one earth moon of an elementally aligned orrery cosmology.

That's the bare-bones description. It doesn't mention the theurgic gods, the pagan gods, the nature spirits, the light and dark transitive planes, the four types of magic prevalent in the world, the nomadic fey descended halflings let alone the overaching plot.

 

[Henry]

-Three Words: The Flumph Empire.

Actually, it would be something more like: In a world ruled by omnipotent gods, visitors from the stars have accidentally given mankind the power of magic and changed the nature of divine worship, forcing the deities to deal with their worshippers differently.

I once ran a homebrew that could be described as: The last desparate vestige of humanity seeks heroes to combat and survive against hordes of demons and undead led by an inhuman god of war. Strangely, both were some of my most successful campaigns ever run.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Its mine! Err...wait...I'll try again.

A somewhat generic type fantasy world but with a strong focus on the four elements, nature, and has ended up as a very Druid-centric, almost Celtic world.

 

[Ryltar]

Hmm. All of this is still in the making and thus subject to change, but currently the outline might be described as follows:

A world under siege by a race of snakemen, torn from divine influence, which seeks to desperately defend itself by replacing that which is lost (magic) by advances in technology and at the same time exploring the ruins of old to find ancient artifacts that might turn the tide of a losing battle.

Uh ... I just realized that describing it in one sentence is near to impossible, but as of yet I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad sign. I settled for the aspects that were the most defining in terms of metaplot, however this may not be enough for the reader of above sentence to convey the setting's mood...

 

[Crothian]

There is always more going on then there seems.

Otherwise it would be like describing the earth in a siingle sentance.

 

[Ryltar]

Yeah, but it's bad from a marketing standpoint .

 

[ForceUser]

My campaign world is a thematic hodge-podge of Eurocentric and not-so-Eurocentric ideas, which are usually lifted straight from the sci-fi, fantasy, and RPG writers who most inspire me to DM, including, but not limited to, the following: Keith Baker, James Wyatt, Glenn Cook, C. S. Freidman, J. K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, Joseph Browning, Monte Cook, Steven Brust, J. R. R. Tolkien, Anne Rice, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, and H. P. Lovecraft.

 

[freebfrost]

I'm currently running a Conan OGL campaign, but my last home-brew could be summed up as:

Shielded from the horrors outside of the Valley by ancient arcane magic, the characters must brave the world Outside when the barriers begin to fail and evil begins to creep over the mountains...

 

[Mallus]

"After a while you get used to the duelists, drug-addicts, little demons peeping in your windows, the demigods peeing against your house, all the paupers, pirates, foreigners and immortals, the barbarians, slavers, aristocrats, theocrats, democrats, and demagogues, the shitfy-eyed mystics and witches, the monsters in the military, the noise, not to mention the trolleys that are pulled by dinosaurs".

--a citizen speaking on life in CITY.