D&D 5E Homebrew Campaigns in 5e

[Hand of Evil]

Thinking of re-visiting an old idea of mine, The campaign setting of Plateau.

It is a number of Islands, that were stranded during a plate tectonic event and the sea around them drained into a swamp/everglades. These islands are only 1000 feet above ground, have cities on them and dungeons dug into their bases. 600 miles to the northwest and southeast are the old coast lands, that have fallen into chaos but with some city states.

The Plateau kingdoms are controlled yy Gnome and Halflings merchant guilds that are now expanding their control via airship, using advanced tech/merchandise, are slowly taking over but freedoms are suffering.

 

[nerfherder]

I'm thinking of dusting off my campaign from the 80's set in Pelinore. Been re-reading my notes and the Imagine articles.

 

[jace]

At the moment, I'm running a campaign idea inspired by an old post of... Zeb Cook's? Jeff Grubb's? I forget. The entire world has been covered for generations in an endless storm that's caused nature to sicken, aberrations to congregate, etc. Humanity survives in a few towns/cities high in the mountains, above the Cloud. The PCs are about to start exploring the world--using a 400-ft. wind ghost as a "living airship"--trying to find the source of the Cloud, which, after generations, has begun rising even higher.

But, while I'll be switching to 5E (it's a currently a Pathfinder-with-4E-house-rules campaign), it wasn't built with 5E in mind. I'm not sure what my first 5E-specific world'll be yet...

After reading your post, I had to go track that post down. I found it and after reading about it, now I really want to play in that setting. I may have to do what you're doing and build a homebrew campaign setting based on that concept.

 

[qstor]

Once Basic is updated with monster/NPC creation and some other stuff, I think experienced DMs will be able to easily build homebrew settings.

I'm sure the DMG will have rules for world building in it too.
I'm going to use some notes from a 3e Greyhawk game I ran in a new 5e campaign. I'm going to tweak it a bit to kinda rule the game RAW particularly in regards to Dragonborn and tieflings. I Google'd dragonborn and Greyhawk and got a few ideas from the Net to work in dragonborn it Greyhawk. But other mechanics apart from character types I don't think will have an impact on the game world.

Mike

 

[fanboy2000]

I'm sure the DMG will have rules for world building in it too.

I certainly hope so. In fact, I hope some of that DMG material makes it into the Basic rules.That would really make it a complete game fore new players.

I'm going to use some notes from a 3e Greyhawk game I ran in a new 5e campaign. I'm going to tweak it a bit to kinda rule the game RAW particularly in regards to Dragonborn and tieflings. I Google'd dragonborn and Greyhawk and got a few ideas from the Net to work in dragonborn it Greyhawk. But other mechanics apart from character types I don't think will have an impact on the game world.

That sounds awesome.

 

[Knightfall]

I started planning for the creation of two new game worlds for 5E after it was first announced. I posted these ideas over at The Piazza in January of 2012. I haven't developed either world much since then, although there is an old thread here on EN World regarding Tarras. (I haven't searched for it in a while.)

The Next World is one I want to seriously develop at some point. Once I have the 5E DMG, I'll likely dig deep into it.

THE NEXT WORLD
This world's design will follow as close to the official version of D&D Next as possible. At least, that is my hope. The game is still beyond reach, but what I suspect comes from reading the official Legends & Lore column on WotC's web site, as well as the EN World transcripts of the seminars from DDXP.

The game is being designed with the idea of uniting the OSR with the fans of 3e and 4e. The game will be modular, and there will be an open play-test. And the designers want to include all of the classes from every edition's first PHB. That last bit is very telling regarding what The Next World will be.

The world will be about being inclusive rather than exclusive. Thus, if the Warlock and Warlord classes from 4e make into the core of D&D Next, the two classes will have a place on the world. And I think it is safe to assume that classes such as Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard are a given.

3e class design is my favorite version; however, I'm very open to whatever the design team comes up with. They have already made me happy by stating that "roles" and "power sources" will not be the defining concepts of 5e. If they keep the idea of themes, I'll be happy since that is one of the best aspects of 4e, IMO.

Regardless, it is too early for me to truly define what The Next World will be. But, I think I'm going to like it.

________________________________________________________________​

TARRAS
Tarras was originally meant to be a 4e world. A lot of its design and story is based off of the race and class structure of 4e. However, before D&D Next was announced, I had decided to make Tarras a system-less world. Once 5e comes out, this world will be to D&D Next what World of Kulan is to D&D v.3.5.

In many ways, it is already an amalgam of several editions. The races I've allocated to it are a mixture of 3rd edition and 4th edition races. I've defined classes in the same way although it isn't limited to the two latest editions. I have included the idea of several 2e classes as well as the assassin, a classic 1e class. I decided to use the class name psionicist instead of psion. I even went so far as to classify my races and classes as Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare.

The gods are defined between good, neutral, and evil. And I've selected gods from 2e, 3e, and 4e, as well as GSL-based deity from the 3PP product Scarrport.

It was like I was reading the design team member's minds (somewhat). Weird.

Regardless, the world, so far, centers around a powerful city-state called Tantus, which is known as the Heart of Civilization. It is believed that the city's destiny is the world's destiny. This is troubling since Tantus is infected with a great evil that is threatening to pull it into the Nine Hells. Heroes come from all over Tarras to try to purge the growing darkness from the city's soul.

Destiny rules this setting, which is another nod towards 4e. 4e just wasn't the system I felt the world needed. Perhaps D&D Next will be what the world needs to become a "living" setting for me. Regardless, I will be less inclined to include every aspect of 5e as part of Tarras. It will be much more exclusive than inclusive.

________________________________________________________________​

I might try to convert some of my work for World of Kulan to 5E, but that world will always be a D&D v.3.5 world first.

 

[Knightfall]

I'm thinking of dusting off my campaign from the 80's set in Pelinore. Been re-reading my notes and the Imagine articles.

Are you aware of the Pelinore forum over at The Piazza?

http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewforum.php?f=71

 

[MortalPlague]

I ran a campaign during the public playtest. It was a gothic horror game, set in a valley where the rain started to fall ten years ago, and it hasn't stopped.

Shamelessly, I'm going to show off my map below.


http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?336944-Gothic-Horror-In-The-Rain

As for actual games coming up, my friend will be taking the DM's reins for the first time (though he has an experienced co-DM). We'll be playing young adventurers who are just graduating from an adventuring academy, and are entering the required three years of 'service' to the school. He's put together a custom pantheon of gods, and we're getting some setting guidelines soon.

I'm very excited!

 

[nerfherder]

Are you aware of the Pelinore forum over at The Piazza?

http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewforum.php?f=71

I wasn't, but I am now

 

[Viking Bastard]

We're one session into Against the Giants. I reskinned the five backgrounds included in Basic as the five most powerful factions in Geoff, each supplying a hero for the quest to take down the giants.

Other than that, the session gave birth to the following details:

• The Giants used to rule the lands, until the Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings united against them, ending their reign.
• This was the start of the current dominant civilization composed of the Basic races.
• There have been many, many great civilizations throughout history. Most self-destructed due to their own hubris, usually shortly after discovering 10th level spells.
• This is a very old world, battered and fractured by eons of abuse. As in millions of years of history, hundreds of empires.
• The High Elves are dying, each generation lives shorter than the last--at the height of their glory they counted their lifespans in tens of thousands of years, now few live to see a millennium.
• The first Wood Elves started popping up a few centuries ago in isolated tribes around the world. These new elves were short lived, ignorant and wild, but in only a handful of lifetimes they have formed varied cultures and the current generation has reached a lifespan comparable to humans.
• Giants are cousins to dwarves and thus most find the idea of eating a dwarf distasteful. They generally find dwarves hilarious, though, and take great pleasure in torturing them and humiliating.
• Giants don't eat elves either, for they find the taste foul, as of all other fey creatures. They hate elves and their magic--they fear them and will take care to squash any they encounter ASAP.
• But Giants also find humans and halflings delicious and used to breed the races like cattle.
• All powerful godlike beings started out as mortal and had to work for their immortality. No such current/active entity claims to have created the world.

So that's the campaign setting as it currently stands.