Homebrew Worlds- What is in YOUR world?

[Psion]

And Psion - the value of the game is not in the world, but in the stories told in the world. One doesn't need a world that sounds good in one paragraph to have a stunningly cool game

Oh, I definitely agree, which is why I hesitated.

My players in the past have commented that I should publish my world, which is something that even after d20 I can't take seriously, because in thematic feel, it's too similar to what's already out there, so probably wouldn't much consumer appeal. But they say it nonetheless.

I think of my world sort of as a "decluttered FR with a few Asian mythological and historical elements thrown in." I would hope that even the most ardent detractors of FR could admit that it would be better if it wasn't suffering from a bit of overkill on the elements they tried to stuff together.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Sidereal: A Small Plane that Doesn't Matter.
Sidereal is one of many material planes ringing the Ethereal plane. "Above" is Celestia and the Heavenly Realms, below is the Abyss and the Hells. In this world, there are no real gods. The strongest Celestials and Demons can grant power to their followers, but are unable to travel to any material plane themselves. Once an outsider gets beyond 20 hit dice, they are effectively incapable of leaving their home plane. The exception to this is those born on a material plane; they are not subject to most of the laws of the universe. There are 3 continents on Sidereal, a flat world: The biggest holds most Men, Elves, and Dwarves; the second a vast, wild land ruled by were-beasts (mostly werewolves); and the third inhabited by a powerful outsider who evidently has complete control over all elemental creatures. There's a lot of history and stuff, but I shan't go into it here.

 

[Neo]

Anslad, World of High Fantasy... lots of Political interactions, dark god stirring... has all the fundamental traits attributed to the qunitessential fantasy settings, albeit lower magic than norm.

More details of it can be found through the story hour link in my sig.

 

[Ashanderai Master]

Lands of the Jade Oath: An oriental empire created by the Jade Oath, a pact that binds all the civilized mortal races to the task of keeping the corrupted dragons, who terrorized and destroyed much of the world so long ago, imprisoned. The empire is dominated by the giants and their guardian sibeccai allies. Humans and other mortal races also honor the Jade Oath, but often chafe under the rule of the giants and their lackeys. Though other kingdoms exist around the empire, the people of all these lands honor what the empire stands for; because without it the corrupted dragons would be free again. So, for centuries, all the lands around the empire send some of their forces to assist in the guardianship of the sacred dragon prisons and pilgrims come from their lands to offer of their breath and blood to ensure that the dragons do not escape. In recent times, though, many are not so devout and there have been fewer pilgrims and guardians; and corruption spreads, even though the dragons bodies have decomposed and their spirits have been imprisoned they can still touch upon the souls of mortals.

The empire currently is going through some changes. Though it has long been ruled by giants a new kind of emperor sits upon the throne; a human of giant blood. He brings with him to Hidden City, as his personal guard, a contingent of iron folk warriors, whose decorative presence is a veiled insult from the emperor to the traditional impirial guards that he does not trust them. However they may feel about this the traditional, griffon-riding, imperial guards continue to do their duty with quiet dignity. Meanwhile, amidst wild stories of demonic abduction about the missing empress, the emperor continues to gain popular support of his rule.

Though he has giant blood he is still human. Many giants resent this, but the more numerous humans regard the new emperor as something of a hero as he is the first human to be emperor. Many of the other races approve of the change as well, even if he is human, simply because the giants no longer have such a certain hold over the bureaucracy of the empire.

...

I would go into more, but I find myself unable to adequately summarize the setting. Much of my first notes on it were originally posted over on a thread called Oriental Arcana over on the Arcana Unearthed part of Monte Cooke's boards. I don't know how to link it or I would. I am currently writing this as a setting book to be published in the future.

 

[Dirigible]

I'm in Psion's boat. Mine's gonna sound very GH/FR. It's a world I created to house the dozens of other setting's I've made over the years. Not a multiverse, just a big continent with lots of space.

Aiend

 

[Belen]

I notice the world seems designed around a literary theme rather than the more material themes that are more common for world building basis. How do you infuse such kinds of themes into world building and running the game? What are the nuts and bolts that make the world support these abstract concepts?

Well, the nuts and bolts are still being hammered out. Elisan is my new campaign world and it still has a bit to go before it is finished.

The Basics: People are constantly being reborn, same soul, different person. Choice is important. Each good life that is lead cleanses the soul a bit more until they can ascend to Heaven. Each bad life will cause them to grow more Tainted until the Soul is destroyed in Hell.

In your life, you can bond to other souls and encounter again and again during successive lives. In one life you may have wronged someone horribly, and it may be possible to right that wrong in the next life etc.

Of course, that is just the story stuff that I will use elements of while designing adventures.

The main issue is that two super-deities are at war (one good, one bad). The good one wants to learn from each Soul through the birth-rebirth-death process, while the bad one wants to corrupt Souls in order to destroy them utterly. Each destruction adds to the evil power and if enough are destroyed, it wins. Souls that cleanse themselves of evil add to the power of the good one.

Those are the only two gods. Every other being that is a "god" is a figment of the belief of the people who worship it. It has power only so long as people believe.

Also, no "evil" races exist. Instead, orcs and the like are formed from the Aethyr from nightmares of people etc. All planes are demi-planes except the positive and negative material planes. (Of course, no one knows the truth)

Belief creates reality.

I will create a web site for it once it is all done.

 

[Remathilis]

Janis Campaign Setting (Tentative Title)

Janis is a crumbling Empire set on Terra, the Known World. It was a world where technology replaced magic, and iron gears and steam ruled. Gone and forgotten was much of the great magics of before, but that changed when Zaggnerfeny, a powerful mortal that tapped into vast eldrich energy, transformed himself into a living god. His sanity, however, did not survive the process. He was powerful, but trapped in his own lost dreams. The magic used to create him also awoke magic, but in a different manner than previously. Arcane books were nothing but scribbles, and no God (save Zaggnefeny) answered prayers. Some mortals looked toward technology to protect them for the Mad Gods minions and cultists, but others looked into their souls and found the pure basis of magic was within.
Now, Janis is nothing more than a series of city-states. The largest city-state, Vulcan's Forge, is a free-haven to all races. Steam and steel live here with magic, distrustful of one another. Many eek out an existance under the red haze of the Forge, living thier lives and worrying about the day Zaggnefeny will break free of his dreams...

• Technology: railroads, airships, firearms, clocks, printing presses, aqueducts, clockwork golems, submersibles, and other fantastical technology.
• Magic: Spellcasters who all cast spontaneously with limited spells known, making each caster unique.
• Religion: A world abandoned by the gods, where belief and philosophy duel for supremacy, and where priests need not be divine casters, nor every divine caster a priest.
• Races: Meet industrious dwarves, noble and mysterious elves, tinkering gnomes, cunning halflings and Alveran's, the last descendants of the fallen gods.
• Classes: fighters, rogues and monks fight beside sorcerers, mystics, other spontaneous casters. Rangers and paladins get variant class abilities. Urban variants of rangers and barbarians.
• Vulcan's Forge: A massive metropolis built on the side of a mountain, a city ruled by a powerful dragon, which serves as neutral ground.
• Zaggnefeny, the mad demi-god imprisoned on the Isle of Agony, waits with his faithful cultists for a time he will be freed and unleash havoc on the world.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

Yowsers! What's your opinion on Eberron???

Hehe.

Honestly? I was feeling a bit bitter when I read it. I also think I know what the major difference is that kept me out of the running when I submitted it to the contest. I forgot to emphasise Medieval Fantasy as the core element.

However, I will sure as shootin' be buying the core book, at least.

 

[Ace]

MIdrea is a realm designed not as "Earthlike with D&D magic" but as "A World where D&D magic is real"

here is the form I sent in to the WOTC contest --

This form doesn't mention the vast number of Cuthloid Horrors(As one player put it 30 every day , 35 on Tuesday). or the regularly scheduled Apocoli but I only had one page


Fantasy Setting Proposal Template for Midrea

1. Core Ethos Sentence.
Midrea is a world where hero’s deeds hold society and reality together.

2. Who are the heroes?
Mary Bow- Cynical Mercenary, holder of the Stone of the Pact and hero of the Nightfall War.
Mnoren, the self-appointed gatekeeper and master of the 13 gates
Baran, archmage and Master Magistar, the world’s most powerful wizard
Ravik Byrne, the leader of the Wizards Council
Megan Byrne, Ravik's daughter known as "Trouble"
Commenting on all this is the Adventuring Librarian Tonzabar, whose dry wit livens up any topic

4. What do they do?
Mary runs an Inn now called Mary’s Place, from time to time she sends foolish adventurers on a quest. She’d like to forget adventure but adventure has plans for her.
Mnoren watches the thirteen gates protecting man from, Other Things.
Baran? Well he studies magic until its needs it, which is more often than he'd like.
Ravik has his council to watch, evil plot to unwind and a troublemaking red headed to daughter to deal with him.
Megan, well there a lot to see and do out there and anyway isn't magic fun?
Tonzabar, he watches and comments on it all.

. Threats, Conflicts, Villains
Sometimes it’s hard not to find danger in Midrea. There are 13 gates Elsewhere
For more menace there is the Nether and the First Race. Netherspawn, the leftovers of the first attempt at creation are still out there and they hate all other life.
The First Race, time should have claimed them but Wizardry allows them to linger, still hiding out somewhere, making monsters and worse things. They will return.

6. Nature of magic
Magic comes from outer planar sources, the heavens (for clerical) the spirit world (for druids) the hells (for evil clerics) fae realm (Bards and Sorcerers) and the Nether for the fragments of creation, the spells of the Wizard.

7. What’s new? What’s different?
The flexible nature of the cosmology allows anything to be dropped in with a minimum of fuss. Since the Humans on Midrea were originally from our world and time Roleplaying is easy, its Ren-Faire medievalism. And it makes sense. Even the timeline makes adventure fun and easy, historical “points’ help DM’s make a place for heroes.

 

[I'm A Banana]

"Who created you?" a great diviner once asked the world.

"God," said the world.

And from that point, we have all worshiped God, the Creator and Maintainer of All. Some of us think it has become manifest, some of us believe in some prophets over others, some of us believe in a world of saints that are the images of God, but we all know this truth: God created the world.

If you fail to buy it, just look at the Dragon Spirits. Aspects of the great lords of these lands, each person has a soul represented as a dragon, and everyone gains blessings and abilities based on that dragon. If you are holy enough to be guarded by a Gold Dragon, you will have luck and healing powers, while the vile Black Dragon-protected have powers over insects and plants...they are all the Emmissaries of God. Only the Occultists would dismiss it, but they are the hated, the rejectors of reality, and those who would like nothing better than to destroy the world, to kill God, and to laugh as it burns around us.

Trust in God. Use your Soul. Live your faith. Only by exploring the world around us can we truly discover God's Mystery.