D&D 5E How Dark is Your D&D Preference?

[Bitbrain]

Doesn't sound very homebrew lol although I did do a Darksun lite game using a similar idea to it. .

Because it is. It's no secret on this site that my favorite D&D setting is dark sun.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ye i do it similar, would have given them muscets but since one of my Players did not want firearms they stick to crossbows. That is technically more appropriate vs all sorts of plate armor which make bows pretty useless. I also got a orcs riding manticores "air force"- But since Iuz = CE my orcs are still CE, their discipline comes from fear of punishment.

Btw. any News on your DS conversion @Zardnaar ? I liked especially your conversion of the Monsters to 5e .

Everything D&D related is on hiatus and have not really played in months and sporadically since late last year. That is more due to RL stuff though. More or less waiting on psionic rules I like for the Darksun conversion. My Darksun will mostly be based on the 2E stuff including Half Giants as a large race. Might have to go online to play. People leave, get married and die and lost the last of my old group recently.

 

[Tallifer]

My 4E (now 5E) campaign in Eberron has Cookie Gnomes, Warforged Puppies, colorful Clothforged Patchwork knights, Jesters and Ice Cream dinosaurs. About as far from grimdark as possible. Haven't had an adventurer die yet either despite a few close calls.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

@Gardens & Goblins 3-4 worlds, could you pls Elaborate a bit on this? Are These different campaigns or one campaign many (prime-) worlds or one Setting (many DMS?)

Sure - all the worlds are set in the same campaign, with the ability to move between them based on portals and/or tech that creates portals, typically rare unless a group/adventure requires it to not be so.

I'll put one of them here, as I've not got much time IRL.

[sblock]Each world has grown organically, through collaboration between the table and myself, with the table acting as a sounding board for ideas, both outside of each adventure and through play.

There's a long fluffy narrative that serves to provide context which I won't go into here. The footnotes might read: First magic user creates creates own universe, adds a world, populates it with experiments, things go bad. World split into either three possible alternative/time lines or past/present/future of same world, depending on what we decide.

World one: built around the concepts of prejudice, flying and education. Referred to as the 'Sky Realm' and consists of countless floating/flying rocks, ranging in size from pebbles all the way over to huge islands, all floating above a swirling violent malestrom of magic energy. This was where play began, with us adopting micro-style of play, focusing on a few towns, surrounded by a range of mountains.

The theme of education and prejudice evolved from the governing/ruling body, a (supposedly) true meritocracy which resembles England during the early part of Victorian Era England/the Industrial Revolution. Magic is called Science but is actually magic, simply formalized and unified under the rule of Universities. It is widely known that magic is actual a manifestation of mental illness and as such, those claiming to practice magic are carted off to various facilities for treatment, which can range from a place that will actually try to 'help' its patients to the worst possible Victorian asylum, complete with invasive surgical procedures and experimentation. It should be noted that claiming you've witnessed 'magic' is also likely to get your carted off for 'therapy' so there's a general atmosphere of paranoia and repression.

On the flip side, those that play ball and find a way to function in the society find themselves with access to an abundance of magical scientific learning, complete with its own gatekeepers, in the form of old men (women? Science? Ha!), tests and tradition of publishing papers that are then peer-reviewed. In game terms, players potentially have access to any spell up to 4th level, though they'll have to jump through an increasingly maddening number of hoops to get a fraction of them. Its great to be a guy, sucks to be a girl and children are a key component of the labour force.

Zooming out, the overall world's themes of prejudice, flying and education are represented by the one human* civlization, known as the Sanctuary of Reason, expanding their influence through the use of steam/storm punk technology (airships, cloud farming etc) into the skies beyond their one island home, in a classic imperialistic manner. All other peoples are savages and like the dungeons, tombs and ancient ruins are there to be claimed so as to further the glory of the empire.

The key plot point is the arrival of another civilization, a race of dragonborn, that has decided to return from their evacuation site (the jungle moon) to the planet which they blame the Sanctuary of Reason for destroying. They rock around using magical stone structures (flying stepped pyramids), wyverns and kobolds (dragonlings), a mix of clerical nature magic (formalized, dogmatic natural magic) and are divided amongst themselves over a race to be the first to breed a 'true dragon' from their sorcerers.

Naturally, the Sanctuary of Reason publicly denies the existence of such creatures, resulting in gossip and speculation, all of which is likely to get a citizen sent to the nearest therapy centre. For the good of the empire!

*..humans in as much as we use most the races in the PhB (and a few beyond), reskinned as humans - so elves are skinny humans that sleep less, dwarves are stout humans that are tougher than most etc.
[/sblock]

 

[Zardnaar]

Sure - all the worlds are set in the same campaign, with the ability to move between them based on portals and/or tech that creates portals, typically rare unless a group/adventure requires it to not be so.

I'll put one of them here, as I've not got much time IRL.

[sblock]Each world has grown organically, through collaboration between the table and myself, with the table acting as a sounding board for ideas, both outside of each adventure and through play.

There's a long fluffy narrative that serves to provide context which I won't go into here. The footnotes might read: First magic user creates creates own universe, adds a world, populates it with experiments, things go bad. World split into either three possible alternative/time lines or past/present/future of same world, depending on what we decide.

World one: built around the concepts of prejudice, flying and education. Referred to as the 'Sky Realm' and consists of countless floating/flying rocks, ranging in size from pebbles all the way over to huge islands, all floating above a swirling violent malestrom of magic energy. This was where play began, with us adopting micro-style of play, focusing on a few towns, surrounded by a range of mountains.

The theme of education and prejudice evolved from the governing/ruling body, a (supposedly) true meritocracy which resembles England during the early part of Victorian Era England/the Industrial Revolution. Magic is called Science but is actually magic, simply formalized and unified under the rule of Universities. It is widely known that magic is actual a manifestation of mental illness and as such, those claiming to practice magic are carted off to various facilities for treatment, which can range from a place that will actually try to 'help' its patients to the worst possible Victorian asylum, complete with invasive surgical procedures and experimentation. It should be noted that claiming you've witnessed 'magic' is also likely to get your carted off for 'therapy' so there's a general atmosphere of paranoia and repression.

On the flip side, those that play ball and find a way to function in the society find themselves with access to an abundance of magical scientific learning, complete with its own gatekeepers, in the form of old men (women? Science? Ha!), tests and tradition of publishing papers that are then peer-reviewed. In game terms, players potentially have access to any spell up to 4th level, though they'll have to jump through an increasingly maddening number of hoops to get a fraction of them. Its great to be a guy, sucks to be a girl and children are a key component of the labour force.

Zooming out, the overall world's themes of prejudice, flying and education are represented by the one human* civlization, known as the Sanctuary of Reason, expanding their influence through the use of steam/storm punk technology (airships, cloud farming etc) into the skies beyond their one island home, in a classic imperialistic manner. All other peoples are savages and like the dungeons, tombs and ancient ruins are there to be claimed so as to further the glory of the empire.

The key plot point is the arrival of another civilization, a race of dragonborn, has decided to return from their evacuation site (the jungle moon) to the planet which they blame the Sanctuary of Reason for destroying. They rock around using magical stone structures (flying stepped pyramids), wyverns and kobolds (dragonlings), a mix of clerical nature magic (formalized, dogmatic natural magic) and are divided amongst themselves over a race to be the first to breed a 'true dragon' from their sorcerers.

Naturally, the Sanctuary of Reason publicly denies the existence of such creatures, resulting in gossip and speculation, all of which is likely to get a citizen sent to the nearest therapy centre. For the good of the empire!

*..humans in as much as we use most the races in the PhB (and a few beyond), reskinned as humans - so elves are skinny humans that sleep less, dwarves are stout humans that are tougher than most etc.
[/sblock]

Kinda like the Deathgate Cycle?

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Kinda like the Deathgate Cycle?

After a quick scan of the wiki entry, I would say, yeah, kinda - though I haven't read the series. From what I gather, the key differences are that each world is represent a time frame (or possible one), the First Mage isn't connected to any of the existing races/civilizations and the Sanctuary of Reason didn't actually FUBAR the world. But there's certainly, on the Sky Realm at least, two empires clashing over the the pieces of a broken planet.

...and now I'm going to have to read those books!

The other worlds are intact, with their own problems.

One is scorched earth/desert empire, ruled by a vain, ruthless oligarchy and is intended to represent the future. Here is where we indulge in our Dark Sun/Arabain Nights funzees. Lizardmen, the ancestors of the Dragonborn from the Skyrealm, are treated much like humans in the Planet of the Apes movies (the originals good ones!) and the deserts are home to all manner of nasty undead. There's no single dominant faith, instead being many, many cults, each with their own style, beliefs and what have you. Most are trying to bring their god/s into the mortal realm so they can do whatever said god/s do best.

The other planet is the least fleshed out as its only seen a few sessions of play, with the characters hopping on to and then off it with barely a pause. This world was originally intended to represent the world in its earliest of days, has a rustic, snow covered, Norse/Viking-esque theme but has, over time, become a dark realm of ice and cold, with isolated villages and their inbred inhabitants driven slowly into madness by the radioactive snow. Forest are ancient, abundant and full of things with big teeth - people are clannish, violent and hungry. Chainsaw massacre meets Vikings. Glorious!

The planets don't see any traffic between them, other than the adventures and the occasional NPC/s and are treated as separate entities - that is to say, world hopping is not generally part of play, with many groups having never stepped on another world.

 

[Zardnaar]

After a quick scan of the wiki entry, I would say, yeah, kinda - though I haven't read the series. From what I gather, the key differences are that each world is represent a time frame (or possible one), the First Mage isn't connected to any of the existing races/civilizations and the Sanctuary of Reason didn't actually FUBAR the world. But there's certainly, on the Sky Realm at least, two empires clashing over the the pieces of a broken planet.

...and now I'm going to have to read those books!

The other worlds are intact, with their own problems.

One is scorched earth/desert empire, ruled by a vain, ruthless oligarchy and is intended to represent the future. Here is where we indulge in our Dark Sun/Arabain Nights funzees. Lizardmen, the ancestors of the Dragonborn from the Skyrealm, are treated much like humans in the Planet of the Apes movies (the originals good ones!) and the deserts are home to all manner of nasty undead. There's no single dominant faith, instead being many, many cults, each with their own style, beliefs and what have you. Most are trying to bring their god/s into the mortal realm so they can do whatever said god/s do best.

The other planet is the least fleshed out as its only seen a few sessions of play, with the characters hopping on to and then off it with barely a pause. This world was originally intended to represent the world in its earliest of days, has a rustic, snow covered, Norse/Viking-esque theme but has, over time, become a dark realm of ice and cold, with isolated villages and their inbred inhabitants driven slowly into madness by the radioactive snow. Forest are ancient, abundant and full of things with big teeth - people are clannish, violent and hungry. Chainsaw massacre meets Vikings. Glorious!

The planets don't see any traffic between them, other than the adventures and the occasional NPC/s and are treated as separate entities - that is to say, world hopping is not generally part of play, with many groups having never stepped on another world.

I read the Deathgate Cycle about 20 odd years ago. Like it better than Dragonlance.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

I read the Deathgate Cycle about 20 odd years ago. Like it better than Dragonlance.

Awesome, I'll get on it. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Josiah Stoll]

My setting is morally relative, but in a different way. My world uses the Planeshift: Kaladesh rules-with some ideas ported from Spelljammer and Eberron. Now Kaladesh in M:tG is very idealistic. The Consulate is evil communists, and the Renegades are the always-sympathetic freedom fighters.
Rubbish, I say. Waste of a good plot. (And a beautiful world)
The players play as a Consulate task force. Rather than being straight evil, the Consulate is trying to be fair (this is before all that Tezzeret garbage), but if people ever want to get something done, they need to abuse the system a little. For instance: the task forces are under equipped and under funded, so the players get mundane weapons and items. If the players want magic gear, they need the black market (weapons are illegal, but you can find people willing to sell them out of their apartments).
Most class features (superiority dice, spell points, etc.), and magic items are powered by Aether (at 10 gp a charge) instead of any kind of “uses per day” thing. This means that battles can be swingy, but more importantly, the players can (and will) be bribed. Seriously, which one is more important: that Renegade mook or another sixth-level spell?
The Renegades aren’t heroes, either. I mean, some of them are good people. Scientists and engineers that are fed up with bureaucratic corruption. Wide-eyed zealots that believe destiny chose them. But the Renegades often fall short of their lofty goals. It turns out that running a government in the real world is way harder than creating a system of government in your dreams. I heavily imply that the Renegades will make a far worse government than the Consulate ever was.

 

[Eltab]

If you are going to have The Evil One leading an Empire of Evil, it has to be dark there, and its reputation must have spread. The Empire need not - probably should not* - be "everywhere known".
In my campaign world, the metaplot is often 'pushing back against the Darkness, making bigger (or new) places for Light'.

* despite the success of the original Star Wars trilogy