How do I make a Scarred Lands campaign feel like a Scarred Lands campaign?

[Nightfall]

I know you'd secretly rather be playing Midnight instead. It's ok. Your secret is safe with me.

No that's your job Ash.

Calico,

Every DM has to make something work. For the Scarred Lands, making it different and unique, only requires that you inform the players "We aren't here to be running around collecting treasure, or trying to be the next Elminster. The fact is, being an adventurer in the Scarred Lands is as much work as being an accountant or being a supervisor. Here you earn your keep, not just try to randomly find your way." That's how I view each and every one of my campaigns. These people are heroes as much by choice as they are being thrusted on them.

 

[Sojourner]

Hmm, I don't know if you're wrong, because I don't exactly understand what you mean.

I want to give the feeling of being in the Scarred Lands, which I assume is by using the campaign books like Ghelsphad, Creature Collection, etc. I want to give the feel of being in the Scarred Lands. I don't my players to go on an adventure and think to themselves, this adventure could have taken place in a "generic" setting like Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.

Well, that's what I was asking. I tend to run my Scarred Lands game the same way (though I decided to cross it over with Dragonstar and run a planetary invasion scenario) -- I don't use monster manuals/creature collections for other settings, only those for the Scarred Lands settings. Some of the generic class and race supplements will creep into my games (I really liked Mercenaries from AEG and have included a few tidbits from there), but I generally stick with Scarred Lands supplements and nothing else (at least until the Dragon Empire decided to invade ).

I've found little ways to bring up the differences. For example, my campaign took place in Hollowfaust and, as I view that city as a very unique place/setting, I emphasized the fact that undead existed on a day-to-day basis and were used as tools rather than being the typically mindless murderers. That was really funny, especially for the half-orc in the party, whose player was used to settings like FR and Greyhawk. After a while, they became accustomed to the fact that the undead were typical soldiers in Hollowfaust and both my players have even commanded small groups of the undead troops (Superior Skeletons -- since I only have two players I needed to supplement the group to give them enough of an edge to prevent encounters from being certain death).

Now, I've changed things up and introduced them to the Ghosts' Quarter in Hollowfaust and made them aware that the dangerous undead also exists (they've got a Shadow Lord who will be tormenting them for some time to come).

Of course, since the invasion has now occured and House Noros showed up to take over city government, both the players are talking about heading for the hills (they made a deal with the dark elves to help in the upcoming battle against the Githyanki not knowing the dark elves would turn around and demand the city's unconditional surrender). The campaign just got more interesting...

 

[tmaaas]

After I first read the Ghelspad gazetteer, the word that described the Scarred Lands to me was “raw.” The world was torn apart 150 years ago (a relatively short time, especially to an elf…) and it is just coming out of the ICU ward. It has by no means been healed.

The divine-titan war was ugly and brutal. Scarn was disfigured not only by the conflict itself, but (even more significant to the feel of the setting) also by the remnants of the titans’ bodies scattered everywhere. Chern (IIRC) in the Blood Sea. That red ain’t just coloring, friends. The Hornsaw forest twisted by the blood of Mormo (I like these explanations for the abundance of weird critters and aberrations). The teeth of Gaurak. Etc.

If you want a Scarred Lands feel, make sure you describe the world as scarred. There should be visible remnants even in the middle of the most civilized lands, and the wastelands should be a testament to the fury of the war.

And remember, the titans lost… but the battle is not over.

Some other thoughts…

The various Scarred Lands books have a lot of good ideas and flavor, but not everything is necessarily good for a given campaign. Remember to pick and choose. For instance, since I prefer to focus on the gods/titans conflict, I probably wouldn’t use the “small gods” ideas from the PG to D&C. On the other hand, I might expand on the concept of primal feats (druidic feats related to different titans—I play a druid in my SL campaign).

Remember to use some of the flavor text given in the spell and creatures books. Without it, the spells or creatures might as well be used in a generic setting. In fact, you may wish to limit use of certain “standard” D&D spells and critters in favor of SL specific ones.

 

[Nightfall]

Tmaas,

Chern is believed to be buried in the Mourning Marches, Kadum is in the Blood Sea.

But yeah the Blood Sea isn't just for decorations.

 

[tmaaas]

Tmaas,

Chern is believed to be buried in the Mourning Marches, Kadum is in the Blood Sea.

But yeah the Blood Sea isn't just for decorations.

Hence the IIRC... it looks like I didn't. Thanks for the correction.

Since I'm here, I'll give an illustration on what I see as one way to think of the Scarred Lands...

Imagine Scarn as a person. Scarn happened to get in between a gang war led by two prominent leaders and escaped from the life-and-death fight barely alive (one of the leaders was killed). Scarn patched himself up as good as he could, with some help from the winning side, but they didn't take care of everything. Now, several months have passed. Scarn is recovering, but very slowly. Some of his wounds are bandaged properly and virtually healed (except for some scars). Others are still bleeding through the bandages. Still more were never treated properly and are abscessing and infected, growing worse and threatening Scarn's life again once again. And if all that wasn't enough, there are other thugs out there that every once in a while take another shot at him.

 

[Nightfall]

Sounds good to me. I'm all about being gangsta and living Thuglife.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Calico,
Every DM has to make something work. For the Scarred Lands, making it different and unique, only requires that you inform the players "We aren't here to be running around collecting treasure, or trying to be the next Elminster. The fact is, being an adventurer in the Scarred Lands is as much work as being an accountant or being a supervisor. Here you earn your keep, not just try to randomly find your way." That's how I view each and every one of my campaigns. These people are heroes as much by choice as they are being thrusted on them.

That's not really what I meant. You could use your view in Greyhawk too and once again both settings would be very similar. What I was saying is that in some of the other settings the difference between that setting and Greyhawk/Forgotten Realms is so different that the DM's work is pretty much done for him/her and the players pick up on the difference immediately. IMHE the settings that require a different character creation process are the ones that seem to establish the difference in settings almost on their own.

Back in the days of 2E, Darksun certainly felt different when you were creating a character. First of all your characters started all at 3rd level and if I remember right (please correct me if I am wrong) they used a different dice rolling convention than the old 3d6 for stats. Every creature high and low on Athas was psionic. There were rules governing heat exhaustion so that no character in their right mind would ever want to wear metal armor. Metal weapons were almost unknown... bone and obsidian were much more common and the monetary system used ceramic chits. That is what I am talking about... a total divergence from the Tolkien-derived setting where from the beginning there is nothing similar even in character creation.

Oh... on the way home from work yesterday I thought of a good rule of thumb for campaign designers (Ed Greenwood, are you listening here?). If you can't rattle off all the names of the gods in a campaign within 30 seconds then there is too many.

Yes... I like that the Scarred Lands went back to basics and had a god to represent every part of the alignment wheel.

 

[ruemere]

A few more tips for beginning your adventure in Scarred Lands

1. Permanent magic items (like swords and armors) cost three times as much to purchase (due to curse of Mesos and general scarcity of those who know how to make them), and as such are much less common.

2. When you pray, your god sometimes answers (sometimes gaining +1 to rolls), but when you don't may get punished.

3. All divine races unite against titanspawn. Evil and good guys may (and should) work together against titan worshippers.

4. Halflings are discriminated.

5. Gnomes are primitive savages from Termana.

6. Sometimes good guys do harsh things (the lesser evil).

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[dreaded_beast]

1. Permanent magic items (like swords and armors) cost three times as much to purchase (due to curse of Mesos and general scarcity of those who know how to make them), and as such are much less common.

2. When you pray, your god sometimes answers (sometimes gaining +1 to rolls), but when you don't may get punished.

3. All divine races unite against titanspawn. Evil and good guys may (and should) work together against titan worshippers.

4. Halflings are discriminated.

5. Gnomes are primitive savages from Termana.

6. Sometimes good guys do harsh things (the lesser evil).

Regards,
Ruemere

Hmm, I like this list!

Would you mind saying which books the info comes from?

And if you would like to come up with a list of more Scarred Lands "essentials" that would be good too!

 

[Fevil]

1. Permanent magic items (like swords and armors) cost three times as much to purchase (due to curse of Mesos and general scarcity of those who know how to make them), and as such are much less common.

On this one, I differ. My players have yet to find a seller of a +1 ring of protection, and they are going on 14th level.
I have, through roleplaying and the general tone of my game, made it clear that they will NEVER be able to just walk into a store and buy permanent magical items, as they are just to valuable to the owners (yes, even that +1 ring).
Thus, my PCs have taken it upon themselves to create their own, or have powerful friends do it for them.