Thoughts on Setting

[SPE825]

I'm super new to D&D (or RPGs really), but want to jump in head first as a DM. I've DM'd a couple of home sessions that were super fun and basically one-shots. But now, I'd like to start creating my own world. Since everything's been done before (like the Simpsons), I wanted see if my general idea seemed cool and/or if there was already maybe a world like it where someone else had already thought of similar things.

The basic idea is that a cataclysmic event occurred in the past (10,00 years ago, details can be determined later, etc.) where a rift in the heavens appeared for a period of time. Then a beam of energy poured forth devastating a continent on impact. This caused quakes, dormant volcanoes came back to life, etc (maybe the continent of impact is partially merged with another plane of existence?). The other major consequence being that the rotation of the planet stopped, causing one half of the world to be plunged into darkness while the other half would then be in the light. So creatures and beings of the darkness would then freely roam the surface of the dark half of the planet (Drow on the surface, etc.) while the other half would be the refuge of the light. And to this day, the beam of energy from the rift continues to bear into the planet, anchoring it's rotation.​

I think this sets things up for interesting ideas at the border of the light and dark halves of the world. Additionally, I'd like to say that teleportation circle travel before the cataclysm was commonplace and that teleportation between the light and dark halves might still be possible, but highly dangerous as no one knows what might await them at the destination. There could be some cool opportunities here for what lies where the beam of energy still impacts the planet, etc. How did it happen, was some cult or god behind the rift/beam of energy, etc.

Just curious for opinions as world creation is all pretty new to me.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'm super new to D&D (or RPGs really), but want to jump in head first as a DM.

Play some, first. OK, by 'some' I mean 'a lot' like weekly for a year or few.

But now, I'd like to start creating my own world. Since everything's been done before, I wanted see if my general idea seemed cool and/or if there was already maybe a world like it where someone else had already thought of similar things.

The basic idea is that a cataclysmic event occurred in the past (10,00 years ago, details can be determined later, etc.) where a rift in the heavens appeared for a period of time. Then a beam of energy poured forth devastating a continent on impact. This caused quakes, dormant volcanoes came back to life, etc (maybe the continent of impact is partially merged with another plane of existence?).​

I get the impression something not entirely unlike that has happened in the Forgotten Realms, a few times. At least.

The other major consequence being that the rotation of the planet stopped, causing one half of the world to be plunged into darkness while the other half would then be in the light.

So, like the Earth in Moorcock's /Twighlight Man/, a tide-locked world with a dark & light side.

So creatures and beings of the darkness would then freely roam the surface of the dark half of the planet (Drow on the surface, etc.) while the other half would be the refuge of the light. And to this day, the beam of energy from the rift continues to bear into the planet, anchoring it's rotation....I think this sets things up for interesting ideas at the border of the light and dark halves of the world.

D&D already hits the light|dark theme pretty hard with the Underdark and races that are allergic to light to varying degrees, like Drow. You could transplant a lot of material from regular D&D just by moving 'Underdark' references to the "Dark Side of the World," which could be dominated by Drow, Mindflayers, and the like.
Of course, you'll lose/escape the claustrophobic themes of the Underdark, your Dark Side will presumably have an open sky & stars (beauty the light-siders never see, for that matter), OTOH, it'll be a lot bigger than the Underdark, and less hidden than merely distant.

Also, the Zone of Twilight (pi) between the two seems an obvious place for adventurers to hang out before expeditions to the Dark Side.

Additionally, I'd like to say that teleportation circle travel before the cataclysm was commonplace and that teleportation between the light and dark halves might still be possible, but highly dangerous as no one knows what might await them at the destination.

Teleportation circles could take the place of caverns and other entrances to the Underdark, sending you deep into the dark side, rather than journeying from the twilight fringes...

Just curious for opinions as world creation is all pretty new to me.

It's more original than the usual Tolkienesque fantasy world with a map, a large collection of proper nouns your players are never going to remember, and plopping elves here & Halflings there, &c...

 

[SPE825]

you'll lose/escape the claustrophobic themes of the Underdark.

Well, there are always still dungeons, right? And maybe some on the dark half of the world opted to continue living underground, meaning that there could be civil war/discord among the denizens of the deep that remained underground and those that moved to the surface.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Well, there are always still dungeons, right? And maybe some on the dark half of the world opted to continue living underground, meaning that there could be civil war/discord among the denizens of the deep that remained underground and those that moved to the surface.

Dark-half races could use dungeons and other underground settings to colonize the light half, too. (I wonder if light-half races would have any good way of returning the favor? Continual Light/Flame is still a spell, right? I suppose they could have colonies lit up like xmass trees... )

 

[hawkeyefan]

I'm super new to D&D (or RPGs really), but want to jump in head first as a DM. I've DM'd a couple of home sessions that were super fun and basically one-shots. But now, I'd like to start creating my own world. Since everything's been done before (like the Simpsons), I wanted see if my general idea seemed cool and/or if there was already maybe a world like it where someone else had already thought of similar things.

The basic idea is that a cataclysmic event occurred in the past (10,00 years ago, details can be determined later, etc.) where a rift in the heavens appeared for a period of time. Then a beam of energy poured forth devastating a continent on impact. This caused quakes, dormant volcanoes came back to life, etc (maybe the continent of impact is partially merged with another plane of existence?). The other major consequence being that the rotation of the planet stopped, causing one half of the world to be plunged into darkness while the other half would then be in the light. So creatures and beings of the darkness would then freely roam the surface of the dark half of the planet (Drow on the surface, etc.) while the other half would be the refuge of the light. And to this day, the beam of energy from the rift continues to bear into the planet, anchoring it's rotation.​

I think this sets things up for interesting ideas at the border of the light and dark halves of the world. Additionally, I'd like to say that teleportation circle travel before the cataclysm was commonplace and that teleportation between the light and dark halves might still be possible, but highly dangerous as no one knows what might await them at the destination. There could be some cool opportunities here for what lies where the beam of energy still impacts the planet, etc. How did it happen, was some cult or god behind the rift/beam of energy, etc.

Just curious for opinions as world creation is all pretty new to me.

That's awesome that you want to DM, and that you have ideas for your own setting.

I think the concept is cool, and has a lot of potential. I do have a question....do any "real world" considerations matter for the light and dark halves as far as temperature goes? Is the light side unbearably hot, and the dark side unbearably cold? Or does that not really matter and you just want the light/dark angle? It seems to me like those extreme temperatures could serve to force inhabitants on both sides towards the borders....which would promote conflict. It would also force inhabitants to seek shelter in new ways, like perhaps below the surface, etc.

Other than those questions, I think you have a cool idea. I think the only advice I'd offer is not to worry about every detail of the entire world. You have your high concept and what you want the world to be. Now you need like a specific town or city or other are for your players to actually be, and then beyond that, you need a sketch, at most. You can establish details as you need them. Don't feel obligated to construct an entire world before you start playing.

 

[Irda Ranger]

It's very original!

I do recommend using teleportation circles to go back and forth, because (unless there's some giant world-spanning wall separating them, like Game of Thrones) any realistic tide locked world would have hundreds of miles of "twilight" borderlands between the truly sunny areas and the truly dark areas. Something on the order of at least one full meridian. Without teleport that would make getting to and from the dark side quite the journey!

This meridian of permanent twilight would make a good feywild though.

Do you care about the effects that perpetual sunglight would have? The area of the planet directly facing the sun probably becomes desert, right? And the plants would grow monstrously tall in the rest of the sunlit world with 24/7 sunlight. The further you go into the dark side of the world, the colder it gets.

I like it!

 

[Tony Vargas]

This meridian of permanent twilight would make a good feywild though.

Nice idea.

Do you care about the effects that perpetual sunglight would have? The area of the planet directly facing the sun probably becomes desert, right?

You could crib from Athas for the 'perpetual Noon' portions of the planet...

(Of course, realistically, the world would be uninhabitable, have unimaginably violent storms if it could even retain an atmosphere, etc...
...but 'realistically' = 'irrelevantly.')

 

[Satyrn]

The basic idea is that a cataclysmic event occurred in the past (10,00 years ago, details can be determined later, etc.) where a rift in the heavens appeared for a period of time. Then a beam of energy poured forth devastating a continent on impact. This caused quakes, dormant volcanoes came back to life, etc (maybe the continent of impact is partially merged with another plane of existence?). The other major consequence being that the rotation of the planet stopped, causing one half of the world to be plunged into darkness while the other half would then be in the light. So creatures and beings of the darkness would then freely roam the surface of the dark half of the planet (Drow on the surface, etc.) while the other half would be the refuge of the light. And to this day, the beam of energy from the rift continues to bear into the planet, anchoring it's rotation.​

That is cool. And as a player, what you have there is a nice digestable chunk of info, so I'll just highlight the advice I'd give and someone already put so well:

I think the only advice I'd offer is not to worry about every detail of the entire world. You have your high concept and what you want the world to be. Now you need like a specific town or city or other are for your players to actually be, and then beyond that, you need a sketch, at most. You can establish details as you need them. Don't feel obligated to construct an entire world before you start playing.

Put your focus into what players will interact with - adventure hooks and adventure sites that are shaped by your setting.

 

[SPE825]

I am trying my best to not go into too much detail as of yet and just build the general idea of the setting as you all have mentioned. But if I have spare time, and I enjoy doing it, I feel like I'll flesh out the ideas around geography and climate a bit. As for the climate, I had already considered that the light side of the planet that is most direct sunlight would be hot and desert-like. As for the opposite side, I have a lot of options as the impact of the beam of energy I mentioned could have transformed that area in many ways. Right now, I'm envisioning some kind of spill-over from another plane across an entire continent, etc.

 

[SPE825]

I also really like the idea of the twilight region. I was thinking that the dark side would also be heavily clouded right at the mid-point, meaning that there was a more distinct line between the darkness and the light. But the idea that the remaining population of the light half of the planet would migrate to the twilight region to get as far away as possible from the scorching side of their world (but as far as possible from the monsters of the dark) is great.

And if the polar opposite sides of the worlds are extreme in their nature, there are a lot of opportunities for crafting a world where one extreme is like Athos (as mentioned above - mini Dark Sun setting where people still living there have adapted? Maybe an excuse for people there acquiring the Psionics of that setting?) and the extreme portion of the dark side could contain something equally unique.