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<blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7489922" data-attributes="member: 6796661"><p>In my homebrew campaign, I used the following in the world I built. Nothing particularly novel, just something I had fun running.</p><p></p><p>1. "No" arcane magic.</p><p></p><p>My world took place centuries after a great, highly destructive war, where magic caused genocidal levels of death and destruction. All arcane magic was banned and magic users were ruthlessly persecuted by zealous inquisitors. The only openly practiced magic is that of clerics from approved religions. Players were only allowed to play sorcerer or warlock if they wanted to have access to arcane magic, with the understanding that discovery of their abilities was a death sentence. Players had the option of multiclassing into wizard as they explorered and discovered hidden sources of arcane magic, though nobody decided to go that route. </p><p></p><p>The idea was that the campaign would either be a witch-hunter/inquisition style game, where the players would investigate and destroy monsters and "evil" magic users or that they would try to discover lost knowledge and power in resistance to an oppressive theocracy. Instead, they became good-intentioned mercenary murder hobos, effectively becoming a new political force in the world after they got to tier 4 levels. </p><p></p><p>2. Room for agnosticism and atheism. </p><p></p><p>One of the mountain-dwarves kingdoms was science focused and was a mostly secular culture. Most of their leadership and great thinkers believed that clerical and arcane magic was from the same source and that the power of belief gave some special individuals the ability to create magic. The gods are removed from the world and there is room for speculation as to whether they exist or not. This also allows for forms of animism and nature worship that do not depend on gods (Druidism was also illegal and druids oppressed, but they exist as hermits or remote enclaves and sanctuaries.</p><p></p><p>3. No elves (kinda)</p><p></p><p>I love all the dwarven ruins in Skyrim. There are no dwarves but there are ruins of their once great civilizations. In my world, the elves were responsible for the great war, the majority of them having subscribed to a belief in their superiority and the need to make room for themselves in world becoming overcrowded by humans and dwarves (yeah, bascially Nazi elves). The retaliation of the dwarves and humans was itself genocidal and nearly all elves were killed. Some escaped in great ships and nobody knows where they went or if they still exists. There are some half-elves who pass for human, and there are "wild" elves in the remotest jungles. Rediscovery and making contact with the elves and how the players chose to play that was one of the major plot threads in the campaign. </p><p></p><p>Some other tropes:</p><p></p><p>I created a werebear race modeled after the Ainu culture who used powerful magic to maintain the isolation of their archipelago. </p><p>A kingdom modeled on Tang-dynasty China that was once ruled by Gold Dragons, who still keep watch over civilization they helped create. They are no rumored "immortals" living in the remote reaches of the kingdom. </p><p>All of the players had some latent psionic power as at least one of their ancestors was a victim of elvan experimentation. Near the end of the war, the elves were getting desperate. The human and dwarven clerics were able to counter most of their elemental and other arcane magic. So they turned to darker arts: (1) necromancy and (2) some groups of eleves made deals with illithids to gain access to powers to that the humans and dwarves had no defense against.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MNblockhead, post: 7489922, member: 6796661"] In my homebrew campaign, I used the following in the world I built. Nothing particularly novel, just something I had fun running. 1. "No" arcane magic. My world took place centuries after a great, highly destructive war, where magic caused genocidal levels of death and destruction. All arcane magic was banned and magic users were ruthlessly persecuted by zealous inquisitors. The only openly practiced magic is that of clerics from approved religions. Players were only allowed to play sorcerer or warlock if they wanted to have access to arcane magic, with the understanding that discovery of their abilities was a death sentence. Players had the option of multiclassing into wizard as they explorered and discovered hidden sources of arcane magic, though nobody decided to go that route. The idea was that the campaign would either be a witch-hunter/inquisition style game, where the players would investigate and destroy monsters and "evil" magic users or that they would try to discover lost knowledge and power in resistance to an oppressive theocracy. Instead, they became good-intentioned mercenary murder hobos, effectively becoming a new political force in the world after they got to tier 4 levels. 2. Room for agnosticism and atheism. One of the mountain-dwarves kingdoms was science focused and was a mostly secular culture. Most of their leadership and great thinkers believed that clerical and arcane magic was from the same source and that the power of belief gave some special individuals the ability to create magic. The gods are removed from the world and there is room for speculation as to whether they exist or not. This also allows for forms of animism and nature worship that do not depend on gods (Druidism was also illegal and druids oppressed, but they exist as hermits or remote enclaves and sanctuaries. 3. No elves (kinda) I love all the dwarven ruins in Skyrim. There are no dwarves but there are ruins of their once great civilizations. In my world, the elves were responsible for the great war, the majority of them having subscribed to a belief in their superiority and the need to make room for themselves in world becoming overcrowded by humans and dwarves (yeah, bascially Nazi elves). The retaliation of the dwarves and humans was itself genocidal and nearly all elves were killed. Some escaped in great ships and nobody knows where they went or if they still exists. There are some half-elves who pass for human, and there are "wild" elves in the remotest jungles. Rediscovery and making contact with the elves and how the players chose to play that was one of the major plot threads in the campaign. Some other tropes: I created a werebear race modeled after the Ainu culture who used powerful magic to maintain the isolation of their archipelago. A kingdom modeled on Tang-dynasty China that was once ruled by Gold Dragons, who still keep watch over civilization they helped create. They are no rumored "immortals" living in the remote reaches of the kingdom. All of the players had some latent psionic power as at least one of their ancestors was a victim of elvan experimentation. Near the end of the war, the elves were getting desperate. The human and dwarven clerics were able to counter most of their elemental and other arcane magic. So they turned to darker arts: (1) necromancy and (2) some groups of eleves made deals with illithids to gain access to powers to that the humans and dwarves had no defense against. [/QUOTE]
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