D&D 4E Ideas for my "4e No-Magic Sandbox Campaign"

[Adamaro23]

I've been working on a setting for 3 and a half years now (originally intended for 3.5) and i'll be finally running it now, in 4e.

I don't mean to sound stubborn, but before anyone asks, i'm not willing to change my mind about magic or races.

The setting itself appears simply as a "medieval" setting during winter, only the winter has lasted 25 years. Magic is nearly unheard of, hearing about a man who can create missiles of magic out of nothing is a pretty huge deal, and most sane people would be worried for their lives is such a man was roaming the world. The wilderness is, well, wild. Few towns scatter the winterlocked frontier, the biggest population in any of the towns is barely 2,000. Infact, most would be considered villages, or hamlets.

The only race in the lands are humans (although I have reflavored some other races ie. Dwarf = burly human, Goliath = mountain men, etc...).

Like I mentioned in the name of the thread, it will also be a sandbox style game.

I've run into a few problems though that I hope you guys could possibly help me with. Based on the (unfortunately) brief info above, what kind of dungeons do you imagine? There are no longer goblins, or gnolls to simply infest ruins. Every sentient beings are human, aside from that there are the natural beasts that also exist here on earth that would survive during a prolonged winter, wolves, deer, beavers, etc...

I'm really hoping that theres someone willing to reply so maybe some ideas can be bounced back and forth, allowing me to be able to finish fleshing out my setting within the week.

 

[Engilbrand]

If you don't have the DMG 2, then I highly recommend getting that. I'm going to throw out some of the advice from that: ask your players. Get them to help develop your setting. You guys can have a campaign planning adventure where everyone comes up with what they like and find interesting. It will also give you the chance to decide what people aren't too interested in, and then you'll know what to leave out. After all, if there are certain things that your players don't want to deal with in a campaign, why would you have those things?
Personally, I like the idea of reflavoring the races as human. Why not do the same with monsters?

 

[Mesh Hong]

First things first, welcome to EnWorld.

I've been working on a setting for 3 and a half years now (originally intended for 3.5) and i'll be finally running it now, in 4e.

If you have been working on this setting for three and a half years it must be pretty detailed!

I've run into a few problems though that I hope you guys could possibly help me with. Based on the (unfortunately) brief info above, what kind of dungeons do you imagine? There are no longer goblins, or gnolls to simply infest ruins. Every sentient beings are human, aside from that there are the natural beasts that also exist here on earth that would survive during a prolonged winter, wolves, deer, beavers, etc...

Wait a minute. You have been working on using this world for three and a half years and you havn't ever thought about what story (or stories) you want to tell?

You have never wondered who the heroes are in this world or yours, or who the villains are?

I find this very confusing

I'm really hoping that theres someone willing to reply so maybe some ideas can be bounced back and forth, allowing me to be able to finish fleshing out my setting within the week.

In order to try and find something positive here and give you something to work with:

Most of the interest in the campaign sounds like it will revolve around important people or events.

- Political infighting or schemes between nobility or different communities
- Notable personalities - lone psychopaths, strange cults performing ancient (or pseudo ancient) rituals (these don't need to have any magical effect, they just have to believe that they do)
- Ingress or activity of natural threats - hungry wolves desperate enough to approach farms to take cattle etc

Other than that there could be ancient legends or myths about powerful artifacts or secret knowledge (again they don't have to be true, but they could form the basis of an adventure or wilderness search) (ideas for inspiration are stories like Excalibar and the court of the mythical king arthur, and the search for the holy grail etc)

All in all though I think this will be a difficult game to run and your players will absolutely need to know what to expect from the beginning. Like I said at the start I still don't understand what you have been doing for three and a half years instead of comming up with a story.

But what do I know? I am sure you know what you are doing.

 

[CapnZapp]

When I read the topic title (no magic campaign), I thought the thread was going to be about making do with only the martial classes.

And I would have answered "it works perfectly alright". After all, there exist martial choices for all three of the most important 4E roles (Leader, Defender, and Striker).

A team of a Warlord, two Fighters, one Ranger and one Rogue is not a mere "no magic" compromise - it's a perfectly viable 4E party in its own right!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I guess the real question is how fantastic are you willing to let things get? Are there no such things as monsters or are they just rare and hidden away in obscure corners of the world or even just lurking around the edges of civilization? I mean can the party run into a vampire or werewolf or do those things just not exist?

The obvious direction to go is politics, intrigue, crime, wilderness survival, etc. Your choices of opponents for the characters to interact with is going to be somewhat more limited if there aren't monsters around, but humans are always the scariest monster as they say. Bandits and refugees and even just starving people could be interesting. I'd think after 25 years of winter in a basically mundane world things would be beyond grim. In fact its hard to imagine any kind of civilization or very many people still existing at all. Where do they get food from? Even in modern civilization there's no way we could survive more than a few months without crops, and 25 years in a medieval type setting says to me all food stores would be LONG LONG LONG since expended (probably in the first 6 months). So there must be SOME sort of magical/fantastical explanation for the fact that anyone is alive at all. That would probably end up being a central element of any plot, certainly once the campaign gets out of the heroic tier.

Of course that's another question. Just how fantastic are the powers the PCs wield supposed to be allowed to get in this highly mundane setting? Is it even appropriate to run a game in such a setting past 10th level? You may want to decide that pretty early on.

 

[Garthanos]

Enemy humans, Insane asylum escapees, plague carriers(undead), bandit bands, slavers(more enemy humans), mutants (Warped ones distorted by left over pools of chaos from when humans thought it was ok to use magic), neanderthals and missing links(orcs). Cultists brain washing children in to thinking its ok to use magic, drug pushers and there addicts? same thing?. Vat grown monsters and Gene engineered master races (sometime elves sometimes others).

PC's are exceptional and even where I do low magic I allow them to be wizards.(if you are an elf you may be attacked by Zealots who want to sacrifice the abomination) if you are a shifter you may be captured by one of those alchemists trying to see what makes you tick.

I let pc's even living in the anti-magic parts of my game world be secret wizards some use coincidental magic which may take arcana checks to notices...others just use more more perception stealth checks... or just get run out of town. Pretending they are just scholars and book sellers.

 

[DanmarLOK]

Given you're humanistic this might be of some use to you for ideas -

Key Our Cars » Blog Archive » Humanocentric World?

 

[Anthelios]

No monsters and no magic. Make it about things that matter to people then. As already posted above, politics and intrigue can be big factors in the game. If you're looking for something more visceral, then make it about war.

Countries going to war, the PCs drafted to work for their kingdom as scouts and knights.

Explore forgotten keeps, left to rot away in the deepest forests or frozen in the neigh-impassable mountains.

Fight bandits in old places, or in city streets.

Twenty five years of winter? Resources have to be getting scarce. If one nation hasn't invaded another for their resources yet then I would be suprised. If common folk arent turning to banditry, then what are they doing to fill their stomachs?

In a setting like you outlined above, small elite groups would be more benefitial to countries than supporting full armies. Less food needs to be given to four or five trailblazing elite knights as they cross into enemy territory and assault a poorly provisioned enemy keep.

Or send these very same people to scout for land worth taking for farming. Or on diplomatic missions.

When times get tough, people tend to turn toward charismatic leaders for guidance. All sorts of cults and rebellious factions could spring up in smaller towns.

Seems like there are plenty of options.

 

[Psikus]

An interesting option would be to fill the setting with different, roaming tribes of savage humans in place of common humanoid monsters - so that you can use a variety of monster stats from the Monster Manual. Orcs would be a natural fit for your average barbaric tribe, whereas Hobgoblins would make more militaristic, organized cultures. Goblins and Kobolds might even be reskinned as small size (or maybe starving?) tribes, or possibly gangs of juvenile bandits. If you feel like it, you could even justify Ogres as huge humans.

An important concern when levelling up will be replacing magic weapons, in order not to mess with the math of the game. You could have masterwork weapons with enhancenment bonuses, but most special abilities from magic items would be a hard sell. Maybe turning the weapon's magic enchantments into special training for the characters would work?

Also, although martial classes are obviously well suited to the setting, you might consider reflavouring some classes from other power sources in order to add more variety. Barbarians translate very well to a non-magic enviroment, though their most supernatural rages would have to go. You shouldn't have much trouble with monks, either. Bards are slightly more complicated but definitely viable - you may need to get rid of their implement powers, or you could attempt to justify them, using only musical instruments as implements.

As a final consideration, what would be the role of science in the game? Could a character get the Alchemy feat? It might be too difficult to do, but a completely technological, Da Vinci- style Artificer could make a really cool PC...

 

[weem]

Sounds interesting, and yes, welcome to ENW

The first thing I think of when I hear of these kinds of campaigns is to take what is there (regular animals in the wild etc) and make them and everything about them BIGGER.

Like a bear being 2x it's normal size, and maybe with Sabertooth like fangs - just a quick example.

Also, nature itself (plant-life, etc) would be much more dangerous, bigger, (intelligent even).

Weather could be a big factor as well - it would be deadly to be out in the elements for long periods of time, etc.

Anyway, just a quick blurb on my through, sorry if any of these have been mentioned already (though I quickly skimmed)...