Help me flesh out my idea for a campaign world...

[SoulsFury]

Me and a buddy of mine have not played in a table top game in a very long time, mainly PBP in the last few years. We talked it over, and we want to give a 1 on 1 table top game a go. If we enjoy it, we will add more players that can work around our schedule. I will be the DM. Here is the kicker though, we may alternate DMing later on, once he feels more comfortable with the 4e rules. He played some 3/3.5 Ed but hasn't DMed since 2nd. We would like to be able to DM in the same world for each of our characters. We want the characters that we are playing to develop the world as a whole. That way, when we continue more games, the places are familiar to us, because our characters helped create those places or were the first to visit there.

Some points:
1. I do not want to create more than is necessary.
2. The world will be very Earth like. Similar in size, climate, etc.
3. We want to keep the magic level very low in the world. Nothing over level 11. Perhaps the magical web on this planet cannot support spells of that nature. Dragons do not have infinite power, there isn't a wizard that can take on the whole world, etc. Once reaching level 11, characters would be semi-retired to NPC status as a leader of the people.
4. No points of real civilization. There are no cities. The largest civilization are groups of un-civilized folk of at most 200 individuals living in crude structures, which will vary from civilization to civilization.
5. RUINS! I love dungeon crawls as well as site based adventures. However, I have very little time to create great encounters, and I do not always have the creativity. Which means that sometimes I may use store bought modules or use them as rough sketches. In which case, I may need ruins.

How can I explain ruins with stone, where none of the civilization is up to that point. Civilization will have some stone cutting tools and weapons but not many. Structures will mainly be made out of wood. Clothing and animal hide is the highest amount of armor. Gem cutting is in its most basic stages. What could have happened in the past for this to happen?

6. This brings me to my sixth, most important point for this campaign setting, and what it is about. I want the characters to develop the level of civilization, in character. I would like the initial characters to arrive in the setting as more advance technologically. Think discovery of the Americas but on a fantasy type level. I also want there to be no way back for the 'settlers', for lack of a better word. I do not want them to arrive on a boat, or in a ship wreck.

I want them to be from another world entirely, but I don't want them to have the technology of an alien race that could space travel. Perhaps they arrive from a world that is being destroyed and their deity saved them. I'd like their technology to be on the level of that of the major cities of the Forgotten Realm, but without the magic level.

On that note, how many should arrive? Our eventual goal is for all of civilization to one day come from this core group. Should they be of the same race or mixed races? If they all come at once, they cannot leave, at least until someone can find a way to get off this plane of existence.

I think that is enough for now. Any input is welcome.

 

[Meatboy]

What about spontaneous planar travel? The Players could be what ever they feel like and then contribute the advancement of civilization as they know it. Whether it be in the form of Drowian matriarchal hegemony or Athenian democratic city states.

 

[Hand of Evil]

A good place to start is with the World builder's questions:

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions

 

[SoulsFury]

What about spontaneous planar travel? The Players could be what ever they feel like and then contribute the advancement of civilization as they know it. Whether it be in the form of Drowian matriarchal hegemony or Athenian democratic city states.

Using that explanation, they would spontaneously travel at random times. I want a small, concrete area of a world that the player himself helps to build.

A good place to start is with the World builder's questions:

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions

Thanks for the link, but it didn't help with any of my questions, just added more questions.

Perhaps the campaign could be plague driven. The character is part of a group that sets sail from a plague ridden land which they cannot return to in fear of getting infected. If that is the case, how do they know they are not infected? Do they have a cleric? Is magic just now being discovered? How many people should survive the plague to start the new colony? This could allow for several ships to land on this new land at different intervals.

 

[Croesus]

Some random ideas:

The world the player(s) are coming from is very advanced technologically and magically. However, a secret group (a government, a cabal, a temple) experimented with forces beyond their control, unleashing terrible magical vortexes. Nothing can stand against these vortexes, which seem to be gaining power as more of the world is destroyed. Seeing no other hope, some of the survivors choose to open a portal to another world to which they can flee.

Whether by design or accident, the portal is opened onto a world where magic functions differently. Many of the refugees' spells do not function at all, others at much reduced efficacy. They find themselves having to re-learn magic in their new home. Fortunately, the world is lush and bountiful, a seeming Eden awaiting the refugees.

However, very quickly the refugees realize that their new world has experienced a cataclysm of its own. Stone ruins dot the land, with virtually all natives living in small farming or hunter/gatherer communities. Family and clan are the primary societal bonds. What little magic is practiced among the natives tends to be nature-based. In addition, there are strong taboos against certain types of magic, and in exploring some ruins.

The natives have legends of a time when mortals possessed the power of gods, but misused such power to enslave and oppress. The legends say one day the world itself rose up and cast down these warlords and all their creations - their towers and castles, their cities and palaces. The warlords' magic failed them, suddenly not responding to their will, and they were destroyed.

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1) Magic functions, but is limited in raw power. Further, due to having to learn their new world's "rules", the refugees do not start with high-level casters.
2) The natives have well-defined culture, including strong taboos around ancient magic. The refugess will need to adapt or find themselves opposed at every turn.
3) A significant number of refugees pass through the portal before it is destroyed, but not enough to simply conquer their new world. They have to form alliances with the locals, trading knowledge and skills, and occasionally participating in their wars (perhaps as neutral arbitrators).
4) The ruins can posses secrets, wealth, needed technology, and clues to the past. However, searching them incurs risk - releasing a trapped creature, attracting the attention of the "world spirit" that legend claims destroyed the earlier civilization, disturbing the balance of power among the local tribes, even being attacked by locals.
5) At least some of the refugees could belong to the group responsible for destroying their original world. They would have their own agenda, perhaps seeking the very power that caused the previous cataclysm.

 

[SoulsFury]

I am thinking of something similar. A cataclysmic event destroys any and all civilizations. Those that survived were not in even the smallest of village or largest of city. The population of all races is utterly annihilated. Those that survived were those wandering alone, the adventurers. What I am thinking, is have the character sitting on a mountain, over looking a grand city, looking forward to reaching that city and his first shower and hot meal since departing where ever it was he came from. Suddenly, meteors rain down, lightning bolts, tornadoes, tidal waves, come crashing down around. The character fells the ground slipping away from him and falls into an underground chasm in the mountain, and blacks out.

When the character comes to, he is trapped, maybe for days, even weeks, until he digs himself out. This will be where the campaign actually starts. Alone, in the dark, not knowing what happened. He finally claws his way out, only to find his first challenge. Some goblins (or another creature) are in the only tunnel that leads up. After fighting through these, he finds himself outside, atop the mountain. Except the land around is destroyed. It looks nothing like it did before. The city he was so hoping to get to is now underwater. The mountain he was on is now just past the sand dunes of a new beach.

I figure I'll let him wander for a bit, and then he will find his home base. An outpost is being constructed. I want there to be about 350 people in the outpost of adults, and 100 or so children. However, depending on how long it takes him to get there, he might be one of the first to find the people starting the outpost.

Brings me to my next question. What is special about the out post? Maybe it was a temple that was spared and they have plenty of supplies? I figure there will end up being an outpost every 200 miles or so the character might find out as he explores.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How can I explain ruins with stone, where none of the civilization is up to that point. Civilization will have some stone cutting tools and weapons but not many. Structures will mainly be made out of wood. Clothing and animal hide is the highest amount of armor. Gem cutting is in its most basic stages. What could have happened in the past for this to happen?

In Isaac Asimov's classic story, Nightfall, the rising civilizations of the world could not understand the ruins of prior civilizations that seemed hundreds of years more advanced than they were. What was happening was that there was a global calamity that caused all civilizations to collapse in a single night in a 1000 year cycle.

Similar ideas have been used by Anne McCaffery in her Dragonrider stories (The Thread), as well as Stargate: Atlantis (the Wraith cullings).

Something like that would work well for you since, not only will your players get to help civilization rise, they'll also be instrumental in staving off it's collapse.

 

[Hand of Evil]

What I would do is make the migrant hunters, that are following herd animals. The campaign area would be the path. Along this path, as this is a cycled trek, they would have established hunting grounds and even clan members that were left behind (age, sickness or just finding a good spot), that would be starting town building. Say, the cycle takes 10 years to travel (this is a lot like what happened in South Africa with the Zulu).

As for ruins, a dying race, that lived when magic was high but no longer can maintain itself. Magical items, would also be effected and then lost to time. Lizard men or trogs are great for this.

As to where did they come from? When the elder race was going somewhere else, they opened doors to find the best world for them. One of the doors let the player group in.

 

[Lendro_Furioso]

I agree that a nomadic people would make more sense. You only settle if you have the means to grow seeds and herd livestock. In this case, it would be the hero's job to get a small population to settle a land, and thus begin civilization anew.

The cataclysm should be at least within a few generations of the current populace for them to have forgotten their way of life. The locals should be a mixed people, maybe descendents of the survivors of the apocalypse and more primitive folk. This would allow you to create a plethora of myths, mostly amalgamated versions of whatever pantheon had originally existed (think of the pantheon presented in the PHB, then take only small bits of information, and mix with stuff you can observe every day). The inhabitants would adopt things as they came across them, so you get to have totally skewed religious views which to an outsider (the hero) seem obvious, but which he can't point out for fear of the locals' wrath. This means he should rather try to change their beliefs, rather than prove them wrong.

Religion should indeed be nature-based since those are the most useful. Still, you might get problems with nature-worshipers, who think settling permanently will lead to downfall as before. This is an instant quest: the player settles a land, convinces other people to plant seeds, but they do not grow because of the actions of a druid who opposes them. Well, you get the idea...
Another thought might be for the gods themselves to be absent from the world. Perhaps they all died, or have gone simply dormant for lack of worship (you tend to forsake the gods when the apocalypse comes). Establishing religion and worship itself is important (what with the spiritual well-being of the masses and all), but perhaps getting the attention of the gods is an epic tier quest in and of itself.


Regarding where the player comes from, I kind of like the idea of another world. Perhaps a cosmic event with planetary alignment that only happens every so many years came about and brought the PC here. This could even work out later on if you switch from GM to player: you can jump as many or as few years as you like. Settling civilization isn't something that happens overnight, but over the course of entire generations. This way, when you switch, you can jump ahead a few generations, and your current player can make things more his own: his PC has passed, but left a legacy that grew. Perhaps increased exploration of the ruins has brought an increase to monster activity, or no new knowledge can gain from the ones accessible. Again, instant adventures!
The occasional planetary alignment thing can of course bring danger, as well: evil-inclined characters, etc, etc, etc. If you go this route, I would suggest a balancing of some sort into neutrality: if a great force of order comes through, so should a force from chaos to counterbalance it.


One last topic, regarding your idea of no wizards, no dragons: I like it. If some event wiped out the entire world, no old dragons exist: only young ones. It's... elegant after a fashion. Anyway, good luck with the game, and have fun!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When I did my post-cataclysmic world, I set an upper size limit of Large for all living creatures on the surface: anything else was simply too large to survive the immediate aftermath.

Wizardry was still around, but almost nothing written- tomes & scrolls included- survived on the surface. When given a choice between tinder and fuel for cooking fires & warmth, even the magical libraries fell. As a result, most surviving spellbooks were in alternative forms, like etched stone tablets or tattoos on spellcasters' skins. Learning new spells was done through research, not merely picking what you wanted.