D&D General Let's Workshop Some Setting Elements

[cbwjm]

My current setting involves a 3 way war in the mythic past between dragons, giants, and elementals. It is from this war that the races of genasi, dragon-kin (dragonborn and kobolds), and giant-kin (firbolg and goliaths) were created as a means to fill the rank and file soldiers in the great war. How they were created hasn't really been brought up since in general it isn't required to play in the campaign, however my players might be going to an old elemental temple which is going to show wall carvings of human captives being altered by an elemental using a mysterious orb, further along another carving shows that the figures who were once human are now reborn as genasi. It's just a fun setting element that I can introduce to the players.

It's now got me thinking of how the giants and dragons created their soldiers. I'm thinking of stealing from dragonlance for the kobolds and dragonborn and have them be born from the eggs of the various dragons using an ancient ritual. Most (all?) of my players have no knowledge of dragonlance so that shouldn't be an issue, but I can't think of how the giants created their soldiers. Maybe carved them from stone or something.

 

[Reynard]

My current setting involves a 3 way war in the mythic past between dragons, giants, and elementals. It is from this war that the races of genasi, dragon-kin (dragonborn and kobolds), and giant-kin (firbolg and goliaths) were created as a means to fill the rank and file soldiers in the great war. How they were created hasn't really been brought up since in general it isn't required to play in the campaign, however my players might be going to an old elemental temple which is going to show wall carvings of human captives being altered by an elemental using a mysterious orb, further along another carving shows that the figures who were once human are now reborn as genasi. It's just a fun setting element that I can introduce to the players.

It's now got me thinking of how the giants and dragons created their soldiers. I'm thinking of stealing from dragonlance for the kobolds and dragonborn and have them be born from the eggs of the various dragons using an ancient ritual. Most (all?) of my players have no knowledge of dragonlance so that shouldn't be an issue, but I can't think of how the giants created their soldiers. Maybe carved them from stone or something.

In DL the EVIL dragons used good dragon eggs to create draconians, because by necessity using dragon eggs means no dragon from that egg. It's something to consider.

Maybe there is a universal "essence" or "soul magic" ritual that all the creatures could have used to create their hybrid soldiers. This brings up the question: what do the hybrid soldiers offer, besides just numbers? What is inherent in humanity (or proto-humanity, depending on how long ago this was) that makes the ritual necessary? Does human free will or some other quality make hybrids more useful than, say, ogres or half dragons?

 

[Minigiant]

What if dungeoneering was cyclical stronghold building? Just gold and magic items changing hands as Strongholds become Dungeons and Dungeons become Ruins and Ruins become Strongholds?

1. Adventurers gets rich
2. Adventurers clear Ruins of Wild Monsters
3. Adventurer builds a Stronghold atop Ruin
4. Adventurer's followers manage Stronghold after Adventurer dies or departs
5. Wild Monsters conquer Stronghold and take Adventurer's leftover Magic Items
6. Stronghold become Dungeon
7. Dungeon Monsters raid Villages for Gold
8. Village hire Adventuers to clear Dungeon
9. Some Adventures die in Dungeon
10. Eventually Adventurers clear Dungeon
11. Adventurer loot Dungeon for Gold and Magic Items. Dungeon becomes Ruin
12. Repeat

 

[NotAYakk]

The hardest thing to work out, is how to track how Crowley and his followers undertake missions of their own, and keep this balanced. Do the players only know of Crowley's plans if they happen to have a spy in that part of the city? How fast should Crowley's evil spread? Does he complete a mission each day, and is he automatically succesful if the players do not interfere? Or should there be a roll to determine if he succeeds? Can the players stop Crowley from taking the city, or should it be inevitable that Crowley eventually takes the fight to their headquarters? Or should there be an upward curve, where things start pretty hopeless, but as the players eliminate key targets and recruit more people, they can eventually gain the upper hand?

This stuff is really difficult to balance.

I'd say, don't balance it.

Don't know if the campaign will be a bloodbath of doom or a triumphant march.

Stealing from 4th age, have Icons. These are NPCs that the players should not generally be assumed to meet -- King George, Margaret Bondfield, Churchill, Gwyneth Marjorie Thompson, Dorothy Lawrence, Chamberlain, Dr Marie Stopes, Agatha Christie, Oswald Mosley, Beatrix Potter, Fleming, Einstein, Orwell, DH Lawrence, Dame Millicent Fawcett.

The BBEG is the protagonist, and will do things. You can make it semi random, where the BBEG has a pool of resources, and the players actions can hinder them; but, in my opinion, it should build up to an avalanche. The PCs should succeed at solving problems, and despite that things should keep getting worse.

Steal from Dungeon World the idea of fronts and dooms. Crowley should have multiple things going at once, and the players should be able to stop one; but this (in effect) just accelerates the others. Other Icons should have things going on (so not everything is Crowley).

If you go for a high downtime/gritty rest variant (a month to gain a level, a week for a long rest), and plot "adventuring days" as taking place over a week (where a day is an encounter), you can have calendar time move. With the recovery from the war and the great depression and the rise of fascism going on, there is lots of great history you can inject.

 

[Minigiant]

My current setting involves a 3 way war in the mythic past between dragons, giants, and elementals. It is from this war that the races of genasi, dragon-kin (dragonborn and kobolds), and giant-kin (firbolg and goliaths) were created as a means to fill the rank and file soldiers in the great war. How they were created hasn't really been brought up since in general it isn't required to play in the campaign, however my players might be going to an old elemental temple which is going to show wall carvings of human captives being altered by an elemental using a mysterious orb, further along another carving shows that the figures who were once human are now reborn as genasi. It's just a fun setting element that I can introduce to the players.

It's now got me thinking of how the giants and dragons created their soldiers. I'm thinking of stealing from dragonlance for the kobolds and dragonborn and have them be born from the eggs of the various dragons using an ancient ritual. Most (all?) of my players have no knowledge of dragonlance so that shouldn't be an issue, but I can't think of how the giants created their soldiers. Maybe carved them from stone or something.

I've been theory crafting a War of the Pantheons campaign that works like that

The Dragons, Giants, Elementals, Aesir, Tuatha, Olympians, Astrals, and Guardinals all come from their home planes to invade the plane of humanity after the Gods of Humanity wane banishing the Great Old Ones. They each create a race or races (dragonborn/koolds, goliaths/firborgs, genasi, dwarves/orcs, elves/gnomes/goblins, leonin/satyr/minotaur, assimar/tiefling, and lizardfolk/tabaxi/shifters) to help conquer the rich Human plane and fight off the others.

Some are tranformed humans (assimar and tieflings). Others are creations from the home plane creations' rituals (dragonborn).

 

[Bupp]

Kobolds are not natural creatures. They are formed of a mix of earth and dragon's blood. Dragons create them as servants, shaping them into various forms and giving them various powers to suit their wills.
Possible effects:

• Not all kobolds are evil: metallic dragons need servants too.
• Kobolds can be all sorts of NPC's now...again, depending on the dragon: they can be diplomats, warriors, artisans, spies, arcane agents...
• Kobolds get a lot more respect from other races now...even the simplest SRD Kobold has a dragon behind it now. Killing a kobold might be tolerable to a dragon, but killing a colony or party of them? That's like destroying a corporate office of a Fortune 500 corporation....if the CEO of the Fortune 500 corporation had a breath weapon and 10+ hit dice. They might take that personally.

Other thoughts are appreciated.

In my homebrew World of Eska, all dragons can have kobold minions. In one adventure I ran, the party was actually helping a group of kobolds rescue their young brass dragon master from a radioactive meteor.

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[Bupp]

One idea I have for Eska, but haven't really worked out the details of yet is Ley Lines. I love the idea of ley lines being sources of power that can be tapped into. Like if your spellcaster is on a ley line, you can upcast your spells At Higher Level one extra level for free.

Ley Line Nexus Points (where two or more ley lines intersect), have even more power. Many temples, monuments, and places of power are located at nexus points.

Some spellcasters can even travel along ley lines, much like Rifts Ley Line Walkers.

 

[cbwjm]

One idea I have for Eska, but haven't really worked out the details of yet is Ley Lines. I love the idea of ley lines being sources of power that can be tapped into. Like if your spellcaster is on a ley line, you can upcast your spells At Higher Level one extra level for free.

Ley Line Nexus Points (where two or more ley lines intersect), have even more power. Many temples, monuments, and places of power are located at nexus points.

Some spellcasters can even travel along ley lines, much like Rifts Ley Line Walkers.

That's a nice simple idea for ley lines, does a nexus boost spell level by 2 levels? Perhaps a ley line/nexus also allows the caster to bypass the 9th level limit so that a wizard could, hypothetically cast a 10th or 11th level fireball.

I quite like the idea of ley lines ever since I read rifts, not sure I ever really implemented them in DnD before though. I think I'd possibly allow a once per day renewal of a couple of spell slots, something similar to arcane recovery but that might be a lot spell slots if they are all over the place. Could be something that has to be at a place of power to draw on the extra spell slots, a place of power that filters the raw magic of the ley lines into something that spellcasters can safely access.

 

[Lanefan]

you got any idea where the magic flows from?
also, you could have magic high areas and magic low areas.

Magic highs, magic lows - next thing you'll have magic weather systems...

"Batten down the hatches, Annie; there's a magic storm moving in!"
"Folklore says that when the magic wind and the air wind blow directly against each other, chickens stand on their heads."
"I've been working for years on perfecting this magic-pressure barometer and I've a-a-almost got it right..."

I've no idea how the hell to game-mechanize this or put it into practice but the idea sure has appeal!

 

[Mind of tempest]

Magic highs, magic lows - next thing you'll have magic weather systems...

"Batten down the hatches, Annie; there's a magic storm moving in!"
"Folklore says that when the magic wind and the air wind blow directly against each other, chickens stand on their heads."
"I've been working for years on perfecting this magic-pressure barometer and I've a-a-almost got it right..."

I've no idea how the hell to game-mechanize this or put it into practice but the idea sure has appeal!

tash's had magic environment stuff near the back scale it up?
I thought of it as magic is normally all background not a force that presses the world and the weather needs no will to be scary.
plus people often want a scariness to magic it being demonic has been done utterly uncaring and able to turn your house into a goose is strangely scary.
that and you can put high magic areas near low magic areas, without having to explain much to people why this is the case.