D&D General worldbuilding around expedition to the barrier peaks

[Tonguez]

The Exalted Valley of the Mage is nestled within the Barrier Peaks and is the closest inhabited place to the Unoerthly Cave. Its is likely that mutated flora and fauna from the crash have encroached into the valley along with spoors on the wind, nanite infections and pollutants carried from the headwaters of the Javan River. Vegepygmy raids into the Valley might be a regular menace, unless the Mage and his followers have managed to tame the wild plantfolk and integrate them into the Valley and its every expanding Fungal forest.
No doubt the Mage and his followers have sent expeditions to the crash site, document the anomalies and undertake salvage. The Mage would be actively studying and experimenting with the alien artifacts resulting in some major advancement in the Valley. He might even claim first rights to the site leading to conflict with other 'unsanctioned' expeditions.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

considering the Golarion is a Greyhawk pastiche- yes?

I've seen it called next Forgotten Realms. I could also see an argument it is a Mystara pastiche since they basically develop every region separately and then they work out how they interact and how it all fits together.

 

[Distracted DM]

I've seen it called next Forgotten Realms. I could also see an argument it is a Mystara pastiche since they basically develop every region separately and then they work out how they interact and how it all fits together.

I have to think that whoever said "the next Forgotten Realms" was talking about it from a "kitchen sink all-encompassing setting," not a comparing the actual content. 'Cuz in my mind Golarion is closer to Mystara or Greyhawk, probably moreso the former, than FR.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Golarion tends to have more extreme variation of theme than FR. This country is this genre, and next to that is another country with a completely different genre.

A lot of Ed Greenwood’s original FR work is its own thing, rather than obviously being based on a specific genre. A lot of the more obviously based on X things in FR were later additions.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In one of my old homebrews, crashlanded Greys use salvaged technology to survive and blend in as Elves of legend. Their ship, now buried beneath many tons of earth and broken into many pieces, has been dissembled and reassembled as an “Underhill” city of sorts. The imperfectly functioning remnants of their stasis tech makes time pass more slowly within it’s boundaries.

Their mastery of higher dimensional construction makes their city much larger inside than out.

They use solid holographic projection to seem like elves of legend. Other surviving tech mimics legendary magics, at least to mundane observers. And so on.

When I designed this setting, I didn’t really spin out some of the other logical possibilities of this ship’s failure and fall. There could be other enclaves settled by passengers & crew that escaped via emergency pods.

Some of what was contained within the ship’s ecosystem could have been released into the world, with interesting consequences, up to and including the possibility that- over time- alien DNA, chemicals and even nanotechnology could be the ultimate source of an entire Monster’s Manual of critters.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

I have to think that whoever said "the next Forgotten Realms" was talking about it from a "kitchen sink all-encompassing setting," not a comparing the actual content. 'Cuz in my mind Golarion is closer to Mystara or Greyhawk, probably moreso the former, than FR.

Yes, I think the kitchen sink was what they meant. And Golarion does share similiar to Mystara feel that certain region is focused on a theme and they're just put next to each other first, with only bothering to flesh out how it all fits together second, while the Realms tend more towards amalganation and better integration of themes of each region into more coherent whole.

 

[Stormonu]

@Dannyalcatraz - or you can go the Elfquest route and the elves actually ARE from outer space!

 

[Shades of Eternity]

@Dannyalcatraz - or you can go the Elfquest route and the elves actually ARE from outer space!

Federated Dynasty - A Fantasy world based on the 1970's

I think I got the bug on an idea I brought up in jest so here goes nothing. Alternative name: Elfy Woogie. :D The base concept is to take tr...

breadthofpopsanity.blogspot.com

I had the same idea