Cyrik Skylark
First Post
Alright, so I've come up with an idea for a campaign setting I'd like to develop. I've got the basic ideas and plotlines for the setting more or less done. Now comes the task of filler - what can I put in besides the major plotlines, so that the campaign isn't one long train ride?
So, here's the backstory of the campaign, along with other basic details:
Long enough ago that all the major players are dead, there was a war - well, more of a mass revolt. The masses, having been oppressed by the magic-using ruling classes for an appropriately long time, rose up in revolt and, with the aid of sympathizers and traitors from the ruling classes, pulled down their old masters. The traitor mages constructed a prison for the old masters, and cast them beneath it - the Great Storm. (Basically, a wild magic/anti-magic zone on a vast scale, guarding the entrance to a demiplane; the old masters, now called the Exiles, were cast into the demiplane. The demiplane itself co-habits a portion of the old world, which used to be the bottom of an ocean; the ocean itself was drained in the creation of the Storm, and is in fact the Storm itself.)
So, now we've got these Exiles in the Great Storm. Initially, this is where I'd like to start the campaign; many years later, and the Exiles are now the oppressed. (Also, I'm not sure whether the rule of the Exiles was really that harsh; trouble could have been stirred up by the traitors. However, that's beside the point.)
As far as the society inside the Storm goes, there isn't much; there are a few city-states, and limited agriculture, but most of their food and economy comes from weekly deliveries from the outside world, which they trade for metals and other, similiar products mined from their land, which is unusually rich in these.
What I'm worried about, though, is things to do inside the Storm. I have some plans - a quasi-Underdark, extraplanar infestations, possibly orcs and similiar races were banished with them - but nothing really concrete. I want to spend at least some time under the Storm, and simply having the party looking for a way out for several levels doesn't sound exciting for me - or the eventual party, for that matter.
Also, I haven't completely decided whether I want to pursue this angle or not, but I'm considering making the outside world almost completely devoid of magic-users (though not necessarily magical monsters), with the exception of descendents of the original sympathizers that aided in the revolt; they are kept around as pampered servants of the various governments, aiding them with things like monster disposal and whatnot. So, I'm considering whether to make the outside world technologically advanced, though I'm concerned that that may make things too complicated. However, I do want the characters, after they've escaped from the Storm, to be unique - free-willed magic-users, something like that. The science/magic angle might be too much, though. I don't know.
So, thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?
So, here's the backstory of the campaign, along with other basic details:
Long enough ago that all the major players are dead, there was a war - well, more of a mass revolt. The masses, having been oppressed by the magic-using ruling classes for an appropriately long time, rose up in revolt and, with the aid of sympathizers and traitors from the ruling classes, pulled down their old masters. The traitor mages constructed a prison for the old masters, and cast them beneath it - the Great Storm. (Basically, a wild magic/anti-magic zone on a vast scale, guarding the entrance to a demiplane; the old masters, now called the Exiles, were cast into the demiplane. The demiplane itself co-habits a portion of the old world, which used to be the bottom of an ocean; the ocean itself was drained in the creation of the Storm, and is in fact the Storm itself.)
So, now we've got these Exiles in the Great Storm. Initially, this is where I'd like to start the campaign; many years later, and the Exiles are now the oppressed. (Also, I'm not sure whether the rule of the Exiles was really that harsh; trouble could have been stirred up by the traitors. However, that's beside the point.)
As far as the society inside the Storm goes, there isn't much; there are a few city-states, and limited agriculture, but most of their food and economy comes from weekly deliveries from the outside world, which they trade for metals and other, similiar products mined from their land, which is unusually rich in these.
What I'm worried about, though, is things to do inside the Storm. I have some plans - a quasi-Underdark, extraplanar infestations, possibly orcs and similiar races were banished with them - but nothing really concrete. I want to spend at least some time under the Storm, and simply having the party looking for a way out for several levels doesn't sound exciting for me - or the eventual party, for that matter.
Also, I haven't completely decided whether I want to pursue this angle or not, but I'm considering making the outside world almost completely devoid of magic-users (though not necessarily magical monsters), with the exception of descendents of the original sympathizers that aided in the revolt; they are kept around as pampered servants of the various governments, aiding them with things like monster disposal and whatnot. So, I'm considering whether to make the outside world technologically advanced, though I'm concerned that that may make things too complicated. However, I do want the characters, after they've escaped from the Storm, to be unique - free-willed magic-users, something like that. The science/magic angle might be too much, though. I don't know.
So, thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?