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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 4696986" data-attributes="member: 467">The way I see it, there are a number of areas that need development before the setting is playable:1) Climate, terrain and geography: Since I have decided to base the island off New Zealand (the southern island in particular) a lot of this work is "done" for me, I just need to do some research.  i like NZ because it is the right size and has a nice mix of terrain types -- not to mention it is just gorgeous in photographs.2) History part 1 -- the Ancients: I haven't even really thought about who or what they were.  I need to nail this down, even if the PCs were to never find out the details, just to have a consistent point from which to design ruin architecture and so on.  I am leaning toward making the island the original home of the Gith and their civilization's collapse being the catalyst for their exodus to the Astral Plane and Limbo.3) Flora, Fauna and Indigenous Peoples: I need to describe what kinds of creatures, from mundane to monstrous, and what kinds of peoples live on the island and in which terrains and environments.  This will be combination of prose description and random encounter charts, probably one feeding the other. Are there dragons? How common are they? What sorts of people -- I am leaning toward monstrous humanoids as the descendants of the Gith's slaves -- live there? Where? How do they interact with the new arrivals?  Like that.4) History part 2 -- the New World: Of more immediate concern is a general outline of the discovery and initial exploration of the island that led directly to the "gold rush".5) Politics: Part of this is at least vaguely sketching out the larger world and its powers -- political, military and economic.  With so much wealth, mundane and magical, to be had on the island, everyone with ocean going vessels is going to be interested.  i don't want to overdo it, though, so I may go with archetypical powers cribbed from history and literature.  The most important part is to cover a lot of bases so PCs can be whatever the players want, from samurai to swashbucklers to middle eastern pirate sorcerers.6) Power Groups: In addition to larger world politics, there's local powers to worry abou -- thieves guilds, cults and religions, mercantile guilds, adventuring companies that have already staked big claims and the like. If the "Politics" category is background, this category is the stuff of actual play.7) Exploration and Claim Staking 101: I really do want to put together a system designed specifically for allowing PCs to engage in an economic and political interaction with the setting in addition to the dungeon delving part.  Even if the players don't bother with doing it, having the system in place will be good for determining how NPC "prospectors" operate.8) Random Dungeon Generator: Mmm... random dungeons.  But with consistency and "setting appropriate" elements.  I want the PCs to wander into any given "hex" and find a dungeon.  It might be a tomb or a vault or a summer house. I don't necessarily want it to be used on the fly, but should produce a detailed mini-dungeon in anywhere from 15 minutes to and hour.  The DM should be able to use it when the guys go out for a smoke break or run to get pizza and be able to run a krawl with little effort.  I kind of see it as my "One Million" opus.9) A Name: The island needs a name.10) System: Which edition?</blockquote>

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