Campaign setting for 4e
- Thread starter daddystabz
- Start date
daddystabz
Explorer
I almost bought Wilderlands today. How easy would it be to plug in the 4e concepts for that setting?
daddystabz said:
Pretty easy, actually.
You can approach the Wilderlands as either a fully-formed campaign setting, using all the Races and nationalities as they're intended to be used. Or you can approach it as a series of interjoined maps with locations that may or may not have cool stuff in them.
With the former approach, the question is what to make of all the Races. What are Viridians? What are Orichalans?
This approach is a little more work because you're basically tying in the 4e default setting to the existing WoHF setting. It's a bit more legwork to read about Razortear and then having to grok where that fits in the Wilderlands. Fortunately, there are lots of people over on the Necromancer Games' forums who have encyclopedic knowledge of WoHF and are willing to help out.
The latter approach is better for on-the-fly gaming. Don't know what a Avalonian is? Then it's a human. Oh wait. That reads a little funny... No, it's an Eladrin. You can use/abuse/discard as fits your campaign.
Where's Bael Turath? Close your eyes and point. Read about that hex and then ponder the implications of Bael Turath being located in Rallu or the Altanis Highlands or wherever your finger landed.
My approach will be a bit of the former and a bit of the latter. I'm going through the Races now and I'm planning on ditching some and defaulting others to Half-Elf or Human. I'm also cribbing a bit from "A Song of Ice and Fire" so the end result will be a bit more like the Westeros of High Fantasy.
But I'm still leaving a lot of things open ended. Basically my campaign prep constitutes a word matching list...
Markabs --> Illithids
Astari --> Eladrin
Common Orichalan --> Half-Elves in the vein of the Targaryens
True Orichalan --> The Dragon born who serve(d) them
etc.
I'm not a fan of the D&D settings in general, so if I play 4e without some sort of conversion to my favorite setting, Iron Kingdoms, I'm going to use this anime fantasy setting I've always had a soft spot for:
Lodoss
Works great since it has all the funkiness of 4th edition's powers as well as a world setting you dont' have to do much tweaking to drop the 4e rules into (thank goodness). Also, the author of Lodoss based much of it off his interest in D&D back in the 80's, so it has that connection. And, best of all? The old RPG rules/setting info is free here:
http://unspacy.com/lodoss/source.htm
Yay!
Lodoss
Works great since it has all the funkiness of 4th edition's powers as well as a world setting you dont' have to do much tweaking to drop the 4e rules into (thank goodness). Also, the author of Lodoss based much of it off his interest in D&D back in the 80's, so it has that connection. And, best of all? The old RPG rules/setting info is free here:
http://unspacy.com/lodoss/source.htm
Yay!
lukelightning
First Post
When I run a campaign I plan on making it nautical/island based. I'll make each player come from a different island, and their homework is to write up a description of their home islands.
Darrin Drader
Explorer
Dungeon Crawl Classics #35.
The reason I like it is because of its generic and open-endedness. It's one of the few settings where I felt empowered as a DM to do whatever the heck I wanted with it. Better yet, one box is all you need. It's heavy on setting material and light on rules, which means that it converts well to any set of rules you want to use.
The reason I like it is because of its generic and open-endedness. It's one of the few settings where I felt empowered as a DM to do whatever the heck I wanted with it. Better yet, one box is all you need. It's heavy on setting material and light on rules, which means that it converts well to any set of rules you want to use.
johnnype
First Post
So many choices it really boggles the mind.
The Iron Kingdoms is perhaps my first choice although I think it would be challenging to convert some of the "tech" to 4th edition. There are some very nice fan created maps for the setting available online. If nothing else I'd try hard to find a place to fit in Five Fingers: Port of Deceit into whichever setting I'd end up using.
Midnight is an awesome setting. Dark and grim with very few points of light. Many assumptions are built into the setting which may cramp your style but I think there is still a lot of flexibility available to enterprising DM's and there is no shortage of antagonists.
I'm anxiously waiting for the Pathfinder Campaign Setting which should be out soon. Everything I've read so far (and there is certainly enough to get anyone started) is fantastic. Points of Light indeed.
Ptolus is beautiful and comprehensive if a little vanilla.
NeoExodus is a setting I've been wanting to buy for some time but the fact that is pdf only has kept me from doing so.
Right now I'm thinking of mixing and matching certain elements from various settings into something that makes sense without it coming off as "thrown together". The first element I'm using is a fan created map I found posted on the RPG.net forums. It's friking gorgeous! To that I'd add elements like Five Fingers (mentioned above), Ptolus, the city of Manifest from the Ghostwalk setting, and other such pockets. Throw in some Beyond Countless Doorways for good measure and the setting comes together nicely.
Hamunaptra, Book of the Righteous and Book of Fiends... It's easy to get carried away.
The Iron Kingdoms is perhaps my first choice although I think it would be challenging to convert some of the "tech" to 4th edition. There are some very nice fan created maps for the setting available online. If nothing else I'd try hard to find a place to fit in Five Fingers: Port of Deceit into whichever setting I'd end up using.
Midnight is an awesome setting. Dark and grim with very few points of light. Many assumptions are built into the setting which may cramp your style but I think there is still a lot of flexibility available to enterprising DM's and there is no shortage of antagonists.
I'm anxiously waiting for the Pathfinder Campaign Setting which should be out soon. Everything I've read so far (and there is certainly enough to get anyone started) is fantastic. Points of Light indeed.
Ptolus is beautiful and comprehensive if a little vanilla.
NeoExodus is a setting I've been wanting to buy for some time but the fact that is pdf only has kept me from doing so.
Right now I'm thinking of mixing and matching certain elements from various settings into something that makes sense without it coming off as "thrown together". The first element I'm using is a fan created map I found posted on the RPG.net forums. It's friking gorgeous! To that I'd add elements like Five Fingers (mentioned above), Ptolus, the city of Manifest from the Ghostwalk setting, and other such pockets. Throw in some Beyond Countless Doorways for good measure and the setting comes together nicely.
Hamunaptra, Book of the Righteous and Book of Fiends... It's easy to get carried away.
johnnype
First Post
By the way, here is that fan created map I mentioned above:
http://www.davesgames.net/cartography/map-details.jpg
Inspiring is it not?
http://www.davesgames.net/cartography/map-details.jpg
Inspiring is it not?
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