Creating An OGC Setting

[Jürgen Hubert]

Regarding the various continents:

I think we should pick a remote continent as the primary home of some of the really inhuman creatures - chuuls, destrachans, and similar creatures. No humanoids beyond perhaps a few colonies of winged humanoids, and perhaps a few small colonies near the coast. This would give the continent a true frontier feeling and avoid any obvious parallels to the real world...

 

[philreed]

Interesting, but... no. We are striving for a relatively "generic" D&D setting here, and I think this would edge dangerously into White Wolf territory...

I don't understand. White Wolf holds a patent on non-generic, non-D&D fantasy?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I don't understand. White Wolf holds a patent on non-generic, non-D&D fantasy?

Not exactly... only that "I am a powerful entity imprisoned in a human shell" gives me a Mage: The Ascension vibe...



Another issue: We need a name for the setting.

 

[RangerWickett]

You step away for just a few minutes, and look what happens. *grin*

I almost wish the Wiki concept had been around back when we were trying to create Daemonforge, way back in 2001. Those were good times. Lots of stress. I hope you all have the same sort of enjoyment we did.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've added some categories to the Wiki, as well as a "generic country template" we can use. Did I miss any subsections?

 

[Turanil]

Here is a set of map I created a long time ago for a defunct online game that nobody can possibly remember. It was not a commissioned work, and I am still the copyrights' owner. If you are interested in these maps for your setting, I have high resolution files available for your project.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Here is a set of map I created a long time ago for a defunct online game that nobody can possibly remember. It was not a commissioned work, and I am still the copyrights' owner. If you are interested in these maps for your setting, I have high resolution files available for your project.

Well, I can't create maps worth a damn, so thanks for the offer. So, should we use them? And would you be willing to put them under the OGL licence?

 

[Yair]

Interesting. Are we talking about general things like "Good" or "Evil" as philosophies here, or something more specific - like the Planescape factions ("Might makes Right" or "Experience Everything")?

The latter would be more interesting IMO. And note that just because clerics are seperate from deities, religion won't go away - though the office of priests will likely be filled by experts, commoners, or other classes.


EDIT: Though of course we have to explain where exactly the powers of clerics come from...

I haven't considered divorcing clerics from the church entirely. I think clerics should still be largely religious, just like everyone else, it's just that their conviction (in religion, mysticism, humanism, whateverism) allows them to "connect" and gain divine powers.
I think under this guise some "gods" of other campaigns can be prophets, exemplary members of the faith, or other legendary figures. Fanatic faith in the figure would be enough to effectively make it a god.

Turnail, the maps look fantastic. If you're willing to contribute them, I'll do my best to do them justice.

I agree with having one continent reserved for non-humanoids.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I haven't considered divorcing clerics from the church entirely. I think clerics should still be largely religious, just like everyone else, it's just that their conviction (in religion, mysticism, humanism, whateverism) allows them to "connect" and gain divine powers.

I guess in that case, clerics will often be fantatics. At the very least, they must have very strong convictions - stronger than those of everyone else who doesn't exhibit clerical powers...

(Oh, and any good suggestions for the name of the setting?)

 

[schporto]

I like this idea. I like the maps. Instead of having the creatures off on an island how about having the down on the lower left area (fire mts) and that city at 13 'stands eternal watch that no hordes of evil may ever escape' (except for the occasional one for the adventurers to beat up on ).

I prefer my clerics worshiping gods. But that's me. As for the gods I'd base them loosely of ancient religions (greek, egyptian, norse, etc). If you look at those religions there seem to be some core concepts. Weather, death, fire, life, sun. Cover these. Give them names. Set them up with some history. Congrats you have a pantheon.

-cpd