Describe Your Campaign World

[Scott814thmpco]

Hi all-
While responding to a few e-mail query’s on my own campaign world, it got me thinking, what does everybody else run? Is it a costume world, is out of the box? High-fantasy / low fantasy, from a book or a movie.
So let me be the one to start this thread off with a description of my own campaign world. First it will never be complete, no campaign world should be, I/ you, will always be adding materiel to our worlds, be it our own, published, or ripped off the web. To me that’s the greatest part of designing your own world is adding bits and pieces to it.
My world is more akin to Anime then anything else and combines a little of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (bits of tech mixed in with magic) and slayers, I love Lina Inverse. Neo-Orion is the name of my world with two or possibly more major Empires, the two I have fleshed out our ruled by a despot and the other a 1/2celestial / Human female.
The Despot, Emperor Vin Deroth rules over a vast kingdom from his giant mega-city called Metropolis.
Metropolis is a decrepit city, above ground the spires of Metropolis gleam of richness and the decadent while below her cobbled streets are the rabble and rogues. Rumors even persist that one day a creature built from the insane mechanizations of the cities ruler, will help the down trodden usurp the despot, but until then, they must deal with the emperors merciless judges who are the law in this desperate mega city.
The City of Guilds and Coin is the capital of Neo-Orion, ruled with compassion by Neo Queen Serena. Her empire is as vast as Vin Deroth’s, but what the people give to Neo-Orion are returned three-fold due to the Queens constant love for her people.
The City is not a perfect place for there are many nations/ factions / cults that would love nothing better then to see Neo-queen serena and her Supreme Sturm Temple Knights (SSTK) as well as her people either dead or in slavery.
As far as Feats and skills I have a few, but that is still work in progress as well as my costume
Hindrances which can add skill points for a character.
Anyhow, lets hear what campaigns everybody is playing. Perhaps the homebrews out number the canned campaign settings.


Scott

 

[Nightfall]

I think "canned" settings have something to offer people. It just depends on what you're looking for. Myself, yeah I could go around making my own campaign world, but since I don't have the players some people do, I tend to have to work on the fly. That's not a good way to go. So that's one reason I support the Scarred Lands. The other is, well I like it! It's DIFFERENT. Necromancy isn't just some "wham" "evil spellcasting megamanics". Hollowfaust is one great example of that. The gods are simple and easy to understand and relate to. PLUS it's more than just simple "Good" or "Evil". It's almost like nature versus civilization. Plus the monsters ARE unique. There's not these "colonies" of mind flayers living in some vast underground that makes no sense. Dragons are rare, magic just as much. Plus clerics and druids are DIFFERENT. They are just "merely" divine spellcasters. There's the fercious and canabalistic Druids of Gaurak, or the Steathly and deadly Druid of Hrinnruk. Clerics also have purpose. They serve as anchor points for communities as well as being able to work together. So while it's rare, it's not beyond the scope of reason to see cleric of Chardun (LE God of Slavery) work with a paladin of Corean (LG) if the mission is important enough.


Anyway that's just some of my thoughts.

 

[Sidran]

Working on mine below in Plots& Places if anyone would like to post critisism or give off Ideas. I am a detail freak so I am punching out pages, and pages of notes on my world Ideas.
Eventually Ill scan my homebrew maps and put them up as well.

My world basically is this.

Aryandë, The Maidens Hearth

It has been two hundred years Since the time of the Arazûn ( The White son of Darkness), and the havoc that his coming wrought on the face of the world. Once long ago, before the race of the Silari ( The Race of Elves) came from Sindanôr, and in so doing unleashing the power of the Indûl ( The Hundred Sons of Farindûl)
Dark elves upon the the Children of Andanôr. At one time the Rulers of the World of Aryandë, the Andari were devastated by the dark magic of the Indûl, because while they were created by Aryandwë The Maiden, The Indûl were born of her womb by the treachery of Farindûl, and controled a piece of the magic from which the world was made.

In the Age of the Gods when the world was without form, and no waters covered its land their was only the Sina, or Voidless Light, and alone, wise Sina grew lonely and longed for companionship. From the edge of his exsistance a wind came blowing life into Arathir, and Farindûl. Then while walking afar through a forest unknown to him Arathir heard a harpsong, and followed it to its source in a meadow sat, a young woman as beautiful as the dawn. And he said unto her " Who brings dawn to the the gloom of this dark forest with her harping" to this she did not answer.
"Who" He asked" has called me from afar to this place so that I might give my heart out here in this place for a vision of beauty"
And to this she answered simply I am the daughter of Light, the Singer of the Morning, I am Sinarwë, the Dawn lady" and taking his hand she led him back the way he had come, and they had relations with one another, and she grew heavy with child, and Gave birth to Arathadan, Lutreva, and a Daughter Aryandwë .
Now Farindûl grew jealous of Arathir, and came upon him alone in the woods and killed him, and he burried him in the earth. ( At his burial ground the Tree of Life grew tall in the Bosom of Sina, before the Sindar moved it to Aryandë to be nearer to the sleeping maiden.) And from Arathir their sprung the Andari, or the People of the earth and they left into the woods and went into the world below. And in the night Farindûl came to the chambers of Sinarwë and lay with her, and she bore him Fohmor, and Indûlain. And Sinarwë descovered the treachery of Farindûl and fainted into a trance of death. And her son Arathadan, who is also known as Aránod brought her down into the horizon of the world below so that they might remember the Mother of all things, And Sina grew angry with his son Farindûl, and banished him to the Void, and kept him thus... (this is an excerpt from the Mythology of the world) the Arazun, is the reborn spirit of Farindûl .

 

[ForceUser@Home]

The setting is feudal Vietnam, glamorized for fantasy D&D. Two hundred years ago, a hero of the people threw off the yoke of a thousand years of Chinese oppression, founding the first Ly dynasty and the Great Viet State. But the tiny empire of Dai Viet, as it is known, struggles to maintain its sovereignty amid the chaos of a Mongol-ruled China to the north and the opportunism of the hated hindu state of Champa to the south. Twice now the Viet have repelled Mongol invasions, and twice has the capitol, Thang Long, been conquered and sacked by Champa. It is a difficult period for the children of the Dragon King, and their turmoil will define a people as their deeds echo through history.

Interested? Click the link below and read on!

 

[Fenes 2]

I use a modified FR setting for my two campaigns.

In both magic items are less frequent than in the guidelines of the DMG. One is centered on Cormyr, set before Death of a Dragon, and not exactly staying to canon history.

The other is a heavily modified Unther/Mulhorand. I purged the "Goodness" of the Mulhorandi Pantheon, making it lawful-neutral oriented, and kept the old 2E avatars around. The gods therefore still can (but rarely will) meddle directly in Mulhorand and Unther. Other faiths than those of the Mulhorandi Pantheon are not present - any priest of a non-native god planning to spread his faith will be persecuted and annihilated by direct divine intervention if neccessary.
Mulhorand is more like a theocracy with the oeconomic system of the old SSSR - all productive means are in the hands of the various temples - rigourosly re-educating the people of old Unther in the conquered territory after driving out or killing the old upper class. Mages and Sorcerors who are not priests of Thoth are considered heretics for stealing the gods' powers, and often burned at the stake if caught.

The party was originally coming to Unther at the request of a PC that was native to the country and planned to drive out the invaders, but the group kinda switched sides almost unwillingly while infiltrating the establishement. After a year one PC is now a respected priestess (converted and multiclassed) and the rest of the group are considered heroes of Mulhorand after their fights against the Red Wizards, pirates, raiders and rebels. Since old PCs were retired and new, even more loyal to Mulhorand have been brought in, it does not look like they will switch sides again anytime soon...

 

[Bonehoard Taffer]

I think "canned" settings have something to offer people . . . I support the Scarred Lands.

Since when

 

[Zappo]

One word: Planescape.

But I also DM a modified Dragonlance, where the PCs are servants of the Dragonarmies and where the Graystone of Gargath has accidentally been opened in less-than-secure conditions, releasing a barely contained Chaos on the world. The dragonarmies have been destroyed or have rebelled against Takhisis due to the influence of chaos, and the solamnics have to use all their strength to keep their borders safe. Chaos keeps expanding its area of influence. It's much, much gloomer than standard Dragonlance.

 

[Reprisal]

"Fallen Empires: Hope and Tragedy"

I have a tentative title for my little campaign world, but I'm not certain I'll keep it. Still, I have a small write-up on it:

A History Lesson, Of Sorts

There's also a write-up on the first "unique" (and I use the term loosely, ) race in the Pale Elves of the North.

It's not much now, but I'm still working on the first nation-state, then I'll move onto other races and nations...

Yeah, I'm an obsessive top-downer,

- Rep.

 

[Gez]

My campaign world is a small, (very) roughly circular, continent; pierced by an inner sea which in turn got an island in its middle. You can see a map here.

There are four major political powers, by decreasing order: an evil tyrannical elven empire, a lawful cynical dwarven confederation, a small neutral human oligarchy and a smaller neutral human kingdom.

Good-aligned powers are small and few.

The biggest trait of the world is its moon. It is a verdant place, with oceans and forests and even cities and all that; and it is the house of the gods, kinda like Mount Olympus was to the Ancient Greek. When god battles, the fiery ruins of the battlefield may be seen from the earth.

Influence are few; that is it's a quite typical D&D world whose inspiration comes from so much thing it's hard to tell where it come from. As Mark Rein-Hagen (author of Vampire: tM) said, "creativity is hiding your source". I've tried to do that by mixing and twisting as much as I could. However, I don't hide that I got my nazi elves from Internet message boards like this one (especially after having seen, and participated in, threads like this one).

And I think some of my ideas are indeed mines. You won't see gnomes like my mystic anywhere else, I tell you ! Also the "twin world" concept (with a moon the same size the earth, and with similar atmosphere and landscape, etc.) has not been much used. That moon thing is a good example of twist: initially, it was inspired by Bytopia in the Manual of the Planes. When reading that, I thought "what a pretty idea, looking at the skie and seeing lights from cities and firecamps, sending visual messages though spyglass, etc." and decided my moon would be inhabited and verdant. The "home of the god" thing was initially going to be a mere superstition, before I decided it would be better if it was true.

What's funny is that 75% of my PCs are elves. I plan to make them precipitate the events that will ultimately destroy the evil elven empire and then be damned and cursed by the surviving elves. Bwahahahahah !!!

If you're interested in reading more on that world, you can read my old draft there: http://gez117.free.fr/dnd/edhel.html

 

[Henry]

My campaign is a homebrew world with the power level of Forgotten Realms, a religious structure modeled on Dragonlance, and two of the most prominent NPCs that are directly modeled on Elminster and the Simbul (that is, if Elminster and the Simbul decided to move in together and shack up. )

The most important hallmark of my campaign world is that it's mine, and I know every nook and cranny, every secret, and all its history, which I can dole out to players both in background material and as needed.