Design Journal: I have written an OSRIC Campaign world

[Vigilance]

What's up with the Poacher? That sounds like a pretty specific and narrow class. What distinguishes it from the Hunter, for example?

Well, that's part of where I came up with the variant class concept. It's for extremely narrow classes, or NPC classes and such.

Rather than slam and entire class in the book for a niche concept, I take an existing class that's close, and tell you how to "transform" it into the variant.

Since the Poacher caught your eye, I'll use that to illustrate.

Poacher

Poachers are a variation on the Ranger class and conform to that that class in every way except those detailed here. They are enemies of nature and are committed to hunting down its protectors, especially Druids and Rangers.

Alignment: Any evil (Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil)

Damage Bonus vs. Druids and Rangers: Poachers do not gain a damage bonus against humanoids. Rather, they gain a damage bonus against Druids, Rangers and good-aligned Sylvan or Faerie creatures. They might also gain this bonus against other creatures at the discretion of the game master.
Poachers can inflict their bonus damage on clerics and druids with ranged weapons.

Spellcasting (8th): Poachers are antithetical to everything druidic orders stand for and receive no training in Druid spells from such orders, though they gain Magic-User spells normally.

However, Poachers of 8th level and above do receive special training from other Poachers on how to resist Druidic spells and gain a +4 bonus to saving throws against any spell cast by a Druid or Ranger (including Magic-User spells cast by a Ranger).

Poaching Party (10th): Poachers do not receive a special band of followers as Rangers do. However, they do gather like-minded individuals around themselves starting at 10th level if such is their desire.
A poaching party will consist of the following: one follower of one-half the Poacher’s level (always a member of the Poacher class); 1d6 followers of 2nd level (always members of the Hunter class); one 1st level follower for each level beyond 10th gained by the Poacher (50% chance to be a member of the Hunter class, otherwise these are Fighters).
These followers will stay with the Poacher as long as he is in the wilderness. They will stay outside if he ventures into a city, as they are neither comfortable nor welcome in such environments. Should the Poacher spend more than a month straight in a city, his poaching party will disperse and he will have to gather a new one, requiring at least 30 days (more if the Poacher makes a habit of allowing his poaching parties to disperse).
Members of a poaching party that are killed are replaced after 1-2 weeks.

So you can see this is a narrow concept. I don't really think it would be suitable as a PC concept, even in an evil campaign.

 

[Sarsem]

Nice map: what did you use to create it?

 

[Roseladay123]

Thanks

I'm glad this thread is made where I can gain a lot of useful and informative input.



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[Vigilance]

Nice map: what did you use to create it?

It's a stock art map by Keith Curtis.

And yeah, I agree, it's amazing.

 

[Vigilance]

And as we get closer to release (I have seen sample pages!) here's an example of a region overview.

Axelands
The Axelands used to be one of the most prosperous realms in all of the Northern Continent. Once this land was the breadbasket of the Kingdom of Damask, the most powerful and influential kingdom in 500 years. All that changed when Lord Illanyra launched his bid to take over the kingdom and attempted to assassinate the entire royal family.

While civil war raged in the south, numerous humanoid tribes that had plagued Damask’s northern border for centuries saw an opportunity to take control of the kingdom’s northern regions. When the dwarves of the Axehandle mountains that border northern Damask decided to use the civil war as an opportunity to destroy the troublesome kingdom of men, and began supplying the humanoids with top-notch weapons free of charge, the trickle of humanoids became a flood and then an army.

Now this region is a war-torn hell of villages struggling just to survive another day, surrounded on all sides by murderous humanoid tribes bearing Dwarven weaponry. Currently the Deathspear Goblins, the Nightstalk Bugbears, the Duneblind Ogres, the Swiftsand Goblins and the Bloodhawk Gnolls infest this region.

Recently the Warband has brought the only glimmer of hope this region has seen in almost ten years. One of the largest groups of Rangers ever gathered together at a single place and time, they are led by Erik Loftin, the leader of the Knights of the Old Order and Leora, Archminister of the goddess Dannos. Still, even this group has served only to stem the tide of evil and chaos, like a tourniquet on a severed vein. They have even had to attack the greedy Axehandle Dwarves to cut off the humanoids’ supply of weapons, adding to the difficulty faced by this powerful, but hopelessly outnumbered collection of heroes.

Still, the Baron who rules this land still lives and has pledged his support to the Warband, offering them what little aid his can while his ragtag army fights a guerilla war. He is as outnumbered and outmatched as the Warband and has put out a call for brave adventurers, promising gold, titles, land and anything else he thinks might attract the ambitious and the young to his standard.

On the coast, across the Axehandle Mountains, live group of elves that have no love for the rampaging humanoids or the greedy Dwarves who have been assisting them. While the Dwarves have closed the mountain passes to these elves, they have begun to make the long journey north around the mountains and have been appearing in the region in greater numbers of late to assist against the threat.

Nominal Rulers: Baron Malcolm Boergrim owing fealty to King Lucius III of Damask (humans); King Branislav, Lord of the Axehandle Dwarves (Dwarves); Lord of the Coastal Wood Mikaere (Elves)

 

[Crothian]

I like what I'm reading.

What differences do you feel the world would be like if you had designed it for one of the younger editions of D&D like 3e, 4e, or Pathfinder?

 

[Vigilance]

I like what I'm reading.

What differences do you feel the world would be like if you had designed it for one of the younger editions of D&D like 3e, 4e, or Pathfinder?

Mostly I think the differences would be mechanical.

Firstly, elements of this world have been drawn from D&D campaigns I've been running since AD&D was the new thing.

And after running the World of Greyhawk + modules for years, I finally decided to make a homebrew world.

My influences on that world design were always what I'd consider old school. They were out of "fashion" even in the 3e days: Greyhawk, Hyboria, Barsoom, Lankhmar.

These are the fantasy worlds that speak to me, far more so than Tolkien.

I actually have attempted to write this book a few times and I'd always start with campaign-specific Prestige Classes representing the world's organizations.

In that respect, I initially felt the world was a great fit for 3e because it had quite a few organizations and secret societies that I felt would make good PrCs.

But beyond a few class designs, that's as far as I got.

So the changes would be largely mechanical I guess.

I always have felt Greyhawk was the gold standard of D&D world design and while I haven't gone back and read my old boxed set or anything, my memories of what I loved about running that world have definitely informed the design of Arkara.

 

[Vigilance]

I wanted to thank everyone for their questions and comments and add one last note that has me super-excited:

World of Arkara has been released!

 

[Vigilance]

Here's a taste of the upcoming Canterbury Isles, which takes a look at two western isles nominally part of the Kingdom of Damask.

Akirinoss
The Akirinoss are an ancient organization of elven assassins that have existed for thousands of years. Unlike most assassins, they do not work for money, instead identifying threats to elvenkind and marking them for death. However, they do not involve themselves in situations of their own free will. Due to an ancient, arcane and Byzantine code of honor, they will only become involved in a situation if they are asked. Then, if they determine the situation warrants their particular talents, the organization acts with ruthless efficiency.
This particular group is in Bondaea to kill Duke Zelan, who has clearly become a pawn of the racist Order of the White. What they do not know is that they were asked to do this by a member of that very order: Eleanor Whistler.

Malia
Malia married an elven noble in her youth and lived an idyllic life for hundreds of years. She felt extremely lucky to have married such a handsome, dashing young noble and her only source of worry was that his work as an ambassador took him away from their beloved forest home too often, for too long.

Then came the terrible day when he was brought to her, dying. He was grievously wounded and with his last words told her that he wasn’t an ambassador: he was Akirinoss. Then he slipped his ring off and she saw he was neither handsome nor dashing. He was extremely ugly, with beady eyes, a hooked nose and a face scarred by combat.
Though she still loved her husband, the realization that she never really knew him, that he was able to lie with perfect precision every moment they were together, ended any innocence Malia had ever had. Appearing before the Akirinoss elder, she demanded her widow’s right: to claim his place in their society.
Having learned first hand the power of deception, Malia uses that as her greatest weapon. She will use her beauty (enhanced even more by her husband’s ring) and her wiles to get as close to her target as she can, either slipping a poison into his drink or getting close enough for a well-aimed dagger throw.
She carries a few poisoned throwing daggers, but reserves her Dagger +2 for opponents that close in hand-to-hand combat, when she chooses to stand and fight. She will usually retreat if face with strong resistance however, especially against a heavily armored opponent that she is confident she can outrun.

Joining the Akirinoss: To join the Akirinoss a character must fulfill four requirements: Be a member of the Assassin class, be a full-blooded elf and have a Lawful Evil alignment. Other elves and half-elves are allowed to assist the Akirinoss (provided they have levels in the Assassin or Thief class) and might even gain the status of trusted ally but they will never be admitted to the organization. The fourth, which is often the most difficult requirement to meet, is that a member of the organization in good standing must recommend a character. As you might imagine, gaining the trust of a centuries-old Assassin is not the easiest task to accomplish.

Any character admitted to the Akirinoss that later fails to meet one of these requirements for any reason (most often this would be an alignment change toward Neutral or Chaotic Evil) becomes a target of the organization.

Race: Elven MV: 120 ft. Class: Assassin Level: 10 AC: 5 HP: 40 #At: 1 Dm: 1d4+2 or 1d4 (thrown) AL: LE SA: +1 Missiles, -2 AC from 16 Dex XP: 1,220
Possessions: Ring of Charisma (17 charges), Dagger +2, Leather +1, 4 throwing daggers (all poisoned, -2 saving throws), 1 vial ingested poison (-4 saving throw, causes death by heart attack which looks accidental), 30 gp