Design your Setting!

[Wik]

Alright. So another thread gave me the idea, here.

Assume, for whatever reason, that you've won a contest, and you've released your homebrew setting as a product. Your campaign world is now a hardcover book, roughly the size of the Eberron book. But, the guys publishing your book are going the Al-Qadim route - after a certain number of releases, they're never going to publish your stuff again.

You're allowed to publish three full-size products, and two adventures. What are they?

(note - the shorter the descriptions, the better. Imagine you have to pitch it to people, and you want to keep each product no longer than a paragraph in length. It's like someone once said about settings - if you can't boil it down to a few sentences, it's too complex).

 

[Wik]

Alright, so for my Drasconis setting:

The setting itself is based around a Roman-esque world ruled by Draconic Senators. THere is the Caliphate of the Seven Spices, a vaguely arabic empire that acts as an imperial foe. The Drasconis empire itself is slowly decaying, as Draconic senators scheme against one another.

THREE PRODUCTS -

1) The Legions - The book of imperial armies. Since the legions are a huge part of the game, I think a book about them would be nice. There'd be focus on the "Free Legion" (A french foreign legion-type group of the Drasconi Empire), as well as stuff for former Legionnaire characters.

2) The book of Drascon - a book aimed towards Dragons, Politics, and playing Draconic PCs. A huge chunk would focus around sorcerer characters (who have political clout in the campaign). It'd also have a lot of neat PrCs.

3) Hot Zones - a Book about political hot zones, and the adventures that can be had there. Each zone would be detailed as an area of turmoil, and describe the big goings-on. Certain areas (The Tog, a region being torn apart by Goblin civil strife), Baritannia (a middle-east region of tribal warfare being controlled by the Drasconi empire, although they're not happy about it), and Iaros (a land that really wants to be free) would get a fair amount of detail.

*** ADVENTURES***

1) A 1st level adventure that involves the characters being decommissioned from the Free Legion. Or that somehow involves scouting for the Free Legion. The battle involves the far West, fighting against barbaric tribes (the Kessians, a group of Wyvern-riding feudalists who oppose the Drasconi empire on moral reasons). The final fight would involve a Wyvern somehow.

2) The Mazeworks - A city-based adventure in the Mazeworks (A minotaur city-state associated with the Drasconi empire, that is deeply desired by the Caliphate). Three different factions (the Minotaur Mage elite, the Drasconi Intelligence service, and the Caliphate) fight over a MacGuffin, and the PCs are in the middle. For 8th level PCs.

 

[Ry]

For E6, the campaign setting sets up the domino game that is the E6 OGC setting, emphasizing that the whole setting, every king, everything, is supposed to get right in front of the players.

3 books:

1) Mortals & Monsters - E6 monsters and NPCs done up in easy-to-use statblocks.
2) Between - An expansion detailing problems, threats, resources, and rewards within the main campaign area, and how those things can change the campaign world.
3) Beyond - An expansion detailing exotic places and problems, threats, resources, and rewards that can be brought in when the PCs head off the map.

Adventures:
"As the Heavens Fall" - A book on how to chart your own path through the 10 years following the beginning of the E6 campaign.
"After the End" - A book on what to do after the events of the 10 years that the E6 campaign was designed around.

 

[Wik]

Normally, I'm not a fan of setting monster books (one of the reasons I was angry with Dark Sun - I couldn't find the monster book, and it annoyed me *so much*). But it makes sense for something that really messes with the rules, like E6.

Were Eberron to make a monster book, I'd be a little cheesed.

 

[edemaitre]

My campaign setting

For my D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" heroic fantasy campaign setting (http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DnD3VanishedLands/), I'd want the following three core books to be published:

-Player's book: D20 races, classes, skills/feats and spells, basic geography, and magic/gods (While it would probably rely upon the PHB, making it stand-alone would be nice.)

-Game Master's book: history/plots, cities, politics, prestige classes, monsters, and items

-Expanded universe: higher-level quests, locations, more Non-Player Characters, artifacts, rules for converting to other systems (True 20, GURPS) and even other genres (time travel, steampunk, espionage, space opera, etc.) That way, it could outlive its ties to one publisher or edition of the rules.

 

[Ry]

Normally, I'm not a fan of setting monster books (one of the reasons I was angry with Dark Sun - I couldn't find the monster book, and it annoyed me *so much*). But it makes sense for something that really messes with the rules, like E6.

Yeah, that's basically what people are looking for: What does a lich look like in E6? What does a demon lord look like in E6? What's the biggest monster you can use in E6? What does a 500-year-old Elven Hero look like in E6? And so on.

 

[Asmor]

I really don't have a whole lot invested in my campaign setting, certainly not at the same level as many people I've seen on this board (like the one fellow whose name escapes me, whose Aquerra setting just had its 20th anniversary). I've only been running this setting for 7 sessions, the first in March, and the first time I actually sat down and started writing anything about it was in November. It doesn't help that there's a lot I'd like to change that would require a campaign reboot which I don't think my players would be up for.

That said, I'm very fond of Arbok's Rest, a city in the middle of a large desert, so I'd probably make that the center of my campaign.

Let's see...

Products

1: Beacon of Hope: Arbok's Rest: Details the history and unique features leading to the creation and continued thriving of this trading post-turned-metropolis in the center of the harsh wasteland called the Glass Desert where fire rains from the sky.

2: Exotic and deadly: Locales of the Tainted Lands: A world shattered by an ancient cataclysm, abandoned even by the gods, where your biggest enemy is the ground beneath your feet. Details Solaplaya, a salt flat filled with ancient and powerful technology but where salt storms can flay the flesh from your bones; the Darnash Forest, home of elves, where even space itself cannot be trusted and those foolish enough to explore it are trapped in the sinister extradimensional hedge mazes; and the Bleak Swamp, a malevolent, volatile and, some claim, sentient marsh forever shrouded in greenish twilight, where undead are born and reborn.

3: Survivors: Races of the Tainted Lands: Detailing the many and varied races inhabiting the Tainted Lands, including dozens of bloodlines and offshoots of the main races. Humans, for example, never know if their child will be born a human, or something else altogether such as an aasimar, tiefling, changeling, elan or even evolved human.

Adventures

No idea.

 

[Wik]

and the Bleak Swamp, a malevolent, volatile and, some claim, sentient marsh forever shrouded in greenish twilight, where undead are born and reborn.

I really like that idea. I think I might yoink it for Drasconis.

I should have mentioned at the start of this - I'm starting up my Drasconis campaign in about four, five months, and I'm trying to put the world together. I'm sort of looking for fun ideas to yoink.

 

[sckeener]

Gutter Plane Setting: The world is set in a plane on the edge of the multiverse where all the junk collects. The stars offer predictions and hope to the huddled masses as the flotsam plane floats around the multiverse always looking in. .

Book#1> Player guide> +1 LA races are the standard with the planetouched being common. Players that want to play a +0 race get special abilities to get them up to +1. Players that want to play >+1 races have one +1 removed (so a +2 LA race would be +1)

Book#2> DM guide to the world> current political landscape with a list of other ages, some of which are define by the falling stars Two major empires, one Roman empire (species diverse) and the other Egyptian (elvish.) Celtish barbarians (orcs and frost giants) to the north. The rest are city states.

Book#3> Falling Stars or Lost Empires> Description of the lost empires with a list of the different ages (ex: age of slime & fungus-the beginning, age of fish, age of birds, age of giants & dragons, etc.) The shadow wars fought in this back alley plane. List of old monsters from the edges of the universe including some far realm.

Adventures #1> relic hunt > a relic from the age of Amethyst (graveyard plane ORRERY COSMOLOGY per Manual of the planes) used in Age of giants is going to be used again followers of Zuggtmoy to return to the Age of Fungus.

Adventures #2> Boarder dispute > The seas have become dangerous as fish folk become active after millenniums of calm.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Book 1: The Barony of Midwood - An in-depth gazetteer describing the classic high adventure setting of the barony, the surrounding Tulgey Wood, the mysterious Green Mountain, Maidensbridge Abbey and other adventure locations. A great place to start a campaign!

Book 2: The Prustan Peninsula - Go beyond the barony to the surrounding nation, the birthplace of the Tarsisian Empire, the home of the technological Grailwarden dwarves, the site of the birth/death/ascension of Lothian and a place where the Old Gods of Prust still hold sway over many hearts. Intrigue, danger and ancient secrets!

Book 3: The Ruins of Kem - In ancient times, Kem was the home to the greatest wizards the world would ever know. But in a fiery civil war, they destroyed one another and ruined the very land. But ancient magic never truly dies. Today, Kem is full of strange creatures left behind by the war, opportunistic explorers and various groups of outcasts who have made the wastelands their home -- many of whom have good reason to hide their activities from the light of the Tarsisian Empire. A high level setting, full of danger and alien horrors!

Adventure 1: The Tulgey Wood - A set of small adventure settings in the Barony of Midwood, including the cairns of the Tulgey Barrow, the haunted Maidensbridge Abbey, the troll-caves of Moss Pond, the ruins of Rivenoak and more!

Adventure 2: Green Mountain - The green dragon Gax has vanished, leaving behind the dwarfhold she conquered centuries ago ... and a fractious tribe of kobold servitors. But the kobolds have united under a new leader, one intent on wiping out the residents of the barony once and for all! Survive the intrigues of Khenemet-Apep, the so-called Wizard of Green Mountain, infiltrate the kobold warrens, turn the kobold factions against one another and finally penetrate the mysteries of Green Mountain itself. Save the barony and restore the lost dwarven kingdom of Glangirn!