Enworld Co-OP Campaign Setting

[Jürgen Hubert]

I like the Chuul hive idea. But we need more hooks.

Any difference in geography? That sort of thing?

Well, we could make the geographical "center" of the setting a really tall mountain range, like the Himalayahs. The nations in this mountain range could resemble Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and so forth. (And, since this is a fantasy setting, we probably have a whole bunch of dwarves living below the surface...)

To the north, the climate is relatively cold and dry, just like in the real world. Thus, there won't be many chuul there, but humans can eke out a living in these lands. And with the support of magic, these regions might be able to support more people than in our world.

To the east, far west, and especially to the south the weather is much wetter, and the chuul thrive there...

Is that a start?

 

[Roman]

Magic functions as a ripple in the calm surface of reality. The magical field of the world can be thought of as a series of interconnected puddles, pools, lakes, seas and oceans of magic connected with streams and rivers of magical energy.

Casting a spell disturbes the surface and creates ripples spreading outward. Depending on the strength of the spell, these can be detected by mages and other magically attuned creatures at a distance. Casting too many, too powerful spells too quickly in succession, can, depending on the size of the local pool, exceed the capacity of the pool to absorb these ripples and thus can result in the failure of the spells and/or unintended magical effects.

Much of the known inhabited world lies in an area of calm pools of magic, but increasingly humans are being pushed into areas that can be thought of as magical lakes and that, due to their greater size have a much greater potential for magic, but are also naturally not so calm. Some welcome this, as the promise of greater magics looms on the horizon, but others fear the change.

As yet undiscovered (or discovered but isolated and uninhabited) areas could even have magical seas or oceans, with vastly greater potentials for arcane magic, but with unnatural impacts on the land and (water) seas where they lie.

 

[Stormborn]

I like the chuul invasion idea, but for some diversity how about make it an erruption of some alien ecology filled with abberations - of which the chuul are only one, but a numerically superior, component. That will give some variation in opponents and allow for a variety of encounters - including possible efforts at diplomacy.

Geographically let's say that this invasion has overrun the tropical and subtropical regions of a primary landmass and has forced the thriving civilization there into its northern (or southern) extremes. These are cold forests and high mountain ranges with lots of fairly isolated but rich valleys. This has placed them into close proximety with various monsterous humanoid races and others that usually dont have contact, or at least not extensive contact, with them.

Campaing themes can include:

1. Strange Bedfellows: Emmissaries try to make peace with goblinoid nations, not only to secrue a peace for the immigrating massess but also to inlist aid against the abberations.

2. Refuge: The dwarves have granted an abandoned mountain citadel and the valley below to the refugees. All they have to do is clean out the current inhabitants.

3. Homelands: Small enclaves of civilization still hold out in the homelands and are desperatelly struggling to stave off the invaders. They can use all the help they can get. Getting information, and supplies, in and out of the fortress cities is the least of their worries.

4. Stranger Bedfellows: The Lich Lord has sent an emmisary indicating that he, and his fiendish masters, have no more love for the abberations than civilized lands do. He is willing to lend aid and has a plan for cutting the tide of the abberant horrors. Can he be trusted?

5. Getting out: The abberations are creeping into the area and the local towns and villages must be evacuated and protected on the long march north to the Havens. (Kind of a fantasy BSG.)

6. Getting In: Whether its marginally legal crews of adventurers or state and temple sponsored crusades, everyone wants something out of the now aberration ruled lands. It might be a chance to steal what was once unstealable or it might be to recover an artifact that could save civilization, regardless getting in is going to be just as hard as getting out.

EDIT: Let me add that I agree that little or no mechancical changes or additions should be made. If it really is supposed to be accessible to the masses of ENworld then it needs to be SRD only. Some racial variations or regional differences might be fine, or some new player races, but nothing to dramatic.

 

[Kafkonia]

I like the chuul invasion idea, but for some diversity how about make it an erruption of some alien ecology filled with abberations - of which the chuul are only one, but a numerically superior, component.

You might want to check out David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series. It's essentially exactly what you described, but set in a modern/near-future setting.

 

[Tonguez]

A late neolithic world is good, but everyone doesn't have Magic of Incarnum.

Its there as an option - we can ignore it for this excercise

and yes No Arcane Magic isprobably a bit extreme

so How about a Late Neolithic People suddenly facing a Chuul invasion which has spurred them into receeding into walled fortifications for protection (thus creating the first cities) and calling on heroes and living 'gods' for deliverance....

 

[GreatLemur]

There's definitely a lot of possibility in the chuul invasion idea, but why limit the primary antagonists of the setting to just one type of monster? Personally, I've always been convinced that all of D&D's major aberration-type critters--illithids, beholders, aboleths, etc.--all came from the same alternate dimension (maybe something Far Realm-ish, maybe just an alternate Prime Material).

So what if the chuul incursion and terraforming (un-terraforming?) is all just the beginning? Maybe there are mindflayers and such running the show, just waiting for the chuul to prepare the environment and set up the gateways to let the real invasion in? And, along with the invaders, we get all manner of alien pest animals: rust monsters, cloakers, gricks, otyughs, and all those other very alien-looking dungeon-dwellers.

Meanwhile, the more traditional--and terrestrial--D&D "monsters" end up helping out against the invasion. Orcs and goblins and such will forget how much they hate humans pretty damned quickly when they get pushed out of their caves by a flood of aberrations. Hell, they could be PC races, even. Why bother with half-orcs when you can have orcs?

Just for kicks, maybe some type of magic could be tied into the invasion, too. Like, maybe people couldn't use arcane magic until the chuul gateways started letting weird energies into the world, or maybe psionic abilities only occur into people who've been experimented on by illithids.

As much as people will say a campaign setting should have a place for everything in it--and that's undebatably part of why Eberron won the setting search--I think one of biggest flavor-defining factors of a world is what is doesn't include. Personally, I'd like to get rid of divine magic, or demihumans, or maybe the undead, but I know that's a hard sell.

EDIT: Damn, beaten to half my ideas by Stormborn!

 

[Kafkonia]

As much as people will say a campaign setting should have a place for everything in it--and that's undebatably part of why Eberron won the setting search--I think one of biggest flavor-defining factors of a world is what is doesn't include. Personally, I'd like to get rid of divine magic, or demihumans, or maybe the undead, but I know that's a hard sell.

You could probably get rid of the fey -- with their close ties to the natural world, it seems reasonable that they would be amongst the first casualties of an unnatural invasion such as this.

As time goes on, individual GMs could incorporate some of the more unusual fey (like the Ragewalker) to their tastes, but the vast majority (ie those in the SRD) would be little more than myth.

 

[GreatLemur]

You could probably get rid of the fey -- with their close ties to the natural world, it seems reasonable that they would be amongst the first casualties of an unnatural invasion such as this.

Hell, I'd like to get rid of the fey just 'cause I'm not interested in 'em. Never mind going extinct; I don't see any reason they had to be there in the first place.

 

[Nightfall]

So we'll have druids that aren't nature clerics then?

 

[Kafkonia]

Hell, I'd like to get rid of the fey just 'cause I'm not interested in 'em. Never mind going extinct; I don't see any reason they had to be there in the first place.

But having them go extinct:

a) Is more powerful from a dramatic sense;

b) Allows DMs to use the "long-thought extinct" card if they want to bring fey in at some point.

I'm personally not a big fan of most fey either, but I do like the darker or more unusual ones (like the abovementioned Ragewalker.)

However, if you want to go with the "there were no fey" approach, we could use that as a reason why this particular world seems ripe for the picking for the aberrations.