Enworld Co-OP Campaign Setting
- Thread starter Sir Elton
- Start date
GreatLemur
Explorer
Seeing as chuul are CR 7 critters, don't we need a weaker aberration to serve as the real foot soldiers? I think statting up lesser/immature chuul (with fewer hit dice and medium or even small size) would work nicely, and another possibility might be some kind of parasite-controlled quasi-undead template. Something equivalent to zombies, only without the undead traits.
Stormborn
Explorer
The CR of chuul was one of the many reasons I think that a more diverse invasion makes a more interesting setting. Psionic abberations, with human thralls, make for more intersting game play. Throws in the possiblity of things that only look human (or elven, etc) or humans working for the enemy, some of whom are doing so voluntarily.
As for the Neolithic culture: Given that there is a Hyborean setting going on we might want to stay away from that, but as Jurgen has said there is no reason not to have some advanced magic based states and lots of more primative cultures about. Perhaps in the background there is some reason that in the past these "advanced" cultures didnt mingle with the less technological ones - and their motives for opening up their gates to assist these people is less than pure. Did one of them open the gateway? Are they merely hoping to prop up buffer states between them and the invaders while they buy time? Something worse?
As for the Neolithic culture: Given that there is a Hyborean setting going on we might want to stay away from that, but as Jurgen has said there is no reason not to have some advanced magic based states and lots of more primative cultures about. Perhaps in the background there is some reason that in the past these "advanced" cultures didnt mingle with the less technological ones - and their motives for opening up their gates to assist these people is less than pure. Did one of them open the gateway? Are they merely hoping to prop up buffer states between them and the invaders while they buy time? Something worse?
Stormborn
Explorer
Another Idea
Dont normally post twice in a row, but this seemed to warrent a seperate thought:
In the tropical seas there can be a major underwater civilization(s). Perhaps of Aquatic elves. There are few settings that I know of that feature large and thriving underwater civilizations and it would help to further differentiate the setting.
Picture this: The elven civilization of the world is not one of forest but one of the sea. The elves on land are decendants of ambasadors who voluntarilly gave up the sea to go to land and teach the primative land based civilizations. The human tribes they chose became the powerful nations that now control magic and steel. The elves are now few in number on land, and often live in hidden valleys and semimonastic enclaves where they can keep an eye on their human charges. Half-elves are simply elves that are further debased from their aquatic elven roots and are not uncommon in the advanced human cities. Dwarven animosity comes from the elven interferance with human culture, which the dwarves viewed as poaching since many bands of primative humans and orcs served the dwarves as slave labor in ancient times. Drow can, with a little mechanical change, be deep dweling aquatic elves who worship an ancient leviathan god or a group that was exiled into the air filled caverns beneath the sea in some ancient civil war.
In the current climate of invasion the ancient elven teachers have once again begun directing their charges, encouraging them to take what was started and spread it to other human tribes. Something that was always supposed to happen but never did. Some of the dwarves have put aside the old animosity to aid in fighting the invaders while others have simply shut their gates and wait. Primative humans, and the more primative orc cultures, are dealing with the invasion as best they can, some welcoming the aid of their advanced cousins and others hating them just as much as they do the aberrations. Meanwhile the aquatic elven civilization is having their own problems dealing with the invaders, particularly the aboleth ruled slave armires.
Dont normally post twice in a row, but this seemed to warrent a seperate thought:
In the tropical seas there can be a major underwater civilization(s). Perhaps of Aquatic elves. There are few settings that I know of that feature large and thriving underwater civilizations and it would help to further differentiate the setting.
Picture this: The elven civilization of the world is not one of forest but one of the sea. The elves on land are decendants of ambasadors who voluntarilly gave up the sea to go to land and teach the primative land based civilizations. The human tribes they chose became the powerful nations that now control magic and steel. The elves are now few in number on land, and often live in hidden valleys and semimonastic enclaves where they can keep an eye on their human charges. Half-elves are simply elves that are further debased from their aquatic elven roots and are not uncommon in the advanced human cities. Dwarven animosity comes from the elven interferance with human culture, which the dwarves viewed as poaching since many bands of primative humans and orcs served the dwarves as slave labor in ancient times. Drow can, with a little mechanical change, be deep dweling aquatic elves who worship an ancient leviathan god or a group that was exiled into the air filled caverns beneath the sea in some ancient civil war.
In the current climate of invasion the ancient elven teachers have once again begun directing their charges, encouraging them to take what was started and spread it to other human tribes. Something that was always supposed to happen but never did. Some of the dwarves have put aside the old animosity to aid in fighting the invaders while others have simply shut their gates and wait. Primative humans, and the more primative orc cultures, are dealing with the invasion as best they can, some welcoming the aid of their advanced cousins and others hating them just as much as they do the aberrations. Meanwhile the aquatic elven civilization is having their own problems dealing with the invaders, particularly the aboleth ruled slave armires.
GreatLemur
Explorer
You know, that could fill the cannon fodder requirement quite nicely. The mind flayers could have some means of lobotomizing and permanently controlling human captives. And of course the aboleths already have the ability to convert people into skum.Stormborn said:
And, for that matter, there could easily be cults that form around the invaders, assisting them willingly in return for promises of the survival or their tribe, or the awakening of psionic powers, etc.
GreatLemur
Explorer
Okay, here's the ideal incarnation of this setting concept as I see it right now.
The World, Pre-Invasion
No demihumans, fey, dragons, magical beasts, oozes, or undead. I kind of want to say "no giants", too, but I think there's room in this setting for ogres and trolls (although, really, ain't they more like monstrous humanoids?). One of the main points of these choices is to remove blatantly magical elements from the world. (I didn't even bother to mention outsiders, elementals, and constructs, since they're pretty much not part of the local ecology by definition.)
The main intelligent races are humans, orcs, goblinoids (which are one race with ant-style variant castes), and maybe lizardfolk and gnolls (I generally abhor the whole humanoid-animal-as-fantasy-race bit, but these two ain't bad). I'd really like them all to be playable races, even if that takes some mechanical screwing around. Pretty much the whole damned world is fairly savage (neolithic, to broze age at best), but there are a few isolated--and isolationist--human groups that are more advanced. Also, the goblinoids once had a considerably more advanced empire, but it fell apart millenia ago. (Is that too Eberron? My first instinct was to say the lizardfolk used to be more advanced, but that would be recycling an older cliche.)
The handful of advanced human cultures are the only ones who've learned the secrets of arcane magic. (In fact, maybe that's their only advancement--aside from a more civilized culture--and they don't have steel or even iron. Maybe the orcs or somebody have that secret.) The rest of the world uses divine magic, primarily in the form of the spontaneous-casting Cleric variant. (Obviously, the Turn/Rebuke Undead class feature needs to be swapped out for something else.) The "gods" are thousands of squabbling spirits who are generally known only to single tribes. Psionics are completely unknown.
The Invasion
It starts in the swamps and the caves: Tiny holes are scratched through from someplace just as dark and damp, and the wormish larvae of the chuul are pushed through by the hundreds. Most of these die in the strange new environment, or are consumed by terrestrial predators, but those who survive grow huge and powerful enough to dominate their habitats. Then they receive their instructions, transmitted psionically from their home dimension.
The chuul who are psionically sensitive enough to get the messages begin work on more substantial gateways. (I'm picturing the "plague of frogs" from the comic B.P.R.D., in which fast-reproducing frog people spread quietly across the U.S., building terrible altars and conducting blood sacrifices as they go.) Gradually, more alien horrors are able to emerge, including both active invaders and assorted alien animals.
I like the idea of using a wide variety of different aberrations and oozes for the invaders, and a few of the weirder magical beasts, as well (stirges, ropers, etc.). Any magical abilities they've got should be recast as psionic ones (if that makes any difference). (Note that the psionics rules are in the SRD, so they're fair game for this project.) I even kind of like the idea of recasting them all as a new creature type, "alien". That way, we could use that type as a replacement for alignment, and have abilities like "Smite Alien" and "Detect Alien".
Illithids, beholders, and aboleths are the clear candidates for the masterminds behind the whole invasion. I've got a soft spot for the aboleths, myself. Beholders aren't traditionally seen as capable of cooperation, but I don't think it's necessary to retain that element of their character. Mind flayers are obviously great for this whole role, but I don't like the fact that their bodies are so humanoid. Maybe that's just how they end up looking if they hatch from a humanoid host?
Anyway, whoever's running the show, they and most of their servants are dependant upon a particular type of environment. They like the darkness, and they like moisture, and they prefer a particularly noxious kind of atmosphere (and water, for that matter) that is inimical to terrestrial life. So as they take over territory, they construct psionic artifacts that gradually transform the surrounding region into something approximating their poisonous homeworld. Maybe they (inadvertantly, even) bring some terrible new diseases along with them, too.
The Response
The subterranean races notice the alien encroachment first, and end up fighting among themselves for space as the taint spreads through their caverns. Eventually, they're pushed to the surface, and make nocturnal raids against the other races to obtain resources and new homes.
By the time the more advanced cultures realize what's happening, the invaders have gotten more than just a foothold, and the subterranean races have been all but completely evicted. Even places the invaders haven't actively made any move towards begin to suffer from the tainted atmosphere of the changing world.
Still, the isolated and advanced human cities stay out of the brewing conflict, hoping that the invaders will be content with the dark places of the world, and leave the surface alone. Then one of their own settlements falls to a combined force of hardier aliens and mentally-dominated humanoids, and is hidden in the endless shadow of an unnatural toxic cloud, and the civilized people are forced to accept that this is their problem, too.
Now, the various races and cultures of the world must work together, sharing magical and technological advances they once kept secret--and social advances that their neighbors don't want to hear about--in order to build a new civilization capable of resisting the invaders. Inevitably, though, there'll be as many clashes between the defenders as with the aliens themselves, and getting very different peoples--in many cases, plagued by historical animosities--to cooperate or even coexist in the shrinking territory that remains to them will be a major struggle.
The advanced cultures share arcane magic, the various savage cultures share divine magic and possibly iron or steel, and some knowledge of psionics might even be stolen from the invaders.
The World, Pre-Invasion
No demihumans, fey, dragons, magical beasts, oozes, or undead. I kind of want to say "no giants", too, but I think there's room in this setting for ogres and trolls (although, really, ain't they more like monstrous humanoids?). One of the main points of these choices is to remove blatantly magical elements from the world. (I didn't even bother to mention outsiders, elementals, and constructs, since they're pretty much not part of the local ecology by definition.)
The main intelligent races are humans, orcs, goblinoids (which are one race with ant-style variant castes), and maybe lizardfolk and gnolls (I generally abhor the whole humanoid-animal-as-fantasy-race bit, but these two ain't bad). I'd really like them all to be playable races, even if that takes some mechanical screwing around. Pretty much the whole damned world is fairly savage (neolithic, to broze age at best), but there are a few isolated--and isolationist--human groups that are more advanced. Also, the goblinoids once had a considerably more advanced empire, but it fell apart millenia ago. (Is that too Eberron? My first instinct was to say the lizardfolk used to be more advanced, but that would be recycling an older cliche.)
The handful of advanced human cultures are the only ones who've learned the secrets of arcane magic. (In fact, maybe that's their only advancement--aside from a more civilized culture--and they don't have steel or even iron. Maybe the orcs or somebody have that secret.) The rest of the world uses divine magic, primarily in the form of the spontaneous-casting Cleric variant. (Obviously, the Turn/Rebuke Undead class feature needs to be swapped out for something else.) The "gods" are thousands of squabbling spirits who are generally known only to single tribes. Psionics are completely unknown.
The Invasion
It starts in the swamps and the caves: Tiny holes are scratched through from someplace just as dark and damp, and the wormish larvae of the chuul are pushed through by the hundreds. Most of these die in the strange new environment, or are consumed by terrestrial predators, but those who survive grow huge and powerful enough to dominate their habitats. Then they receive their instructions, transmitted psionically from their home dimension.
The chuul who are psionically sensitive enough to get the messages begin work on more substantial gateways. (I'm picturing the "plague of frogs" from the comic B.P.R.D., in which fast-reproducing frog people spread quietly across the U.S., building terrible altars and conducting blood sacrifices as they go.) Gradually, more alien horrors are able to emerge, including both active invaders and assorted alien animals.
I like the idea of using a wide variety of different aberrations and oozes for the invaders, and a few of the weirder magical beasts, as well (stirges, ropers, etc.). Any magical abilities they've got should be recast as psionic ones (if that makes any difference). (Note that the psionics rules are in the SRD, so they're fair game for this project.) I even kind of like the idea of recasting them all as a new creature type, "alien". That way, we could use that type as a replacement for alignment, and have abilities like "Smite Alien" and "Detect Alien".
Illithids, beholders, and aboleths are the clear candidates for the masterminds behind the whole invasion. I've got a soft spot for the aboleths, myself. Beholders aren't traditionally seen as capable of cooperation, but I don't think it's necessary to retain that element of their character. Mind flayers are obviously great for this whole role, but I don't like the fact that their bodies are so humanoid. Maybe that's just how they end up looking if they hatch from a humanoid host?
Anyway, whoever's running the show, they and most of their servants are dependant upon a particular type of environment. They like the darkness, and they like moisture, and they prefer a particularly noxious kind of atmosphere (and water, for that matter) that is inimical to terrestrial life. So as they take over territory, they construct psionic artifacts that gradually transform the surrounding region into something approximating their poisonous homeworld. Maybe they (inadvertantly, even) bring some terrible new diseases along with them, too.
The Response
The subterranean races notice the alien encroachment first, and end up fighting among themselves for space as the taint spreads through their caverns. Eventually, they're pushed to the surface, and make nocturnal raids against the other races to obtain resources and new homes.
By the time the more advanced cultures realize what's happening, the invaders have gotten more than just a foothold, and the subterranean races have been all but completely evicted. Even places the invaders haven't actively made any move towards begin to suffer from the tainted atmosphere of the changing world.
Still, the isolated and advanced human cities stay out of the brewing conflict, hoping that the invaders will be content with the dark places of the world, and leave the surface alone. Then one of their own settlements falls to a combined force of hardier aliens and mentally-dominated humanoids, and is hidden in the endless shadow of an unnatural toxic cloud, and the civilized people are forced to accept that this is their problem, too.
Now, the various races and cultures of the world must work together, sharing magical and technological advances they once kept secret--and social advances that their neighbors don't want to hear about--in order to build a new civilization capable of resisting the invaders. Inevitably, though, there'll be as many clashes between the defenders as with the aliens themselves, and getting very different peoples--in many cases, plagued by historical animosities--to cooperate or even coexist in the shrinking territory that remains to them will be a major struggle.
The advanced cultures share arcane magic, the various savage cultures share divine magic and possibly iron or steel, and some knowledge of psionics might even be stolen from the invaders.
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GreatLemur
Explorer
Just having gnolls and lizardfolk is already more animal-people races than I'm completely happy with. What if the lizardfolk were the ones who were actually currently advanced (possibly with kobolds as a ruling caste), while humans were the fallen culture (who might still hold the secret of iron)? Goblinoids could be the descendants of a slave race created by the lizardfolk in a more warlike phase of their culture. (Orcs and gnolls end up looking a little redundant, really. I wouldn't mind ditching them.)Sir Elton said:
Honestly, it might be simplest just to come up with new races custom-built for these niches. We could standardize them all to ECL +1, including the humans.
Michael Morris
First Post
Uhm, there already is an ENWorld Co-Op setting
http://www.enworld.org/Daemonforge/
Indeed, that setting on the site predates the merger of this site with Eric Noah's 3e site. It really could use some support again to be honest.
http://www.enworld.org/Daemonforge/
Indeed, that setting on the site predates the merger of this site with Eric Noah's 3e site. It really could use some support again to be honest.
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