[Homebrew] – Truly Original Ideas?

[jeffers]

When I think back on the official D&D settings that have existed over the years, there is only one setting that I would consider truly original. So how about you? What would you classify as original? It is in your own Homebrew or someone else’s?

Please, I would like to get your take on how you would make a generic D&D setting original.

My Homebrew of Caleon had quite a few original items in it.

First off, Orcs were people. I established early on that alignment did not exist (and this had its own problems!). The Evil nature of most humanoids was due largely to cultural limitations. Not that anyone played them, but there was a PC race available. This was in 1986. If I remember correctly, this predates Earthdawn by a few years.

Secondly, after 1988, we had Steam Power. Space: 1889 had steam power, but it wasn't a fantasy world. Long before anyone else had incorporated Steampunkish elements into fantasy, we were clanking around in Battletech-style Standing Tanks and firing cannonballs into uppity bad guys.

Thirdly, the opposition was mostly (and still is!) Human Nature. I read an article in some magazine about adding NPCs to your game instead of monsters. I laughed aloud at the notion. Not to sound arrogant (or moreso) I would've liked advice on realistically adding Monsters to my game. Every body was a person, they had motivation, needs, plans and an ibiding interest in the death of my player's characters.

Seems like I ran Caleon the way you're supposed to run Traveller or something.

 

[Incenjucar]

An easy way to make your world original in relation to typical fantasy, give races multiple cultures WITHOUT sub-races.

I have a race called ulari, for instance, that have a charismatic nature, venom that reduces saves/rolls versus bluff, diplomacy, and charm, frail but flexible bodies (-2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Cha), and a very faint reptilian nature (To be crude and imprecise, they look like tall elves with swept-back ears, a set of fangs, slit pupils, and teeny tiny scales on their skin that have as much variety in pattern as the snakes'). They also have a reproductive rate that produces one female for every 4.5 males, and a notable infertility with anything less magical than a dragon (dwarves breed easier with elves than ulari with humans). This leads to a whole variety of possible cultures, with various styles of polygamy, monogamy, slavery, rivalries, and so on. They also have a notable view on clothing, such as showing lots of skin in a cold region being a sign of pride in your own wealth (as in, proof that you can afford to heat your house all winter), narrow dresses are considered exotic and wild, because they suggest the serpentine ancestors. Hair length suggests age (If you want to seem mature in an ulari culture, get hair extensions). Use of venom in foreplay can be considered either fun or rude, depending on the culture... in some cultures the males treat females like livestock, in others females treat males the same.. in some only powerful males get to breed... in others the female gets to pick.. sometimes a female chooses only one mate, sometimes they can choose every time they reproduce.. sometimes they keep a husband, sometimes they only stay with a male while producing children.. and then you have racial relations due to ulari charisma... which can lead to accusations of date rape (due to venom), or using ulari as diplomats, rulers, or generals, since few are as good at rallying support... sometimes ulari are traded off as slaves, due to their exotic looks, and the number of males...

And that's not even including variations based on environment, use of magic, surrounding cultures (they tend to cuddle with warm furry things, like dwarves...), dietary habits (they're carnivores by physiology, and can barely digest plant material - can often lead to accusations of eating humans and pets), technology level... their lack of their own deities, and habit of adopting those of other cultures...

---

It's a bit more interesting than, "Elves have bows and arrows and hug trees, dwarves have axes and hammers and hug rocks, halflings have slings and quiet footsteps and hug food..."

 

[Aeric]

Of all the D&D worlds, homebrewed and otherwise, that I have seen over the years, I feel that the one I'm currently using is the most original.

http://siraeric.aokp.net/shards.html

It was created by a friend of mine and I expanded upon it to a small degree.

In a nutshell, it is a world of large shards of rock floating in an endless sky. The people of the world live upon these shards, where there can be found trees, rivers, etc. They travel between the shards using magic, most commonly in the form of airships.

The shards are layered vertically; above the highest shard is the Solar Hearth, which is effectively the sun. It is the home of the gods, who live upon it the way that mortals live upon the shards. Legend has it that the shards are the pieces of the creator-god's shattered body, and that the Solar Hearth is his heart; it does not move through the sky like our sun does, but brightens from a dull red to a brilliant white and back again over the course of a day.

Below the lowest shard is a void of nothingness, the opposite of creation, known simply as the Beneath. The Beneath rises up every once in a millenium to try and claim more of creation, but the efforts of the Pentatra, a massive inter-temple alliance dedicated to protecting the shards from the Beneath, have always pushed it back.

It is a work in progress, and beyond the nature of the world and the player-character races (only elves and dwarves made the cut, and even they were changed somewhat), very little is different from standard D&D. The magic system is the same, the monsters are the same, the weapons and armor are the same, etc. Hopefully that will change sometime soon.

 

[Gez]

Why are the planes always separate of everything else, and even each other?

That's something I avoided, actually.

Why are races always in competition?

It's hard to avoid competition when you have so many sentient races (occupying thus the same ecological niche) in a territory with limited resources.

IMC, I've used these spirits to justify this abundance of races -- the spirits themselves were competing to create the "best" critters, a bit like you have students creating robots and pitting them in robot combat tournaments. The same rational is used for all the hybrid monsters: a pegasus? It's the horse spirit plagierizing the bird spirit!

Why is the 'home world' so special? Anyone ever wondered why the prime material plane is always so boring? And why is there only 'one' of them?

Usually, there's only one homeworld because it's easier, unless the campaign starts as a planeswalking saga, to have all the characters come from the same place...

But that's not a requirement.

IMC, I have parallel material planes (planets, actually), but they are really different from "the" material plane. They aren't well-defined yet, so I won't expand on rough ideas that will probably change as time pass.

 

[Turanil]

Ahem, I just need to bookmark this thread in some way.

 

[Gez]

You can subscribe. Choose a weekly update to avoid being cluttered when it's active, and then the thread is bookmarked, you just have to use the Forum Jump drop-down and go to Subscriptions.

 

[maddman75]

Original? Bah. My creative process goes something like this

1) Take something cool from books, movies, or even video games.
2) File off the serial numbers - change the outward appearance but keep the central idea.
3) Hope no one notices.

Some examples from my world
- Elves. My elves live in Plato's Republic. Their perfect society is represented by a series of tests. Children are raised communally then tested for their knowledge and skils in magic and swordplay. Those who fail the first test become famers, merchants, and others upon whom society depends. Those who pass are given more education until the second test. Those who fail this test become government officials, teachers, and dignitaries. Those who pass must then face the final test - the world of men. They quest to become great heros, and once they have become legendary return to the homeland to serve on the council of stars, the supreme rulers. (Hint: don't mess with the elves, their rulers are all 20th level former adventurers!)
- Orcs. Orcs are not a natural race, they were bred by the empire of Krall (think Rome). The first batch were bred to make a perfect slave and warrior race, but they were too fierce and not servile enough. They fled into the wilderness and became the Black Orcs. Tolkien orcs. The second batch were given a tendency to religion, hoping devotion to the gods of Krall would make them more servile. This didn't work either, as they formed their own nature based faith and fled as well. Warcraft Orcs.

 

[Gez]

1) Take something cool from books, movies, or even video games.
2) File off the serial numbers - change the outward appearance but keep the central idea.
3) Hope no one notices.

I've stolen the Ethereal Void from Ultima Underworld 2. I haven't changed it too much (much bigger, less cubic, and with funky gravity effects and Escherian effects), and I don't bother about people noticing -- in our gaming group, only my brother and me played it.

I just like the idea of a maze of coloured pathways floating and twisting in the dark void, populated by various strange things, aberrations, magical beasts, outsiders, insane wizards, dreaming drug-addicts, and half-formed thoughts.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I am currently creating my own Homebrewed setting that attempts to include everything from the Core Rulebooks but with a unique twist. Not as extreme as Dark Sun, but hopefully just as original. I have many good ideas, that I would consider original enough, however this forum is such a great place for others, that share the same love of RPG’s, to throw in their own opinions that I couldn’t resist.

So how about you? What would you classify as original? It is in your own Homebrew or someone else’s?

Please, I would like to get your take on how you would make a generic D&D setting original.

Well, since by your post count you seem to be a newbie around these parts, it's possibly that you haven't heard of Urbis yet (and you old-timers reading this can stop groaning now ).

One of my design goals for Urbis also was to include everything from the Core Rules, but give it its own unique twist to make it fantastic and bizarre again and the setting interesting.

The biggest innovation are the Nexus Towers, magical constructs that take small amount of life force from all who live nearby and convert it into magical energies - which can be used to create magic items (which explains where all those magic items from the Core Rules come from in the first place) or cast epic spells... even for non-epic spellcasters! This allows for all sorts of interesting effects - plant growth spells with huge areas that allow for incredible crop yields, city defense systems that can quickly reduce any approaching conventional armies to dust, massive magically-created architecture, and some really big cities - after all, the more people live in a city, the more magical energy is there for the rulers to toy around with...

I've also examined quite a few other issues - like how spells like raise dead affect society if they are available to anyone who can afford to pay for them. I've also come up with explanations for all those critters that look like they couldn't have possibly evolved in a terrestrial environment (chuuls, destrachans, yrthaks, and many others) - they didn't, but came from other planets in the same solar system (which get their own writeups - after all, it is possible to travel to them for sufficiently powerful spellcasters).

And that's just for starters.

 

[Tonguez]

(and you old-timers reading this can stop groaning now ).

Yes Jurgen we have all come to accept that you are the Urbis Pimp

Two comments on how to make the settings 'more' unique'

1. Get culturally specific - Don't use Pseudo-western europe (or Pseudo-Asia or Pseudo-Arabia as a base) instead try Pseudo-Venice on a global scale, what happens when the whole (game) world is dominated by an oligarchy of feuding families overseen by a central council

2. Change the dominant race. Not Humans and Elves why not make the most common race gnomes and halflings and design the architecture to suit. In other words things are made small, humans have to stoop to interact and are generally laughed at.

IMC Gnomes were the native peoples when humans arrived. Humans live in villages on the coast and the forest dwelling gnomes are common visitors, and are respected as Wise ones.
Half-orcs in the setting are considered humans (blessed/tainted by the god of ugly creatures) and under his care (Orcs don't exisit). Elfs and Halflings are NPC Fae races and dwarfs don't exist. Goblins are a playable race however. The position of Orcs has been taken by Sahuagin who harass the coastal human villages)