Need some campaign world ideas

[VoidAdept]

I'm dusting off the books and running a campaign for my wife and 12-year-old son, neither of whom have played 3.5E. My wife's played a little 2E, but my son's never played before so I want his first taste of gaming to be a good one so he'll keep coming back!

Anyway, I've been brainstorming a little bit about the world and have come up with this so far:

- The world (called Varrin) is a generic Western fantasy setting on the surface.
- Long ago, a cataclysmic event turned much of the western half of the world's main continent, Macardia, into a thousand mile wide inland sea now called the Sea of Tears. The races have been squabbling over what's left of the known world (ie, the rest of the continent) ever since.
- Rumors abound that ancient cities and lost magic still exist under the surface of the Sea of Tears.
- There is indeed a "city of the ancients" on the bottom of the sea, and it was occupied by aboleth and their skum minions soon after the sea was created. Maybe their actions started the events that led to the flooding.
- The aboleth have been biding their time for millenia, and have now set in motion their plan to take over the divided kingdoms of the surface world.

That's all I've got so far. Any help on fleshing out the world or the aboleths' master plan (in other words, how would they go about it... and why would they do it in the first place!), or ideas on how to give the setting that extra 'oomph' would be great!

Oh yes, and thanks to whomever started the aboleth conversion thread. That's where I got the idea to use them.

 

[fusangite]

That's all I've got so far. Any help on fleshing out the world or the aboleths' master plan (in other words, how would they go about it... and why would they do it in the first place!)

I've never worked with aboleths but, in my view, what should be played up is the alienness of the creature. They may be smarter than us but they don't think like really smart people. They think like... something entirely different.

I think you should pick an outcome that is very strange to which the aboleths are committed; their motives and methods should not make a whole lot of sense. Think of Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep, Ambassador Kosh in the first two seasons of Babylon 5 or the villain in any Peter Greenaway movie.

Alternatively, their goal might be for the whole world to sink into the sea or for the seas to rise and take the whole world. Some kind of complex ritual might be effected to start the unending rain or whatever the agent of this objective is. One could separate the campaign into a first part where the ritual conditions are being met by essentially random and inscrutable events, and the second part with the beginning of the floods where the characters must either arrest or undo the damage.

As for extra oomph, I need a little more to go on. What are your thoughts on how religion works? That's what often inspires me to get into someone else's creative problems.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You could throw a little War of the Worlds into the mix, as the aboleth try to conquer the land...

 

[reason]

...

Lots of fleshing out ideas for all sorts of campaigns can be found in the setting material atPrincipia Infecta. For the audience described, lots of flavor details and colorful, memorable human NPCs are what makes or breaks the thing, I think - you might have most luck with the Enclave, but there's plenty elsewhere too.

Reason
Principia Infecta

 

[Starglim]

Maybe think about what you're going to do from levels 1 to 20. Level 20 is the aboleths' huge and abominable ruler. What's level 1?

I suggest, other humans. You have a continent where the western-central area has sunk and is now a sea swarming with evil things. That leaves, roughly speaking, a horseshoe of dry land or a closely-spaced archipelago. Every kingdom will have two natural enemies - its neighbours around the horseshoe of land - and could at any time be plotting against one and actively warring with the other. Any event that seems likely to merge two kingdoms (a marriage, treaty, failure of a royal line or serious invasion) will be of immediate concern to all their neighbours as it threatens the balance of power.

Perhaps one of the states has been corrupted by aboleth plots and now seeks to spread the rule of some evil cult around the continent.

For variety, you could pick an aquatic humanoid race as minions of the aboleth (unknown to the landsmen) and have them raid the inland sea coast from time to time. As the seacoast becomes more dangerous and less settled, other coastal dangers like sea hags (CR 4) could migrate in.

 

[Starglim]

A legendary source for a sunken city:

The Legend of the City of Ys

The people might tell a story similar to this, even if the truth is otherwise. Also google Lyonesse .

 

[VoidAdept]

Alternatively, their goal might be for the whole world to sink into the sea or for the seas to rise and take the whole world. Some kind of complex ritual might be effected to start the unending rain or whatever the agent of this objective is. One could separate the campaign into a first part where the ritual conditions are being met by essentially random and inscrutable events, and the second part with the beginning of the floods where the characters must either arrest or undo the damage.

As for extra oomph, I need a little more to go on. What are your thoughts on how religion works? That's what often inspires me to get into someone else's creative problems.

You know, I never thought of rituals to make the seas rise. I'll yoink that one and see what I can do with it.

As for religion, there's not a lot to say. The gods are aloof here -- no interventions or avatars. Divine magic is the only 'proof' that they exist. I want to take it easy on my players so I'm just going to use the standard PHB pantheon for now and maybe build on it as the players become more experienced.

You could throw a little War of the Worlds into the mix, as the aboleth try to conquer the land...

I just imagined mecha-piloting aboleth laying whole cities to waste until someone sneezes on them...

Maybe think about what you're going to do from levels 1 to 20. Level 20 is the aboleths' huge and abominable ruler. What's level 1?

Yeah, I should start small, but I figure I should sketch out at least one metaplot to try and bring everything together a little more cohesively.

Perhaps one of the states has been corrupted by aboleth plots and now seeks to spread the rule of some evil cult around the continent.

Oh, I've got ideas for things like that once they reach mid-level. For example, the aboleth haven't been able to infiltrate one nation to obtain something for their ritual so they manipulate an otherwise peaceful nation to invade, take it by force, and hand it over to them.

Thanks for the help so far folks, I'll share what other ideas I come up with as they develop.