New 3E World...from scratch....

[Argent Silvermage]

This is starting to sound like Avonshar. That's the game I'm DMing with the Savage Sword of Meepo group.
The basic concept is that a group of clerics and worshipers of Fharlanghn were plane hopping and found a world that looked like paradize and was unenhabited. they found out that there was a massive god war and it almost decimated the planet. now there are no gods and the world has evolved very strangely due to the chaotic energies of both good and evil left unchecked.

The moon aspect I was working on is directly from Avonshar.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

This is starting to sound like Avonshar. That's the game I'm DMing with the Savage Sword of Meepo group.
The basic concept is that a group of clerics and worshipers of Fharlanghn were plane hopping and found a world that looked like paradize and was unenhabited. they found out that there was a massive god war and it almost decimated the planet. now there are no gods and the world has evolved very strangely due to the chaotic energies of both good and evil left unchecked.

The moon aspect I was working on is directly from Avonshar.

This fits in somewhat with what I've been thinking about...

Basically, there are no native gods on this world, and no spellcasters, either - just psionics. Alignment is tricky as well - when wizards try to detect the alignment of a native, nothing will register. When a priest tries to detect it, it will register whatever his deity thinks of the natives in general, whether Evil (most common), Neutral, or Good (very rarely).

There's certainly enough room for beings of almost godlike power - think of your standard Lovecraftian Great Old One. But nothing that grants priest spells...

 

[Scorpio]

Very Interesting! One day spent at work, and look at all this!
The great thing about this is that we can do pretty much everything folks have mentioned- after all, different parts of this world will have different 'histories'. I love Jurgen's premise, he must have had that on his back burner for a while! And the offer of the forum and site is hard to pass up.
My 2cents...

>Yes, there should be a separate forum/site from EnWorld-while we want contributors and to have it 'open', we want it to be Ours -IE, separate and distinct from anything else...

>In some aspects, there will be obvious similarities to other previous creations, that is inevitable. It is the Standing Challenge to take those aspects and meld them into a New and Unique Game World that will stand apart from the others...

>There is a core History that we will have to agree on...Jurgen laid the groundwork there, in my opinion, we can work off of that, and then spiral off from that. But remember, Consistency is very important, along with cohesiveness-we can't have complete anarchy as far as the general developement of this world...

>No one person should be straddled with undue responsibility or commitment to this project, there should be a core of people who can 'run' the whole thing,a 'council' of sorts, regardless of who has absence to due the 'real world'-jobs, family, military, life in general.

>Jurgen's gracious offer should be taken seriously- with the knowledge that if it becomes a burden to him, or his other projects, that changes may be made without his feeling obligated in any way. This should be a volunteer system by people who enjoy contributing, nothing more.

>That all said, I think it would be prudent to take this to another venue, if there is agreement here. My vote would be to take Jurgen up on his offer at this time. I would think that a thread here that 'advertises' the project would be a good idea,to get more people involved, and with the URL of the new venue prominent...Then we could get to some nuts and bolts...namely...
>>Develop a core History and Geography of the World,
>>Create a Name
>>Decide who will want to 'volunteer' in what areas-for instance, I will volunteer to create ridiculously detailed maps of the whole thing...
>>and then....

I really think this could something different, and something really special...this concept has been played with before, but perhaps we could do it so that it doesn't fizzle and grows like a real world would....
Keep the comments coming!

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Scorpio- Thank you for sugesting this. To be honest I was planning on sugesting the exact same thing come January, but I wasn't sure how much intrest there would be.

Jürgen Hubert - I love alot of your ideas, but at this point I think we need to keep the "Colony" ideas seperate from the "World" ideas. A colony of Elves would develop differently than a colony of Dwarves, which would develop differently than a colony of Humans, ect

Tonguez- I am also interested in your homebrew rules for running settlements. I think there isn't going to be a "dominant race". Each region will probably have one dominant "colonizing race" (depending on the designer) but there are no Empires. I can tell you that no humans came though the gate in my region.

Argent - You can have the moon as far as I'm concerned, as long as you keep updating your storyhour.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

>That all said, I think it would be prudent to take this to another venue, if there is agreement here. My vote would be to take Jurgen up on his offer at this time. I would think that a thread here that 'advertises' the project would be a good idea,to get more people involved, and with the URL of the new venue prominent...Then we could get to some nuts and bolts...namely...
>>Develop a core History and Geography of the World,
>>Create a Name
>>Decide who will want to 'volunteer' in what areas-for instance, I will volunteer to create ridiculously detailed maps of the whole thing...
>>and then....

I really think this could something different, and something really special...this concept has been played with before, but perhaps we could do it so that it doesn't fizzle and grows like a real world would....
Keep the comments coming!

I second the motion

 

[Tonguez]

This is the part I don't like as much. I'd rather keep the gates some sort of background mystery - to be explored by sages and high-level adventurers, but not something that impacts the average colonist's life after the initial arrival.

But this can still be the case for two reasons.
First the new arrivals are still busy with the tasks of establishing viable settlements, surviving in a hostile world, building an economy and making contact with other colonies to be worried about exploring the gates

Second the Gates work both ways and active use of the them can let Big Bads through as much as letting the PCs out

Third the energy required to use the gates may not be readily available in the current situation - the 50 yr old Settlements will be no where near the capacity needed to build Nexus Towers and cities in the Millions in order to power the Gates

Any settlers from other worlds should already be well-established in the new world, and moved there millenia ago. Otherwise it strains suspension-of-disbelief? And if you are going to use immigrants from different worlds, none should be humanoids - different worlds, and different evolutionary paths...

I agree with having many older civilisations but not neccesarily on the issue of Evolutionary paths. I'd say Sahuagin and Lizardfolk are a different evolutionary route to Humans or Orcs but all of them are Humanoid.
Also I tend to subscribe to the theory that intelligent life (as humans would recognise it) that could survive on the same world as humans would probably evolve on earth-like worlds and along similar routes (ie opposable thumbs and fine manipulators (hands), and upright gait, omnivirous diet, complex social groups with young bounding with adults in a parent-child relationship - ie humanoids)

Question

1. If there are no 'gods' to grant divine spells - how do clerics/paladins work in this world?

2. Are we going for Psionics sans magic or Psionics with Magic?

3. What Tech level(s) are we going to be working with? Would a world in which Da Vincis inventions work be okay? Steamtech? Gunpowder? Lazer blasters!!!

4. What is going to be the dominant race(s) - I vote Goblins , Hobgoblins and Blues!

5. Can we please have Goblins as a playable Race...

6. Can we please enslave and/or slaughter all Elves- joking

Okay

I too vote that we take up Jurgens offer to be our gracious host and thank him most profusely for that

Another idea

That we each create a character (say Level 5) who will be the leader of our colonies and who might one day become the Legendary heroes/villains of the world

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Question

1. If there are no 'gods' to grant divine spells - how do clerics/paladins work in this world?

2. Are we going for Psionics sans magic or Psionics with Magic?

3. What Tech level(s) are we going to be working with? Would a world in which Da Vincis inventions work be okay? Steamtech? Gunpowder? Lazer blasters!!!

4. What is going to be the dominant race(s) - I vote Goblins , Hobgoblins and Blues!

5. Can we please have Goblins as a playable Race...

6. Can we please enslave and/or slaughter all Elves- joking

Okay

I too vote that we take up Jurgens offer to be our gracious host and thank him most profusely for that

Another idea

That we each create a character (say Level 5) who will be the leader of our colonies and who might one day become the Legendary heroes/villains of the world

My opinions to these questions are

1. He suggested no "native" gods, Colonists will bring their beliefs and their gods with them. (Although Jurgens contradicted his own suggestion with the "Other druids claim to have found a new source of power - they draw their energies not from the plants and animals of home, but from the alien environment of the new world.")

2. Psionics/Magic, I prefer: some colonists trained in arcane magic in their previous world, "Natives" train in psionics. Both work in this world. Both are "Spell-Like Abilities"

3. Tech level, I think it is to early to decide that.

4. You can have ANY race you want as the Dominant race in YOUR REGION (I do suggest that the Blues didn't gate in, but that some goblins started turning blue after they arrived.)

5. I like the idea of goblin PC's also. (As you could probably guess from my Goblin-a-day thread)

6. Enslaved elves, so that's where they got a gate

 

[Scorpio]

At this stage, I tend to agree with both of you.(How's that for diplomacy?).
Perhaps the settlements should be older, say 200 years-time to get 'settled in'...that also provides a time frame where the settlers will have dissassociated themselves from the old world...I like the idea of not having a 'magic-saturated' world, and 'bringing' thier own religious beliefs from the Old World...

As an aside, for names,titles,and such, how do you feel about using a perversion of Latin/Common(Read:English) as the basis for the Human language here, assuming this world will be 'documented' from the settler's point of view, with the newly discovered native languages scattered as names of native territories,towns,cities, natural features,etc. I'm proposing this from a mapping standpoint, as a point of reference....
For instance, I came up with Antea (meaning 'before' or 'formerly')
or Antelucanum (meaning before the daybreak) as possible names for the Old World-'newly' named, of course, by the settlers who only have a passing or distant memory of the previous world...just an idea....

 

[Argent Silvermage]

As for the "gods" issue. I ran a campaign a few years ago where there were no dieties. All magic was interlinked it was the caster who deternimed what kind of magic they could use.
Arcane magic was as it is in normal D&D.
Divine magic came from all around. There are spirits that make up all things and beings attuned to those spirits are able to call upon their power.
An example is A cleric with domains in water and protection. His Diety/Spirit is the Oasis. He works just as any cleric but he is magicaly linked to the protective powers and water that make up the oasis.
Another would be a Cleric of Strife with domains in war and evil.
do you understand ofr do I need to clarify?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

But this can still be the case for two reasons.
First the new arrivals are still busy with the tasks of establishing viable settlements, surviving in a hostile world, building an economy and making contact with other colonies to be worried about exploring the gates

Second the Gates work both ways and active use of the them can let Big Bads through as much as letting the PCs out

Third the energy required to use the gates may not be readily available in the current situation - the 50 yr old Settlements will be no where near the capacity needed to build Nexus Towers and cities in the Millions in order to power the Gates

I can live with that - but we should probably keep this deep, deep, deep in the background. After all, how many PCs are going to start at the high level neccessary to explore the gates?

I agree with having many older civilisations but not neccesarily on the issue of Evolutionary paths. I'd say Sahuagin and Lizardfolk are a different evolutionary route to Humans or Orcs but all of them are Humanoid.

OK, but then we should mention additional features in the physiological make-up in these creatures (additional digits, extra joints, and so on) that show clearly that these beings evolved elsewhere. Nothing that impacts game statistics, mind you - these things should mainly serve as a remainder that These Beings Are Not From Here.

Also I tend to subscribe to the theory that intelligent life (as humans would recognise it) that could survive on the same world as humans would probably evolve on earth-like worlds and along similar routes (ie opposable thumbs and fine manipulators (hands), and upright gait, omnivirous diet, complex social groups with young bounding with adults in a parent-child relationship - ie humanoids)

Ah.

Well, while I personally don't subscribe to that belief (I think making any prediction about intelligent life forms on other planets before we actually get to meet them is premature...), this is D&D, after all...

Still, "humanoid" covers a wide ground, and we should make sure for this purpose that "lizardmen", for example, have little in common with terrestrial lizards except for a superficial resemblance...

Question

1. If there are no 'gods' to grant divine spells - how do clerics/paladins work in this world?

They still exist - the humans (elves, dwarves, etc.) brought them with them.

Personally, I'd like to keep the gods distant, impersonal forces that can only interact with the material plane through their clerics (and maybe a vision or two) - otherwise the question springs up why they didn't prevent the catastrophe (or at least teleported all their worshippers to the new world on their own). A good limitation would be that a god cannot know more than all his followers.

In fact, it should be possible for some of the more sceptic wizards that a cleric's spells are powered by the cleric's will alone, and that the gods are merely some kind of mass delusion... The truth should be unknown

2. Are we going for Psionics sans magic or Psionics with Magic?

The latter, though generally magic is only used by the newcomers, and psionics by the natives (though psionics springs up among the native-born newcomers, which scares a lot of people...).

3. What Tech level(s) are we going to be working with? Would a world in which Da Vincis inventions work be okay? Steamtech? Gunpowder? Lazer blasters!!!

In general, I'd say we should keep it at the "standard" D&D tech level. This ties in with my comments above that we keep the setting accessible - no "change for change's sake".

If we have some Mad Gnomish Steamtech Inventors somewhere, then that's OK - but they shouldn't dominate the setting. Most folks are simply trying to survive, and thus building up a high technology base is the least of their worries...

4. What is going to be the dominant race(s) - I vote Goblins , Hobgoblins and Blues!

Hmmm...

No, I think interest in this setting would be bigger if the setting focuses on the settlements of the "standard" D&D player character races.

"You have been dumped into an alien world and must struggle against the natives in a daily fight to survive!"

"Cool!"

"Oh, and the only races you can play are goblins, hobgoblins, and blues!"

"Huh?"



If we use my idea, we already have our "Big Idea", the thing that makes this setting different from all the others. Saying "goblins and hobgoblins" are the predominant races could be one change too much from standard D&D fantasy...

5. Can we please have Goblins as a playable Race...

Sure, why not?

While most humans are still going to distrust them, at least they aren't natives...

6. Can we please enslave and/or slaughter all Elves- joking

What, completely wrecking their paradisical Island Home isn't enough for you?

I too vote that we take up Jurgens offer to be our gracious host and thank him most profusely for that

My pleasure.

Now we need someone volunteer for the position of Campaign Editor - the guy who reads through all the texts and turns them into something coherent and submits them to me.

(Like I said, starting in March, I might be able to fill this position myself, since I probably will be posted to an Amry university that presumably has internet access. But we need someone to do it until then.)

And, of course, we need a name for it.

Another idea

That we each create a character (say Level 5) who will be the leader of our colonies and who might one day become the Legendary heroes/villains of the world

I think that can wait until we have a rough idea about what kinds of colonies exist...

Another idea: Does anyone here have Fraktal Mapper (or equivalent program) and some experience with it? Then your homework for today () is to generate an interesting world map that serves as the base geography on which we can dump the colonists. Someone who knows a bit about geology and meterology can then figure out where rivers should flow and deserts spread.

And I know of at least one person on this thread who enjoys drawing maps... (Hi, Scorpio! )