Non Conventional Campaign Settings

[Ashy]

To echo Darrin in regards to Oathbound, there is also some free stuff for download for the CS - such as an awesome adventure (Waters of Akaya - see below) that *HE* penned! You can get all the stuff here:

http://www.bastionpress.com/oathbound.htm - General Setting Overview

http://www.bastionpress.com/Downloads/Oathbound%20Preview.pdf - Free Oathbound Preview!

http://www.bastionpress.com/downloads.htm#Oathbound - free adventure (Waters of Akaya), free map, free calendar, and a Oathbound GM screen!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Why do so many huge cities exist and how do the inhabitants get enough food?

Well, first of all, huge cities exist in Urbis because there is a very big incentive for rulers to have them - the so-called Nexus Towers.

These are large magical constructs that draw on the life energy of everyone who lives nearby (how much life energy depends on how greedy the rulers are - the settings range from "barely noticeable" to "death camp"...) and convert it into magical energies, which can be used to either create magic items, or cast epic-level spells - with the aid of Nexus Towers, even non-epic spellcasters can do it! You can find the exact mechanics here.

So the more people you have within a confined area (the range of a Nexus Tower), the more magical energy you get. So naturally, most rulers will try to cram as many people as possible into their cities.

So, how do all those teeming masses get fed? Well, farming isn't done by small farms run by families of serfs anymore - instead, most crops are planted on huge plantations tended to by armies of migrant workers, and the plantation owners are always seeking ways of maximizing their harvests. Casting epic-size plant growth spells (powered by Nexus Towers...) is pretty much the standard. All that yields crop yields that are pretty much comparable to modern ones.

The remaining problem is transportation - the food not only has to be created, it has to get to all those starving masses as well. Well, it is easy (and comparably cheap!) to hire a couple of thousands of people to dig a new canal or two where nature didn't place a convenient river, or built a new railway (rails tend to be pulled by teams of quadrupedal stone golems)...

The city-states of Urbis are a constant drain on the surrounding areas - they consume food, raw materials, and even people. But competent rulers (and any others don't survive for long in their jobs) can keep the whole system going.

All in all, I think this creates a quite different setting than what you may be used to from the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, or Dragonlance...

 

[Enceladus]

Can anyone recommend any non conventional D20 campaign settings that are out there for sell or for free download?

What are you playing in now?

Interesting new ideas for gaming such as a campaign setting where the characters in the game are actually in a dream world or something.

That ghostwalk thing coming out might be what you're looking for.

 

[L0rd_Dark0n]

Thanks for all the awesome replies everyone. Would have posted sooner, only my phone line's been down since last friday But I'm back now. As for the games that I'm in now, I'm currently running a Ravenloft campaign that'll be coming to a hiatus here pretty soon; have recently finished running a generic homebrew campaign; and have recently finished playing in another homebrew campaign (fantastic DM on that one) and switched to Exalted (very cool that). As for the ones that I considered "standard" like Scarred Lands (fantastic work as well) I'm looking for something where maybe things are really different as in the world isn't round, or the characters are actually only dream individuals. Maybe a campaign completely where the world is like the elemental plane of Air, and the only land is huge chunks drifting around. I just wanted to see what ideas everyone had because I want to continue DMing a campaign, but I want something quite a bit different. I like using the standard races, and I don't really want any more races as these suffice for me and my players, we're just looking for a different type of playground I suppose. I'll have to check out Ghostwalk, and I'm hearing awesome things about that Midnight setting. I'm going to check them out as well. If anyone else has any other ideas, please toss them out.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

I'd recommend my own, but I just took most of the material off-line in order to revamp for 3.5.

Full settings I own (and will recommend):

If you like dark themes, I recommend MEG's Gothos (The Hunt).

If you like dark and gloomy with the PCs challenged by the very environment, try Midnight. If my own campaign wasn't in full-swing, I'd be running that one.

Nyambe functions like D&D, but presents a "fantasy Africa" with different classes, races, magic and the like.

If you like kinda dark but quite twisted, go Oathbound.

I own the top three (great stuff to gleam from it even if you don't play in them), and I play in the fourth (I don't own any of the material because, well, I like surprises, and I've been very surprised by it, although I'm sure my DM using a few monster books I promised not to buy/read helps to a degree).

Scarred Lands is close to standard D&D in several regards but does have some cool twists that catch my interest when I probably should be buying other things.

Sovereign Stone has a few unique qualities that you might like, but it fails to catch my interest as a setting (some nice alternate magic rules, though...).

Ravenloft has some nice bits, but, like Sovereign Stone, has a few setting-specific elements I'm not that keen on.

Also, while Planewalker.com has the Planescape conversion (recommended earlier), you might check out Athas.org for the Dark Sun conversion (like Planescape, you'll need to get some of the fluff via the 2E pdf downloads, and I personally would ignore the last 10 years of "history" in order to keep the setting uber-harsh, but it is a kewl setting either way).

Arcana Unearthed shows promise, but as stated earlier, how defined it will be is unknown (or I simply don't know myself; check MonteCook.com for more info...).

 

[Taloras]

Hmm....have you thought of trying a waterworld campaign setting? Im about to start work on one soon (as im not playing anything currently, ive got free time). If anyone is interested, i might consider putting it online...

 

[fba827]

(I haven't read all the posts in this thread yet so this may have already been said).

But something like Ghostwalk may be what you want -- I know little about it since it is just on the verdge of being released.. but, from my understanding, you can have the characters essentially be ghosts and still adventuring, etc. (or something like that).

 

[Southern Oracle]

I have to give props to both Planescape and Oathbound as unique and challenging settings. I also think Ghostwalk would be a unique approach. Pinnacle put out Hostile Climes: The Depths of Despair which is a city at the bottom of a whirlpool -- I haven't done anything with it, but it certainly appears to be an interesting base for an underwater campaign with non-aquatic heroes.

 

[Rahkan]

Planescape is definitely the gosh-darned coolest setting I've ever seen. Something about that setting, maybe the wacky creativity of it all, lets the imagination really run free. Not to mention that mimir.net was (and will be when it gets back up) the best D&D site in the universe. And SIGIS was definitely the most creative zine to ever run for 34 issues. You can get all the old books at svgames.com for five bucks each and Manual of the Planes and the Fiend Folio do a decent job of updating the relevant parts to 3e.