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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ralts Bloodthorne" data-source="post: 2928261" data-attributes="member: 6390">Let's take a look at some spells that need handling...If you haven't hit a problem with them yet, don't worry, you will...Shape Alteration Spells, Time Stop, Haste, Creature Summoning Spells, and... believe it or not... Power Word Kill & Other Save or Die spells...These spells have been headaches since 1E. Remember Haste? OMG!Shape AlterationBefore you even begin your campaign, you need to sit down, and THOROUGHLY read the entries for polymorph series, alter self, etc. These things can be a TOTAL headache.Well, it took awhile (till about 1990) but I finally figured out some fixes that work for us. I know, I know, I'm houseruling and varying the RAW, but let's face it, some things NEED fixing to fit in your campaign as opposed to whatever in Hades they were playing in during playtesting...So, here's how it's handled now: Polymorph series allow ONE creature the character can turn into per "version" of the spell they learn. They want to polymorph into a troll, or turn other people into frogs? They better learn/research/beg/borrow/steal/club out of lich the spell polymorph into frog or they ain't doing it.Druid's Wild Shape? One creature per point of Wisdom bonus. (Thank Aphrodite for 3.X's multiple stat bonus setup)Alter Self? One creature per level.That's it. No more. Deal with it.You can extrapolate the rest of it from that list. Did I nerf it? Yup. Has it damaged the campaign or produces howls of protest from some of my players? No and yes. When I told the player he had to produce, RIGHT THEN, a complete stat block for his Wild Shaped druid whenever he changed shape, since HE was the one doing it, making it HIS job, not my job, well, the attitude changed.HasteNothing hacks people down faster than Haste. From the old 2E double attacks to the 3.5 version, it can still drive you nuts.BUT, it's pretty much not worth any more.We left: Double attacks, speed, and actions (yup, that means someone with Haste and Quickened Spell can whip off 3 fireballs in a round. So?) BUT we laid a nice penalty.A Fort Save with a DC based on age category each round. If you fail... You drop to -1 hp and are considered dying. Undead make a Will Save, and if they fail, they are considered to have overloaded their energy and dissipated. (Ties in with our versions of undead)Picture what it's doing to the PC's heart. Ouch. If they blow the save, they die, plain and simple.Haste is now considered an offensive spell by my players, BTW.Time StopRemember the old Gamma World bit where time was frozen inside the park in Pitz Burke? Well...Except for the caster, everything is frozen solid. Nothing inside can be moved or affected by anything else. No casting can happen inside of it, etc.The caster and his buddies can escape and wait outside with pointy sticks and readied spells for it to drop so they can quasi-ambush the victims, but that's it.SummoningGo with the "Named Variant" and keep track in your notes of the summoned creatures. When the spell comes up, BEFORE the PC gets it, show the player what creature(s) they can summon. Let them decide if they want it.Somewhere on ENWorld is an excellent expanded list of summonable monsters.Power Word Kill & Save or Die SpellsSimple. With the exception of something grotesque like Disintegrate, reduce them to -1 hp and 1 Con and they're dying. Require a Heal spell or a Cure Critical Wounds spell to stabilize them, and the rest of the hp require natural healing or regeneration, and they'll require a restoration spell to bring back the Con.With Power Word Kill, well, I feel it's weak, so I amped it back up to the bad old days. Up to 100 HD worth the creatures, starting with the weakest, die. No save, no creature with more than 20 HD is affected.What's all this got to do with you? Simple...Before starting your campaign, do the necessary work of sitting down and looking at the spells, and deciding what, if any changes, need to be made, and let your players know. This will prevent after action nerfing and complaints. Check out these boards, or simply place a post asking what spells have been the biggest headaches for GM's. I'm sure you'll get plenty of responses and examples.Make sure the players are OK with the changes though before you do it. I hated the campaign where the GM told me that my wizard would lose 1 hp per spell level for each spell he cast. I needed a mule full of cure lt wound potions to follow me around, since he did it after we reached 8th level, in order to keep me from fireballing people. This was in 1E, it wasn't like I had a lot of HP's in the first place. I had around 15 (I blew a few rolls)But always remember, you are the final control of what spells the PC's have access to.Hera can be feeling moody, or dislike the PC's hairdo that day, and not grant a spell.The Sorcerer doesn't know that spell unless you allow it.The Wizard can't find that spell if you don't let them.And so on.But be open minded, and trust your players. Warn them if they are starting to annoy you with a certain spell, spell combination, or the way they use a spell. Warn them that you can return the favor any time with your NPCs, since a highly successful tactic gets copied, while ineffective ones cease being taught (I haven't heard of any militaries dressing in bearskins and charging across the battlefield with clubs recently) and the PC's can expect to see it coming at them.It was just pointed out to me, by one of my players, that a lot of this is novice advice stuff, and I might want to include something on starting a homebrew campaign, since the early stages make or break a setting.So, go back up and copy the list.  That's the first thing you need to do.BUT, for the first night, you should do some prep.Grab some paper, and some pencils, and get ready...It's world building time, baby!OK, so, the first thing we're gonna need is where the PC's are going to start. My advice? A population center. Not a big one, or we'll never pry the PC's out of there. Trust me, I've seen players play for THREE YEARS inside a large city.Me: The fence offers to sell you a map to the tomb of the Lost Dwarven Lord engraved on the inside of a breastplate found in the sands of the Great Salt Wastes.Players: And leave the city? NEVER! If we do, we might miss the Countess's party, and I plan on challenging that arrogant elven lord to a duel! Plus, the Guild of Silence might try to stop the Diva's performance again, and the half-orc has almost got her cousin to accept his proposal for marriage.Me: I hate you guys.Them: What?Anyway, we'll give it the basic staples.A wall. I know, in a fantasy setting, most people don't think a wall makes much sense. Well, against fliers and burrowers, it doesn't, but thankfully, they should be pretty rare in the area. Ogres, on the other hand, climb a lot slower with boiling water poured on them. (Plus their easier to eat later)So, we've got our town. Well, it's obviously not going to be out in the middle of nowhere, so let's give it a reason for being there. And a place for the PC's to go...So, let's put it... at the western base of some hills that are covered in trees, and mined by the townspeople, there's a river that abuts the wall to the west, and a trade road north and south of it.Presto. Water, commerce, and industry. This rocks! Now, ALL settlements need that. Water. Commerce. Industry. Even it it's a town well, farming potatoes, and surviving monster attacks, it needs those three. Otherwise, people will just leave.It could just as easy be a lakeshore community that does logging on the nearby forest and has a single road leading to a city a few days walk away. OH! On that, when adding additional settlements later, make sure that each village is only a couple of days walk away from the next one, otherwise they would have vanished from inbreeding. There should be a large city at least a week or two away by cart.Anyway, so, we have our village. You've put the mark for the town (name? Hell, I don't know... You decide) squiggled the river across the page, and marked the hills, right? No? What are you waiting for? Me? I ain't marking down jack! This ain't PBS! (Hey, it's late)OK, what do we put in here.Well, a church, of course. We've got to worship at least ONE god to have us protected from all the bad crap in the world. Let's make it to... ummm... You pick. A neutral at the most, god.Maybe a couple of other churches, but not too many.Now, we need a few stores. Let's go with...BlacksmithCandlemakerBarrel makerCarpenterShoe makerGeneral StoreVegetable stallsButcherLeatherer (tanner, whatever)Hedgewizard (Hmmm, how about 5th level diviner? That work?)That ought to do it.Take your other piece of paper, draw your wall, then do some squares for these buildings.Add a town square.Mark some docks for the river.Oh, crap, add some gates. 3 of them. One to the east, toward the hills, and one for each end of the road. Should we add towers? I don't care, go ahead. Whew, almost forgot.Add a jail. Oh, yeah, add the church. D'OH!OK, good enough to start with.So, more than likely, all the PC's will care about is the general store, the hedge wizard, and the blacksmith.Detail up what can be bought, and the cost. Have the hedgewizard offer potions of healing and Identify services.Oh, crap, I almost forgot. Add 4 taverns. 1 of which is a dive, one services the miners, a ritzy one, and one for traveling merchant caravans. And three inns.Also, in a twist, detail out an old widowed half-orc woman who will allow the PC's to rent the second floor of her little house for a few sp a week.Now, we need something for them to do.Well, they've obviously got guards and a militia. They're 1st level PC's. Anything powerful enough to take over the mines and prevent the town militia from taking it back is going to eat the PC's for a snack...Rats.Yeah, rats.Specifically, moon rats, or maybe demonic rats.Or...A caravan has a serial killer come in with it.OK, so you got it? You got something, right? None of my lame ideas? Cool. Good job.Anyway, onto the CAMPAIGN planning...So, let's add some dwarves. Let's extend the hills to the east a little (about an inch or two on our map) and to the north and south (about a 1/4 to a 1/2" away from the river) of the mines. (NOTE: Map not to scale!) and add some mountains that go from the south tip of the paper to about 1/3 from the top when they turn back into hills for the almost the remaining. The last inch, turn them back into mountains. Surround the mountains with hills. POOF! Dwarven lands.Mark a few dwarf hold entrances.Hmmm, let's add a lake.Stick it in the upper right. That ought to do it.Forest. Oh. yeah. Crap.Ummm... left side of the paper, bottom 3rd, about a 3 inch strip, extend it out to the river. Put a clump of woods on the upper right to about the middle right.There we go.Now, mark the eastern strip of the woods, to about halfway to the edge, as elven lands. Make the hills in the north, up by that hilly mountain pass, the gnomish lands. Oh, yeah, half-orcs. Blast.Ummm... Orcs are known to lair in the southern reaches of the mountains. There, how's that? Put some half-orc villages down by the road in the southern section.Presto. Now your races are accounted for. Hey, what? I'm just showing you how I whip one up in a hurry.Hmmm.. Now, let's add another road. This one will follow the curve of the western forest, arc up through the hilly pass, then follow the north eastern forest boundary. Let's make an off-shoot that goes through the forest, and another that goes south.There.At the crossroads of each, put another town.OK, how did all this crap get here?OK, after the glaciers receded, humans.... naw... too far back. I'm not dealing with 3,000 years right off the bat...OK, when the Old Empire collapsed, these small cities were left to fend for themselves. Nobody knows why the Old Empire collapsed, just one day the trade stopped coming, tax men no longer came, and the Imperial Soldiers never came back.But nothing happened to these towns.Several keeps and strongholds of the old empire fell to marauding creatures, and a dragon that lives in the northernmost section of the mountains obliterated the two mountain keeps and once in awhile demands tribute from those using the roads in about a 3" radius. (That works)Some trolls hang out on the fringes of that northern forest, but since some fire wizards ripped them a new one, they kind of stay away from the road.Some cities went to war, so there is a few ruined cities, and abandoned roads... (Let's make an off shoot on the western road that goes to a ruin in the hills, and annotate it as a poor condition road, maybe use a dashed line instead) An offshoot in that forest and another ruin.In the last 100 years, very little travel and news comes from the south. Huh, how do we pull this off? OH! I got it! Make a seacoast. There. OK, the Old Empire ruled from across the sea (in the GM notes, mark it an inland sea) and eventually the ships stopped coming. The big travel boats went off to see what happened, and never came back, so everyone decided it wasn't their problem.OK, so the Old Empire collapsed, and many people reverted back to worshipping the Gods they worshipped before the Old Empire showed up and made them all worship the Nordic and Greek pantheons. So the return of the PHB Gods occurred, and hardly anyone worships the Norse and Greek pantheons.So, that covers the last century.Wait? No? Fine. Be that way.OK...So, about 100 years ago, a young bloodthirsty guy got enough soldiers and wizards behind him to establish nominal control of the three cities, destroy a bunch more, and make everyone kneel to him. So our town has a governor, and the capital is off our map to the North.let's call it....Calintran. The City of Eagles. (Good enough, none of the local rubes know jack about it)The recent king's name is: King UshlanHe's known as being fairly aggressive, and there's rumors that the king is having the armies push his northern border forward into the untamed wilderness that has fallen into disuse since the fall of the Old Empire. (This was the Southern Center of the Old Empire's northern provinces)So most of the soldiers left about 3 years ago, as did about 3/5 of the able bodied men.HAH! Now we've got why the adventurer's are around. But why aren't they in the army? Ummm....Crap.They were. They were drafted to guard the docks till last week. Now they're released from military service, and granted Adventurer's Writ's and Weapon/Magic permits. TA-DAH!So, we have a starting base. We have some history. We have where the major races live, a feudal system, some background action.Hell, we're ready for tonight's game.And it only took me about 30 minutes.See how I did it? Kind of step by step.If you start building your campaign setting like that, you could do worse. Of course, you might look at it and go: "Jeez, what a lame bunch of crap." or you might say: "What the hell? How did he go from a blank piece of paper to that?"Either way, maybe it helps you, maybe it doesn't.Tomorrow morning I'll check the comments, and maybe even do a quick adventure. IE: "How the Party Got Beat Up"OK, let's assume you've drawn up a cool map of the known world, have nations tagged on it, rivers, mountains, major forests, deserts, etc.You still have some things to answer: Where do the major races live? Their major population centers, that is. How old is the largest kingdom, and how big is the largest city? How big are each of the capitals? What's the type of rulership of each kingdom?You could have early republics quite easily, that are seen as evil and subversive by the large kingdoms and empires that are neighbors. Perhaps it's a lawful evil democracy, where they deny the right to exist for all their neighboring nations.What about ruins? Where did they come from? Was the known world once ruled over by a collection of city-states that made war on one another until certain city-states gained enough power to hammer out kingdoms and defeat nearby enemies? Was it a spanning empire that used the old Mongolian Yan to deliver messages but collapsed due to insanity? Or perhaps the majestic capital city was buried beneath a volcano, or crashed to the ground when the spell suddenly ended, was destroyed by a tsunami sent by the God of the Ocean in order to punish the vast empire for exploring the ocean without giving proper sacrifice and respect to him?Where the ruins came from is vitally important. Perhaps several early nations collapsed, some through magical disaster, some through war, some through intervention by the gods, and some through natural causes.Having a globally spanning cataclysm, while cool, has also kind of been done to death (the biggest example is Dragonlance, which seems to schedule a weekly cataclysm that wipes out all life or destroys the natural order of everything) but it's still a viable reason.Meteor strikes have been done, but what about a globe spanning cataclysm as recent as a few centuries ago that did grind the ancient world to dust and force it's subjects to flee? A mini-Ice age, with effects like The Day After where there were superstorms and the like. Three hundred years ago the glaciers all receded, but the higher mountainous regions are still covered in ice...These are all things that you need to address sooner or later, because the players will start asking questions about the old kingdoms, where the ruins came from, how this lich got there and what it was doing.By having these questions already answered, at least in your own notes, you can quickly reply to your players, and even weave stories based on the party's delving into history.On the SettingOK, first of all, decide on a calendar. You can do normal 365 days, or just 360, with 12 months of 30 days, each month broken down to 10 day weeks. Or whatever makes you the most comfortable.In your campaign book, put a piece of graph paper and annotate a quick calendar, complete with months and phases of the moon.I'd advise only 1 moon, anything more than 1 or 2 and tides are a bummer to figure out, LOL.Now, with your calendar, you can track time, and seasons. Having these in there can really make a big difference in the feeling of the campaign. Having the seasons change, the moon change, monsters migrating, etc, can really add in adventures and sub-arcs.Name each month, then add a calendar name and a commoner name. Tag down some generic holidays the world over, and have done with it.Now, photocopy it (or print it out again) and hand a copy to each player. Also, don't forget to hand out the sheet with standard modes of dress and any odd customs. This way the players can read it on their own time, or remain ignorant, of their own devices.When deciding on your various kingdoms, give them varied construction styles and styles of dress. History is full of all kinds of different modes of dress, and Egyptian style is quite different from 300 BC construction.Try something a little different with some of the kingdoms, and get away from psuedo-European Hovel-esque style architecture. Go with some kingdoms having a road and aqueduct system ala the Roman Empire, have a few with the kind of monument building like Egypt.Have the dress pattern of one of Earth's ancient kingdoms mixed with the mannerisms of another and the construction style of a third. Mix and match, it will give a feeling of familiarity to your players at the same time as giving the feeling of the exotic.Use modified real world governments for your various kingdoms. For example, I once made a civilized kingdom of orcs follow a Czarian government, with Greek architecture and 10th Century Japanese dress, and Nordic weaponry. The eclectic mix of everything gave the players a sense of familiarity and wonder at the same time. Having the "Emperor" who was more like the Czar of Russia circa 1800's, with titled land owners, etc, all owned by "The State" (a slight mix of communism within it) created a government they could understand, but slightly different.Now, with a world where Gods wield power, or grant powers to worshippers, we really need to look at how governments interact with religion.Having a "State Religion" isn't too much of a stretch in a mageocracy, or even a theocracy. Any other religions would be considered heretical, and would ahve to remain hidden (Think of the Christians in ancient Greece) and their worshippers hunted and killed, sometimes for sport.With such clearly defined races that differ by more than mere skin color or facial features, there are going to be ethnocentric kingdoms, some of which will be quite xenophobic.What if we had a race of kobolds who followed the Egyptian Mythos, and ran their government like the ancient Mongols, dressed in frock coats, knee high boots, tri-corner hats, and cotton breeches, and were xenophobic and guarded their borders like the Cold War Soviet Union? What if they were sitting on top of easily accessible copper, iron, tin, etc, and this made them into an economic powerhouse? To top it off, they held elven and orcish slaves, and used hobgoblin overseers to watch over these slaves? Make the Lawful Evil (remember, alignments as listed in the MM are tweakable) population slavish devotional to the "Pharoah", who, after all, is descended directly from Ra. Change the kobold's scales to a light bronze color, make it so 1 out of 20 kobolds are a sorcerer, and you have a serious threat for the PC's to be wary of.Tag about 50-100 miles around them as "no man's land" as their raiding parties (who are, of course, rogues and criminals, and the neighboring nations are more than welcome to eliminate such scoundrels...) pillage and burn any settlements within that area.This would be unsettling to the PC's, as it is both familiar, but unexpected because nobody takes kobold's seriously. Make a few kobold specific PrC's and mount some of their forces of saber-toothed tigers, and you've got a long term threat, and even the clouds of war hanging on the horizon.What if, instead of having the ancient and arrogant elven kingdoms that have existed for centuries, the elves fled to this region from across the seas, speaking only that a great calamity destroyed their homeland. Rumor has it that when they landed, they burned their ships and destroyed their charts, taking their meager possessions and scattering. Some of the elves are arrogant, acting as if they are titled lords, while others seem to revel in debauchery and freedom, acting chaotic and scattering to the winds.In Earth history, the Mongols came west, not looking for loot, but fleeing from a Chinese punitive expedition that was going to kick their asses off. What if these elves have fled an unsuccessful rebellion in their own lands. The ones freaking out are ex-slaves and servants, while the arrogant ones and the maudlin ones are ex-nobility who orchestrated. Mixed in, few and far between are the house guard, spies, and soldiers who survived.They've been in the area for 100 years, and nothing has come after them. Those elves who were born in the area, entering the elven equivalence of teen years, are convinced that nothing will happen, and are seeking to reestablish an elven kingdom somewhere. The elves, however, have abandoned their gods, and taken up new ones, mingled into the existing kingdoms, and half-elves have been born.When dealing with ruins, one thing to remember is that ancient Greece, Egyptian and Chinese monuments are impressive to say the least. Take a look at the one Chinese emperor’s tomb where the sea is made of mercury and details his kingdom. A little real world research can show you exotics that far outstretch what most people think would have been possible.Anyway, having these ruins scattered about, relics of a kingdom that collapsed for a reason that nobody cares about any more (magic disaster is waaay overused. Try natural, or maybe they drank out of lead lined cups, or maybe they just all vanished up their own butts one morning) and some buildings are used for far different reasons then they were once meant for.As far as dungeons go, what if it was a volcano, or an ice age, or better yet, a period of global warming or intense UV activity that lasted 100 years? These underground labyrinths, left over from when the surface races fled from the deadly rays of the sun, still exist, although most have forgotten about them, as the exodus from these vast labyrinths was centuries ago.The magic isn't more powerful, but there can be the scattered relic of great power.Asking where artifacts came from. Make up some history on the mages/clerics that crafted them. Yeah, Lum the Mad created some junk, but what ELSE did he do? Why was he called "the Mad"? Where did he once rule? What happened to his kingdom?Answer some of these question, and the campaign starts to breathe with a life of it's own.In deciding what kind of government, mode of dress, present architecture and ancient architecture a kingdom has, you can easily find the kingdom run away from you, and detailing all kinds of things...BUT...There is such a thing as too much detail. Don't go so far overboard that everyone quits caring and you get bogged down trying to remember how many bastard children the halfling Road Lord Geoffrey Longtoes had 2000 years ago. Who cares? Will it REALLY matter?Don't forget universities, ala Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc.Don't forget your nomadic tribes, but don't have EVERY tribe be "noble savages", have some of them be brutal, warlike, destructive clans that act more like humanoid locusts.Don't forget to have some stuff that is incomprehensible to modern times. For example, in the Aztec culture, there are records of hundreds of people signing up, volunteering, to be sacrificed. In a world where the Gods are real, and can and do appear before the faithful, those that demand (demi)human sacrifices wouldn't have to force anyone.Decide just how much the Gods meddle. Yes, aloof and above the mortals is the standard in D&D, but would the TV shows Xena and Hercules been as much fun without watching Ares getting drunk and brawling in a tavern?Have some demi-gods and half-gods that aren't above rolling around the floor exchanging fists in the face with mortals, since they are trying to find ancient relics, prove themselves, and in general, show themselves, more than the other gods, that they are better than mortals.</blockquote>

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