[Pathfinder] RPG homebrew game (closed)

[Scott DeWar]

hmmm, what would propell the ships accross the space between the shards?

thoughts?

edit: Scotley brought up some good points
Starting level? I am thinking first, but open to suggestions and good back story why.
Starting gear?
I would prefer to stay with the raw iaw d20 pf rpg ogl srd (do you like all the acronyms?)
Scotley: I would like some details on gods the world as you get to them...

What do you all think? Input?

 

[Shayuri]

Air. The "space" that the fragments of the world hang in has air in it. The former atmosphere of the world. What's more, although there are all kinds of eddies and currents from the giant chunks of rock moving around, there is also a persistant wind that blows from the Light, towards the Void. So sailors can use that wind, and others, to tack around and go from shard to shard.

The key is what provides a ship with lift to escape the gravity of a shard?

My original design stated that gravity in this world has very different properties than in ours. It's a static field, for one...meaning that it's the same intensity all through it. It doesn't gradually get weaker. It also doesn't have a long range. The range of a shard's gravity is loosely based on the size of the shard. The final difference is that gravity is only radiated by shards (that is, a fragment of the Old World), and it only attracts matter that is NOT shards. In fact, shards -repulse- each other kind of like similar magnetic poles.

So! The key to airships is that they incorporate a small shard in their construction. This not only provides a small gravitational pocket around the ship (small in size, but its intensity is constant, like all gravity), but it provides a lift source when near large shards...and it protects a ship from collisions with small ones.

 

[Scott DeWar]

You want outside the box? Let me just shotgun a few wild, weird ideas at you...kick this brainstorm up a notch...

1) Shatter - There was once, a long time ago, one world on which dwelled all people in peace and harmony. Then something broke the world as if it was fine porcelain, shattering it into a giant debris field suspended between the great white glow of the Light, and the all consuming maw of the Void; where the survivors of the cataclysm cling to what fragments of the Old World still have soil enough to grow things, and water enough to drink. Self-propelled vessels cross the space between shards, to trade or...more often...raid neighbors for what they have. And all the while, piece after piece is slowly drawn into the Void, never to be seen again.

3) Old vs New. In a world where dark forces lurk in every shadow, where the dead must be burned to stop them from rising to feast on the living, the power of nature and the Mysteries of the druids are all that hold back the dread tide. But to this world comes the spark of revelation...a god whispers in the ear of his prophet, and grants him light to fight the corrption. But as the new faith grows, how will the druids react? Conversely, what steps will the new church take to carve out its place? If the forces of good make war on each other, who benefits more than evil?

I have some time to think on this. I like 1 and 3. Here is what I am thinking:
shattered world- the only way to traverse from one piece to another is from teleport spells. prior to the shattering there were teleportal that were set up between wizards, but afterr the shatteriong the se wizards dissappeared. Many of their dwellings are in ruins, butsome have found the tleportals still in working order.

Mostly.

Some times the person ends up at a different tele-portal or even in 'uncharted land'.

The tele-portals are 'aimed' by using crystal keys that must be inserted correctly in order to get to where you are going. (this is a good thing for the trait: Scholar of Ruins to be of connected use).

Where to find the keys?
where to find information on ht proper use of said keys?

Many search and scour the lands looking for the answers to these very questions.

on one or more "islands" there were greater tragedies where the dead are roaming freely... (enter number three idea, maybe)

 

[Shayuri]

Interesting! Kind of a Stargate feel to it then!

Perhaps the Old World was a very high magic world, crisscrossed by these portals that were used for everything from foot traffic to shipments of goods and materials. The portal network is what held the Old World together!

Then something happened... Some people say that the mage-kings finally crossed the line, and invoked the wrath of the gods. Others hear that the portals were somehow inverted so that they shoved away instead of bringing together. Still others swear that it was the Void itself...that the day it arrived and took up its place on the opposite side of the sky from the Light, the world was rocked by shaking and quaking, and finally was ripped asunder!

For a long time the shards developed in isolation. No one knew how to cross the space between. They could only gaze upward and watch other pieces of the world twirl and tumble through the sky. But on the remains of the Old World were ruins of the Old Kingdom. And one day, an intact portal was found...

--

I like the notion that each destination can be something entirely different. Cannibal halflings on that shard. Elves riding mastodons on another. Maybe on shards near the Void, you get lots of undead. Maybe there's two shards so close together that you can fly between them on the backs of giant eagles...and the inhabitants of them are at war with each other.

So many options for just one setting.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Yessss! soo many options!! my mind is teetering on
madness!
ahem, sorry about that.

I like where this is going. What about the others?

 

[Scotley]

Hey sounds like a very interesting place and definitely 'outside the box' or sphere. I'd be up for adventuring there. It certainly gives you some interesting environments to play with.

Not to add to your madness <cue insane organ music>, but here are some thoughts that immediately sprang to mind: What about molten parts of the world? What do those shards look like now?

Could some shards have little on the outside but be riddled with passages and caverns on the inside? Maybe the inside of some shards doesn't even connect with the outside and thus you have two very different environments in one shard.

Are there watery shards as well? Perhaps some of the shards abut watery places such that you could sail on water from one shard to another like a river or sea? I am seeing ribbons of water that sometimes lead to other places and sometimes are only dead ends. This would allow some kingdoms or even empires to appear in places where the shards connect and for trade to take place, but to go beyond you need portals and keys.

Presumably the finding or making of such portals and keys would lead to considerable power. I would think that most of such things would be in the hands of the local powers--whatever passes for government or rulers on a particular shard. However, it might be interesting to have a group of scholarly types who use keys to explore and gather information. They've managed to remain independent and influential as an organization because they know more about world at large than most people who's world view is limited to the couple of shards they've visited/inhabited. Of course a member of such an organization who went Rogue would make for an interesting villain. Sorry can't go breaking your rule about giving the DM ideas...

Better quit before I do any more harm to the players with my thoughts.

 

[Shayuri]

This is just my take...the whole shattered world idea is one I've been tinkering with for quite awhile for my own use, so it's very nice to see it gain some wings...but water would have mostly fallen to one of the shards by now, since gravity affects it normally. Of course, there could be a shard out there that's fairly small, and "filled up" is gravitational envelope with water, creating a sphere of water with a solid core. Now just add ancient ruins and a portal down there, and you have a fun environmental challenge.

I would also venture to say that one reason the portals are so valuable is that they pretty much all lead to pockets of the Old Kingdom, which mean ancient magic and treasures (and traps, and guardians)...many of which can't be accessed any other way.

The possibility of establishing a multi-shard empire is probably also attractive to some.

 

[Scott DeWar]

. Of course a member of such an organization who went Rogue would make for an interesting villain. Sorry can't go breaking your rule about giving the DM ideas...

Better quit before I do any more harm to the players with my thoughts.

<cue insane organ music>

Are there watery shards as well? Perhaps some of the shards abut watery places such that you could sail on water from one shard to another like a river or sea? I am seeing ribbons of water that sometimes lead to other places and sometimes are only dead ends. This would allow some kingdoms or even empires to appear in places where the shards connect and for trade to take place, but to go beyond you need portals and keys.

Presumably the finding or making of such portals and keys would lead to considerable power. I would think that most of such things would be in the hands of the local powers--whatever passes for government or rulers on a particular shard. However, it might be interesting to have a group of scholarly types who use keys to explore and gather information. They've managed to remain independent and influential as an organization because they know more about world at large than most people who's world view is limited to the couple of shards they've visited/inhabited

Water filled shards are always possible. This "world view" is so malleable that anything pretty much goes. If a ball of molten core is a shard, it may lead to a dimension of pure flame element .. .. .. ..

I was also thinking the crystal keys would be associated with a rune and a crystal color, some locations require more then one key even. To find the rune of the far portal one would have to go to the far portal to find out what the key comb is. This idea on the tele-portals is not mine, it is the collaboration effort of two minds, only one of which is a sane and stable mind.

Leif, scottley, Glasseye and mowgly, what do you guys think? Jkson and Walking dad, i know you are lurking about, what do you think?

 

[Leif]

Sorry about all the emails, lately, Shayuri. I thought I was the only one getting them. *sigh* Anyway, I hope that our new guy calms down with the emails immediately. Or, did I send them? Didn't mean to!

 

[Scott DeWar]

by the way leif, you can discuss freely here now, and not have to send me e-mails any more.