Pitch your homebrew!

[Orius]

The main campaign area was once home to a large human empire which grew corrupt and decadent. After a time, the dwarves ceased trading with the empire, while the elves grew angry with them, and stirred up a barbarian rebellion which ended up shattering the empire. In the time of the campaign, several centuries later, the empire is trying to rebuild, and there are a small number of human kingdoms which are relatively safe. The rest of the area is either wilderness or home to a number of squabbling baronies constantly at war with each other.

In the west, the clerics of the main LG deity have become intolerant zealots, they have established an oppressive theocracy and they and their paladins are on a crusade to convert the people of the land. Their main enemies are the old empire and a city of thieves that prizes its freedom.

In the south, a goblin empire has become far more militant and organized after years of slavery under the old empire. The hobgoblin rulers are now bent on a genocidal campaign againt a neigboring elf kingdom, which may erupt into an even bigger war.

The ancient elf/eladrin kingdom was long ago destroyed in a war which followed the seperation of the elves and drow. The drow created extensive tunnels underneath the elf kingdom, and then collapsed them, sinking most of the kingdom under the sea. The few survivors still live on the islands which remain of the old elven kindgom, but many of them have fled to a new homeland far off in the eastern ocean.

The dwarves are thriving in their realms, but long ago they lived far to the north, in an area that was very rich with mineral wealth. They were driven out by an invasion of powerful dragons and many of them hope to one day reclaim their ancient lands by force.

Between this ancient dwarven homeland and the main campaign area are the Witch-lands, ruled by cruel and evil spell casters. The theocracy wants to unify the main campaign area in part to purge the Witch-lands of its evil. The Witch-lands would pose a greater threat to the main campaign area, but the rulers refuse to cooperate with each other and constantly fight among themselves.

Across a sea from the theocracy is a small collection of primitive and barbarian kingdoms. Beyond these kindgoms is a long, wide, and deep river filled with ferocious predators and beyond the river is the terrible Crystal Desert, created in an ancient cataclysm. The Crystal Desert (which I intended as an area for epic adventuring) is home to many powerful monsters, and very few dare to tread there.

What I had in mind was a campaign where the characters would be able to establish a barony and become lords in their own right, like a traditional campaign, rather than having lots of big kingdoms where there's little room for the players to be large and in charge. So a lot of this may not seem very original or groundbreaking compared to some of the other campaigns here, but I want to run a sort of old-school kind of sandbox world where the PCs have a lot of leeway to shape events.

There's a lot of sources I'm ripping off here. I start with a mix of traditional D&D stuff, and put my own spin on it. I've also recycled a bunch of stuff from earlier campaigns (the main campaign city that's the capital of the empire was the first city I created for a D&D campaign nearly 16 years ago, and it still finds its way into my settings). Then I add stuff from various books and video games that just seem cool or anything else that just strikes my fancy.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Urbis is very, very cool. I've been reading that wiki for years.

Might I point out that Urbis now has its own RSS feed?

It's a bit slow at the moment (since I'm writing my thesis), but hopefully things will pick up once I've finished...

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Terrahausen. An homage to the work and spirit of Harryhausen and to the monstrous creative spirit that should elevate the Monster Manual over the PHB.

Picture the Island in Peter Jackson's vesion of King Kong. All inimical wilderness, terrible monsters, and ruins with no help of Renaissance are simply the signs of a tremendous catastrophe filled gulf that divides the present from the possibility of comprehending what events lead to a world where humanity has no greater scale than the insect.

Now zoom out from that image, and imagine that rather than one Island in a vast sea bordered, at points, by a civil world - one of great prowress and peace those points and those civilizations are the Islands. Adrift in a sea bordered by continents filled with the tremendous nightmares that plagued the films of the 20th century.

A world where cultures are defined not by their achievements but by the specific disasters that degraded them. A world where the concrete is no less extraordinary than the immaterial. A world where the Feywyld and the Shadowfell can be seen shifting across the sky no less invisible than the Aurora Borealis. The last dark and overbright refuges of a world where civilization has dominion in concert with the wyld.

In the world itself civilization spreads like moss on a rock. Slowly and inexorably, but ultimately always at the mercy of the monstrous forces that would brush against it.

There are many heroes who are necessary for people to live and build among the giants, but true adventurers exist as free agents. Kinghts, Magi, and Hierarchs all exist to defend civilization and sustain it, but true adventurers are the tipping points against the monstrous wyld. The few bright edges and terrible plots that walk the paths between holds, that visit the torch to the goblin hold, and blind the eyes of giants.

There is no hope that the world would once again submit to the terrible will of the Cyclopean ancients miserable descendants, but the adventure provides the new world with the eternal reminder that their progeny are no less terrible than the monsters who roam their forefather's ruins.