Fast Learner said:
I have a new group who'd like to play, and I'd like to try it with a pre-built campaign setting. I need your knowledge and experience to help me pick one.
My ideals:
1. The magic level isn't super-high. I'm willing to run Forgotten Realms if it's best for the other criteria, but I'd prefer something lower magic.
2. There are adventures available that readily fit the setting. I ran one Nyambe adventure one time, but the lack of sufficient supporting material made it impossible to turn it into a real campaign without a lot of work.
3. There is some kind of "home base" setting available, like a town or city the players spend their downtime and training time in.
4. It's D&D, 3.0 or 3.5. I know there are lots of other great games, but my players have Player's Handbooks and such, and want to play D&D.
Well, I don't think anyone here's going to be surprised when I say you might want to consider the Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting, since it fits all of your 4 requirements.
Low-mid level magic, several adventures with more on the way, several city/regional supplements for a home base, and current products are 3.5 (older products are 3.0 with 3.5 updates on the website.
You might want to also look at
the website and ask on the
discussion forums.
However, I do have some highlights, frequently asked questions and such below...
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HIGHLIGHTS
What are some of the highlights of the
Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting?
1. A
logical, realistic topography. Deserts, mountains, rivers, lakes and forest are all where they belong.
2.
A setting driven by the actions of ordinary men. Thus even a low-level PC can have a profound effect on the world and shape the history with his actions.
3. The
wide variety of races have an extensively detailed history and background, starting from their original migration to the main continent and continuing through the present year. This makes character background easy and interesting to create.
4. The political entities have a similarly detailed background history.
Each governmental body is fully described with their history of war and peace. Thus it is easy to work large military and political conflicts into your campaign.
5. The world of Tellene contains
every type of terrain or obstacle you could desire, and thus a wide variety of locations in which to base your campaign.
6. The setting is
neither under-populated nor over-populated. Monsters and fantastical creatures exist, but they are not so numerous that they begin tripping over each other.
7.
Nothing happens without a logical reason. The explanation is never "that’s just the way it is," or "it's magic – it doesn't have to make sense." Of course, it isn't just this, or just the detail, but the effort to have it all make sense, to take the disparate races of the D&D world and turn them into a coherent whole, with an ecosystem and a history, that makes it work.
8. The Kingdoms of Kalamar is an
extensively supported campaign setting. Currently, we have the campaign setting (the history book of all the lands) and the
Player's Guide, plus two more optional core products (such as a
24-panel Dungeon Master's Screen),
over a dozen adventure modules,
14+ supplements (including an incredibly detailed, realistic-looking
Atlas; plus the recent
Elves and Bugbears and other race books,
2 Living (tournament) products,
fonts, and many more products on the way.
9. The book contains a
large, full color map and hex overlay to accurately measure distance and travel time.
10. Kalamar is an
official Dungeons and Dragons product and therefore is official third edition material, like D&D product from Wizards of the Coast. As well as being edited and reviewed by Kenzer and Company staff, all art and text is also reviewed by WotC in several stages to ensure compatibility.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. What is the setting [Kalamar] like? What makes it unique?
A. Kingdoms of Kalamar is a medieval fantasy setting fundamentally based on realism. Its recent history encompasses the proliferation of six human races (subraces really, since they're all human) throughout the world of Tellene. It also includes all the standard fantasy races of D&D like elves and dwarves and a few new ones unique to Kalamar like half-hobgoblins. In fact, full-blooded hobgoblins are also a prevalent civilized race with their own independent kingdoms.
The most advanced societies use steel including plate armor, and can fashion complex siege weapons. Less advanced groups may still be using bronze or even stone tools. There is no gunpowder. Then again, who needs gun powder when you've got magic? Magic exists, and certainly influenced the history of the world but wizards and sorcerers are not overly common and the average person accepts most unusual or seemingly inexplicable events as the work of one of the gods, rather than arcane magic. In smaller communities, the townsfolk easily confuse wizards and especially sorcerers with clerics, and misconstrue arcane spells as miracles or portents of the gods.
In fact, the pantheon of deities is one of the aspects of the Kingdoms of Kalamar that makes it unique. Just reading the pantheon of Kalamaran deities gives inspiration for untold gaming sessions and adventures to both players and Dungeon Masters alike.
Q. How is the
campaign setting sourcebook different from the previous Kalamar box set from about 10 years back?
A. The new campaign setting supplement has about 50% more material. Nearly every city on the map has been added to, the art has been updated, and the overall presentation is much slicker with a 272-page hardcover book format. There are also a few new goodies like new spells, new armor types, reworked rune sets and languages, new races for player characters, and much more.
The maps are about the same size, but they're a bit brighter, with some minor modifications. They include a compass rose and legend as well as a few other nifty features. And at 272 pages, the book weighs in much heavier than the 188 pages from the last edition. In any case, we think this product is a great buy. We've added so much and after seven years, we only inched the price up $5.
Q. What does ‘based on realism’ mean? How does that make the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting different from other settings, like the Forgotten Realms?
A. Based on realism means that the geography, climate and political interactions follow logical patterns based on previous events. Kalamar is not as dramatically low on magic as Harn, but most inhabitants of the world aren’t exposed to magic on a routine basis. This lets the DM tailor the world to his or her own magic taste. It’s easy to sprinkle in more magic if that’s the way you like to play, but it can be more difficult to take magic out if an entire society or town is based on some magical element. Realism also means that the world was built from the bottom up. We considered plate tectonics, placed mountains based on that, set weather patters and bodies of water, defined migration patterns of early inhabitants and eventually developed the modern societies all in a logical progression. We can contrast this with Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. My understanding of these settings is that they were based on D&D campaigns of Gary Gygax and Ed Greenwood. The players probably started somewhere and the world grew out from there as the DMs needed to fill in the details. This type of top down world is fine if that’s the way you want to play but it can lead to some logical inconsistencies. For example, Kalamar has six human races, each with their own language. Thus, each place that race populates should be named in the language of the people who live there. An exception to this would be if the place was conquered. The place name is often renamed by the victors.
Q. What is the “feel” of Kalamar?
A. Good question. As you’ll see in the first answer above, the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting is medieval fantasy, with geography, politics and such based on realism. This lets the DM determine exactly what feel he or she desires. Tellene features elements common to many popular fantasy works, including J.R.R Tolkien’s Middle-Earth from “the Lord of the Rings,” Robert E. Howard’s Hyboria, from the Conan stories, and the land of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, among others.
The feel of the land depends mostly on what region the player characters are in. For example, the Reanaaria Bay region is standard fantasy common to most other settings, where the human and humanoid races trade among each other and the enemies are mostly bandits, pirates and monsters. Most other lands, however, do not share this view of life. In the Kingdom of Eldor far to the west of the Bay, humans are fiercely proud of their ancestry and strive to keep their bloodline pure, and visitors of other races are persecuted, while the military fights a skirmish war with the elves. In the Theocracy of Slen, to the north, the clerics of an evil god control all, and darkness lies across the land. The Isle of Svimohzia, too, is a study in contrasts. This ancient land of dark-skinned peoples holds cities of magnificent beauty, war-torn lands, and a great looming jungle that devours the foolhardy.
These are only a few examples of the lands of Tellene, of course. I suggest picking up a copy of the campaign setting sourcebook, flipping randomly to one section or another and following the threads that strike your interest. I’ve found that’s by far the best way to experience Tellene, rather than trying to read it straight through and learn about the histories, cities, peoples and politics of every land at once. Just choose a city and work your way out from there. And remember, have fun!
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THE LANDS OF TELLENE
INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATIONS
GODS OF TELLENE
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Feel free to buzz me if you have questions.
