Homebrew, with heavy influences from Points of Light. And by "points of light," I don't mean the default setting assumptions, I mean the design principle. What are dwarves like in my homebrew? Well, if there aren't any dwarf PCs, and I don't need the PCs to visit any dwarf kingdoms, and if there aren't any dwarves in town, well, then what dwarves are like will be undefined up until the moment I actually need them. I'll focus on just the things that matter to the characters.
My current plan is to use the feywild and/or shadowfell. I'll have each one operate like a pseudo version of the real world, with events in each affecting events in the other. I want to create a plotline where feedback between events on two of the realms has led to some disaster in the real world, where switching back and forth between the two worlds in order to interact with the same locations in both forms is important, and where the game starts out with the other realm being dangerous and mysterious, and where eventually that realm becomes a safe haven from the real world once things really hit the fan.
Something like,
1: Evil Dude has performed the dreaded Dark Ritual to gain power by tapping directly into the Shadowfell, and now undead roam the countryside.
2: The PCs attempt to defeat him in the real world, make gains, but discover that his true source of power exists primarily in the Shadowfell, and must be combatted there.
3: The PCs venture carefully into the Shadowfell, which turns out to be pretty dangerous.
4: They amass power, fight against Evil Dude, and eventually wound him sorely.
5: He uses his Ultimate Weapon, resulting in zombie plague which overruns the PCs region in the real world.
6: But there are no zombies in the Shadowfell, making it safer. The PCs find refuge there, and now make occasional forays into the even-more-dangerous Real World, for supplies, food, and a chance to defeat Evil Dude once and for all.
Something like that. That's a cheesy outline, but you get the idea. Shadowfell could be replaced with Feywild pretty easily, if the nature of Evil Dude is altered. I won't use the whole planar cosmology- I just want a shadow version of reality. I don't need the rest of the baggage to accomplish what I want.
Maybe Evil Dude can only be defeated for once and for all by something accessible in the Feywild, so the PCs must journey from their refuge in the Shadowfell into the Real World, then to the even more dangerous Feywild, and back. Who knows?
My current plan is to use the feywild and/or shadowfell. I'll have each one operate like a pseudo version of the real world, with events in each affecting events in the other. I want to create a plotline where feedback between events on two of the realms has led to some disaster in the real world, where switching back and forth between the two worlds in order to interact with the same locations in both forms is important, and where the game starts out with the other realm being dangerous and mysterious, and where eventually that realm becomes a safe haven from the real world once things really hit the fan.
Something like,
1: Evil Dude has performed the dreaded Dark Ritual to gain power by tapping directly into the Shadowfell, and now undead roam the countryside.
2: The PCs attempt to defeat him in the real world, make gains, but discover that his true source of power exists primarily in the Shadowfell, and must be combatted there.
3: The PCs venture carefully into the Shadowfell, which turns out to be pretty dangerous.
4: They amass power, fight against Evil Dude, and eventually wound him sorely.
5: He uses his Ultimate Weapon, resulting in zombie plague which overruns the PCs region in the real world.
6: But there are no zombies in the Shadowfell, making it safer. The PCs find refuge there, and now make occasional forays into the even-more-dangerous Real World, for supplies, food, and a chance to defeat Evil Dude once and for all.
Something like that. That's a cheesy outline, but you get the idea. Shadowfell could be replaced with Feywild pretty easily, if the nature of Evil Dude is altered. I won't use the whole planar cosmology- I just want a shadow version of reality. I don't need the rest of the baggage to accomplish what I want.
Maybe Evil Dude can only be defeated for once and for all by something accessible in the Feywild, so the PCs must journey from their refuge in the Shadowfell into the Real World, then to the even more dangerous Feywild, and back. Who knows?
