Psion
Adventurer
Edit: This is an old thread about a campaign I was working on. I haven't worked on it for a while, but now I am running it next Friday. Go down to my "BUMP" thread to read my current (and much abbrevieated) thoughts on my campaign. Come back here for the more "big picture" worldbuilding stuff.
The original thread:
Okay, this is my other major worldbuilding project. Unlike my other worldbuilding project, this one is more likely to end up being something that I will run again, but for the time being, the PCs will probably only visit here for a few adventures.
Basically, what I am looking for is an OA style campaign setting. The setting is on a remote continent on my campaign world, specifically the eastern end of a rather large continent.
There are a few historical facts from old games I have to accomodate. There was an old campaign called the sea of glass centered around a sea of glass created long ago by a magical war. On the east end of the sea of glass was an Asian culture that was bent on stamping out nonhuman humanoid races. There was also an honorable human warrior order called the shang.
As a starting point, I pulled out my world builder's guidbook and came up with this:
World Hooks:
Culture: Oriental (obviously)
Historical: Crusades
Historical: Balkanization
The crusades would probably be the racial purging I referred to earlier; the balkanization I rolled and might refer to a three-kingdoms like splintering of one of the major empires.
I rolled in the WBG and chose a few races. Obviously the dominant race was human, and I threw in some OA races where I felt it appropriate.
Here is the "starting point" I came up with. Of course, this is highly mutable, just a place to start. a (?) indicates that I am really ambivalent about the given choice or roll.
Dominant Races:
Human (5 cultures)
Giant (since Oni are giants in OA, this is "Oni") (2 cultures)
Major Races:
Dwarf (Korobokuru) (2 cultures)
Rakshasa (3 cultures)
Vanara (1 culture)
Yuan-Ti (3 cultures)
Gripilli (?)
Lizard Men (?)
Minor Races:
Hengeyokai (2 cultures)
Yeti (2 cultures)
Kenku (tengu) 1 culture
Tasloi (2 cultures)
Naga* (2 cultures)
Hobgoblin (1 culture)
Rishi (aasimar) (2 cultures)
Goblin (Bakemono) (2 cultures)
Sylvan Races* (2 cultures)
Elf* (?) (2 cultures)
Mold Man (?)
Orc (?)
Mammal, hsing-sing (?)
Giant (?)
* - Naga -- I may use both OA naga and classic naga
Sylvan Races - these will probably be OA fey
I am ambivalent about elves, but they were in the sea of glass game, so they may exist somewhere.
I split up the human cultures as follows
Culture 1 - Psuedo mongolian (1 nation)
Culture 2 - Chinese Model* (5 nations)
Culture 3 - Japanese Model* (6 nations)
Culture 4 - Psuedo-arabic**
Culture 5 - Indian Model* (5 nations)
* - these three cultures will use the OA campaign design chapter as a baseline. Of course, there will be tweaks; the Japanese prototype will be adapted to fit an ancient Korea with Sulsa and Hwarang, for example.
** - I will probably make this race into the Ashalan from Creatures of Rokugan, a race of sorcerers from their burning sands setting.
Overall, what I picture is something like an analog of Asia, with a few oddities mixed in. I picture the China analog as being an analog of warring states era China. The empire launched a racial war, but eventually this taxed the nation morally and martially, and it eventually fragmented. The aforementioned Shang will be one of the more honorable states.
The Japan analog will represent nations on a peninsula and a nearby island. In the south will be an india analog (and some smaller nations), beset by teaming jungles filled with Naga and Yuan-Ti, much like the Mahasarpa campaign (in the OA web enhancement)
What to do with Rokugan
I want to lean away from simply sticking Rokugan in the setting. For one, I am fond of any Japan-analog being an island. But the Rokugan books have a ton of ideas and open game content that I can use in this setting. Further, I really like the shadowlands and the taint, but it won't easily fit in physically into the setting. So what am I to do?
I am thinking of pulling the clans apart, and reassebling them in different nations, and parsing out their feats as regional feats that can cover other regions. Frex, a shaolin-type nation might have access to a lot of the dragon clan feats.
Further, I am thinking that the shadowlands may exist, but only intersect the material world at certain points... multiple points, so it may be a plague to several nations.
Any ideas how to flesh this out?
The original thread:
Okay, this is my other major worldbuilding project. Unlike my other worldbuilding project, this one is more likely to end up being something that I will run again, but for the time being, the PCs will probably only visit here for a few adventures.
Basically, what I am looking for is an OA style campaign setting. The setting is on a remote continent on my campaign world, specifically the eastern end of a rather large continent.
There are a few historical facts from old games I have to accomodate. There was an old campaign called the sea of glass centered around a sea of glass created long ago by a magical war. On the east end of the sea of glass was an Asian culture that was bent on stamping out nonhuman humanoid races. There was also an honorable human warrior order called the shang.
As a starting point, I pulled out my world builder's guidbook and came up with this:
World Hooks:
Culture: Oriental (obviously)
Historical: Crusades
Historical: Balkanization
The crusades would probably be the racial purging I referred to earlier; the balkanization I rolled and might refer to a three-kingdoms like splintering of one of the major empires.
I rolled in the WBG and chose a few races. Obviously the dominant race was human, and I threw in some OA races where I felt it appropriate.
Here is the "starting point" I came up with. Of course, this is highly mutable, just a place to start. a (?) indicates that I am really ambivalent about the given choice or roll.
Dominant Races:
Human (5 cultures)
Giant (since Oni are giants in OA, this is "Oni") (2 cultures)
Major Races:
Dwarf (Korobokuru) (2 cultures)
Rakshasa (3 cultures)
Vanara (1 culture)
Yuan-Ti (3 cultures)
Gripilli (?)
Lizard Men (?)
Minor Races:
Hengeyokai (2 cultures)
Yeti (2 cultures)
Kenku (tengu) 1 culture
Tasloi (2 cultures)
Naga* (2 cultures)
Hobgoblin (1 culture)
Rishi (aasimar) (2 cultures)
Goblin (Bakemono) (2 cultures)
Sylvan Races* (2 cultures)
Elf* (?) (2 cultures)
Mold Man (?)
Orc (?)
Mammal, hsing-sing (?)
Giant (?)
* - Naga -- I may use both OA naga and classic naga
Sylvan Races - these will probably be OA fey
I am ambivalent about elves, but they were in the sea of glass game, so they may exist somewhere.
I split up the human cultures as follows
Culture 1 - Psuedo mongolian (1 nation)
Culture 2 - Chinese Model* (5 nations)
Culture 3 - Japanese Model* (6 nations)
Culture 4 - Psuedo-arabic**
Culture 5 - Indian Model* (5 nations)
* - these three cultures will use the OA campaign design chapter as a baseline. Of course, there will be tweaks; the Japanese prototype will be adapted to fit an ancient Korea with Sulsa and Hwarang, for example.
** - I will probably make this race into the Ashalan from Creatures of Rokugan, a race of sorcerers from their burning sands setting.
Overall, what I picture is something like an analog of Asia, with a few oddities mixed in. I picture the China analog as being an analog of warring states era China. The empire launched a racial war, but eventually this taxed the nation morally and martially, and it eventually fragmented. The aforementioned Shang will be one of the more honorable states.
The Japan analog will represent nations on a peninsula and a nearby island. In the south will be an india analog (and some smaller nations), beset by teaming jungles filled with Naga and Yuan-Ti, much like the Mahasarpa campaign (in the OA web enhancement)
What to do with Rokugan
I want to lean away from simply sticking Rokugan in the setting. For one, I am fond of any Japan-analog being an island. But the Rokugan books have a ton of ideas and open game content that I can use in this setting. Further, I really like the shadowlands and the taint, but it won't easily fit in physically into the setting. So what am I to do?
I am thinking of pulling the clans apart, and reassebling them in different nations, and parsing out their feats as regional feats that can cover other regions. Frex, a shaolin-type nation might have access to a lot of the dragon clan feats.
Further, I am thinking that the shadowlands may exist, but only intersect the material world at certain points... multiple points, so it may be a plague to several nations.
Any ideas how to flesh this out?
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