Ugh, fighting over canon. The absolute worst. We're playing my Traveller, not all the bloody Traveller you've ever read.
Tell me about your Homebrewed Settings?
Li Shenron
Legend
I have basically run only Forgotten Realms and Rokugan as "standard" settings, everything else has been homebrew.
But while in early days of DMing (~20 years ago) I would take a couple of evenings to design a fantasy setting from the top-down (only to be played a few months at best), I have eventually settled to just running games bottom-up i.e. start locally and add material as adventures pile up, meaning that my homebrews are a hodge-podge of various published settings that we happened to pick some adventure from, plus made up stuff to fill the gaps.
dragoner
KosmicRPG.com
My Solis People of the Sun setting started as a Traveller game, it's near future, near space, real star maps (the original box); before that, I had a game called Beyond the Frontier, it was set in 1323, after doom had come to the Imperium, and in some frontier sectors Spinward of the Marches.
Last fantasy was with Mythras repurposing Caverns of Thracia as Caverns of Cyrene, and using parts of Mythic Constantinople, so fantasy Earth. I have done that before, as the whole area of mid-fifteenth century Balkans/SE Europe is ripe for adventure. I like maps, I did post one over at RPG Geek: Map of 1444 Europe
Last fantasy was with Mythras repurposing Caverns of Thracia as Caverns of Cyrene, and using parts of Mythic Constantinople, so fantasy Earth. I have done that before, as the whole area of mid-fifteenth century Balkans/SE Europe is ripe for adventure. I like maps, I did post one over at RPG Geek: Map of 1444 Europe
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Currently in the Empire of Tu-Anziko which sits on the Northwestern coast of the Great Inland Sea (Alternate Africa if the Congo Basin (and Lake Chad) were flooded).
Note - I don’t have African heritage and have only researched myths but its inspired by a combination of the Epic of Sundiata Keita and Philip Jose Farmer’s Chronicles of Opar.)
Note - I don’t have African heritage and have only researched myths but its inspired by a combination of the Epic of Sundiata Keita and Philip Jose Farmer’s Chronicles of Opar.)
Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Like @doctorbadwolf, I have ongoing campaigns for both Eberron and the Forgotten Realms, but I also do have my own homebrew world called Tor-eal. It's a far-future version of the Forgotten Realms where the Blood War ended, the Devils conquered all of the Outer Planes (and Astral), and most of the gods are dead (only a dozen or so remain).
My world only has the Inner Planes (and Ethereal Plane, and an added Dream Realm, and the Far Realm still is out there), but all of the planes are highly developed and important to the setting. The Shadowfell in my world is home to a holy war between the followers of the Raven Queen (Shadar-Kai, Risen Kenku, Shadowfell Firbolgs name "Sharbolgs") and the followers of Vecna (Two undead-touched races, one for incorporeal undead and another for corporeal undead, Vecna's hordes of undead, the Dhampir). The Feywild is home to the Archfey and the Courts of Seelie and Unseelie, as well as quite a few player options (Fairies, Satyrs, Dryads, Centaurs, Fey-Goblinoids known as Boggartkin). The Plane of Dreams was created by an invasive Elder Evil from the Far Realm that transformed the Demiplane of Nightmares into a way for it to study and experiment mentally upon mortals while they're sleeping using its aberrant servants (Dream Watchers, giant floating eyeballs that shoot eyerays of psychic energy, and Dream Snatchers, giant floating hands with a thumb on each side that grab dreaming souls for their experiments).
The Elemental Planes are where many magical resources come from, like Adamantine from the Elemental Plane of Earth (which is mined by a race of Dwarves that gradually merged with Earth Genasi), water and food from the Elemental Plane of Water (which is inhabited by Merfolk and Locathah), and magical, always hot furnaces for blacksmiths from the Elemental Plane of Fire (which is home to Firenewts, Volcann Goliaths, and and Azers). The Celestials that survived the conquering of the Outer Planes by the Devil Legions emigrated to the Elemental Plane of Air and founded a society of angels, archons, and couatls there (including many Aasimar, Air Genasi, Aarakocra, and Couatl-Yuan-Ti inhabitants).
The Material Plane is a diverse land, basically the "melting pot" of races, with many of them having very unique cultures. Goblinoids have a Magocratic-Theocracy where they worship magic and have crusades against aberrations and psionic peoples, Minotaurs have conquered all of the major forests and banished the Elves to the Arctic (they also have an extremely militaristic and dictatorial society, and are obsessed with both mazes and gold for some reason), Orcs generally worship Ubtao (who is now the God of the Wilds) and are the protectors of nature (having a rivalry with the Minotaurs), and so on. There's also a few new races, like the Golmeng (golem-people with 5 different subraces for different types of golems; Chelmic for alchemically-made clay-golem-people, Immurts for adamantine/iron-golem-people, Gragnef for stone-golem people, Jemlin for gem-golem-people, and Prysmex for glass-golem-people), Felshen (psionic people descended from a now-extinct race of flesh-golem-people that were a 6th subrace of Golmeng, and now have a religious rivalry with the magic-worshipping Goblinoids), and the Ecubi (Incubus/Succubus descended people with wings and shape-changing abilities).
The world is also split into a bunch of different nations, like Lantanea (far-future Lantan that has developed extremely advanced technology that they've combined with magic and is home to many artificers and where the Golmeng and Felshen were originally created), Wadhaven (a democratic-nation that stretches from Waterdeep and is bordered by the High Forest and Neverwinter), Nevumber (a dystopian nation centered on Neverwinter ruled by a triumvirate of dictator-mage-kings, where teleportation magic in or out of the country is impossible, with giant, 200-foot-tall metal walls surrounding the whole nation), Sylvarin (think a future version of the Silver Marches with a half-elven monarchy and a parliament). There's also a Draconic Empire (northeast of the Silver Marches), kingdom of Giants (south of Waterdeep, north of Baldur's Gate), and a diverse swath of nations/towns for the main races/species in the game.
It's a huge kitchen sink, and I have way too much lore about it, but I like huge kitchen sinks and lore, and so do my players.
My world only has the Inner Planes (and Ethereal Plane, and an added Dream Realm, and the Far Realm still is out there), but all of the planes are highly developed and important to the setting. The Shadowfell in my world is home to a holy war between the followers of the Raven Queen (Shadar-Kai, Risen Kenku, Shadowfell Firbolgs name "Sharbolgs") and the followers of Vecna (Two undead-touched races, one for incorporeal undead and another for corporeal undead, Vecna's hordes of undead, the Dhampir). The Feywild is home to the Archfey and the Courts of Seelie and Unseelie, as well as quite a few player options (Fairies, Satyrs, Dryads, Centaurs, Fey-Goblinoids known as Boggartkin). The Plane of Dreams was created by an invasive Elder Evil from the Far Realm that transformed the Demiplane of Nightmares into a way for it to study and experiment mentally upon mortals while they're sleeping using its aberrant servants (Dream Watchers, giant floating eyeballs that shoot eyerays of psychic energy, and Dream Snatchers, giant floating hands with a thumb on each side that grab dreaming souls for their experiments).
The Elemental Planes are where many magical resources come from, like Adamantine from the Elemental Plane of Earth (which is mined by a race of Dwarves that gradually merged with Earth Genasi), water and food from the Elemental Plane of Water (which is inhabited by Merfolk and Locathah), and magical, always hot furnaces for blacksmiths from the Elemental Plane of Fire (which is home to Firenewts, Volcann Goliaths, and and Azers). The Celestials that survived the conquering of the Outer Planes by the Devil Legions emigrated to the Elemental Plane of Air and founded a society of angels, archons, and couatls there (including many Aasimar, Air Genasi, Aarakocra, and Couatl-Yuan-Ti inhabitants).
The Material Plane is a diverse land, basically the "melting pot" of races, with many of them having very unique cultures. Goblinoids have a Magocratic-Theocracy where they worship magic and have crusades against aberrations and psionic peoples, Minotaurs have conquered all of the major forests and banished the Elves to the Arctic (they also have an extremely militaristic and dictatorial society, and are obsessed with both mazes and gold for some reason), Orcs generally worship Ubtao (who is now the God of the Wilds) and are the protectors of nature (having a rivalry with the Minotaurs), and so on. There's also a few new races, like the Golmeng (golem-people with 5 different subraces for different types of golems; Chelmic for alchemically-made clay-golem-people, Immurts for adamantine/iron-golem-people, Gragnef for stone-golem people, Jemlin for gem-golem-people, and Prysmex for glass-golem-people), Felshen (psionic people descended from a now-extinct race of flesh-golem-people that were a 6th subrace of Golmeng, and now have a religious rivalry with the magic-worshipping Goblinoids), and the Ecubi (Incubus/Succubus descended people with wings and shape-changing abilities).
The world is also split into a bunch of different nations, like Lantanea (far-future Lantan that has developed extremely advanced technology that they've combined with magic and is home to many artificers and where the Golmeng and Felshen were originally created), Wadhaven (a democratic-nation that stretches from Waterdeep and is bordered by the High Forest and Neverwinter), Nevumber (a dystopian nation centered on Neverwinter ruled by a triumvirate of dictator-mage-kings, where teleportation magic in or out of the country is impossible, with giant, 200-foot-tall metal walls surrounding the whole nation), Sylvarin (think a future version of the Silver Marches with a half-elven monarchy and a parliament). There's also a Draconic Empire (northeast of the Silver Marches), kingdom of Giants (south of Waterdeep, north of Baldur's Gate), and a diverse swath of nations/towns for the main races/species in the game.
It's a huge kitchen sink, and I have way too much lore about it, but I like huge kitchen sinks and lore, and so do my players.
aramis erak
Legend
No, there are worse things than fighting over canon.
- Fighting over rules to be used. (Especially since many Traveller GMs mix-n-match bits between CT editions 1 & 2, MegaTraveller, New Era, and Mongoose Traveller editions 1 & 2)
- Fighting over players not cleaning up after themselves
- fighting over players with horrendous smells refusing to address same by bathing
Haven't actually done anything with this one, game-wise, but I'm partial to the world I've made up where everyone has access to magical equivalents of modern first world conveniences but they're all powered by black magic; intelligent magical beasts are sacrificed en masse at city power stations and their blood is pumped out to power people's appliances. The main god is a dying-and-reviving vampire god, a reverse vegetation deity whose yearly revival brings the winter. And all planets share the same underworld; if you dig deep enough you can get to any other planet. On one planet unassuming critterfolk are raised in wachowskian farm-cities for the sacrifices; they had already been raised in this manner on a smaller scale for ages by their predators, but cross-world contact and blood magic made it big business.
AtomicPope
Hero
I like to homebrew Greyhawk, since not too many people really know about it. My current homebrew Greyhawk is built around the aftermath of the Greyhawk Wars and the Empire of Iuz (Eye-Ooze). The PCs just learned about the Dread Tyrant Iuz, who in my world is a Death Tyrant. The City of Skulls, Dorakaa, is built over the site of his crashed Spelljammer vessel. The Boneheart, his retinue, is made up of aberrations, undead, necromancers, and a combination thereof. Much of the campaign revolved around the Baronies of Bissel and the Dim Forest.
The campaign began with a classic Greyhawk feel then slowly moved to into the space horror genre as the PCs discovered a crashed Spelljammer. The crew was infected by aberrations. That sudden shift was great, and played out well. It was also fun to have the PCs explore the Realm of Madness near their Baronesses's manorhouse. It was a foray into a Stranger Things type world, where they found similacrum of themselves created by creatures of the Realm of Madness (homebrew) who harvest the dreams of mortals. In this simulation the PCs could explore the Upsidedown version of Bissel, and interrogate the Simulacrum of the Real for information that may have crossed into the Realm.
I could really go on and on but I must say I really enjoy playing with Greyhawk canon, honoring but altering to get surprising results.
The campaign began with a classic Greyhawk feel then slowly moved to into the space horror genre as the PCs discovered a crashed Spelljammer. The crew was infected by aberrations. That sudden shift was great, and played out well. It was also fun to have the PCs explore the Realm of Madness near their Baronesses's manorhouse. It was a foray into a Stranger Things type world, where they found similacrum of themselves created by creatures of the Realm of Madness (homebrew) who harvest the dreams of mortals. In this simulation the PCs could explore the Upsidedown version of Bissel, and interrogate the Simulacrum of the Real for information that may have crossed into the Realm.
I could really go on and on but I must say I really enjoy playing with Greyhawk canon, honoring but altering to get surprising results.
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
The only homebrewed setting of my I've been really proud of was a setting that I created for The Window. Basically, the magic of the world is fading, so a group of powerful magic users come together to form The Compact in order to research the situation and, hopefully, find a solution to the problem. But they go a little bit Skeksis-y along the way, determining that the best way to conserve the magic of the world is to harness it from magical things (including "things" like sapient magical races) and form a huge magic reserve that only certain approved people can draw from. The setting assumed most PCs were of a non-magical bent or magical beings (including rogue magic users) on the run, fighting a guerilla war against the forces of The Compact.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Islands Worlds is a world wherein the largest landmass is a bit smaller than Australia, and there are no (or very few) humans, no high elves, wood elves are much less human-like than in normal dnd art and description, and you've got a mix of places inspired by the real world and places inspired from fantasy or my own dreams.
In one "continent" you've got The Nine Kingdoms to the north where Goliaths and Firbolgs come from, Entalion and Capet in the middle being 4e-style fey and late medieval to early modern French, respectively, and Albarona and Andorant on the southern coast, being late medieval Spain and Final Fantasy style gnome-founder high magitech city state respectively. South of this landmass, you've got The Cloudlaw, which is a small folk dominated kingdom built inside and on top of a massive mountain spire that reaches into the clouds, and is the birthplace of airships.
On another continent, you have Pacific Islands influence mixed Colonial Mexico mixed with the politics of the Peninsula of Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana, and a large central jungle region ruled by Tabaxi and bugbears and reptilian humanoids, with a history of invasion and rebellion and internal strife and the world's best wine.
It's a world with a lot of mystery, gods that manifest in people's lives whenever people act in ways that are in line with the god's stories and/or values.
It's also a world wherein there are an unknown number of ancient Dragon Temples that most people have forgotten are actually sleeping gargantuan sentient draconic constructs from the stars, and a Great Hunt that is always called by a child who leads the hunt after finding The Horn, as a great danger rises that requires great heroes to meet it.
In one "continent" you've got The Nine Kingdoms to the north where Goliaths and Firbolgs come from, Entalion and Capet in the middle being 4e-style fey and late medieval to early modern French, respectively, and Albarona and Andorant on the southern coast, being late medieval Spain and Final Fantasy style gnome-founder high magitech city state respectively. South of this landmass, you've got The Cloudlaw, which is a small folk dominated kingdom built inside and on top of a massive mountain spire that reaches into the clouds, and is the birthplace of airships.
On another continent, you have Pacific Islands influence mixed Colonial Mexico mixed with the politics of the Peninsula of Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana, and a large central jungle region ruled by Tabaxi and bugbears and reptilian humanoids, with a history of invasion and rebellion and internal strife and the world's best wine.
It's a world with a lot of mystery, gods that manifest in people's lives whenever people act in ways that are in line with the god's stories and/or values.
It's also a world wherein there are an unknown number of ancient Dragon Temples that most people have forgotten are actually sleeping gargantuan sentient draconic constructs from the stars, and a Great Hunt that is always called by a child who leads the hunt after finding The Horn, as a great danger rises that requires great heroes to meet it.
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