The GMF campaign setting

looks like it going to be standard, and what i ment in my post earlier was that the commonfolk, the few, feared the spellcasters and the spellcasters viewed the others as weaklings
 

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Mr_GrinReaper said:
looks like it going to be standard, and what i ment in my post earlier was that the commonfolk, the few, feared the spellcasters and the spellcasters viewed the others as weaklings

That is a good theme that has not been explored much. I like the idea of sorcerers wondering around and looking down at peasents as "mundanes"**





** With Kudos to Babylon 5 for the name hijack
 

Okay then...question is now...what power level? My idea of the various power levels are:

Low
  • Most people are level 1-3 and the overwhelming majority are NPC classes.
  • The newbie wizard who has been training in a library is 2nd level. The newly initiated knight is a 1st level fighter (after lots of training). The town constable will be a 3rd level warrior (unless in a large city where training is necessary, not just experience).
  • The mightiest warriors of the realm are 7th level. Chances are the king/queen/general is about this level.
  • To most people anything above that level is indistinguishable and superhuman. The heroes of legend are 15th level tops.
Medium
  • NPC 16/Base Adult Age year olds are first level. Middle age is 2-3rd. Old age is 4th. Venerable will be 5th.
  • PC classes are special, but not rare. In all cities you'll be able to find a few wizards, clerics etc.
  • Grunts are 1-2 level, warriors. Cavalry are 3rd. Regiment leaders will probably be the same level as their regiments, but fighters (or equivilent PC class).
  • The most powerful characters in the kingdom are about 15th level. 16+ characters are the stuff of heroic tales. Few epic characters, but it happens.
High
  • NPCs can sometimes get to 10th level in their lifespans. This is helped on considerably by the fact that there are frequent monster raids, plots to rule the world, portals from hell opened up and malicous artifacts explodinating people.
  • PC classes are commonplace and most people have the ability to become one. Regardless, few do try to and even fewer survive the training required for it.
  • The mightiest heroes are epic, and an occasional few wizards have founded academies teaching many other pupils.
At least, that's an approximate breakdown. Probably no one will agree with me, but whatever.
 

I vote Medium powered.... Don't want it to get too easy for the pcs at high levels, and the same reason for the high powered, It'll be significantly harder to play at early levels, or they'd be bypassed entirely, which is a bad idea, playing characters from the bottom up is funner, in my opinion
 


As with the magic, I voter standard power level.

I'll wait till Tuesday to do the final tally of the power and magic levels. It looks like we're going standard magic, but I'd like to wait for more people to have a chance to vote.

I do like the idea of the spellcasters looking down on the common folk as lessers.

Also, my idea of this is that since everyone is putting in there input, people can actually use this campaign setting. If you do, you can just modify it till if fits your style better.

For instance, if I were just going to use it, I could have wizards be incredibly rare, and incredibly powerful. Perhaps until a few hundred years before, the art of magic was lost to the people of this world, until ancient ruins were found containing tomes of spells of arcane might. Those few who were brave, or dumb, enough to read them gained incredible power, at the cost of there sanity. That would be a low magic campaign setting, because although there are very powerful wizard, common folk have little access to arcane magic. Perhaps the same goes for divine magic.

Standard magic: basically where everyone knows magic exists and most people accept it. There are court magicians, wandering mages, local witchs, etc. But the common folk might go generations with little or no exposure to magic of any kind. Magic is something that is pursued by only those who have access to it: you have mage colleges, and many wizards take on apprentices, but you must be very dedicated and fairly wealthy to pursue the art.

High magic is where almost everyone has been exposed to magic at some time or another. It is unexpected, but not uncommon, for more than one person in a small town to have knowledge of a few cantrips. There are vast schools dedicated to magic, and many towns have a small community of wizards, helping around with magic when needed. The most powerful of spellcasters are terrible to behold, with access to powers that others cannot dream of. Also, magocricies would be common. This is a government headed by powerful spellcasters: perhaps the king is an aged wizard or sorcerer, or members of his family or politicians are. In a high magic campaign setting, magic is common place, but not so much that commoners have any real access to it.
 





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