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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jaldaen" data-source="post: 2824925" data-attributes="member: 214">Nevermore Design Diary #1: What is in a Name? For the past few years I have devoted myself to a name and a concept. The name was Nevermore and the concept was the creation of a unique campaign setting. The former sprung from reading too much Edgar Allen Poe as an adolescent and the later from a desire to do “something completely different” as an adult, which may in fact come from watching one too many Monte Python skits as a child. And thus it might be said that my entire life has lead me to this moment, to this designer’s diary, and to the question I hope to answer for you today… What is Nevermore? The Short Answer Nevermore is a True20 capstone dreamscape campaign setting. Translation, please? Nevermore is a surrealistic and living capstone campaign setting designed to be used in conjunction with other campaign settings (True20 and even d20, with a few modifications) or as a standalone campaign setting. Now the above translation might not be the most thorough, but it does hit the important themes I wanted to found the Nevermore setting upon and the ones I will discuss within the rest of this designer diary. Surrealistic Setting– The Ever-Changing Pillar Nevermore is first and foremost a dreamscape campaign setting and this is the “hook” that drives the setting and influences every bit of crunch and fluff in Nevermore. The campaign material is designed to transform the races and roles of the world into more fantastic versions of themselves by building upon the True20 Core Rules. In addition, the rules expand the possibilities available to characters when they take an action. I won’t go into details at the moment (as doing so would mean I’d have a very long design diary and nothing else to talk about later), but as with all good fishermen I will put a worm on my hook, and mention that “Dream” Conviction will play a very important role in portraying the surreal abilities available to characters within the world of Nevermore. Living Setting– The Breathing Pillar A central theme in the design of Nevermore was the desire to bring the bizarre, fantastic, and grotesque to the fore, not only as props, but also as living and breathing elements within the realm. Toward this end I spent a good amount of time and effort over this past few years, shaping the setting in such a way that the land itself, could interact with adventurers on a meaningful basis and play a central role in their campaigns. This decision to essentially “personify” the world was a pivotal one and naturally led to the notion that Nevermore could be likened to a living and ever-changing creature, a shapechanger of sorts that could birth both dreams and nightmares. So how do you design a campaign world that is ever-changing and shifts landscapes, seasons, and even creatures upon a regular basis? Capstone Setting– The Overarching Concept From the above translation you can probably figure out what I mean by “capstone”, but what exactly are the implications of such an approach to a campaign setting? There are quite a few, especially when creating a setting that is bizarre in both nature and scope. After all, how does one create a campaign setting suitable for any level or theme of play and still make it different enough to draw out the surreal spirit of Nevermore? Using the time honored design philosophy of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) I decided that the best way to make Nevermore accessible to almost any campaign setting was to provide simple rules that grant the Narrator some easy to follow guidelines, but are flexible enough to allow Narrators to use Nevermore as they see fit, instead of how I see fit. In many ways Nevermore is not just designed to be a campaign setting, but also a supplement on how to run and play dreamscape adventures. It is also designed to be adaptable and the rules accommodate everything from side treks to campaign length adventures without undue interfere with what is going on in your normal campaign (since adventuring in Nevermore occurs while the characters are “asleep”). To be sure, the Nevermore campaign will require both imaginative and flexible players and Narrators, but the reward will be well worth the extra effort. Actually that is a good question to delve into in the next designer diary entry… so stay tuned for: Designer Diary #2: A Shapechanger Named Nevermore and a more in-depth look into Nevermore and the concept of the “living” campaign setting.</blockquote>

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