-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
What do YOU look for in a Campaign World
- Thread starter Sargon the Kassadian
- Start date
Alan Shutko
Explorer
Ambiguity. I like conflicts where each side thinks they're right and doing the right thing. It gives you lots of perspectives which can be played, and can set up interesting conflicts without having a BBEG doing it all.
VirgilCaine said:
Oh, Message can change the world, it just takes longer.
Prince of Happiness
First Post
Room.
I have my own ideas, thank you very much, I just need room to execute them.
No, keep your "holy race of gorilla-undead-psychic-construct-monks" or whatever you just happened to make up at 3:00 in the morning and shove them up your a$$. I prefer my "new" things to actually have some context.
I have my own ideas, thank you very much, I just need room to execute them.
No, keep your "holy race of gorilla-undead-psychic-construct-monks" or whatever you just happened to make up at 3:00 in the morning and shove them up your a$$. I prefer my "new" things to actually have some context.
Drakmar
Explorer
hmm. see I went and designed a campaign world myself. Because I have trouble understanding most of the worlds.. Dragonlance (old style) I mostly got. I understood the context of it.
My campaign world I went.. hmmm.. I want heros.. heros need enemies. what have all my other dms used. Undead.. scratch them. demons. scratch them... drow bah.. too common. bad humans.. yeah.. little bit of that for the "non-evil" foes. orcs.. hmm. think on that. Yuan-ti.. yeah... I will use them.
so... I then needed a swamp.
and a reason for a town to be in it.
and a reason for the yuan-ti to want it.
so now I have an egyptian based culture that has the Yuan-ti trying to return to their homeland where their god was killed (before it was reborn elsewhere) in a swamp.. And in the swamp are some towns of a Roman style human culture that are "mining" and icky black substance the bubbles up in this swamp (and only this swamp) that makes greek fire that they use against a ocean going race and in the constant war to the north with the Celtic giant races and in the wars against the mongolian horde orcs.
And I even built a creation myth... and I now have motivations and culture for each of the races.. and the various people in them.
My campaign world I went.. hmmm.. I want heros.. heros need enemies. what have all my other dms used. Undead.. scratch them. demons. scratch them... drow bah.. too common. bad humans.. yeah.. little bit of that for the "non-evil" foes. orcs.. hmm. think on that. Yuan-ti.. yeah... I will use them.
so... I then needed a swamp.
and a reason for a town to be in it.
and a reason for the yuan-ti to want it.
so now I have an egyptian based culture that has the Yuan-ti trying to return to their homeland where their god was killed (before it was reborn elsewhere) in a swamp.. And in the swamp are some towns of a Roman style human culture that are "mining" and icky black substance the bubbles up in this swamp (and only this swamp) that makes greek fire that they use against a ocean going race and in the constant war to the north with the Celtic giant races and in the wars against the mongolian horde orcs.
And I even built a creation myth... and I now have motivations and culture for each of the races.. and the various people in them.
Sargon the Kassadian
First Post
Finally I can reply!
Thanks to you all for the replies!
I have a couple more questions. Could anyone give me a good example of well-written fluff or a good idea they found in a campaign setting? Also, how do you feel about new (relative to 3.5) races or changes to the races (I am bringing in grippli, thri-kreen, myconids, and am changing gnomes +2 Int -2 Str)?
Thanks to you all for the replies!
I have a couple more questions. Could anyone give me a good example of well-written fluff or a good idea they found in a campaign setting? Also, how do you feel about new (relative to 3.5) races or changes to the races (I am bringing in grippli, thri-kreen, myconids, and am changing gnomes +2 Int -2 Str)?
Incenjucar
Legend
There's a few details you need to make clear:
A) Is this for D&D or d20 Fantasy? (readies a glare for diaglo) D&D has its own themes that are seperate from the basic rules that it uses (dungeon-delving, etc).
B) How much are you willing to tweak mechanics?
C) What's more important, the world, or the adventures?
Now, as for my personal tastes:
1) Keep the most basic fantasy, ignore Greyhawk entirely. That is, swords, magic, etc, all good. I hate guns (their effect on history annoys me, despite my being a happy gun owner), so, take that as you will. Melee weapons and the supernatural are always good.
2) Everything else you've come across is optional. Don't feel constrained by what has come before.
3) Avoid basing things on the real world as much as possible. Asia is fun, the Middle Ages of Europe are fun, but you're going for unique, not ripped-off. Being inspired is one thing (Like my 'black' cannibal culture... who have the highest number of paladins of any culture in my world; they cannibalize out of respect and love -- grandpa would rather be jerky than undead.), but don't try to get away with a Maztica.
4) Avoid basing things on other fantasy worlds. Pretend there is no Tolkein. Make up your own fantasy critters (then again, so long as you have something noticably supernatural, you don't even need fantastic creatures for fantasy, but they're so darn fun...) as much as possible, even if they're just variations on an archtype. A creature that starts a joke and makes you finish it else it eats you, with an ape's front and a hippo's back, with a pair of moth wings attatched, is an obvious sphinx reference, but good for a giggle at the least. I, myself, use massive serpents instead of dragons.
5) Make it make sense. I can't stress this enough. Virisimilitude is a -powerful- device in fiction. If your reader, accepting the rules of magic and such, can actually think, "Yeah, that COULD happen!", you get serious points. This is part of why Planescape and Dark Sun were so beloved: they took a messed-up situation and actually made you go "Yeah, that makes sense."
6) Deus ex machina is disgusting. Now, if you honestly, truly, have a battle of the deities occur and mess up some mountains, and it actually makes sense for mountains to have been messed up by two guys smacking each other around, fine, do it. But deus ex machina explanations are weak and eye-roll-inducing.
7) This is the Information Age. People today like information. Never forget that.
A) Is this for D&D or d20 Fantasy? (readies a glare for diaglo) D&D has its own themes that are seperate from the basic rules that it uses (dungeon-delving, etc).
B) How much are you willing to tweak mechanics?
C) What's more important, the world, or the adventures?
Now, as for my personal tastes:
1) Keep the most basic fantasy, ignore Greyhawk entirely. That is, swords, magic, etc, all good. I hate guns (their effect on history annoys me, despite my being a happy gun owner), so, take that as you will. Melee weapons and the supernatural are always good.
2) Everything else you've come across is optional. Don't feel constrained by what has come before.
3) Avoid basing things on the real world as much as possible. Asia is fun, the Middle Ages of Europe are fun, but you're going for unique, not ripped-off. Being inspired is one thing (Like my 'black' cannibal culture... who have the highest number of paladins of any culture in my world; they cannibalize out of respect and love -- grandpa would rather be jerky than undead.), but don't try to get away with a Maztica.
4) Avoid basing things on other fantasy worlds. Pretend there is no Tolkein. Make up your own fantasy critters (then again, so long as you have something noticably supernatural, you don't even need fantastic creatures for fantasy, but they're so darn fun...) as much as possible, even if they're just variations on an archtype. A creature that starts a joke and makes you finish it else it eats you, with an ape's front and a hippo's back, with a pair of moth wings attatched, is an obvious sphinx reference, but good for a giggle at the least. I, myself, use massive serpents instead of dragons.
5) Make it make sense. I can't stress this enough. Virisimilitude is a -powerful- device in fiction. If your reader, accepting the rules of magic and such, can actually think, "Yeah, that COULD happen!", you get serious points. This is part of why Planescape and Dark Sun were so beloved: they took a messed-up situation and actually made you go "Yeah, that makes sense."
6) Deus ex machina is disgusting. Now, if you honestly, truly, have a battle of the deities occur and mess up some mountains, and it actually makes sense for mountains to have been messed up by two guys smacking each other around, fine, do it. But deus ex machina explanations are weak and eye-roll-inducing.
7) This is the Information Age. People today like information. Never forget that.
The Grackle
First Post
Myconids as a player race? Your setting is already too interesting to appeal to the average D&D player. Interesting settings (Darksun, Planescape, Spelljammer, etc.) never do as well base-line, core-ruled D&D.
So you should decide right now if you want to make a setting that is exciting to you, or if you want to make another Eberron.
I would encourage you to make a setting that is 100% awesome to you, b/c if a creator doesn't love his own work it won't be good.
...and when yr finished I'll buy it and steal all the pieces I like.
So you should decide right now if you want to make a setting that is exciting to you, or if you want to make another Eberron.
I would encourage you to make a setting that is 100% awesome to you, b/c if a creator doesn't love his own work it won't be good.
...and when yr finished I'll buy it and steal all the pieces I like.
Jürgen Hubert
First Post
The Grackle said:
What are you implying here about Eberron? After all, Eberron is the setting that has player character golems!
And I think a setting could have myconid player characters and still be interesting to a wide audience. The trick is to make them a logical and integral part of the campaign setting, instead of just something thrown in for the "ghee-whiz" factor. Give some thought to the society, personality, and biology of myconids - and how they interact with the societies of the "standard" D&D races. If done well enough, readers will love it instead of saying: "That's just too weird for my tastes."
(If you want to publish it, you might want to rename them, though - IIRC myconids are not in the SRD...)
