What do you look for in a splat?

[Glade Riven]

So I'm working on my (pathfinder compatable) campaign setting, and the way it is developing it looks like the first official release (still a ways off, though) will be a regional one focused on a dwarven empire at it's height (most settings have the empires after they are ground to dust). While the splat is set on a tidally locked world, it would be easy enough to ignore that and for people to pop it into another setting (Golaron, Forgotten Realms, Eberron) or a homebrew setting.

For the most part, the book will be designed with lots of fluff, but with a lot of free space for people to add in what they want.

So how do you usually like your splats?

 

[Stormonu]

Well done?

I like my splats with the story/fluff presented first and the rules second, if they are primarily about the campaign world. I also tend to like seeing a short story weaved in small sections throughout the book - seeing the "world" in action tends to draw me in far more than reading encyclopedic entries. A cordoned DM's section, separate from player knowledge, is greatly appreciated.

That said, I also tend to judge a supplemental book strongly on what options it can bring to the table. Fluff without mechanics to back it up is of little worth to me. I want something I can add to a character or monster that mechanically differentiates it from say, someone/something from one of the human kingdoms. With this being Pathfinder based, a couple of Dwarven racial substitution abilities, a prestige class or two and a few dwarven items would fit. As would a few dwarven-styled drinking games (with in-game rules), crafting quirks and NPC archetypes.

 

[Glade Riven]

Well, I appreciate your reply. It is helpful, and I wish more people would opinionate on such things without the need for conflict-bait.

 

[concerro]

So I'm working on my (pathfinder compatable) campaign setting, and the way it is developing it looks like the first official release (still a ways off, though) will be a regional one focused on a dwarven empire at it's height (most settings have the empires after they are ground to dust). While the splat is set on a tidally locked world, it would be easy enough to ignore that and for people to pop it into another setting (Golaron, Forgotten Realms, Eberron) or a homebrew setting.

For the most part, the book will be designed with lots of fluff, but with a lot of free space for people to add in what they want.

So how do you usually like your splats?

I want something balanced, yet unique since I am sure you will have campaign specific feats right.

I think that your world should be different than Golarion or Forgotten Realms instead of a 2.0 version.
My main thing with Eberron was the the designers made certain thing mysteries and never answered them, leaving them up to the DM. I think that is a good thing, but don't leave too much wide open. "If I have to decide everything then why did I not make my own setting?", will be a response if too much is not defined. How Cyre was destroyed is an example of something I am glad they left open. I also don't want to see a lot of high level NPC's running around ala FR. I am not saying don't have any, but the general populace should be low enough in level that the PC's basically have to deal with the issues.

Eberron used magic to duplicate modern technologies, and that is important to the theme of the world, and your world should have a theme.

 

[Celtavian]

re

1. Nothing so good it becomes a must have due to combat effectiveness. Spells, feats, Prcs, base classes, etc. Not so much balance, just not obvious brokenness...no matter how cool the idea is.

2. Creative options that add to the game. As in no feats, spells, Prcs, classes, etc, etc because you ran out of ideas and were seriously reaching.

3. Excellent story reasons for the inclusion of new material. Make each new item seem appropriate and something I can picture existing in the world, a character capable of doing, or something that will add an interesting roleplay or background twist to a character or aspect of the world.

4. Fun to play and not overly limiting. Don't try too hard to balance once class versus another. A big example of what I'm talking about is the Follower of Horus Re prestige class in Forgotten Realms versus the Follower of Lathander prestige class. The Horus Re PRc was a little overpowered as though the balance check was missed or overlooked. And it looked like someone worked extra hard to balance the Morninglord prestige class to the point of making several abilities useless for a priest.

Please don't include such things. When it's obvious that one choice is far inferior to another choice mechanically, even when both choices should be relatively equal, you damage the game by eliminating roleplay choices. Followers of Lathander would be far less prevalent than followers of Horus-re amongst players due to the vastly inferior powers granted to Morninglords versus priests of Horus-re.

Then though from a roleplay perspective the Morninglords should be more common, due to the lack of balance the rare priest of Horus-re would be more common. That should not happen when creating splat books. It ruins not only the internal consistency of a world, but also encourages optimization by players that put DMs in a bind having to come up with roleplay reasons why such a class, feat, or item is so common.

Like Fortification armor or Holy on weapons. So much obviously better than other choices that everyone takes it before anything else if they are optimizing. So I as a DM to keep up with player arms race have to hand it out to my villains for them to have a chance.

 

[Glade Riven]

So here is a breakdown of what I am thinking:

Fluff:
- The Irkuskan Empire (a dwarven empire) has a number of analogues with Rome and other historical empires. Most of the empire is above ground.
- Threats to the Empire, both internal and external
- The effects of the Empire on what it has conqured
- Wonders of the Empire (Like Egypt has the Pyramids)
- Brief layout of faith and cosmology
- immediate neighbors to the empire

Crunch:
- "Bloodline" feats that can only be taken at first level. Usually has a greater bonus than a normal feat with a minor negative. Some effects may build with leveling. Being limited to first level only should help reign in powerbuilding.
- pregenned NPC stats, such as different soldier types. I have a loose ceiling of level 6
- Maps, both generic locations, buildings, etc. and a few specific cities.
- A handful of unique monsters & villians. I have a loose ceiling of level 12.
- Tainted Magical Items: these items convey a bonus and a negative. This is an alternative to a magical item simply being destroyed when a craft check is failed (as opposed to a successful item which is what you want, or a failed item which is cursed). A Sword of Reckless Abandon, for instance, has a +1 to attack and a -1 to AC. Tainted magical items are more common than standard magical items. They are also cheaper, but I need to figure out the formula for this. This allows a DM to create unique items that are more than just a +1 sword.
- Looking into racial substitutions. Not looking into class substitution levels or prestige classes at this point, because there is such a wealth of material out there.

Liscense: OGL and Paizo's version of the OGL. When finished, the splat will be submitted to gain Pathfinder Compatable status. The fluff will also be released OGL. Artwork will not be

Tentative Release Types:
Online: I have already started releasing material on Second Pulsar.
eReader: At least one eReader format will be released when it is complete (probably several). eReader will be text only, but since maps will be avalable to download from Second Pulsar once they are made, I don't see that as an issue. Tentative pricing will be $.99.
PDF: A PDF with low resolution artword will be avalable for download for free once this is complete, released on Second Pulsar and probably through torrents as well. A high resolution PDF will be avalable for purchase from...well, somewhere. The project is a ways from completion, so I've got time. Pricing to be determined.
POD: I'd like to offer this as Print on Demand, complete with ISBN number. Price to be determined, but as a physical product, it'll be the most expensive.

Further Releases:
As the world of Phaetos is developed, more releases will follow (the Alfari Imperium, Secrets of the Frozen Dark, Secrets of the Blasted Lands, Tower of the Sun, and more). Eventually it'll get into the semi-planar realm and higher level play.

Now you may be wondering why I am giving so much away for free in the above strategy. One word: Marketing. People who pirate will pirate anyways, people who want to pay will pay anyways, and it doesn't matter what price I set if nobody knows about what I am trying to sell. Lack of notoriety is a bigger problem than piracy, so I might as well be the first to "pirate" my own stuff and get it out there.

 

[concerro]

I don't think campaign world based on one nation is a good idea. You might be able to get around it with city states that are very different though. Going back to the first sentence there will always be a player that will want to be from one of the enemy nations. Having a homebrew like this works for War of the Burning Sky because it was for that one campaign, but I don't see myself wanting to use it over Eberron or Golarion due to the level of restriction.
One thing I forgot to add before was it should be open enough to transport adventures from other settings into your settings. I ran Kingmaker in Eberron as an example, and also Age of Worms. Many DM's don't have time to write their own adventures, and the ones that do generally have time to write their own campaign setting, so being able to import adventures is important. I think that you if you can't fit most of Paizo's AP's into your world then you may need to alter some things.

 

[Dog Moon]

I don't think campaign world based on one nation is a good idea. You might be able to get around it with city states that are very different though. Going back to the first sentence there will always be a player that will want to be from one of the enemy nations. Having a homebrew like this works for War of the Burning Sky because it was for that one campaign, but I don't see myself wanting to use it over Eberron or Golarion due to the level of restriction.
One thing I forgot to add before was it should be open enough to transport adventures from other settings into your settings. I ran Kingmaker in Eberron as an example, and also Age of Worms. Many DM's don't have time to write their own adventures, and the ones that do generally have time to write their own campaign setting, so being able to import adventures is important. I think that you if you can't fit most of Paizo's AP's into your world then you may need to alter some things.

Unless I'm mistaken, the OP said that he was working on a campaign setting and that his first release will be a regional one, presumably meaning that if it does well, later releases will cover more regions.

 

[Glade Riven]

Well, eventually the volumes will be compiled into a sizable tome. For the first volume, it's like if someone made a campaign setting based off Rome, and had Roman controlled Egypt, Palistine, Gaul, British Isles, Carthage (which must be destroyed), Greece, along with Rome itself.

I am also leaving plenty of space to plug-and-play other things. Kingmaker, for instance, would work with very minor fluff changes in a region called the Ruedan (which is a sizable river-valley system that was conqured by the dwarves, but they failed to hold onto it). Shoehorning in Paizo adventures shouldn't be any harder (and possibly easier) than what you did with Eberron. Popping the dwarven empire into another setting, or just parts of the splat into another setting, is also designed to be easy.

 

[pawsplay]

Fluff-wise, I like a little variation, things of interest. When creating deities, with a focus on X, they shouldn't just be X. Like Athena is the goddess of wisdom and civil defense, but she is also associated with olives, owls, and the Aegis. If she were a D&D deity, her holy symbol would probably be a National Guard Truck or something, but real mythologies tend to be somewhat more idiosyncratic. Try to avoid excessive neatness.

As another example, I don't like what's happened to the drider in 4e. In 3e, they were something of a contradiction, a creature given Lolth's form, but banished drom Drow society, something fearsome but ultimately a failure. It also played with the idea that Lolth was a venerated goddess, but her spider-form was considered a curse. Well, once the driders became her champions, that pretty much finished the transition of the drows being the evil elves with a demon queen to being the spider elves who worship the spidery Spider Queen and all her spidery spiders.

So, for instance, if you create a dwarven clan known for their powerful sense of honor, it wouldn't hurt if they had a couple of blemishes in their path involving broken oaths or acts of minor cowardice. If a group is known for the use of a particular weapon, try not to base their entire military theory around the use of that weapon. I know sometimes there is a fear of making nonhumans "too human" by giving them variety, foibles, and individual personalities, but it's important, if you want them to be recognized as "people", of a kind, rather than stodgy idiots. Consider the differences in character between the pompous Thorin and the action-oriented Gimli, or the sunny but deadly Legolas versus the sagacious and brooding Elrond.