What flavor do you use to make your gameworld unique?

[Torm]

The funny thing is, the current campaign I'm running started with the characters all being transported to another plane where there were huge amounts of sugar involved in everything - creatures that seemed to be made out of some sort of shortbread, giant mushroom-tree-things that tasted bittersweet and could be tapped for syrup, even lots of crystal sugar in the ground itself. They took to calling the world "Candyland".

So I guess I'd say the flavor that has made my gameworld unique is Pure Cane.

 

[BullMarkOne]

orcs being classic sacrificing generic aztec like.

Yoink!

Welcome to my world Orczylcoatl.

 

[Michael Morris]

My world uses elements of Magic: The Gathering in flavor and in over 600 converted spells to drive home the point. The world is also heavily emulates Greek legend and flavor, though for convenience the names are the same as when I was running a more traditional quasi-medieval/Tolkienesque setting. With over 300 NPCs not to mention place names, it's probably better that way.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Well, my original homebrew idea (which has fallen to the wayside for player interest/demand for Forgotten Realms) was really a mish-mash of lots of things which I liked from various sources: Leiber, Howard, Tolkien, Asprin, the Ultima & Zork series, various D&D bits from modules/books, 80's toy culture (esp. Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, & the D&D toy line), etc. Just what I liked & was interested in all thrown together into one odd mass.

However, though I've been able to salvage an idea here or there for the FR game (mainly NPCs & basic plot stuff), I've been working on a whole other homebrew to run afterward. Kinda going out in left field with it, but it's a work of obsession love.

Basic idea: The setting uses the Generic classes from Unearthed Arcana, plus a special generic Commoner NPC class to be used alongside the generic PC classes. On top of this, there's:

• No more favored classes (there's only 3 core classes as it is).
• Arcane magic only. No divine magic or psionics. If a spellcaster knows spells from the cleric/druid spell lists, they're arcane spells. Also, all spellcasters are spontaneous spellcasters.
• Dropped a lot of the uber-fantasy weapons like orc double-axes, dire flails, two-bladed swords, etc. Kept more feasible ones like whips, bastard swords, waraxes (dropped the dwarven adjective), hand crossbows, etc.
• Use Unearthed Arcana's action point, reputation, & contacts systems.
• My version of elves are now Fey creatures rather than Humanoid: They start off with 2 HD of Fey, plus some different abilities (still skilled with bows but not swords; no longer immune to sleep spells, but have a better save vs. magic overall, etc.). Different look overall, too.
• My version of goblinoids are different--now a single race of Monstrous Humanoids rather than just Humanoid (with 2 HD of Monstrous Humanoid), though they can range in height from goblin to half-ogre (though still Medium creatures overall). Proficient with hand & throwing axes (have a culture of the axe much like the elves have a culture of the bow), better saves vs. poison & disease, etc. Different overall look as well.
• Dwarves are now Small-sized, and are a non-magical mix of dwarf, gnome, and halfling stat-wise. Also closest to humans genetically (no half-dwarves; a child is either a dwarf or a human, depending on the mother's race, though the child may be a tad taller/shorter than normal, accordingly).
• Humans are pretty much as is, & still on top of the world.
• Half-elves are still humanoids, though stat-wise, their closer to standard D&D elves. Half-orcs (the half-goblinoids) are closer to half-orcs/orcs/hobgoblins stat-wise (though both are LA +0).
• Only 1 race of giants, who are Large-sized. Like dwarves, they're closely related to humans. Start off with 2 HD of Giant.
• Dragons are warm-blooded omnivores & give birth to live young; they're related to griffons.
• Unicorns are a elven breed or warhorse.
• Dryads, treants, & the like (either sentient, moving plants or plant-bound spirits) are souls/ghosts of dead elves bound to plants (a dryad would be a tree-dwelling ghost; a treant would be a tree awakened by an elf's soul fusing with the tree, etc); based off of an elf tradition of planting a tree seed with an elf's corpse (some entire forests are actually elven graveyards).
• Basilisks are a type of giant cobra.
• Chimeric creatures (like chimeras, centaurs, satyrs, manticores, merfolk, hippogriffs, sphynxes, etc.) are all results of magical experiments from the past.
• Elemental energies (fire, acid, electricity, cold, sonic) are actually harder to master/control than pure magical energies (like force effects)--mainly because it either requires power over the raw elemental power (which is extremely hard) or transmuting magical energy into the element desired (which is just very hard in comparison). Trying to summon & control an elemental is a massive migraine in its own right.
• And if you thought elementals were bad, trying for outsiders like celestials & fiends are even worse (templated creatures aren't as bad, but even the leastest of devils, demons, angels, & the like makes getting an elemental look like finger-painting).
• No Great wheel cosmology: From top to bottom, it's: Heavenly Expanse; Positive Material; Air Elemental & Water Elemental (upper half of elemental sphere); Prime Material, Etheral & Astral (surrounded by elemental sphere); Earth Elemental & Fire Elemental (lower half of elemental ring); Negative Material; Hellish Depths.
• Only magic, silver, & adamant count material-wise for DR bypass; adamantine weapons are high-quality steel with adamant dust added to the mix (rather than adamantine existing as its own metal)--this adamantine combines the qualities of both D&D adamantine & mithral. Items with silver hold enchantments/energy infusions longer. Darkwood is actually sturdy wood like oak or teak that's been soaked in a rich solution of water & adamant dust.
• Prestige Classes made especially for use alongside the Generic classes. Also, it's more rewarding to stay with a single core class (or mutliclassing a core class with specific PrCs), than it is to multiclass with 2 or more core classes (once again, there's only 3 core classes as it is).

I could keep going on, but I won't. It's more like a d20 game than a D&D game; but then again, I wanted a world with its own flavor (rather thna just being just another D&D setting).

 

[Jackelope King]

Very light snipping there. The world sounds pretty neat and well thought out.

Thankya kindly. Always nice to have an excuse to inflate my ego a bit

 

[Haltherrion]

I like creating worlds so, new campaign, new world. They usually last 2-3 years. A particularly good setting might be used for 2 or even 3 campaigns although typically in different time periods.

In years past, I'd do a deep dive and try to create a very thorough, realistic world with complex history, races, gods, cultures, countries and the like. Something like FR or Greyhawk but with my own view of how things would work in a fantasy world.

In the last ten years, though, I've moved to more of a concept world. Sometimes also tightly linked to my main plotline. I find these take less effort (life gets busy once you have kids ) but also that my current crop of players don't appreciate the detail and like story more.

So I make my worlds memorable by supporting my story and tying that into some concepts of interest to the players.

A recent world occurred in a world ripped into floating shards by the battle of two gods. The entire campain revolved around the party's attempt to repair the world in a manner suitable to their liking. It was high fantasy, save the world kind of stuff but with some interesting imagery and metaphysics thrown in.

Another world dwelled on the gods and what it would take for the PCs to become divine. The setting was classic pseudo-medieval + D&D standard planes and gods but the divinity aspect I fleshed out made the setting memorable to folks. (It's surprising how many players aspire to immortality and divinity )

The current world works the premise of what would it be like to *be* in the age of heroes such as Homer and most cultures describe. Usually, people game in an "iron" age and harken back to the ages of gold and silver. In this setting, the world is very young and the races not quite set in their ways so that fiends and celestials can still rub shoulders, half-races are very common and the high and clay races still live together. I co-ref this one with another ref and I'm about to pick things up again and will explore the transition from this early age to something that looks more like a classic segregated setting with the actions of the players very much determining extactly what things will look like ( the PCs are ECL ~16 will and likely go to epic level in this arc.)

Anyway, I think memorable settings are those that directly support memorable stories. Combine intriguing world concepts with unforgettable stories and you have a combination that will keep the players returning year after year.

 

[Herobizkit]

I'm in the process of starting a swashbucking pirate campaign set on earth circa 1667 plus magic and monsters, and the uniqueness comes at least partially from trying to blend real-life history, traditional mythology and folklore, and D&D specific tropes.

That sounds exactly like the text found in d20 Past. I'm working on a similar campaign myself, minus all the flavour text but setting the main adventuring area in the Carribean... or at least, the map of the Carribean.

 

[Tonguez]

1. Cruithne - inspired by the Heroic tradition of celting britain ( as seen in the Slaine comic amongst other things) this was the British Isles as viewed by a Pseudo-Pict people known as the Tribes of Nemed.
A large island divided into five regions (each consisting of many kingdoms) including the southern Fens (swamplands where dwell the Beaver folk (telepathic NG bugbears)), a lowland area called the Tays due to the domination of the River Tay and its Rafts, a high moor area called Laigna (pften haunted), the western hill country of Cymry and the rugged highlands area called Thule (where the royal lines of Nemed have their seat and where too dwell the Duntrolls (Grimlocks)) .
This was an iron age setting were peoples were still tribally based and only just verging on the rise of fuedalism. Society was based on the Warband and was defined by a system of sacred gessa. Only in Cymry did anything like castles, knights and royal pageants exist. Most of the tribal kingdoms instead had Duns (forts) and Mead Halls were warbands sat with the king and were bards composed epics. trade was through barter (the cow being the basic unit of wealth) however warband 'heroes' were rewarded with Heirloom Swords some of magical origin which were often much sought after and in of themselves reasons for war. The landscape had many unseen doorways which might lead a man into a faerie realm, to the land of the dead or to the place of the gods.

 

[arscott]

That sounds exactly like the text found in d20 Past. I'm working on a similar campaign myself, minus all the flavour text but setting the main adventuring area in the Carribean... or at least, the map of the Carribean.

'course it sounds like d20 past. I'm one of those folks who's most creative when working in other people's sandboxes. Besides, you've got to love a setting that ditches the generic red dragon for sea monsters that can capsize boats and cause hurricanes.

And it is an awesome map.

 

[mythusmage]

Science

In Dragon Earth scientific principles and the scientific method works. Magic is understood scientifically, and this understanding has shaped how it is used.

In the A Distant Mirror setting (a Dragon Earth historical etting) science qua science has yet to appear, but it's still scientific/historical instead of fantasy historical.

•The Huns discovered North America in the 6th century AD
•The Hun/American Indian Cultures discovered Europe in the 10th century AD.
•The Normans are a bunch of bandit chiefs with a history of pestering France and England
•The orcs are starting to migrate out of northern Siberia
•The Sarmatian successor states are having troubles, and a number are planning to migrate west, back to the Sarmatian homeland.
•Elves, dwarfs, orcs, even ogres are, technically speaking, human.
•Kobolds, gnolls, and halflings are descended from rhesus macaques, olive baboons, and bonobos respectively.
•Griffins and pegasi are dragon kin (insofar as lung are a type of dragon)
•Dragons run things from behind the scene, but they let the elves think they're running things from behind the scenes, and both let Humans think they're running things.
•Anybody can cast spells (I'm adopting Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth), though wizards and the like are better at it. And most of the magic available is small magic of low level and mundane applicability.
•No adamantium or mithril of any kind. Nor steel as we know it. Metal work quality depends on the smith's skill and the application of appropriate magic.
•The current English King is Alfred IV.

Planned future events include the orcish invasion of Central Asia, a Hun/Indian invasion of Ireland, and a magically resistant plague that might devastate the world.

All while the French take on the Burgundians, and the English and Aquitainese (French, but rather independent) work together to end the Norman menace.