What flavor do you use to make your gameworld unique?

[Piratecat]

My campaign started as just about as generic a campaign as they come: a base city on the edge of a small country, fleshed out almost completely by linked Dungeon modules. As the PCs explored, I slowly added detail to the country. I only bothered creating one or two surrounding countries at the time, leaving myself plenty of room to expand.

Along the way, though, something weird happened. Politics (both domestic and international) got really interesting, and the PCs started to have an effect on places outside the country. I finally felt up to introducing a lot of new material, so I sent them on a quest across thousands of miles. I greatly expanded the roles of the religions, and threw in a few curve balls (such as a country with its own Gods who ONLY existed inside the country's borders, and who throttled other divine magic in their lands.) When Planescape showed up, I added that integrally into the landscape. Ancient history raised its ugly head, and I introduced the concept that the world used to be a rotten husk inhabited by huge undead worms, before the Gods came to cleanse and recreate it.

At some point in here, I went from "many short semi-connected adventures" to "giant honking plot arc."

Now, as I close in on the end of the campaign after 15 years or so, I have two main themes in the game that are running side-by-side. One of those is that not all the worms are dead and gone, and the PCs are nominally involved with freeing the few who are left. Somewhere in there, the world sort of took on a life of its own -- and I think that's the case with every fun campaign.

 

[JVisgaitis]

This pertains to any genre of rpg, and the purpose is just to exchange nifty ideas that others can *yoink* for their own games. These can be themes, variations, plots, just anything that makes your world a little off the beaten path, including how the components blend.

Great thread idea. What we decided to do with Violet Dawn, is make a very conscious decision to NOT do Tolkien-esque fantasy and to try and break from the mold of established settings out there.

The best way we found to accomplish this, was to make the world of Avadnu alien and unlike earth. We have unique flora and fauna and even the weather cycles and races are different from what you are accustomed to.

Violet Dawn certainly hasn't been created from the premise of "let's make it different to be different." Everything has been carefully crafted and has a reason. It may seem simple, but placing your campaign on an alien world that isn't like earth opens up a huge realm of possibilities.

 

[hellbender]

I feel that if you use other planes, like I do, I have found a lot of great ideas that present the players with a nice break from a Tolkien-esque world. I have seen a lot of neat ideas here that I will be throwing in and definitely some of the off the beaten path worlds will be getting use as alternate worlds.

 

[Wil]

IF you were to imagine that the population of Indonesia were hypnotised into behaving as though the were Classical Greeks…. If things in general actually had animating spirits, daimons, genii, kami… If the Pathetic Fallacy were not a fallacy… If mystic disciplines really gave people the abilities of characters in Fung Fu movies….

You mean Exalted? ;P

 

[AFGNCAAP]

[MEGA-snip]

Also, AFGNCAAP, I'm using the generic classes myself; any chance you'd be willing to put your NPC class up in House Rules, and maybe a couple of the redesigned prestige classes? I'm still working on the crunchy parts and I'd love to see someone elses' approach. Plus, the less crunch I have to balance the more fluff I can spin.

Sure! Here ya go!

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

As a way of creating a game with a different flavor, both my current D&D games outlaw all the core classes from the PHB, and no spellcaster can have more than half their spells be PHB spells. As a result, we use a lot of stuff from the complete books, the Advanced Player's Manual, and even less compatable sources like Lone Wolf.

One result of this rule is that terms like Rogue, Wizard and Paladin have become generic. If the POCs are told an evil priest has a cult one town over, they don't know if they're dealing with a spirit shaman, war priest, evangelist, or what. Sometimes they decide to do some research. sometimes they go in swords swigning. Either way, the results are interesting.

 

[Eternalknight]

...and even less compatable sources like Lone Wolf..

How has this worked out for you, power wise?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Fixed that for you.

By the way, I admire how in depth you went into the races in your campaign world. At least you have pages full of reasons to explain why a player can't play whatever sub-race WoTC has recently created (I have a player who always tries the newest sub-elf :\ )

Heh, I blame it on a liberal arts education. (Too many credits in Sociology, Anthropology, Comparative Religion, Zoology, and World History... makes good gaming fodder, but zilch for job qualifications... )

The Auld Grump, who also liked the old TSR World Builde's Guidebook... a lot.

 

[Crothian]

I blame the 6 campaigns and decade of playing that have shaped the world in ways I could never imagine.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I blame the 6 campaigns and decade of playing that have shaped the world in ways I could never imagine.

Heh, a couple of years ago I ran into one of the players in my first ever D&D campaign (circa 1976 or so) - a Catholic priest who played a cleric (go figure). After 25+ years he remembered the religion in that game world better than I do myself... (And still had good things to say about it.) He also recognized me after all that time, and in a different city... Some people scare me.

But yeah, peoples interests shape the worlds that they create. In my case I have held those interests for a long time. Some of those elements are still in my worlds, even after all this time. Back then I had the orcs as the aboriginals being invaded, not the attackers, and still do today. (But at least I have gotten rid of the bad puns that used to litter the landscape when I was a sprouting DM.)

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* Core method of creating histories then and now: People are selfish scum and that is unlikely to change...