What flavor does your campaign have?
- Thread starter mmadsen
- Start date
I haven't started my campaign yet, but here's how I hope it will be flavored.
The players will start with an act of heroism that gets them noticed by various powers -- powers who want to control the players to further their own means. The players will run various errands for a while, until they realise they've been pawns in a much larger game.
How's that for high hopes?
The players will start with an act of heroism that gets them noticed by various powers -- powers who want to control the players to further their own means. The players will run various errands for a while, until they realise they've been pawns in a much larger game.
How's that for high hopes?
Melan
Explorer
Good topic!
My campaign is, like D&D itself, a blend of different flavours. The central area where most of the current action takes place is mostly based on the Lankhmar tales of Leiber, with a strong influence of "1st edition feel" (what can I say? I like dungeons.)
The rest is more exotic: the southern lands of Ninn is Babylonian/Assirian, and it is ruled by god-kings. It is constantly at war with a hidden and ancient realm from another dimension, that established itself in a jungle. The war has been going on for centuries, with divine intervention being common on both sides. That certain empire is Tsolyánu, who see this iron-rich world as a grand place for conquest.
This is also the place where I put the lost and ancient gods for the Conan/Solomon Kane-inspired adventures.
To the east were once the many cities of a highly advanced technical civilization. They were destroyed millenia ago, before current human reckoning. Nothing lives there, only evil spirits: the intense radiation left from nuclear bombardment makes the inner lands completely uninhabitable - and just by entering, one is doomed to a certain and painful death. Many try, for the glassified sands and the crumbled buildings are rumored to be very rich in rare and never before seen magic items and relics. Life remains on the western coast of this huge land mass: a few paranoid and ancient cities, who still dream of their former greatness. Once the first outposts of the men fleeing from the holocaust, they are now full of intricate customs, arbitrary and often delicately cruel laws, etc.
The flavour in this case is all the weird stuff I love - Vance, Clark Ashton Smith and the Arabian Nights. There is a lot of adventuring to do here - ruins all around, and of course there are the accursed barbarians who live on the edge of the wastelands - they hate and envy everything who doesn't share their misery. They even have a pitiful "king" of sorts, who rules a pathetic tent-town with amazing cruelty. He dreams of conquest and these are just being fulfilled - Sfanomoe, glass-domed jewel of the south has already been sacked and raped by his horde, and the others will surely follow in the downfall. (The observant will notice that these are the mabden from Moorcock)
There is also a huge ice-covered island/microcontinent to the northwest, but I don't know yet what is there, apart from more ancient cities and Cthulhu-worshippers.
My campaign is, like D&D itself, a blend of different flavours. The central area where most of the current action takes place is mostly based on the Lankhmar tales of Leiber, with a strong influence of "1st edition feel" (what can I say? I like dungeons.)
The rest is more exotic: the southern lands of Ninn is Babylonian/Assirian, and it is ruled by god-kings. It is constantly at war with a hidden and ancient realm from another dimension, that established itself in a jungle. The war has been going on for centuries, with divine intervention being common on both sides. That certain empire is Tsolyánu, who see this iron-rich world as a grand place for conquest.
This is also the place where I put the lost and ancient gods for the Conan/Solomon Kane-inspired adventures.To the east were once the many cities of a highly advanced technical civilization. They were destroyed millenia ago, before current human reckoning. Nothing lives there, only evil spirits: the intense radiation left from nuclear bombardment makes the inner lands completely uninhabitable - and just by entering, one is doomed to a certain and painful death. Many try, for the glassified sands and the crumbled buildings are rumored to be very rich in rare and never before seen magic items and relics. Life remains on the western coast of this huge land mass: a few paranoid and ancient cities, who still dream of their former greatness. Once the first outposts of the men fleeing from the holocaust, they are now full of intricate customs, arbitrary and often delicately cruel laws, etc.
The flavour in this case is all the weird stuff I love - Vance, Clark Ashton Smith and the Arabian Nights. There is a lot of adventuring to do here - ruins all around, and of course there are the accursed barbarians who live on the edge of the wastelands - they hate and envy everything who doesn't share their misery. They even have a pitiful "king" of sorts, who rules a pathetic tent-town with amazing cruelty. He dreams of conquest and these are just being fulfilled - Sfanomoe, glass-domed jewel of the south has already been sacked and raped by his horde, and the others will surely follow in the downfall. (The observant will notice that these are the mabden from Moorcock)
There is also a huge ice-covered island/microcontinent to the northwest, but I don't know yet what is there, apart from more ancient cities and Cthulhu-worshippers.
Kinda like Quiche Lorraine. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, thrown jn with top-notch fresh quality ingredients, and viola! Nothing like pizza whatsoever.
Lower formal arcane magic, ruined empires, ancient hatreds, active divine presence, ancient, near-sentient magic, young kingdoms, and the brooding ruins of the past ready to disrupt the present at any moment. And lots of shiny gold thingies.
All baked in a perfect crust and lovingly served just warm enough.
Lower formal arcane magic, ruined empires, ancient hatreds, active divine presence, ancient, near-sentient magic, young kingdoms, and the brooding ruins of the past ready to disrupt the present at any moment. And lots of shiny gold thingies.
All baked in a perfect crust and lovingly served just warm enough.
MaxKaladin
First Post
I noticed that so many D&D settings have a very similar general background. The basic form of it is that there was once a great age of peace, prosperity and powerful magic the likes of which is unknown in the present. Somehow, this age was brought to an end and all was lost. Usually through some sort of spectacular war. The present is a wilder age with little peace and varying degrees of prosperity though not as much as in the ancient age of prosperity. The magical powers of the past age are now long forgotten secrets which can perhaps be found in forgotten ruins of that ancient age.
I decided to be different. I chose an age of peace, prosperity, and powerful magic. Rather than use a medieval base, I used Rome as a model. My game is set in a vast and ancient empire which survived a period of decline and is now rising to ever greater heights under its young, handsome, dashing and competant emperor. There are wild areas, but they are very much distinct from properly civilized areas. There are ruins, but they are remnants of barbaric ages past when wizards jealously guarded their knowledge and sought to keep it for themselves locked away in remote towers and dungeons. Or they are the remnants of cults fleeing the one true religion of the empire (that being a departure from the general Roman feel) or last hideaways of those defeated and deposed by the empire in it's expansion.
As for 'flavor'...
The wilderness and dungeon expeditions often feel more like some sort of victorian exploratory or archeological expedition than the traditional dungeon crawl right down to the aristocratic priestess insisting on bringing servants along.
Much of the city portion of the game has had a flavor that is a cross of Casablanca, ancient Rome and 'the Godfather' with a dash of Oliver Twist thrown in. Lots of dealings with spies and various political intrigues along with the local organized crime syndicate and nobody being quite sure who is working for who.
I decided to be different. I chose an age of peace, prosperity, and powerful magic. Rather than use a medieval base, I used Rome as a model. My game is set in a vast and ancient empire which survived a period of decline and is now rising to ever greater heights under its young, handsome, dashing and competant emperor. There are wild areas, but they are very much distinct from properly civilized areas. There are ruins, but they are remnants of barbaric ages past when wizards jealously guarded their knowledge and sought to keep it for themselves locked away in remote towers and dungeons. Or they are the remnants of cults fleeing the one true religion of the empire (that being a departure from the general Roman feel) or last hideaways of those defeated and deposed by the empire in it's expansion.
As for 'flavor'...
The wilderness and dungeon expeditions often feel more like some sort of victorian exploratory or archeological expedition than the traditional dungeon crawl right down to the aristocratic priestess insisting on bringing servants along.
Much of the city portion of the game has had a flavor that is a cross of Casablanca, ancient Rome and 'the Godfather' with a dash of Oliver Twist thrown in. Lots of dealings with spies and various political intrigues along with the local organized crime syndicate and nobody being quite sure who is working for who.
Aeolius
Adventurer
Go to your local public aquarium or pet store that carries saltwater fish. Look for a tank filled with corals. Now, look closely. Look into the crooks and niches, the crevices and cracks. Do you see it? The inspiration for adventure beneath the sea rests within.
Add to that a healthy dose of Discovery's "Blue Planet", a smattering of Greyhawk, and a hag or two. There you have it.
Add to that a healthy dose of Discovery's "Blue Planet", a smattering of Greyhawk, and a hag or two. There you have it.
Ace32
Explorer
My campaign is like a gobstopper... it is constantly changing, depending on what I like the most. My campaign is sort of a traveling one, where the players go from place to place, so I can pretty much make up whatever I like, any culture/mythology I want, and we go with it. We get all kinds of fun enemies, experiences, and items this way. It's funny to see your paladin decked out in black dragon plate mail, wearing a force shield, and wielding his magical kris.. next to your ranger wearing a heavy kevlar jacket and wielding the heavily modified arm of a mech as a shotgun. Fun fun fun!
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