What world should I run? Hunt, K of K or SL?

[Desdichado]

Bah! An English degree! Why, you need a PhD in Medieval History and a Masters degree at least in linguistics so you can read the Chaucerian english it's written in! Harn: the Scholar's Setting!

Seriously, though, if that's the kind of thing you like, only not as extreme, it sounds like maybe Kalamar is a setting you'd like. Kalamar is well-liked around here for a lot of the same reasons Harn is, it also happens to be d20 and a little more fantastic rather than pseudo-historic. I think I'd like Kalamar.

But my true love is homebrewing. To be perfectly honest with you, though, I don't know how much you really need to have prepared to get started. Last time I ran a campaign, which ended up aborting while my most recent son was born (another guy stepped in to DM after that, and I haven't come back around except as a player) I hadn't really even done as much work as you had. I had just picked up the new Manual of the Planes though, so I knew I wanted the game to go planar at some point. I just winged it for a session or two until they got into Sigil. In the meantime, I had downloaded the Planescape ESD's from Wizards, and I liberally stole from that and had them do some Sigil-ian adventures for a while. That's when my wife went into labor and the campaign went south.

But I really hadn't had much of anything prepared. Just a few NPCs, a small village with a lord's estate nearby. Ideas kept weaving their way in until I had adventure seeds that would have lasted for months of play. And I started actually playing with little more than a basic idea of what I wanted to do.

Then again, I know a lot of DMs don't like to run things that way. Still, you really only need to prepare material you're going to use for the next session, and maybe have some extremely basic ideas beyond that nailed down. With no more than that, you can play.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

OK BG, I did say I was serious earlier. I took quite a bit of time and checked out your site and it's obvious you've put a ton of thought and work into it and done a bang-up job. Aside from the format being too fragmented for my use, your "world" isn't developed enough. What you've done is excellent but too localized to be what I'm looking for. Please, though, don't let my curmudgeoness stop you from updating your site by midnight! Thanks for the link and the tour. Good stuff in there.

Thanks for the feedback, positive and negative!

(boring ramble alert!)

Just as an aside the main "area of action" is about 1,000 miles by 1,000 miles. Other settings have kingdoms, I have baronies. The idea is that there's always one player in a group who wants to rock the boat. "Take me to the king, I have a bone to pick with his arse!" he invariably says. Well, were the game real that guy would have a life expectancy you could measure with a stopwatch. Hence the reason for the greater attention to the smaller scale. There's just as much to do, but the impact of any boorish attitudes is reduced. In otherwords, I'm building the setting to be played in by the usual mish-mash of play styles a typcial gaming group tends to get instead of assuming that everyone is of one mind.

(end boring ramble)

But now is the time when I shall have the servers dance for your pleasure while I update the site! BEHOLD! Three new non-player characters, an orc flag, and more information on Remaria: the grand empire of lands beyond! This one's all for you, Bloodymage!

 

[Desdichado]

Also, since no one's mentioned it yet and it seems to be the answer to every question posed on the boards lately:

Al Qa frickin' dim!

 

[Nightfall]

Re: Why just 3 new choices?

Thanks Joshua. Intriguing suggestion. I'll probably go with it if I decide to concentrate on developing Ert.

If you do go homebrew, definately take up Josh and Klugie's recommendation on Bluffside and Freeport. Two great cities.

Nightfall, your description causes me to think I should explain why I listed the choices I did. Btw, good informed salesmanship. Just what I want.

I try. If you need more info and/or have questions, post them here or just email me. I'm always around.

2) Scarred Lands: I bought R&R for the "crunchies" and was intrigued by the "fluff" (I like fluff, see Harn below). Sounded wild and wooly, like it would be a lot of fun. I'm leery of two aspects though. There doesn't seem to be enough civilization for me and the whole Divine War thing (Time of Troubles) and the seeming "gods in mortal affairs" element is something I don't like about FR.

Well I will admit, you won't find a LOT of villiages inside the Blood Steppes but you will find some along the borders of such places. The Perforated plains may not house much but the Bleak Savannah and even the Ukrdan(sp) desert do have some settlements. While I don't know if that's not enough for you, I can address the "Gods playing around" While I can understand your relucant ala the Time of Troubles, unlike the Time of Troubles, the gods, while having SOME self interest, were trying at their heart to save civilization from constantly being pick apart by the Titans. That and the fact that while cleric magic and it's interference DO happen, it's not like they ALWAYS show up. Their main concern is still the titanspawn. Thus you can see a LE cleric of Chardun work along side a paladin of Corean in fight against the Ratmen/Slitheren or other kinds. I will admit it's a little rare but I can happen.

 

[Nightfall]

Btw, SL is in the lead, at least outside of Homebrew. I'm a happy man.

 

[Valicor]

Well I guess since you asked...

Now understand Bloody, you're under NO obligation and/or soul contract to do any of this. But I think the Scarred Lands might appeal to you.

1. Lots of Wilderness. There are plenty of BAD spots on the Continent of Ghelspad, home of the Scarred Lands, doesn't mean though there isn't a bastion or refugee or two in the lands. But it does mean that you'll see more druids, rangers and barbarians running around along with strange and unnatural creatures. It makes the North in the FR look nearly tamed. From the rugged and unrelenting heat and oppresive winds in the Perforated Plains, the cumbersome and fierce wilds of the Blood Steppes, you have ample opportunity to run a wilderness based campaign EVEN if it's just in near one of the many city states inside Ghelspad.

2. More than just one continent to explore. In fact there are FOUR, Ghelspad, the jungles and wilds of Termana, home to the Blood Bayou and the Jack of Tears, Asherak, one of the few lands relatively unscathed by the ravages of the Divine War, and Fernirrik(sp) icy and frost and unforgiving. Ghelspad is so far all the SL fans know but soon comes Termana, home of the Forsaken elves and the empire of the Charduni, fierce dwarves devoted to Chardun, God of Slavery, War and chains. Then we'll see more of the other two. But really this just gives you an excuse to travel, see more than just one continent. I don't know of many places that do that.

3. You feel close to the gods. The Gods in the Scarred Lands, are not numerous but they are powerful and they have a great many followers. The Eight Victors, those that rose up against the Titans, their fathers and mothers, as well as creators of many races and things in the Scarred Lands, are known through out the land. Everyone respects them, for all fear the incur the wrath of ANY of them. The names, Corean, Madriel, Tanil, Hedrada, Enkil, Chardun, Belsameth and Vangal inspire equal parts awe and reverance as well as fear and dread to those that know them. They have a divine truce and though it has its problems, they know this is the only way to keep their universe from cracking apart and allowing the Titans to return.

4. It's not about good or evil, or law and chaos. What drives the Scarred Lands, isn't so much the "evil' or "good" but more like the need to bring civilization to a wounded land versus the incursions of the titan's servitors, called titanspawn. So it's more like a clash of cultures, those that serve the gods versus those that don't. Thus the conflicts rage and more creatures, many serving the titans, emerge, created as after effects of the Divine War.

5. Druids and clerics are different. Somthing else I've liked about the Scarred Lands. Druids are apart of the natural order. Clerics are apart of the DIVINE order. Some times they work together..but most of the time, druids are treated with fear and mistrust.

I hope that gives you some insight into the Scarred Lands. Oh and don't forget to see Hollowfaust, one of the more interesting cities since it's home to good/neutral type necromancers as well having one of the more orderly and cleaner places to live...as long as you don't die.

Good old Nightfall always pitchign the his favorite setting. If I wasn't already hooked on the setting Nightfall probally would have hooked me on it. I wonder if the Nigthfall identity is a secret marketing ploy by Sword & Sorcery , Nah

Seriously it is a great setting and has everythign you need, Go Scarred Lands.

 

[Nightfall]

Ah well Val, I don't preach to the choir. I just enjoy hearing them sing along with me. But as to my secret identity, I'm Kid "MutherFing" Rock!

But yeah that's my hope, though if he does his homebrew, I'll live. Just have to work on filling my quota.

 

[bloodymage]

Thanks for the feedback, positive and negative!

But now is the time when I shall have the servers dance for your pleasure while I update the site! BEHOLD! Three new non-player characters, an orc flag, and more information on Remaria: the grand empire of lands beyond! This one's all for you, Bloodymage!

I'm touched BG And, me thinks, you're fishing! Nevertheless, I shall dutifully check out you're modifications tomorrow evening.

 

[Corinth]

Middle-Earth: it's all there, and yet there's so much to explore. Just bookmark the Encyclopedia of Arda and grab some of the books. Hit up the SRD for game information, brew carefully and go for it. My next D&D game is a ME campaign set in FA 120, the day that Eldarion son of Aragorn Elessar ascends to the throne of the Reunited Kingdom; the Mouth of Sauron is the first master villain, and there's several big quests to pull off in the meantime. It'll be great.

 

[Desdichado]

Middle-earth does have a lot to recommend it for those reasons. I was running an online game with my brothers and some friends recently, using some modified d20 stuff (Wheel of Time RPG classes, some other changes similar to the Middle Earth d20 page here at ENWorld) and we set it in the year 1409 (I think? Right before the tower at Weathertop was burned down.) Used to have a story hour, but I quit updating when we went through server troubles.

Since then, the game has kinda fallen apart due to the difficulty of scheduling these online sessions, but we had lots of fun for a while. We did go farther than the story hour indicates, so we played it long enough to really enjoy the setting.