What would make for a good homebrew that adds something different?

[Quickleaf]

Does your group like swashbuckling?

I've got a setting one-pager for "Seawolves", which is basically a re-skinning of traditional D&D elements toward a seafaring campaign. It's an age if crumbling colonialism, of a seafaring empire stretched too thin to control it's far-flung outposts. As the fires of independence burn in the hearts of rebels, state-sponsored corsairs plunder the coasts, and ruthless islander pirates ransom kidnapped princes. Ancient ritual magic spanning oceans is the greatest determinant of power (besides the navy), but it requires vast quantities of residuum and ritualists to sustain these rituals. Thus giving rise to a magical smuggling and magic-user slave trade.

Every port of call has whispers of ghost ships appearing on a full moon, krakens destroying naval fleets, maelstroms sucking entire islands into the Abyss. Some are tales of a fevered mind, but gradually a common theme emerges of something profanely evil stirring beneath the waves. Plenty of opportunity awaits adventurous scoundrels.

For races you'd want to reskin a few, for example:
Dwarves would be Jules Verne inspired (there was a Dragon article with submersibles and hidden rocky settlements).
Elves would be coastal nomads recently freed from the yoke of imperial rule; elven heroes are pirates who steal and ransom to bring back the bounty to their impoverished communities. For a twist include some kind of elven spice or drug trade.
Halflings are gypsies if the high seas, masters of hidden straits and unknown islands, their navigational charts coveted by ship captains. They build floating towns on magic kelp beds, backs of great sea turtles, or lashed together rafts.
Maybe you could reskin an incongruous race as descendants of mermaids/selkies who adapted to life on land, but still hear the call of the sea?

Classes would also need a bit of tweaking:
Arcane and Divine magic would be a matter of belief. Arcanists are independent and believe magic is internal will focused by ritual (or perhaps a pseudo-scientific view). Followers of the Divine belong to a holy order and believe magic is a gift from the gods. Both sides consider the other "arrogant and delusional."
Primal classes could be flavored voodoo magic from far islands.
Heavy armor wearers could gain straight AC bonuses, so paladins would become conquistadors and fighters merchant marine guards.
Bards would be shantymen. Warlock pacts might be reflavored, eg. "deep pact". Archer Rangers could be pistol/rifle experts.

On the topic of guns, you could just reskin crossbows. Alternately you could use an exploding dice mechanic (on a '6' roll another d6), tweak the range, make up a misfire rule on a '1', or any number of homebrew ideas. If you make them superior weapons give the archer ranger auto-proficiency in rifles and the rogue auto-proficiency in pistols.

Skills could be used in a variety of abstracted ways while at sea. Heal might be used to ration food or prevent scurvy. Arcana might be used to operate enchanted sails or navigational equipment. Dungeoneering might deal with buried treasures, forbidden isles, and derelict ships - the "dungeons" of this setting. Ship-to-ship combat and ocean voyages could be modeled with skill challenges.

Other planes would need heavy re-flavoring...
The elemental chaos would become the Abyss (Dagon's realm) with malestorms and vortices as entry points.
The shadowfell would be Davey Jones Locker.
The feywild might be an island beyond time a la the TV series Lost.
The astral sea might be the literal edge of the world, a place only the bravest more powerful adventurers explore as the oceans bleed into astral mists.

Just some food for thought

 

[SSquirrel]

If you aren't opposed to 3.x, I always have to mention Arcana Evolved. Drop all the traditional races except humans and add a whole bunch of new ones. Scrap all the standard classes and have new ones. A more flexible magic system. No alignments. An interesting setting. If you're lucky enough to have a copy of Ptolus, that is a tremendous setting, but is very 3E specific in its thinking. AE or AE/Ptolus are about the only things I would still play in 3.x land, but if you are 4E or bust on this campaign, that won't help ya heh

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

You can never go wrong with gnome ninja pirates. Never.

I love it.

There are a lot of good resources mentioned in this thread. I will have to find them when I get the chance.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

Planar themed game, set in the Astral Sea. PCs have a spelljamming craft, and the game has a sort of "Pirates of the Caribbean" feel, only set in a fantastic space-like planar setting. Instead of guns, use fireball-shooting cannons. And throw in as much Eberron-style steampunk as you can stomach.

This is cool sounding.

This can easily be combined with gnome ninja pirates.

 

[Raven Crowking]

On a world of floating islands, skyjammers battle pirates and the things that lurk on the undersides/dark interiors of said islands. Islands can be tiny to very, very large. No one knows how far down the "ground" is, or if the "ground" is merely mythological, but burials often include wrapping bodies and letting them go "to the ground". All that is known is that, if one goes down far enough, there is a "dead zone" with no islands, and no one has ever gotten through it....or done so and returned to tell the tale.

(Side note: Body dropping from higher island could be adventure hook.)

(Side note 2: Islands need not remain stationary.)

(Side note 3: You could literally only develop new areas as you needed them, and they could be wildly different from the areas your PCs know.)


RC

 

[Neonchameleon]

I need a concept. A creative spark from an original source of inspiration. An idea to branch off of. I can list a few elements that I enjoy, which Eberron as a few of them, but ... honestly I wish Zeitgeist was ready because that's more what I like. But it's not ready yet.

In this post Ryan implies that the first module of Zeitgeist will be released in Mid April - and the next two months after that. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say as part of the playtest group, but what I can say is that it was very good even before playtesting, and is better now. And Ryan can really write!