Your ideal campaign setting?

[tsadkiel]

The recent Harn-related "discussion" has got me thinking about campaign settings, and what people see in them. I have to admit I'm sometimes a bit envious of Nightfall and his head-over-heels love for the Scarred Lands. I've never loved a setting so wholeheartedly. There are a number of published settings which I like, but there's always something I would have done differently, or something I want which is missing.

So here's the question - has your dream setting been published yet? If so, what do you love about it? If not, what would your ideal setting have in it?

(I realize this may be a little too soon after the WotC contest, as many people probably submitted their dream settings. So be as vague as you like.)

 

[tsadkiel]

I may as well answer my own question.

My dream setting would be kind of based on the real world - the cultures would be based on real world cultures, and they'd be placed in a similar fashion to their real world analogues (no Arabic culture right next to the Vikings, for instance.) There'd be a variety of PC races, all inspired by real world myth, and would vary depending on where in the world you went - Satyrs in "Greece," Domovoi in "Russia," Elves and Dwarves in the Nordic countries, and so on. The races and magic and mosnters wouldn't be perfect reflections of the myths that inspired them, but would capture the flavor, if that makes any sense.

The game world would feel closer to the 16-1700's than the medieval period (just because I find the later time frame more interesting. And hey, it's my dream setting, right?) Racial tension would not be a major motivating factor in the game world. (No killing goblins on sight as they try to enter town.) And there'd be a healthy sprinkling of "Da Vincipunk" technology, just because I like it.

 

[Khorod]

Thats remarkable. It is a description that would work for my world-in-the-works. Just one thing- I am not associating non-human races with countries, rather I am making them semi-mysterious populations whose emergence from the woodwork is part of the campaign tension.

World's name is Tekkys, and I hope to start putting stuff online by the end of summer.

It even has a valid explanation for a mazelike subterranean environment populated by endless traps, treasures and random monsters. But that's for mid-high level adventuring after people start getting bored with all the role-playing I want to do.

You have any ideas for 'subtle' da Vinci tech?

 

[Gothmog]

I guess my answer would have to be similar to yours so far: a world that is similar in cultures and flavor to Earth in the medieval/renniasance, but with lots of dark fantasy/horror elements.

My homebrew setting, Netheros, is my version of such a world that I have been gaming in for the last 11 years- although it has some fairly major departures from typical D&D. First, all PCs are human, although each human culture is treated as its own "race" in D&D terms (such as for stat bonuses, racial abilities, etc). Also, the typical fantasy races such as dwarves, elves, etc, are regarded as mythical creatures that are potentially dangerous. Monsters are more rare than they are in most D&D worlds, but are truly ferocious, and much feared. Magic is less common, and is practiced differently by different cultures- there are no wizards or sorcerers, but instead different magical traditions that have their own lists of spells, and powers peculiar to each tradition (witchcraft, cabalism, diabolism, etc).

 

[seasong]

So here's the question - has your dream setting been published yet? If so, what do you love about it? If not, what would your ideal setting have in it?

(I realize this may be a little too soon after the WotC contest, as many people probably submitted their dream settings. So be as vague as you like.)

Re: WotC Contest. I only submitted one of my dream settings . I'll talk about the others.

Ell'jaret: Extremely high fantasy. At the upper end, wizards can level cities and raise mountains, warriors can slay thousands of cultists in a single battle and move fast enough to be invisible, thieves can "slip" through magical force fields and smell treasure, priests can call down the heavens and fight Death itself for the lives of their comrades. Characters usually start low on the totem pole (the equivalent of a minor Action Hero on Earth ) and work their way up to the land-shaking power.

Europ: Gritty-with-magic non-historical version of medieval Europe. I internally refer to it as my "Fairies, unicorns and poor people" setting. Good for dungeon crawls, since there is plenty of wilderness and abandoned, monster-infested castles to explore. Currently working on a d20 version.

Ma'al Loch'té: Politics, gritty combat, decadent nobility, a grand empire, honorable warriors trying to make their way, tactical (non-strategic) magic, ancient dragon gods. Most of my campaigns contain mature themes (death, morality, corruption, sexuality, betrayal, etc.), but this is the world in which I like to explore them.

AO: Europ and Ma'al Loch'té are best described as "middle fantasy". AO is "low fantasy". In the last campaign, the characters started out as kids from a frontier farm community who were recruited by a nearby city-state into the military, taught poorly, and then sent out into battle against another city-state they were barely aware existed. As they became adults throughout this trial by fire, they eventually hardened against the political leaders of their times, returned home, built their own small army to prevent the city-state from taking any more children, and then slowly expanded as other communities joined their hastily thrown together confederation. The game ended with a new city-state ("a better one", they'd say) replacing the burnt out shell of the old one. And then, the players asked me to never, ever run anything like this ever again, for at least a few years .

 

[Nightfall]

The recent Harn-related "discussion" has got me thinking about campaign settings, and what people see in them. I have to admit I'm sometimes a bit envious of Nightfall and his head-over-heels love for the Scarred Lands.

Envious?! Of a madman like me!? Thanks tsadkiel. That's probably one of the NICEST things people can say about SL freak like myself. I will admit that I have PROBLEMS with some things in the Scarred Lands but the vast majority of it never revolves around the "fluff" in the books.

I've never loved a setting so wholeheartedly. There are a number of published settings which I like, but there's always something I would have done differently, or something I want which is missing.

So here's the question - has your dream setting been published yet? If so, what do you love about it? If not, what would your ideal setting have in it?

(I realize this may be a little too soon after the WotC contest, as many people probably submitted their dream settings. So be as vague as you like.)

Well dream setting isn't what I call the Scarred Lands. I call it more..."My most comfortable setting yet!" Certainly I feel like not only do I have control unlike the Realms, but with the open calls and the input/output given by many, I feel more involved and less like an outsider looking in. My voice counts, and that's what I like.
But even so, I'm not the majority and that's fine. I don't want to have MY version supercede someone else's. I always find new and exciting ideas from things I didn't think about until someone mentions them.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, I don't want a setting that's close to Medieval Europe. I get real tired of fantasy analogues of Celts, Vikings, Romans, etc.

Either actually make it legendary Europe, or else make it very clearly not Europe. Except in terms of technology, extremely broad cultural influence and climate, if that floats your boat.

And I'd like a much less super-heroic game as well. One with a different magic system, preferably.

 

[Teflon Billy]

...Either actually make it legendary Europe, or else make it very clearly not Europe. Except in terms of technology, extremely broad cultural influence and climate, if that floats your boat.

And I'd like a much less super-heroic game as well. One with a different magic system, preferably.

Joshua states my position pretty well...actually, so does Nightfall.

Scarred Lands has impressed me hugely, and it's almost entirely from what has recently become known as "fluff".

I always quite liked the Ars MAgica Mythic Europe setting except that it didn't take into account the presence of the very Earth Shaking Wizards the game was about! I hated that.

There was no way, given the elements present, that the setting could have evolved into the one presented.

My Ideal setting would be one where Magic, while powerful, was a lot more subtle. I don't want Wizards to dominate everyting when they reach X level, I wouldn't want there to ever be apoint where a character becaem useless without magic (whether spellcasting or items)

I want magic to be less akin to "artillery" and "everything that anyone else can do", and more akin to "Military Intelligence" (Scrying, Interrogation that sort of thing).

 

[Lord Ben]

I'd want a new world type where you could be Jim Bowe, Davey Crocket, Danial Boone, etc except with swords and spells. Explore new lands, meet new groups of people, etc.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Hmm. My ideal campaign setting? Well, I'd have to say...

Ain't no such animal.

Maybe I'm fickle. Maybe I'm unfocused. But I could never limit myself to a single campaign world. I like long, detailed, ongoing campaigns. But when they come to an end, I want the next one to be in a different setting. I like coming back to previous settings, but only ever few campaigns.

See, no single world could possibly do it for me as an "ideal," because I don't always enjoy the same kind of game. Sometimes I want to play in a "standard" fantasy setting. Sometimes I want higher magic. Sometimes lower. Sometimes I want a dark, grim, horrific setting--Dark Sun, Scarred Lands, Ravenloft are all dark in their own way. Sometimes I want lighter. Sometimes I feel like setting a campaign in the renaissance with rapiers and flintlocks. Sometimes I want a campaign in the bronze age, or a "fall of Rome" type setting.

My "ideal" campaign setting is one that fits whichever style of campaign I feel like running at any particular given time.