A World where "civilized" races are enslaved by the more primative "uncivilized" races. Draconic laws assualt the freedom and rights that we (in real life) enjoy daily.
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--Make race important. Example: I once thought of a campaign where the tolkienesque BBEG had recently killed off all elves because they they were mentioned in a prophecy involving his defeat. All characters were required to be half elves.
--Odd society backgrounds well explained. The L5R RPG puts a lot of effort into explaining Rokugan to players. It helps set up the game. Do the same thing with a setting that resembles Minoan Crete, Iroquois, Celtic mythos or whatever.
--Include weird geography like flying islands, the ocean running off the edge of the world, a blank space that is empty void, cities that aren't always there, or whatever.
--Something in the campaign world is brand new and is seen as a disrupting influence. For example: there were no undead or lycanthropes twenty years ago, the messiah has been born and she is gathering her forces, no one has been born in the last ten years.
Now combine it in interesting ways, for example, the messiah has been born and she's trapped inside the Labyrith of the Minos of the floating island empire. We don't know what her message is, but those who drink of her blood gain eternal life, provided they drink the blood of the living. She has decreed that the all those of mixed blood should be hunted down and destroyed as unholy.
Hope that is helpful.
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A World where "civilized" races are enslaved by the more primative "uncivilized" races. Draconic laws assualt the freedom and rights that we (in real life) enjoy daily.
Anyway, somethings I wouldn't mind seeing in a setting are...
1.) A setting that doesn't have multiple planes of existence (except maybe the Ethereal Plane). But rather, it has Stargate like junctions between planets acrossed the universe. I see them more as trade routes, not something relegated to high level.
2.) A setting that doesn't try to be an infinite sand box. By trying to include everything, a setting immediately looses anything that would have made it unique. Not every monster fits in every world. And more than that, not every level of play is appropriate for every setting. For example, in my home campaign world, Aean, there is a level cap of 12. That's because the setting can't handle anything beyond that. It would be about as boring as playing Dragon Ball characters in the Hundred Acre Woods.
If they ever do make another setting, which I doubt they will do as goloarin seems to be going strong. I would love to see a setting based more on the renissance/early modern period, similar to the musketeers.
Along the though of "uncivilized" is a personal hobby of mine.
What would a setting look like if the presence of active monsters were taken into account from the get go. Something that bugs me about most fantasy settings that despite even fairly mild super predators like Owlbears this rarely seems to negatively impact "civilization" to a significant degree. Large concerns like farming and agriculture seem almost unimpeded. At least not enough to stop the formation of city's or not support specialization (like Wizards). How to frail little humans, dwarves, and even orcs not become crunchable lunch-ables for critters vastly more deadly at birth and significantly more intelligent then large cats and bears of our world.
Even pack hunting coyotes can be fatal to unprepared humans in the right circumstances. Once heard about a woman who was almost mauled by a pack in the L.A. area. The guy who saw it (and intervened) saw that was one distracting her and her little rat dog by walking back and fourth blocking her way, while two snuck up behind. If they had been hungry enough they likely could have brought her and her little dog. Luckily for her the guy spotted this ambush in action and got her into his truck and away.
Up scale coyotes to worgs picking off human hunter gatherers. Yum yum. And there are far worse monsters in Pathfinder fantasy.
I would like to see a campaign setting that consists of multiple interconnected small demi-planes, as opposed to one large plane. See the create demi-plane spell for ideas.
One campaign setting I have been thinking on is one where divine magic was wiped out, only arcane magic exists, and to such a degree that non arcane spell casting classes are off limits. Thanks to the APG and UM, all of the classic roles can be covered.
Also, a campaign setting around the concept of e6.
I really like "ancient" fantasy settings. Bronze Age or Atlantean fantasy is great, but seems to be very rare with victorian settings being themost popular kind of the day.
Having a world with barbarians, rangers, sorcerers, druids, witches, and oracles, and no clerics, paladins, cavaliers, and such is what I'm currently working on.
Also a world in which humans are just one race among others, with dwarves and elves playing a much greater role in global events. This also alows for a greater role for orcs, goblins, and giants, as they are not so far behind in development.
The "problem" with such settings is, that not all classes and equipment is appropriate, and publishers seems to hate settings that don't allow all options provided by the rules.
If they ever do make another setting, which I doubt they will do as goloarin seems to be going strong. I would love to see a setting based more on the renissance/early modern period, similar to the musketeers.
I only looked at the basic things about a year ago, but isn't that what Golarion is?
This thread is meant to be a free flowing discussion of an alternative game setting other than Golarian. Just post what you'd like to see.
I'd like to see something that hasn't been done before. It should not resemble Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk or Dark Sun or Ravenloft or Eberron. It might be a totally sea based world (akin to Pirates of Dark Water). It might be a post apocalyptic world (akin too Shanarra). It might be Stone Age. It needs to be something new.
I'd like a world in which the gods aren't known to exist - a world in which either Clerics don't cast Divine Magic or there is some other explanation for Divine Magic (such as the community's pure faith). Also, any church can have priests of every alignment (even if, by 'every alignment', some alignments must be in hiding). So, you can have evil Cardinal Richelieu in a good church.
I'd like a world in which outsiders aren't strongly aligned, but are highly _alien_ in nature.
I want a world with few magic items, but magic items can gain power the longer you own them.
If you have the patience to wait a couple months, we'll have a lovely little world to play in
I've been developing a Victorian themed setting with minor steampunk elements for some time, so aside from that angle I'd like to see a...
- Ravenloft-inspired horror campaign setting where evil deeds slowly change the PCs/NPCs. I'd like the geography to focus on European themes with the exclusion of desert/jungle enviroments. I'd prefer human-dominated societies with a wide range of nonhuman races bubbling beneath. No elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs or their hybrid variants. Very low dragon population. As a horror campaign, I'd like to draw the focus away from the more fantastic game creations (giants, hydras, huge vermin, etc.). Little or no deity presence or perhaps empty feelings during morning prayers and tainted spells that function differently than their norm; as if the entity granting the spells is not the deity prayed to.
- Modern fantasy campaign setting with non-human races mixed into human society and functioning without too many social barriers. I do not want such a setting to take place on Earth unless it's fitted with an alternate history (i.e. Fallout games). I don't care if the setting is post-apocalypse or tech-heavy variants of Saint's Row/GTA. I'd like planar interactions (even summoning) to be extremely dangerous to such an extent that it's illegal in most countries. No deities at all and completely new classes that fit the modern theme.
- Far-future campaign setting that takes place primarily aboard starships and space stations. No deities, again. Technology should be at a high-point; I don't want to see PCs screwing around in "star-galleys", use futuristic tech or get another setting. No psionics, at all. If mental-themed magic is necessary, develop force enthusiasts with relevant abilities. Any non-elf/non-halfling race is acceptable, however I'd certainly like to see dwarves and fetchlings. Faction vs. faction or faction vs. PC conflict only. This means no Mass-Effect-themed-planet-munching-reaper vs. the galaxy nonsense.
- Planar based campaign setting. Anything goes, just no elves or halflings.
A racially limited campaign. Maybe just human, elves, dwarves, and a small number of half elves. The PCs being youngsters are descendents of a planar refugees, the older dwarves and elves remember fleeing to a new world.
All the PC races are settled in a fertile river valley where they arrived, forming separate communities. Humans have expanded into 4-6 small communities based around rich farmlands, the elves removed themselves to the wooded fringe, dwarves have a pair of strongholds in the hills on the edge of the valley. Because of the smaller talent pool, magic items aren't just bought sold. Even basic weapons and armors are prizes.
The world itself is actually pretty much loaded with life, most of it being animals or low intelligent stuff. Beyond the valley it is primarily seeming unexplored wilderness. The truth that might come to light was there once were civilizations by native races that have since collapsed, some of these races have since disappeared. The one real remainder of the past are hobgoblin( or some other race) that still have clans that occasionally seem on the brink of reclaiming some of their ancient glory.
Now the PCs can explore the ruins of the fallen civilization of the past. Perhaps forge out new areas for colonization. Or even being watching over their shoulders for the source of their fore bearers fleeing to this new world coming after them here.
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My first suggestions where kinda the easiest way one could make something distinct and hence memorable. I guess what I want is perhaps mini campaign settings.
For example, a setting which is one country ruled by a cruel aristocracy that has a unique advantage that keeps them on top. Characters are would be rebels. Perhaps ala Robin Hood, perhaps not.
Perhaps another mini setting set at a school of magic and another where the world is ending.
But basically the campaign is smaller scale.
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--Include weird geography like flying islands, the ocean running off the edge of the world, a blank space that is empty void, cities that aren't always there, or whatever.
I was gonna say this, but Kerney got there first.
It's a fantasty world. I'd love to see something utterly fantastic, like a cloud giant dominated nation that travels the skys over several landbound kingdom on cloud-castles, extorting tribute from those below, or even raiding the lands below from flying galleons (piloted primarily by human-sized individuals they have captured and raised aboard their flying cloud-castles. The giants themselves don't come down to raid, but only accept tribute from those small vassals who raid on their behalf, from the safety of the cloud-castles).
Dozens of floating mountains above a certain mundane mountain range, keeping the lands below in perpetual shadow, could be neat. Storm giants, rocs, flights of gargoyles, wyverns and perytons could inhabit these floating mountains, and in the shadow of the mountains, nocturnal creatures, such as orcs and vampires, could dominate the local lands, since the sun is obscured so much of the day by various 'sky peaks.'
A 'hollow world' with it's own sun on the inside of the planet. Gravity is reversed, and people walk on the underside of the crust normally. Someone falling from the surface world to the world below via a massive shaft that connects the two will fall and fall until they reach the point where gravity reverses, and plunge across the demarcation only to tumble back to that point, where they will float helplessly until they can reach the sides of the shaft, and pick which direction they wish to climb free, 'up' to the surface world or 'up' to the hollow earth...
Countries dominated by other races in a 'points of light' sort of style, where it isn't necessarily 'safe' to go wandering off across 'settled' territory. Mankind is not the lord and master of all creation, and nations of elves, hobgoblins, dwarves, etc. exist in competition, alliance and / or conflict with them (and are not themselves monolithic, with different dwarven or elven nations being bitter foes with their own kind, perhaps even more so than with the orc or goblinoid nations!).
Very few great dragons, but those that exist have a powerful effect on the world. There might only be one known red dragon, but as he's the Ashen Emperor of the Fire Kingdom, with armies of fire-scarred hobgoblin slave-mamelukes, a scurrying court of kobold servants, and elite squads of (often dragonblooded or half-dragon) fire giants, everybody knows exactly where he is, and exactly what sort of threat to the 'free kingdoms' he represents. The cruel and jaded hedonistic elves of the Singing Woods have kobold slaves attending to their whims, and devote their long lives to dissipated and drug-fueled indulgences and excesses and courtly intrigues and political machinations amongst themselves, unaware (and, if they ever found out, possibly not even caring!) that their beautiful, sensual and ageless Verdant Queen is a green dragon, who has replaced sorcerer levels with bardic abilities.
PC classes are unusual. Most NPC spellcasters will be adepts (with arcane and divine sub-options available). Most NPC 'thieves' will be warriors and / or experts. Most NPC 'barbarians' will be warriors. Signature foes will, naturally, get to use class levels, but even in a 'wizards academy' or 'church of X,' the bulk of the 'wizards' and 'priests' (including the teachers, and even the ranking clergy) will be arcane or divine adepts, not actual clerics, druids, wizards or sorcerers.
One thing that's very fantasy-like but apprently appears mostly in sci-fi, are ancient forgotten cultures that left behind huge buildings and advanced technology/magic, that people of the present don't completely understand.
The most you usually get is some fallen elven kingdoms that were ruled by extremely powerful wizards, but those tend to be very well understood with good records of their culture and history.
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One thing that's very fantasy-like but apprently appears mostly in sci-fi, are ancient forgotten cultures that left behind huge buildings and advanced technology/magic, that people of the present don't completely understand.
Ooh, and not to give the impression that I'm picking on your idea, Neithan, but this is a common trope in fantasy worlds. In Greyhawk, two vastly superior magically-advanced cultures were able to wipe each other out with the Rain of Colorless Fire and the Invoked Devastation. In the Realms, magic was explicitly better 'back then' with 10th level spells and sentient mythals and people able to cast spells that had the possibility of turning them into gods.
It could be funky to turn that assumption on its head, and make the 'modern day' setting much like the real world, where technology (magic, whatever) improves and builds on itself.
Exploring ancient ruins, you find glorious precursor magic, only to decipher the *ten pages* of text to find out that you've discovered a 1000 year old version of magic missile that has a shorter range, does bludgeoning damage instead of force damage, has to roll to hit, and only does 1d4 damage per missile, instead of 1d4+1. Worse yet, this is the *improved version,* which doesn't take a full-round action to cast and doesn't require a handful of quartz crystals as a material component! Whoo-hoo! Such magic!
The ancient secret of the world-shaking inventors of arcane lore from millenia past?
Their magic wasn't as advanced or effective as 'modern' magic.
There could still be secrets to be learned. Not everything advances. (We spent 2000 years rediscovering Democritus' theory of atoms, or rediscovering how useful ceramic could be, for instance.) The evolution of ideas can be as flawed as any other kind of evolution, with false starts and mishaps. Ancient ruins might reveal a kind of magic that was long ago abandoned because it was unfeasible or impractical or deemed heretical or whatever, that can be developed and refined to be useful and practical in the 'modern-day,' but I like for the 'modern-day' to be better than what came before, and for the 'Golden Age when everyone was polite' to be a rosy-colored fiction that ignores stuff like world wars and concentration camps and polio.
Ooh, and not to give the impression that I'm picking on your idea, Neithan, but this is a common trope in fantasy worlds. In Greyhawk, two vastly superior magically-advanced cultures were able to wipe each other out with the Rain of Colorless Fire and the Invoked Devastation. In the Realms, magic was explicitly better 'back then' with 10th level spells and sentient mythals and people able to cast spells that had the possibility of turning them into gods.
But that's not what I'm talking about. Every historian with 10 ranks in Knowledge (history) can tell you the entire history of Netheril, Myth Drannor, and Imaskar. There's nothing mysterious or unknown about them, they are perfectly researched and recorded. Their magical effects can not be replicated in the present, but that's because the laws of magic have changed. They wouldn't be able to replicate those effects either and everyone knows perfectly well who they were.
I'm thinking more of towers and castles that have been ancient long before recorded history, without anyone even having an educated guess what race the creators were and what they looked like. They are one of the four generic standard sci-fi races (humans, religious warrior-aliens, ancient destroyer-aliens, extinct science aliens who knew how to kill destroyer-aliens). But I never saw them in fantasy settings.
The titans of Warcraft could possibly qualify, but they are a bit more like creator deities.
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I was building a setting called Res Publica where the human Republic is dominated by wizards (no clerics) and the wizards discover the other planes and the 'demons' that dwell there. So the republic crashes into chaos when non wizards discover that becomming clerics worshiping demons gives them power on par with the wizards.
The setting begins 100 years on from that event when the republic is nothing but scattered ruins with unique artefacts of a steamtech era that dead ended in demon worship.
Worse still lesser Demons (mortal demons) are at large in the ruins as NPCs and PCs alike. Wizards are outcasts of society, cities and towns are urban strongholds ruled by religious factions devoted to one demon god or another.
Demons are the precursors to elves, dwarves and fae as well as werewolves.
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Demons are the precursors to elves, dwarves and fae as well as werewolves.
I dislike this idea because it seems to go against so much of the underlying mythos that seems to inform the collective legacy that sets the core of modern fantasy.
Fae for example, both in ancient myth and as implied in much of our fantasy which it derives (including the legacy of D&D) are very much tied to the natural world and by implication, what is sacred and primal and mysterious.
Turning them into artificial demon things with no ties to the natural world and where, basically nature has no soul is just the thing to make me want to throw book across the room and and burn it as a thing of vile darkness.
It's okay to leave out fae in a steampunk setting, or decide that humans are the only race or a hundred other things. Just don't turn things that are established into things that they are not. It's as sick and wrong as, worst of all artifical as sparkly good aligned vampires who obsess about vapid teenage girls.
Keep my elves elves, my vampires bloodsucking fiends, fae deeply tied to the natural world etc.
Basically respect the sources.....unless it's good aligned Drow Rangers.
I'm kind of partial to a New World sort of new world. Namely, how about a campaign set in an age of exploration and discovery. A whole new continent has been discovered. Back home in the Old World there are various powers, with some of the countries being predominantly occupied by certain races with others maybe more heterogeneous. I could also see where you might have Dwarf nation A and Dwarf nation B with differences based on historical revolution or religion or other factors for example. Some of the core races maybe come from the New World. The adventurers could be working for a single throne or merchant faction. Or they could be independents seeking a new life or access to new land or treasure hunters or pirates. I think it probably would work best with several years having passed since the initial discovery and the different nations have already established some outposts or small colonies. I just think it sounds like a fun backdrop for a setting.
L
But that's not what I'm talking about. Every historian with 10 ranks in Knowledge (history) can tell you the entire history of Netheril, Myth Drannor, and Imaskar. There's nothing mysterious or unknown about them, they are perfectly researched and recorded. Their magical effects can not be replicated in the present, but that's because the laws of magic have changed. They wouldn't be able to replicate those effects either and everyone knows perfectly well who they were.
I'm thinking more of towers and castles that have been ancient long before recorded history, without anyone even having an educated guess what race the creators were and what they looked like. They are one of the four generic standard sci-fi races (humans, religious warrior-aliens, ancient destroyer-aliens, extinct science aliens who knew how to kill destroyer-aliens). But I never saw them in fantasy settings.
The titans of Warcraft could possibly qualify, but they are a bit more like creator deities.
I agree - something like the Forerunners in Andre Norton's books. Take that idea, and mix it with a genuine Neolithic / Antediluvian culture (like our world, but with magic). We can see what they left behind, but don't understand it and no - or few - written records mean no history, no king lists, no knowledge of heroes or the movement of peoples. No knowledge even of what they were called, or what happened to them as they disappeared before the beginning of recorded history. Perhaps divination spells always fail when used to scry that particular age, and gods and their emissaries are curiously - and resolutely - silent.
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If you're going to criticize yellowdingo for not respecting mythological sources, I suggest you actually read those mythological sources, first.
D&D describes fae as nature sprits, but that definition is entirely artificial. I challenge you to cite any ancient myth where the word "fae" is used to refer only to spirits of nature, as opposed to hidden, supernatural beings in general.
First off Yellow Dingo blatantly ignores the legacy, going back from Norse and Celtic myth, to Irish Monks editing myth and Snorri Sturluson's written Eddas which is in turn is interpreted and preserved by 19th century nationalist and romantics and finally distilled into by Tolkien into the 'prototype' that influences most modern fantasy.
Secondly, what you ask is impossible because the word fae has evolved over 2000 years as various ancestoral and local dieties were reduced in power and important into half forgotten nature spirits. Sometime around the 19th century or fae took the form of 'nature spirit' in many interpretations. It is the one that D&D uses.
As for 'Ancient Myth' most not quite literate societies like the Norse and the Celts see no difference between the natural world, the hidden and the human world. All are intertwined. The Germanic word 'wryrd' is probably tied closest to that concept.
But a good example of those ties is in lines verses 166-167 of The Second Battle of Mag Tuired, where the Morrigan, after the Irish dieties (Tuatha de Danaan) have defeated the forces of chaos (fomor) and places the state harmony of the world and propheciezes it's doom.
Explicit is the ties between the natural world and the world of man and how changes in human behavior are tied to changes in the natural world, effecting the spirits (sid-hosts) state now and the future decline in health she prophecizes.
D&D, from it's begining has sometimes gone back to very ancient sources, for example the shape changing powers of Druids have basis in both Welsh and Irish myth (and I could quote you here, trust me, I've read them) sometimes more recent sources/interpretation. Regardless, there is a thread of connection that Yellow Dingo ignores in his suggestion that I don't quite agree with.
All the Best,
Kerney
Also Merlin (a druid) was supposed to have shape shifting powers in many of the older stories.
This is completely off topic, but, Kerney, if you're not spoken for, I'd like to ask for your hand in marriage. Because, dang.
Now back to the topic:
One of the things that I have integrated into all of my game worlds for about the last decade or so is a general disenfranchisement of Magic, and a removal of Magical Power, and by extension Magic Items, from "commodity" status. I strongly dislike the idea that any Wizard worth his salt will be able to sit down and crank out a goodly number of magical items for the surrounding country-side, thus adding to an inexorable march toward the "Mystical 7-11 on every corner" syndrome. While I recognize that as the GM, I have fiat to say "No, you can't take that Create (n) Feat," the simple fact is that most Generic Fantasy Worlds make the assumption that because it is mechanically allowed within the system, that a statistical value of Spellcasters who have access to the Feats will take them. These are, as they say, not Adventurers - who have other things to do - but the "rank and file" Wizards, Sorcerers, Clerics, etc.
What I'd really like to see is a world where Magic is not a commodity, but rather a highly specialized, years-of-training, "It takes real dedication to learn this" type thing. I want to see (and have implemented in my own game world) the stuff that we used to read about in fantasy novels and Conan comics and Sword and Sorcery anthologies. I want to see a world where in order to get the axe of my father - who was Housekarl to a great Lord, who gave him this axe as a sign of respect - enchanted with the Ancient Fire Of Bellenor, I have to undertake a series of tasks given to me by an ancient crone atop a mountain. Only after fulfilling her tasks, at great risk to life and limb, I'll point out, will the crone then tell me the location of the Wizard Melegast, who is the ONE GUY in a thousand miles who has the "Craft Magic Arms And Armor" feat. And, once I find HIM, he then has to have me journey with him to the Pool Of Burning Ice, where we can now dip the axe (and all the gross, icky stuff I gathered for the crone) into the pool, and finally get me the +2 Flaming Burst Axe I need to take out the Frost Giant King known as Gut-Tooth The Hungry.
Unfortunately, the way the rules are written, this is really hard to pull off.
I'm kind of partial to a New World sort of new world. Namely, how about a campaign set in an age of exploration and discovery. A whole new continent has been discovered.
I agree - something like the Forerunners in Andre Norton's books. Take that idea, and mix it with a genuine Neolithic / Antediluvian culture (like our world, but with magic). We can see what they left behind, but don't understand it and no - or few - written records mean no history, no king lists, no knowledge of heroes or the movement of peoples.
I love both concepts and kind of combined them for my setting.
Most humanoid races have left the late stone age just a couple of centuries ago and some (goblin-likes) are still at that level. Most existing civilization started with humanoid slaves of native outsider races that where left behind when the last ancient cities were abandoned. They managed to preserve at least some pieces of advanced knowledge from their former masters, and just 300 years ago the descendants of those freed slaves started to establish long-distance trade relationships amongst each other. This enabled an exchange for knowledge that also became accessible to the primitive people of the lands the caravan routes pass through. Now that the major routes are relatively secured and the network of trade relationships has become relatively stable, people are for the first time able to explore the continent beyond just the coasts and great rivers. If there's anything that would be valuable or useful, everyone will want it, so everyone wants to find them first.It's a setting for exploring overgrown ruins that havn't been thouched for thousands of years, securing alliances and trade agreements, and defending claims on resources. It's good for exploration and wilderness adventures, but also lots of politics, but without the fancy ettiquete and paperwork. "Agressive negotiation". ^^
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If demons (or angels or genies or yokai) were described to a bard or a skald, that individual would make no distinction between the fundamental nature of those foreign spirits and that of the native fey. Those other beings would just be a new family of hidden nature spirits, because all spirits in the source material for fey are hidden nature spirits in equal measure.
I agree with you that a layman might not make the distinction but a Druid or say, a Seithekonna (Norse shamaness) (In D&D terms high knowledge check or detect relevant details spell) might make the distinction and share that information.
In Irish myth for example Fomorians seem to be somehow 'unclean', is say, the Fenris wolf in Norse Myth and must be contained, unlike say a wave or a storm, which could be destructive but is part of the natural order of things. Good analogy is primitive people watching Hiroshima and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Laymen would look and explain elemental forces gone wrong. A shaman would sense a difference and report it and it would get into the 'tribal lore'.
This is a judgement call and it's fine if you disagree.
So a world that uses yellowdingo's proposed scheme is perfectly valid according to all source material for fey. He's just using a different genealogy for the various families of spirits in his campaign setting, no more, no less.
The one thing about fey in most legends is that they are precursors/older than/ etc. Yellow Dingo reverses that.
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I mentioned this a bit earlier but what I would enjoy seeing is a setting more baroque/renissance/early modern then your traditional fantasy setting.
For example, guns are more common, and armor is starting to be considered obsolete. The typical sword would be a rapier not a longsword. Pirates, of course would also be around. It would be with the technology of the 1600s and 1700s, the era of the musketeers. That I would enjoy playing in.
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i'd like to see a setting where similar races come together in nations (fire giants, efreti, salaamanders = kingdom of fire ect)
I can see an Ice Giant 'nation' composed of massive icebergs, upon which they build their ice-castles, sailing under the direction of their storm-covens and kept magically cooled by various means (captive cold ice-radiating creatures, like yeti, ice toads and / or brown mold?). The icebergs come out of the fog that surrounds them, and longships debark to raid the coastal lands, backed up by the pair of white dragons that have been long allied with the Frost Raiders.
Ah, well. There's always next thread!
I mentioned this a bit earlier but what I would enjoy seeing is a setting more baroque/renissance/early modern then your traditional fantasy setting.
For example, guns are more common, and armor is starting to be considered obsolete. The typical sword would be a rapier not a longsword. Pirates, of course would also be around. It would be with the technology of the 1600s and 1700s, the era of the musketeers. That I would enjoy playing in.
For a renaissance style game you'd want 14th to 17th Century Eastern and Western Europe, along with the Mediterranean areas such as Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and the Persian "Middle East" - which is an incredible amount of source material... I ought to know, it's the basis for the bulk of my game world.
Couple these elements with the idea of a less-populous magical "profession" in the world, and you end up with some pretty cool stuff. Especially when you're dealing with thousand year old traps from the previous Age, that are geared to defend against magic that no longer exists (where the Musketeer suddenly finds himself shining) or facing the ghosts of long-dead defenders (against which the gunmen can do nothing!). Some pretty awesome dichotomies in there. :)
A fantasy version of C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series:
The "civilized" races arrived on a large flying island, which has been cast adrift by a millenial storm. The flying island arrives on the shores of a wilderness filled with "savage" races. Initially, relations between the civilized and savage societies was friendly, but inevitably, misunderstanding lead to war. The civilized races lost. The king of the biggest savage tribe formed a treaty with the losing civilized races. In exchange for peace and survival, the civilized society would begin a slow transfer of knowledge, magic, and technology to the savage society, in such a way that the savage society is not unduely disrupted.
The civilized society would be late Rennaissance/early Victorian, with steampunk technology, organized divine magic-based religions, and academies of wizards. The savage society would be early Bronze Age, but with extensive knowledge of horticulture and animal husbandry, with all sorts of animal, magical beast, and even stranger servitor creatures. Maybe strong druidic and sorcerous magics.
EDIT:
The PCs would be emissaries of one kind of society performing diplomatic duties in the other society.
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Demons are the precursors to elves, dwarves and fae as well as werewolves.
I dislike this idea because it seems to go against so much of the underlying mythos that seems to inform the collective legacy that sets the core of modern fantasy.
Fae for example, both in ancient myth and as implied in much of our fantasy which it derives (including the legacy of D&D) are very much tied to the natural world and by implication, what is sacred and primal and mysterious.
Turning them into artificial demon things with no ties to the natural world and where, basically nature has no soul is just the thing to make me want to throw book across the room and and burn it as a thing of vile darkness.
It's okay to leave out fae in a steampunk setting, or decide that humans are the only race or a hundred other things. Just don't turn things that are established into things that they are not. It's as sick and wrong as, worst of all artifical as sparkly good aligned vampires who obsess about vapid teenage girls.
Keep my elves elves, my vampires bloodsucking fiends, fae deeply tied to the natural world etc.
Basically respect the sources.....unless it's good aligned Drow Rangers.
An overwhelming adherence to Tradition is the death of Creation.
Why bother with inventing something new when all the good things have already been invented and perfected by the past generations who were so much wiser than we are.
It is a very old school of thought.
If YellowDingo's creation is strong enough to shock people, I say more power to him. But then, I have always favored unchained imagination over conformism
I'd like a world in which the gods aren't known to exist - a world in which either Clerics don't cast Divine Magic or there is some other explanation for Divine Magic (such as the community's pure faith). Also, any church can have priests of every alignment (even if, by 'every alignment', some alignments must be in hiding). So, you can have evil Cardinal Richelieu in a good church.
I'd like a world in which outsiders aren't strongly aligned, but are highly _alien_ in nature.
I want a world with few magic items, but magic items can gain power the longer you own them.
A conjunction of these three ideas inspired the following:
Imagine a world where Outsiders are very powerful and truly bizarre creatures/forces of nature which for the most part defy all reason, logic, or understanding. Furthermore, imagine that these Outsiders are also the only source of the really powerful, Artifact level magical items. Items that are so powerful that they can sometimes give off magical energies. Items that increase in power as they age. Items that for whatever indecipherable reasons of the inscrutable Outsiders, are sometimes (albeit rarely) left abandoned and unguarded on the Prime Material Plane.
If Deities don't exist, but these extremely powerful Artifacts do, I could see people in the past worshipping these items. They would be as unknowable as their creators, and in some cases may be capable of responding to the ministrations of their devotees. Over time, churches would develop around the Artifacts. Differences between the various religions could be explained by a combination of the character and history of a particular Artifact's worshippers, as well as the properties and behaviours of the Artifact itself.
If the radiated energies of the Artifacts are Divine energies, then there is your source of Clerical magics. Since these are (mostly) inanimate objects, they wouldn't necessarily care about the alignment of their worshippers (or care about anything else for that matter). If some of the Artifacts are small, then there is the possibility of Holy Wars with people fighting over possession of the Holy Relic (and source of Clerical power let's not forget...). If some of the Artifacts are massive, then you have all the same holy war potential, but the battles revolve around possession of the Holy Lands of the Artifact. Lastly, there is always the possibility that eventually one or more of those super-powerful Outsiders will return to reclaim their discarded item(s)... :-)
I'd like a world in which the gods aren't known to exist - a world in which either Clerics don't cast Divine Magic or there is some other explanation for Divine Magic (such as the community's pure faith). Also, any church can have priests of every alignment (even if, by 'every alignment', some alignments must be in hiding). So, you can have evil Cardinal Richelieu in a good church.
I'd like a world in which outsiders aren't strongly aligned, but are highly _alien_ in nature.
I want a world with few magic items, but magic items can gain power the longer you own them.
A conjunction of these three ideas inspired the following:
Imagine a world where Outsiders are very powerful and truly bizarre creatures/forces of nature which for the most part defy all reason, logic, or understanding. Furthermore, imagine that these Outsiders are also the only source of the really powerful, Artifact level magical items. Items that are so powerful that they can sometimes give off magical energies. Items that increase in power as they age. Items that for whatever indecipherable reasons of the inscrutable Outsiders, are sometimes (albeit rarely) left abandoned and unguarded on the Prime Material Plane.
If Deities don't exist, but these extremely powerful Artifacts do, I could see people in the past worshipping these items. They would be as unknowable as their creators, and in some cases may be capable of responding to the ministrations of their devotees. Over time, churches would develop around the Artifacts. Differences between the various religions could be explained by a combination of the character and history of a particular Artifact's worshippers, as well as the properties and behaviours of the Artifact itself.
If the radiated energies of the Artifacts are Divine energies, then there is your source of Clerical magics. Since these are (mostly) inanimate objects, they wouldn't necessarily care about the alignment of their worshippers (or care about anything else for that...
Sounds more like aberrations than outsiders, but definitely interesting.
I would love to see a flat world that has edges like the way they used to think the world was. if you sail too far you could fall off the edge
(Neithan with name-change here)
I'd like a world in which the gods aren't known to exist - a world in which either Clerics don't cast Divine Magic or there is some other explanation for Divine Magic (such as the community's pure faith). Also, any church can have priests of every alignment (even if, by 'every alignment', some alignments must be in hiding). So, you can have evil Cardinal Richelieu in a good church.
check
Imagine a world where Outsiders are very powerful and truly bizarre creatures/forces of nature which for the most part defy all reason, logic, or understanding.
check
Think I should really try to get all my notes into something coherent and finally use my paid for webspace for something usefull.
As an independet publisher, you can much more easily remove large section of the character options and bestiaries and highly alter the fluff descriptions. I found that you get the most interesting settings when you don't built upon an already established system about how "things in a world are supposed to work". You always end up with "just another D&D world" unless you go really creative with something like Planescape.
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Would like to see a well done steampunk style world with the pathfinder rules, with interesting magic systems and odd steambased craft. And base it off a pseudo version of Empiral europe of the late 1600s' and into the 1800s' something like that ie league of extrodinary gentlemen, wild wild west, full metal alchemist, even trigun!
Would like to see a well done steampunk style world with the pathfinder rules, with interesting magic systems and odd steambased craft. And base it off a pseudo version of Empiral europe of the late 1600s' and into the 1800s' something like that ie league of extrodinary gentlemen, wild wild west, full metal alchemist, even trigun!
I think this would be fun too! I like the idea of a "points of light" of civilization world, where the points of light are very steampunky, and the wilderness and frontier in between is a combo of Wild West and maybe a dinosaurian Tarzan/Conan.
I think the key thing would be having an established empire or collection of "civilized" countries dealing with a newfound region or area of the world, be it savage dinosaur land, a vast grassland and desert, a new ocean and archipelagos, planar gateways to new universes, etc. etc.
More Catgirls!!! 0_0
;-p
p.s. sorry could not resist, I will be serious and read the thread now as it sounds interesting.