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Okay so I am going to be DM'ing a new realm with 4 new players to the tabletop gaming scene. My wife has never played any form of DnD or Pathfinder, but her friends are slightly experienced as far as I am aware. I am not 100% sure on what their experience is however, yet it seems minimal. So, when I decided I would want to DM for them, I decided I would create my own realm, with my own pantheon, and my own changes to current, and some new, races. I also decided that this particular 'campaign' would not be a campaign at all, but an adventure that I tailor to the players as we go. We will be using Roll20, since 3/4 players live in another state, and I will be making a lot of tables to reference in order to react to what they want to do, instead of leading them down a path.
There will be an overall story, if they so choose to go through it, but I will not force that upon them. As it stands right now, I am creating the half of the continent that they live on that the setting will take place in, initially at least. I am looking to get some creative advice to how I can change things around as is. Already I have made a custom race for Anthromorphs, so some of the players could use it if they want. I am already aware that they would want to make one, so I am infusing it in to the realm as is. Something major that I am changing is that Elves, for the most part, favor the water over the land and thus mainly have the Spirit of the Waters alternate trait. In order to get the normal traits, they would have to be from a specific grouping of Elves instead of the general race.
Humans, Elves, and Dwarves, along with my custom race currently named Nyrashi(the name is a derivative of their Goddess, Da'nyra- Queen of the Hunt, Nyrashi meaning Of the Hunt) are the main races across this continent. Of course the standard races still exist past this, but I think the Featured Races list might be limited severely. Anyway, the social interaction is basically as follows:
Main Elf Society keeps to itself, but is always open to outsiders and trade in the favor of knowledge.
Nyrashi keep to themselves among the forests of the realm, although not exclusively to the forest. They are very religious society that Druids and Shamans are often their village leaders, and thus emulate the withdrawn standard of Druidic societies.
Humans vary from kingdom to kingdom. This is one of the main things I would like some feedback on. The kingdoms will be spread out, but I have yet to come up with a good idea for the kingdoms. Most of the human race lives in smaller settlements and live off of the land peacefully.
Dwarves are completely xenophobic. They do not trust outsiders at all, and keep to their mountains. I do not think I will let a PC be a Dwarf unless their backstory really removes them from the Dwarven Society. They sometimes trade with humans, but very rarely. I think I will make a human kingdom somewhere near the main Dwarven strongholds for this purpose.
As it stands, I am not looking for help as far as story, but suggestions for more social interactions from the main races, for types of locations I should incorporate in to the map, and any ideas for kingdoms that are not cookie cutter Tolkein Fantasy or the like. I just figure, with all the different minds and perspectives on this site, I can get a more diverse feel to this realm as I create it! Please and thank you for your input!
Types of locations...
1) Dwarves are super xenophobic. History has to be behind this. Why not have a battlefield or two between dwarves and another race (or against multiple races) that helped push them to where they are today? To play with some standard fantasy tropes, maybe the dwarves were supposed to get help from the elves and humans in a war against orcs and goblinoids and giants... but when the time for battle arrived, no help came.
2) Humans vary from kingdom to kingdom. So, why not have other races have some variance as well? Humans ALWAYS get to be different like that; why not have a small halfling community dedicated to worship of a beer goddess and another that's a militant village protecting some ancient ruins from outsiders? Just examples.
3) Abandoned wizards' towers are the shiznag. You should use a couple of these.
4) Let's have a forest called the Spider Woods, once called the Nyralor Woods - a haunted forest that once upon the time was dedicated to the goddess Da'nyra but is now filled to the brim with nasty spiders perhaps driders and cultists of a spider god/goddess. In fact, a spider GOD would work great. Have you considered using a jumping spider (the kind that doesn't weave webs) deity? A trickster, thief type? Hmm... Something like that would make an interesting adventure, and a heavily themed one.
5) Let's say you decide to not allow certain Featured Races. For instance, let's say you're not allowing Ratfolk. Well, why not have a place where Ratfolk USED to live, but then something came and... killed them all. Wiped them out. Boom. Now you have an adventure location.
6) What's a fantasy map without a seer's hut in a remote location that cannot be accessed magically? Bonus points if the seer is a monstrous creature like a gnoll or a dragon.
7) Splashing sci-fi into fantasy games never hurt anyone. Space ship crash. WHOO! Adventure site. Bonus points if this is where one of your world's core races comes from. Double bonus points if your players fight a mech.
8) Let's go back to ideas #8 and #3. Combine them. You have a mystical, ancient structure that's stood on this world since time immemorial... The world thinks it's a wizard's tower. It's actually an obelisk that was built here by a space-faring civilization to hasten the technological and evolutionary development of the species on this planet. It's guarded by golems (robots), strange insects (metal insect robots), and some sort of cowled wizards (robots wearing robes that cast "magic" - or real magic - of some kind). When you describe the denizens of this place as the players adventure here, be careful not to outright call these things 'robots.' Focus on what whether the edges are smooth or jagged, on the material (metal), on the glowing eyes... etc. They'll figure it out.
9) Look, there BETTER be a dragon cave somewhere on this map, okay?
10) A canyon that is home to anarchic energies and is also a place where strange things bubble up from the earth and escape to the surface world. Earth elementals, fire elementals, lava elementals, giant insects, giant worms, umber hulks... You can have some serious fun here. Toss in some winds that literally rip the flesh from your bones when the weather gets bad and acidic rain and you're getting a terribly interesting and highly dangerous high level adventure spot. Oh, and make someone have built a secret fortress here that the party needs to investigate. Or maybe there's a dragon that lives here.
6) What's a fantasy map without a seer's hut in a remote location that cannot be accessed magically? Bonus points if the seer is a monstrous creature like a gnoll or a dragon.
....
9) Look, there BETTER be a dragon cave somewhere on this map, okay?
Funny thing is, as is, these two, combined, have something to with what story there will be, if the players so decide to follow it. Some of these ideas are perfect, and actually fit well in certain areas of the map that I have yet to contemplate at all! I am being vague about everything because I do not want said players to come on here and read about a realm they are going to explore.
I'm happy to help. I enjoy building worlds WAY more than I do building dungeons as a DM, so this is pretty much stuff up my alley. Feel free to shoot me a PM if there's something specific you want me to think on.
Here's a few kingdom / city-state ideas I chewed on...
Sweetrun City
Sweetrun is a merchant town populated mostly by humans and halflings. It is located conveniently beside the largest lake in its region. The "sweet" in the name is due to the taste of its water. There's a swamp connected to the lake to the north, and a river running through that. The river's course into the lake brings something of the swamp with it, just enough to give Sweetrun's lake a delicious, sweet flavor that makes it perfect for brewing rich beers. Sweetrun's beer is absolutely famous. It's a rather idyllic place to live: it's peaceful, it has good weather, and it has good beer.
Sweetrun's economy is based around agriculture, brewing, fishing, trade, and - something that not everyone approves of - the use of kobold and goblin slaves as cheap labor. The people of Sweetrun fought a long war with these monsters when they first arrived in the region, and those early years saw a lot of death on the side of the humans and halflings that have settled here. When they managed to subjugate the local monsters, the townsfolk saw no reason not to make them "work off their debt" accrued by killing honest settlers. That was a hundred years ago.
Still, Sweetrun is a good place to be if you're an adventurer. While the peace can be a bit stifling and there's the stink of monsters about the fields, there's a fair bit of unexplored territory nearby. There are abandoned kobold tunnels, a few ruined forts from the early days of settlement, and there's the whole swamp to explore. Plus, the remaining goblins and kobolds must be hiding somewhere nearby... and with them there must surely be treasure.
The Kingdom of Eldwyr
One of the more ancient kingdoms of elves, Eldwyr was once large, its cities filled with the bustle of trade, both the physical and intellectual sort. Now it's just a bunch of half-empty old cities housed mostly by penniless nobles, philosophers, and would-be sages.
Eldwyr is seated not far from the reclusive dwarven realms. It once thrived on being a doorway into the dwarven realms, on having monetary and cultural exchanges with the dwarven people that it could, in turn, share with the rest of the world. However, when the dwarves closed shut the gates to their cities, they also stopped visiting the elves of Eldwyr. Eldwyr's wealth slipped out from beneath it; its people who had been so dependent on trade left; and then, through a series of small wars and declarations over the years, most of the outlying cities and villages of Eldwyr seceded, were conquered, joined other nations or made themselves independent. Most people simply left the region.
Today, the cities that remain a part of this dying nation are filled with ill-maintained buildings, massive libraries filled with books that nobody reads, and a few lonely people that call these places home. There is a mage's college in the capital, to be true, but that is the only glimmer of hope for this nation's future. Otherwise, it has little to offer the world and just barely subsists off the land it resides upon.
Gamarok
Most fledgling nations have problems finding allies and recognition from their peers. Gamarok, however, suffers this problem moreso than any other nation that has been forged in the last fifty years. This is because Gamarok is a hobgoblin nation.
The hobgoblins of Gamarok conquered a large human kingdom and gave its inhabitants three simple choices: leave, stay and be ruled by hobgoblins, or be put to the sword. While a small number chose to remain, most chose to flee, and those that decided to fight were dealt with swiftly and without mercy. With that out of the way, the hobgoblins renamed the land after one of their heroes of legend and challenged - yes, literally challenged - the world to refuse their right to exist as a nation like any other.
Well, the world accepted that challenge. Gamarok has already defeated two different nations' armies. For now, their neighbors are willing to leave them alone if only to buy some time to devise a plan to remove the hobgoblins from their fortified position.
Whether or not these hobgoblins are evil is unquestionable: they're hobgoblins. What is interesting, however, is they wish to establish trade with nations willing to negotiate with them and are willing to hire off their troops as mercenaries. They have had a few takers on this offer, too - but nobody is willing to call them friends. Still, so long as their soldiers are in demand, these hobgoblins reason, they'll get paid, they'll get experience on the field, and then they'll reevaluate their situation from there.
One concern that foreign nations have is the hobgoblins have been making deals with other monstrous forces, too. There is a fear that similar invasions may soon occur, or that the hobgoblins may choose to invite these monsters to join them, which will only lead to an ever-expanding army of brutes...
I love these! After I actually fleshed out my map, I began filling out its kingdoms, and how they interact. I already have a plethora of kingdoms, and your Gamarok idea is a great mix in a certain area of the map already. Granted, it will be changed slightly, but I would never have thought of this until reading that! As for the Kingdom of Eldwyr, I love it! I think this might go in almost word for word, minus some things that I will change according to how I would have put it in, but that is great! Talk about creating animosity between the races! Sweetun will have to wait a bit, I have not fleshed out the area where I think that could work, but I love the idea, definitely. It is great to see this response after the last few hours of doing this myself!
As said previously, I enjoy these sort of exercises way too much. So, here's a few more things to toss into the ring...
Locations!
11) Smuggler's. Den. Indeed, make it a smuggler's city if you like; give it links with both the civilized and evil races. Humanoid trafficking could be a thing. You'll obviously want stolen goods and dangerous goods. Etc...
12) Let's draw a bit of inspiration from Legend of Grimrock here and use... well, something like Grimrock. There's a ruin so old that nobody knows who made it, but nowadays it's used as a place to banish people that have committed crimes against [Insert Kingdom Here]. These people are "forgiven" of their sins by being tossed into this dungeon and told to find their own way out. Nobody has ever escaped.
13) A proper ship graveyard is never a bad thing. There's a reef, island or a cove somewhere out in the ocean where there is rumored to be a great treasure hidden. However, most every ship that passes this place by - or worse, tries to reach it - ends up sinking into the sea or crashing against the rocky shores. Only a few people have ever escaped from the island, and they tell stories of ghostly crewmen, of sirens, of a strange mist that sucks the very warmth from your bones and turns you into one of the walking dead... Some even claim that they've seen a tower by the light of lightning strikes during the storms that surround this place. (Bonus points if that tower used to be a lighthouse before being claimed by whatever evil resides there now.)
14) The tourney! The tourney! Everyone loves the tourney, at least civilized people do. Each year the greatest knights of all the realms meet at this tourney to see who is the greatest horseman, the greatest lancer, and the greatest in the melee. There are considerable prizes to be won, especially for the winner of the joust: wealth, fame, magical equipment... and it's tradition that the greatest knight to participate in the tourney be offered a fiefdom by powerful rulers. Clearly, this is the place to go if you want to make a name for yourself.
15) People think this cemetery is just another graveyard. Others claim that it's swarming with undead, and they point to the overgrown brush around it and the moaning sounds that come from the place as proof. The truth is this place is populated by pixies that protect children that have run away from their parents. The children hide away during the day, playing in the catacombs where their ramshackle homes are. The gravedigger knows about the existence of these children and why they've run away from home, so he brings food and water to them every night (as well as whatever else he can to make them happy). When nightfall comes, the pixies and the children come out to play, especially to play pranks on adults (mostly by pretending to be ghosts, zombies, or else to make spooky noises).
Some flavor text you could throw in.
The occasional bounty poster that would relate to the afore mentioned smuggler den. You could have an entire town dedicated to house the criminal element. These criminals would sell stolen, illegal goods or even information.
11 and 12 already taken care of, more or less at least lol. 13 is a must, but I have not worked much with stuff off of the coasts yet, but definitely a major part of the realm. 14 can make for a great event or storyline if they go to the single city it is likely to take place, and 15... not really feeling it, although a good idea, I think my players would kill the children and that would not be a good thing... As for the bounty posters, I think I might add some bounties in to the realm, make some PC styled NPC's instead of NPC levels, and have it be someone they can hunt, and the long time goes, the higher the bounty gets due to crimes committed. Thanks again for the continuing ideas!
I think I might add some bounties in to the realm, make some PC styled NPC's instead of NPC levels, and have it be someone they can hunt, and the long time goes, the higher the bounty gets due to crimes committed.
Even better if one of those bounties involves a whole party of NPCs, and even better than that if that same bounty involves a party of NPCs that are about to unleash the power of an artifact if the PCs don't decide to chase them down. Doesn't need to be the end of the world or anything, but it could be interesting to have, say, a PC's home village enslaved by this party of bads if they don't stop them soon enough.
Yeah, #15 is one you have to be careful with, but I like the "false alarm" style adventure sight on occasion. It should always be rare, but it makes for a different sort of session. Some Pathfinder groups just flat out aren't good matches for those sorts of adventures, though, so, yeah - don't use it if you feel it won't work.
You said you wanted to avoid Tolken like races. The whole over story of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is that the humans, elves, dwarves, and hobbits are all shut off from each other. Then they start to be attacked by dragons, Orcs, and an evil, ancient deity. First the Dwarves recruit a Hobbit to try to reclaim their home and treasure. Then A human slays the dragon. Then more and more armies fight over the treasure, till the mostly good races have to unite against the Orcs.
With all the political turmoil going on you could have disposed Dwarves, Elves, your new race, and maybe even a stray lizardman seeking a destiny. A party of adventurers could...
1: Find things in dungeons that could turn the tide of war. Not just magic items, but lost spells and rituals, technology such as a printing press, or a devil fruit tree.
2: Uncover a plot that threatens everyone from the goblinoids, the underdark, or even another plane.
3: Ruins and relics of a past when the core races united against a common enemy would also bring the nations and people together. If they find a small statue of the greatest heroes of elves, dwarves, and men fighting back, to back, to back, atop a pile of dead Orcs, that will really change minds.
In the mountains, you could have a race of winged Elves who are oriented toward air instead of water.
Actually, Inlaa, technically something like that will exist as is, but involves the real undead, and a completely harmless and good necromancer who is just practicing his arts peacefully, so it will be one of those rumors that the undead are all over this place, a marsh, and that some evil wizard is controlling them. So I have worked that kind of thing already in, just not children lol. I think if they kill him, there will be some kind of diary that they find that outlines how he is trying to create a new form of medical magic using necromancy and other magical effects.
Goth Guru, your number 2 is actually almost hinting at a major part of what story will exist. With that, the number 3 definitely gives me some good ideas on how to add to the story. Again, I want to omit the details on that in case they ever find this lol. So thank you for the suggestions!
Could have a Valley of Lost Souls: This valley holds a forgotten artifact from the abyss. It draws in spirits, souls etc. and traps them ther in turn twisting them into something evil. The party could retrieve said artifact and free the trapped souls by either destroying it or they could keep it. The artifact would eventually turn the owner evil (slow like the one ring of Tolkein fame). The spirits in the valley would still be trapped but eventually become good. The artifact coukd attract low level spirits trying to attack the owner, with higher levels brings stronger foes. Doesn't have to be an artifact, could be a necromancers failed experiment that has gone awry.
Valley of Raidos: a lost world deep in the mountains with barbarians, shamans, dino's, and low technology items eg. Stone weapons, rudimentary bows, obsidian tipped arrows. The barbarian tribes have totem animals that lend streangth to particular tribe(s).
A large stone maze, minotaur may or may not still be alive. Rumored treasure, a place that could be overrun by say kobolds. Low lvl critters that would be a nightmare if they have lived in the maze and decked it out wit traps etc. Perhaps the 'stone' minotaur in the center is under a spell, reverse that spell and turn loose on kobolds. Could then the pc's be caught between a rock and a hard place.
Perhaps something along the line of an elephant graveyard. Instead of elephants perhaps dragons, you could have it on an island seeing as they can fly. There could be some treasure there from stuff falling from their scales. If you don't want dragons than substitute it with something else that would draw adventurers there.
Let me know if you want more ideas, if you are getting pm advise from Inlaa then whatever I might contribute from here on out could be redundant or irrelivant to what you want.