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So, my last session had the players traveling to a mostly volcanic wastescape with some shrubs, dry dead grass and obsidian and other sharp rocks covering the ground.

After fighting bandits and cultists the players came to the edge of a vast basin were the ruins of a city await to be explored. HOWEVER the wells of the basin are steep and the only way down was to use a slightly safer collapsed section that was held aloft by an ancient colossus sized dragons skeletal rib cage. they slowly scale the pile of rubble. ONE player of course fails the climb check and nobody manages to save him cause him to tumble nearly a football field down a incline of rubble, sharp rocks and volcanic glass.... killing him.

It got me thinking, what other ways might simple gravity kill the players? Or any other hazards and traps?

Really, there are two things I'd worry about from the PC's perspective, the lack of healing and that can be gotten around like Kahnya says and how many character classes you'll loose when you ban magic, Paladin, Ranger, Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, Cleric, and Bard. And that's just out of the CRB. If your pcs are cool with it though go for it.

From an NPC perspective, however, there are a ton of things psionics can't do that are so flavorful, it makes losing magic a pain. Necromancy, and summoning evil outsiders are really impossible to replicate.

Well I look at it in this perspective, The players lose those for sure, and a tragic loss it is.... The do gain Aegis, Cryptic, Dread, Marksman, Psion, Psychic Warrior, Soulknife, Tactician, Vitalist, Wilder.... And in theory the title of Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, Cleric, ect.... can be given to anyone with supernatural affinity. I plan on also making some homebrew powers and archetypes for those classes to allow some similarity with the actual classes you listed.

Also as for Necromancy and Summoning... There was in 3.5e a book listing an Erudite method of converting spells into psionic powers. I as a DM will be using that to homebrew some powers so things like the ability to summon and raise the dead remain.

You could simply use houserules that make healing nice, but not required. Something like the Wounds and Vigor system, but with faster Vigor recovery, might work.

One highly quick fix Idea I had was either buff up the Alchemists healing capacities, and create a legion of healing a regenerative powers for the psionic classes. Alchemy might also have more options to create healing goodies.

I also worked on creating a few archetypes for Psion and the prestige classes. One being "Mage" the other being "Cleric" and a third being "Witch" but its incomplete. The idea being a Mage is a Psion who has learned to ritualize his or her mastery of the universe and has gained the knowledge to use his own will. The Cleric would be one who has learned to channel the powers of unknown entities granting them various extra abilities to boot with their Psionic abilities. Basically a way to allow Domain powers and various cleric like abilities. OR I might make those two into Archetypes of Psion just so I can keep a degree of similarity for the players sake and maybe just have Psion fill the role of "adept of the supernatural"

I am in the midst of a homebrew campaign setting, trying to put all the pieces together and I find I would prefer to replace traditional magic in a setting with Psionics.

Right off the bat what are some things I might need to account for?

Has anyone done this?

Questions? Comments?

Have a nexus ... a huge city or something that all the races can access somehow (be it road or teleportal), where all of then mingle and interact, probably with lots of import shops, a black market, and suchlike.

I might actually have the first campaign be the players trying to establish that sort of a thing.

Possibly either being a city existing in a Demi-plane or transitive space, or just simply a city on planet.

Or having such a city appear as property of one race who is trying to create a situation to unite the various other races to combat some B.B.E. threat. Though they may be acting in secret as the other races might be acting in their own interests or hiding purposefully.

I can dig it! XD

It might be the whole "Hey we come kinda in peace but also did you know some crazy stuff is coming?"

Of course I also have to explain how seemingly advanced races need the help of the Tyr. Either because the Tyr are themselves advanced enough to be useful, or they are numerous enough to make up for the incredibly low numbers or simply the existence of magic negates the need for incredible technology.

The Azaren have the problem of being divided by civil strife within the moon of the world. Some Azaren even themselves just wanting to conquer and use the world below as livestock. Others devolving into feral blood suckers. Others given way to cults.

The Tyr offshoot could be long lost kin seeking to warn their kin against a plausible threat from beyond the stars like some terrible demonic aberrational Cthuloid being. Or seeking to finally return "home."

The pygmy catfolk are even slightly related in that every race on my world is at least partially human in origin.

I think you need to establish contact. Otherwise you'll have situations where members of this race don't speak Common and don't understand basic things about the world.

I too think I might have to establish that. For example the other races might seek contact with the Tyr to try and deal with some greater threat.

They players finding themselves by happen stance involved in such an event.

It really just depends on what your story is. The cat guys might be sneaking around Tyr society in secret. Maybe the player was sent to reveal the existence of the Cats to ask the Tyr society for help, or maybe they are trying to keep the cat society from being discovered. I think it would be fun if the whole group had to disguise themselves when dealing with Tyr. The cat player has to pretend to be another player's house cat. Depending on how good your story is, you could easily make it work as is.

One idea I had was say a multi-racial party starts out on a Tyr military instillation, and the players playing Azaren or catfolk are basically captives about to be held, interrogated, dissected and studied since like "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU?!" comes up and the fearful governments might suspect they are a threat and want to assess the danger.

So the Tyr players would be kinda pushed into a role of an underground group that knows of them and is going to bust them out of .... more or less magical Area 51. XD

Also currently the Mau (Little cat people) many of them are primitive but lead by the Azaren who liberated them from their captivity. The other race, the Tyr offshoot might regard the Tyr as kin or long lost cousins and could at least somewhat blend in with them more easily.

So I've been homebrewing a campaign world and I've been kinda stuck with a problem.

I have about 3-4 definitive races where I'm like "Players will pick one of these." but I've gotten myself written into a bind.

Of them I have one (The Tyr) who are the most populous but also don't know or are usually ignorant of other races existence. For the most part they rarely have contact with them, and when it happens most Tyr think its just tall tales, urban legends, conspiracy theories ect. You know how our modern human society thinks of people who saw bigfoot or Aliens.

Other races consist of the Mau (Pygmy catfolk people) Whom plaster casts of their footprints and alleged sightings exist but they are centered on a sparsely populated and largely uncharted continent.

The Azaren (Basically a race of Dhampirs) mostly dwell within the planets second moon, only having a few colonies on the surface and mostly raid for blood and are considered an urban legend or story country folk made up to scare tourists.

Another race I might do is an offshoot of the Tyr who traveled to another plane and lived there during the races early history but have returned (possibly by accident) and may be completely unknown to the Tyr.

My problem is..... well..... Obviously how do I have a party with more then just 1 race? Should I rewrite lore to say that contact has been established? How would that go down? Idk, my only previous world building attempt was a world of only humans so I avoided this problem.

Go to http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15881812&postcount=18.

I really liked the Adamant Entertainment Priest class, it really suited me and personally I liked it more then cleric. And for purposes of my own homebrewing, I'd like it if I could Nix Cleric and just have Priest replace it.

Basically what I've changed from the Adamant Entertainment version (Found here, for reference) is....

• Scrapped the Bardic Lore ability and Replaced it with a Lore Mastery ability akin to the one the Archivist has in Heroes of Horror.
  
• Added Spiritual Power ability at 1st level. Basically giving a priest the choice between Turn Undead or Command Undead depending on if they are negative or positive energy using Priests.
  
• Still Mind ability, again borrowed from Archivist 3.5e
  
• Reduced the channel Energy to d6's (Might reverse this decision)
  
• Added a bonus channel feat at 9th level
  
• Gave Scribe Scroll at 1st level
  
• Added a Prayerbook, sort of making it like the Archivist or a Divine Wizard. Though they can prepare Domain Spells and Read Magic freely without the Prayerbook (Might add any cure or inflict spell as well to that list
  

Mainly I'm torn now on if I should replace the Knowledge domain power with something more interesting or Nix it altogeather. Also still considering adding a Dark Knowledge like mechanic just like the Archivist one in 3.5e.

So? Comments? Criticism? Vile Hatred? Praise?

That sounds pretty cool. Sounds like a Victorian/Edwardian based setting with some eugenics. I dig it. I'd have to think back a bit more. I'd say, if you are doing commonplace weapons with advanced firearms, definitely be mindful about giving the PCs cover when they fight. Let the players know about kneeling and going prone (free actions for both) to increase their cover. Melee fighting with advanced weapons may be more rare than with Simple Firearms, especially if you are using the firearms from Rasputin Must Die. Beyond that, maybe new armor that gives DR for those that wish to keep playing melee characters?

I'm thinking of even changing gun rules to where depending on the range increments you simply have "Penetration" power over someones AC.

Or give people DR armors or special metals armors that resist bullets. For example maybe I could re-purpose Mithril to be a kind of Kevler potential metal. Or Adamentine at specific thicknesses can grant DR.

I'm also planning on having some campaigns with some like Cold War spy games flair. Nations seeking technological advancement over rivals. Or discoveries of magi-tech and trying to reverse engineer said things. Several nations are curious about the possibilities of merging magic and technology in order to save fuel and prevent ecological damage. Alchemical engines and Alchemical sciences being promoted heavily as the "Path to Tomorrow."

Right now the world is in a cold war/armistice stalemate between two powers. One is very industrialized, has a more advanced understanding of alchemical sciences and to some degree a lot better understanding of Transmutation magic. The other side is far more numerous and has a strong understanding of magic but weaker technology and they focus more on Arcana studies then Alchemical sciences or the creation of magical devices. Artifice and Alchemy versus Magi and Raw Sorcery. However both sides have begun using ancient relics dug up from previous peoples. In one case they discovered a vault of canisters containing strange Alchemical fluids. Divining it as a weapon they used it. Likewise the other side discovered magical devices that work effectively like a magical Nuclear bomb. Both sides are terrified yet in awe of the power these things wield and are looking to figure out how they work spawning an arms race.

One Idea I've had is simply to homebrew knew guns and weapons to fit the setting more instead of straight replicating real world firearms. For example I could have a type of gatling gun or even a machine gun but change how it operates, or how many people it requires to use. Other mechanics might be the ability of spellcasters to create shields that can hold back or grant DR. Plus the possibility of magical guns or energy weapons. Ect ect.

Prepared Divine Spellcasters have a Prayer Book that functions akin to Wizards Spellbook. Domain Spells are automatically added to this book.

All spellcasters use spellpoints.

Paladins are not immune to all disease but get to add their wisdom modifier to saving throws against disease once they attain "Divine Health."

No Alignments really.

Ah okay. Well, my setting isn't anywhere near that advanced, so unsure if I can really be of help. Mine is honestly more Cusp-of-Renaissance styled Age of Sail, Pirates, and Discovery. So there are less medieval things in the game, like muskets & pistols, caravels, and printing presses, but there still exist some of the classic fantasy trappings of chivalry, sword & sorcery, and armor.

To an extent, the world would be anywhere between 1850-1914 as far as tech and advancement. With one notable exception for one country I have given a few 1920-29 toys.

The worlds main race are actually a eugenics project, created by Elvens selectively breeding with humans eons ago when the world was dying. The Elves used their magic to make contact with ethereal beings, offering to build them bodies in return for help terraforming the world back into a virgin new world of life. The Elves themselves were dying out so this project was to ensure some piece of themselves survived into the future.

Basically I took Dark Sun and hit the restart button. XD

I'm running a campaign with Commonplace guns, although it's still relegated to only basic firearms. The players have only used the firearms once, and it hasn't really affected melee combat. Though when they fought a group of pirates with pistols, they learned quickly that cover is very needed.

Electricity is fairly new. Mostly held by one country that is seeking better ways to both power itself, its rural hinterlands and eventually neighboring countries. Telegraphs yes, There is also a single neighborhood in one city with a Telephone. Primitive automobiles, Blimps, Ironclad ships and the basics of the Industrial Revolution, and assembly line production in some countries.

Part of my plan might be to have guns be more simple, or simply single shot breach loading guns as perhaps the technology of firearms hasn't been developed as readily due to some focus going on magic and attempts to develop magi-tech since its known previous civilizations wielded magic as technology and a power source before.

Kimera757 has a really good point. A major factor in the levels of bloodshed in early WWI was that machine guns had only recently been invented (I mean really high-powered machine guns, not assault rifles), and the tactics hadn't had time develop. The Battle of the Somme was an absolute bloodbath because the English commanders kept trying to charge the German forces, who were entrenched across a river, on a hill, with lots of machine guns. Even one, operated by a bunch of goblins (who, with their love of fire and chaos, would love a machine gun), could cause a TPK in the first few rounds.

A game with weapons like that would focus a lot more on stealth, trying to get up to the machine gun nests and destroy them before anyone notices. Have you stated out the more powerful weapons yet? I think letting us see them could help.

So far I'm tentatively borrowing the weapons in "Rasputin Must Die," but I'm still unsure about Machine guns. It might be simple enough to say that Gatling guns are as far as the technology has gone. With some people developing interests more in weaponizing magic on a sort of industrial scale. For example magic energy weapons and Eberron esque things.

I'm kind of trying to balance the practicality of "Well not everyone has spells and magi-tech is hard to make," so guns and conventional technology would develop but also people being supremely interested in the possibilities of magi-tech which the world is on the cusp of figuring out.

Right now this is what I've got:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15831891&postcount=15

So, I'm homebrewing a setting and the tech/magi-tech level (in some areas) is bordering WW1 esque stuff.

Mainly I'm considering the ramifications of giving the players guns though. Partly because I've never seen or played a campaign before where the players had access to say a breach loading firearm, or a leaver action rifle or revolver pistol. So for anyone who has, how does this effect gameplay heavily.

Does Wilderness survival become pitifully easy? Should combat be more oriented around other creatures who can use guns? ect ect....?

Does melee combat basically vanish? Should a lot of quests be focused on stealth? I.E. a load gun shot could alert people. Ect.

I think an important question would be if undead are really immortal? like will a Lich's phylactery itself eventually turn to dust from age? Could the hordes of zombies simply rot away? Could things be set loose that would eat their flesh? Cause the bones to shatter? Do undead have a shelf life? A point at which the animating magic falls short?

Also, updates have been done, mainly adding the RP Cost of traits and everything.

Essentially after all is said and done the highest this can go is 11 RP depending on the character. The idea behind having players select traits is somewhat to represent different population groups within said race.

Because Lore wise they are all the products of various eugenics programs by the ancient Elves, many of them form small populations with similar traits.

Plus it lets me, instead of saying having to create a bunch of stats for closely related peoples of basically the same race (Such as 3.5e bajillion brands of Elf) I can do it like how Summoner Eidolons have say build advice saying well "Tyr of this variety tend to have these traits or at least 1 of them, Tyr of this other variety have these other traits".

I am still considering giving them just a static Skill Focus feat instead of the Human bonus floating feat.

Take a wizard for example. A wizard really loves the elves ability to penetrate spell resistance, but he loves the human's bonus feat. Now he can get both. Clerics can now gain a bonus to wisdom, bonus to penetrate spell resistance, and a bonus feat, etc.

Part of what I like about them is that they have the sort of variability in racial traits.

Would you perhaps recommend swapping out the bonus feat and just give say the Half Elf Trait of Skill Focus as a bonus feat? And just add variable things to the list?

It would also help (in the future) if you put the RP amount next to each entry so folks don't have to look it up. =)

I'm rewriting it now. ^_^

Hopefully with a few improvements such as this one.

I'd say it might be overpowered if the race were in existing in the context of Humans and Elves also existing. Lore reasoning for their existence is ....

1) In the context of this homebrew world they exist and Elves and Humans no longer do.

2) They were specifically bred with the intent of being "The best of both worlds."

Part of me is however considering taking off their free bonus floating feat which is fairly powerful on its own.

Link To Stats... UPDATED.

The reason for the rewrite is simple. In context, standard Half-Elves no longer made sense in my world. Half Elves in Typical Pathfinder only exist in the context of a world of Humans and Elves, not in one were humans and elves make them then themselves disappear. In a world where Half Elves are left to inherit the planet, much of their racial abilities make little sense. They are no longer the children trying to find an identity and live between the worlds of Elves and man, they are now the rulers of the world. The product of an ancient Eugenics scheme to save something of a dying people. They are the inheritors of both the legacy of Humanity, and of Elf-Kind. Basically left to build the world as they wish.

Also there is mention of specific kinds of Tyr in the traits selection, specifically the Moth'Tyr. More or less my worlds rough equivalent of "Dark Elves," with other specific varieties such as the Aryl'Tyr, Scath'Tyr, ect ect which are mostly just varieties or populations of Tyr with similar traits.

A second idea for the Spell Overload mechanic is to allow pearls of power to extend each spell levels overload limit.

So if your limit is 4 because your a wizard with 18 intelligence, you could get a first level pearl of power that extends your limit of first level spells by 1 before the cost starts climbing up.

There is no bad crop of current players. People just tend to remember the past with rose colored glasses. I'm certain bad players and bad DM's have existed since the game began and problem since the beginning of all games way back when one cave man invented some game and his friends were not always good sports about it.

I think the core issue in this type of game are mainly issues of attitude about the game and mindset. Not everyone comes into a tabletop RPG for the same reason or approaches the game the same way. It's probably been highlighted already but I'd say the biggest is....

DM vs. Player:

Basically a player views the game as simply a battle of wits against the DM. The goal is to basically outwit the DM at every turn and the goal is to show up the DM whenever possible.

My experience with this is one player who confesses to both Min/Max'ing as an instinct and having cheated on dice rolls. Plus has thrown epic level fits at sometimes minor requests or if anything happens to his character that he can't easily brush off. For example a city of mages, where basically the rulers have created a more or less a secret police whom use Geass and various mind control spells to keep people in line, his character ran afoul of the authorities and was thus Geassed into obeying the law. He decried it as utter BS and threatened to quit right there, and stop hosting the game at his house. He was also a habitual rule lawyer, wanting to debate each and every rule. More over he would always try and sneak things past a DM. For example the piecemeal armor system, which I had not read the rules for. He just informed me his armor class and then told me what his armor was and said "Well thats how piecemeal works...." Like I didn't approve those rules, I didn't okay them, he just used them. Then argued "Well its in a book, You said Pathfinder rules are okay." Same situation happened with guns. He asked if he could use "Pathfinder guns," Which I interpreted as meaning the guns listed in the equipment section of the SRD, not the actual rules for guns which we have house rules for those. Well he started using the Pathfinder gun RULES, and when he kept making certain attacks I looked up his class (Gunslinger) thinking maybe I missed something about how they resolve a hit..... "Hey how is it that this class resolves against touch armor class?" "No thats just the pathfinder gun rules."

Stuff like that, I think is the essence of the DM VS. Player mentality. Whats worse is when those people go on to DM themselves because they maintain that adversarial attitude. Part of me blames video games which might instill an idea of Me vs. the world ideas within players who then assume D&D is just an offline video game.

how exactly did you come up with the point cost system for the spells?

seems like all the numbers could be lowered to match their level, and one could separate the spells themselves just by how many points they cost to cast, and metamagic feats would just affect spell points rather than spell levels since they are effectively the same thing now

you could also offer spell point progression that works like HP progression where the caster rolls a die each level and adds their primary casting stat modifier to see how many more spell points they get at maximum, and those spell points arent by day but rather work like a second HP bar, spontaneous casters would simply receive a higher spell point die compared to prepared casters, and partial casters would get lower dice, and half casters even lower

or maybe im crazy and that wouldnt work.... who knows

Well the cost of spell points actually comes from someones recommended changes on another forum. But basically it keeps it from being overpowered to an extent.

Level 0 = 00 (0).
Level 1 = 01 (0+1)
Level 2 = 03 (0+1+2)
Level 3 = 06 (0+1+2+3)
Level 4 = 10 (0+1+2+3+4)
Level 5 = 15 (0+1+2+3+4+5)
Level 6 = 21 (0+1+2+3+4+5+6)
Level 7 = 28 (0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7)
Level 8 = 36 (0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8)
Level 9 = 45 (0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9)

Thats the basic math behind the spell point cost. The actual class levels for spell points comes from the 3.5e SRD with some modifications for Bard, Inquisitor and Magus because they were different enough. I found another thread on it and got the idea for the progression of spell points for those class (1st-6th level casters).

I thought about having metamagic feats just cost their level in spellpoints but I also considered making metamagic feats work similar to metamagic rods simply because my setting has a lack of them in plentiful supply and it was easier for some players to figure out with very little bookkeeping.

As for having it work like hit die, I'm less into that sort of an idea. Mainly because bad luck could really wreck a spellcaster and theres already enough left to chance and luck.

potions that restore spell points

maybe create spells that work like cure spells that can restore spell points by like a d4

Conjuration
{0 level}restore minor mana:
1 spell point

{1st level}restore light mana:
1d4

{2nd level}restore moderate mana:
2d4

{3rd level}restore serious mana:
3d4

{4th level}restore critical mana:
4d4

creating a spell like this i can see as useful and balanced, as far as economy goes, having a cantrip that only gets back one spell point requires 2 turns to be able to cast another spell, or even more to recharge and use a higher one. and i like the idea of taxing spellcasters as a means of balance and this does it in a way that doesnt require you to force wizards to keep track of individual spell components, it does however make prepared casters slightly better than spontaneous casters in that they only need to prepare a spell once and thus can afford to only prepare one copy of a spell per spell level, to me, this means one can eliminate the bonus spells per day function granted by a high ability score and transcribe into more spell points per day

but it would mean that prepared casters need to find a way to prepare more spells per day other than leveling which isnt always possible should they want more spells, and clerics would need something in place to make up for not needing spontaneous cure/inflict as a class ability as it is now worthless

Yeah balancing it out is the other issue. Mainly giving spontaneous casters some boost to keep them relevant and competitive. One idea is just up their spellpoint pool.

Clerics, Druids ect who have the domain powers and such, it might just be that these spells are always prepared on top of the spells they do in fact prepare. So a good aligned cleric would prepare their spells normally and always of cure light wounds prepared, or Druids would always have summon natures ally prepared just as a given.

Yeah, all of this needs to be taken into consideration. I've been tinkering with all the classes to some extent.

seems interesting, i played DDO for a little while and this was the system used, i like the core concept, and naturally there could be feats that grant you more spell points, but are tehre other ways of obtaining more spell points?

Currently the ideas floating about are,

Pearls of Power, depending on its level gives you added spell points based on its level. So a First Level Pearl Power grants 1 extra spellpoint and so on and so forth.

Feats might be made that grant extra spell points.

For Sorcerers, Oracles ect Spontaneous casters, class features might exist that help them go beyond the spell overload point. Basically their spellcasting stat goes up by 2 for the purposes of determining spell overload points allowing them to bend the spell overload. Kind of like the extra boost to physical stats transmutation wizards get. Or possibly just latent abilities to recharge spell points without the traditional resting time.

Obviously I'm thinking to borrow the table of bonus spell points based on your spellcasting stat. Similar to bonus spells per day already.

And finally just in the world they might encounter areas that simply restore their magic, or grant temporary spell points ect.

Any other ideas are definitely welcome.

i think that spell overload might be a little severe. i think moving the cost up a single step at a time is all your going to need to reign that in. the main point of spellpoints is to allow spellcasters to sacrifice higher level spells to cast more lower level. this is similar in theory to modular spellslots.

I see, Well my initial goal for spellpoints is more getting rid of the "Ah man I only prepared cure light wounds once," affect that to me anyway seems kinda silly in my meta thinking. However I see your point it might be a tad harsh. I've not heard of modular spellslots.

I may just take that advice, Spell overload is one of my first attempts at a mechanic. So I'm not shocked if it is over or under what I intended for it.

Document here, Link.

For the most part its a modified form of what is in Unearthed Arcana and in the 3.5e SRD. The main change is spell cost, and homebrew thing called spell overload.

Spell overload is mainly intended to be a stopper to say a high level character spamming very low level spells. Granted I am fairly new at this so I'll be the first to admit it might be buggy, broken or not particularly a good deterrent to that.

Mainly I'm looking to see if its fairly simple and straightforward, easy to understand, and if its fairly balanced.

Granted my players are pretty chill and not powergamers so abuse is not a big concern. But in theory a new player could join who is. Also I'd like formalized rules that aren't terribly broken.

So.... Questions? Comments? Concerns?

EDIT: It bares mentioning the setting itself is Homebrew, and many magic items and spells don't actually exist. Like Cloaks of Charisma, and Headbands of Intellect are exceptionally rare, and so to are rods of metamagic. When I say rare I mean, not purchasable in any store. Likewise some spells like rope trick don't exist.

17) The Hornets: A Quasi-legal assassins and smuggling guild, allowed to operate, sometimes with indulgences to break laws when certain rulers deem it advantageous or simply don't care. Originally a criminal organization but the King found them a useful proving ground for training potential spy recruits. All members are generally of the class rogue or ranger. Their main HQ is called the Hornets Nest. Usually able to avoid law enforcement do to elite protection which often comes at a price, giving nobles their cut. Other times they recruit a field of legal experts to pull numerous tricks to avoid the law, from finding loopholes, using dirt and blackmail, to simply pressing legions of charges against government officials who bother them.

In my own campaigns I often resort to mixes of all of these. "Keepers of the Dead," being one of my favorites. Meaning only certain items, certain rare books, holy people, divine intersession ect ect can bring back the dead.

Short of godly intersession, mortals can cheat death but it requires alchemical talents, or Necromancy, and there is no assurance that what your doing will bring back the person you want. In one campaign they pulled a frankenstein and got a player back to life, but he hated what he was now and chose to "end it." so to speak.

I just picked a style of story, a particular region, and idea and just build on that.

For me I read some Conan the Barbarian stuff, and then from there created a humans only campaign world with some ancient world themes. It can be as simple as "How about a desert," then think about that culture that lives there, why there there, and build from that.