So I had this brainstorm while stocking bananas at work (I work in a Kroger produce department) and was thinking about what I want to run in D&D, or rather the types of stories I enjoy running. I realized I love pirates, ninjas, theives guilds, city settings, and some jungle exploration stuff... cults and natives etc. I have long drifted from the old dungeon crawl, having found they tend to go too long. I'm fond of shorter set pieces framing a story. So my idea was to create this mix-mash of settings. The Pirate Isles will have Riddleport (Paizo), Freeport(Green Ronin), Sasserine(Savage Tide), Scuttlecove(ST), Overlook(Siege of Boradins watch 4e... system stripped), and of course the Isle of dread and Farshore(ST). These were my first idea places to base setting around. I also want an island nation that is eastern in nature to add Samurai and Ninja... and Yes at one point I want a big naval battle with Ninjas and Pirates... but that isnt the point. The idea is to build a giant sandbox that is more of a bath tub to play in, using all these sources together in harmony. So what all sources are available for these places, and what are some good adventures and addons?
Here are a few ideas for sea based adventures I was kindly given in a thread I started here: check for Rezdave's post in particular which is about midway down.
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/dnd/seaBasedAdventure s
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I'm doing the same thing, but throwing in Manifest from Ghostwalk calling the entire region "The Phantom Isles" and calling it Ghost Sails. The manifest zone extends over the whole region of the Phantom Isles.
Why do I tell you this?
So that I can have Pirates, Ninjas, Dinosaurs, Zombies and GHOSTS! The PCs are going to discover an army of warforged because all it needs is Robots!
I'm doing the same thing, but throwing in Manifest from Ghostwalk calling the entire region "The Phantom Isles" and calling it Ghost Sails. The manifest zone extends over the whole region of the Phantom Isles.
Why do I tell you this?So that I can have Pirates, Ninjas, Dinosaurs, Zombies and GHOSTS! The PCs are going to discover an army of warforged because all it needs is Robots!
HAHA I like it! Oddly you hit on an idea I was playing with with a meta-plot idea for it that I probably won't use. I was going to go for this idea that the entire thing is a ravenloft domain style soul prison for do gooders (really good champions) who are then tormented by being stuck in this horribly corrupt mecha of islands. The idea is that the prisoners (the pcs) wouldnt even know anything about it, as they may even be depraved (what better torment for a good soul than to have it be part of atrocities?) Was a wierd idea to begin with, and I'll more than likely drop it but it was a nifty idea nonetheless. I do like the idea of a warforged army, though I think I'd go more clockwork (Hellboy 2 style, minus the indestrucability :P) Which I think could be awesome. Then there would be the best battle eever with Warforged(robots) fighting Ninjas fighting pirates fighting Barl-gura thieves (Demon Monkeys!) with Pterodactyl's and T-rexs in the mix and poor pcs going "WTF are you smoking Mate!"
Good times. :P
I've been running a swashbuckling sea-based campaign for a couple years now. It's pretty fun. They fought halfling ninja-swashbuckler-invisible blades, 36 HD T-Rexes, gnoll pirates galore, vampire merchant princes, yuan-ti cultists, and are now on a mission to stop the moon from being crashed into the sea!
And they also were forced to hear me sing a re-working of "The Hero of Canton, the Man They Call Jayne"--re-worked to incorporate a PC's name as the hero.
Definitely want black powder pistols and muskets.
I've been running a swashbuckling sea-based campaign for a couple years now. It's pretty fun. They fought halfling ninja-swashbuckler-invisible blades, 36 HD T-Rexes, gnoll pirates galore, vampire merchant princes, yuan-ti cultists, and are now on a mission to stop the moon from being crashed into the sea!
And they also were forced to hear me sing a re-working of "The Hero of Canton, the Man They Call Jayne"--re-worked to incorporate a PC's name as the hero.
Definitely want black powder pistols and muskets.
Have those, and nice Firefly reference... which gives me awesome ideas to add more plots to it all... Namely Imperial caused diseased ghoul pirates and the conspiracy to keep it all hidden, as well as a young girl who knows the secret and the ninja assassin who is trailing her.
Well amongst other ideas. I definately will be using serpentfolk AND Yuan-ti in a terrotorial battle, aswell as ypur gnoll pirates and vampire merchant princes :P
OOH OOH OOH!!!
I forgot! They had a big quest for a lost treasure, the Ruby Heart, and it turned out to be an aasimar healer magically sleeping in the treasure chest!!!
Firefly ripoffs are fun!
Also, there's a big red dracolich named Ruby, and the PCs were convinced their healer was phylactery. Turned out the guarded by the Ruby Hart, a golem-like stag of ruby crystals.
Bad puns are fun too!
There's a relatively warm cold war between the yuan-ti and the rakshasa.
And to SAFELY sail the Crater Sea, each vessel must pay a bloodtoll (a human, though not necessarily fatal, blood sacrifice) to the Star Fallen, a mysterious entity that crashed to earth a hundred years ago and blasted the Crater Sea out of the middle of the Great Empire. So the PCs have to deal with vampires, or deal with the consequences of not dealing with the vampire merchant prince/cultists. That Shark Deity from the Razor Coast would make an excellent substitute for that. Blood in the water...
A small amount of "history" of my setting (a work in way progress).
The pirate Isles are a conglomerate of 7 or 8 pirate "nations" in a large chain of islands far off the known map. They are thriving centers for trade and community, and pretty much everyone is welcomed there... except bounty hunters. The reason I said there are 7 or 8 nations, is that at any given time 1 or more of the nations will be at war with another nation, and according to the "rules" as set out by the founding pirates, no nations can go to war while still a part of the allied "empire". So the standard practice is to go to war over something small, drop out of the empire finish the war (with usually little actual death outside of whoever they wanted removed from power) and then rejoin the empire. In all truth, no one hardly ever knows who is at war with who, and most common folk and even the various pirates have no clue there was even a "war" most of the time, that's all beuracrats stuff.
Each island nation is originally the foundation of several pirate captains attempts to fortify their men and create a refuge of their own kingdom. These grew in to cities and towns, and a few are created through other accidents and happenstance.
Neat, but a center of trade shouldn't be off the map, it should be on the borders of lots of different maps, providing "exotic" goods to lots of different continents and empires (European, Asian, Meso-American, Arabian, African, Iroquois, Hindu-Indian, Land of Giants, Draconic Empire, Land of the Dead, Embassy of Hell, etc.).
Neat, but a center of trade shouldn't be off the map, it should be on the borders of lots of different maps, providing "exotic" goods to lots of different continents and empires (European, Asian, Meso-American, Arabian, African, Iroquois, Hindu-Indian, Land of Giants, Draconic Empire, Land of the Dead, Embassy of Hell, etc.).
I may have misled you with the statement "off the map". I meant it more along the terms it isn't on any maps. The only people who get there are pirates and the like, or unlucky people who wreck there and become citizens. It's location is intentionally kept secret from those outside the islands to keep it "safe" from the empires it plunders. It really would border multiple places but yet still be unknown (how else could I get to work in desert settings and the like for legacy of fire one shots and pyramid delves? :P)
If you have W2 River into Darkness, I think Bloodcove would be a cool pirate town to add to your list and there's a fair bit of information about the town in the module. (You can also check out the Bloodcove entry on the Pathfinder wiki.)
Thank you, I'll check that out.
I have decided that each isle will be named after the Pirate captain who's fleet settled it. But in all reality it will be little homages to the sources of the isle and some inside joke. For instance the Isle that holds "The Free city", Cauldron, Sasserine, etc. will be called The Isle of the Hawk. It was settled by the Pirate Captain Guy Grax, and later ran by Lord Cook leading to a revitalizing of the population. The isle of Freeport will use basic Freeport history except that the original Lord will have been an exiled Samurai. They reffered to him as the Ronin of the Emerald Kingdom. :P
And of course Riddleport, et all is located on the Isle of the Golem, settled by Captain "Golem" Buhlman. With lots of other references thrown in for my own amusement (Lieutenants Jacobs and Mona, the secret backer of the captain the aristocratic Ms. Stevens... etc.). I think these kinds of things help set the tone for what I want, semi serious yet semi silly pirate adventures. I especially like the ability to turn up the serious or silly at a moments notice and tone it back aswell. I haven't been in a good position for that in a while.
I may have misled you with the statement "off the map". I meant it more along the terms it isn't on any maps ... [as] it's location is intentionally kept secret from those outside the islands to keep it "safe" from the empires it plunders.Of course. Just like old sea-maps say things like "Here There be Monsters", I imagine that if you looked at various maps from the regions the pirates border and raid you would find that many of them say "Here there be Pirates", sometimes including "artist's renderings" of the islands presumed or even known to be out there ... somewhere. Of course, there is no accuracy to the actual shapes or number or locations.
However, they can't be entirely "unknown", not at the size and organization you're talking about. People would know pirates are there, presume that they are operating from islands or some undiscovered land, and it would be noted on several maps, if inaccurately.
Note that as engaging as the concept of "pirate isles" as a nation is, such a culture is not self sufficient. They still need contacts and fences and so forth in "regular" lands. There would be pirates who retire with their plunder to "live the good life" in a more stable nation of their choosing, there would be those who break the "pirate code" and are on the run from the "isles" back into regular lands, and of course there would be the corrupt port towns in which the pirates are welcome to trade their loot for needed supplies and no one asks questions about the origin of such "trade goods".
Unless the pirates have a large slave population working the fields back in their isles, they're going to need food and such that they can't supply themselves. They may fish a bit at sea, but they're pirates and not fisherman by trade. Hardtack requires flour to make and cheese requires cows or goats and pastures or plenty of feed. Bacon-backs or jerky as well all require agricultural support, and that is work the pirates won't do themselves. So they need slaves and...
You make many good points and for the most part all of this works with my setup as while they are originally pirates they have devoloped into full on cities and nations. In essence they are somewhat self sufficient. They have moved on from being "pure" pirate islands to being pirate heavy nations seperated from the rest of the world basically mostly removed from the rest of the populace. In some ways they are america to the mainlands england... an "undescovered" huge chunk of land (as huge as 10 or so mini country sized islands are) yet unknown to the rest of the world save what stories and homemade maps there are. The pirates have over the few hundred years of colonization grown from being just pirates to being proper city-states, with piracy being a long standing tradition and common occurance. Pirates are in no way "legal" here just common career choices given the lineages. As such they have plenty of each other to prey upon and so much ancient civilization lost treasure to steal from each other that going outside of the isles isn't needed necesserily. However it is possible for time to time for a ship to go to the mainlands for whatever reason, or a mainlands ship to stumble relatively safely unto the isles by mistake. Trade happens (as does some piracy more often than not) and more people get it into their head to search for the fabled pirate lands or for the mainland. The sea is rather wicked and harsh however so it is rare that these occurances happen.
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By putting manifest in the pirate isles it forces nations from all over the world to have contact with the region as they bring their corpses to the gates of the underworld. Legitimate nations backing pirate settlements (much as britain did port royale) to rob from other nations makes for all sorts of political intrigue.
By putting manifest in the pirate isles it forces nations from all over the world to have contact with the region as they bring their corpses to the gates of the underworld. Legitimate nations backing pirate settlements (much as britain did port royale) to rob from other nations makes for all sorts of political intrigue.
To be honest I'm not entirely familiar with the ghostwalk setting. The concept seemed cool, but I never reallygot past the hangups of the theme and decided I had too many things on my plate to look it over (no one I know owns it, and I wasn't into buying a copy to check it out.) Otherwise the idea is cool, and that is a nifty way o making the setting ripe with brimming war and political intrigue. (Which I like)
I may have misled you with the statement "off the map". I meant it more along the terms it isn't on any maps ... [as] it's location is intentionally kept secret from those outside the islands to keep it "safe" from the empires it plunders.Unless the pirates have a large slave population working the fields back in their isles, they're going to need food and such that they can't supply themselves. They may fish a bit at sea, but they're pirates and not fisherman by trade. Hardtack requires flour to make and cheese requires cows or goats and pastures or plenty of feed. Bacon-backs or jerky as well all require agricultural support, and that is work the pirates won't do themselves. So they need slaves and...
In my campaign, I have a nation of gnolls that import slaves and export sausage.
I may have misled you with the statement "off the map". I meant it more along the terms it isn't on any maps ... [as] it's location is intentionally kept secret from those outside the islands to keep it "safe" from the empires it plunders.Unless the pirates have a large slave population working the fields back in their isles, they're going to need food and such that they can't supply themselves. They may fish a bit at sea, but they're pirates and not fisherman by trade. Hardtack requires flour to make and cheese requires cows or goats and pastures or plenty of feed. Bacon-backs or jerky as well all require agricultural support, and that is work the pirates won't do themselves. So they need slaves and...In my campaign, I have a nation of gnolls that import slaves and export sausage.
hmmm so is the import the same as the export? :P
I like the idea of a gnoll nation.
Yup!
My campaign has the Gnoll Gynarky, a nation ruled by pirate-priestesses dedicated to the goddess known as the B!tch. There is the Gynark, who is the Queen, and a council of elders that advises her. The gnolls are one of the only terrestrial evil races left after the Star Fall made the Crater Sea, so they've been pretty aggressive in their expansion. A lot of them--especially the sea-going ones--have converted to worship of the Starfallen, a mysterious entity that lives beneath the new sea. They believe they are cursed lycanthropes, trapped in their were-hyena hybrid form, and if they can crash the moon into the sea, they'll get their mojo back. Another splinter group of gnolls are the Saffron Knights. They wear long flowing yellow cloaks and ride dire lions into battle. They patrol the frontier of the Gnoll Gynarky.
Gnolls are polyandrous, so the First Mate and Second Mate of the gnoll pirate ships are actual mates of the captains!
(I love my bad puns!)
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Yup!
My campaign has the Gnoll Gynarky, a nation ruled by pirate-priestesses dedicated to the goddess known as the B!tch. There is the Gynark, who is the Queen, and a council of elders that advises her. The gnolls are one of the only terrestrial evil races left after the Star Fall made the Crater Sea, so they've been pretty aggressive in their expansion. A lot of them--especially the sea-going ones--have converted to worship of the Starfallen, a mysterious entity that lives beneath the new sea. They believe they are cursed lycanthropes, trapped in their were-hyena hybrid form, and if they can crash the moon into the sea, they'll get their mojo back. Another splinter group of gnolls are the Saffron Knights. They wear long flowing yellow cloaks and ride dire lions into battle. They patrol the frontier of the Gnoll Gynarky.
Gnolls are polyandrous, so the First Mate and Second Mate of the gnoll pirate ships are actual mates of the captains!
(I love my bad puns!)
THAT is so awesome! I love stuff like that. Sausage slaves... ewww... mmm I'm feeling a bit peckish, what ya got to snack on? and elven sausages? Never mind, just be hungry again in an hour anyway. lol
I am thinking of going more victorian age adventures with this though, lower magic but more science fiction... or rather than actual low magic, making magic mysterious, powerful, and hard to get if you arent a nether-beast or its minions. Use the Cthulu-esque stuff from Freeport and ST, but tone it back so as to not be dead and crazy pcs every week. So as to swuitch between the old sinbad claymation monsters movies, and horror with Errol Flyn and co. swinging in out of nowhere... At this point the main problem is figuring out how to make these all mesh.. :P
They don't really have to mesh...each isle can have its own personality. One can be Cthuluesque, one can be all derringdo, one can be all derro, one can have claymation dinosaurs, another can have skeletons and zombies working the plantations in the bayou, one can be gnoll sausagemaker/slavers, etc. etc.
They don't really have to mesh...each isle can have its own personality. One can be Cthuluesque, one can be all derringdo, one can be all derro, one can have claymation dinosaurs, another can have skeletons and zombies working the plantations in the bayou, one can be gnoll sausagemaker/slavers, etc. etc.
Perhaps mesh isn't what I meant... I meant I want to have a clear idea of the places and backdrops I want to use so that it doesn't feel like I'm never prepared, when it come sto knowledge about the environment/city. The adventures and events I want to flow naturally... But I want to feel like I know the cities well enough to not look up stuff every 3 seconds.... again I'm just being my usual self about it and in the end I may just scribble important notes and run it on the fly and build it from scratch at the table like I used to. We'll see :P
Sounds like an interesting campaign concept. Another resource would be those couple Liberty supplements from Green Ronin I believe. Basically, it's another seaport city. It was partially released as Temple District, etc.
I thought there were several adventures for old D&D like War Rafts of Kron and the aforementioned Isle of Dread which would be good sources of inspiration. There was also the Creature Crucible supplement on the Sea People that covered a whole underwater kingdom with sea elves, etc.
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You mentioned the island chain being like a Ravenloft domain in one of your earlier posts and a desire for ninjas and such. there actually is a Ravenloft domain based on 4 island surrounding a central sea that is oriental themed, named Rokushima Taiyoo. The Darklord is a geist and thus actually powerless to prevent his 4 remaining sons from squabbling over the nation he built (which was originally on 6 islands, when the 2 sons who ruled those islands died, their island kingdom sank with them!)
I love me some pirates. My favorite home brew setting to run in is a horrid horrid place called Carcass - it is pirates at their absolute WORST. I love it.
Also, if you are interested in loads of piratey goodness and natives-gone-wild madness, not to mention Volcano goddesses and Shark gods and Krakenfiends and other horrors you might want to check out Razor Coast - now available for pre-order. You get PDFs of the book in multiple systems, and you can choose which one you want printed when it ships - including Pathfinder Compatible.
If you want some more info - check out some previews here: Sinister's Sneak Peek's Blog
Someday I'll probably publish stuff on Carcass too - but not until I want to fatten my FBI file a little.
Well I decided to try something new and started a Myspace Blog for my players to explicitly state any crazy ideas they wanted to see. Some nifty things indeed, it helps to know my players actually want the kinds of things im wanting in the sense of magic, and scenes and whatnot. I highly recommend the idea to anyone who plans on putting something together.
As a side not I'm reworking some ideas for how to handle the characters, and am looking at options to incorporate d20 modern ideas (Base class/advanced class/prestige class) but in a new vein (Player defined base classes, advanced classes and prestige classes so to speak) as well as chaotic deadly magic system (im thinking casting spells drains the casters hp or some such that magic is rare and dangerous) and also making magic items into relics, all of them... never in the world will you see a +1 weapon, it will have a history and power to unlock... at least thats what my players want, so we'll see. Razor coast looks good too btw :)
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If you want a crazy deadly magic system you can have the casters power the spells with CON. They make a Knowledge (Arcana or Religion) check against a DC of 10+Spell level. If they make it, fine, if not they loose a number of CON points equal to the spell level.
You might allow the player to substitute CHA points instead of everything coming from CON if you want it a little less deadly. Essentially let the player decide how to split the spell cost between CON and CHA.
Another alternative is on a failed check the spell backfires somehow. The character can choose to apply CON (and or CHA) points to regain control and force the spell to work as planned.
This is what I would use if I ever get around to playing a game where magic is cast by Spell Weaving. Essentially the caster makes a mistake in weaving the spell and has to use a little bit of himself to fix the spell.
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chaotic deadly magic system (im thinking casting spells drains the casters hp or some such that magic is rare and dangerous)
Spellcraft roll for each spell cast, on a failure, you can spend nonlethal hit points equal to the level of the spell to cast it anyway. On a critical failure (always on a 1) you fail *and* to take lethal damage equal to the level of the spell.
Alternately, and more complex, make that Spellcraft check, and, if you blow it, make a Fort save *and* a Will save. The Fort save is for the nonlethal damage (1/2 if saved), the Will save is to prevent psychic damage (minor effects include Dazed, for low level failures, to Stunned or Confused for higher level failures, to sanity shattering effects like Feeblemind for botching a 9th level spell). If you have the source of magic linked to alien otherworldly intelligences (from capricious fey to Lovecraftian horrors), the character might end up temporarily losing his volition, and do things to further the agenda of the Things from the Outer Dark. Or just something crazy and whimsical, or humiliating, if the source of eldritch power is more fey, or comes from genies, or whatever. This would require a lot more DM adjudication, and would only happen when you botch a Will save or something, as you don't want the magic-using players losing control of their characters every day! (And, in the case of priests or divine devotees, they end up temporary vessels for *angels,* white eyed and fixated on some divine mission, ignoring earthly matters...)
This spellcraft check is modified normally by any other things going on. Casting dangerous magic on a rocking ship in a storm at sea on the same round that a pirate hit you with a cutlass? Bad, bad, BAD idea...
Actually currently as it stands to be tested and such, Magic is cast with spellcraft checks. DC 20+(3xSpell Level). As actual magic won't be available till 4th level or so the chances of success are easy until higher levels. The rub so to speak as of now is that casting causes d6 hp DRAIN/lv of the spell. However for every 5 you beat the DC it does 1d6 less. So a high level sorcerer throws around little spells with ease, but high level spells could still hurt or kill him. failing a check still alows the spell to be cast with a concentration check it just adds a d6 drain per 5 failed. The Actual caster class will have bonuses to spellcraft and a I'm thinking a lessening to drain similiar to damage reduction. The idea is appealing to me as it allows even lower level casters to attempt powerful out of their league spells but kills them very dead 90% of the time. It emulates fiction in that way imo. Also a Nat 20 basically ignores all drain, while a critical 1 is BAD NEWS... I'm thinking the level of the spell attempted will determine how catastrophic this is. I'm also making some spells into a catagory of rituals that have special requirements and add special ingredients to most spells to emulate that fictional system (you need displacer beast blood for blink or somesuch), and the higher quality items can lessen the drain or the spellcraft dc. It isn't perfect but I like it so far.
I'm putting together a pirate campaign right now too. Using the first two bits of Second Darkness, the Freeport trilogy, Razor Coast (If Logue delivers! Back to work Nick!) and more. From Riddleport to the Shackles to Bloodcove and the Mwangi Expanse... Should be fun!
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I'm putting together a pirate campaign right now too. Using the first two bits of Second Darkness, the Freeport trilogy, Razor Coast (If Logue delivers! Back to work Nick!) and more. From Riddleport to the Shackles to Bloodcove and the Mwangi Expanse... Should be fun!
Ooh, that sounds very neat. I ran a Freeport game (set in Greyhawk) and it was very fun. Golarion wasn't really an option yet, but I could just as happily set Freeport down in Golarion (although the Shackles seem kind of out of the way of the major seafaring nations).
I'm putting together a pirate campaign right now too. Using the first two bits of Second Darkness, the Freeport trilogy, Razor Coast (If Logue delivers! Back to work Nick!) and more. From Riddleport to the Shackles to Bloodcove and the Mwangi Expanse... Should be fun!Ooh, that sounds very neat. I ran a Freeport game (set in Greyhawk) and it was very fun. Golarion wasn't really an option yet, but I could just as happily set Freeport down in Golarion (although the Shackles seem kind of out of the way of the major seafaring nations).
Well, I thought that initially too. But there is traffic down to Bloodcove etc. from the Aspis Consortium, and Cheliax borders the Arcadian Ocean as well... And there's some traffic across to Arcadia. But yes, the Arch of Aroden kinda splits things off between Inner Sea piracy and Arcadian Ocean piracy. The Sodden Lands, I think, pretty much took out a lot of the pirate targets in the area. I reckon the Chelish send a lot of ships just about everywhere, though.
Cheliax fits the "Continental nation" bill from Freeport to a T...
Gnolls are polyandrous, so the First Mate and Second Mate of the gnoll pirate ships are actual mates of the captains!
(I love my bad puns!)
I guess great minds think alike, because I've got Gnoll pirates in my campaign world who have the same Matriarch captain & mates hierarchical structure. They mainly operate galleys, since they may not be the greatest of sailors (they often employ other races to help operate their ships), but they're sure strong oarsmen. Fifty Gnolls with a +4 racial bonus to Strength can row a small galley a fair bit faster than 50 humans can, giving them a significant advantage in manoeuvering at sea*.
*I'd have said naval manoeuvres, but Gnoll belly-dancers never caught on ;).
Whatever happened to JRM?