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I’ve recently become quite taken with the simplicity of the setting material for Mazes & Minotaurs, which frankly offers a little more creative freedom than relatively well-explored settings like Golarion or the Forgotten Realms. Nonetheless, I’d like to throw in a lot of Golarion material (like, say, giving some of the ‘barbarians’ a lot of Shoanti trappings).
I’ve thrown together the following gazetteer, heavily based on the one from RMM2 but re-working the general geography to include favoured bits of Golarion and some other elements. If you were a prospective player, particularly for a Pathfinder PbP, would you want to play in this setting?
The Land of the Three Cities
As its name implies, this rich and civilized coastal country is divided into three independent (and rival) city-states: Thena, Heraklia and Argos.
Each of these city-states is a major political power with its own culture, economy and armed forces. In the past, the strong rivalry of the Three Cities has caused several wars but they have been in peace for more than 100 years now, thanks to the efforts of the Thenan monarchs (see History).
Most adventurers will come from the Land of the Three Cities.
The Middle Sea
This inner sea has four major islands: Seriphos, near the coasts of the Land of the Three Cities and home to Minea, the fourth major city-state of the area; Proteus, an ancient island often identified as the lost cradle of Middle Sea civilization, now a land of monster-haunted ruins (and, some say, forgotten treasures and wonders); Amazonia, half-legendary queendom and homeland of the famous undaunted warrior-women; and the eastern isle of Tritonis, last remnant of the once mighty sea empire of the same name, home to the decadent and dangerous Sea Princes of Acharnia.
The Wild North
North of the Land of the Three Cities, past the monster-infested Helicon Mountains, lies the frozen land of Hyperborea, home to fierce tribes of fur-clad Barbarians who worship strange gods, and the forest-realms of the politely territorial dark-elves.
To the west of Hyperborea lie the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, bleak lands of hard-bitten viking warriors where a man’s deeds are the proof of his worth and slaying a wyrm can make him a mighty lord. But even such valiant souls as these take their lives into their hands if they trespass within the Sybaris Forest, home of the ‘light’ elves, who protect their lands so fiercely that even the mighty armies and fiendish sorceries of Umbria cannot overcome them.
To the east of Hyperborea, past the Frozen Sea, lies Irrisen, ruled by successive dynasties of witch-queens whose powers over cold and ice keep their land locked in eternal winter.
The Unknown West
The western Umbrian Sea is bordered by the ancient warlike kingdom of Umbria, a former coastal colony of the lost empire of Atlantis and now an enclaved kingdom ruled by demon-trafficking Sorcerers, which controls the access to the Great Ocean.
Its tempestuous and perilous waters are inhabited by numerous sea-serpents, sea-horrors and other sea-monsters that none but the boldest adventurers dare defy... for somewhere in the Great Ocean lies the fabled island of Atlantis, once the mightiest sea-empire of the world, home to a pre-human race of savants and sorcerers, now only remembered in half-forgotten legends... Who knows what wonders and dangers await in these uncharted waters?
The Perilous East
The east of Mythika is divided by the great Thanatari Mountains, home to many strange and dangerous beasts, such as Griffins and Manticores, and to tribes of cannibal wildmen and troglodytes.
North of the mountains lies the land of Sicania, home to the Centaurs and to the Rusyns, fierce humans with unmatched riding skills and customs strange to Mythikan eyes. Both live in the shadows of mysterious fallen monuments that some say pre-date even Atlantis....
South of the Thanatari Mountains lies the fabled Land of the Sun, with its burning sands, desert ruins and golden cities...
The Mysterious South
The southern shore of the Middle Sea is dominated by the nation of Midia and its capital Solus, a centre of trade with a cosmopolitan population of merchants, sailors and thieves.
West of Midia lies the savage land of Charybdis with its lush jungles, strange beasts and tribes of ebony-skinned warriors.
South of Midia lies the mighty Desert Kingdom, with its great stone pyramids (also full of fabled treasure), mystical dynasties of divine-blooded kings and beast-headed gods...
Rumors also speak of a dark Stygian Empire somewhere in the far south, ruled by Necromancers and their legions of animated skeletons.
I like thematic setting, but it works poorly at high levels. High powered magic is too overwhelming an influence on the campaign I'd probably start by banning the full nine level casters and restricting other classes by archetype, maybe create some of your own. But yes oterwise I am a sucker for thematic camapaigning.
Remember, in a Greek-themed campaign, all magic is a gift from the Gods, and the Greek gods are notoriously fickle, self-important, and incredibly petty and spiteful. What they grant to those they favour, they can all too easily snatch away from those who anger them....
But yes, point taken. For a start, I’m thinking of banning the teleport spells (Dimension Door might survive, or it might not), and changing spells like burning hands and fireball into equivalents like elemental burst and elemental blast, to match up with the classic four elements and throwing in a little from psionics(!): fire gets you +1 damage/die, cold means +1 damage/die and a Fortitude save instead of Reflex, electricity gets +2 on the save DC and a +2 CL for penetrating SR, and sonic suffers -1 damage/die but ignores object hardness. ;)
There's a 3PP 3x setting under development called Xoth, which is a setting of Sword & Sorcery with very low magic - no healing magic, no burning hands, fireballs nor other blast spells. Nothing too convenient, like no water breathing, no dimension door/teleport, no fly, no invisibility, no detect magic. While this might be lower magic than you ever planned, I think it really makes a theme setting fitting a historical period work in a PF game.
I've been wanting to run a pseudo Conan and Age of Hyborea short campaign.
If you want Hellenic rules and flavor Little Red Goblin Games recently released a well received supplement, with excellent source material contributions from Christos Gurd. I'll link it as and when I can...
Ok, here's the LINK to Odyssey - A Greek Sourcebook.
Currently has one 4-star review.
Erm, Oceanshieldwolf? If you look a little closer, I wrote that review, after buying it a couple of weeks ago. :P You even entered a raffle to win a free copy from me for Christmas, remember? It’s why this plot-bunny attacked me in the first place. :P
@ gamer-printer: and that’s another supplement I already have! As you say, Xoth is a little too low-magic for my current intentions, especially with the Greek gods being involved, but now that you’ve reminded me about it, I’ll certainly be looting things from it quite freely. (I’d forgotten I bought it — and after all the kerfuffle I made about that process in the first place. Thanks for the nudge! ;))
I swear, I’d forget my head if it wasn’t bolted on....
All Greek to me Trace. I swear it wasn't me. ;p
Hopefully this is informative for others! ;)
For a while now, I've been wanting to develop Bronze/Iron Age setting which is more the time of Homer, the ancient Sagas, Beowulf, perhaps pre-Great Flood Epoch. The time when all the oldest stories and legends were born. While their gods are active, like how Greek gods are active to the heroes of Odysseus and Jason, these deities grant boons and banes (one time instances of help or harm), but otherwise do not grant spells, and otherwise fit a low magic setting. This might be a time before written languages, or at least only a few of the most advanced cultures of writing while the rest of the world does not. I think I want a little more magic than what's provided in Xoth, but not far off from that notion.
While I mostly lack the time to do it, I think I'd want to publish a mini campaign guide, map, players guide as a single book for this concept.
Kind of tinkering on a Greek setting right now myself and one of the things I am planning on doing is swapping out the regular magic system for a 3rd Party system. Just haven't decided on which though.
Adamant has Miracles and Wonders which is exclusively for Divine spell casters. Ditches the spell list and makes divine magic about Asking your god for things. Grace determines how big a miracle you can ask for while Hubris determines when you God decides you're pushing it. System is a lot of Player/DM cooperation which is the style of play I like.
Green Ronin has True Sorcery which is a Skill based Lore system. Needs a bit of tweaking to shift it from 3.5 to PF. Very flexible system balanced by powerful spells taking lots of time
Someone on the forums recently pointed me at Elements of Magic which is a Lore+ Spell Point system that looks pretty promising. Still getting my feet wet in the books but it's a very flexible system that avoids becoming overpowered with a lot of room to customize it for world building.
At present I am kind of leaning towards Miracles for Divine casters and Elements of Magic for Arcane.