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Many of us have something we created for our setting that we love, but that our players probably wouldn't like. As a result, we don't use it in our games.
In my case, it's academic language. The elves laid the base of the modern government and educational systems (this is a modern campaign setting, so that's pretty relevant, since everyone has years upon years of schooling and sees what the government is up to on TV), and as a result their languages form the base of academia rather than Greek and Latin. Elves are only found in areas roughly analagous to Celtic and Nordic regions, and outnumber all other races in these lands. So, the language of science is a hybrid of Old Norse and Modern Icelandic, not Ancient Greek, meaning that biology is lifþekking and geology is grunnrþekking. The same applies to magic. The language of law, government, and literature is a hybrid of multiple forms of Gaelic (basically, whoever among the Gaels has the best sounding word for what I want), so casus belli is cóir coimhlint and ad hominem is míchuí masla. This is cool, and I'm proud of it, but it won't work in an actual game, for the simple reason that it's awkward, annoying, and infuriating to have to remember the correct word for chemistry (efnaþekking) when in character instead of just saying chemistry, and it makes no more sense than making everybody speak a language bummed off of Japanese just because their character is doing so. So, my lovely creation gets to stay out of the game, for the most part.
What about you guys? What did you create that you can't use?
Hmmm.... interesting topic....
Language certainly can be an issue. Though far simpler, I've got some in-world terms like "gnomesilver" and "dwarfsteel" for mithral and adamantine respectfully (to indicate their origins in my world) but then don't really use them because the players are just more familiar with the standard words. I technically have a lot of local languages but it's just easier to assume everyone speaks "Common."
It's hard to think of stuff I absolutely wouldn't use, but things I establish in my world that I'm not sure would come up very often... even if it's practical things like... a lot of clergy are non-divinely powered preachers and ministers... but if the party really needs healing, am I only going to have them find lay ministers or get them to an NPC cleric who can do it properly--the answer may be yes or no depending on a variety of issues contributing to the situation at hand.
I'm sure there's some stuff I'm not thinking of at the moment... will consider.
OT: Kelsey's word for geology reminds me of "grunspreking" a life-psionic magic from Zilpha Keatley Snyder's "Below the Root" trilogy.
I've detailed out quite a bit of cosmology for my setting, but I doubt most of it will be known by the PCs. It's mostly there so I can be consistent with how things work.
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The homebrew I'm working on actually has a stupid amount of stuff players will never see, because I've written it somewhat like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel... depending on what choices player's make early on, one of four major storylines will kick off.
Of course, this could also be part of the reason that the game still hasn't made it past the planning stage apart from a few test runs of the opening scenarios to see what people think.
I am in the same boat as Tinkergoth- I usually try to keep my campaigns very open. I like letting my parties make their own calls a decide how to carry their quest. Unfortunately 2/3rds of my gaming parties don't like the lack of direction and usually just wait for some NPC to tell them what they should be doing, so I often end up with railroaded games to party choice.
I also have an extensive library of character options (Core, Third Party, and Homebrew) to really create diverse characters...but my current group tends to have one class they play- over and over again. I still use these options for NPCs, but my group is actually pretty good at avoiding planned conflict, so they rarely get to battle my corbie scavengers or lamia gladiators but often end up in bar fights with drunks and well meaning guards.
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Probably the lagoon in my setting that has a crashed spaceship in it.
So close ...
I got SO close to getting my PCs to Arbortha; my setting's version of the world tree. And then real life kicked me in the nuts and took my players away. : /
Arbortha is a massive tree that holds the Material Plane, the Fey Courts (my version of the First World), and the Shadow Plane together in a style that mirrors the three worlds of Norse Mythology, with the Shadow Plane acting as Hel (explaining its strong Undead ties), the Material World as itself, and the Fey Courts as Aesgard.
Furthermore, Arbortha's primary inhabitants are the Thriae who make up complex hive-cities throughout its branches and guard the portals into Arbortha. They're friendly enough to female travelers through Arbortha, but they frequently capture male travelers and bring them back to their hives where they spend the rest of their days as sex slaves, though aside from having no independence and being forbidden from leaving the hives, captives are treated decently. And yes, the seer bee race living in the massive extraplanar tree is a direct reference to the Secret World.
I have a country in my world called Koli, which might be described as 'everything that shouldn't be up and moving around is doing so'. Forests hunt sentient lakes, the ground opens up and swallows people quite literally because it's hungry, castles stand up and fight invading armies.
Some of these things I can represent with existing creatures. Certain very large oozes are for great living-lake stats, and Bestiary 4 presented me with exactly the resources I need for a castle that can get up and fight.
...But until we get proper and easy to understand rules for troops, I don't think I'll be able to make those sentient forests, which I've always envisioned as equivalent to a colossal troop of treants.
I have a country in my world called Koli, which might be described as 'everything that shouldn't be up and moving around is doing so'. Forests hunt sentient lakes, the ground opens up and swallows people quite literally because it's hungry, castles stand up and fight invading armies.
Some of these things I can represent with existing creatures. Certain very large oozes are for great living-lake stats, and Bestiary 4 presented me with exactly the resources I need for a castle that can get up and fight.
...But until we get proper and easy to understand rules for troops, I don't think I'll be able to make those sentient forests, which I've always envisioned as equivalent to a colossal troop of treants.
Rasputin Must Die had the Troop template/mechanics. It may work for you.
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In my last campaign (a sky pirate campaign where islands and continents float in skies rather than in oceans), I cut two whole continents, as the campaign was already months behind where I planned to be, and I just didn't have the time.
The first was an eastern continent with a wind and water theme. They had ancient technology which connected their islands in a series of magically suspended artificial rivers. The continent was the home of the tengu, but had been conquered by the wayang centuries earlier. The artifact the party needed was going to be a symbol of the rightful claim to the throne, and in order to acquire it, they would have had to awaken the only dragon left in the world (dragons being minor deities in this setting). Since one of the characters was obsessed with dragons, this was a painful cut, but it had to be done. I just let the enemy go their and bring back the artifact, and gave the party glimpses of the awesomeness they missed out on.
The other was a lost civilization frozen under the arctic. The ruins were filled with bound demons and devils, and deadly traps. There were numerous secrets about the mysteries of the world which would have been revealed there, some of which I was able to move elsewhere. But the big one was going to be the opportunity to make a deal with a devil. One of the characters in the party was hearing from a ghost she thought was her dad, who was tricking her into wishing him back to life. She nearly feel for it, but found out the truth shortly before getting the chance to make a deal with a different devil. That one wasn't likely to ever go through though, since it would have meant screwing over another party member, a major no no in my group. Which is why I'm kind of sad I didn't get to trick her with a more appealing deal.
Rasputin Must Die had the Troop template/mechanics. It may work for you.I have a country in my world called Koli, which might be described as 'everything that shouldn't be up and moving around is doing so'. Forests hunt sentient lakes, the ground opens up and swallows people quite literally because it's hungry, castles stand up and fight invading armies.
Some of these things I can represent with existing creatures. Certain very large oozes are for great living-lake stats, and Bestiary 4 presented me with exactly the resources I need for a castle that can get up and fight.
...But until we get proper and easy to understand rules for troops, I don't think I'll be able to make those sentient forests, which I've always envisioned as equivalent to a colossal troop of treants.
Yeah, I have it, but I don't like the vagueness of the rules as they're presented there. It sort of seems like those troop rules amount to "Make what you like and mark it at whatever CR seems reasonable".
Personally I'd prefer a troop-making system like what we have for animated objects, or like the new system for making necrocrafts in Bestiary 4. Something easier to use, and less reliant on me to accurately gauge how to balance a weird custom monster.
I have a whole police force of crystalline fighter jet-like constructs that won't go beyond being briefly mentioned. Unless one of my players hijacks one, I guess.