I'm interested in starting 1 additional game. Here are the ideas I'm toying w/
(1) An alternative version of Mystara's called the Scaly Kingdoms. Everyone would be a reptilian race, such as a kobold. The adventures would be OSR inspired and set in this world's version of Karameikos, at least initially. Here is a basic description:
The Scaly Kingdoms
The Carnifex Empire fails to fall on schedule and its reptilian sorcerers overwhelm the fledgling human kingdoms of Thonia and Blackmoor, establishing themselves as the peerless masters of the world. Even a great fiery cataclysm caused by Carnifex sorcerer-technologists attempting to retro-engineer a crashed starship's drive fails to unthrone the reptiles as the dominant life form on the world of Mystara.Thousands of years later, the Known World is still ruled by the scaled ones. On the eastern coast, an emirate of dry-skinned lizard men continues the ancient traditions of the Carnifex, while to the south the vital, aggressive Thysscythic Imperium casts slaves to battle to the death in its arenas and maneuvers toward war with an empire of upstart humans, the Alphatians, who have managed to establish a small empire in the isles of the east despite competition from the Thothian lizardfolk and their spidery pharoahs on the Isle of Dawn. The Thysscythians dominate the Grand Duchy of Karrassthos, whose slimy-skinned natives resist the imperials even as some of them revere Grand Duke Sstaaven Karrassthos as the reincarnation of a legendary Carnifex ruler who defended them against mammalian beast-folk in ancient times and promised he would return in their hour of greatest need.
North of Karrassthos the merchant-lords of Darossthin contend over gold, silk, spices, narcotics, eggs, carrion, and slaves. Their republic completely surrounds an enchanted forest created by the magic of a race of mantis-like insectoids whose enchanted moths weave them cities of silk in the canopies of the trees. To the west, the spirit of a Carnifex master inhabits the body of a reptilian lord in the foreboding desert of Haaal, mustering the desert nomads for an attack on the riches of the east. Wizards of a variety of reptilian, insectoid, amphibious, and even mammalian races (including some Alphatian descendants) contend in the Principalities of Morrgharth, a mountainous realm of exotic magic built around a mysterious source of radiation. Nearby, in the Steppes of Essthengar, nomadic lizardmen ride swift-legged birds across the spirit-haunted plains.
In the Broken Lands dwell twisted horrors, creatures who are seemingly hybrids of many reptilian and insectoid species. Their king, Sssthar, has forged a semblance of order among the croaking, weeping, rasping hordes, and they may soon prove a major threat to the surrounding lands.
Besides lizardfolk of various kinds, cay-men, gatormen, tuataramen, chameleonmen, yuan-ti, iguanamen, frost and flame salamanders, geckomen, froglins, komododragonmen, and various avian creatures are all found within the Known World and its surrounding lands, replacing the mammalian creatures known on Mystara Prime. Cay-men dominate the Shirelands, while the Rock Lizard People rule the mountains between Darossthin and the Ice Lizard People of the Northern Reaches.
Rules of the World
While the Scaly Kingdoms may seem to just be a clone of Mystara Prime with humans changed to lizardmen, there are actually many differences. It's more racially diverse than Mystara Prime, with humanoid versions of most reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, and insects represented somewhere on the planet. It's morally darker than Mystara Prime, as the cold-blooded reptile people are unable to muster the compassion of mammals. Slavery is commonplace in every nation, and no one thinks anything is wrong with consuming sentient species for food. While Alphatia exists, this is not a world for mammals, and it is therefore smaller, weaker, and even more decadent than its equivalent on Mystara Prime. In order to compete with reptiles, the Alphatians have adopted many of their mores and values; they dress in scaled clothing and use their magic to create deplorable drugs to sell to wealthy reptiles as they laze about in the sun. Even in their own lands they are forced to grant nobility to magically talented reptiles, avians, and amphibians, who hold seats in their council and have even occasionally ruled as emperors and empresses in past dynasties (though their current empress, Eriadna, is human). The Alphatians of the Scaly Kingdoms routinely practice cannibalism on their muggle slaves and, despite their magic, are viewed with contempt by all other nations as presumptuous members of a race on par with hated disease-carrying and egg-devouring rats and mice. Some of the Alphatian descendants in Morrgharth are infected with a form of lycanthropy that allows them to shapeshift to reptilian form, and the initiates of the Order of the Dragon, able to shapeshift into draconic shape, are supreme among mammals. Vampires and liches, in comparison, are of only lowly status there.
(2). Psionic world.
I already posted an interest thread for this -- this is a science fiction setting. Laser guns and psionics. No humans. No magic. No standard dnd monsters. OSR inspired game in terms of adventure style -- dungeon/hex crawl. World contains several continents with barren interiors a la Australia. Adventures start in a kingdom ruled by psionic blue goblins.
(3). Warlords of the Accordlands
There's an adventure path for this setting; we'd use PF1e.
(4). Celtic or Germanic World. Not too sure of my ideas about this -- maybe during the Gallic Wars of Caesar, maybe its Arthurian a la Zimmer Bradley, or maybe it's a separate world inspire by Irish or Teutonic myth.
(5). Monte Cook's Diamond Throne. Use PF1e conversions for Arcana Evolved. Not sure about adventures.
(6). The Burning Sands/Desert World. Homebrew with elements of Arena from the Oathbound setting, Dark Sun, Al-Qadim, the Baalgor Wastelands from Palladium, Taladas from Dragonlance, Barsoom, and the ancient Near East, among other inspirations. Egyptian, Near Eastern, and other pantheons. Elementally-aligned races. God-Dragon super wyrms who rule city-states. Other stuff.
More detail on the last proposal: the aftermath of a great war in heaven saw many of the gods slain -- their bodies fell on the world, destroying large swathes, and further expanding the desert the devastation of the war had already increased.
Hell and heaven had a war and hell won, with demon princes and devil lords taking over several divine portfolios.
Several chromatic dragons gobbled up chunks of the fallen gods and became the 'god dragons'.
The goddess of magic was one of the fatalities, so only the 'shadow weave' arts work correctly, everything else is wild magic that requires on to draw on one's own life force to power its effects.
Some of them sound good, but I try look at generating ideas from another direction at times like making a;
* chaotic Quadro Campaign (everyone has to play as either; a barbarian, a bloodrager, a bard or a Skald as a class),
* Expanded Horizons campaign (Characters are generated in a positive semi-random process where race and class are semi-randomised),
* Classic campaign (can only use CRB and a few other OLD books (this includes 3.5 stuff as well))
* Caravan of Mixed-blood (everyone is a mixed-blood race (this one should allow for template options)) where the group is part of a caravan going from one spot to another.
Anyone want to vote on one of the settings I'm proposing? I'm starting to have a lot of ideas for (6). I'm imagining a campaign set around reassembling the essence of the dead goddess of magic.
Here are some selling points:
*All races are elementally aligned.
*Psionics is prominent. All classes will have some kind of psionic features. This arises from the fact that the planet is alive.
*Magic is primarily shadow weave magic https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Shadow_Weave. Normal magic is influenced by the death of the good goddess of magic, so suffers from instability and wild magic effects.
*The native flora and fauna have triple the limbs of ordinary creatures -- so 12 legged, six eyed tigers, etc., as well as psionic hive minds.
*The subterranean civilizations are more powerful, extensive, and populous than the surface ones. There are several different cultures of Drow.
*There are high tech items, warforged, and sky ships a la Eberron.
I'm not sure I have the bandwidth to join right now but I would certainly be interested enough to look into #4, I really like those cultures particularly Gaelic
What I'm thinking about for that one is that it will occur on a continent-sized celtic setting. There would also be a immense archipelago chain the size of the Indonesian islands with thousands of individual land masses of varying dimensions. The great hero and dragonslayer, and late king/Arthur stand-in has just died, and this has created a political and cultural crisis in the realm between the followers of the Solitary God and the druidic Old Faith. The elves and other fey creatures would be on the sidelines, plotting their return -- I'm thinking of something like the Sithi or Norns from Tad Williams' work.
While I had originally been for the psychic goodness, I am very much down for a Celtic/Germanic goodness.
I'm actually thinking of folding the psionic setting I had in mind into one corner of (6), as I'm starting to get ideas for a whole campaign setting.
for the Germanic/celtic idea, I think I'd want to have some way of representing rune magic and making that prominent.
I'm thinking more about the celtic/teutonic one -- here's a few campaign ideas (they're not exclusive, many could be happening simultaneously):
First, a trek through a dangerous woods that divides two kingdoms. The isolated fortress in the middle of the forest has gone silent. You are asked to investigate along your way...
The kingdoms of Eirie have been invaded by hostile outsiders -- one force is an empire of ruthless but honor bound hobgoblins. Another might be githyanki.
I ended up blending that idea into (6). Each is setting is going to be on one side of a massive 1,000 mile wide/3,000 mile high 'rock formation' on the world's main continent.