Genre Poll

[Username17]

Related to the Starting Level Poll, the Genre Poll is simply how much any particular backdrop appeals to you. Descriptions follow:

Endless Winter It's May of the year 1387, and Summer is not coming. The Ice Jarls have announced that they have stolen summer and won't give it back unless and until the tribes of the Winterlands give them vast tribute. With no choices left to them, the tribes have put together all the wealth they can and sent them North under the guard of their greatest heroes. The heroes have been charged to return Summer by any means neccessary. Earth map.
Historically the players fail in this quest and Summer really doesn't come.

Mother of Dragons The year is about 2800 BC, and Marduk has slain the mother of all dragons. The remaining dragons have their power and civilization shattered, arguably beyond repair. All of Mesopotamia is falling under the sway of humanoids, and factionalization has ruined any possibility of meaningful draconic resistance. The players represent the last of the clutches laid by the great mother herself, and are the first of the wyrmlings to never see Tiamat. Their task is to carve out an existence over the next thousand years in this new and terrifying world. Earth map, such as it matters.
A campaign for Wyrmling Dragons. Special Dragon rules will be used to make different colors and flavors balanced.

The Salt is Missing The year is 1312 and the people of Klaipeda have noted that the salt just isn't coming in from the mines to the East. Two weeks have passed and the caravan has not arrived. The power of the Wends has long been broken, and the liquidation of the Prussians by the Templars has begun in earnest. Earth map.
This served as the opening to one of the longest campaigns I've ever run.

Orcish Empire The year is 960 AD Karakhanid Empire is all shiny and new and the ancient Budhist heresies are being rapidly replaced with Islam. Clashes have just begun with the jealous Samanids over the Bukhara Oasis. The Emperor's inclusionary principles of governance have gained substantial loyalty from many of the savage tribes. The PCs begin as elite trouble-shooters for the Empire, navigating political turmoil, language barriers, crime and external threats. Earth Map.
Orcs, Goblins, Wererats, etc. are encouraged.

The Looting of the Temples The year is 1310, in central Borneo. The cycles of life have been relativley undisturbed for 1000 years, but now a religious war threatens to tear everything apart. Armed columns of Muslims are marching in from the North West, only to be met by invading Animist Tribes from the North East. The locals struggle to hold on to their culture and land in the face of a war between foreigners over their corpses. The jungle is being torn asunder by the invaders, and desparate measures are called for. Earth Map.
Historically the PCs lose this war.

Collapsing Empire It's just before the Anvil of Despair (the last time I gave a damn about the Rokugan storyline). The Empire is sickening even as the Emperor does the same. Oni ravage the countryside at will, and the clans have turned upon one another in a frenzy of ambition. A dark power rises in the south and there is no heir. The government has demanded additional levies to maintain order, but the clans are drawing their own bushi together to prepare for war. Nevertheless, castoffs and misfits are being sent into the Emerald Guard, because as yet no family is willing to completely refuse a call for troops. These relatively unwanted bushi must do the tasks that noone else is willing to undertake - to move the shadow back. Rokugan Map.

Wrath of the Giants It's 2000 BC in Ur, and the East is all turmoil and madness. The Giant King, long a position of only theoretical importance, has gathered the disparate tribes into a war machine of seemingly unstoppable might. The Farsis fell to their blades in only days, and the Western empires are hanging together in attempt to avoid hanging separately. The entrails have been read and the future does not look good. What is the secret to the new military and political success of Agran A'zheb? Earth Map.

A Sinking Ship The worlds overlap to a degree, and in the space between there accumulates flotsam from all of them. Lost ships, pieces of wood, and even people drift on the sea and all of them find themselves at last at The Island. Floating at the juncture between, The Island is composed of ships lashed together, driftwood tied together, and even the occassional piece of masonry, its towers extend 700 meters into the sky and trail at least as far under the water. From the halls and doors of The Island you can get anywhere, and trade from all over flourishes. But lately the portents have been ill. Great quakes have travelled through the halls, and the Southern Tower fell into the sea. Each of the factions has at least one answer as to what is going on, and open conflict seems the sure result. Modified Sygil Map.

Merchants of Venice The Renaissance is well under way in Venice and new power structures are emerging. The PCs are benefitting greatly as they are the trusted retainers of the newly powerful daCanal merchant family. Specializing in transportation, the daCanals wield wealth and power to rival the Duke's. But the family's possition is not without new dangers. Other merchant families are similarly rocketting to success and neither the aristocrats nor the clergy are especially comfortable with temporal authority being wielded by commoners.

Was Constantinople It's 1454 and the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans is less than a year behind. Old wounds flare up around the new injuries, and groups long suppressed by the Byzantines renew their struggles under the as yet untested regime. Sultan Mehmed II is soon going to enter his twentyfourth year, and Constantinople is being retrofitted as the capitol of his empire. But as the shattered remains of the war are cleared away, what wounds are being bared again to the light of day in this ancient Helenistic city? Earth Map.

It Ends in Darkness The Fourth World is at an end. Ah Kinchil has been slain at the hands of a mysterious assassin, and the sun does not rise. The night grows long, and the man-hungry jaguars prowl the sickening jungles around Teotihuacan. Whispers of madness and despair haunt the dreams of those who dare to sleep and even the light of flames is beginning to dim. A Fifth World must be born somehow, but the wisest of the sages have a tendency to be eviscerated. Earth Map.

-Username17

[MrWaeseL]

Why are most of the campaigns set in/on historical earth?

It ends in darkness looks really cool, though.

[Carcharoth]

Certainly makes mapping easy, and provides just enough historical context without being tied to the preconceptions and sacred cows of other campaign settings.

Oh, and It Ends in Darkness does look really cool.

[Boulie_98]

Okay despite not playing I totally voted since hey I'm going to read it. And since there were eleven entries and eleven ratings I ordered them all according to preference.

[Username17]

Why are most of the campaigns set in/on historical earth?

several reasons:

[*] Earth has the most detailed and realistic map of any campaign world ever conceived.

[*] Finding source material for Earth is extremely easy.

[*] All players are at least somewhat familiar with the Earth setting.

But the big one is:

[*] All folklore ties in to Earth in some way. The position of a Bunyip or a Knocker in Earth Legends is already defined, as are the cultural reactions to those creatures.

And yet, while Earth certainly has every advantage Eberron or Faerun have only more so, it also has another advantage they can't match. Earth is not predefined in terms of Game Mechanics. The FRCS explicitly has a bunch of Epic level dudes running around in it, which severely limits what adventures you can and can't do. On the other hand, Charlemagne or King Richard could be any level at all, meaning that the PCs could be placed into any relationship to major historical badasses without contradicting source material.

-Username17

[Wrenfield]

Frank, will you be willing to take specific FRCS, Eberron, and Greyhawk flavored game mechanics and allow them to be converted in name and concept (while still retaining the stat-based mechanics) to match your earth campaign culture?

I figured that between the players and you, certain campaign-specific PrC's, feats, spells, gear, etc. could be re-worked without them being to clumsy in name or looks on character sheets.

Sorry for the run-on sentences above ...

(P.S. I placed votes in both polls)

[Username17]

Frank, will you be willing to take specific FRCS, Eberron, and Greyhawk flavored game mechanics and allow them to be converted in name and concept (while still retaining the stat-based mechanics) to match your earth campaign culture?

In general? Sure.

In specific? It depends.

There are a number of FRCS mechanics that need to die. Spellfire, for instance, needs to have not hppened. OTOH, I honestly don't have a problem with most of the "Regional Feats", and the idea of taking a feat like "Mercantile Background" at first level is probably what most feats should represent.

The idea of feats as bonuses or special combat manuvers needs to be rethought from he ground up. You really don't get many of them, so a Feat should represent some gestalt life-stage of your character. Fighter selectable class features, on the other hand, should just look like the Tactical feats. When you get one, it should be a Fighting Style that you can use.

But that's a separate rambling diatribe, as of this time it looks like the idea is minimally altered D&D, which means that if people want to take feats like Improved Shield Bash they can.

-Username17

[dbb]

Voted!

Now that I'm finally more or less done with the hell that is moving -- an experience that almost makes me want to give away everything I own and sleep on a cot in a bare room -- I have what seems like a whole ocean of free time, and am quite jazzed to see what the house rules and stuff for whatever it is we end up doing look like.

--d.

[RandomCasualty]

1118251001[/unixtime]]
And yet, while Earth certainly has every advantage Eberron or Faerun have only more so, it also has another advantage they can't match. Earth is not predefined in terms of Game Mechanics. The FRCS explicitly has a bunch of Epic level dudes running around in it, which severely limits what adventures you can and can't do. On the other hand, Charlemagne or King Richard could be any level at all, meaning that the PCs could be placed into any relationship to major historical badasses without contradicting source material.

The main problem I'd imagine that you'd have with Earth is how it would deal with magic, since you're basically dealing with a setting which was not built to handle spellcasters.

[Username17]

The main problem I'd imagine that you'd have with Earth is how it would deal with magic, since you're basically dealing with a setting which was not built to handle spellcasters.

True. But that is the case with every published setting I've ever seen. FRCS, for instance, would last about a day before half the Epic Level badasses killed the other half. The logic of the D&D system is that the attacker wins, stalemates therefore do not happen. Even if attacking an enemy would leave you horribly weakened in some illdefined fashion, the fact is that is a better result than waiting for them to attack you.

Almost every published race is a human charicature with pointy ears, and almost every published setting is just an idealized and poorly researched Earh culture with more anachronisms than a Where's Waldo book. I've yet to see any setting that would actually survive as written under the strain of their own game mechanical abilities.

-Username17

[virgil]

A campaign for Wyrmling Dragons. Special Dragon rules will be used to make different colors and flavors balanced.

I know this is old, but I was curious as to whether notes or other rough guidelines were mentioned for how this would work?

[Dogbert]

It Ends In Darkness... because of course.

[Stahlseele]

It Ends in Darkness . . . seconded.
I prefer scifi over fantasy, that's why <.<

[JigokuBosatsu]

Is this a record for necro ?

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, was going to say it's the most impressive necro-ing I've yet seen.

Also noteworthy in that if you ignore the dates, it looks exactly the sort of post that could be made today. Excepting the lack of the phrase "Because obviously".

[Jason]

EW - 4/10
MoD - 5/10
FSiM - 7/10
OE - 3/10
TLotT - 6/10
CE - 7/10
WotG - 7/10
ASS - 7/10
MoV - 8/10
WC - 6/10
IEID - 8/10

All of those are purely subjective and personal scores, of course. All of them bear potential for great stories, but I simply like the theme and mechanical solutions they provoke of some of the options more than others.

[Yesterday's Hero]

Orcish Empire
Collapsing Empire
A Sinking Ship

Not necessarily in that order. The plot of It Ends in darkness is as cool as these ones, but I don't really fancy Mesoamerican culture for some reason.

[OgreBattle]

Sinking Ship, I want to do a similar setting and I like the salvaging/sailing/crew aspect

Endless Winter- strong easy to grasp premise with clear threats (dont freeze, get food) and also wonder (what else did the blizzard blow in?)

Mother of Dragons sounds neat to play as dragons.

[erik]

I feel like Mother of Dragons will involve a lot of playing as dragons who disguise themselves as humanoids.


Disguised as different race: -2 Disguise Check Modifier