The Campaign Builder's Guild

Do you mind PMing me an instant invite?

Nevermind. Figured it out.

Eh I don't know how I feel about Reddit. I don't like the idea of being open to everyone like that. I know this site is on its legs and all, but I like how cozy it is. I like the smallness of this community. I never want to be on another format with thousands of subscribers.

Quote from: Hoers
If you have access to a PS4, you should really check out Bloodborne for some inspiration.

Back at College I had a roommate who had a PS4, and I began playing. Unfortunately it was a couple of weeks before Graduation so I wasn't able to get my head around the games system. But yeah, I'm definitely looking into it.

Alright, I fixed something, so let's see if it works for you guys now.

Changed them to links. If that doesn't work let me know.

I have made a couple of changes to the setting. #1 is that the mists are no longer there, operating on Batman logic of "Why the hell does anyone in their right mind keep living in Gotham? Eh, economy.... or something..." #2 is that the city is no longer flavored along "Grimdark/Eldritch Horror's 1940's New York", instead I have new ideas.

I began reading Frank Reade Dime novels, and I adore his vision of the future. I began doing more research on early retrofuturism, and I found these little gems.
[spoiler][/spoiler] [spoiler]https://untappedcities-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/future-ny-II.jpg[/spoiler] I immediately conjured images of a steampunk super city that reallized the early age of discoveries ideals.... And then immediately thought of Cainsworth, and then imagined that city crumbling under the weight of a magical apocalypse that would change it's fate forever.
Problem is, I'm just not into New York as a place for inspiration, and I coudn't keep going. But I have always been fascinated by New Orleans, and I love studying about it's history, way more so than New York. I had this image in my head of an Alternate History New Orleans that took more Art Nouveau influences from Paris, and then had become the center for a technological boom and revolution.

So Imagine this....
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Mixed with a little of this...
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Then a bunch of dumb occultists came along, unleashed mystical forces and horrors that they should have left well enough alone, and it turned into something like this...
[spoiler][/spoiler]
And then a few decades later, the Roaring Twenties happen, and the Campaign begins!

This was an early Map I made for the setting, but it felt uninspired...
[spoiler]https://www.cartographersguild.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=104702&d=1519172951[/url[/spoiler]

Then I began thinking about how interesting it would be if the city was laid out on a spiral, rather than a grid or a bunch of streets. Then I thought about Mad Geniuses like Nicola Tesla, the guy from Pi (Daren Arronofsky), and more Importantly Jack Parsons the scientist who figured out the correct rocket fuel for NASA, and was an Occultist who believed he was the Antichrist. So I wrote this out:
[ic]"The city of Cainsworth is laid out in a spiral almost like an invertebrates shell. Beginning in the center of the city. No one knows quite why the city is arranged in such a bizarre manner, but many theories abound. Many think that the reason why the city was laid out this way was to act as some sort of giant conjurers circle for a cabal of sorcerers, and that is why there is so much mystical activity within Cainsworth. Other's believe that the cities planner, Otto Varisfield, was a maniacal mathematical mad-man obsessed with the Golden Ratio, and Spirals. While no one can confirm this, many people speculate that Varisfield was the leader of a Numerology cult that believed in unlocking the secrets of the greater mysteries through advanced mathematics or something like that. No proof of the Eternal Spiral cult exists, but many people can point to the eccentricities of Varisfields writing, and how there was some sort of Occult activity within the inner circle of Early Cainsworth's upper elite."
[/ic]
Then I drew this out.
[spoiler][url=https://www.cartographersguild.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=109056&d=1533019829]https://www.cartographersguild.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=109056&d=1533019829[/spoiler]

I'm a huge fan of Steerpikes Hex campaign setting, such as his amazing use of bizarre imagery, and unique culture of eldritch weirdness. But I especially love the map that he's been working, so with I asked for his blessing:
[spoiler]

Quote from: LoA
Would you have a problem if I started making a map for Cainsworth in a similar style to this?

Quote from: Steerpike
Not at all! You should!

Some tips that worked for me when drawing the big map of the whole city:

- Get pens that work for you (this doens't mean expensive).
- Be patient and be OK with throwing out mistakes.
- Don't sketch, it'll take forever. Just get good at drawing in pen.
- Work on it in small amounts regularly.
- Assemble it as you go so you can manage space.
- Plan the city out in advance so you know what you need to draw.

[/spoiler]

So I'm planning out all of the districts, and the sewers so that I can start drawing out Interesting Landmarks, buildings, places of interest, etc, etc.

And that's where I'm at right now.

Alright, well I just graduated with a GA Bachelors of Graphic Design on Monday. Somehow that doesn't feel as big a deal as I was hoping it would be.

Genial Jack is a setting unto himself. Good work as always!

Thanks, I began working on it. I have a couple of questions though.

#1. Do you draw your buildings piece by piece on a large scale, or do you draw everything on a piece of paper?

#2. What artist inspired the way you draw buildings?

Would you have a problem if I started making a map for Cainsworth in a similar style to this?

Quote from: Steerpike

I want to live in this world now. no matter how dangerous it is. The skulls are inspired.

Quote from: sparkletwist

Quote from: LoAYou know the Dnd System is surprisingly capable of running a Magical Girl campaign!

I'm not sure if the things emphasized by D&D are really the kinds of things that are usually emphasized in the magical girl genre, so you may be running into some conceptual clashes here. Some examples:

- The six D&D stats don't include things like willpower, spirit, love, and other genre-important things. The D&D way of tying one's will to one's "Wisdom" doesn't really work well for an airhead like Usagi, and Charisma would probably be something of a god-stat. On the other hand, stats like Strength and Dexterity don't have a whole lot of meaning because magical girls are always supernaturally strong and nimble, and if they have greater abilities, it's usually due to greater strength of will or the power of love or something.

- Some stats and skills don't have a lot of relevance. There's usually the "smart one" (e.g., Mizuno Ami, Yukishiro Honoka) who might have a high Intelligence stat and a lot of knowledge skills, but that's more a character trait that one either has or not rather than something numeric. The same goes for (non-transformed) athletic prowess, social charm, and other abilities that magical girls tend to show; these tend to apply more when they aren't transformed. On the other hand, skills like Survival and Appraise just don't come up, and I don't even know how to approach Use Magic Device.

- Similarly, things like hit points and spell slots don't really have a lot of relevance to magical girls. Some powers may have to be activated by beating the enemy down or are only good once per transformation, but there's nothing like spell preparation. As for hit points, magical girls can generally take quite a beating, and they only really lose if they give up, which is more about mental fortitude than physical. And of course an inspiring speech from the team's leader about how she's never giving up can get the team back up to full health again.

- D&D combat doesn't really look anything like magical girl combat. D&D combat is pretty quick and brutal, usually ending with someone getting hit with a save-or-lose or just getting ganked with a power attack for a ton of damage. On the other hand, magical girl combat tends to build up, with frequent interruptions in which the hero or villain will monologue about their views or intentions and the other side obligingly listens attentively. The flow of lots of minor attacks leading to the super power beam of ultimate justice that ultimately brings the win is more like Exalted 3 than anything D&D does.

- On a related note, D&D style tactical positioning seems a lot less important for magical girls and might just be weighing the system down. Anything that causes them to get hit and not get thrown back 20 feet doesn't really feel right, battlefield control isn't really a thing (except for plot-device magical barriers) and D&D doesn't handle vertical movement well while magical girls are always jumping high into the air with superhuman grace.

- Magical girls are often all about their team attacks. The Precure Marble Screw comes to mind, but there are plenty of other examples as well. D&D is kind of bad at this; the only thing that comes close are PF's teamwork feats and those are lackluster and not really the same thing. D&D is more about giving each player their individual turn and doesn't really handle these sorts of abilities.

Sorry I should have clarified my intentions. If I wanted to run a pure, blue and true campaign based around Sentai styled Mahou Shoujo anime (Sailor Moon) I would just use FATE. The main inspiration was Princess: The Hopeful, a fan-made Worlds of Darkness supplement that added magical girls to the WoD universe. Obviously, watching Madoka Magica later after that cemented the idea of Magical Girls battling eldritch horrors theme I've got going on in my head. The main idea I've kind of latched onto is the idea of taking the Magical Girl genre, and translating it into a DnD setting.

Quote from: sparkletwist

Quote from: LoAWhat do i do for a setting?

Option #4: Magic Knight Rayearth-style, where there are a group of ordinary school-age girls who get pulled into the 'fantasy realm' in order to fight the evil there. They can be stuck there if you want to focus on the fantasy adventure (which is how MKR itself did it) or they can go back and forth if you want to do like a lot of other magical girl stories and give them normal teenage girl problems as well.

The problem with MKR is that it's very Genre Kitchen Sinky. As above stated, my idea is to make a DnD setting with some Magical Girl flavor, but is still dnd at it's core. If i'm going to make MKR, than just using Eberron is probably better than making a fantasy world from scratch.

Especially if you're a guy.

But seriously, I just came back from a Madoka Magica binge a week ago or so, and I have three sisters who all love Sailor Moon. So I began digging into the "Mahou Shoujo" genre, and I found that the genre is surprisingly encompassing and dynamic. You have Knightly maidens, spellcasters, magical singers, etc, etc. Then I thought "You know the Dnd System is surprisingly capable of running a Magical Girl campaign! I wanna make a dungeon crawl where a bunch of young woman fight illithids with miniskirts and sparkle swords!"

Now my problem. What do i do for a setting?

Option #1: Make a modern setting where the magical girls are called forth to protect the world from extraplanar threats, such as Illithids, Aboleths, Demon invasions, etc, etc, etc.

Option #2: An Eberron campaign. Not even joking. Same basic premise as the above. But it's Eberron. More racial options, you don't have to fidget with the system too much to make it work out. Plus Eberron has a million possible places were the Magical Girls could come from. The Dragonmarks, Planar energies, Cosmic guardians, etc, etc.

Option #3: Take Cainsworth, and still make it a dark and dreary dieselpunk city with supernatural horrors and stuff, but the Magical Girls are called by the powers of light and goodness to combat the criminality and horrors in this city. Like if the Sailor Scouts were charged with protecting Gotham instead of Batman.

Quote from: Hoers
I wonder what the Hatfright would be? A reanimated set of clothing haunted by its dead owner? A sinister spirit that inhabits hats? A mind flayer who is so preoccupied with showing off its hat collection that it takes no actions?

The possibilities are endless!

I imagine an Illithid shaped like a hat that tricks it's owners into wearing it, and then eats it's brains.

A Black Willow Unicorn sounds amazing. I imagine a horrific black Giraffe with a large horn on it's head

I'm still working on the map. I was inspired by Steerpikes Hex Map, so I'm making neighborhood maps like his, but I'm using these designs as inspiration for what the buildings are going to look like.

As for races, I was just tempted to have this be human only, but I had some interesting ideas. Androids, Dhampirs were in the first article, and I'm thinking a race of genetically enhanced Gecko's who were bred by mad scientists in order to act as brainless drones, but it didn't work. And to add to that, I was thinking about adding creatures called Moureaus, animals and or genetic hybrids imbued with sentience, whether by witchcraft, or science.