The Campaign Builder's Guild

It's been over a year since I worked on my capaign setting, life decided it wanted me to take a hefty beating for some percieved slight. In addition to life deciding it hates me, I had some military training to complete, we had a new baby born in December, and my wife underwent (relatively) simple brain surgery from which she recovered amazingly. Also... the artist I hired took the money and ran. Thankfully I have some of the artwork he created and was not silly enough to pay him in full up front.

All in all, time for me to dig back into Kaliir and make something of it!

Everyone thinks of magical items, buildings, or devastating spells when they think of the creations of wizards. What about that which any man and woman together can create? What of a misguided child?

[ic=Fraedhilvar - Setting: Terra by khyron1144]
Fraedhilvar – The Mad Mage

Fraedhilvar is one of the most deadly, and mad, creatures known to roam the world of Terra. He is said to be the bastard son of the current Archchancellor of the Great University, Frater Gauge. When he was old enough to understand who his father was, Fraed journeyed to Arcanum to become the Archchancellor's apprentice.

Fraed was confident that his blood ties would be enough to grant him a prestigious position alongside his father. His initial application was accepted with all the pomp and circumstance of anyone else wishing to attend the academy, however, and it wasn't until a few years of training that he actually got the chance to meet his father. The meeting was disastrous for Fraed. Not only did he not achieve his dream, but his father refused to acknowledge that he could have ever had any children, much less a mundane runt such as Fraed. The young man's mind could not handle the complete disregard for everything he held to be true and he was ejected from the University a gibbering, incoherent mess.  

Since his disastrous application to the Great University, Fraed was consumed with learning enough about all facets of magic to prove himself worthy of his father's attention. Over the years, his fractured conscious allowed him to become a master of many schools of the arcane, especially those considered off limits to all but the wisest of mages. Fraed has conjured and made pacts with all manner of extraplanar creatures- his many personalities allowing him to easily circumvent and alignment detections they may employ. An angelic being sees Fraed as the purest of souls; perfectly able to handle holy powers in the wisest of manners. Demonic forces see him as the truest of evils in the universe and grant him their knowledge content in the fact that he will one day be able to repay their generosity tenfold.

The downside to Fraed's unique mind is that after decades of wandering, he has lost all track of who he really is. The mage's desire to join his father's side slowly warped into a need for revenge. In his mind, it was the world that spurned him, not just his father, and he would avenge himself upon it all. Under normal circumstances, anyone meeting Fraed would have to contend with any number of personalities. When the mad mage is in dire peril, a singular focus unites all of Fraed's personalities into a magical force so devastating that nothing can survive the ensuing onslaught.

Fortunately for the denizens of Terra, Fraed tends to wander all the planes of existence in a never ending search for magical knowledge. Should he ever focus enough of his mind to remember his deepest desires, the Great University would be in dire straits indeed. As things stand, the University is no more aware of Fraed than a fly is the web into which it is flying.
[/ic]

I hear that. Hecate's Forge was born from my love of Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms.

Wow, my first badge!

Thanks khyron! It's very gratifying to know that I created something that fits so well in someone else's world that they added it to the main thread. I'm glad you think I captured the essence of Arcanum!

-Stryker

Congrats, Humabout!

You can take the whole writeup from here if you like. I cleaned it up as best I could, I just felt that the original contest entry lacked completeness.

I decided that to continue my contest entry from last month would be a little on the easy side and in the interest of brushing up my writing skills I should write about something new. However, having already written a contest entry for it, and not wanting the words to be orphaned and alone, I decided to post them here after some revision thanks to not having a word limit.

This concept grew immensely to the point that I think I've started a new homebrew from it. At the very least it would make a nice module that can easily be placed in any number of fantasy worlds so I think I'll work on that next.

Currently this still falls within the contest guidelines in that it had to be written for a setting other than my own setting. I chose Terra by khyron1144 hence the references to Terra, Arcanum, and the Great University.

[ic=Hecate's Forge]

Deep below to earth of Arcanum lies the stasis-sealed tower housing Hecate's Forge- the greatest achievement and final blunder of the magical item craftsman Rastilbaum. Rastilbaum, a human mage of no small power, created the forge as a set of tools, linked to myriad planes of existence, in order to craft artifacts the likes of which mortals have never seen. Driven from the Great University by his fellow wizards for his highly dangerous experiments, Rastilbaum crafted the forge in his tower in the wilds of Arcanum.

Rastilbaum dabbled in most areas of the arcane, but took a very keen interest in imbuing items with magical properties; specifically the raw energies of other planes of existence. The old mage spent decades dedicated to perfecting the art of crafting magical items and the methods through which to do so. He eventually devised the idea of the forge as the greatest magical workshop ever known.

The fires of Hecate's Forge were fed directly from the elemental plane of fire and a magical bellows tied to the plane of air. A pocket connected to the plane of earth gave the craftsman immediate access to all manner of metals from the plane of earth and once forged those metals could be quenched in a tub that continually refilled itself from the plane of water. Other tools maintained permanent links to other planes, such as the celestial realm or the abyss and myriad others in order to infuse items with properties of those planes. It was all in all the greatest magical item workshop in existence, and ultimately one of the most ill-advised creations in the history of magical study.

Nobody knows what exactly went awry, but likewise nobody doubts that a disaster was inevitable. With so many portals open to so many planes, there were just too many things that could go wrong. Despite all of Rastilbaum's precautions the tower was torn apart by the multitude of energies contained within the forge. When word reached the Great University, a group was assembled and dispatched to assess the area of the magical disaster and recover anything important from the site.

When outriders from the Great University arrived the tower had somehow managed pulled itself back together into a warped parody of what it once was. The structure itself appears to be constantly in flux, parts burning while completely covered in ice, spires crumbling in to mud flows only to sprout again as enormous horned claws. Gibbering murmurs, divine hymns, and demonic laughter all seemed to be issuing from the depths of the structure simultaneously, interspersed with screams of pain and the roars of unknown beasts.

The few mages the Great University sent inside to investigate were never heard from again. The leader of the group, in a moment of cowardice, decided that "out of sight, out of mind" would be the best course of action. The tower itself was sealed with powerful stasis spells then teleported miles below the surface to prevent the roiling planar energies that continually reshaped the outward appearance of the structure from spilling into the surrounding landscape. The same spells that lock the outside of the tower in one moment in time force time within the walls to move at a highly accelerated rate. For every day that passes outside the walls, a year lapses within.
The inside of the tower maintains it original appearance despite the outer facade of planar warping. The resemblance ends when one ventures through any doorway, ascends any staircase, or gazes out any window. When the tower was torn apart and subsequently reassembled itself, each link to a plane became a gateway to a vast, but finite, demi-planes sheared from wherever the original link connected. Through these portals, the displaced denizens of the planes make war on each other, each faction vying for control of Hecate's Forge at the heart of the tower.

Some of the factions hope to use the forge as a means to reconnect the severed territories to their original planes of existence. Others seek the great workshop to arm themselves with the power to shatter the stasis barriers and wreak havoc upon Terra. For almost 16 millennia, the factions have fought for control of the Forge Worlds, yet none have ever managed to hold power for long enough to see their plans to fruition. Those that might take the forge for themselves find that the soul of Rastilbaum was fused with the device and in his time-tempered madness he lashes out sooner or later at any that seek to control his creation. It is this constant strife that truly separates the Forge Worlds from the rest of Terra, not the woefully inadequate stasis wards.

The people of Terra go about their lives. None of them, from the weakest beggar to the mightiest archmage know of the catastrophic hazard waiting to be unleashed in the depths below Arcanum. Should the wards ever be breached, countless planar creatures would pour forth into the world and the flames of war would destroy everything in their wake.

[/ic]

Quote from: Nomadic

Quote from: Elemental Elf
Real time combat is a pipe dream due to latency but I hope they make the game feel less turn based than other MMOs.

Maybe, depends on how it's done. There are actually a couple real time multiplayer things like that (m&b multiplayer for example). The big limit is in how many players you can handle in an instance at once without slowing things down. I've seen it successfully done with up to 128 people in one area but it requires serious optimization. Who knows though, as technology marches on the pipe dream may become more and more of a reality.

Check out TERA Online as an example here. Yes, you still have your hotkey abilities, but those abilities have to be aimed. I play a lancer tank, for instance. I need to block with my shield to prevent damage, and as expected I can block only frontal attacks in such a manner. Also, if I want to stab with my lance or use any other ability, I have to drop my shield in order to do so. Archers need to aim, healers need to aim. At first, I thought it would be a huge mess, but it's actually fun, and I mean fun in the way that I can ignore the HIGHLY forgettable quests which is a huge leap considering how invested I get in story (story was why I could forgive SWTOR on their genre-standard combat execution.)

Class systems tend to exist in games like this more as a result of the player base and not so much the developers just copying a tried and true system. When you leave the options wide open, you let players take the risk of having an underdeveloped character into their own hands. If they don't meet the standards of the players around them, group content is going to be difficult to tackle. Not to beat a dead horse, but World of Warcraft is a prime example of this. If you didn't conform to specific talent sets, you weren't "on par" with others of your class and far less likely to get invited back to a group. Blizzard did one major revamp of talent trees for Cataclysm to allow more freedom to the players while ensuring characters retained their core skill sets. With Mists of Pandaria they are revamping talent trees yet again to make them less important in the characters prime role.

Breaking with traditional MMO fare, as Nomadic pointed out, is finally what it's all about. We had a long stretch there of forgettable MMO design based of the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The smart developers knew it wouldn't work and threw their assets at something new. SWTOR gave us STORY, lots of it, and delivered it in a meaningful and memorable way. Guild Wars 2 is doing away with the traditional quest structure and holy class trinity (tank/healer/dps.) TERA gives us actual combat rather than mindless button-spamming.

I sincerely hope the folks at ZeniMax Online are taking a good hard look at whats on the horizon rather that whats "tried and true." Elder Scrolls is an awesome IP and I'd hate to see it's popularity dwindle due to a poor MMO offering.

[ic=Hecate's Forge]
Hecate's Forge refers to a lone, sealed tower buried deep below the land of Arcanum. At one point, the tower rested on the surface of the world and housed the dwelling and laboratory of a wizard named Rastilbaum. Rastilbaum dabbled in most areas of the arcane, but took a very keen interest in imbuing items with magical properties; specifically the raw energies of other planes of existence. The old mage spent decades dedicated to perfecting the art of crafting magical items and the methods through which to do so. He eventually devised Hecate's Forge- a workshop with connections to the inner planes.

The fires of Hecate's Forge were fed directly from the elemental plane of fire and a magical bellows tied to the plane of air. A pocket connected to the plane of earth gave the craftsman immediate access to all manner of metals from the plane of earth and once forged those metals could be quenched in a tub that continually refilled itself from the plane of water. Other tools maintained permanent links to other planes, such as the celestial realm or the abyss and myriad others in order to infuse items with properties of those planes. It was all in all the greatest magical item workshop in existence, and ultimately the most dangerous to the craftsman.
Nobody knows what exactly went awry, but likewise nobody doubts that a disaster was inevitable. With so many portals open to so many planes, there were just too many things that could go wrong. Despite all of Rastilbaum's precautions the tower was torn apart by the multitude of energies contained within the forge. When word reached the Great University, a group was assembled and dispatched to assess the area of the magical disaster and recover anything important from the site.

When outriders from the Great University arrived the tower had somehow managed pulled itself back together into a warped parody of what it once was. The structure itself appears to be constantly in flux, parts burning while completely covered in ice, spires crumbling in to mud flows only to sprout again as enormous horned claws. Gurgling murmurs, divine hymns, and demonic laughter all seemed to be issuing from the depths of the structure simultaneously. The few who dared enter were never seen or heard from again and the tower was sealed and transported deep underground- not only to prevent people from going in but also to imprison whatever lurked within.
[/ic]

Created for khyron1144's Terra setting.

I'll jump in on this one!

Ok, that makes good sense since most of the prestige classes I was thinking of were specific to certain peoples and factions. I'm still working out how the mechanics of the runectar system work, but I do know  want it to be unique and compelling because it is the centerpiece of the setting. The idea of using the Use Magic Device skill like you described is how we played bits and pieces of this setting years ago and is perfectly viable but it lacks the "this is awesome!" component I'm searching for.

So while I flesh out my campaign setting slowly but surely, I'm beginning to wonder about classes. Since runectar does away with magic in the traditional sense, I either need a way to readily convert Pathfinder's magic system into an item-based system or make all of my classes from scratch. I'm thinking of a hybrid between the two where I rewrite core classes that have magical abilities to fit the world. This isn't my major decision point, however...

I'm at the point where I am writing down my classes and I begin to wonder, should I go with few main classes and a lot of prestige options or a lot of core classes with fewer prestige options? I want the player to have plenty of options and use the classes as a core building block that gives them the freedom to branch out without having to worry as much about choosing skills for the sake of maximizing that specific role. Maybe this is more a function of feats and skills and I don't need a lot of prestige classes if any?

It sounds similar to the way magic works in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. Magic is it's own language, though knowing the words alone is not enough to achieve what the caster desires and can have catastrophic consequences if done incorrectly. Words are combined into phrases for different end results.

On the subject of elements, you mentioned wanting a "spirit" type of element. Have you considered using "Life" and "Death" in place of spirit? That solves your logic leap of earth = tree; it would be earth+life = tree. Of course it may need to be more complicated than that, earth+life could easily be rock golem, flower or giant venus flytrap. That would fall more into the mechanics of it all, though. It reminds me of the game Alchemy in which you start with 4 basic elements, combine those to make new elements which are then combined to make more, etc.

I had to finish the last 2 books of the Sage of Shadowdale trilogy before I could start Children of the Sun and Moon. I couldn't even put it down to go to bed at a sane time last night. I can't wait for Legacy of Moon and Fire!

I was trying not to spend more than 250 on the initial images. That's 2 characters per image, 4 images, so 8 characters total. For a full color character of the quality i need, it seems that most freelance artists charge anywhere from $50 - $80 for a single character commission. Even at the low end of the spectrum that's $400, and those are prices for private commissions, not commercial work for publishing.

Most of the artists that responded didn't take the time to actually read what I needed, they saw a job offer post and immediately sent me a note with a link to their portfolio and pricing. I'm still getting notes and responses to the post even though I already thanked everyone and let them know I found what I was looking for.

Paul was one of the few artists that took the time to read and understand what I was asking for. Knowing that I don't have tons of funding for the initial artwork I need until the kickstarter, he was still willing to do the initial pieces understanding the scope of the project and that I will need more art later on.