The Campaign Builder's Guild

I bought 4e but I'm sticking to 3.0/3.5.  I stick mainly to the core rulebooks and it works for me and my players.  I like the fact that you can have Commoner campaigns, and campaigns focussed on skills rather than combat.  I originally agreed with you Elemental Elf, and personally I still think you were right a year ago.  

The Forever War '" Origins of Githzerai, Githyanki and Mind Flayers

[bSovereign Dragon[/b]

Empires, Civilizations and Places in Tellamunda

In D&D 3rd ed. Monster Manual II (pg 216) are rules for Tauric creatures - I just used them to create my orc/hippogriff creatures.  I can send you their stats if you like.  Whatever else you say about 3rd ed. its flexibility is brilliant.  

Empires, Civilizations and Places in Tellamunda

Orcs are a strictly non-playable race although half-orcs are allowed.  

The World of Tellamunda

As I said I based them off the Broo in Runequest, so they can pretty much interbreed with almost anything with two legs (although recently I had a game with orc/hippogriff hybrids so who knows?).  Nine times out of ten the resultant child will be orc.  Plus they will force themselves on anyone they capture (and I mean anyone) and will often eat them alive.  In a lot of ways they are like the reavers of Firefly.  They are universally loathed and capture is to be avoided at all costs.  The PCs genuinely fear the orcs of Tellamunda.  They are not just another enemy race.

As for chaotic special abilities their elemental masters have granted them Resistance 10 to Fire, Cold and Electricity.  I also give individual orcs and orc groups special abilities.  Many orcs are also lycanthropes - such as the devil swines of the Cult of the Pig, who live in the Wenwoods above Pelleon.      

Tellamunda

The Phoros Rim

"This caught my eye just because of the similarities between it and the two settings I have on the board, both with tech levels round the 18th-19th century (though the Cadaverous Earth really has more of a pastiche tech level borrowing from many eras) - cities surrounded by waste, a malevolent stretch that few enter (Slough Trough/Slaughter-lands) and/or a malignant forest (in my setting, the Tangle).

I like the idea of the alternative Carolan, it reminds me of my favorite Buffy episode where Sunnydale temporarily turns into a vampire-run town in the absence of the Slayer heh. I'll definitely keep reading."

Re-reading it, there are a lot of similarites between the Cadaverous World and Hollowrought.  I basically came up with Hollowrought as a substitute for Ravenloft and therefore used the same approx. tech levels as that classic setting.  I used Hollowrought for one campaign which saw a temporal convergence between Eda and Edar.  However I've never developed the setting since.  I think the major difference between the Cadaverous World and Hollowrought is that the former is about physical decay, while the latter is about madness and mental disintegration.  Hollowrought exists in the mind of a mad god, and that god is going slowly senile.  As its mental capacities diminish, reality breaks down.  This links in to what we talked about earlier - the Vancian 'slow winding down of time' as Edar gradually falls apart.  It is the rationalists (a philosophical position which in real life I have little time for) who are keeping things together.  The Cadaverous World is far more visceral, more 'meaty'.  It is the roleplaying equivalent of the Grand Guignol.  Two different approaches, two distinct settings but a lot of similarities.  However yours is a lot better fleshed out than mine (no pun intended).

Quote from: Steerpike[ooc]Visceral Baroque - I love it!  Though I think you may be giving me too much credit; I'm very much emulating a lot of fantasy authors, and steampunk worlds with an urban gothic/baroque feel are getting quite common these days.  Not that Cadaverous Earth is a purely steampunk setting (though it borrows a few elements from steampunk)...[/ooc]

I have'nt read that genre of literature, so I can't comment.  However, I can comment on the setting you've presented in your thread, and I thought it was genuinely breath-taking.  

Thanks for your comments, Steerpike.  I'm quite fond of the Phoros Rim too.  Your right in that I tried to create a 'real' history for Karelan encompassing economic and social movements, as well as the usual wars, catastrophes and political machinations.  I'm planning to write something about the direct consequences of the fall of Alentia in the 114-15th centuries (ie. the break-up of Ascuria and the origins of the Peninsula Wars).

A bit more background info on Nal-Toth and the Poisoned Sea.  Nal-Toth was drowned during a titanic struggle between the dragon emperor Ghyl and a usurper known to history by the rune 'Awakened Dragon'.  In an instant 'Awakened Dragon' slew the emperor and every dragon on the planet in an attempt to create a demi-omniverse which it could inhabit.  However it failed and was torn to pieces by the forces it had unleashed.  However 'Awakened Dragon' was able to subsume a failing time line to create Edar, a parallel world to Eda.  This became the basis of my Hollowrought setting.  For more information check out:

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=581043&page=3

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=581043&page=4

All the enteries marked 'Hollowrought' relate to Edar, and its a far more darker, more macabre world than Eda, so it may be more to your taste.  :)

I've never fully developed Edar, and only used it in one campaign.  Therefore I've only developed the liberocracy of Gilendi and the Menean Kingdoms of Dusk

A truly brilliant setting, Steerpike.  I think you've created a new category of fantasy roleplaying - Visceral Barroque.