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Messages - Gilladian

#1
This is cool! Are you going to create other races? Halfling gardeners? With a magical  power over plants? They and the Tree Fae might hate each other, or be allies. Or sometimes one/ the other.
#2
I haven't worked on this much lately, but am thinking on it again. I am trying to decide a few things: some backhistory of the ancient mage war, whether or not I want any magic tech, and if there are ANY humans left alive in the region at all, or if they will only meet demihumans and humanoids.

I think my ancient past was crated by a handful of epic powered human wizards, dragons, or similar feuding. One or two turned to absolute evil, and the others banded together to destroy him/them. Eventually, they cast spells that cut this half of the world off from the rest to prevent destruction of the whole world, and then battled themselves to a standstill. So some of the archpowers are still around, just quiescent. Or not.

As far as adventures, this will be an E6 campaign, and I want to run mostly site-based small dungeons and short scenarios that are mostly stand alone.
#3
It seems to me that if the rats are technology magic, they may also be tied into law and order. Many people see technological advancement as almost wholly good, so it would also be easy to paint them as the "bringers of wonder" to all the other races. The biggest problem I see is that they might easily overpower everyone else. Ghostman's idea of making them always tied down in an almost unwinnable war is a good one. Or give them some other serious limitation - what natural resource do they need to power their devices? Some sort of energy crystal? Or maybe they only function where the Ley Lines are strong, and are thus limited in geographic spread.
#4
Here's what I've written up so far - http://vishteercampaign.pbworks.com/w/page/121021929/The%20%22Old%20Continent%22

Not much, and I did use a random generator for the Inns, but it is a start.
#5
Resources - yes, they will exist. This is a region where there should be coal, so I'm assuming a small coal-mining business, and a good local hunting and fur-trapping trade. Not sure of any other mundane resources. They raise enough grain/hunt and fish enough to feed themselves, but almost every luxury comes via ship. I'm thinking that the registered adventurers who work for the company are bringing in enough interesting stuff, either magic or raw materials or old knowledge/broken magitech to help support the economy. So yeah, both a legit way to sell found items, and a black market for stuff will be needed.
#6
Hey, Thanks for the replies! Yes, LoA, I am the lycanthropes person. We used that culture in one campaign, briefly. One PC was an exile from them, and then they visited several of their villages. It was fun!

This new location is set several hundreds of years earlier in the campaign world than that locale/era. In this time, the lycanthrope folk are still hiding, living on the fringes of the empire that is sending the settlers to this new town/island.

So, Steerspike - I like your idea of a "company town". I can see the ruler being called the "Lord Governor". I think that on the whole he's competent and an effective (if not particularly kind or generous) ruler, but he has two issues - first, he must always turn a profit for the shareholders "back home", and he's an alcoholic - not always drunk, but has times when he goes off on a bender. During those times, his underlings tend to get away with things that either line their own pockets or promote their own personal plans, whatever they may be.

No "courts of law" per se - but the military could hold investigations and "courts martial" for their men; the temple (the general religion is polytheistic and paternalistic, with a lawful sun god at the head) would maintain order amongst their members, and there'd be a court where mercantile disputes would be handled - supposedly headed by the Lord Governor, but at least some of the time really run by one or more magistrates. I'd have to have a rough idea how that worked... and this same court could probably issue some sort of "certificate" for authorized adventuring groups - and then of course, the PCs could always remain unauthorized, if they prefer.

The "home empire" that this setting feeds off of is a pretty bog-standard fantasy empire, with vaguely roman roots. At this time, it is lawful neutral, and not intolerable as a system. Eventually, it will fall into evil ways, leading to a collapse and the "future/current" campaign world that my PCs are familiar with. Whatever happens with THIS portion of the setting will end up having some effect on that time period, I hope.

As far as what happened HERE, in the past - the FIRST world-spanning Empire fell about 3,000 years ago (pardon my earlier error - I had conflated two different historical events) - it is nameless, and almost unremembered in this day. It ended with the "interregnum" during which magic failed for some unknown period of generations. When magic gradually returned, the "old world" was forgotten, and nobody even realized there were magical barriers blocking the "new world" from finding it. Just in the past 50 years, explorers from the current (third) Empire have begun exploring and discovered this large island that they don't realize is very near another continent, which is still shielded from them.

So I literally don't know what caused the interregnum, why this land was blocked off, or what's happened here in the past 3,000 years. I'm eager to put many ruins, battlefields, lost history, etc... everywhere.

I've been running campaigns that were laced with metaplot, had megavillains with complex plots of their own, etc... (we're about 2/3 through with a very odd version of PotA right now) - and I want to run something far more sandboxy, with no mega villain (not that there aren't going to be arch-baddies, but no trace of any PLOT of their creation, if you get my drift). I want my PCs in this campaign to be able to pick up or drop any thread they choose. If they get curious about the ruins "over there", I'll figure out what they are and how they fit into things. I've got tons of time to lay out some broad strokes, as it may be six months or a year before we wrap up the current campaign.

So my first goal is a good starting base, and then I'll start pushing outward, seeing who and what they're interacting with. Which, of course, may necessitate changes in the town's structure. Oh, well!
#7
I'm creating a town (a bit under 5,000 people) and I would love some creative input.

The idea is that about 40-50 years ago, a nation stumbled across an island that had previously been protected by magic from their discovery. Nobody knows (or cares) how or why; the discoverers have begun to explore, and established a base to work from. They've explored up and down the coast for miles, but this is the only spot they have so far established a footing on. Yes, I know it doesn't make an WHOLE lot of sense, but for ease of running the campaign, that's what I'm going with. Maybe later I'll decide there are a few other settlements; maybe not.

Anyway, this is a rugged frontier town in a dangerous place, with a LONG thread to safety. So there's a castle, a small army, and numerous adventurers. There's a sort of feel that most of the people here are either criminals, outlaws, runaways or people who are hiding from something; why else would they have come here? The realm they come from is civilized, controlled, moderately-high-magic, and lawful. Also very controlling and unfriendly to non-human folks.

The place they've come to was a heavily populated magical empire, a thousand years ago, which then collapsede. In the meantime, there've been many wars, and there is (apparently) no human/demihuman population remaining. So basically only "enemy" humanoids "out there".

So help me decide how the town is ruled, who the major players in the town are, and what the adventurers would find when they get there. I'm going for a sort of wild-west but medieval with moderate-magic feel. It will be run as an Epic 6th (3.5E) DnD campaign, if that matters. Races in the town should be mostly human, with a smattering of elf, half-elf, dwarf and hafling.

Thanks for any ideas! Or even just questions.
#8
Yes, it's a fairly traditional fantasy world. There should be wyverns, dragons, giant eagles, gryphons and other creatures accessible to the dwarves.
#9
Hmmm... so the interior of the canyon could be a sort of manicured and engineered paradise. With screw-irrigation pumps studding the river banks, segments of the river, or maybe side-rivers, dammed to produce lakes where fish, etc... could be farmed, and the resultant waterfalls could power great mill-wheels used to drive forges and such. Even the hills and mesas above the river could theoretically be watered to some degree. I'm thinking human tribes could live in the forest nearby, perhaps being clients of the dwarves, dependent on them in many ways. And there could be ruins of the more substantial dwarven empire everywhere. Ancient stone bridges arcing high over the canyons, providing equal access to the terraced dwellings on both sides. Any other wonders or unusual features?  Any social consequences?
#10
I didn't go into it, because it is by way of a campaign secret, but the dwarves once had two genders, but they pissed off a God, who cursed them never to bear a female child again. So their god, who could not break the curse, gave them this new way of reproducing. It happened so long ago, that even the dwarves priests only half believe it was ever true. So in their living habits, they can be pretty dwarvish. Or not.
#11
I've created a (fairly unique, I think) dwarf race for my campaign world, here: http://vishteercampaign.pbworks.com/w/page/10036267/Dwarves
Tldr: dwarves are made of stone, carved by their parent and breathed into life by dwarf priests - they're thus genderless, and don't have normal "families"; they created their clan system as an alternative way of organizing themselves.

Now, I'm wanting to build the dwarves original, oldest, "home" kingdom - in a great canyon, with a powerful river passing through it. Essentially, it is our Grand Canyon. What would this dwarven civilization look like, after having lived here for, say, 4,000 years? What would they have done to terraform the canyon to their needs? How large would their population be? What would their food sources be? They've had empires in the past, but their most recent imperial presence died out about 700 years ago, as they turned to worship of an evil god and nearly killed themselves off. They had a massive civil war (mostly taking place IN this canyon-kingdom at the heart of their empire) and have only begun to emerge again about 200 years back. So there's lots of time, and lots of turmoil, to play with.

Anyway, I'd love some suggestions, input, new ideas, etc...
#12
Sounds interesting! I'm not getting a goofy feel at all. More sinister than not, with the quarreling gods, etc...

I like your hollow world. IMC, there is something quite similar. The sun at the heart of the hollow world emits a "bitter radiance" that allows life to exist there, and which seeps into the inner layers of the Underdark (does it make it to the surface? I've never decided. Is it the source of magic? Dunno that, either.) But that sun is said to be either a prison for the evil God Aragh, (Death, War and Plague), or perhaps is the body of a missing evil Goddess. In any case, the radiance it produces is most definitely not "good". While it imbues beings with power, it also corrupts and taints all who subsist on it. Thus the core world is the home of all the most evil and deranged races in my campaign world.
#13
Thanks! Things are coming into shape for me. I have a week of vacation at the end of the month and I hope to get a few solid hours work done on the setting and outline ideas for my first adventure...

I'll post a link to whatever I get done.
#14
I've mentioned my new campaign setting here at least once - I'm still desultorily working on it, and right now I'm thinking about magic.

I want to "recolor" magic (3.5e, E6 variant, to be precise) to be elemental in nature. There are 5 elemental gods (the 5th being void/spirit), and the campaign will have a somewhat steampunkish flavor. I'm thinking that I want to reconfigure potions, for example, so that every potion effect is carried out by tiny elemetals. Healing/Cure potions are actually tiny air creatures that wash and bind and stitch wounds, scour poisons from the blood, etc... Invisibility would be granted by dozens of elementals surrounding the character and "hiding" him by bending light around his form, etc...

But I'm not sure how I want to handle magic items, and spells. Since there are elemental gods, I COULD claim that ALL magic "comes from the gods" and that the different "styles" (sorcery, wizardry, clerical) are just different ways the gods grant power to their followers/creations/dependents.

I could also give each and every magic item an accompanying elemental spirit(s) that gives it it's power(s). But that could get complex, and tiresome as well. Any ideas or suggestions?

#15
I'd love a quick, impolite review of my campaign: http://vishteercampaign.pbworks.com/w/page/10036275/FrontPage
However, it is massive (30+ years old) and I'd never expect you to read the whole thing.

Anything you want to read and comment on would be great!