The Campaign Builder's Guild

Thanks for the input, I always value constructive criticism as a way to improve my work.  Anyway I wanted to respond to some of your comments so you can see where I'm coming from.  As far as the amount of mana points per day go, the way I did it was this.  The base number of mana points per day for each class came straight out of the Unearthed Arcana rules for spell points per day.  For wizards and sorcerers, they got an extra 10% to make up for the fact that they have to spend gold or EXP to bond with elemental mana sites.  The amount of mana they get per day automatically is half that number (the number to the left of the parentheses).  The total amount they can have (including elementally bonded mana) is inside the parentheses.  So if you add in the the mana they can have bonded, sorcerers have the most mana points of anyone, which is as it should be, since they could cast the most spells per day under the vancian system.  Wizards would have had the same amount as clerics and druids, but the extra 10% gives them a slight edge.

I can see where you're coming from about the alignments for nations, however, the alignments listed are more of the prevailing attitudes of the current government than rules for the great unwashed, I guess that should have been more clear.

The death by massive damage rule was removed because at very high levels (at least in the games I've played in) it turns combat into a high stakes game of russian roulette.  Basically, whoever rolls a 1 on their save first is dead.

The bonus XP for roleplaying is usually only small amounts, but I've found it helps get people more interested in staying in character and giving better descriptions of their characters.

The facing rules were instituted for realism.  It just never made much sense to me that you could use a shield to block a sword swing from someone behind you.  I tried to streamline them as much as possible, but if they get too clunky I'll just drop them.

Again, thanks for the helpful comments, and I hope this explains where I was coming from with some of my changes.

Well, after about 8 months of on-and-off work, my homebrew campaign setting, Everlyn, is nearing the point where I'd feel comfortable running a game in it.  It will continue to have more material added as time goes on, but I still feel a sense of great accomplishment.  Anway, I'm posting here hoping to get some constructive criticism about the world and how I might improve it.  Some changes are for flavor reasons, others are for balance reasons.  The information on the setting can be found here:

http://everlyn.wikispaces.com/

Thanks,
MD

Hey Everybody, I'm new to the boards and thought I'd introduce myself.

Gaming systems you use
D&D 3.5, Shadowrun occasionally

General gaming history
I've played D&D for the last 6 or 7 years (I can't remember exactly) both as a player and a DM.

Personal likes and dislikes
Likes: Gaming (PnP and computer), bowling, rollerblading, reading (Sci-Fi and fantasy), Travel
Dislikes: stupidity, heavy traffic, and DM's who are out to get their players

Strengths and weaknesses in game design
I'm not really sure what they are, thats part of the reason I came, to get some feedback.

What published settings have you used/do you like?
I've played games in greyhawk, faerun, and everlyn, as well as some DM's homebrew settings.  I like faerun the best.

Major influences on your world-building
The mana concept in my game was inspired by Magic: The Gathering as a replacement to vancian casting (which I'm not overly fond of).  Other things were inspired by real-life cultures or other popular fantasy.