The Campaign Builder's Guild

This is awesome and definitely useful for those of us with no artistic talent at all.

That's a really good concept. I'm not sure which I like better.

It helps out alot in some very good respects however. For example, I have one day every three years that's a giant fesitval/market day because this...odd...caravan comes down the road from the North. Thing is, there is no towns or cities up there. No one knows, no one asks questsions. No one stays behind from the caravan, no one leaves with it. I had planned for it to be a crazed place filled with all sorts of strange people that are absolutely not from this world.

On another note, all of the gods for this world have come from somewhere else. Two have come from past campaign settings of mine, one was there from long ago, and two twins come from another planet's pantheon. Essentially many aspects of this city and world do not even belong on the plane it is located on. I'm going with the idea that gods aren't truly immortal. yes they do not age or die easily, but they can be killed. They also walk the earth and are not omnicient. They are simply very, very powerful beings. I hope, and expect, that some players will become gods in their own rights. In this way, when they start anew they can even be clerics to their own former characters or some such.

This thread is brilliant...so...so many ideas for screwing with PC's. Man and here I was thinking I was clever in simply throwing in a few betrayal tropes here and there to keep them on edge...at least none of those entailed a gruesome monster

I use Wetpaint but..that was just because it was better than whatever it was I started with. No idea what that is now. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to bring it over into the CBG wiki or not. I have no coding, format or design ability what so ever so making my wiki look nice and pretty is harder than it should be -_-

Update: Added one of my other favorite groups: The Nobleborn. I'd love to be a player in a game focused on this faction, even though it will likely never happen. Too bad both games I'm Dming in the city at the moment are far from ever nearing this faction.

Also, I should note that if anyone actually -likes- the setting enough to make use of it [unlikely since I know we all love to make and play in our own worlds] that I don't care at all if you use any or all of it in a game. I'd love to hear how it goes too. Many aspects from this setting are torn and modified from both published and unpublished settings anyway.

Trying to load thread...doesn't like me T_T

Edit: Yay it loaded! I must say I love this quote:
"Its water varies from day to day; from saltwater to fresh, from the consistency of bitter tears to the clear, cold of fresh regret. Sages say it's always exactly what people need."

I'd so play in this setting.

I post occasionally on those boards and frequent the Optimization boards alot. I always avoided the "4E Rocks" or 4E sucks boards. I mean...can't we all just accept that everyone has a different opinion? How boring would life be if everyone agreed that I'm the best person in existence? It may be true but..it'd be dull. I think WoTC is filled with one of the difficulties of life, the fact that many people fail to notice that everyone has a unique opinion and that opinion is warranted and right for that person. Yes, I may not agree with your view of politics but I'll fight to the death for your ability to spout your nonsense.

Anyway, the CO boards rock :P. I love looking at all the nifty builds you can make with 4E. I definitely feel that almost any build works in some way now with only a few things truly 'gimping' your PC.

Cymro: If you like dark beers, give Storm King a try. It's so black that when you hold it to a lamp, you can't see through it! Also, where is Gulden Draak from? I have a great beer store near me and would like to try it out.

Captain Obvious: Never had London porter, but London Pride is pretty nice.

Joker: How can you drink Corona? I...I think I've lost respect for you /cry
   I've heard Moosehead is brilliant though I've never had the chance to try it.

Ishmayl: Microbrews have a very unique taste. I've only had one or two though. Could you suggest a few good ones?

Turin: Mmm I love Belgian Abbey Ale, if that's what you're talking about when it comes to Belgian beers that is.

Furor: Ah! My favorite is red ales!!!!! I'm glad someone else agrees with me. My friends all think I'm insane. Killian's is definitely an American beer though...I couldn't find it anywhere in Ireland. If you get a chance try Beamish Red, not Beamish, but the red ale by the same company. It's pure genius. Also, try Guinness with a little blackcurrant juice in it. It takes away any bitterness from the bottle or can and makes it taste grand.

Okay not reading through five more pages of that...yet.

Beer is my favorite hobby ever. Even over making campaign settings or writing or law! We typically go down to the shop and pick up 3-4 six packs of new beers every weekend to try out. My favorites are Beamish Red, but only from the draft. It just doesn't taste the same unless you're in Cork. Out of the bottle: Storm King, Bella Rossi and Lagunitas Lucky Thirteen all have very different and brilliant flavors. I like anything that has a hint of chocolate and coffee.

Edit: LordVreeg--Shiraz is easily my favorite red wine. I love some of the Australian Shiraz's cheap and fruity!

Quote from: AcrimoneMiscellany
I'm an attorney and currently working on my PhD in Philosophy.  I collect wine, and spend way too much time on the computer.

What type of law do you focus on? I'm about to graduate from undergrad for criminal justice and have been considering going on to law school. Writing and arguing over the smallest words in a law are just...wow. I get the biggest rush from debate and analysis on it all.

Quote from: JokerI can actually be a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to what gets me going on a setting, I think... I can go on for hours about certain things in my own setting, but if another setting doesn't get to the point fairly quickly I lose track.

I think alot of people do this. I can never quite tell when I've written too much or too little detail on my own stuff and often explain things too much to the point of being overly wordy. At the same time, it takes something unique to draw me in to read a specific setting. Typically anything overtly strange or very dark and 'gothic' attract my attention. Anything that's typical fantasy fare drives me away as does anything that uses a system I'm not familiar with..no idea why though.

That's a great idea! I love action points in 4E. My favorite use of it so far was how in one round I killed a minion, healed myself twice and used a daily on the BBEG. Paladins rock.

Also, off-topic, Kyron, have you ever heard a Ring-tailed Lemur speak? They're easily the funniest sounds you'll ever hear. When in Ireland we sat next to one that was just yelling its head off for about 10 minutes while perched on top of the food court. I think it was asking for food or calling to the other lemurs. They're so cute!

Moniker, that map is gorgeous! It makes me want to go make a pretty CC3 map of my city and surrounding area..now if only I could make decent city maps with CC3

Edit: All of these are great. Some of the handdrawn ones are fantastic. Wish I had that level of skill.

Acrimone, I love the detail in your CC3 map. That program really does have some great abilities.

Ninja D!, I always thought the default stuff looks pretty good to me. It looks like alot of what Acrimone used was default images in it. Making your own terrain types is fairly easy and helps out a bunch though.

I haven't read the posts after this yet but I wanted to comment on your ideas here.

Quote from: Crippled CrowThough I'm somewhat confused as to what you are currently discussing, i have something personal to say on the balance between mystery and pre-determined metaphysics. I find it hard to determine whether you should aim for one or the other. If you set it all in stone, it's barely magic anymore. It loses its flair and becomes just another layer of nature. Too much mystery though, and magic becomes unfocused, uncharacteristic, and in time, uninteresting. Personally, i think i prefer something along the lines of an unknown force, that can produce a limited range of results.

First, question, has anybody ever come up with a working concept of how runes work? They are cool and all, and always seem magical, but really, it hardly makes sense that a specific shape should be inherently magical.
The only thing i have been able to come up with was that each rune reacted to a pulse of energy, or what have you, by creating a specific magical "tune" as a function of its shape and the way it magically "reverberates". This could also lead to some interesting concepts of rune symphonies and such :)[/quote]
Essentially an unarmed fighter who can create an invisible force around and near his hands and his body. Not that he can create massive shields or anything, but he can create small slivers of magic force that he can use to parry and slash out at his enemies. Essentially, this fighter would be able to stop attacks in midair, and slash open an armed mans stomach with a sweeping gesture with his hand, even though he was standing a meter away from his outstretched arm. Could be cool. [/quote]
Alternative battle mage idea: instead of shooting fire everywhere, these mages use magic and alchemy to magically boost their physique and mind to make them the perfect warriors; killing machines more or less. Supernaturally quick and strong. Also, you could let all their alchemical drugs have severe drawbacks if you're into that sort of thing. [/quote]

For something like this, you don't even need the person to be a mage. I just see this as a person making use of some sort of magical drug to become a better fighter, or maybe even gain magical casting. In a past setting we had a drug called Boost which gave a random 1d20 magical effect for a limited time to the user, while having severe and permanent drawbacks on your health.

Other ideas for magic-users that I'll throw in the ring:
Furthering on your idea of runes affecting emotions, you could have a specific group of negotiators and mediators that use runes that act as a magical drug to make people more peaceful around them when they draw specific runes.

Magic casters that use spirits to accomplish the same things a wizard does. Need a fireball? Burn up a handful of human ghosts and send them to go explode, screaming in agony into a pack of goblins. Okay so maybe that one's a little evil..

Quote from: EladrisI think Wake was so named because it was a pun; time-wise it's set immediately after the death of the last universe, fluff-wise its really about the Creator "waking up" to a universe he didn't like and attempting to annihilate it.  I didn't really agonize over a name, it just dawned on my early in my scribblings.  My more traditional settings rarely have a name for the entire planet -- strangely none of my players have even asked after one.

I don't think players really think about it all that much. I've found that many, if not all, of the RL groups I've played with have little interest in the world they're playing in and are only interested in what directly affects them. So to get them interested in the world you have to introduce aspects that directly affect them. PbP games seem to spawn much more interested players in the setting.

Quote from: PellanorRight, I said 21000 per square mile, but really meant 21000 per 250 square miles, which is 84 per square mile. The entire USA is 80 per square mile.

As for fitting 4-5 million it could be done. It really depends on how tightly packed together the people are. Calgary has the lowest population density of all cities over 1 million in North America, at 1,360.2/km² (3,522.9/sq mi). Where as New York has a density of 27,147/sq mi (10,482/km²), 7.7 times as much. The greatest population density I could find is Mumbai in India with 21,880 /km² (56,669 /sq mi), which is over twice that of New York.

Uruk was a city back in Sumer and later Babylonia, around 3000 BC, with a population density of apx 11,000 /km² at its height, though of significantly smaller land area. That would give you a population of just over 7,000,000.
see also

I don't know how I didn't notice this post before but I really like what you bring up. I envisaged a densely packed city filled with people, at least that's how it used to be. And now there's just a bare few people packed into specific areas of the city. I boosted the square mileage up to 280 which is closer to NYC. while there are no skyscrapers now I can throw around a few immensely large towers that were essentially ancient condos.