The Campaign Builder's Guild

So, I'm currently working on a fantasy campaign set in a homebrew world and using the Conan 2d20 game system.

In a Land of Storm & Fog is intended to be a Dark Fantasy setting where characters are regularly in fear for their lives and their sanity. It is a world without direct sunlight and with monsters out of the PCs worst nightmares moving in the fog that surrounds everything. Visually this setting was heavily inspired by the artwork for the Symbaroum RPG and Gothic Horror, and tone and story it was inspired by films like Reign of fire and the Fallout video games.

Here's the Introduction text:
   50 years ago the Fog came. It came from the North, past the Shiverspine Mountains. Though no one knew what caused it, what they did know is that with the Fog came a creeping gloom that blocked the sun, unspeakable horrors seemed to live within the fog soon tormenting those settlements in the Fog's path, and storms plagued the Fog-covered regions with seemingly impossible phenomena.
   Within a year nearly all the lands of the Kingdom of Kaeliveth were covered, and travel between towns became akin to suicide. The only thing that saved your town, and others like it, was Hurvhin, King Pellindahl's adviser and Court Sorcerer. For the year that the Fog crept over the kingdom Hurvhin spent nearly every waking moment in study, attempting to find a way to push back the Fog.
   In the end his attempts were unsuccessful, though they were not entirely failures. He had stumbled upon a ritual that, while it could not fully banish the Fog, it could keep it at bay within relatively small areas. This Ritual he taught to his strongest, most trusted apprentices and dispatched them across the Kingdom to those towns and cities he knew to be still standing, while he stayed in the capital to continue his work.
   It is unknown how many of those dispatched made it to their destinations and how many never left the Fog, but it is known that, almost 50 years ago an apprentice of Hurvhin named Lorral arrived in the town of Duncarden, your home. For 50 years, with the constant vigilance of now Elder Lorral, Duncarden has survived. Though not all is well, for but a month ago, during the annual Ritual Renewal, Elder Lorral collapsed, and for nearly a week the Village was victim to the Fog and it's dangers. And while it was only the wispiest of edges that encroached on the town, people died before Elder Lorral awoke and was able to complete the ritual.
   Now, the other town leaders are worried because, despite Lorral's best efforts, none of those in the town have the magical aptitude to even learn the ritual, let alone focus it themselves. This, alone, would not be the end of Duncarden, but the town healers do not expect Lorral to survive to the next renewal. The town leaders now have little choice but to seek help, to send out a small group to attempt to contact any other settlements that may have survived this long and may have someone capable enough to perform the ritual, and young enough to keep the town safe for the years to come.
   The group is made up of some of the town's most capable, trustworthy warriors, as well as some of those no one would miss. You are that group, and now begins your journey...


In this setting monsters tend to be either animal twisted by the magic of the Storms and Fog, or enemies conjured into being out of the characters fears. This means that no two monsters will be quite the same. To replicate this I am working on a random monster creation table. Obviously this is currently just appearance-based, but will include rules once such rules are released for Conan.

Locomotion
Slithering
Flying
Bipedal
Quadruped
Many Legged
Swimming

Attacks
Claws
Fangs
Stinger
Tusks
Horns/Antlers
Hooves
Flail
Tentacles

Adornment
Moss-covered
Twigs
Skull-Faced
Scales
Matted Fur
Multiple Eyes
Tattered Cloth
Spines
Feathers
Quills

Body Type
Hulking
Skeletal
Ghostly
Amorphous
Lithe
Bulbous

At the moment I'm still working on a few key story elements (such as, what caused the fog), but I think the game is going to focus a bit around exploration and survival.

One of the main pieces of artwork that inspired the setting

I dig it. Sounds promising.

The setup reminds me of the Mist, a rather good horror movie from 2007. Seems like a premise for a fun and exciting campaign.

The premise also somewhat reminds me of Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. Not sure if you've read them, but having a look at some of the creatures he created might be a good source of inspiration.

The Mist was also a huge Influence, I can't believe I forgot to mention it. And if you haven't watched it in Black & White you need to.

As for Mistborn, never read it, only vaguely heard of it, and am very much not a fan of Sanderson. I think I'll be skipping anything he's done as inspiration. Conceptually the idea is similar to that in the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. The Fog takes the fears of those in it and manifests them as well as it can using that which is around. And if the person who thought it up dies the being stays around. Hence why there are already monsters out in the mist. So some monsters will be described by the players and built accordingly, and some will be randomly rolled up and statted based on their description.

Well, I thought I'd give a bit of an update on this.

We are 3 session into the game and everyone, including myself, is loving the game. The players are really enjoying the setting and I'm enjoying using the 2d20 system.

The Random Fogborn creation is working fantastically. It may not mean a whole lot to you if you aren't familiar with the Conan 2d20 game (which is not publicly available yet), but I figured I'd share it with you.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7vjzyihOV0aRHdXTWtMcHI4WW8/view?usp=sharing

Currently working on a bit more of the world background based on questions that have come up during playing, mostly with the religion of the world before the Fog. At the moment it's a non-magical faith broken up into worship of "Saints". no actual supernatural stuff going on.

Also, and this might be the biggest thing... I have figured out what is causing the Fog... Now go with me on this.

50 years ago something came to this world... From another world. They did not come here softly, they crashed. The crashed damaged the ship, a ship that runs on a type of hyper-active psychic vapor, and that vapor started leaking. The vapor slowly began to spread and, reacting to this world's unique physiology and magicalness, and became the fog. Instead of powering a ship it's now using it's energy to twist the land and invade peoples mind, bringing to life their worst fears. I have been teasing this a bit by having one of my characters be sensitive to the Fog, being able to feel it more acutely. Now, what all this means in game depends... if they decide not to travel North and see what's going on, well then none of this will really matter. But if they do go North, well I am leaving that open, but it may or may not be able to spin into a Sci-Fi game.

Oh, also I'm going to tease this by them running across some Aliens. A Search party that followed the ship's distress signal, but when they got here the magical nature of the world interfered with their sensors. Obviously the PCs will, at first, think that these are Fogborn, but after they've killed the Aliens they'll notice that, unlike the Fogborn, these monster don't dissipate back into fog shortly after being killed. Obviously they will be free to decide what they think that means.

So, anyways, I thought people might be interested in a bit of an update. I'll post more about the religion and history once I've actually written it up.

Interesting twist. Do you think that the Fog is some kind of life form then? Maybe the technology used by those aliens is mostly engineered organisms?