The Campaign Builder's Guild

It is a low magic, humanocentric campaign that focused on politics, religion and war. Although it does have some rare fantasy elements, they're presented in such as way that they are more mystical than commonplace as in most Dungeon and Dragons gameworlds. Sorcery isn't commonplace, if not seen whatsoever. Divine magic (as through the Chosen proxies of the gods of the four faiths) are rare as well, but have facilitated some truly world-moving events.

I have taken influence from practically everywhere; George RR Martin, real-world history, and a few loose interpretations of alternative Earth. One part of the game I am particularly proud of is the Faith section of the game, which uses a pseudo-Christian model adapted to a polytheistic faith (The Divine Source). I use a real world model in order to suspend disbelief easier using familiar elements that players can identify with.

All maps created in CC3 using the Fargoth coastline to develop the world. Although I only have 4 maps up thus far, I will be adding the multitude of maps I've created with CC1-3 soon.

The Races section is almost complete. I am finishing out The Lost Races this week.

Read it, give me some feedback! I am open to new ideas to help build my world.

http://deismaar.pbwiki.com

Ciao~

Moniker, I like your site.  As I told you once before, you've done a good job making a wiki look like a real web page.  Can you talk a little bit on how you made your maps?

The maps I made using Campaign Cartographer 3. For those who don't know too much about this program, it's a huge hog of system resources and has a very, VERY steep learning curve (unless you're aquainted with Autocad). It has taken me over 5 years just to master the fundamentals, as it is antiintuative. It's one of my only qualms with the program, although the boons outweight the negatives now that I understand how to use it.

Basically, it works sort of like Photoshop, in that you create your maps on layers. However, CC3 lacks the fundamental ease of use as Photoshop does.

CC3 has a bevy of symbols you can use to pop on the map, hex diagrams, font types, sizes, shapes and contours you can overlay one another to bring a pseudo three dimensional look to the map. You can trick out graphics (to make background glow). If any of you are familiar with the craftsmanship of the Forgotten Realms maps, they were all made with CC3. Most game-produced maps are made with this program.

One useful feature is that you can import any jpg or gif image. So, what I did is I took my original handdrawn maps, scanned them and used them as a Trace layer when I started redoing them in CC3.

Also, anyone wishing to build a hyperlinked wiki-style site should head to pbwiki.com - the wiki use is free and is very nice to keep things indexed and catalogued. If you know a bit of java, you can do a lot of amazing things with the wiki. For novices, they have an easy editing system and even include free stylesheets so you can customize your wiki. I highly, highly recommend it for anyone who wishes to keep their campaign online for free, without having to pay for hosting or domains.

Hmm, I like what I have read. One thing I dislike, however, is your tendency to use LotR names (Meduseld, Rhovanion and Osgiliath to name but three).

That is one of the things I am definitely struggling to resolve. I blame my early years during middle school from borrowing names from all over.

I am totally in favor of retconning all common names from Lord of the Rings completely out. However, it would destroy the precident set within the campaign about major areas, names and locales for the players within the game. One area that was immediately changed was Rhovanion to Rhovania, mostly due to the Baltic/Black Sea sort of influence of the country and the accidental mispronunciation of the country as Rhovania by a player who has difficulty in hearing. It worked out well. ;)

I've made some efforts to change the more minor ones, particularly the areas that have yet to be visted explored. The Southern Empire is currently going under a complete rewrite.

Quote from: MonikerAlso, anyone wishing to build a hyperlinked wiki-style site should head to pbwiki.com - the wiki use is free and is very nice to keep things indexed and catalogued. If you know a bit of java, you can do a lot of amazing things with the wiki. For novices, they have an easy editing system and even include free stylesheets so you can customize your wiki. I highly, highly recommend it for anyone who wishes to keep their campaign online for free, without having to pay for hosting or domains.

Right Here![/url] :)  I haven't researched pbwiki yet; we use mediaWiki (which is what is found on wikipedia, etc), so the styles are a bit different.

Hey Moniker,
I did a little research.  I don't know if it's exactly the same tag with pbwiki as it is with mediawiki, but in mediawiki, if you insert this tag:

{{TOCleft}}

before you start listing the items for a TOC, then the TOC will stay to the left, and text will float to the right of it.  May be worth a shot.

Ac, no luck! I'll have to hit up the pbwiki forums to figure this one out. It's rather annoying!

New Organizations updated on the webpage; Belegost, city of the Andals updated.

A lot, and I mean A LOT of updates overall. I've posted a short synopsis of Aglador on the first page, the focus of where the campaign has been over the past eight years out of game, 16 years in-game passage of time throughout the campaign. As the Border War II looms upon the horizon of Rhovania, Aglador and Goth Moran, I've put up details concerning The Pale as the aggressor against Aglador and some of the standards amongst the Black Knights of Landon.

The 'kicker' event that started my campaign world (surrounding the Six Companions at the beginning of the Kinstrife) 12 long years ago has been written up as well.

Two new classes, a complete rewrite of the non-magical Ranger and one Prestige Class tailored for the game written up.

Cities and Notable NPC's on the sidebar Glossary as well. I have finished the format for the website, so the text sizes and headers should be correct.

Enjoy and I appreciate any constructive criticism.

Cheers~

Country Flags Created
http://deismaar.pbwiki.com/Realms-of-Deismaar

Six Houses of the Andals heraldry updated

http://deismaar.pbwiki.com/The%20Six%20Houses%20of%20the%20Andals

Been a long time, but updates galore!

Hmm.
I actually love the pbwiki look.  I mean, I really love it.  

I think I have similar ganming/reading backgrounds, as well, and have ended up in a somehwat similar place, except for the humanocentric place.
Even in terms of the polytheism tied to some of the pseudo-christian model (with saints and all).

Obviously, all the tolkeinisms need to go away.  They do distract horribly.  Even all the terms on the splash page, like 'southron' and 'breeland'.   You have done so much so well to let something like this hold your work back.

I love your organizations.  I run a politics/culture heavy game, and guilds and organizations are my meat and drink.  And yours (for once) don't leave me hungry.  Dump the name Hanseatic league, though, and the Name Olorin.  Keep the sisterhood of mercy name, even if Andrew Eldrich threatens to sue, like he does everyone else.  I'm looking forward to the regional variations of some of these.  These organizations (and I do speak from experience) will be the things that will set the versimalitude of your setting.

I like the campaign pages.  They have a lot of life.

(you've also given me my first worry in a long time...I cannot post my 'Tale of Years' anywhere the players can see it.  Maybe I have to create a 'common knowledge' version?)

Agreed. Pruning out LOTR-type names has been a huge issue, as a lot of these places have been visited and/or have been a part of the game for quite sometime (since my gaming group and I were 14). Olorin, namely.

Not sure why Breeland was even listed like that, it should be Breland. Southron was a slip of the mind, too much LOTR methinks over the years!

Otherwise, I'd love to see some of the work you've done on organizations; can you link me to your campaign thread post?

Cheers~