The Campaign Builder's Guild

The Long and Extenuous Introduction

There's these guys, using the one profile called K, posting their genius findings on the WotC boards. One idea popped really stood out at me. In one of their handbooks they posted a few suggestions for fixes to the polymorph spell problems. Later in the thread someone mentioned that if you fix the brokenness that spells provide mages then martial classes wouldn't need their own fix. K's response:

QuoteI doubt that. While under ideal circumstances with access to sufficient amounts of crazy from sourcebooks a martial character is able to inflict enough damage to make a high level encounter stand up and take notice, he really isn't capable of fighting a Formian Queen at any level.

The problm with martial classes isn't that Clerics, Wizards, and Druids can literally pick up a sword and outfight them - the problem is that a Fighter can't beat a high level encounter. He has too few tricks that are too easy to foil and he has too little available to actually stop other creatuures from usingtheir tricks.

The bolded part is the idea that stuck out at me. It manifested in an old campaign setting idea I had.
Formians had come to the prime, wreaking havoc (or the lawful equivilent). Probably been done. My twist is that the planar rift the Formians used to reach in bulk on the prime resulted in causing magic to abruptly cease to function with anny consistentcy. After a few hudred years, the formians have control of most of the land of the prime, with only a few pockets of resistnce left, led by the few mages that can possibly exist. This is where the PCs are dropped in, fresh out of the various training shcools and gatheres into teams to begin patrolling and skirmishing to hassle the Formians, free some slaves and collect a few resources. The PCs are to gain power to the point where they can start pushing the hives back to the realm of gears they came from.

I need some help because I want to start some play by post games ASAP, like before christmas.

First thing I need is some plausible set-ups for this small resistance bases. They need to be designed so that they can withstand direct attacks, and semi-comfortably house and feed thousands of people with the aid of as little magic as possible. These also have to be able to support a small forest with many fey in it.

There is no underdark civilizations in this campiagn setting; no Drow, Deurgar, Koa-Toa, Aboleths or whatever else lives in the endless caves. In fact there's not that many gianormous cave systems, 'cept for the ones built by the formians or natives.
Dragons are an endangered species.
There are no intelligant races on the face of the world other than humans and the various fey. And goblins, there's always goblins.

I also need some tactics and counters for Formians and Natives.

Magic? They only mages that got to keep their abilities as spell casters are liches, dry liches, mummies, fey and dragons. There are very few of the undead and draconic mages. PCs won't be able to play as one, or have one as a cohort, follower or hireling.

All magic items created before the invasion still work however, so finding one is like finding an XL wedding cake with a herd of lactating cows in the middle of a desert. And some glasses and a qicky-cooler.

Why not borrow a concept somewhat from Earthdawn, and have ancient fortresses or bunker like dwellings or enchanted towers that are used? Make them in out of the way places...or here's another idea. Make them say cold places or islands in some extreme cases. The main place of resistance could be some place where Formians simply don't have the metabolism to live.

Dunno what Earthdawn is. Mighty ancient fortresses don't stop Scry & Die tactics, though some enchantments can. Besides, fey are going to hate living inside cramped towers.

Does any one remeber the realy old sonic the hedgehog cartoon show?

The first one, where all the 'freedom fighters' are hiding in the woods and Robotnick can't find them. Sonic and the rest of the crew pop out every now and then to cause trouble for the robts, then dash (ZOOOOM!) back into the forest.
That's the kind of setting I want. A bunch of hipies hiding in the forest with a magical lake that can evade a force of high tech/magic warriors with just their wits and a few rare pieces of magic.

Alright, I assume you want an honest opinion, so I'm gonna give you one.

You're setting up a very specific style of play here, so you will need to be careful to avoid repetition, and thus boredom, within the campaign.  I must say congratulaions on the point that you seem to have a very good idea of what you want, or at leas a clear vision of your goal.  I personally am not fond of removing magic, or formians for that matter, so I'll stop commenting now.

Oh, and one last thing...

Good luck!

Don't worry about repetition. Complete warrior book has suggestions for running a military styled campaign, and I've played enough wathammer 40k to understand the basics of minatures strategy. I have enough resources and experiance to run a game. I just can't seem to be able design a campaign setting. I'll take the Luck and put it towards finding inspiring input. Thnx