one thousand and one campaign setting ideas, come on and join in!

[HyveMynd]

i feel like i've hit a creative brick wall. none of the ideas that've popped into my head recently seem worth developing, and the setting that i'm currently working on has become uninteresting. so, in an effort to jumpstart my creative mojo, i started brainstorming a list of ideas for potential campaign settings. cause for me, a setting evolves from 1 or 2 ideas. usually strange ones. there aren't quite 1001 ideas here yet, (more like 20 right now) but i thought that i'd post them up here. i'm encouraging people to add to the list with the following thoughts in mind:

[ic=the rules (sort of...)]1) the ideas should be usable by any game system. so nothing like "wizards get to wear heavy mail armor at 15th lever" or anything like that. crunch-free please.

2) if you post the idea here, it becomes "public domain". sort of. meaning that anyone reading the post is free to use it. so if you have a really killer idea that you don't want anyone else to know about until you publish something, don't post it here. you can't "claim" or "call" exclusive rights to anything posted here either. [/ic]

that's it. nice and simple. like i said, there are only 20ish so far, and i grouped them into similar (and funny) catagories for you. when i use the word "people" i mean all sentient, non-monster, life in the setting (dwarves, orcs, humans, lizardmen, elves, whatever). when i use the word "setting" i usually mean the entire campaign world (since i usualy build the entire thing), but some of the ideas could be appropriate for a smaller scale setting, say a continent or single country. not all of these ideas are original. it's pretty much impossible to be origianl anymore. as one of my design teachers once said "you can't invent anything new, there is nothing left to invent. all you can do it take something old and look at it in a new way."

[ic=Altered Afterlives]
heaven and/or hell (or their equivalents) is/are somehow full. the souls of the departed start spilling over into the real world.

people are born with full and complete memories of their past lives.

people are born with mostly intact memories of their past lives, but these are growing inconsistant with each passing generation as a finite number of memories are spread among a growing population.

people are born with random, and often times contradictory memories from past lives.

people are reincarnated in a set and specific form when they die. the form is based on what kind of life they lead (good, evil, honest, etc.)[/ic]
[ic=Celestial Shenannagens]
the sky has turned opaque, blocking out all external light.

the sun has gone out, or been blocked by something.

the moon or another nearby body has recently been destroyed.

there is no space. air and light simply go on forever, and you can get to the other planets if you can fly high enough.
[/ic]
[ic=Disruptive Deities]
something is preventing the gods from contacting this setting. this implies that BOTH gods and mortals are trying to solve the problem.

the gods have abandoned this setting for some reason. this implies that only the mortals are trying to solve the problem.

the mortals of the setting have turned their backs on the gods. this implies that only the gods want to solve the problem.

the gods have chosen to return to the setting in corporeal form and walk among their mortal followers once again. or, then simply were ALWAYS in corporeal form.

the gods USED to walk the setting in corporeal form until very recently. something caused them to retreat into the upper planes (or their equivalent).

the gods walk the setting in corporeal form, but some (horrible or wonderful) recent event has caused them to forget that they are gods.[/ic]
[ic=Meddlesome Magic]
magic has allowed information age equivalent technology to be created at a much earlier time in history.
[/ic]
[ic=Problematic Prophecies]
the event that foretold the end (and possible remaking) of the setting has just happened.

the "chosen one" has just been born, or reached his/her full potential.

the "chosen one" is somehow stopped (killed, captured, held, turned, etc.) from completing their destiny at the very last second.

the "chosen one" completes all the requiered steps/tasks to fulfill their prophecy, but nothing happens.

the end results of the prophecy happens suddenly without any of the necessary steps/tasks/events happening first.[/ic]
[ic=Strained Planes]
another material plane has started overlaying the setting.

the material plane has somehow been skewed or tilted so that it crosses various other planes are certain points.

time no longer flows in a linear fashion in the setting.[/ic]
[ic=Weird Worlds]
the setting is a strange shape (cube, torus, flat disk, inverted sphere, etc.).

dry land is (or is believed to be) poisonous/cursed/infested with dangerous creautres. people live in giant ships (sea or air) that never make landfall.

due to some overabundance of the material, the people of the setting are (and always have been) a melding of biological and inorganic material (stone, metal, crystal, plastic, etc.).

the people of the setting are either androgynus or hermaphroditic.

the people of the setting have a parasitical reproductive cycle. they need to use another species to have offspring (posibly killing the host in the process).

one of the cosmic dualities (good/evil, law/chaos, etc.) has just won a major victory and totally eliminated it's opposing half from the setting.[/ic]

please feel free to add any ideas that you desire. they could be ones that you started to use and discarded for some reason, or something that sounded cool but you never had the time to develop.

[Xathan]

[ic=Alien Environments]
Plant life never evolved, and instead the world is dominated by giant fungus.

The land of the world has been swallowed by a rising sea

A single environment type (forest, desert, swamp) dominates most of the world.[/ic]

[spoiler=Things that are not setting ideas.]Good stuff. Could you number them, and update your post when people add new settings, so the first post becomes a single large index. I'd say just number things within each category.

there is no space. air and light simply go on forever, and you can get to the other planets if you can fly high enough.

heaven and/or hell (or their equivalents) is/are somehow full. the souls of the departed start spilling over into the real world.[/quote]

[Ghost]

Hmm.

What about playing as a non-humanoid? Something in a completely different shape, like a squid, or dog, though still have hands/paws/tentacles dextrous enough to hold objects. You might even use your mind to move objects.

The end of the universe might be an interesting setting. Assuming it's the same universe as ours, it would probably be either really cold and dark, or really bright and dense (at least, that's how I understand the theories).

Maybe people of a particular race have learned to 'ascend', or become a hyper-intelligent floaty ball of energy when they die. That would certainly complicate things while adventuring.

[brainface]

What about playing as a non-humanoid? Something in a completely different shape, like a squid, or dog, though still have hands/paws/tentacles dextrous enough to hold objects. You might even use your mind to move objects.

entirely[/i] with animals. It had potential.

I'm going to quote a random bit from the thread:

Equipment:
Weapons - all natural weapons (monkeys can carry clubs), that increase in damage according to class-lvl.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I direct you to this thread, where a whole lot of brief setting descriptions were posted: Just Imagineâ,¬Â¦.

To toot my own horn, this was ultimately begun by my signature on the Wizards boards.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

I'm going to start compiling some of the info in these various "Campaign Ideas," and "Adventure Seeds" threads, so feel free to keep posting here.  ONce I have some things compiled and in a nice format, I'm going to put them on the Wiki.

[MittenNinja]

A few ideas to add to the list.

 

The abyssal planes aren't really separate planes, they reside deep within the earth. If you dig deep enough you could reach them, or if they were to climb high enough they could reach us...

Every person has the force of temptation. What most people don't realize is that every person's temptation is actually a devil created solely for that individual to try and turn him to the ways darkness.

And obviously you could have the Celestial equivalents (Celestials Planes are actually just at extreme altitudes, every individual has a celestial as a voice of reason to keep them on the path of light).

and a quick question: New to the guild and was wondering how do you get those green text boxes? I can't seem to find the code for them anywhere.

[Bill Volk]

[ic=Really Messing Things Up]
All life abruptly dies, (possibly due to sudden, brief contact with a cosmic mass of negative energy,) leaving only unliving constructs and the undead.

All intelligent life dies, (possibly due to some epic psionic shenanigans,) and animals and magical beasts evolve to discover their legacy millions of years later.

Everything is destroyed, leaving only phantoms that struggle to remember it all.

Time becomes two- or three-dimensional.

Gravity ends.

The outer planes all destroy each other in an apocalyptic final battle, but the material plane remains.

Characters become aware that they are fictional.
[/ic]

[Stargate525]

Gravity ends.

At which point everything not held together by rigid bonds or magnetism immediately flies apart, turning the universe into an even-density cosmic soup within a few thousand years.

Yeah, I'd say you messed things up. :)


My contributions,

*Water is completely transparent. You can see the 1-2 miles down to the ocean floor at all times.
*The World is layered, each layer's continents rotating around a different axis. Any water flowing off a continent falls down a layer, and light in the lower layers is scarce and nearly random.
*Magic is as common as normal D&D Melee, and melee combat is as complex and rare as D&D magic.
*Space is fluidic. After you fly high enough you hit more water/liquid. Travel between planets is accomplished by means of large submarines.
*Mammals do not exist; the highest form of life is the reptile. Long live the Kobold!

[SDragon]

* A setting entirely of biblical allegory.

*A setting based on the american civil war.

[Higgs Boson]

A setting where wal-mart rules everything. link to the full idea is in Darkxarth's Sigariffic sig.

[SA]

I love Wal-Mart Post-Apocalypse.  A fantastic setting.

[Túrin]

*Water is completely transparent. You can see the 1-2 miles down to the ocean floor at all times.

Would it still be possible to tell water from air? If so, how?

Túrin

[Stargate525]

Would it still be possible to tell water from air? If so, how?

Túrin

You would get wet!

[Ishmayl-Retired]

For water to be completely transparent, it would also have to have the same density as air... which definitely makes things pretty interesting... for one thing, at such a density, does it still support life the same way, or does some other chemical make life flourish?  Also, how does that work with marine life that need a particular density to swim and/or float?  Not to mention, what does it do to the ocean currents, and thus the weather patterns of the world.  Interesting....