Sho-Jin Setting

[Azezel]

I do not see the law/chaos dichotomy as being crucial, or even cosmically important to my setting. So far as deities go - I see it more as a role-playing guide for players. of 16 gods, five are lawful, six neutral and five chaotic (I did not plan to balance it all so well, though I was shooting for broadly equal numbers of lawful and chaotic).

In general, a chaotic PC will probably work better under a chaotic god, but it is not something that should limit Player choice.

For my part I actually like the notion of objective, definitive, measurable good and evil - in mortals - I think it is a groovy concept that makes for very interesting gaming. Still - I may well drop all alignment descriptor's from Deities, and let players make up their own mind about how they see their god.

As for contradictory Portfolios: A god offering both the Sun and Undeath Domains sort of apeals to me - and seems positively logical when compared to Belldandy - who offers both the Law and Chaos Domain...

Speaking of which: Since a Cleric cannot cast spells against his God's alignment, I find the idea of removing allignmnet from deities even more appealing in light of this.

I like alignment in DnD - I like it strongly, and will not countenance removing it from the game, but I am satisfied that gods work better without good/evil descriptors, so it may be well to remove the law/chaos one too.

The more I think about it - the more fun my concept of the sun/god thing appeals to me - I am going to take it and run with it as far as I can. All gods offering the Sun domain is one example of this.

Incidentally - I have 16 gods - I am prepaired, at the outside, to stretch to 24 - are there any more that I need? Are there any that I can do without? Any that are just to silly?

[Azezel]

Righto â,¬' before we get to the business of the day, another word on deities: in primus, I have decided to remove all Alignment descriptors from all deities. They are simply above such things. Alignment is real, measurable and objective, but it is a mortal thing, the gods transcend it as easily as they transcend anything else. In secundus, I was shooting for a 50/50 proportion of masculine to feminine gods, but it seems that I have nine goddesses and only seven gods. I was going to rectify this, but I don't think I will. All of them can manifest a different gender (or no gender) if they choose, but I am satisfied with the favoured gender identity stated for each. If it is weird to have more goddesses than gods, then that is a problem I leave to Sho-Jin's theosophers.

That dealt with, on to the main event.

Geography.

There are some certain things I desire. Almost all campaign settings feature one metropolis greater than all of the others. A Waterdeep or Sharn. I am not sure that I like it.

I want three, three great Human cities. They must be comparable in wealth and influence, but having fairly different culture. I say Human cities, they will be cosmopolitan places, but built by and for Humans, at least originally.

All three cities will be within 90 degrees of one another on Sho-Jin.

The largest will be closest to the rim, it is a massive city of 2'000'000+ people. It is a cold, snowbound place â,¬' most outsiders would say inhabited by cold, grim people. Life is ordered and regimented by the government, five immortal people who's identities are not known. Public services are mechanically efficient, but extremely limited â,¬' if there were trains, they would run on time, but only once every six hours. Law enforcement is brutal, but generally just. Divination magic is the central tool of government and law enforcement. Citizens are often 'disappeared'. For all it's big-brother vibe, the government is actually fairly benevolent â,¬' Divination makes wrongful arrest or punishment almost unheard of, and there are not a dozen streets in the whole city that one would feel unsafe in after dark.

The city closest to the core is just this side of complete political meltdown. It is a hot, eclectic place of massive unemployment, corrupt officials and organized crime. Nothing ever gets done without a bribe to someone. The city has not paid its own public works bill in a decade, and as a result, nothing ever gets done. Private citizens therefore do not bother paying taxes, but do employ companies to dispose of their rubbish, mend their streets and protect their property â,¬' if they can afford it. The young, handsome Prince is massively popular with the people, largely because he is young and handsome â,¬' he is also the puppet of the mob. The city has about 1'300'000 people, at a guess, but the very idea of conducting a census would be laughable.

The third city is the smallest, and richest, only 1'000'000 or so. It, and the country it rules is nominally ruled by 16 priests, but in fact the real power is held by a parliament, elected by landowners. The city is a commercial powerhouse, thanks partly to its position, and partly to its history of invading anyone who looked like a soft touch. This practice is now at an end because the city and country are the primary Human adversaries of the Formians, and all of their economic and military might are needed to hold back the ants. A permanent war economy has resulted in prosperity of a kind, but there are often sudden shortages of essential items, and there is a constant looming threat of defeat.

I would very much like feedback on all of this.

[Azezel]

I mentioned before that I wanted Orcs as a PC race, and speculated about removing their Light Sensitivity to make them more attractive, To be honest, I'm not sure that that is enough - I may also remove their INT penalty, Even without an INT penalty or Light Sensetivity, they are still solidly LA+0, they will be combat monsters - but that's sort of what I'm aiming for.

Y'see - Formians are the big villains of the piece - they are to Sho-Jin what the Drow are to Faerun, the Rakshasa are to Eberon, what non-emo kids are to Dark Sun.

My prototype map has the Formian's territory sandwhiched between the lands of the Abiel and the Orcs, and it is only by the constant effort of these two races that the Formians have not conquered the whole damned world.

As I have said before - I see the Orcs as rather like the Nietziens in Andromeda, and rather like the Spartans of ancient history. When an Orc is born, it is left outside for a couple of days, unatended, if it survives, it is deemed strong enough. Orcs are never punished for doing something bad - but they are punished for getting caught. Every individual sees everything as a chance to proove himself stronger (or smarter, or wiser or faster etc).

The Abiel - who I also want as a PC race (Vassals at least) hold the lands to the other side of the Formain ocupied area.

[Azezel]

I havn't posted in a while, but I'm still scribbling away here. It might help to have your DMG II & PHB II to hand for this one.

I am fortunate enough to know a chap who is very talented in the creation of maps - and while he works his magic for me, I have been thinking on more ephemeral matters. Specifically - I mean to incorperate affiliations and organizations as presented in the above mentioned books.

The Order of Ancient Mysteries from the DMG II is perfect - indeed, one of the ideas for a campaign in Sho-Jin is effectively 'The PC's are members of ~'.

The Shining Crusade needs slight modification. As I have mentioned previously - Sho-Jin is without the normal plannar baggage, this makes Devils and Demons much rarer - to the point where the existence of a single such entity on Sho-Jin would be the center for an entire campaign. Therefore the idea of an organization devoted to stamping them out does not really fly.

Undead on the other hand - they are always a menace. In Sho-Jin, the Shining Crusade are the most implacable and devoted foes the undead have.

As for the Red Knives - meh: They may exist, but it is not important - I won't run a game for the sort of PC's that would be part of such a group - and since I hate running NPC Rogues the Red Knives will not feature as bad guys.

PHB II next.

Castle Mario will exist on Sho-Jin - though it will probably barely feature, if at all.

I like The Chalice as a concept, but in absennce of Fiends, it is not very useful, so it does not exist.

The Elves of the High Fortrest (and indeed the High Forrest itself) exist.

The Land of Honour as presented in the PHB II does not exist - but since fully half of Sho-Jin is themed on feudal Japan/China/Korea etc, the essence is there.

Merata Kon exist.

Sharulhensa definately exist - it's no secret that I really like Half-Elves so I'm going to play this one to the hilt.

Sun Fane exist, but slightly modified. I will increase it's Scale to 15/16. Instead of worshiping Pelor, they will be church for the whole pantheon - focusing on the one thing all of Sho-Jin's dieties have in common - the sun.

Besides these - I am in the process of creating a few of my own affiliations and organizations.

I will keep you posted.

[Numinous]

When you post up some of your own organizations, I'll give you feedback.  While it's all well and good to incorporate material from a published source, I'd love to give you some constructive feedback on your own ideas.

EDIT: I'm not sure what to say about your cities, they all seem to oppose each other nicely, and have a nice individual flavor.  One thing you might want to consider is a set of possible adventure hooks for each, as well as more clearly outlining the power structure and the major organizations present in each one.