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Katasi
2008-08-25, 09:33 PM
Ok, I want to make a good campaign setting that's unique from others, but I need some help. I've come up with a few basics both fluff-wise and mechanically, but I need opinions and more help with ideas.


In no particular order:

World Basics

Damage System
This campaign will use a variation on the Vitality/Wound Point System

I'm using a slight variant on it. Vitality Points will work exactly the same as normal. Wound Points work as normal except that you gain your CON+1 WP to begin with, plus bonus wound points based on your BAB. Each time your BAB goes up by one point you gain one Wound Point. Weapons in this system do not gain expanded threat ranges, instead the multiplier is reduced by one, thus most weapons now do only normal damage on a critical hit as normal for this system, but a spear for example would do double damage on a crit. I suppose the normal system could be used though if everyone thinks this is overpowered.

Magic/Psionics System

This will be what I call a medium-magic campaign setting. Basically, it doesn't fit as a low-magic setting because casters will still be fairly common and there will still be plenty of magic items, but magic won't be used in place of technology or be quite as prevalent or easy as in a high-magic setting. And I've come up with a mechanic to support this:

Spells take energy and leave the user slightly more weary than he was. Mechanically, this means they burn Vitality points equal to 1/2 the spell level rounded down. So 0 and 1st level spells cost nothing. 2nd and 3rd level spells cost 1 VP each, and so on. Yes I realize that will slightly power down casters and restrict them more, but that's the point.

Psionics take energy as well, but in a slightly different way, a psionic character's vitality damage from manifesting is (points consumed-1)/4, rounded down.

Magic in this campaign isn't something taken lightly. Spell-like abilities are in born and take no Vitality to use however. Undead that cast spells will do so directing the negative energy that powers them, gaining a spell-pool equal to their Wound Points

Fluffier Stuff

Cosmology Stuff

I've decided that time in this world will be the same as in our world, with hours, days, weeks, years, moths, ect. the same for simplicity sake. This world will also have a 12-month zodiac, with each sign attached to an element, and each element coffering a bonus to those born under it.

Zodiac
Ok, I don't have the signs worked out yet, but here are the bonuses I've decided on for each month:

January: (Air) +1 Jump
February: (Water) +1 Heal
March: (Earth) Craft always considered in-class
April: (Fire) Intimidate always considered in-class
May: (Air) +1 Tumble
June: (Water) +1 Swim
July: (Earth) +1 to any one Craft
August: (Fire) +1 Intimidate
September: (Air) Jump always considered in-class
October: (Water) Swim always considered in-class
November: (Earth) +1 Balance
December: (Fire) +1 Gather Information

Races

Humans

Elves: Wood and Gray only

Dwarves: Mountain only

Gnome... I love gnomes and they work in really well into the setting. Since spell casting counts on Vitality in this game, races with CON bonuses will actually have an edge in that department, if only a small one, and gnomes are well set up to take advantage of that, with only a few small changes. But I'm actually thinking of creating at least one, if not a few new sub races:

Mystic Gnome

+2 CON, -2 STR, +2 INT, -2 CHA

Small: As a Small creature, a Mystic Gnome gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.

Base Speed 20 feet

+4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against monsters of the giant type. Any time a creature loses its Dexterity bonus (if any) to Armor Class, such as when it’s caught flat-footed, it loses its dodge bonus, too.

Earth Spell: A mystic gnome gains a spell pool of vitality points equal to his level while he is in contact with the ground. This spell pool refreshes after 24 hours, calculated from the last time it refreshed, or 8 hours of rest, whichever comes last. While not in contact with the ground (either due to flying, or being submersed in a liquid to deep to touch down) the mystic gnome can not access these extra points.

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects.

+2 racial bonus on Listen checks.

+2 racial bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks.

+2 racial bonus on Concentration checks.

Always Literate: A mystic gnome is always literate, even if their class says they should not be. They cannot take the Illiterate flaw.

Free Bonus Language: A mystic gnome gains an extra bonus language free above what they would receive from a high INT score.

Automatic Languages: Common and Gnome. Bonus Languages: Any In addition, a mystic gnome can speak with any magical beasts with an INT of 2 or lower. This ability is innate to mystic gnomes. See the speak with animals spell description.

Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—speak with magical beasts (2 INT or under only, duration 1 minute). A Mystic Gnome with an INT score of at least 10 also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—Light, Ghost sound, Mage Hand. Caster level 1st; save DC 10 + gnome’s INT modifier + spell level.

Favored Class: Wizard

Mystic Gnomes are an ancient sub race, dating back to the time when gods still lived their day to day lives among the mortals. Long ago gnomes where introduced to magic, and some of them took to it with a passion and natural skill unseen anywhere else. No one, even the deities can tell when the first Mystic Gnomes appeared, but over the millenniums of the world they have made themselves very distinct. While the Rock Gnomes are more technologically skilled, and have a good taste for the arts, Mystic gnomes are nearly the opposite. Mystic Gnomes have very little technology of their own, borrowing most of their devices from their Rock Gnome brethren and Human and Dwarven allies. They have little patience for or interest in any art besides the magical ones, although many individuals can still appreciate the skills of a good leather worker, bookbinder, or even blacksmith. Mystic Gnomes are highly intelligent and are tough like the other races of stone, but they suffer from low physical strength of the Rock Gnomes, as well as tending to be gruff, impatient, and often irritable.

Elans

Maneads

Xephs (maybe)

LA+ Common Races

Lizardfolk

Goliaths

Dromites



Nonexistant:

Kobolds will not exist at all in this setting.

I have a few ideas for countries within the setting, but no real details yet, and alot of them are pretty cleche'd.

Nations

I know I want a nation in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains and such, accessible only if you know the way in or out. This nation would have be special, something about the area would make spellcasting easier, reducing the cost by half. This one small nation would be totally based around magic, and would resemble a high-magic campaign world.

I kinda like the idea of two evil nations, one where women are worshiped and males are second-class citizens are worse, and one that's the opposite. Instant plot hooks, especially if a small but easily defendable good nation was sandwiched between them and had to endure their attempts to conquer it and the collateral damage as they turn it in a battleground in their fight against eachother.

I want to have a nation or two cut off from the rest that is still in the bronze age, heavily influenced by the ancient greeks or romans, and another cut off from the others elsewhere with an ancient egyptian feel.

I want a third area, one or two nations, three at max, with a middle-eastern feel to them.

I am debating a nation based off the far east, but I'm not sure really, I want to have at least on nation for any campaign a DM could want to run, but idk.... maybe have that as another far excluded from the others.

I want a nation in the midst of an inquisition. I want a nation with a more celtic feel, and six-nine other nations with various european medieval themes, since that's the era and area that I intend for most of the campaigns in this setting to be in.

I also want a nation or a few nations run totally by the most vile evil imaginable, places where demons, devils, and especially undead are commonplace and pretty much run the place.

Gods

I have a list of gods for this place as well. I'm debating though. I kinda want religion to be nearly as, if not more so, as important as alignment in at least several parts of this world, so I want to find some way to entice players to actually choose a god and include that god in their character concept and stuff, but I'm not sure how to do it. I think very small bonuses for having a patron god might work, but I'm worried about giving to many bonuses.... not sure really.

Assumptions about Gods

The follow things I think are going to be true about gods in this world:

-Gods are a race in themselves, they where created by the creator of the multiverse and left in charge by its decree

-There is no true limit to how much divine power can exist, there can technically be unlimited deities.

-Divinity is innate, but can be imparted but can be imparted upon a mortal by certain gods.

-Divine power may be able to be stolen, if one is powerful enough, I'm not sure yet.

-Deities do not mortal worship for power or existence.

-Deities are benevolent, indifferent, or hostile according to their alignment

-Deities used to live their day to day lives among mortals, actively letting it be know who and what they are. They now make their homes away from mortals, and tend to keep themselves generally secret when they do appear among people.

-Deities are still active in the world.

-Deities intercede only when they must, but still tend to take an active interest in their worshipers or mortals they favor.

-Deities are immortal, but they can be killed.

-Deities may share domains or portfolios

-The setup of Deities today is much different than it was millennium ago.

I'll have more to add as I think stuff up. Please give me your comments though, I need help.

Katasi
2008-08-27, 03:09 PM
So noone has any comments or suggestions?

fangthane
2008-08-27, 03:36 PM
You need to hedge around psi a bit, or it gives them an excessively unfair advantage at higher levels. A psion with an ML of 20 can hit someone with 20d6 +20 of cold damage (energy ray) without eating a single bit of vitality damage, whereas a wizard with CL of 20, causing less damage (Polar ray, 20d6), eats 4 points to accomplish it. The psionicist is also more versatile since he can change it to other elements without a feat.

If you were to make the psionicists' penalty base itself on the number of power points consumed by a power use that would be more palatable as it would at least diminish psionics at the same rate as magic; i.e. (points consumed-1)/4, rounded down.

Katasi
2008-08-27, 03:59 PM
You need to hedge around psi a bit, or it gives them an excessively unfair advantage at higher levels. A psion with an ML of 20 can hit someone with 20d6 +20 of cold damage (energy ray) without eating a single bit of vitality damage, whereas a wizard with CL of 20, causing less damage (Polar ray, 20d6), eats 4 points to accomplish it. The psionicist is also more versatile since he can change it to other elements without a feat.

If you were to make the psionicists' penalty base itself on the number of power points consumed by a power use that would be more palatable as it would at least diminish psionics at the same rate as magic; i.e. (points consumed-1)/4, rounded down.

Actually, thinking about it, you're right that would be a better way to do it, I forgot about psionics just increasing the power of 1st level powers.

Lappy9000
2008-08-27, 05:11 PM
Mystic Gnome

I gotta say, the mystic gnomes aren't particularly interesting. You need a bit more than additional racial stat adjustments (which usually just mean more bookwork) and taking out a few things to make them interesting.

Quick question, by "middle-range magic" do you mean normal D&D setting magics?

One more thing, please, please seperate this out with some Bolded text or Underlined stuff. Maybe a spoiler or two. It's just...really hard to read right now.

Katasi
2008-08-27, 05:16 PM
I gotta say, the mystic gnomes aren't particularly interesting. You need a bit more than additional racial stat adjustments (which usually just mean more bookwork) and taking out a few things to make them interesting.

Quick question, by "middle-range magic" do you mean normal D&D setting magics?

One more thing, please, please seperate this out with some Bolded text or Underlined stuff. Maybe a spoiler or two. It's just...really hard to read right now.

Mystic Gnomes are still a work in progress, and I haven't worked out much fluff for them yet, I have a long way to go.

As for middle-range magic, what I mean is that it's not a setting where magic is nonexistant or rare, like some settings that are primarily warrior-only. But you're also not going to find a spellcaster on every block, spellcasters are going to be rarer than in say Forgotten Realms, and the whole "magic replacing or heavily suplimenting technology" thing won't exist. Magic and Tech will be two totally seperate entities in this setting.

Katasi
2008-08-29, 05:42 AM
Ok, I've fixed most of the problems and changed a bunch of things. What does everyone think of what I have so far? Mystic Gnomes are now very unique and have some fluff to. It's not very GOOD fluff, but it's a start.

Lappy9000
2008-08-29, 06:21 AM
It looks much better (literally, thanks for the reformat :smallsmile:)

Mystic Gnomes look cooler, and their talk to animals ia actually useful! However, you may want to specify it a bit, since a gnome could technically communicate freely with a Roc or a Purple Worm. Actually, I'm not really sure. I doubt a creature with an Intelligence of 1 would have that much to say :smallconfused:

I definitely like your cosmology so far, and your take on the magic system as well. Making the vitality points not count until 3rd level was a good idea too. At 3rd level, a mage would probably have 10-12 vitality points, with a max of 16. It may end up punishing sorcerers more, though, since they'd have 11-ish spells at 3rd level as opposed to 7-ish from wizards. I only have a vague understanding of Vitality points (just what's on the SRD), but I believe a spell-caster wouldn't be able to burn through his points entirely on spells, correct?

Katasi
2008-08-29, 06:37 AM
It looks much better (literally, thanks for the reformat :smallsmile:)

Mystic Gnomes look cooler, and their talk to animals ia actually useful! However, you may want to specify it a bit, since a gnome could technically communicate freely with a Roc or a Purple Worm. Actually, I'm not really sure. I doubt a creature with an Intelligence of 1 would have that much to say :smallconfused:

I definitely like your cosmology so far, and your take on the magic system as well. Making the vitality points not count until 3rd level was a good idea too. At 3rd level, a mage would probably have 10-12 vitality points, with a max of 16. It may end up punishing sorcerers more, though, since they'd have 11-ish spells at 3rd level as opposed to 7-ish from wizards. I only have a vague understanding of Vitality points (just what's on the SRD), but I believe a spell-caster wouldn't be able to burn through his points entirely on spells, correct?

I see nothing wrong with them talking to a Roc or a Purple Worm. Prolly wouldn't do them alot of good to talk to the worm, but they can try.

Technically a spellcaster could burn through his vitality points on just spells, but ideally they be more conservative, or have a high enough CON score to help them out. You're right though, the system is harder on sorcerers... I'm not sure what to do about that. It might be good to increase them to a d6 HD for this setting... I'll have to think about it. I'm also thinking something might have to be done about heal spells, I mean potentially the way it's set up, if a cleric or druid or such is trying to heal themselves, they could potentailly end up having it not be worth it.

I'll be gone for about a week soon and when I get back I'll prolly have a ton more ideas for this to post up, so that could help things along alot.

Lappy9000
2008-08-29, 06:59 AM
A d6 should balance out the Sorcerer/Wizard thing (most people go on ahead and do it anyway).

I'm guessing Psionics will be pretty important here, hence the Elans, Maenads, Dromites, and Xephs. That's cool; the only reason why I personally don't like psionics is because it's just another freakin' book I need to buy.

Are you gonna scale down all the characters (like goliaths and lizardfolk) into the eaiser-to-play +0 LA, or are you just gonna do like Forgotten Realms and leave it like that. Oh, and BTW...


Kobolds will not exist at all in this setting.
What? No Pun Pun? :smallfrown:

Katasi
2008-08-29, 08:05 AM
A d6 should balance out the Sorcerer/Wizard thing (most people go on ahead and do it anyway).

I'm guessing Psionics will be pretty important here, hence the Elans, Maenads, Dromites, and Xephs. That's cool; the only reason why I personally don't like psionics is because it's just another freakin' book I need to buy.

Are you gonna scale down all the characters (like goliaths and lizardfolk) into the eaiser-to-play +0 LA, or are you just gonna do like Forgotten Realms and leave it like that. Oh, and BTW...


What? No Pun Pun? :smallfrown:

Think I'm going to leave LA races as they are, least for now, I might change my mind later, but for now.

Lol, and I just don't personally think Kobolds would be that great in this world.... and pun-pun might have a little to do with it to, lol.

Psionics will defiantly have their place, I think I'm going to do it as a magical/psionic co-evolution world, rather than a transparency world.

Earl of Purple
2008-08-29, 08:32 AM
You mentioned that there would be an Egyptian-esque culture. Well, what I would do is mix it up a bit and maybe place them somewhere unexpected, i.e., in the North. But then, it's your campaign world and if you don't want your PCs chased by Mummies through the snow, then OK. Also, how about a nation, or several nations, run by Elementals? Earth in the mountains, Water by the sea, Fire in a desert and Air in a big, flat plain.

Katasi
2008-08-29, 12:56 PM
You mentioned that there would be an Egyptian-esque culture. Well, what I would do is mix it up a bit and maybe place them somewhere unexpected, i.e., in the North. But then, it's your campaign world and if you don't want your PCs chased by Mummies through the snow, then OK. Also, how about a nation, or several nations, run by Elementals? Earth in the mountains, Water by the sea, Fire in a desert and Air in a big, flat plain.

While that would be interesting, I'm not sure how logical it would be for an egyptian like culture to evolve in the north. As for elementals, it might be worth thinking about. I'll have to give it some thought

Lyndworm
2008-08-29, 02:07 PM
Fairly logical if the nation is made up of Cold elementals. Perhaps they have a had time keeping their body temperature regulated in most envirionments, so despite living in some fo the coldest place imaginable it's still like living in Egypt to them. Then the immense sand-dunes would be replaced by snow banks, palmtrees are replaced by evergreens, etc...

If you're not using this, I am.

Zack

Lappy9000
2008-08-29, 02:28 PM
Fairly logical if the nation is made up of Cold elementals. Perhaps they have a had time keeping their body temperature regulated in most envirionments, so despite living in some for the coldest place imaginable it's still like living in Egypt to them. Then the immense sand-dunes would be replaced by snow banks, palmtrees are replaced by evergreens, etc...

If you're not using this, I am.

Chance for a new race :smallwink:
Here's a build I wrote up a while back that I'm not going to be using ever.

* (Size Here): As (Size Here) creatures, (Name Here) have (Size Penalties).
* (Name Here): base land speed is (Foots Here) feet.
* Natural Endurance (Su): The (Name Here) are extremely adaptable to living in (Cold/Warm) environments. Natural Endurance functions as an Endure Elements (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/Endureelements.htm)spell, and lasts infinitely, affecting the individual (Name Here) only. The equipment worn by a (Name Here) is not affected by Natural Endurance.
* Automatic Languages: Common and Language Here. Bonus Languages: More Languages Here.
* Favored Class: (Class Here)
* LA: +0

Anyone can have that if they want. Just throw in some skill bonuses (I'd suggest Survival, Spot, or Listen, maybe Swim), and something else cool (Cantrips/Orisons as supernatural ability, like the gnomes), or Low-Light vision. The spell let's them exist "Comfortably between -50 and 140 degrees Fahrenhe." So you could even have them dress like Egyptians :smallbiggrin:

Katasi
2008-08-29, 03:00 PM
Chance for a new race :smallwink:
Here's a build I wrote up a while back that I'm not going to be using ever.

* (Size Here): As (Size Here) creatures, (Name Here) have (Size Penalties).
* (Name Here): base land speed is (Foots Here) feet.
* Natural Endurance (Su): The (Name Here) are extremely adaptable to living in (Cold/Warm) environments. Natural Endurance functions as an Endure Elements (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/Endureelements.htm)spell, and lasts infinitely, affecting the individual (Name Here) only. The equipment worn by a (Name Here) is not affected by Natural Endurance.
* Automatic Languages: Common and Language Here. Bonus Languages: More Languages Here.
* Favored Class: (Class Here)
* LA: +0

Anyone can have that if they want. Just throw in some skill bonuses (I'd suggest Survival, Spot, or Listen, maybe Swim), and something else cool (Cantrips/Orisons as supernatural ability, like the gnomes), or Low-Light vision. The spell let's them exist "Comfortably between -50 and 140 degrees Fahrenhe." So you could even have them dress like Egyptians :smallbiggrin:

Hmm.... there is something to be said for that. Not sure it really fits the idea that I had in mind, but thinking about it, it would be cool. I think it might call for a few new monsters though, such as a "cold mummy"