Worldbuilding Talk Thread

[Tzi]

ah, those kinds of players, the dm's bane sort, and darn so close yet so far lol, and hmm, maybe ill whip up a fun shop keeper or something that you could add in for them to undoubtedly forget during battle, hehe, the first time anyway, oh i feel like remaking Ol' Waltr, hmm... ive got some typing and modernizing to do

To give a rough overview, the province they are in is a mostly hinterland far flung territory. It had been settled a few times but bad weather and flooding made the land difficult in the early years.

Currently the western areas are either awash in a mysterious flesh eating disease that seems to aid some horrid necromancy cult, there are a few surviving villages and towns but their means of survival are suspect, one openly worships a strange God and many in the town are now Tieflings. Others have becomes horridly xenophobic. Others have turned towards a shadowy cabal of alleged "Doctors," whom use blood magic and show some peculiar aversion to sunlight XD

The East is in the wash of revolution. The eastern countries population has been swept up by a rebellion of the workers unions and trade guilds ever since a mining accident. Currently the whole government in the east is ruled by the "Peoples Front," which seized power at the onset of Winter, but is struggling to keep people fed as the anarchy of rebellion left grain stores low and the railroad line out to the nearest ports of civilization will not be open till Spring.

The north has the "Elf Hold," which consists of Dark, High and Wild Elf settlements sharing the same forest and have decided to seal themselves off from the outside due to the plague.

[infinitetech]

oh yeah, definitely rebooting Ol' Waltr, cool setting, lots of intrigue potential there, just curious, but what are the gnomes and dwarves doing during this? they seem like the kinds that would split with half hermetically sealing themselves in Fallout style Vaults and the other half being one with the darkness that dwells in this land, just something that came to mind

[Tzi]

oh yeah, definitely rebooting Ol' Waltr, cool setting, lots of intrigue potential there, just curious, but what are the gnomes and dwarves doing during this? they seem like the kinds that would split with half hermetically sealing themselves in Fallout style Vaults and the other half being one with the darkness that dwells in this land, just something that came to mind

Most Dwarves actually live in semi-nomadic bands. In my world the Dwarves are very Slavic/Central-Asia/Mongolian oriented. Gnomes are actually very gypsy like and settle in coastal villages near sea caves. Most of the world is "fine," or the settled areas are fine. The province the characters are in are part of the greater "Vespis Dominion" Which basically is the far West and north West of the mapped world.

Keldra, or the Keldra Peninsula is technically on the mainland but is heavily isolated by intense mountain ranges so most access is via ship and a narrow coastal road that gets washed out in the rain seasons of late Fall and Winter. The region basically had a mine accident and then a series of labor riots and the Voxograph line went offline and the overland road was damaged in a series of landslides as winters storms set in. The whole province was cut off for a month so nobody in the outside world knew what was going on and decided they needed to send in an ironclad vessel to investigate.

The party was basically sent to give a message to the Provincial capital and see how extensive the labor violence was since the port town they landed in was completely empty. And it wasn't vacated in an orderly fashion like people on the coast fleeing a typhoon, but in a hasty abandon with houses left unlocked and even meal plates still set.

[infinitetech]

interesting, makes Ol' Waltr even more handy, quite the new take same with gnomes?

ooh, very cool, i know places like that

huh, sounds like an invite for fun to me

[Tzi]

interesting, makes Ol' Waltr even more handy, quite the new take same with gnomes?

ooh, very cool, i know places like that

huh, sounds like an invite for fun to me

Currently setting up a campaign journal

The party experiences the wonders of diseases.... revolutions... and leisurely jaunts in HorrorLand. XD

[infinitetech]

welcome to my carnival, ignore the creeps and crawls and skitters, something to see for all, i guarantee thine shivers.
walk on in to horror land, a place for us to play, breath of ice or head of sand, we shall enjoy your stay.
enter now the side show, for 'bove rides an' 'blow lines, doth the ticket man wait, walk with friends all in tow, eyes o' window panes.
here the temple of 'phant an' clown, a garish shadowy place, will forever continue to tumble down, against itself in race.
on through you wander, look around with sight un filtered, see yet another wonder, miss the path as it splintered.
stay in our home, become a bit of family, for close shall the lions gate, upon a step from da' lome, a dining set we do prepare oh so very readily.

HeHeheheheHeheHehe

[Tzi]

Creating a Secret Police,

In the East Counties trouble is brewing. Mainly among the newly formed Government and its fear of panic and hysteria the plague in the west and the rumors of food shortages before the winter months end.

Chancellor Hilda Van Honecker (If you get the reference in that name I'll be stoked. XD ) is allowing the creation of the "Security Service," which will mostly ensure nobody hordes grain and food stuffs. Makes sure their are no provincial authority or International spies trying to cause trouble in this vulnerable time, and police and monitor rogue elements (adventurers probably).

As an element of terror, I find having a secret police force faction to be really effective against the party and CAN really help add to the drama of the party. Currently in my campaign the Dark Elf Paladin has been "honey trapped." He is gay, in a time period and social climate of anxiety about homosexuals and many natalist cults and political ideologies, homosexuality is at present in the world considered deviance/mental illness/sinful depending on the community. He had thought he had found a boyfriend/lover.... it turned out that he had given Staats Sicherheit or "Security Service" dirt on himself and he was told to either be an informer OR face a lifetime spent in a mental asylum.

Does anyone else use they sorts of organizations? Secret Police? Spy rings? Ect.

[thethird]

I do have a secret police in my setting.

The First Republic, the kingdom characterized by it, was strongly influenced by Plato's Republic (it is also strongly based on the Roman and Chinese Empire) and is extremely utilitarian. Children are raised communally without knowing who their direct progenitors are in order to ensure that the whole community takes care of them, while they are raised they will be highly educated and trained. The citizens believe that the First Republic is objectively right in a manner that is apparent, and that the path to better the Republic status is intrinsic to the individual. I.e. by doing what you are taught to do well everyone benefits and in doing so you are at ease and happier.

There are of course those that do not bide well in such a system. If those are detected early, i.e. when they are kids, it is not a problem. Their individualistic skills can be useful to the Republic. The mob can benefit from people capable of thinking out of the box. Those are known literally as "problem solvers" for they can give a solution. (They are the secret police)

Unfortunately if those individualistic needs arise at an old age it can be a failing of the system. And a failing of the system is something unthinkable, the Republic simply works. So people could be branded as "problems to be solved" requiring the intervention of the secret police. Fortunately for them the similarity of their situation isn't lost on the oldest/wisest members of the secret police who find it funny and terrifying in equal measure and try to implement non lethal solutions. Young problem solvers could be playing a game of Paranoia for all they care.

[Tzi]

Mine is currently inspired mostly by the East German Stasi... heck it even has the same name. "Staats Sicherheit"

Mine though exists with a more limited scope and more recent invention. Chancellor Hilda effectively is the leader of the "Popular Front," which is a collection of Trade and Worker Unions in this one rural province/Colony State. Her 5 Counties that are in revolt and under her defacto government are the Freestatt or "Freie Völker Sozialistischen Republik" (Free Peoples Socialist Republic) the FVSR is directly controlled by a Senate of Trade Union representatives.

This new nation is only really three months old and the Security Service was created on the first week mainly to root out spies after retreating Colony State militia confiscated grain from store houses and left the area with little food. It turned out a few agents had gone turn coat and surrendered the grain. Also the agency exists to make sure nobody hordes food during the new countries first winter.

However Hilda has grown concerned about adventurers (The players as an example) And to some extent the Security Service has been infiltrated by a handful of spies working for a not yet encountered Vampire cult based in the western counties that fell to the mysterious fleshing eating plague. Hilda also has the Security Service policing information about the western plague... though her reasoning is the prevention of panic and hysteria over it.

The new nation is paranoid about its longevity, worried about spies in its midst and concerned about their survival after the winter and if they can fight reinforcements brought in once the sea lanes open up after Typhoon season.

[White Blade]

I'm curious as to whether or not anyone has tried non-ethical (as in, not an ethical issue) cult or philosophical schools as a major alternative to what most people mean by religion.

What I mean is this: In ancient Rome, there were philosophical schools that dominated the moral landscape and, in some cases, provided the equivalent of physics or the sciences in terms of world understanding. But there were also major cults - The cult of the emperor or Zeus, for example, but also various mystery religions. Few of these cults provided any kind of moral framework. When Christianity and Judaism explained themselves, they defined themselves as philosophies, though they had cultic elements.

So I'm thinking of doing a world where things divvy down along these lines. Public worship might call down mighty acts by the gods, but these are rare moments, no less notable than miracles in our own world. Arcane practitioners are the learned men, studying and seeking to understand the universe and mortal function - The philosophers (The Confuciuses, the Aristotles, Xenos and Socrateses). The clerics are the initiates of the mystery cults - Mystics without a moral binding who draw on the secret names, powers, and investiture of the gods. And the Druids, concerned with harmony, are the moral religion.

Functional?

[Tzi]

Actually that is very interesting and I THINK I've got a similar pattern when it comes to religion/philosophy/cult ect.

Part of my world is the fact that secularism and rationalism have a foothold in popular culture.

Much of it being very ethnic/racially oriented.

The Elves particularly have an elaborate mythology of Titans, Gods and Great Spirits but tend to FOLLOW the teachings of philosophers and such.

For example in my world the Drow have several schools of Philosophical, Spiritual and Cultic thought. There exists the teachings of Lolth, Eilistraee and Kiaransalee, Vhaeraun ect. I simply re-purposed the Faerun pantheon into historical figures and changed more than a few elements of their nature. Drow in my setting are incredible different. However all of them spoke on the proper relationship between mortals and Gods and the Divine are interspersed with their more philosophical writings. Today most Drow live by traditional Eilistraeen Virtues oriented around Family, Honor, Motherhood ect. Lolths virtues however colored Eilistraee who re-emphasized the first great Drow poets strong commitment to ideas around community over the self. Monastic schools and temples exist specifically for housing their teaching and beliefs in communion with them. With various Drow over the eons to either claim to be re-incarnated spirits of these philosophers OR to be divine servants.

Drow GODS on the other hand are very much similar to traditional Elven religion in general. With the exception that Rune stones and Earth deities play a huge role. For example their religion has much in common with Shinto and a lot of Folk witchcraft customs. The Black Widow, the Fox Demon, The Bat, the Rat, ect, these totemic spirits have their own shrines and figure heavily in legends and lore of traditional Drow culture. Then there is the pan-Elven pantheon of Titans which all Elves share.

[infinitetech]

i have run such things before, they are good, and they can work, the biggest issue is getting most players to understand them, but yes, the mad menagerie of medically misappropriating mathematicians can be a cult

[...]

Here's a gripe I've had for a while:

Villains and monsters are unoriginal.

About half of the antagonists I've seen have one of these three goals:

-Obtain power
-Keep their power
and the most cliched one of all:
-Kill/mess with people for no reason

I'm not even counting monsters who want to kill the PCs because they want to eat them. These are just intelligent monsters that kill people for the sake of killing people. I'm sick of having the latest Monster Manual be filled with monsters that have the same goal that Godzilla does: Destroy this nearby city because they feel like it. Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?

[Alent]

Here's a gripe I've had for a while:

Villains and monsters are unoriginal.

About half of the antagonists I've seen have one of these three goals:

-Obtain power
-Keep their power
and the most cliched one of all:
-Kill/mess with people for no reason

I'm not even counting monsters who want to kill the PCs because they want to eat them. These are just intelligent monsters that kill people for the sake of killing people. I'm sick of having the latest Monster Manual be filled with monsters that have the same goal that Godzilla does: Destroy this nearby city because they feel like it. Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?

As a simulationist, I have this problem. I'm working on a campaign where it's more or less just a survival sandbox world where all the monsters are part of a functional ecology, and there's an underlying economy simulation that drives more realistic faction conflicts. In working on this, I've discovered the reason we have cliche villains and monsters are that such things are easy and require a very minimal amount of knowledge to get right, where the approach I'm taking requires lots of knowledge and homebrew.

I'm planning on asking for help with it as soon as I get it into a more presentational format, but that in itself is kind of intimidating.

Actually, on that note... there's also a fair amount of system tweaks that have gone with it, so I've been wondering... should I post the system tweaks, modified and original classes, etc in homebrew and the setting here in worldbuilding, all of it here, or all of it in homebrew?

[Tzi]

Here's a gripe I've had for a while:

Villains and monsters are unoriginal.

About half of the antagonists I've seen have one of these three goals:

-Obtain power
-Keep their power
and the most cliched one of all:
-Kill/mess with people for no reason

I'm not even counting monsters who want to kill the PCs because they want to eat them. These are just intelligent monsters that kill people for the sake of killing people. I'm sick of having the latest Monster Manual be filled with monsters that have the same goal that Godzilla does: Destroy this nearby city because they feel like it. Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?

Currently my "Villains," are slightly less villainous or at the very least only morally grey save for a few. I've had to really WORK at villain crafting to make them all the more interesting,

Hilda Van Honecker: Middle Aged half elf grandmother / leader of the seamstress union and now defacto leader of a 1 and a half month old socialist republic. Faced with an impending food crisis before winter ends, potential political rivals that she feels may threaten the revolution, paranoia about spies, and a plague on the western fringes of the new nation... She has done things she did not think herself capable. She established a Secret Police Force to terrorize enemies, black mail people into cooperation, and may soon be forced to decide which of her people lives and die in order to make precious resources last for in the Spring the counter-revolution and its armies will come.

Bertold Daggonath: Half-Orc male, former left hand of the Lumberjack union, now head minister of Hilda's new Security Service. He staffs an orderly command center, working with meticulous attention to detail. He acts with unending loyalty to Hilda, carrying out orders and ensuring the defense of the new Country absolutely. From a ring of spies scattered throughout, to secret police cars doing illegal detentions from the shadows. His view is that this fragile nation needs extreme measures to preserve the "Seeds of the Revolution so it may flower in the spring."

Morian Wolscroft: Human man, with a thrill for conjuring, occult, and summoning. When the mysterious plague ravaged the land he suspected his former colleague Hartlib was behind it. His home town, desperate to not be consumed by the disease turned to his summons and the miracles he had gotten before. In pure desperation he found his town a new God.... but may have gotten more then he... or the little town of Ervin bargained for. He was simply a curious man with a Quiji board who let things get out of hand.

Cassandra Grady: Human female born sterile and unable to conceive. When she, Wolscraft and Hartlib discovered the alien ruins she latched onto the wondrous medicine and blood magic within. Her ill health had plagued her, so her research in blood magic allowed her to heal herself, becoming an artificial vampire through Alchemy. Her and all her "Children," in the hospital she lead were healed by the miraculous powers of modern Alchemy. But now there is a need to feed.

Samuel Hartlib: Human man, and probably the most simplistic villain of all of mine. He simply does crave power and a sort of immortality and godlike omniscience. His mind however involves creating a new sort of life, an unlife. His Necromancy grows and grows as he seeks means to store his soul and live forever. He thought is the most driven mad by the alien relics he found. Its possible his mind isn't his own anymore.

[infinitetech]

it is very hard to avoid those without a book of notes, subsystems made for intrigue, and so forth, i have done them before... and pcs like to hack right through them 87% of the time give or take, but if you want some simple ideas look back at the OD&D or AD&D quests, they usually had good tips for interactions in the fluff and you can expand on such ideas pretty easily, i would say post the topic in its own thread but give a link on here, btw i build ecologies and interlinked biomes all the time so if you want help id me more than happy, great character synopsis, so you have the foreman, the blooded revolutionary, the daemon's pawn, the parasite, and the eternal night, great way to translate literary enemy types to D&D!! :-)

[Tzi]

it is very hard to avoid those without a book of notes, subsystems made for intrigue, and so forth, i have done them before... and pcs like to hack right through them 87% of the time give or take, but if you want some simple ideas look back at the OD&D or AD&D quests, they usually had good tips for interactions in the fluff and you can expand on such ideas pretty easily, i would say post the topic in its own thread but give a link on here, btw i build ecologies and interlinked biomes all the time so if you want help id me more than happy, great character synopsis, so you have the foreman, the blooded revolutionary, the daemon's pawn, the parasite, and the eternal night, great way to translate literary enemy types to D&D!! :-)

Yes, Well, even then theres a few sub villains.

Tzietel and Rya Lavitz were once students under Wolscroft but went their own separate ways. Blending his Occultic summoning and conjuring with a few bits and pieces of Necromancy to summon powerful spirits. But in short they are just Witch sisters whom when Wolscrofts Demon worshiping village came knocking they Knocked him back with their "Dybbuk," and their own powerful coven. Their names giving it away, I have developed many cultures and nationalities. The Lavitz sisters being the Kesselites or Kesselim. A fairly blatant stand in for Ashkenazic Jewish culture.... though Kesselim from what I gather is apparently a Yiddish word for talisman for ritual magic. I read a bit about it when I got very inspired by the legend of the Dybbuk Box which is an internet folklore/ghost story thats circulated around since forever, Paranormal Encounters (? Maybe thats the name) Ran an episode on it and there was a movie made inspired by it.

Hilda belongs to the Klietzlandic cultural group.... mainly a German/Dutch inspired people.

I'm known to be good at two or three things.... Culture, knowing my way around horror, and History.

So far my players aren't even sure who is an enemy except Hartlib. They know for sure Hartlibs a bad guy from their perspective. The town of Ervin they know is bad.... but they've yet to encounter or even hear of Wolscroft. Currently they are working for Hilda, having met the Lavitz sisters, zero knowledge of Grady and her crew and don't yet know for sure of the Security Service.

Most of the party has decided that they regret ever taking this post. XD

[...]

As a simulationist, I have this problem. I'm working on a campaign where it's more or less just a survival sandbox world where all the monsters are part of a functional ecology, and there's an underlying economy simulation that drives more realistic faction conflicts. In working on this, I've discovered the reason we have cliche villains and monsters are that such things are easy and require a very minimal amount of knowledge to get right, where the approach I'm taking requires lots of knowledge and homebrew.

I'm planning on asking for help with it as soon as I get it into a more presentational format, but that in itself is kind of intimidating.

Actually, on that note... there's also a fair amount of system tweaks that have gone with it, so I've been wondering... should I post the system tweaks, modified and original classes, etc in homebrew and the setting here in worldbuilding, all of it here, or all of it in homebrew?

I'd either post it in worldbuilding or on a homebrew thread much like the one for crossroads monsters.

[Tzi]

I'm debating making someone out to be a new villain, or at least MAYBE an anti-hero.

Spoiler: Trisha Van Tassel Backstory

Show

Trisha Van Tassel is a 3rd level Eldritch Knight, and is now effectively a Dhampir or Alchemical Vampire. Artificially made this way by the wonders of modern Alchemy. She was "healed," of her previous condition when the party accidentally allowed her to become infected with a flesh eating disease that would have risen her as a zombie. Much of her youthful body was permanently scarred, buckled and she was left crippled.

The players made it back to the eastern territories, now ruled over by the "Popular Front," government which after the players informed the Inner Party of the disease and the necromancer cult in the west, they looked over poor Trisha and became horrified by yet another threat to their already fragile newborn socialist revolution. (In world context, they are the first successful one). Trisha is given a modest pension and a clerical job as a secretary out of pity. There she meets a spy ring, working for a faction IN the plaguelands that offers her better medical treatment for her wounds. After all the kind she could get here was very little as supplies and medicine were low throughout the winter.

Her contacts smuggled her out of the country and west to a Sanitarium. The players meanwhile found a new NPC to tag along (The Popular Front supplied them with a rogue) and they now did the bidding of the Red Army. At the hospital the party finds few noticeable undead save for those as test subjects. However many people, including Doctors and Nurses have discolored pale skin, grey blotches here and there, and most have greyish/white or platinum hair in spite of age or apparent race. But they all seem incredibly healthy. They discover Dr. Grady and her Alchemy can cure and reverse Cancer, regenerate the crippled and she appears to be a Miracle worker.

The party makes a deal with Grady to get her to supply the Red Army and the Eastern Bloc with her excess grain IN EXCHANGE the party must find 30 healthy adults between the ages of 16-35 and bring them here. Before the party leaves they encounter the badly scarred and crippled Trisha being wheeled in, giving a large stack of cash to the nurses as payment for treatment, the party wishes her well but has ill feelings about the nature of the "Treatment." The party heads west to the territorial capital which has walled itself off from the rest of the territory for the winter. They manage to scale the walls and eventually make contact with a cell of the "Popular Front," supporters in National Militia stronghold. In exchange for crates of explosives they will have on of their agents inside the Militia lead thirty Military Police to the Sanitarium outside the walls. The party agrees and returns to the hospital in the Plague Lands.

Trisha is then encountered by the party when they return. Her treatment has allegedly gone well. Though they note she is tied down to her bed, and in a "coma," but one very active coma. She writhes in a dream state, thrusting her hips, hissing, clenching her teeth, she kicks in her bed. The Doctors explain its a natural part of the process and continue to give her syringes of strange substances. Her skin begins to discolor, but the scar tissue rapidly recedes. Her hair fades to a white greyscale color. Eventually the party sees 29 soldiers on stretchers being wheeled in, the party (Particularly its gravely concerned cleric) worries about their fate as a nurse explains they must have been attacked "By someone" whom used nerve gas. The Party cleric goes to find Trisha only to find she is gone. A nurse explains she has been awakened and taken to a holding room till she "gets her senses."

Trisha eventually stumbles back to her hospital room. She has been given new clothes, a nice button up dress, though very short, only going down to her thighs, and beneath that a simple long sleeve black dress that goes down to her knees. Well made argyle knee high socks, and a nice pair of brown polished dress shoes and a cloche hat hat to adorn her now gray white hair.
She now has a pair of fangs, which are slightly stained red. Under her fingernails there are flecks of red, and her breath smells awful. But she seems to be in a delirious daze. Rubbing her skin and easily distracted by lights, smells and sounds. The horrified cleric asks while putting her abbot on "Are you okay? What happened?"

Trisha "I don't know... the next thing I remember was being naked standing over some soldier. His throat ripped out and I was covered in blood...." * She laughs * "It smelled good...." * She collapses onto a chair. * "Did I **** him? Did I eat him? I don't know.... everything great. I'm great.... not a scar on me."

Now... that is how the session ended and the final state of Trisha. I'm debating, should Trisha go villain? Anti-Hero? Deranged NPC?
There seems to be a lot of directions I could take her.

[infinitetech]

hhmmm, good starting point, what about deranged antihero, kinda Dead Pool meets Scarlet Witch, she tries to attack the evil forces, but the taste of blood is so, so tempting... have her randomly switch sides/go nuts but be useful most the time and generally good-hearted/joking/thirsty/confused

[Tzi]

hhmmm, good starting point, what about deranged antihero, kinda Dead Pool meets Scarlet Witch, she tries to attack the evil forces, but the taste of blood is so, so tempting... have her randomly switch sides/go nuts but be useful most the time and generally good-hearted/joking/thirsty/confused

She may have the opportunity. The players aren't aware but Hilda's government is willing to cut a deal with Grady and her faction. Trisha may find work as part of the "Security Service," were she will have all the temptations in the world to do bad things.

But also have the power to save the players hides more than once should they run afoul of Hilda and the new government.

[infinitetech]

have you ever read the call of Cthulhu rule book's spell list? there are a couple that might be very... appropriate for Grady to be introducing into the questioning technique repertoire, certain dark alchemical means of getting answers...

[akma]

I'm thinking of developing a world building work process based on themes: each thing will need to have a certain minimal number of themes, and each thing within it will have those themes and another few (and rarely contradict a theme of the thing it is contained within).

For example, I decided that each campaign setting will have at least 5 themes. Each country will have 3 themes of it's own, and each city will have 2 additional themes (making it 10 or more themes for each city). I'm also thinking of making it a rule that every thing, no matter how small, must have at least 2 themes of it's own. The number of minimal themes will be based on importance and size.

My most fleshed out setting is full of completly isolated city-states, so I feel that each of them should be full enough to be able to host an entire campaign. I found that if I had at least 3 themes and at least 3 moral values making up other stuff for the city became very easy.

[Tzi]

I'm thinking of developing a world building work process based on themes: each thing will need to have a certain minimal number of themes, and each thing within it will have those themes and another few (and rarely contradict a theme of the thing it is contained within).

For example, I decided that each campaign setting will have at least 5 themes. Each country will have 3 themes of it's own, and each city will have 2 additional themes (making it 10 or more themes for each city). I'm also thinking of making it a rule that every thing, no matter how small, must have at least 2 themes of it's own. The number of minimal themes will be based on importance and size.

My most fleshed out setting is full of completly isolated city-states, so I feel that each of them should be full enough to be able to host an entire campaign. I found that if I had at least 3 themes and at least 3 moral values making up other stuff for the city became very easy.

That is an interesting method? Might you re-use themes? Or are theme's to be separate?

I like the idea, but You might want to create maybe Links or Threads as well for some areas. For me, the whole setting existed largely to give context to the handful of regions I actually intended to use as D&D quest areas. While the territory is about a fourth of the worlds landmass, only about 4 actual geographic areas are developed to be playable areas. The rest exists as background set pieces basically for the players or to explain the origins of peoples and languages.

The main reason is my worlds modernity makes isolation... true isolation very difficult. Granted it happens easily for temporary spats of time but the presences of electricity, a quasi-telegraph/text message service, automobiles, blimps, ect make true self contained city states impossible. People have a lot of other people to deal with.

[infinitetech]

instead of all being isolation how about there are 2 or 3 "interaction themes" between each group, form a tribe of kobalds up to a city, this way you could have ignored, angry, annoyed, pittied, friendly, worshiped, trades with, coveted, or others

[...]

kinda Deadpool meets Scarlet Witch

Oh, god. I didn't even read the spoiler, and I don't even think the monster even qualifies, but oh, god.

[infinitetech]

Oh, god. I didn't even read the spoiler, and I don't even think the monster even qualifies, but oh, god.

hey, at least it hasn't stolen slapstick's powers yet

[Tzi]

hey, at least it hasn't stolen slapstick's powers yet

Which monster?

[infinitetech]

started from my comment on possible role/personality change of the new character, it went off the rails

[Tzi]

started from my comment on possible role/personality change of the new character, it went off the rails

I've thought more on it. She will be somewhat of an anti-hero.

Trisha becomes more manic and predatory. However her position within the Secret Police will grant the party needed cover or a means of escape should they have to run afoul of the Government. She could get them out of jail.... At a price.