Abovebright. Brainstorimng the opposite of Underdark. Join in.

[Wintermoot]

There is a pamphlet style accessory for basic D&D published eons ago called "Top Ballista" (a play on Top Gun) which creates races, classes and optional rules for things like fighter planes for a sky-based campaign. DUnno if you can find a pdf for it or not, but might be worth a look.

I like the idea of gnome and goblin cities in among the cloudscape, using technology to create planes, hydrofoils and floating barge-cities.

Top Ballista has sphinxes, tabi, gremlins and other races I don't remember except fuzzily.

Assumming cloud giants are the kings and god-emperors of Overbright, then I would think they could populate the place with races they create or kidnap and modify to serve their needs.

I am reminded of the Golden Goose from jack and the beanstalk and imagine some golden skinned goose related swanmay race.

[LibraryOgre]

I keep thinking of this as taking place at the "top" of Elemental Air, up near Lightning and Radiance.

[Quizatzhaderac]

One of the defining characteristics of the underdark is that you can't see everything you'd like to, so I think a good characteristic of the AboveBright would be that things can see you that you don't want seeing you.

Maybe there's some kind of lawful-stupid force (I'll call it the Oculi) and the party needs to remain unnoticed. It's definitely not good (as a typical good and lawful-ish) party would be their enemies. Maybe sort of an insane "law for the sake of law" thing; that's fine-ish on a day to day basis, but terrible in exceptional circumstances. Stupid because we don't want to make this too hard and the Oculi are already powerful. Maybe make most of the Oculi non-sapient automatons.

A toe-to-toe fight with the Oculi is clearly impossible, except maybe at the campaign climax.

In the cities you must act civilized, or being too conspicuous. Discussing anything illegal has to be done indirectly "A violent death is the last thing I'd want to happen to the Oculi.

In the field the party needs to move within clouds, or at night, or below decks on an airship.

For dungeons and big fights, the party needs to jam the Oculi's communications, prevent runners, so that the party doesn't aggro the main army.

Unrelated idea
Some precious, single use items to let you recover from "falling off".

A big chance of falling and dying or having so much travel time the character is out of the adventure isn't fun; having the heights not be an issue like the ground is boring.

Make it hard enough that the party will use some, and thus believe that falling is a real hazard.

[brian 333]

I like the idea of being more visible. Creatures native to Abovebright could emulate that with bonuses to spot and perhaps doubled search radius. I would not penalize Hide abilities because non-native player characters and NPCs should remain the same relative to each other.

I also think that creatures native to Abovebright should have long-distance vision. Perhaps double or even quadruple their spotting distance.

Powerful magic item property: Cloudwalking
Cloud walking allows the user to treat any cloud as a surface which can be walked on normally. Whether vertical, horizontal, or upside down, the Cloudwalker feels like he is walking on normal ground. Items in his possession also feel as if they weigh what they would on normal ground, but once released, the item responds to actual gravity. An item dropped by a Cloudwalker who is ascending a vertical cloud-face may be surprised to see the object fly off sideways, from his PoV.

Moderately powerful magical property: Bouncing

An item imbued with this property forces the wearer who is falling for more than 10 feet to bounce back to his point of origin. Unfortunately, this applies even to characters who intentionally jump. Failing a Reflex throw causes the bounced character to make a sloppy landing, with d6 damage.

Moderately powerful magical property: Floating

This property prevents a character from falling by causing him to slowly float back to the level from which he fell, considering the height of the bottoms of his feet to be 'sea level'. It affords no ability to move on the horizontal plane. Towing, pushing, or otherwise causing the character to move will work, but about 1/10th of the character's weight, (including worn gear,) is enough to cause the character to sink. So, for example, a character who weighs 180 pounds, who is wearing a 50 pound backpack full of adventuring gear, can hold a 23 pound bowling ball in his hands, but with a 24 pound bowling ball the character falls like a one-pound object.

Weak magical property: Cloudy Landing
Invoking this property causes the character to fall toward the nearest cloud. The character may move 1 ft horizontally for every six feet of falling. If the character falls more than 360 feet and there are no clouds upon which to land, a 6' diameter cloud will form at that level. Landing on any other surface inflicts normal falling damage, but landing on a cloud inflicts 1/6 of normal falling damage when this property is active.

[Deepbluediver]

There are two types of clouds, normal mist like clouds and solid floating ones. The second one is what the cloud islands are made from, Only the cloud giants still remember how to make them. It is a solid gel that floats and likes to stick together. It attracts real clouds so it has a mist around it all the time. You can safely build a house or a road on it.

If you're going to have "solid clouds" why not just have "floating islands" instead? The science (or magi-tek or whatever) seems like it would be equally squishy either way.

https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/05/55/17/31...1aUEBeex5e.jpg
https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets...jpg?1682264482
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qi...e3abe4df5-pjlq

[brian 333]

If you're going to have "solid clouds" why not just have "floating islands" instead? The science (or magi-tek or whatever) seems like it would be equally squishy either way.

https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/05/55/17/31...1aUEBeex5e.jpg
https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets...jpg?1682264482
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qi...e3abe4df5-pjlq

The idea as I understand it is to have the appearance of clouds. Floating islands have a different aesthetic.

Positive Energy Animated Dead
Unlike typical undead, these beings are not animated by Negative Energy. Positive Energy heals them in the same way that Negative Energy heals typical undead, and Negative Energy harms them. Unlike typical undead, Animated Dead are not attracted to darkness. Instead, they prefer intense light and shadowless locations.

In most other ways they conform to the equivalent undead type. Skeletons, zombies, ghouls, etc. act pretty much the same whether undead or animated dead. Animated Wights would have a toxic mist rather than the stench of the grave, but the effect is the same. Vampires still consume blood, mummies still inflict a rotting disease, and so on.

The more powerful have eyes that glow white or blue, and instead of darkness, those types able to cast it or which have it as a supernatural ability instead cast Blinding Brightness, which has effects similar to darkness. Creatures with Brightvision see normally in the area of effect, and creatures with low light vision are blinded by the effects of this spell.

The Anti-lich's Lair

From a distance this ordinary looking cloud appears to be a cumulonimbus type, flickering with lightning and drenching the lands beneath it with heavy rainfall. Its upper layers reach high above its base into the upper sky.

Its lower layers are an ever-shifting maze of corridors and vaults filled with rain and mist, and inhabited by mist and lightning elementals.

Above this are more stable layers with more regularly shaped rooms and corridors. These layers are inhabited by lesser forms of Animated Dead, often animated from the remains of ogres and giants. More common are the medium-sized Animated Dead, but flying creatures either fly badly or not at all due to decomposition.

In the upper levels nine Animated Dead vampires and their spawn lead rival armies of undead against one another in an endless flow of dominance, alliance, and betrayal.

Atop all of this an anti-lich rules with callous indifference to the plight of its subjects. In addition to an army of undead at its beck and call, it wields powerful magicks and has control over the shape and movement of the cloud. Those who offend the anti-lich find their armies trapped in zones with no exit, or discover the floor vanishing beneath his feet.