[3dom]

Blurb
The world is offically screwed over. The "uncommon" humanoid races happen to have a few chosen ones. They have visions. Problem is, your one of them. Your families, tribes and towns belive you, but they cant do jack. In the big Port, Jans mirrod (pronounced JAN-CE MIROTD), NO ONE BELIVES YOU. And, given they hold some of the wisest councel, you look really crazy right about now. You go to drown your sorrows at the local pub and try and try to land a one-night-stand, when you find a bunch of guys in the same position. (The visions and deppressions, not the needing to get laid.). No-one belives them either, so you unite do do something about it.

The main "Prequistites" to play this would be the following (provided from the content posted over time & approved by me, ladyofdragons and someone else) :
1:No "common" races e.g: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Half elf, Half orc. Instead using selected (from a range of (hopefully) 8-10 races) races e.g: Githanki, Duregar (grey dwarf), Orc, Half Elf/Orc
,any others that are thought up and approved.
2: Minimum of 4 players + DM or GM, what ever you choose to call him/her.
3: Good sense of humor.
4: No restriction on Alignments e.g CG working with LE so on so forth.

How does it sound? Please respond though the poll or replying.

From:
3dom.

[Dthclaw]

You'd have to expound more upon the "visions" thing before I can help you with any content. Otherwise we'd just be flapping our gums (this is obviously the more important aspect of the campaign, hence it affects everything else, hence we need to know more details).

Responses to specific points:

1- Either Half-Elf/Orc is or isn't viable. I can help you with races, having inserted a few homebrew into my own campaign. Finally, look at Mythic Races (a Legends and Lairs book), they have a lot of "uncommon" races.

2- K.

3- Alcoholism and humor? Not a very good basis for a good humor game.

4- The only problem I see is with paladins. It'll take a very, very good explanation as to why its OK for a paladin to work with an assassin, for example.

[Rintaran]

I agree with Dthclaw, you're going to have to expand a lot on this beginning idea before we can really have much of an idea of what it is you're looking for. You're also going to have to expand on what you mean by the races having a few chosen ones, and how exactly it is that they are special. What are the effects of being a chosen one? How do you know you're a chosen one? Why would a chosen one want to do something outside of their normal racial activities?

1. Why don't you just say humanoid monster characters only?
2. It's a small group, but nothing against that.
3. Define "a good sense of humour". I've a great sense of humour, for puns and groaners. Can dig those out quick and easy. But that isn't what everyone considers a good sense of humour.
4. I see the same problem as Dthclaw. The paladins are always a hitch.

[3dom]

*ahem* World will be screwed if you dont do anything about it!They will HAVE to work together!
& 2nd note, We will expand on everything once we start making content! Duh.

P.S: Half orc Half elf could work, provided you found out what parts of each culture were put into the mixed race. Also, you dont end up having a chance to get drunk cause before you order, you find out about the others. The guys that got there first might have had a few, but made their saves (DC5 for human beer and ale, DC10 for elven wine and DC15 for dwarven spirits, failure resulting in being sickened for 1d4 rounds. Each drink after that rasies the DC by 1, no matter what drinks you drink, stronger, or weaker.(information supplied by Dragon #338))

[Dthclaw]

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*ahem* World will be screwed if you dont do anything about it!They will HAVE to work together! & 2nd note, We will expand on everything once we start making content! Duh

Whoa, cart's before the horse here. You must have some basic idea of what you're thinking of, you can't just pull a random assortment of stuff out and glue it together. Why's the world screwed, what do they have to do, and why do they specifically have to work together. You've obviously got something cooking in your mind, so cough it up and we'll get to work. You can't build a skyscraper without building the foundation first.

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P.S: Half orc Half elf could work, provided you found out what parts of each culture were put into the mixed race.

Ok, you didn't quite make it clear that you were talking about an Orc/Elf hybrid. We were thinking that you were short-hand referencing Half-Elves and Half-Orcs.

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Also, you dont end up having a chance to get drunk cause before you order, you find out about the others. The guys that got there first might have had a few, but made their saves (DC5 for human beer and ale, DC10 for elven wine and DC15 for dwarven spirits, failure resulting in being sickened for 1d4 rounds. Each drink after that rasies the DC by 1, no matter what drinks you drink, stronger, or weaker.(information supplied by Dragon #338))

Minor detail, needs major details before the little ones. Need a superstructure before you start decorating the tower, mon.

[3dom]

Side note: We will also want stats for drow too.

Fine then. Here is the main jist of the visions that the PC'S saw:

The sun shines no-more, for it is coated in darkness.A great Sorcerer stands atop a mountain at the edge of the continent, though you cannot see who it is clearly. There is panic in the cities. Suddenly, there are creatures of pure darkness and evil coming from caves, walls and behind the people of the land. The life from everyone in the outer cities is drained. Even larger and stronger creatures begin to form from the life-force of the consumed. The whole planet is consumed in pure shadow, but there is only so much energy on the mortal plane. The sorcerer is the only living thing on the planet. He uses his power (and theirs) and dissapear to reak hell apon the planes of the universe. The shadows apon the sun dissapear, just like the mage, to reveal, The Grey Earth.

And as what they have to do? We will have content submitted and considered by the panel of experts (of which i have to sort)

Happy now?

P.S: The alcahol stats, were not just for this game. they were also for anyone that did not know about them. Just saying.

[Rintaran]

3dom, on Feb 4 2006, 12:58 AM, said:

Side note: We will also want stats for drow too.

Fine then. Here is the main jist of the visions that the PC'S saw:

The sun shines no-more, for it is coated in darkness.A great Sorcerer stands atop a mountain at the edge of the continent, though you cannot see who it is clearly. There is panic in the cities. Suddenly, there are creatures of pure darkness and evil coming from caves, walls and behind the people of the land. The life from everyone in the outer cities is drained. Even larger and stronger creatures begin to form from the life-force of the consumed. The whole planet is consumed in pure shadow, but there is only so much energy on the mortal plane. The sorcerer is the only living thing on the planet. He uses his power (and theirs) and dissapear to reak hell apon the planes of the universe. The shadows apon the sun dissapear, just like the mage, to reveal, The Grey Earth.

And as what they have to do? We will have content submitted and considered by the panel of experts (of which i have to sort)

Happy now?

P.S: The alcahol stats, were not just for this game. they were also for anyone that did not know about them. Just saying.

Stats for drow are easy to find. Though I thought you were looking at non-standard races? If you've played much of Forgotten Realms, every player and their sister has played a drow. They're way over-used. When you said non-standard races, I thought you meant stuff like kobold and goblin. Now those could make for some fun PCs in a world-ending scenario like this one looks to be.

Happier. But not yet satisfied. You need to take a chill pill. Remember, you came to us for help. We're providing you with the questions that you'll need to answer in order to succeed. We're pointing out the flaws, and the stuff that needs work. That's a part of what campaign development is all about. That's why people have play-testers, to find the problems before it's released to the mass-market.

OK, let's see. First, there's no way to tell a sorcerer from a wizard from a psion just by looking at them. Yes, unimaginative people tend to get them to follow very unoriginal fashion, but I think we can do better. In fact, I think we can do better with this initial vision. One thing that must be done, is that it must be made specific for each character. This can be done with just a couple sentences where it shows their home-town, their folks, their siblings, friends, or lovers being devoured by this thing. The second thing it needs is more description, what do the creatures look like, etc. Now, let's see what my pen can do with it.

The sun beats down on the red earth and you see your brother/sister/friend <insert name> who is wearing a ridiculous human-style straw hat. A great wind blows out of the East, blowing <same name>'s hat from his/her head. Your eyes follow the hat as the swift wind propels it into the blue sky. As it crosses the sun, you see an inky blackness run in circles, blotting its fiery light. A flash attracts your attention back to the East. You see a great red-stone mountain, with a figure cloaked in black holding a staff standing at the summit whose shape you can barely make out. A sudden movement reveals his hand raised aloft, a growing orb of lightning and black clouds begin forming above his hand. As the orb dwarfs the figure, lightning shoots from it, striking out at some distance. A second bolt, a third, a fourth, they strike in rapid succession, and the thunderous booms nearly deafen your ears. One of the hundreds of bolts strikes the cave at the base of the mountain, drawing your eyes. There is movement in the shadows, movement in the dark, a great mass approaching the exit of the cave and the barely starlit world. They erupt, hundreds of them, small creatures. Some skitter in their inky blackness like two-foot cockroaches and termits, heading straight for the trees and grasses, sucking the living colour from them and leaving greyed out husks where there once was green. But faster come the short creatures with talons and long-ears. Quick agile legs propel these large-eyed, black furry creatures across the distance from the cave to your humble village/great city/small hamlet of <insert town/city/hamlet name>. Dozens of these creatures race toward you and yours. With great leaps, the creature at the head of the mass lands upon your brother/sister/friend, tearing with its claws and biting into his/her flesh. The agonizing screams last only a moment as the blood flies and the very life is sucked out of him/her. Everyone is dead, and still the creatures flow out from the caves. Larger, burly creatures with great horns and glowing eyes rush out of the cave and off toward the other cities. Great winged creatures with sharp talons fly over the lands. You see from the sky, that it is the same everywhere. The inky black creatures spread across the world, devouring as they pour out of every cave, every crevice, every shadow. The world lies still except for the creatures, now assembling upon the mountain where they kneel before the figure you noticed at first. You notice an almost imperceptable nod, and then a great portal opening behind the figure. It steps through the portal. The creatures slink back into the caves and shadows, leaving the world that they have destroyed. The sun fights through its covering, shining across the world once more. But there is no colour. The world is awash in grey. This is, the Grey Earth.


... Not bad for a generic first draft if I say so myself.

[Dthclaw]

Aye, I'll second that.

We also now have an idea of what kind of main villain to have. A caster of some kind (could be anything, that's the bugger about high-magic - no one can tell for sure except other high level casters). Powerful, or at the very least on his way to being very powerful, so call him level 17-20 at this point. Maybe boost him to epic later. Room to determine race later, that's always good.

Now you just need to create the actual world to be used (you've built the basement, now comes the building's skeleton) and determine some other major figures, both historically and current, that have some tie-in to the campaign (and perhaps a few false leads to make a bit more drama/humor).

[3dom]

Point 1

[/quote]Stats for drow are easy to find. Though I thought you were looking at non-standard races? If you've played much of Forgotten Realms, every player and their sister has played a drow. They're way over-used. When you said non-standard races, I thought you meant stuff like kobold and goblin. Now those could make for some fun PCs in a world-ending scenario like this one looks to be.
[/quote]
Yes, that is true, but then this is not forgotten realms.
Much like it is not ebberon.

Point 2

The sorcerer is not the antagonist, he is meing manifested. At the end of each adventure that changes what will happen, you will get updated visions. In finding out he is a cleric & killing him (do note i was using sorcerer as a loose term for mage) you get a new vision. I am sorry that a had to reveal that plot twist now but oh well, its to clarify.

Point 3
Yes, that is a good vision. Have you been watching one piece?

Point 4
Please, oh gods yes make kobold stats. Plz.

Also, do we want some maps done?

1 last note, it seems that we want it made, so i will get to work on some chacter additudes for the visionarys. Expect there to be 3 for each when we are finished. Do note that they are only templates and open content, like most of this.

[3dom]

Probably, yes.
In here, when done, will be 3 additude templates for each race approved for ingame use.
(Do note, this is done without the accents)
For now, two races, 3 additudes each:

Githanki:
1: HA! LOOK AT THE PATHETIC ones squirm... wait a tick.... WHAT! THEIR COMING HERE! awww poop.*calls behind him/her* Im goin out. I wont be back for a while.
2: Hey! They cant do that! Those ants of humanoids are entertaining! If anyones killin them all, its us.
3: NO! Their nice, those humans! I gotta warn em.

Duregar
1: Peh.
2: Hmmm....
3: Crap.
(Duregar are not as talkative as their cousins, the normal dwarves. (at least, last time i checked))

Thats all for now.

[Rintaran]

1. I realize this isn't FR, Eberron, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, or any number of other worlds. All I was saying is that Drow are so horribly overused because of FR, that I would hardly call them a fringe race anymore. Drow and drow society has been worked into such detail that there's more info on them, then on the base elven race.

2. Don't worry about the plot before you got at least something of the world. If you don't have the where ironed out atleast loosely, the what can't happen. Iron out a couple locations and a few peeps. Think about how everything interacts with everything else. Look at the gov, the taxes, the imports and exports, the trades. Look at the relations between the major civs and the lesser civs that peeps will be playing. A kobold walkin into a city known for its annual kobold hunt isn't gonna live long. Deurger are gonna find themselves nixed pretty quick. And so forth. Gotta lay some foundation here. Where do you want to start?

3. Thanks. What do you mean by "Have you been watching one piece?"

4. Just follow the monstrous player rules. Pretty simple for a kobold. Either that or hunt down the complete guide to kobolds, or whatever they call it.

5. I wouldn't worry about character attitudes. That's for the player's to come up with when they create their main characters. Now, for NPCs it could be handy, but you can bet there's a lot more than three ways to approach a character's attitude, and the best NPCs are gonna be the ones that stand out from such a lead-worked template. It would be better to work out how other races respond to them, and how they usually respond back than to come up with a few specific reactions dealing with this specific case (which doesn't do much to encourage RP beyond the initial question of should we help or not).

One thing about the Githyanki (<- note the spelling). They're outsiders. Meaning not from the prime material plane. Most outsider don't care if anything is destroying the prime as there is nothing powerful enough to take on the outer planes. Does this world have a sizable population of native Githyanki? If so, how have they been stranded on the prime, and for how long? How have they met with and on what footing do they stand with the native peoples of this world? All these questions would apply for the Githzerai as well.

[3dom]

One piece is a show on cartoon network.
If ud seen it ud know what i meant.

If it seemed as though the visionarys did not find it worthwhile.

Yeah, will work on the cities at some point shortly.

And the Githanki? Their concern? Yes I know they are outsiders. These "shadows" crushed the earth in a minute (not the exact amount, the general term, mainly because i dont know what else to call it) amount of time. Yeah. And by the time they left the mortal plane, they are even stronger (If you have read the main visions script). Their gonna have do do something about it before some nasty things start happening to the planes.

There.
P.S: Could we get less groping and more content?

[color=#FF0000]Edit: How about this:
There are five main cities over two islands, the rest of the world is important too, but this is the center of said world. Jans mirrod, Terre most, Hail Tephi, Jagt Dorn and Blackring city, found though the GreenPalm Forest and home to the royal palace.

*sigh*

[Dthclaw]

Ok, magus, you need to start talking a little more clearly. Your responses are getting a bit difficult to interpret.

I beginning to think that you've severely mistaken what our process on this site is. We aren't interested in maintaining an air of mystery when coming up with the world, at least not on this end. We tend to be very much into detail, straight-up explanations as to what is going on, and helping people come up with their own ideas by building on nuggets they already have. We aren't in the business of building other people's worlds for them. Rather, we give them advice and suggestions on aspects they are having difficulty with. Your apparant frustration with the fact that we're not just giving you things seems to suggest you were expecting us to grow and evolve your own thought process. We can't and won't. We will help you shore up your own work, but the key thing is that it has to be your work.

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There are five main cities over two islands, the rest of the world is important too, but this is the center of said world. Jans mirrod, Terre most, Hail Tephi, Jagt Dorn and Blackring city, found though the GreenPalm Forest and home to the royal palace.

Ok, so are you envisioning this to be a primarily aquatic campaign? Unless these islands are the size of small continents, or are a vast distance from any kind of mainland, this is only the beginning. That said, it sounds like these cities have, respectively, a Germanic, Roman, pseudo-Indian, pseudo-something, and English cultural basis. They should all be port cities, I believe, if they're all on islands. Otherwise, they're not going to be major cities.

[Dthclaw]

This is something that cannot be determined by the DM. Taking way too much control from players.

Also, you need to reference back (preferably with a link) to other topics you are building upon. The title helps, but unless your other topic has popped up also on the search function and has been read prior to this one, no one will know what you're talking about.

[Rintaran]

First, to your comment:

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Could we get less groping and more content?

Tell us what you want, and we'll see what we can do. You can't start with nothing (which you have) and expect us to give you everything without pointing out the flaws. Again, you came to us. If we can't understand what you're saying, its up to you to clarify. If you've got no solid basis, we're not going to create one for you. We amend and expand on things here. When someone gives us a concrete request, we do our best to take care of it. You've given us nothing, and made a general request for everything. We're gonna grope around in the dark here, until you give us something we can work with, and we're gonna poke holes in all your ideas. Why? Because that's how you find and can amend the faults.

Second, if you want help, you gotta provide a bit of civility, respect, and manners to those you're trying to get help from. As the people who are answering your pleas are some of the people who have been on this forum the longest (including a mod) and who often have given some of the best advice. Others I'm sure are avoiding this topic because of the lack of the three features listed above, and so I recommend you amend your style of speech to allow for these civilities.

--
Now, back on topic:

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And the Githanki? Their concern? Yes I know they are outsiders. These "shadows" crushed the earth in a minute (not the exact amount, the general term, mainly because i dont know what else to call it) amount of time. Yeah. And by the time they left the mortal plane, they are even stronger (If you have read the main visions script). Their gonna have do do something about it before some nasty things start happening to the planes.

As to the fear on the planes thing, the gods live on the planes. All of them. And there are an infinite number of prime worlds for these beasties to consume before a single infinite layer of a plane has anything to worry about. Additionally, there is no planar news service broadcasting the info of this to the planes, and there are no survivers outside of a minute. News can't travel if there's no one to bring it, and for a Gith or any planar being to know the exact prime world that's going to be afflicted would take a lot of divine intervention.

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There are five main cities over two islands, the rest of the world is important too, but this is the center of said world. Jans mirrod, Terre most, Hail Tephi, Jagt Dorn and Blackring city, found though the GreenPalm Forest and home to the royal palace.

Finally, you're getting a bit more concrete. But all we have are names of a few cities. Are these mixed pop cities? If so, which races and what percentage of the pop does each race form? What are their customs? Why do they have such differing style of names when they're located so close to one another? On what terms are the cities with each other? On what terms are they with the surrounding indiginous, non-main-race populations? Are these five cities a part of one kingdom or several different kingdoms? How big are the cities? What kind of government do they have? These are just a few of the questions that will need to be answered.

After answering these very general questions, maybe we can choose one city to begin work on. Then, perhaps, we'll be able to start getting some concrete stuff that we can work with.