Had a thought for a campaign setting, so I want to check A) If it has already been done, B) If the idea is too crazy.
How about a campaign setting where the original world was eaten by a titanic monster and the "world" now consists of pockets of civilization inside the thing's guts?
Too crazy? Problems?
Sounds fun, go for it. Would give you "dungeons" wherever you want 'em (various tunnels and such). Heck, depending on scale, you might have to plow through miles of tunnels just to get to the next settlement. Opportunities for lots of bizarre bacteria-creatures and antibodies, etc.
Sounds fun! And the ultimate campaign objective could be to force the monster to vomit the world, then (hopefully) reform it through magic. Epic!
Quote from: Shipyard Locked;711238Problems?
I'd say! If ya hear a faint ♪♫Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a.. ♫♪♫
That civilization can collectively bend over and kiss its ass goodbye.
The whole world being so is rather novel. On a smaller scale, there was the Snits' Revenge game, and the Nightmare Keep scenario in the AD&D Forgotten Realms line.
It could easily be a variant Starship Warden for Metamorphosis Alpha.
John Varley's novels Titan, Wizard and Demon are set within a planetoid-sized entity.
Quote from: Phillip;711279On a smaller scale, there was the Snits' Revenge game,
OMG! I had forgotten about that game. I'll have to hunt one down.
To a lesser extent I think the warrens in the Malazan books, the basis for magic in that setting, were basically hollowed out areas in a huge supernatural being. But yeah this sounds like a lot of fun.
That's pretty much the setting for the Thomas Covenant books by Stephen Donaldson.
A giant serpent flies through space eating matter.
It eventually gluts itself and falls asleep and "The Land" grows outside of it's skin.
One day it'll wake up and shake off "The Land", actually Covenant nearly wakes it up when trying to get a branch from the "One Tree".
Sounds cool (and don't worry, Simpsons probably did it already).
There are a lot of interesting ideas to develop here. I'd myself perhaps go with some post apocalyptic vibe - various worlds are locked in this creature, shattered by the teeth, some rebuilt, some regressing, some consumed in the stomach (perhaps all worlds move towards it, but at a slow pace). With such gargantuan creature, I'd be awfully tempted to have also native cultures, made from white cells, red cells, etc. etc (I can't help but think of a dark fantasy style Once Upon A Time...Life). I'd imagine personally some horrible, ant - like tyrannical culture, ruled by the Brainiacs (who travel the body on the thundering bolts of electronic impulses), with White Cells serving as cruel, golemic enforcers. Some worlds are subjugated and live according to the Creature's designs (which usually involves them being forced to chip at the remains of their former world, making it easier to be consumed), some still fight the odd oppression, and some are simply lost in the depths of the creature.
Could also have the creature's "biology" be entirely alien, or simply too small still for them to matter, in which case I imagine people being forced to drink from the rivers of blood to sustain themselves (with civilisations forming along the great rivers, of course), scavenging the intestines for the artefacts of past consumed worlds (having to brave the acidic marshes of stomachs, and fight off the bizarre parasites that'd no doubt live in there).
And I also imagine various crazy cults taking amongst people of this creature - the most dangerous one, of course, being the one that suggests that the Creature is benevolent, trying to bring about quicker the Digestion, where all shall be joined in the Creature, their souls merging and reaching Nirvana.
Thanks guys, I'll tool around with it and see where it goes.
Quote from: Rincewind1;711341(and don't worry, Simpsons probably did it already).
Futurama, actually - well,
kinda. :D
I like the idea as well. Dungeoneering adventures aughta be awesome, as others have noted - from equivalents of bacteria (and
viruses! Would these be
undead?) to equivalents of white blood cells etc (I like the idea of these being golems or similar).
Of course bigger/more advanced parasites would be...
really something. Kaiju.Oh and lots and lots of psychedelic vistas!
What if the creature finds another from its species? Time to fight / mate?
And if it dies? The Rot Apocalypse?
I think it's an awesome idea. Sort of taking the concept behind that one movie from the 60s where they shrink themselves and go inside that guy's body. Fantastic Voyage or something or other? And I recall seeing a recent illustration of a dinosaur type creature with his insides mapped like a dungeon, but I can't recall where it was.
So I'm not sure if your idea has exactly been done before, but even if there are varients, it's still an awesome idea.
I'm stuck on the ecology of it.
Does it do this often?
Has it done this in the recent past? Will it eat again in the near future?
How long did it take for it to eat the world, and what was that like? Swallowed whole or chewed? Washed down with a gulp of star dust, maybe?
What's it like in there? Dark and humid, I assume? All the time/everywhere?
How does it digest? Acid and absorption?
Stuff like that.
I hate to be a negative Nelly, but I'm not sure that the idea has legs.
On the one hand, while that might be the nature of the world, do the PCs have a way of determining that's the nature of the world?
Do they have a way of interacting with the creature in a meaningful way?
The 'this ain't no cave' is good for a surprise reveal, but I'm not sure it is something that can either support a campaign - or even should.
What type of stories do you think you'd be able to tell that aren't supported by a more 'standard' world?
It seems like you'd be getting rid of a lot of things that people tend to expect. Normal weather, celestial events, etc.
I particularly like the suggestion of running is as a variant setting for Metamorphosis Alpha... a generation ship which may or may not have been built by humans, but we're in there now, along with a bunch of other things.
Or maybe some hyper-weird take on Rogue Trader, set on some huge Tyranid hive ship that's developed amnesia/personality disorder due to damage caused by an Imperial Guard assault that left the attackers trapped inside.
Quote from: deadDMwalking;711497I hate to be a negative Nelly...
Well that's the whole point of posting publicly, isn't it? I need to hear about potential problems.
QuoteOn the one hand, while that might be the nature of the world, do the PCs have a way of determining that's the nature of the world?
I'd say their world was devoured recently (a few hundred years ago) and the historical record is intact enough... or maybe there's some doubt about the record and perhaps the "lost" world never really existed? Why are there survivors from this devouring and not previous ones? Mystery, mystery...
QuoteDo they have a way of interacting with the creature in a meaningful way?
I suppose one plot line could be this: The most advanced of the civilizations inside the beast has claimed the area around its brain and has been trying for years to seize control of it.
Trying to destroy the creature would be a bad idea as that would leave everyone stranded in vacuum.
QuoteWhat type of stories do you think you'd be able to tell that aren't supported by a more 'standard' world?
There have been some excellent suggestions in this thread so far. Here's one story - The heroes are trying to either seize control of the creature to "pilot" it to a new, real world for colonization, or gather the material necessary to build a fleet to escape from it.
QuoteIt seems like you'd be getting rid of a lot of things that people tend to expect. Normal weather, celestial events, etc.
Well yes, it wouldn't be your typical fantasy and I'm aware of the warnings against excessive exoticism at the cost of accessibility. But sometimes bog standard fantasy really starts to feel like bog standard, and you crave something wilder.
Anyway, I'm considering just gradually building the setting right here in this thread if I can find the time between sessions of my
7th Sea campaign. Perhaps its fatal flaws, if it has any, will become clear in the process.
You know, the hoary old "(dark) magic is dying/corrupting the world" overarching plotline probably takes a different dimension if the world is in fact a giant monster...
Quote from: deadDMwalking;711497It seems like you'd be getting rid of a lot of things that people tend to expect. Normal weather, celestial events, etc.
But you can substitute them with similar things... with a twist.
Gastric tides, intestinal earthquakes, platelet rains...
Energy sources: methane, electricity (by tapping on the nervous system activity)...
Materials: bone mining, all kinds of living tissues (maybe they have developed some technique to control tumor growth in some areas).
A question: is this setting leaning more towards fantasy or sci-fi? Do you (or your players) need some logical explanation regarding things like gravity, atmosphere, sunlight and their effects on human physiology?
Quote from: Frundsberg;711613A question: is this setting leaning more towards fantasy or sci-fi? Do you (or your players) need some logical explanation regarding things like gravity, atmosphere, sunlight and their effects on human physiology?
As I'm inclined to make this my personal "D&D with a difference!" setting it would likely be fantasy but with elements that resemble scifi, especially for certain factions and areas of the beast.
Spelljammer comes to mind, but with more of an inner-space vibe.
How so many of the creatures from the devoured world are able to survive without supposedly essential things like the sun could be one of the setting's mysteries. Some would take it as proof that the devoured world never existed, others that the beast is benevolent and using magic to sustain them, and others still might argue that first generation of the devoured must have altered the physiology of their children to survive and further modification is possible and necessary (transhumanist cult?)
Alright, I'm at a thematic crossroad on this right now.
Should I have this living world obviously laid out like an animal (head, body, propulsion limbs, linear and mostly symetrical organ layout) or should it be more like a "flesh sphere" with an internal geography of redundant organs (multiple hearts, stomachs, nerve-cluster brains, etc.) that is difficult to make sense of for the humanoids living inside it?
The advantage of the first one is that world's creature nature is much more apparent and orderly. Its place in the universe is clear. This allows the heroes and their societies to plan obvious and interesting long term goals without as much philosophical uncertainty.
The advantage of the second is that it's much more mysterious. "How can be sure there is an 'outside' to this beast? Perhaps it just stretches on forever in all directions. If there is no outside then perhaps our original world really is just a myth... so where does all the food we see flowing through its system come from? What is the nature of the universe?" etc. It can also use a much more conventional setting map, albeit an 'underground' one.
Which would you prefer to play in?
I prefer the second. The less you commit to up front, the better. Also if you illustrate a head, you run the risk of people concocting 'stab it in the brain' type ideas.
Shit, Magic: The Gathering is going to do this idea eventually, isn't it? I mean look at the speed they're burning through every conventional and weird fantasy setting they can think of. They've already done what I consider to be one of the definitive visions of a technological fantasy setting that is NOT scifi (Mirrodin), how long before they do "an all living world"?
Quote from: Shipyard Locked;711863Shit, Magic: The Gathering is going to do this idea eventually, isn't it? I mean look at the speed they're burning through every conventional and weird fantasy setting they can think of. They've already done what I consider to be one of the definitive visions of a technological fantasy setting that is NOT scifi (Mirrodin), how long before they do "an all living world"?
Technically they already did, Rath was a world fashioned out of living stone ;).
Both approaches are viable. Remember that also the creature can have similar, but ultimately alien structures (heck, cows have how many stomachs?). There is also a certain temptation, or would be on my part at least, to just take a snake/cockroach/goat and enlarge an anatomical drawing of it, then say it is game's world :D.