Quote from: The Butcher;596569Benoist and Aos (or Gib or whatever) have threads about their campaigns and they're two of my favorite threads ever.

Campaigns? That's totally different. See my Sig. You might actually like it. It's complete except for the last session, which I haven't got around to writing up yet, but hope to soon. The first post is the campaign set-up. Several setting posts follow. The first actual post of play is March 17 on parge 2.

Quote from: Gib;596488Don't fuck with my mojo. it needs time to steep.

You teabag your mojo?

Quote from: The Butcher;596569Stop being a bunch of fucking pussies and fucking post about your campaigns, you twats.

My campaign is set in a 'published' setting, so it doesn't qualify.

As to whether or not anyone cares, I gotta admit, most of these I read the first sentence or two and skipped down, but that's because I'm not much of a fantasy fan.

taustin's campaign is in my wheelhouse.

I am still setting up my Traveller setting.  I am loosely giving the settings a "Greek Heroic Age" feel. This is for my son's friends (~21 yo) who have wanted to try Traveller. They currently play D&D 4, so it will be a change for them.

Basically, the humans in this setting wandered for centuries before settling here. Their ships died before they could really save their history and are cutoff from it except for faulty memories. Their cluster is about a subsector in size.  They have a loose alliance of worlds.

Trailing of the humans is an alien empire - the Trojan equivalents. I have yet to decide whether these will be K'Kree or Aslan.

Rimward of the humans lies the oldest alien empire. I will probably place Hivers here. These will be the Egyptian equivalents.

In the Leading direction lies the Roman equivalents. These will either be Aslan or Vargr.

Coreward lies the realm of the R'Sth. These new aliens will be more like Native American tribes. Possbile to trade with them, but watch your hair

Overall, the humans do not much about any of these other races, except the R'sth which they have encountered for a couple of centuries. They have occasional contact with the "Trojans" but have only heard about the "Egyptians" and "Romans".

Starship rules are being adjusted so only smaller ships will be around. Nothing larger than 2,000 tons with 1,000 being considered as very large. Toying with the idea of extending Jump down to 50 ton craft.

Still working on it. Don't expect to have this playable until close to Christmas.

Oh, forgot - rule set will be Mongoose Traveller.

Quote from: The Traveller;596472Floodlands

What system are you using, Traveller? Interesting concept.

I'm sitting here looking at Mister G's Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque and the LL supplement Realms of Crawling Chaos, trying to resit the urge to make a new setting that incorporates material from the two, but is chiefly inspired by the process of scientific advancement which took place during the 19th century in regards to archaeology, geology, paleontology and biology, coupled with a the dreary, ubiquitous and oppressive presence of a very dour and puritanical, but somehow well meaning, religion.

I want to start with a chain of islands, with one or two moderate sized ports and a scattering of small coastal and inland settlements, scattered across a cold northern sea, far away from the old country, but long settled.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;596585You teabag your mojo?

Continuously; i hardly ever leave the house.

This is the end of the world. The Star Wormwood appeared in the night skies. The moon turned red, rains fell as blood, rivers ran scarlet, and the dead came to life and attacked the living.

This is the Zombie Apocalypse. And you are a Zombie.

They call you "carriers", people infected with the zombie plague. Still rational, still living, not yet cannibals, nevertheless you are slowly dying.

But by bit, the plague is eating away at your humanity, killing you by inches, turning you into one of the millions of mindless walking corpses that throng the cities of the south. And as it does so, you become more like them.

Tougher. Faster. Able to sense their presence. Able to hide among them. Able to see through their eyes. Able to regenerate damage, by feeding on flesh. (Not necessarily human.) But sometimes, there is this rage and hunger...

You are becoming one of them.

Your goals are simple: Survive the wastes. Fight the hordes. Cure your disease. Nothing else matters.

North, in the high mountains and cold climates, are Sanctuaries, cities of uninfected humans. You are infected, so cannot dwell there, but their very survival depends on your kind. You alone can brave the wastes between the Sanctuaries and the zombie hives. You alone have nothing to fear from the plague, nothing to fear from zombie bites or zombie attacks.

Except dying from them. Which is happening already.

Those vast, abandoned lands between the Sanctuaries and the cities are your domain, the domain of dead men walking. They call this place Dead Man's Land.

Quote from: Panjumanju;596571I love the idea. But, I'm concerned that the Great Lakes don't appear to have increased in size. They certainly would.

I pulled the ~80m rise in sea level from various sources and used relief maps and existing maps to get an idea of what would flood and what wouldn't - the Great Lakes except Ontario are well above that elevation, and even Ontario is only 5m below it.

Added to which you have major changes in weather patterns as regards temperature and precipitation, which is why flooding in what used to be the Mississippi basin extends almost next to the lakes for example, serving as drainage into a massive bayou. The extent of those tropical salt and freshwater marshes is delineated by the purple population patterns (ruins and abandoned settlements, also marked underwater for adventuring purposes, red areas are megacities). This can be seen more clearly on the ground cover map which I haven't posted.

Those marshes incidentally are one of the places that biogen ecoterrorists release their beasties and experiments to terrorise the forces of uncaring civilisation, and serve as a badlands for renegades, smugglers, and criminals to hide out.

I attempted to keep the whole realistically tied into geographic and existing climate features as much as possible, but of course even with that much of it is pure speculation. Some areas have become extremely wild, like anywhere with "blue" rainfall levels and more than 40 degree celcius temperatures, vegetation in those conditions grows ridiculously quickly, especially in heightened CO2 levels, to say nothing of the random addition of mutagens here and there.

I was quite surprised by some of the details which emerged myself, I had no idea that Greenland had a basin right in the middle for example.

Its a really massive picture, a full world tapestry, which is faaar beyond the scope of this thread to enunciate even if it were finished. Its a lot of fun though, some of the ideas emerging are great. I mean what if you had a submarine nobody could find? After the biogen wars, almost every submarine qualifies as such, and there's a lot of mil spec stuff literally floating around - many states don't give a crap who they sell to as they try to rebuild, and that's just the ones that aren't hijacked or otherwise change hands. That, believe me, is a game changer, particularly when you have ports who don't care what flag you're flying.

But again the setting isn't meant to be post apocalyptic, children still play in the streets, there are rich people and poor people, jobs to be had for those that want to work, health and social security systems, taxes get paid. The world is wilder and less predictable is all.

Quote from: Lynn;596591What system are you using, Traveller? Interesting concept.

My own system, a modified skill+stat+d10, a battle wheel similar to exalted, plus a few more innovations like the streamlined vehicle combat system which makes mapless encounters between subs a snap to set up and run. It will be included with the setting when I get round to publishing it.

Started running Celtricia, World of Factions back at the end of 1983.  Still running it.

"Imagine living on a continent that was so big no one you had ever met knew the size of it, with huge open spaces between settlements. Imagine existing, and sometimes struggling, in an existence where civilized folks crowd together for safety, where tribes of humanoids range around the wildlands between cities, where ferocious predators stalk herds of giant herbivores, and where the night is often terrorized by walking dead searching out the unprotected living.  The space between settlements is huge and, except in the most civilized of climes, dangerous.  

 

At the same time, this is no feudal world. Temples heal the sick as often as not, and magic replaces the need for some technology; and this magic, while not overly powerful, is present enough to allow time for the philosophies and political awakenings of an advanced society.  And since only one in twenty can 'touch the void', as magic is called, this is a component in social class, though wealth, as well as political and guild rank, creates a web of social interaction.  

The religions of the world compete daily, and the sacredness and protection of a soul after death is of great importance.  Unshriven souls have trouble breaking the bonds of earth without help from the priests of the world, so undead and necromancy are all around the people of Celtricia...and everyone feels their presence, especially at night.

 

The last impression that Celtricia should give is the weight of ancient civilizations over everything and everyone. The most indifferent farmer has heard legends from the past referenced while at temple, and has passed ruins or seen ancient buildings in a town, while scholars pore over the incomplete and patchwork written works of over eight thousand years of recorded history."

Quote from: LordVreeg;596611Started running Celtricia, World of Factions back at the end of 1983.  Still running it.

I've visited your website in the past and while I've always admired the depth, consistency and craftsmanship that you brought to your world-building, I confess that I never really got a "big picture" of Celtricia until you've posted this and the loose bits that I read clicked together for me. Great post.

I have not run this yet, although I hope to start this Saturday, actually.

This is a campaign setting I came up with initially when I picked up the 4th edition rules.  I decided I didn't care for the 4th edition rules, and after thinking about it for a while, I decided to salvage the campaign ideas.  They've been fermenting for several years, and I've made stabs at adaptations for the Basic Roleplaying system and the Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition.  Currently it's adapted for OSRIC/1st Edition AD&D.

The universe is called the Choir.  It consists of many Voce, ranging across a scale from the heights of the Claro to the depths of the Profundo.  Each Voce is a world.  The Voce are separate from each other by the medium of the Intermezzo.  A sufficiently powerful will can blaze a trail across the Intermezzo, and travel from Voce to Voce.  (This would be represented mechanically by the various planar travel spells available)

The setting is the world of Yord.  Yord is an ancient world, somewhere in the middle of the Choir, and has long been a battleground for various Voce-hopping races from either pole of reality.  In relatively recent history, within the past ten thousand years or so, Yord was invaded by the Dragon-riding Elves.  Just after the Elves had established dominance in Yord, and raised up the native race of Man as their servants, the Dragons revolted.  The aftermath of that war left both the Dragons and Elves shattered, and Man rose up, adapting Elven magic and technology, to create their own society, ruled by the Sorcerer Kings.  The Sorcerer Kings eventually fell through internal strife, but in their own final war had opened many gates to other Voce, allowing many strange beings through to Yord.  The surviving humans were hunted by these monsters, and cast back into a nearly animalistic state.

The first race to take advantage of this new power vacuum were the Dragons, or rather one Dragon in particular.  This Dragon decided to 'tame' a Human tribe, killing off some the powerful, alien predators which threatened their existence in exchange for their service.  Using the bond thus established as a nucleus, the Dragon educated his growing tribe for centuries, creating the Dragon Empire.  Over time, he mated, and has established a number of major cities across the Western half of Yord, ruled over by himself, his mate, or his offspring.  Other Dragons have either joined his Empire as Dukes, or emulated his success and created their own kingdoms, using either Humans or the violent but strong Orcs.

All the traditional races are available, with some additions, and changes in backstory.  Elves are alien invaders, Dwarves and Gnomes are alien refugees, and there are a variety of Human/Other hybrids.

The basic idea is to justify a few Lovecraftian tropes (the world is ancient and mysterious, the universe is vast and uncaring, humans can be 'tainted' by mixture with alien beings), as well as provide a setting with many ancient ruins to explore.  Some tropes are overturned:  Dragons run the place, and also control the major religion of the setting, rather than just existing as dangerous pinatas for adventuring groups.  Elves, instead of being ancient, wise, and friendly, are ancient alien invaders with an inhuman outlook and a parasitic lifestyle.

There a few other elements:  I've put a bit of work into how religion works in Yord, and while it is mechanically the same, the underlying logic is different.  I've established a list of languages rooted in the history of the setting, rather than just the usual Orc, Goblin, Giant, Gnome, blah blah blah.  As far as specific house rules go, I'm using a cinematic damage system, eradicating level caps in favor of experience point penalties, and adding some human sub-races in to the mix.

I blog about my campaign and its setting (see sig), but here's the rundown.

It's "D&D fantasy" meets "tall tale extravaganza", with strong doses of comedy, in something resembling the 19th-century American frontier.

Rifles, coonskin caps, banjos, prairie schooners, pocketwatches, top hats.
but also
Witches, fairies, ruins, weird monsters, curses.

Big inspiration from classic kiddie-lit.

Quote from: The Traveller;596603I pulled the ~80m rise in sea level from various sources and used relief maps and existing maps to get an idea of what would flood and what wouldn't - the Great Lakes except Ontario are well above that elevation, and even Ontario is only 5m below it.

Neat!

//Panjumanju

Quote from: Panjumanju;596629Neat!

Thanks, I put a bit of thought into details like that, as little as possible is arbitrary. Even the clean lines of the borders on the undersea nations are deliberate, that's what you end up with when there isn't much in the way of geography to mark out your political territory after a major frontier expansion, somewhat like the borders of US states.