Greetings!

I know that DM's put huge amounts of time and effort into developing their campaign worlds--and I am certainly no exception to that trend, having greatly developed my own World of Thandor. However, I think there is some great value in having a good dozen or so kingdoms and city-states that are somewhat loosely-detailed, and easily expendable.

Let them be slaughtered in blood-soaked waves of savagery, as great hordes of terrifying, invading barbarians pour into them, and conquer them. Whole cities annihilated, whole populations carried off into slavery, and sophisticated, beautiful civilizations brought down in orgies of blood and fire!

This terrifying dynamic provides the DM with a constant "news channel" where changes are always happening. New barbarian tribes forging new kingdoms, and becoming new powers. Some of course, can become civilized, and new established, civilized kingdoms, while others can choose to remain loyal to their ancient tribal ways, and hold themselves aloof from the seductions of civilized societies.

I think of the ancient Celtic barbarians, the Germanic Tribes, the great Gothic Hordes, the Huns, and the Mongols, to name a few. Before them, of course, there were also the Dorians, the Thracians, and the "Sea Peoples" that terrorized the Mediterranean World.

I think having some areas in the campaign that have a sort of "dry erase board" can be very useful, as well as dynamic, in bringing new cultures, new peoples, new kingdoms into the campaign.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I think this brings up a good point about the importance of not over-detailing! It's a lot easier to kill off a city or an NPC when the GM hasn't put hours of work into detailing them. Eg in my Thule campaign I had the Grand Vizier Ibland Posk, an official setting NPC, poisoned so that Prince Dredan Taroth could take his position. If I had a full page stat block on Ibland that would have felt painful. As it was, it did kill off some plot threads. But I think it's important not to have the PCs be the only dynamic element in the setting.
 
Likewise if the GM has purchased a £15 city guide to say Korvosa, they may be reluctant to have the Shoanti Horde burn Korvosa to the ground. It's a bit like how you know major comic, book & cinema heroes will always survive their adventures because the cost of killing them is too high.

It is tricky.  I built my current world of Dahlia with the idea of sudden change.  The natural world is relatively stable from neighboring threats.  The cultures in them don't always get along, but they are too stretched from dealing with fey and shadow threats from the adjoining planes to do more than slight intrigue against each other.  You'd think in a world where portal could open any time, any where--and something nasty raid through, that dynamic would be a given.  But I still need to work at it.  Because the threats are of mostly the same means (if seldom the same goals and attitudes), it is easy for a sameness to develop.  

It has made dragons properly scary again.  I've made them all fey creatures, and not prone to going to the natural world much except as a temporary thing when young or when greatly angered.  Dealing with one on its own ground, where it rules many creatures for miles around it, means that negotiation is usually the first recourse.  An ancient dragon won't get so mad that it will fly through to torch your town.  Instead, it will send its army through a portal it opened, burn the town to the ground, take the survivors as slaves back through the portal, and probably have allies lay a curse on the region.  And probably watch it happen through scrying.  Killing a dragon isn't an adventure.  It's a major quest.

Quote from: S'mon;1132752I think this brings up a good point about the importance of not over-detailing! It's a lot easier to kill off a city or an NPC when the GM hasn't put hours of work into detailing them. Eg in my Thule campaign I had the Grand Vizier Ibland Posk, an official setting NPC, poisoned so that Prince Dredan Taroth could take his position. If I had a full page stat block on Ibland that would have felt painful. As it was, it did kill off some plot threads. But I think it's important not to have the PCs be the only dynamic element in the setting.
 
Likewise if the GM has purchased a £15 city guide to say Korvosa, they may be reluctant to have the Shoanti Horde burn Korvosa to the ground. It's a bit like how you know major comic, book & cinema heroes will always survive their adventures because the cost of killing them is too high.

Greetings!

Oh yes, my friend! I think it's crucial to keep things flexible and fluid! Letting things just blow the fuck up, you can often get some really crazy things that develop in the aftermath. Naturally, upending social orders, burning civilizations to the ground, and seeing what kinds of new orders are established in the ashes is fun, as well as dramatic. And, hell, it gives you the opportunity to develop all new NPC's that the Player Characters get to interact and deal with. That's always fun!:D

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1132781It is tricky.  I built my current world of Dahlia with the idea of sudden change.  The natural world is relatively stable from neighboring threats.  The cultures in them don't always get along, but they are too stretched from dealing with fey and shadow threats from the adjoining planes to do more than slight intrigue against each other.  You'd think in a world where portal could open any time, any where--and something nasty raid through, that dynamic would be a given.  But I still need to work at it.  Because the threats are of mostly the same means (if seldom the same goals and attitudes), it is easy for a sameness to develop.  

It has made dragons properly scary again.  I've made them all fey creatures, and not prone to going to the natural world much except as a temporary thing when young or when greatly angered.  Dealing with one on its own ground, where it rules many creatures for miles around it, means that negotiation is usually the first recourse.  An ancient dragon won't get so mad that it will fly through to torch your town.  Instead, it will send its army through a portal it opened, burn the town to the ground, take the survivors as slaves back through the portal, and probably have allies lay a curse on the region.  And probably watch it happen through scrying.  Killing a dragon isn't an adventure.  It's a major quest.

Greetings!

How do these magical portals open up, Steven? Are there rhyme or reason to when they open, or where? Also, how large are these portals? Your dragons sound fucking cool, my friend. Have any Player Characters ever defeated one of your dragons? The dragon's treasure must be fucking sweet, huh? I love dragon's treasure hordes. It can be an opportunity to provide the Player Characters with some really special and unique magic items. Plus, well, the fight alone is truly epic! It's good that players FEAR DRAGONS!!!! *Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: SHARK;1132863Greetings!

How do these magical portals open up, Steven? Are there rhyme or reason to when they open, or where? Also, how large are these portals? Your dragons sound fucking cool, my friend. Have any Player Characters ever defeated one of your dragons? The dragon's treasure must be fucking sweet, huh? I love dragon's treasure hordes. It can be an opportunity to provide the Player Characters with some really special and unique magic items. Plus, well, the fight alone is truly epic! It's good that players FEAR DRAGONS!!!! *Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I've got some semi-rules on how the portals open and close, but the players don't know most of them.  It's part planetary alignments.  So a character with the right knowledge can make an educated guess on many of the more reliable portals.  For example, some open up  for six hours every six days, that kind of things.  Some portals are closed and sealed by the powers that be because they are so erratic or because of known nasty side effects.  To get one of those open, you need permission from the right people--or forgiveness later.  Others are opened by having the right object in the right place.  Or closed by having the right object in the right place--so that to open, move those objects.  However, despite all of the above, it is a world where new portals sometimes appear.  Using portals changes them and the people that use them.  It's not some simple "gate" to another world.  Go through enough times or at the wrong time or with too many people, and you alter the portal itself--like monkeying with a precision clock while riding on the hands.  

Most of the portals only go between two fixed points, and most of those are direct analogs in another plane.  Go through Portal A from natural world to fey world, then head 30 miles north and return through Portal B.  You might not be 30 miles north in the natural world, but you'll be close to that and roughly still north.  Just last session, some of the players characters finally unlocked a large magic stone they have been studying for about a year in game time.   Doing so unlocked several closed portals nearby that don't have direct analogs in distance and direction.  

I'm a mean GM sometimes.  The world is semi-stable except for the portals.  Going through the portals to try to make things better ultimately makes the world more unstable.  

They haven't fought a dragon yet.  They've fought some "drakes" that I've described as dragons, but are more like the typical D&D low-end dragon than my version.  They've run from a dragon, hid from another, and talked to two more.  One of them they even came out OK in the negotiation:  The dragon wanted a portal closed that was a 3-way nexus between fey, shadow, and natural and allowed zombies and ghouls more access to the heart of its territory than the the dragon could tolerate.  It was too big to go through the portal itself and tired of losing minions in the effort.  Plus, the only way to close it was from the natural world.  Using 3 pins that were stolen by something in the shadows.  They players went in, got the pins, ignored the treasure, ran from the undead, closed the portal, and haven't even thought about opening it back up.