Setting confusion
CB
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷDer Millionendorf- Icrontian
Previously, I had agreed to set the campaign in a remote part of the world of Faeruun. However, I did this due to a misconception on my part. Because Faruun seems to be the standard setting that most people use and prefer, I thought that it was the one represented by the info in the PHB. However, that setting is called Greyhawk.
Since there seems to be a general feeling among the players that the campaign should be set in some already established world, Greyhawk is the world we will be using since it is the one represented in the rule-books, and it seems to be the most flexible on my part as the DM.
I've been asked why, as a DM, I prefer to customize so much, and I think I have an answer for that. A big part of the stories I like to write for these games is exploration. The characters will start out with only basic information about the world they are adventuring in, and will have to explore and discover the world on their own. In addition, I like to be able to change parts of the setting as the game progresses, to meet the play-needs of the specific group. Neither of these things is possible when every player has a guide to the world which shows them where everything goes, ands how it all fits together. In short: prepublished campaigns are less flexible.
I've received a lot of criticism already regarding the setting, and it hasn't even been developed yet, much-less formally presented. For whatever reason, you guys chose me to DM your game, so now I would like you all to trust that I will place you into a setting that is interesting and thought provoking, while also dangerous, and loot-filled. Your characters will face challenges of many kinds, from Dungeon crawls to political intrigue to freedom fighting to socio-ethical dilemmas.
Soon (hopefully in only a couple more weeks) I will post details about the setting, so that players can make informed choices about their characters. Please be patient with me. I know you all want to get started soon, but the more attention I pay to the details of the setting and story, the more likely that it will be enjoyable for everyone (including me).
Since there seems to be a general feeling among the players that the campaign should be set in some already established world, Greyhawk is the world we will be using since it is the one represented in the rule-books, and it seems to be the most flexible on my part as the DM.
I've been asked why, as a DM, I prefer to customize so much, and I think I have an answer for that. A big part of the stories I like to write for these games is exploration. The characters will start out with only basic information about the world they are adventuring in, and will have to explore and discover the world on their own. In addition, I like to be able to change parts of the setting as the game progresses, to meet the play-needs of the specific group. Neither of these things is possible when every player has a guide to the world which shows them where everything goes, ands how it all fits together. In short: prepublished campaigns are less flexible.
I've received a lot of criticism already regarding the setting, and it hasn't even been developed yet, much-less formally presented. For whatever reason, you guys chose me to DM your game, so now I would like you all to trust that I will place you into a setting that is interesting and thought provoking, while also dangerous, and loot-filled. Your characters will face challenges of many kinds, from Dungeon crawls to political intrigue to freedom fighting to socio-ethical dilemmas.
Soon (hopefully in only a couple more weeks) I will post details about the setting, so that players can make informed choices about their characters. Please be patient with me. I know you all want to get started soon, but the more attention I pay to the details of the setting and story, the more likely that it will be enjoyable for everyone (including me).
0
Comments
Greyhawk itself is a relatively bland campaign set on the planet of Oerth with four continents and two moons. Only one of those continents was ever fully-realized, and the system of rules Greyhawk used would be virtually unintelligible to today's D&D player. More than that, Greyhawk was primarily a campaign of intrigue set in and around Castle Greyhawk, which is how D&D came to gain its fame for dungeons.
It is important to know that Greyhawk is inspirational to today's D&D settings, in terms of flavor, deities, and abstract mechanics like religion and the names of magic and items. No portion of the living world of Greyhawk is officially recognized in D&D today.
Forgotten Realms is similar to Greyhawk in that it presents its own planet, that of Toril. Upon Toril there is the primary continent of Faerûn for which most of the FR content is written. Several other campaign settings released under the Forgotten Realms license further develop Toril by adding additional continents each with their own unique races, feats, skills, weapons and classes. What is important to know about the various FR continents is that while they are ostensibly linked to one another, it is only by sail, and takes a grievously long time at great personal risk. For this reason, the varied cultures on the various continents have been able to grow and develop uniquely and independently.
This is the perfect impetus for your unique archipelago. Your archipelago would ostensibly be linked to the remainder of the planet Toril, and would give reason for the presence of non-native races. What's more adventuresome than a band of hopefuls making an epic voyage across the sea to far-off and previously unseen lands?
As I said, Faerûn is the most developed portion of the Forgotten Realms setting. It does little to change the rules in the PHB and DMG, and operates much like the DMG suggests. Where Faerûn excels, however, is in the profound wealth of lore, history, items, magic and Gods injected into the D&D lexicon. You need not read the Forgotten Realms book, as not being <i>in</i> Faerûn effectively ends the need for being versed in it, but I strongly suggest your island chain be tangibly in the same world. You keep stating that "Pre-published campaigns are less flexible," and while true, nobody is proposing you place your ideas in the fully-realized Faerûn. We're just hoping you'll make some vague link to it for the sake of continuity with what today's players are accustomed to. It's the easiest way to legitimate explain the presence of other races, and superficially uses a modern campaign setting, rather than one that's been dead for over 20 years.
You'll be free to shape and create your own world, and players will have the benefit of a familiar anchor. Everbody wins.
If I used the Faeruun planet as the background instead of the Greyhawk one is there anything other than the deities names that I would have to change?
All the deities found in the PHB are available in Forgotten Realms, in addition to several more that really give variety to the world, and will save you tons of trouble in deity development. These deities may have different names in your archipelago, though.
Other than that, not much changes since you're not actually <i>in</i> Faerun, and therefore don't have to abide by its geography, history or politics.
Let me give you a different example: Pretend for a second that we were playing a space fantasy RPG. There are characters called BEDIS and they use the Force to perform superhuman feats, and they wield lightsabers, and their archenemies are the BITH. Hyperspace travel took place in a variety of ships, etc.
It would be almost ludicrously funny to say "okay, we're not actually IN the Star Wars universe. This is a universe of my own creation, and none of the famous characters exist here - there is no famous BEDI called Luke Skywalker, there is no Darth Vader, there is no master yoda." etc.
That's a weak comparison, but it's all I can come up with right now when I'm jonesing for TF2 and Keebler is playing next to me.
-drasnor
My whole point from the beginning is that since we're all new at this, and we're all trying to play in a completely new fashion (a point nobody seems to mention), we should try to keep it AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE. We started this to play "D&D". To many people, D&D is Faerun. Turns out we're playing a game that CB is inventing, and he isn't even familiar with 3rd edition rules, the d20 system, or the most globally common Campaign world.
I guess what it boils down to is this: I want to play D&D, and I want to make sure that it's fun for everyone. I am just trying to bring up my concerns so that we're all on the same page.
Personally, I actually think the pseudo-middle ages setting of most typical fantasy and RPG is rather staid.
Coming into this (since I was not privy to the IRC chats) I was under the impression we'd be playing a role playing game, not necessarily D&D. I was even going to suggest GURPS as a rule system, but it seems that a lot has been set in stone before I became a part of the discussion.
I'm willing to play in a Faerun setting because it's just as unknown to me as any other, but I feel that I will be at a significant disadvantage not knowing any background or history. I'm afraid that my character background will sound ridiculous because of this.
At no point could there have been any doubt that this was anything other than straight, standard d20 D&D. We talked rules and 3.5 vs 4.0 and online play before we even committed to playing.
If you felt that it was going to be "any RPG", then I don't know where you got that impression.
I think this discussion is really moot. At this point we're arguing meta stuff before we have any info.
I don't want to draw a line between "team nexlia" vs "the rest of us", as that is what appears to be happening here. We clearly have different ideas about what D&D is, and what we're trying to do here. The fact remains that at least three of us came into this expecting D&D 3.5. However, we've all stated that we're willing to give CB&D a shot, but please understand that we didn't come into this expecting anything other than d&d 3.5, and spent money accordingly.
I'm eagerly awaiting the campaign setting. Bring it on, CB!
I'm not trying to make a "team nexlia" vs the rest distinction. I think the whole "team nexlia" thing is bull****, and I don't know why the distinction exists. (seriously where the hell did it come from originally?) The only time I've ever considered myself to have a "team nexlia" label was at LANWAR when we were dominating the Duct Tape Wars.
I'm coming into this discussion as an individual. I thought that's what all of us are, and together we comprise a group of individuals trying to come up with a cohesive way of playing D&D over the internet together.
I may have just gotten the wrong impression over the years, but I always assumed that D&D was a just a rule set that could be applied to any setting. Seeing the strong reaction those of you who have been involved with D&D have toward moving away from Faerun in any way makes me pretty sure I was wrong about that.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem with using the D&D 3.5 d20 system. I even DM'd a d20 system (non-D&D) based game in the early '90s and found that d20 system to be the most logical rule set I'd encountered yet. I was happy when D&D moved to d20, in fact, because of this prior experience.
I may be again way off base, but I think that play in a familiar setting, such as Faerun, may be a big help to diverse play groups who all have Faerun experience. However, this doesn't apply to us because half of the group, including the DM, has no Faerun play experience. It doesn't serve as a common thread for us - so I personally don't see the utility.
I think a genuinely creative DM can create a compelling and fully fleshed play world that the players can discover together from square one. I know CB can do it. I have seen him do so before. The RPG that he created years ago, while crippled by a lack of coherent rules, does have a very rich play world with a history every bit as full as one would need to create a full character history. He doesn't need a play world handed to him by Wizards of the Coast to come up with something like that.
I'm not trying to say I want to play in CB's old world. In fact I prefer not to. I prefer to experience a setting I've never experienced before. If that's Faerun, well then it is. I've personally never quested there before so it's all new to me. If that's the case, though, I feel that I'll be at a personal disadvantage to the other players for having no basis in the world.
It goes back to my book analogy. I don't want to read the same series of books for my whole life. I want to read different books, with different settings, characters, and viewpoints, as I live my life. I don't want to play Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, WoW, Warcraft Life, and then die. I want to play Warcraft, Diablo, Half-Life, Doom, Myst, TF2, Civilization, the list goes on.
I guess my point is I don't exactly understand the viewpoint of "Faerun IS D&D" - I look at it more like HL2 and TF2... they both use the Source engine (D&D ruleset) but they don't both have to take place in City 17.
Ah. I thought you were using it from some feeling that we identified ourselves as such. While I have also seen Joe use it (recently in the discussion of MTG I think) I've never considered it an identifying moniker for myself, particularly in the context of Icrontic. I'm an Icrontian here.
Back to D&D. I thought the same as GH, D&D 3.5 was the ruleset, the setting didn't matter. This is a social thing and we're all in it to have some fun.
The point of the game is to create the epic story that defines these characters. Their story begins at the beginning of the first adventure.
People wanna make their characters RIGHT NOW, but can't because they don't have any background to base them off of as of yet?
I think you may have touched on it.
So just to confirm, our archipelago is located on the far side of Toril from Faerûn?