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Post by skullheadsol on Aug 15, 2017 18:31:49 GMT
Hello everyone. This is my first time ever posting or being on this forum, but from what I've seen so far I'd like to get all of your input on a setting I'm working on. Now, to the setting.
The setting is called The Shattered World and it is set in a planar system and world that a couple centuries back barely survived a terrible apocalypse level event only referred to as the Catastrophe. Due to this event he majority of the traditional planes have been utterly destroyed, and those that remain can barely be recognized. I'll get to the various surviving planes momentarily. The focus of the setting is the last city on the material plane called The City of the End which was created by the sacrifice of the god Bahamut, who used his dying body to create the foundation of the city. This city is constantly growing in height, being built taller and wiser over the decades. All sentient species (and non-sapient animals) now reside in the walls of the vast metropolis and fortress.
The land outside the city is uninhabitable due to the land having been drench in both holy and hell fire when the Upper and Lower planes collided during the Catastrophe. What's left is now controlled by a vast army of the undead that has formed due to the souls of the deceased being incapable of passing on.
Now to the other planes. The remaining planes are the Astral Isles (the scattered fragments of the Astral Plane), the Arcane Tear (the torn in half remains of the plane of magic), the Elemental Vortex (the smashed and meshed together elemental planes), and finally the Devastated Crossroads (the corrupted remnants of the Feywilds).
Well there you go. As a final note Angels, Demons, and Devils all live in the City of the End and lack any solid alignment from before their fall due to the destruction of the Upper and Lower planes. Some undead are sentient and reside in the lowest parts of the city in seclusion due to vast amounts of distrust and hatred towards them from the other races. Finally, the majority of the gods are either dead, too weak to do anything, or are trapped in a conflict with other gods.
Tell me what you guys think and I will answer what questions I can.
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Post by DM Lord Neptune on Aug 15, 2017 18:47:51 GMT
First off, welcome to the forums! Always nice to have new faces around here.
It's a very interesting concept for sure. It appears that you are setting up for an almost strictly urban campaign, and I'm guessing that this city is a massive city in both size and population. The racial tension that existed before the Catastrophe probably still exists, but might be at a boiling point in some respects, but this is the last remains of actual people in the world. Very cool opportunities for conflict here!
In a D&D sense, is magic still stable and usable in this world or is it more of a "all magic is wild magic" sort of thing? Or is it even possible to tap into magic anymore with the issues due to the Arcane Tear? Also, does that extend to Clerics, Druids and Warlocks as well? Clerics may have a rough time due to the lack of gods, but I imagine that some gods still exist and are willing to lend some of their power, but I can also imagine all of the gods keeping their strength to themselves as it's taking everything they can to survive after this event. Druids may also have a rough time due to the lack of nature almost everywhere? Actually, it sounds like everyone will have a rough time, since an apocalypse tends to not be very friendly to people.
Do you have plans to let your players roam the unfriendly lands on quests? I can imagine small raids going out to nearby ruins to try to salvage what can be salvaged in order to help the main city survive, but I can't imagine people living out there. Though, maybe they do find a stray person here or there that had an advantageous living area (deep in a cave or something) that would have survived the destruction. Could be interesting either way.
Lot's of interesting stuff going on here, though. Very nice start to your world.
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Post by skullheadsol on Aug 15, 2017 19:26:01 GMT
First off, welcome to the forums! Always nice to have new faces around here. It's a very interesting concept for sure. It appears that you are setting up for an almost strictly urban campaign, and I'm guessing that this city is a massive city in both size and population. The racial tension that existed before the Catastrophe probably still exists, but might be at a boiling point in some respects, but this is the last remains of actual people in the world. Very cool opportunities for conflict here! In a D&D sense, is magic still stable and usable in this world or is it more of a "all magic is wild magic" sort of thing? Or is it even possible to tap into magic anymore with the issues due to the Arcane Tear? Also, does that extend to Clerics, Druids and Warlocks as well? Clerics may have a rough time due to the lack of gods, but I imagine that some gods still exist and are willing to lend some of their power, but I can also imagine all of the gods keeping their strength to themselves as it's taking everything they can to survive after this event. Druids may also have a rough time due to the lack of nature almost everywhere? Actually, it sounds like everyone will have a rough time, since an apocalypse tends to not be very friendly to people. Do you have plans to let your players roam the unfriendly lands on quests? I can imagine small raids going out to nearby ruins to try to salvage what can be salvaged in order to help the main city survive, but I can't imagine people living out there. Though, maybe they do find a stray person here or there that had an advantageous living area (deep in a cave or something) that would have survived the destruction. Could be interesting either way. Lot's of interesting stuff going on here, though. Very nice start to your world. Thank you so much for the response. Now to answer those questions of yours. Going to number them in order just to keep it simple and straight forward so here we go. 1. I'm leaning more towards all magic is wild magic since the Arcane Tear still allows magic to exist, it is just extremely chaotic. Basically the old rule book for magic that everyone but wild magic users had might as well be kindling for fire now. 2. Clerics and Druids have their own problems as you quickly pointed out. Warlocks...not going to lie I forgot about them so I'll have to get back to you on how their dealing with the situation. 3. Clerics definitely have little access to divine magic since as you mentioned the gods that are left aren't likely to share their power at the moment, or are too busy to be bothered with mortals, or are just dead so there's that. The biggest issue with Clerics in this setting though is faith. When gods died in mass a lot of that divinity and godliness faded from the eyes of the majority of the survivors. Essentially even the most devout of Clerics (or Paladins for that matter) aren't even sure if the god they reach out to is even there anymore. They can still use divine spells but they will either be overall weaker or have a chance of just not working, haven't decided on that front yet. 4. Druids are in a similar situation to Clerics only they have a whole other problem. In my setting Druids got their magic and power not just from the nature in the material plane but also the nature in the Feywilds. Since both areas are kind of messed up (one with virtually no nature and the other being corrupted like crazy) Druids are at a high risk of their magic backfiring. So think wildmagic only with a chance of summoning a nasty corrupted fey creature (or turning into one which isn't fun). 5. Now to roaming outside the city. I do plan to let players do that as I think it will lead to some interesting quests and storylines. The times this happens though the party must be aware they are headed into extremely hostile territory and if they are not prepared they will likely die out there. I'm never a fan of a TPK, but if the party doesn't respect the undead army, well that's their undoing. Now, at the beginning you mentioned it being a mostly urban based campaign and that is correct for the most part. However, I do plan for their to be arcs and storylines that involve the party finding a way into one of the four messed up planes and trying to fix them through various means. These arcs will of course lead to some awesome loot for the party if they succeed in whatever fashion they decide to take to "fix" the issue in the damaged plane. Also, depending on the plane they fix, some of the issues in the world will begin to heal. Like if they are able to somehow repair the Arcane Tear in some manner then everyone being Wild Magic won't be a thing anymore, or at least not to the same degree as before. If they restore a god then the party's Cleric will be quite happy to learn their divine spells from the deity are becoming awesome again (maybe even more awesome in some cases). The point is the party can, or can not, fix the planes. It is completely up to the players and what they desire. Do they want a pure urban fantasy, then that's what I'll provide in this setting. Do they want that and become the grand heroes of the all the planes. They can do that too. I hope I answered your questions, and please feel free to ask more and give some feedback on this setting. The more I get the better I'll be able to flesh it out and make it awesome for my players to roleplay in. |
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Post by DM Lord Neptune on Aug 15, 2017 20:32:39 GMT
It sounds like it would be interesting for all magic to be wild starting out. Warlocks could easily find something to get power from within the city proper, but with so few powerful beings remaining, and those that do remain are at a fraction of their previous power, then perhaps they also experience the wild magic since they are not certain their patron will be able to give their power since they are stuck on the material plane. But if the heroes were able to restore their home plane, or even a plane they could call a home, then perhaps Warlocks would also regain their powers fully.
You could also, for simplicity sake, use the same wild magic rules, modified a bit, for clerics and paladins. That would help to keep things balanced, at least, and would make for an interesting incentive to restore the gods' power and planes. Restoring them would allow cleric NPCs to regain their powers fully, too, which means more options for healing within the city.
Rangers, of course, would follow the same sort of rules with their magic as Druids, since it's both nature based. Bards, though? Is that more arcane? I'd say bardic songs would be unaffected, but their spell magic would be.
It sounds like it would be a very martial based campaign, at least, until those things started getting restored, which sounds very interesting. Arcane, divine and fey (nature) magic would all be super rare, because who wants to take those risks? But once things start getting restored, you get to have scenarios where people can do more good, but also do more bad at the same time. There would probably be a transition period where bad magic users would start terrorizing and/or stealing, and that would be a campaign in and of itself to stop them and put out the local fires after restoring things. With the added loot, they should have the upper hand, which will help catapult them to even more heroic levels. Or, if they were playing selfish or evil characters, even more villainous levels.
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Post by skullheadsol on Aug 15, 2017 20:49:52 GMT
It sounds like it would be interesting for all magic to be wild starting out. Warlocks could easily find something to get power from within the city proper, but with so few powerful beings remaining, and those that do remain are at a fraction of their previous power, then perhaps they also experience the wild magic since they are not certain their patron will be able to give their power since they are stuck on the material plane. But if the heroes were able to restore their home plane, or even a plane they could call a home, then perhaps Warlocks would also regain their powers fully. You could also, for simplicity sake, use the same wild magic rules, modified a bit, for clerics and paladins. That would help to keep things balanced, at least, and would make for an interesting incentive to restore the gods' power and planes. Restoring them would allow cleric NPCs to regain their powers fully, too, which means more options for healing within the city. Rangers, of course, would follow the same sort of rules with their magic as Druids, since it's both nature based. Bards, though? Is that more arcane? I'd say bardic songs would be unaffected, but their spell magic would be. It sounds like it would be a very martial based campaign, at least, until those things started getting restored, which sounds very interesting. Arcane, divine and fey (nature) magic would all be super rare, because who wants to take those risks? But once things start getting restored, you get to have scenarios where people can do more good, but also do more bad at the same time. There would probably be a transition period where bad magic users would start terrorizing and/or stealing, and that would be a campaign in and of itself to stop them and put out the local fires after restoring things. With the added loot, they should have the upper hand, which will help catapult them to even more heroic levels. Or, if they were playing selfish or evil characters, even more villainous levels. I love all of these thoughts and I think it would work out very well overall. I think with Warlocks the wildmagic would do just fine, but in terms of restoring their patrons not sure if that would be possible since Angels, Demons, and Devils are all basically mortal. In fact I plan for players to be able to play those three races if they desire to but of course I will tone them way down from what they usually are. Like they are a new offspring and their extraplanar power is virtually gone at this point due to them being the next generation on a plane that was not meant for them. Generation one Celestials and Fiends would still be far weaker then they used to be, but would be far stronger then the generation two or three members of their races. In other words Warlocks would probably have to get new patrons altogether, like say a powerful elemental being since the Elemental Planes still exist they have just been mashed together into the Elemental Vortex. As for Clerics and Paladins yeah I'm probably just going to give them a slightly tweaked version of the wildmagic deal that the other magic users have. Also yes to everything about bards. Songs are not really effected, but spells are. On the point of it being a mostly martial campaign that is part of the idea, although to help incentivize even a fully martial party to go fix the planes I will likely have it that the most powerful and awesome magic items can be found there. Which makes sense as cool rewards for fixing the universe basically. |
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Post by DM Lord Neptune on Aug 15, 2017 20:59:10 GMT
I like the Warlocks being forced to go with elemental patrons in this scenario. Then, if the heroes are successful with splitting up the elemental mashup plane into their own, distinct planes, that could restore the warlock's powers fully again. This way, you could keep the same mechanics, for the sake of balance, and then allow them to have a chance for restoration as well. Sure, the angels and demons are stuck here and may never be restored, since heaven and hell seem to have combined with the material plane. But, maybe restoring all of the planes opens up the option to restore those last two planes, thus restoring the world as a whole and making it safe, once again, to build civilization once again.
That sounds like an absolutely epic series of events. I would love this campaign as a player.
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Post by skullheadsol on Aug 15, 2017 21:08:29 GMT
I like the Warlocks being forced to go with elemental patrons in this scenario. Then, if the heroes are successful with splitting up the elemental mashup plane into their own, distinct planes, that could restore the warlock's powers fully again. This way, you could keep the same mechanics, for the sake of balance, and then allow them to have a chance for restoration as well. Sure, the angels and demons are stuck here and may never be restored, since heaven and hell seem to have combined with the material plane. But, maybe restoring all of the planes opens up the option to restore those last two planes, thus restoring the world as a whole and making it safe, once again, to build civilization once again. That sounds like an absolutely epic series of events. I would love this campaign as a player. That means a lot actually as that is exactly what I want. I want this to be a setting where a campaign of such scale could occur and the players would enjoy it for that reason. I'll have to think about if Heaven and Hell can be restored or not, it isn't impossible depending on how thoroughly destroyed those two planes were but I'll have to see. And I do like that option with the elemental patrons giving power power to the warlock's once their planes are their own separate entities again. Druids and Ranger of course get the joy of fixing the Feywilds as a start to bringing life back to the planet (that and the Astral Plane getting restored in some manner as that is the plane I've decided to have deceased spirits go to, but currently can't at the moment). |
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Post by DM Lord Neptune on Aug 15, 2017 22:42:24 GMT
One interesting idea I'd like to run by you to see what you think. Maybe make it so that the classes connected to those planes become full power while on the planes, even when they are still broken. So rangers and druids would be fully powered up on the fey plane, which would give them some extra incentive to go to those planes in the first place.
Also, if the group wants to play different characters in each plane, you could have them roll up separate characters that can take advantage of the new plane. Then have them pick their favorite characters at the end and form a group to tackle the heaven/hell problem.
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Post by skullheadsol on Aug 15, 2017 23:12:52 GMT
One interesting idea I'd like to run by you to see what you think. Maybe make it so that the classes connected to those planes become full power while on the planes, even when they are still broken. So rangers and druids would be fully powered up on the fey plane, which would give them some extra incentive to go to those planes in the first place. Also, if the group wants to play different characters in each plane, you could have them roll up separate characters that can take advantage of the new plane. Then have them pick their favorite characters at the end and form a group to tackle the heaven/hell problem. I like the first idea a good bit. It definitely has some potential and definitely gives incentive for them to go to those planes at least eventually. I'll have to figure out why thatis the case in the lore of the setting but I can figure that out easy enough. The second one I'm going to have to give a hard no to. I'm not a fan of switching characters especially when it is slightly meta game which that would be in this case. I'm a fan of sticking with one character and developing them, growing them, and learning more about them over a whole campaign. Really to me a player should only switch if their character dies. Thank you for running these ideas by me though, it definitely gets the creative juices flowing XD. |
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Post by DM Lord Neptune on Aug 15, 2017 23:27:37 GMT
Any time! Always up for tossing ideas around to help fellow DMs.  And, yeah, the multi character idea isn't for me either, but I know some groups enjoy it. Long, epic campaigns with the same characters are great. Lots of good character development there. At the very least, hopefully the suggestion will help others that come across this thread. |
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Post by DM Lord Neptune on Aug 15, 2017 23:30:57 GMT
Also, the DMNastics forum is a great place to stretch the mental muscles. I'm totally loving participating there whenever able.
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Post by skullheadsol on Aug 16, 2017 0:02:21 GMT
Also, the DMNastics forum is a great place to stretch the mental muscles. I'm totally loving participating there whenever able. I'll definitely see about giving it a look over. |
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Post by randosaurus on Aug 18, 2017 4:01:47 GMT
Minor (possibly major?) note--
If the Upper and Lower planes are destroyed... you have no resurrection, reincarnation or any other way to return the dead.
How might this affect player behavior? How might this affect the angel, demons, now that they are 'on their last shot'?
Typically the Divine Pantheon occupies the outer planes too; unless they have re-camped to pockets of your Astral Shards, can they influence the Prime or grant invocations?
Or do the Gods occupy pockets of your Prime, which is a bad-ass pillar shape, living as their Avatars and subject to the same perma-death as other Outsiders?
This leads me down a line of thinking where, if there is no place for passed souls to pass out, perhaps there are no points for soul ingress either?
English- I think it would be interesting if no new life were borne into The End either, as if the threads souls take from the well of Creation are also sundered.
That twist makes it, to me, a proper Apocalypse-- a world at its end, where there is no clear scenario of salvation.
It's truly the party at the end of the universe; no adventurer is going to have accumulation of weal as their motive in this setting.
You may not, but I would definitely challenge my players to really explore the philosophy of living in such a world.
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Post by skullheadsol on Aug 18, 2017 4:55:20 GMT
Minor (possibly major?) note-- If the Upper and Lower planes are destroyed... you have no resurrection, reincarnation or any other way to return the dead. How might this affect player behavior? How might this affect the angel, demons, now that they are 'on their last shot'? Typically the Divine Pantheon occupies the outer planes too; unless they have re-camped to pockets of your Astral Shards, can they influence the Prime or grant invocations? Or do the Gods occupy pockets of your Prime, which is a bad-ass pillar shape, living as their Avatars and subject to the same perma-death as other Outsiders? This leads me down a line of thinking where, if there is no place for passed souls to pass out, perhaps there are no points for soul ingress either? English- I think it would be interesting if no new life were borne into The End either, as if the threads souls take from the well of Creation are also sundered. That twist makes it, to me, a proper Apocalypse-- a world at its end, where there is no clear scenario of salvation. It's truly the party at the end of the universe; no adventurer is going to have accumulation of weal as their motive in this setting. You may not, but I would definitely challenge my players to really explore the philosophy of living in such a world. Thank you for the feedback first off, I love seeing other perspectives. Now, on to resurrection and reincarnation. You are correct, but it isn't due to the Upper and Lower planes but in this case the Astral Plane. In my setting the Astral plane was where the souls of the deceased went, unfortunately since it is shattered in can't take in or hold souls anymore. One of the major issues is there is a literal undead plague going on because whenever someone dies they rise again as a zombie, ghost, revenant, ect. The last remnants of civilization are literally trapped in the City of the End, surrounded on all sides by an unending army of the undead. The gods didn't all live in the Upper and Lower planes. The majority of them did and so a lot of the gods are just dead. Not lost in another dimension, they are completely gone. The gods that aren't dead existed in one of the surviving planes, but are either supremely weak now, or are so busy just trying to keep their remnants of a plane together they can't be bothered with much else. Angels, Demons and Devils definitely are "on their last shot" as you put it. They are mortal now and if they die they join the undead horde just like anyone else. Now, as to the threads of life not existing anymore and so no new souls are born or what have you. I actually had not considered that possibility and it definitely sets up an interesting end of everything scenario. However, that is not exactly where I want it to be. It has been 200 years since the Catastrophe and a few generations have been born and gone since then. Obviously the longer lived races are still around, and the 1st Generation Angels, Devils and Demons (the ones who landed on the Material Plane) are still around at this time but they have lost much of their power. The ones born after the 1st have lost virtually all their extraplanar heritage at this point. But, this idea definitely has merit and I may incorporate it somehow. Perhaps the generation the party was born in is the last. More and more still borns have come about since the Catastrophe and now no new live births have come about since their generation could definitely be a possibility. I'll have to mull that piece over. Thank you again for throwing out these thoughts and ideas. |
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