Post by whipstache on Aug 17, 2015 14:22:35 GMT
Okay.
So, I had this hare-brained idea: what if a D&D setting was set in North America? Now, just bear with me.
In the year 2106, there's some cataclysmic event (In our future setting, all they know is "the Cloud vanished," but no one knows what this means.) Electricity was gone forever. Even solar and wind power couldn't be turned into electricity anymore. Without electricity, manufacturing ceased. This marked the beginning of a 400 year Dark Age, of which there aren't really any good records. Many millions of people died from war, famine, and disease.
After the Dark Age, people began to find themselves again. Although most of human history and knowledge had been lost, the small fiercely antagonistic tribes that humanity had divided itself into began to cooperate. People started trading; farms sprung up. Order began to rise from the chaos. New governments and coalitions were formed; some looking remarkably similar to old political systems, and some new systems arose as well.
During the Last Age (1980-2100), the earth's resources were badly depleted. The polar ice caps had all but melted, causing the ocean levels to rise about 40 feet. Temperatures along the equator had rose to a place where all but the heartiest of creatures either perished or moved to milder climates. After the vanishing of the Cloud (and subsequent apocalypse) the earth went through some changes. The dramatic reduction in global population gave the earth some time to recuperate, and it's doing so with vigor. The most notable change: the creation of magic.
Members of The Communion were the first to discover magic. They reacted dramatically to the instantaneous nullification of all electricity by leaving civilization behind to be fully immersed in nature, and as a reward, the planet blessed them with magical powers. They value the earth above all else, and their culture is mostly a mystery to outsiders. But, a few of them, against the wishes of the majority, thought the discovery of magic was too important to keep secret. Traveling in pairs or small groups, they went from tribe to tribe showing people what they had learned. These proselytizers are not welcome back into The Communion.
The Communion were also the first to discover the Dwarves. As the polar ice caps melted, the Dwarves slowly migrated south. After thousands of years of peaceful existence among the snow and icebergs of the Arctic Ocean (with limited interaction with the Inuits and other tribal cultures), they needed to find a new home. The members of the Communion who had moved to the highest and most remote parts of the Canadian Rocky Mountains discovered the Dwarven culture. They learned that during the human Dark Age, the Dwarves were having a period of enlightenment. After reorienting their existence toward stone, rather than ice, the Dwarves essentially took root throughout the entire Rocky Mountain range. After the interaction with The Communion, a large contingency of Dwarves began successful relations with small groups of humans, to the point where many moved into their tribes. A second dwarven culture began to emerge, far more suited for life above ground. They have since created cities and settlements up and down the Appalachian mountain range.
I think it would be cool to start 200-300 years after the Dark Age ended; say, 2750 (or year 650 of the new calendar). This would give plenty of time for new city-states and cultures to become established with monarchic lineage and so forth. It would also, then, be fine to maintain a quasi-medieval world.
So, what do you think? What kinds of details would you include to make the world more fleshed out and believable?
A few examples: There's an entire industry that's been created surrounding the crossing of the Mississippi river. It's the the border between two of the major nations, so there's tariffs and taxes, but it's also REALLY expensive to hire a ferry to transport anything larger than what you can carry. There are only a few spots where crossing is possible, so they can charge sort of whatever they want.
Also, metal weapons and armor are difficult to come by. Most of the artisinal metalwork had died out as advanced technology made manufacturing too cheap for handmade goods to compete. So, when technology got erased, VERY few people knew how to smith. It's growing, but a metalworker can only train so many people at a time. The Dwarves, however, make nice weapons out of stone. But, they're entrepreneurs, so they don't come cheaply either. While metal and stone weapons might be harder to obtain, the quality of wooden weapons has improved, so there'll be an extra level of wooden weapons.
I was thinking about having elves come from the south... maybe the rainforests of central & southern Mexico? Maybe with some ties to Aztec (or even Mayan) ancient cultures? I think halflings make sense as offspring of human-dwarf or human-elf relations (they're stature would lean dwarf, but their skills would push toward elves... maybe they're the fairly recent creation of dwarf-elf relations...?)
I also think exploring the ruins of "ancient" cities that have been mostly reclaimed by a rejuvenated earth would be so interesting and fun. Images like the tops of hundreds of NYC skyscrapers sticking up out of the ocean a few miles off the coast capture my attention. Although, anything that we have today would be 700 years old, so there may not be much left.
Some pics for inspiration:
I'd love a brainstorming session to help create the structure and color in this world.
So, I had this hare-brained idea: what if a D&D setting was set in North America? Now, just bear with me.
In the year 2106, there's some cataclysmic event (In our future setting, all they know is "the Cloud vanished," but no one knows what this means.) Electricity was gone forever. Even solar and wind power couldn't be turned into electricity anymore. Without electricity, manufacturing ceased. This marked the beginning of a 400 year Dark Age, of which there aren't really any good records. Many millions of people died from war, famine, and disease.
After the Dark Age, people began to find themselves again. Although most of human history and knowledge had been lost, the small fiercely antagonistic tribes that humanity had divided itself into began to cooperate. People started trading; farms sprung up. Order began to rise from the chaos. New governments and coalitions were formed; some looking remarkably similar to old political systems, and some new systems arose as well.
During the Last Age (1980-2100), the earth's resources were badly depleted. The polar ice caps had all but melted, causing the ocean levels to rise about 40 feet. Temperatures along the equator had rose to a place where all but the heartiest of creatures either perished or moved to milder climates. After the vanishing of the Cloud (and subsequent apocalypse) the earth went through some changes. The dramatic reduction in global population gave the earth some time to recuperate, and it's doing so with vigor. The most notable change: the creation of magic.
Members of The Communion were the first to discover magic. They reacted dramatically to the instantaneous nullification of all electricity by leaving civilization behind to be fully immersed in nature, and as a reward, the planet blessed them with magical powers. They value the earth above all else, and their culture is mostly a mystery to outsiders. But, a few of them, against the wishes of the majority, thought the discovery of magic was too important to keep secret. Traveling in pairs or small groups, they went from tribe to tribe showing people what they had learned. These proselytizers are not welcome back into The Communion.
The Communion were also the first to discover the Dwarves. As the polar ice caps melted, the Dwarves slowly migrated south. After thousands of years of peaceful existence among the snow and icebergs of the Arctic Ocean (with limited interaction with the Inuits and other tribal cultures), they needed to find a new home. The members of the Communion who had moved to the highest and most remote parts of the Canadian Rocky Mountains discovered the Dwarven culture. They learned that during the human Dark Age, the Dwarves were having a period of enlightenment. After reorienting their existence toward stone, rather than ice, the Dwarves essentially took root throughout the entire Rocky Mountain range. After the interaction with The Communion, a large contingency of Dwarves began successful relations with small groups of humans, to the point where many moved into their tribes. A second dwarven culture began to emerge, far more suited for life above ground. They have since created cities and settlements up and down the Appalachian mountain range.
I think it would be cool to start 200-300 years after the Dark Age ended; say, 2750 (or year 650 of the new calendar). This would give plenty of time for new city-states and cultures to become established with monarchic lineage and so forth. It would also, then, be fine to maintain a quasi-medieval world.
So, what do you think? What kinds of details would you include to make the world more fleshed out and believable?
A few examples: There's an entire industry that's been created surrounding the crossing of the Mississippi river. It's the the border between two of the major nations, so there's tariffs and taxes, but it's also REALLY expensive to hire a ferry to transport anything larger than what you can carry. There are only a few spots where crossing is possible, so they can charge sort of whatever they want.
Also, metal weapons and armor are difficult to come by. Most of the artisinal metalwork had died out as advanced technology made manufacturing too cheap for handmade goods to compete. So, when technology got erased, VERY few people knew how to smith. It's growing, but a metalworker can only train so many people at a time. The Dwarves, however, make nice weapons out of stone. But, they're entrepreneurs, so they don't come cheaply either. While metal and stone weapons might be harder to obtain, the quality of wooden weapons has improved, so there'll be an extra level of wooden weapons.
I was thinking about having elves come from the south... maybe the rainforests of central & southern Mexico? Maybe with some ties to Aztec (or even Mayan) ancient cultures? I think halflings make sense as offspring of human-dwarf or human-elf relations (they're stature would lean dwarf, but their skills would push toward elves... maybe they're the fairly recent creation of dwarf-elf relations...?)
I also think exploring the ruins of "ancient" cities that have been mostly reclaimed by a rejuvenated earth would be so interesting and fun. Images like the tops of hundreds of NYC skyscrapers sticking up out of the ocean a few miles off the coast capture my attention. Although, anything that we have today would be 700 years old, so there may not be much left.
Some pics for inspiration:
I'd love a brainstorming session to help create the structure and color in this world.