This Campaign World

This campaign world will have nothing all that special to it, at least when compared to most of my previous campaigns.

Other than several basic ideas and notes, I’m going to make up a lot of it shortly before the game sessions or on the fly.

Whereas my previous campaigns had a lot of notes and plenty of information for the game, then I mixed PC backgrounds into the story.

The PC backgrounds may work to further the story, but are not necessarily integral to the game itself. It is very unlike the Endrin campaign I ran several years ago where I wove the PCs’ stories into the game and with resolutions to them. Or maybe the most recent Valley campaign where I somehow mixed roleplaying and PC histories into a 4E campaign.

(Note: I’ve wanted to return to a campaign like those again, but I need more players and a more sufficient understanding of 5E before I attempt that.)

Here are some basic notes that I have for the game world, some of which are being repeated from a recent blog entry:

The planet is smaller than earth size, but I’m not giving any dimensions because I neither need to nor do I feel like figuring that out.

There are 3 small continents, two of which are goblinoid dominated. The last continent is the largest and northernmost with its southern areas being temperate and northern being the edge of arctic areas.

About 100 miles from the shores of all land heavy fog conceals all but nearby water, nearly even blotting out the sun. Some ships return, and have even crossed around the world, but it’s not safe and only the most foolish or foolhardy have done so.

The planet has one small moon and a faint ring that can best be seen when the sun is moments from setting. This ring often causes shooting stars that people wish on.

Devils, demons, and similar monstrosities exist in children’s fables and other stories, but it is known that they are most definitely real and nothing positive has ever come from dealing with them. Their evil seems to know no bounds and even the smartest warlocks guard themselves carefully. Entire kingdoms have been brought to ruin by a single such foul creature. This is why both warlocks and any person thought to be dealing with, or having a bloodline of the hell-born creatures are not suffered to live.

Demons and other dark creatures are more rarely seen that dragons, and more rare are the angels that supposedly exist, but no one in this era have seen one.

(Hence in this campaign there are no tieflings or aasimar.)

There are stories of rises and falls of many civilizations on the three continents going back many generations. This gives many ruins of ancient times for adventurous types to investigate. The whispers of the goblin armies being the doom that brings the next fall are becoming louder.

Teleportation is similar to what I have done before. Several towns have enchanted fountains that decrease the risk of an error in teleportation. The only requirement is that you have visited the fountain and cast the teleport spell while at the fountain to attune you to it.

The “Great Wheel” cosmology does not exist. There are pretty much the stories of The Great Pit of Hell that wicked people go to, or they go to join their god.

The life spans of all humanoids I will have to rewrite, but while some races tend to live longer or shorter than humans, it’s not as drastic as per the rules as written. Elves and dwarves do live longer, goblinoids and such live shorter, just to a lesser extent – though their racial tendencies towards peace, violence, eating smartly affects this as well.

As with other campaigns, deities may or may not have names. I’m perfectly fine with simply having a “Church of Life”, a “Church of War”, or even a “Church of Ares”. That I’ll leave open to whatever is needed.

There is one church that is setup already, but it really isn’t a church per se. There is no one god or aspect to it. It attracts many different people to it, mostly to help those who are down on their luck. The Church of Arimu is often the last stop for those who have no other options. It has many success stories of bringing people back from ruin, and it has many failure stories of people whose fall they could not break.

The last continent, which I should really pick a name for, is not sitting idly by for the goblin armies to conquer it too. Many kingdoms, warlords, free cities, villages, and more are preparing for war.

This war preparation has created an economic boon for those who supply raw materials needed.