Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 korimyr_the_rat Sep 26, 2005 16:14:51	I've gotten it into my head that I need to design myself a Spelljammer-like campaign world. For now, I don't want to deal with the Flow, or with possible access to other known campaign worlds. In order to have a feeling of overwhelming vastness, and to have the kind of variety needed for a space travel game, I've decided that I want this Crystal Sphere to be very, very large. While Spelljammer establishes that planets need not be close to their respective fire bodies to contain life, I'm going to have multiple fire bodies in the system, each with its own set of habitable planets. I'm thinking the primary of the system is actually a massive Void world, which holds the fire bodies in orbit. I want very limited planar access-- temporarily summoning demons is good, plane shift is not. (I either want to run Incursion at some point, or make it part of the setting's history, and I need the Gith races to be mysterious.) Also, either the inhabitants are unaware of the Crystal Shell, or it's simply never occurred to them to try to get through it-- though it can be possible, may have occurred in the ancient past, and might happen again soon. The important thing is that inter-Sphere travel doesn't happen right now. So... what other features would you guys recommend? What kinds of planets are good for this set-up? I'm thinking of having a couple of "normal" planets-- basically, default D&D worlds-- that differ mainly in culture, and maybe racial distribution. For instance, I might have a "Greyhawk" planet (or two) and a "Kara-Tur" planet, and maybe even a "Maztica" planet, that have different human cultures and slightly different humanoid populations. I'll also probably have a "primitive" planet that has wandering tribes of orcs and humans and neanderthal. There's also a lot of "colony" worlds that have been settled by one or more of the "native" worlds, and possibly even by some of the "alien" worlds. There might be peaceful coexistence, or there might be territorial warfare, or shadow wars. There has to be at least one "dark" planet, occupying the same niche that the Underdark does in normal campaign worlds, though the "normal" planets will probably have their underdarks, as well. The "dark" planet will be a strange, alien place, where everything has darkvision or other senses, plant life is stunted and deformed, and most of the non-humanoid life is Aberration. I'm thinking there should be a "Xoriat" like planet-- it's not the Far Realms, but it's heavily influenced by them. It should be near the "dark" planet, and it's probably where the Illithids came from-- and possibly several of the Aberrations that have taken over the "dark" planet. It should have a negative influence on the entire region, and its appearance is feared throughout space. I'm thinking it'll have an irregular orbit, just to make people nervous. There should also be a variety of terrain planets-- the forest planet, the ice planet, the lava planet, the desert planet, and so forth. I might even include a city planet for space-travellers, a kind of extraterrestrial trade metropolis. There should also be some planets differentiated by biology-- planets where the main form of life is reptilian or insectoid (or something else) and humanity isn't the dominant life form. This might be mixed up with the terrain planets, when it makes sense-- reptiles on a jungle planet, or insects on a desert planet. Avians on a cloud planet. I'd also like to use some of the Spelljammer classics. I'm thinking of letting the Giff have their own homeworld, but they're slowly losing it to viscious guerilla halflings, that are using magic to cause the jungles and swamps to encroach on the Giff's military bases and fortress cities. I'm considering using Xixchil in their traditional role, as wandering medics and body sculptors-- feared and reviled by their Thri-Kreen ancestors, who were responsible for chasing them off of their homeworlds. Not sure how I want to use Neogi; I don't want to link them to the "alien" planet, since that'd be somewhat stereotypical. On the other hand, I could have them come from one of the "bug" planets, since they're bug-like and Umber Hulks are bug-like. Their greatest enemies would probably then be the nomadic, freedom-loving Thri-Kreen... For the most part, I want to avoid having specific racial planets for the standard races-- a Kreen planet or a Lizardfolk planet is cool, but an Elf planet doesn't feel right to me. Okay. Done rambling. Does anyone have any specific ideas? Things I should include, or avoid?
#2 Man_in_the_Funny_Hat Sep 26, 2005 18:42:43	Okay. Done rambling. Does anyone have any specific ideas? Things I should include, or avoid? Well I can point you to this: http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/dnd/spelljammer/campaigndesign.htm Basically just an outline of a process for creating a Spelljammer campaign but you might find it useful.
#3 zombiegleemax Sep 26, 2005 22:10:03	you probably want to merge alot of your ideas into one planet like you mastica idea with the giff and halfling idea. putting them on diffrent continents would effectivly isolate them. also it helps you fill out planets. for each planet you need to create atleast 3 ideas that would attract adventurers to the planet. the more ideas you can come up with the more active spelljammer traffic the planet will recieve. if you can't come up with ideas why someone woudl want to visit the planet you may want to either eliminate it or make it a void world. i suggest avoiding the whole spelljammer empires and instead going with trade fleets or small navies. as for sphere access just close it off completely or make it insanely rare. maybe a few portals every decade.
#4 korimyr_the_rat Sep 29, 2005 14:36:49	Okay-- so far, I've got the following hammered down. Cosmology and the Planes: Show Like Spelljammer, habitable planets (earth bodies) revolve around stars (fire bodies). Unlike Spelljammer, there are multiple fire bodies in the universe, each with its own planetary system. The fire bodies seem to revolve around a massive void body at the center of the universe. This is a self-contained universe. There are no Outer or Inner planes; souls, elemental energy, and positive and negative energy are all a part of the Material Plane. I'm definitely making use of the Incarnum rules. The only planes, aside from the Material Plane, are the Astral, the Ethereal, the Plane of Shadow, and the Far Realms. Githyanki inhabit the Astral Plane. Githzerai inhabit the Deep Ethereal. The gods, if they exist, are distant and unknowable; hundreds of religions exist, and the only thing they have in common is that their divine magic works. Outsiders and Elementals are conjured, not summoned. Intelligent ones will confirm the theological beliefs of their conjurers if asked-- even if two conjurers call up disagreeing spirits. Noone has ever seen the crystal shell or knows it exists; people who wonder what lies beyond the Known Universe generally think about either the Planes or the distant stars. The distant stars might actually be twinkling lights on the inside of the shell... or they might just be more stars, with their own planets.
#5 wyvern76 Sep 30, 2005 4:53:47	This might be mixed up with the terrain planets, when it makes sense-- reptiles on a jungle planet, or insects on a desert planet. Actually, I think it would make more sense the other way around. Not that you don't find reptiles in the jungle or insects in the desert - but reptiles are more common (relative to other vertebrates) in deserts, because being cold-blooded they don't require as much food to survive; whereas insects are *incredibly* abundant in jungles (owing to the fact that they're incredibly abundant nearly everywhere, whereas all types of lifeforms tend to be abundant in jungles). I have a Master's degree in zoology, you see, so I know a little bit about these things. ;) Btw, what's "Xoriat"? Wyvern
#6 korimyr_the_rat Oct 01, 2005 11:36:12	Btw, what's "Xoriat"? It's the Far Realm in Eberron cosmology. Thank you for the biological reminder-- I knew that, but I was thinking of Lizardfolk terrain being swamp/jungle and Thri-Kreen terrain being desert (mostly because of Athas). There's really no reason to continue the trend, other than nostalgia. Nostalgia's a big part of this, so I will make sure to have Thri-Kreen on some desert world. On a less traditional note, I think they'd fit in very well in the tropical parts of South America, and "Mantis Kung-Fu" takes on new meaning when they're around. Thri-Kreen may end up getting a promotion. Thinking it over, I realized I didn't want to marginalize Lizardfolk quite so much-- they're a major race in Nyambe, which I'm using partially as the basis for the Africa-like planet, and they're a more prominent race in Spelljammer.
#7 korimyr_the_rat Oct 09, 2005 7:57:01	Okay. Going back, I've decided to replace the Earth-like planets with whole star systems based on cultural milieu-- so, there's a European system, an Oriental system, and so forth. The largest planet in each system is referred to as the Capitol Planet; it's generally the "core" of the cultural region that the system is associated with. For instance, the Capitol Planet of the European system is more or less Britain/France, with outlying worlds that resemble Gaelic/Celtic cultures, Norse/Viking cultures, and so on. For each of these core systems, I'm planning on using as many of the standard races as I can, with small regional variations based on the mythologies the systems are based on. (Most of these differences can be handled with a regional feat and changing the race's Favored Class.) Since I'm doing so much with Regional feats, I'm giving every character a free Regional feat at 1st level. Humans may be allowed to use their Regional feat just like a second Human bonus feat, if they prefer-- unless I come up with enough good Regional feats to cover everyone. --- I'm breaking my "no subraces" rule for the inhabitants of the Underdark Planet-- it's just that everything there, with the exception of the Illithids and their servitors, is a subrace. Even the Humans are a subrace, with darkvision, light sensitivity, some (flexible) mutations, and a +1 LA. I've decided that Svirfneblin, like Nezumi, are Immune to Taint.