Plot/World Building for Campaign

[Tondi-]

Oh I miss read, I thought you were building a world from the Shadow War game.  Like extending the universe.  After a re-read I see that the discussion just started in the Shadow War thread.  My bad.

Man your worlds seem so fleshed out!

I'm so the opposite of that.  I start small and build as the story progresses...often making things up on the fly or letting the players do so.

Back to the topic at hand.

If there's other planets, how does space travel work?

[Navarre]

My worlds are very detailed, yes. But it is only the setting.

It is the PCs that will shape and change it. I want the game to be about the PCs and what they do, not the world itself.

By having a richly detailed world in which to place them, it becomes more obvious as the PCs change it. ie, It's hard to tell how significant the PCs' actions are on the world if the world wasn't even defined to start with because then there is nothing to which to compare.

As for Gaumer's universe, I believe he planned on at least some of the planets having space-faring ships.

But I would suggest a combination of methods. For example, if I was on a planet that was stronger in magic than technology and, one day, a space ship came by from a world I didn't know existed, I too would want the power of space travel.

But if I didn't understand the ship's technology (or didn't have access to it) I would devise a means of travel based on what I know: magic. So there could be a gate constructed on this planet that allows one to travel to the stars.

Gee what could we call a gate to the stars? A Star Gate? Nah. 

But my point would be that different planets may have similar goals but go about achieving them in different ways. It would be one of the little things that would show the commonality among species even though they consider themselves so different.

Rodrigo's sun question is a good one. My guess is that these are planets within the same solar system. Otherwise we need a means to cover truly vast differences.

But, hey, that's what magic and warp drives are for, right? So maybe they each have their own sun or maybe some planets are in the same solar system while others are in a different one.

I'm not sure to what extent I consider the sun and planet arrangement to be relevant but I'm sure it might be. Why do you think the sun is important in this, Rodrigo?

[Gaumer]

Sweet!!

Tondi -  This is open for anyone and everyone. We may even get something coherent out of the whole thing

Nav - Damn!! That's a bunch of stuff! I will find time to sift through it and take a look.

BRBC - Suns are going to be a big deal. Having a few is the best route IMHO, but have several planets would make for that much more scope to the space traveling. While a planet on the other side of a sun from another planet does add some traveling there wouldn't be much in the way of interstellar navigation, which is just another thing that has to be worked out

Glad this is having some interest though.

Space travel question from Tondi? Of course, that's one of the things we will need to work out, but Spelljammer has been adapted to 3.5 somewhere...(goes to the web) here it is

http://www.spelljammer.org/

Although not the greatest sites, I know, they offer some great ideas, IMO. Stormwrack - Mastering the Perils of Wind and Wave, is an official supplement that gives great stuff for water travel of all sorts and I think, for the sake of confusion, its a better idea to keep the space "sailing" as close to the other sailing as possible with most Skills and Feats crossover from the blue to the black. Navigation by the stars could even be about the same...maybe some synergy from the sea based stuff to an added space subset...IDK. That's the fun of this.
I love the idea of the whole "air bubble" around objects in space that can possibly run out/go stale. I also sort of like the gravity plane aspect of Spelljammer ships, but I don't care much for Spelljammers The idea of needing magic-users simply to fly around is silly to me. I like the alternative of needing a power source/magic item that requires regular recharge or whatnot, but its flimsy at best.

So working with Nav's "outside/in approach, we should all who want to, begin by creating a god or two and some planets. I'm really going to try to give this some attention and see what gets going.

[Navarre]

So working with Nav's "outside/in approach, we should all who want to, begin by creating a god or two and some planets.

Any parameters on these gods? Do you want any certain profiles for them, like God of Earth and that kind of thing?

That's how I felt you were headed? Is that right?

[Gaumer]

That was my starting point for that but it could move into other places/domains.

If we're doing this in a collaborative fashion I think we should let premises fall where they may and go from there, tweaking and such when input is given. That sort of thing. With there being different planets it keeps it pretty open for anyone to be able to jump in and build portions of the campaign. If we begin with gods for building, a pantheon can and should be very diverse allowing anyone who has ever had any sort of idea to be able to get a ball rolling in this.

[Navarre]

Agreed.

Well, look over my priests (Cardinals) of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water from the source book I sent you. Do you like what I did there?

If so, I just gave you four gods.   

If you like the premise I would create actual deities for them instead of basing them only on the abstract element. Lemme know.

[Tondi-]

This is so different to how I do things, i'm hooked.

Question: Do you have rules that encapsulate the universe or in other words does my magic and or technology work on other planets?

[Navarre]

I know Gaumer's just putting this whole thing together from scratch. So your question is a good one, Tondi.

It would be weird, but wild, if someone discovered their magic didn't work on one of the other planets for some reason. I don't know why that would be the case.

Maybe the magic isn't universal but is tied into the locale. Maybe even Rodrigo's sun has something to do with it?

And, yes, world-building is hella fun! 

[Navarre]

Hmmm. It looks like I might have been tapped to be the DM for the next irl game here with my friends. It might start in 3 months or so.

Looks like I need to build a new game world too.

Time to start stealing all of Gaumer's ideas.   

[Strifeter]

That was my starting point for that but it could move into other places/domains.

If we're doing this in a collaborative fashion I think we should let premises fall where they may and go from there, tweaking and such when input is given. That sort of thing. With there being different planets it keeps it pretty open for anyone to be able to jump in and build portions of the campaign. If we begin with gods for building, a pantheon can and should be very diverse allowing anyone who has ever had any sort of idea to be able to get a ball rolling in this.

If each god has it's own world something to consider is if every single world has its own god. What I mean is that maybe there are planets that people and creatures flea to if they ever enrage/fear/hate the god of their own world? Outerim type worlds without any god and perhaps even a class system.

Maybe I am going into to much detail at this point but it's something to consider. These worlds are also good plot points as rogue ships and pirates could be from here. Overarching organizations could easily hide in this type of setting causing problems throughout the 'god' worlds.

I like Navs outside in approach but I have always tried to think of organizations that would live and interact in the setting you are in the process of creating. I find it helps define parameters of your overarching themes easier.

But then that's just me. 

[Navarre]

If you have people fleeing then it would help develop what they are fleeing from.

Like the outer rim planets in Firefly, this would be best served as a difference in perspective. We didn't see much of the Alliance's side in Firefly and they were cast a bit as the overlord enemy.

But if the rogues (the group, not the class) fleed to avoid the law and/or religion, then you could flesh out the viewpoints of both sides. Don't have it black and white but far more morally grey.

This could help define one of the planets and maybe its religion, using Strifeter's mid-level-out approach.

[Gaumer]

Cool! Glad this is getting some interest.

I think 3.5 rulebooks should do for rules. As far as other planets being restrictive I think that is best done on a case by case basis. If the creator of a particular world wants to have different levels of magic allowed, so be it. Keeping this as open as possible, especially during these early stages of building, seems like wise thing to do.

We should stop calling this "my thing". Let's not lose the collaborate tense of this thing, which is going to be the most fun part.

All good points regarding the gods and their worlds in regards to the people and other planets.

I think at this stage in the game we have a loose enough, early premise that it allows for everyone involved to do as they wish. The piecing everything together later will be part of the collaborative fun.


 just had some stuff come up that will keep me busy but I still have time put aside in the coming week to get to a portion of this project I have deemed as "mine". I plan on working on a god/planet, probably water based.

[Navarre]

Taking this approach will leave you with a group of unrelated gods in a universe where magic works inconsistently even from planet to planet. How would you explain that in the game universe?

[Gaumer]

Taking this approach will leave you with a group of unrelated gods in a universe where magic works inconsistently even from planet to planet. How would you explain that in the game universe?

At some point during the process it would be addressed to fit into whatever context we have through tweaks and such.

I don't think many planets/areas would fall into the whole magic is different here thing, and if it does I doubt it will be a big deal overall.

Fitting gods into a pantheon and giving their relationships relevance may be a challenge but not impossible.

[Tondi-]

This is where I don't get it. 

If everyone is just building entirely different worlds with their own rules where's the cohesion?

You could literally say, planet Dark Sun, planet Grey Hawk, Planet Eberron. 

Not that that's a bad thing I just don't really get it I guess.