If you’re knowledgeable of D&D, into RPGs, and just like opining, lend me your eyes while I iron out this homebrew campaign I’m planning on.
I’ll start with the “races”. A term I hate but “species” doesn’t roll off the tongue as well. Too many esseses.
The stats will be the usual D&D six of STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, and CHA. I was thinking of adding back Comeliness (Your physical looks) as a sort of first impression stat and as an alternate to the CHA stat if you want to play pretty but dumb. Also to have looks be the basis of Bard skills instead of CHA. This might be a commentary on modern celebrity. I’m not married to the idea yet.
As for the races, the idea that the players would be given a template and they get to fill out the blanks themselves. Their species. The gods they worship. The names of their lands. The culture’s history. Their kings/queens/presidents. All that stuff.
The templates are based on the D&D races jst for the sake of making it work with the system better while hopefully avoiding making it OP. Here they are;
The Sturdy Tech Guys
Likes making things. Be it steampunk machinery or broadswords that can cleave a mountain.
+2 to either CON or INT. One racial ability that all their people are born with. (This will be subject to GM approval.)
–This category includes humans.–
They Who Take Delight In The Simple Things
Likes sunny days, second breakfast, or long walks among the treetops.
+2 DEX or +2 CHA (or Comeliness if used). One racial ability.
Proud Warrior People
Likes sunny days. It makes the blood of their fallen enemy sparkle.
+2 to one of the physical stats. One racial ability.
The Impossible Without Magic People
Likes chatting with elder gods. Being born with something extra that would kill their mothers if not for c-sections.
+2 on any mental stat. One racial.
That’s just the basics. I probably will leave the classes and backgrounds untouched. I might add a couple of things from 13th Age like the social role dice (“Does the Kingdom of Ants like or hate you?” sort of thing) and things to speed up combat.
Now, if you’d be so kind, please tell me where I broke it. I’ll add more as I figure out more.
Initial thoughts, bearing in mind that I’m familiar with 1 & 2e and not much that came after…
Don’t bother with Comeliness, it was a dump stat first time around and it will be again. It also doesn’t make sense to shift the bard from force of personality (CHA) to how pretty they are (COM). Who would you rather see - Iggy Pop or Milli Vanilli?
If you don’t like races then don’t use them. Make everyone human instead. You can still have the tree-loving hippies, the short, squat miners (make them Welsh), the gluttonous squirearchy, etc, with all the attendant bonuses.
What the players are going to want is a way to understand who’s who and what their relationships are. Elves, dwarves, halflings, etc are a convenient fantasy shorthand for this. I’m not saying it can’t work but you need strong player buy in if you’re going freeform on the races and it still has the potential to become inconsistent really quickly.
Who would you rather see - Iggy Pop or Milli Vanilli?
Obviously Iggy. But we live in a world where Ariana Grande is famous. Like I said, I’m not married to the idea and might drop it for the sake of using pre-made character sheets.
If you don’t like races then don’t use them. Make everyone human instead. You can still have the tree-loving hippies, the short, squat miners (make them Welsh), the gluttonous squirearchy, etc, with all the attendant bonuses.
D&D is pretty borderline with the yucky 19th century race theory as it is thanks to its source in Tolkien and Howard. My objecting is more to “race” itself substituting “species”.
But getting rid of the races isn’t the plan. Letting the players create their own is. Yeah, many will probably just want to play “Frizzt Fo’urden” and leave the world building to the DM. But I was going to try this idea with my creative friends back home… should I return. (Still no definite plans for my life come this Christmas.)
What the players are going to want is a way to understand who’s who and what their relationships are. Elves, dwarves, halflings, etc are a convenient fantasy shorthand for this. I’m not saying it can’t work but you need strong player buy in if you’re going freeform on the races and it still has the potential to become inconsistent really quickly.
The idea is a more collaborative form of roleplay rather than the GM… or Gygax/ Arneson/ Baker/ Greenwood/ etc… allowing the others to prance around their world. Like the races the idea will be to give the basis of the world and allow he players to fill in their little corner of the map.
Also, if you’re asking the players to help build the setting you might want to look into Fate. My main concern is that Fate builds on narrative logic, when life defies that logic.
Sturdy tech guys seems reasonable. Humans may not be as fast as a horse or a deer, but can keep going longer. Not sure how much of that is because we’ve evolved for it, and how much is just because we’re bipeds.
The world is a circle of six large islands in what many suspect is an endless sea.
Five islands where the five races above developed, and one isolationist island that everyone fears. While no one has seen any member of the isolationist group and lived to tell the tale, that island is about 1000 years ahead of the others. Currently they enjoy a vassal state arrangement with the other five islands where they are sent goods and people and the isolationist island doesn’t bomb everyone from afar. It’s been this way for a very long time.
Technology is basically 2017 but powered by magic instead of oil. Sort of Eberron’s steampunk plus two hundred years. Or any Final Fantasy game of the last two decades. EDIT: If the players concepts are more suitable for a lower tech level this is easily changed.
Every fifty years the mysterious beings of the to-be-named isolationist island issue the Great Dungeon Challenge. They create a small island with a dungeon in between all six of them and it’s said that the isolationists will tell their secrets to those who make it to the end.
There’s no cellphone service or internet down there. No one is sure if anyone will apply for this year’s event because of it.
I’m trying to figure out how well the traditional D&D classes can fit in this setting. I figure that any gods that a Cleric might worship will have to be the vague ideal sort of deity more than active super beings like the Greek gods were since a lot of the hook depends upon Island 6 basically being gods.
Hmm… maybe I can change it to Island 6 basically being Olympus instead?
Not sure yet. Melnibone is definitely an inspiration. But if the players need gods over a mysterious elder race then I’ll simply move to the gods idea. They’re really more of a reason for the Dungeon Challenge to exist. I could make them robots running a Matrix.
Some things that you might find interesting for that if you haven’t tried them:
Microscope: a fractal role-playing game of epic histories
In Microscope, you take turns making up eras, events, and scenes to create an epic timeline. Can end up with an interesting setting that has both a past and perhaps a prophesied or destined future, as well as some recent concrete events to set the stage. Easy to zoom in or out and explore different topics that create hooks for adventures.
Dawn of Worlds: A cooperative system for creating fantasy worlds
In this one you start with a rough blank map and take turns playing gods, creating terrain, races, civilizations, religions, and events over the course of three ages (forming of the Land, the rise of the Races, and the age of Politics, war, and trade).
I haven’t tried Dawn of Worlds yet, but I have had some fun with Microscope.
In the primordial sea, six gods were born. They decided that infinite ocean wasn’t big enough for all of them so they proceeded to murder each other.
The six islands are the remains of their material forms. The conjoined islands of the Isle of Life and the Isle of Death sit next to each other and a little off to the side. The Islands of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water form an archipelago that hold the majority of the living population.
The residual magic of each god powers everything from the magitech that rules the day to days lives to the divine abilities of the clerics. The power of the gods also grants automatic feats to the people born there. (These are 5ed feats from the Players Book) It’s not granted to expatriates.
Isle of Wind- Mobile
Isle of Earth- Durable
Isle of Fire- Savage Attacker
Isle of Water- Resilient
Isle of Life- Healer
Isle of Death- Skulker
The landscapes are themed like a Super Mario level. Isle of Life is hard to live in because weird and terrifying new creatures seem to be created there every minute. It’s filled with high level magical energy. The Isle of Death does have some folks there but it largely relies on importing goods and food. A lot of undead roam the countryside.
I might make Fire & Earth and Wind & Water conjoined as well.
Savage Attacker and whichever of Durable and Resilient only gives bonus the rolling hit dice are super boring feats that are completely useless. I would stick to the interesting feats to give more of a cultural flair to the bonus feat. Maybe:
Earth -> Sentinel/Shield Master
Fire -> Tavern Brawler/Greatweapon Master
Water -> something else
Those feats give weight to what their societies act like with more than static bonuses. I would also check out the Unearthed Arcana feats, they have some really good skill-based feats and tool-based feats released in free pdfs on the dnd website.
I wish I saw this thread earlier, I love homebrew stuff.
Dawn of Worlds is makes some interesting stuff, but the game is a bit clumsy.
Try One Quiet Year to make an interesting community to start he game in, as well has having a defined start to the campaign (the frost shepherds arrive).
One thing I like about 5e is that it vastly scales beck the “Medieval Superheroes” problem with the mid-era D&D editions that found its logical end with Pathfinder and 13th Age.
I was a bit iffy on the feats TBH and now I’m leaning towards something more situational like DR to certain magic types.
Well I mean stuff like this: Mobility greatly improves your jumping and overland movement as well as letting your kite around combat in a unique way only Swashbuckler rogues can. Tavern Brawler lets you use anything as a weapon and headbut people before grappling them, shield master lets you partially block fireballs and push people around with a shield, etc. These feats that let you do unique things in the game are more interesting as a reflection of a culture than the ones that give a bump to damage or healing during a short rest.
Did you look at the boons in the DMG? They might work a little better or inspire more than the feats too. Another option is innate elemental spellcasting, the Elemental Evil Player’s Guide has a lot of neat elemental spells (including cantrips for each major element that are flexible) that could be a good blessing reflective of the elemental land.
EDIT
And I get the fantasy superheroes complaint, I have that problem with those systems too. I like 5e a lot, which is why I feel the bonuses that let a character do something are better than fairly static ones common in 3.pf D&D.
Now this idea I’m liking. I want the location boon to be small and situational so some sort of related cantrip would definitely fit the bill. I’ll look into it. Thanks.