TO-DO

[The1True]

Who's willing to do what?

Sorry, this is getting hard to keep track of: If someone hasn't grabbed (G) wilderness mapping, I'm down for that when the time comes. Also, grinding out content for hex-crawling (or setting up a procedural system for it).

I wouldn't mind taking a shot at one of the starting locations as well (B,C). Bandit camp if it hasn't been snatched up. Fundamentalist stockade otherwise.

I feel like (F) simple side quests/lairs/locations will pretty much start to write themselves as we populate our starting locations and their surrounds but maybe leave that one to the howling hordes of the internet and give it its own thread?

Finally (I) I will make B&W artwork happen (by god), since I seem to feel pretty strongly about it. If I've got to pay for it, it's on me; hopefully my concept-artist gaming buddy will cut me a break... As for colour cover artwork, maybe we take a collection and see who we can afford? I guess that will come down to how proud we're feeling of the product as we near the finish line. Once we start to solidify on setting/theme I'll try to get some initial artwork to maybe inspire people etc. Concept artists should be integral to any creative endeavour.

We're really going to need an In-Design guy to make this come out right...

 

[The1True]

Also, there's been some hate on committees but if we go the opposite direction and get too compartmentalized we risk ending up with a disjointed hodgepodge like Jade Spire or Temple of Jing or ... Castle Greyhawk.

Just sayin...

 

[Grützi]

So people ...
I'm juggling around 3 ideas for Starting location A right now and can't really decide.
So let me give a quick pitch for every idea and we'll se what gets the best reaction.
Some of it might be too gonzo or weird for starters but bear with me.

1. Arnlaugs Carcass

34 years ago famous bandit lord Arnlaug the Joyous, finally tired of robbing and blackmailing the nobles, set out to find something new.
At the fringes of the mountain (the zone? the plateau?), hidden in a small valley he found the fossilized carcass of a giant, vaguely insectoid creature.
In the cavities inside the long dead creature he build his stronghold, attracting all kinds of dishonorable folk over the years.
A safe haven for all kind of thieving folks and down on their luck nobodys, Arnlaugs Carcass is a rather chaotic place.
Rumor has it that deep inside the Carcass Arnlaugs workers mine for gold, silver, gems and even stranger materials ... found nowhere else.

2. The Cracks

Somewhere in our zone there once was a grand plateau that got splintered, as by a gods fist, an age ago.
Now there are thousands of small canyons, caves and subterranean rooms that are all interconnected. A maze of epic proportions, keeping those that live there safe from all harm.
Periodically though some caves and canyons get flooded, forcing the inhabitants to keep moving in patterns only their elders understand to prevent them all from dying in the flood.
The greatest settlement in the cracks is a chaotic mixture of wagons, tents, rafts and other mobile apparatures. Capable of moving the whole settlement in half a day, only it's dedicated protectors (rangers) ever know where it is exactly.
Rumors say that a tribe of Frog men living underground are allied with the Cracksmen, helping them navigating the maze and sharing their strange magic with them.

3. The Monastery

At the side of one of the greatest peaks, build neatly into the steep wall lies the Monastery.
Founded hundreds of years ago by human monks seeking enlightement and isolation from the world, it has now become a kind of neutral meeting place for the warring factions of the zone.
As long as you keep the peace and respect their rules, the monks turn away nobody. As the Monastery can only be reached trough a handful of hidden and well guarded paths, no one has ever taken it by force (even though some factions surely would've liked that).
Rumors say that the monks are privy to hidden knowledge gleamed from the stones and the earth itself. The eldest monks, it is said, are hundreds of years old and utterly inhuman in their minds and abilties.

Everything is a rough pitch right now and open to change as necessary.

Edit:
A few more words on this.
Carcass - chaotic
Cracks - neutral
Monastery - lawful

The Carcass could serve as foreshadowing of latter developments. Maybe more of this creatures species will appear?

The Cracks are inspired by the shattered plains from Brandon Sandersons Stormlight Archive series.

For the Monastery and the monks I'm thinking tibetian monks .. not shaolin please
Maybe they are "ruled" by a triad of monks that were enlightened trought their practices. Think about the Tribunal from Morrowind (Elder Scrolls).
the basic pitch here would be a neutral place that no one darres to attack directly and everyone there grudgingly has to accept their rules.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

IMO: Carcass as a starting location (the "evil/rogue/mercenary" starting location, maybe?), The Cracks as a hex to pass through, Monastery as an adventure site/faction stronghold.

 

[The1True]

Agree with DP.
Also ditto Grutzi on the Carcass. I was down at the beach yesterday and thinking undead crab shells and then went further back to undead Trilobites and other super-weird pre-dinosaur critters. Things from before the before.

 

[The1True]

Are we abandoning the triple starting point idea? I was thinking really flesh one out, halve the job on the second one and keep the third one down to a few loose guidelines, 3-4 key NPC's and a map.

 

[Grützi]

Are we abandoning the triple starting point idea? I was thinking really flesh one out, halve the job on the second one and keep the third one down to a few loose guidelines, 3-4 key NPC's and a map.

I wouldn't abandon it. While it may be clever to add different level of detail to different locations I think it's best to keep the3 starting locations roughly on the same level.
The main point to include 3 starting locations was to allow groups to choose which to use according to their preferences and playstyles.
If one is really detailed and deep and the other is merely a note with some NPCs that would defeat the purpose I think.

Also I really like the chaotic - neutral - lawful triad we could include here. Each starting point having his own take on the alignment in question.

Another thing I think might help a bit is to get a rough outline of the geography of the Region together. It always helps me immensly if I have a halfway clear picture in my head.
We want a small regional hexcrawl with lots of exploration, an ancient civilization, some ancient menance, the conglomerate, the exiles, mountains ... and a lot more
Depending on where we place the different factions and part of the geography, the playstyle and rate of exploration might significantly change.

Brown - mountain ranges.
Blue - Exile culture, bandits, outcasts
Red - Conglomerate
Green - Frogmen and other natives
Orange - Ancient civilization, ruins, emerging alien menance
The arrows indicate which way the factions are expanding, the 3 black stars are our starting locations.

Circle plateau

Barrier

Peninsula


In the circle plateau contact between Exiles and conglomerate will be later, after each of them has met the natives and the ancient ruins.
with the barrier contact with the conglomerate might be much earlier and both sides might encounter the alien ruins together (forcing an enemy mine situation)

Tremble before my awesome paint mapping skills

Edit:
The layout also significantly changes the history between the conglomerate and the Exile culture (and the cutures they come from).
Cirlce Plateau: The conglomerate and the exiles likely never had any contact prior to the plot. So neither side has direct knowledge of each other.
Barrier: As they come from roughly the same side on the same continent the conglomerate and the exiles culture likely know of each other and have informations pertaining to the other.
Peninsula: Everything is open here. While the exiles come from the land to the north behind the mountains, the conglomerate could be from another continent or just from another land near the exiles parent culture. The ocean allows for more freedom here

 

[The1True]

The Barrier's cool, because it allows for expansion. I like that there are exits for some of the Exiles to harass more civilized lands from their hidden mountain fastnesses. Maybe place one of the Exile starting points a little deeper into the wastes? Ancient ruins, I thought were overlapping everything in the area? Or is that the currently known extent of ruined/blighted lands? I like the placement of NPC's cultures on the Barrier map as well.
Are you doing all three starting points Grutzi?

 

[The1True]

What's the breakdown on jobs so far? Have we filled all the key positions? Are people already at work? Should we start threads for these separate tasks?

 

[Grützi]

@The1True:
I also like the Barrier for the implied lands that are just outside of the maps border. This way we have an easy in/out for new factions or tired parties.
With the circled plateau everything that happens has to happen inside the circle.

The orange area is the "active" ancient civilization when it's awakening ... or the emerging evil.
So while the whole area is dotted with ancient ruins, the old owners (or their enemies or whatever) expand from the orange area.

I would only do one starting location. I think our adventure/setting would benefit more if different people do the starting locations. mixes up the preferences and styles a bit (which is one of the big positive points of working like this, thats why I still would love to collaborate with others on my or other locations)
If I alone did all the starting points I fear that my "style" would bleed through too much and make them to similar in a certain sense.
Would seem like a waste of much good potential here to me.

I will post a thread for Task A this evening when I'm home. Write up my current status and open a little brainstorm session. Nothing big, just enough to get people involved and collect some ideas

 

[Ice]

What's your thoughts about a groundwater deity? A forgotten one

you should expand this idea a bit. It sounds good but I am not exactly sure what you mean. Do you mean like a talking puddle of water that you can only access by digging down to the water table? One time I watched a video on the water table and that shit blew my fucking mind.

 

[Commodore]

The plateau setting is indeed less expansion-prone, but I actually like that for a sandbox; we're looking at making a limited-scope old school playground, right? There's a reason why that's often an island or mountain-rimmed valley.

 

[Ice]

1. Arnlaugs Carcass


2. The Cracks


3. The Monastery

These are great!

I think we could make it easier to dump into a preexisting campaign if rather than just having designated starting locations, we just had a bunch of hooks that tie particularly well to these locations.

These places are extremely creative though, I really like them and I am excited about play testing this with my goober friends.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Thoughts thus far:

What I'm seeing is great! Feels like we are making some progress here.

My vote for the geography of the place - I like the plateau idea best. I mean, I hear what True is saying too about having an exit or two (especially in case the players/DM want to take the campaign elsewhere), but a place of exile doesn't seem especially potent if the exiles can just go back, no? So my thought for balancing the concepts would be a place that is easy to dump people onto, but hard to get out of (not impossible, mind you, just hard). A really tall plateau accomplishes that, we just need to think of how everyone got up there (guarded stairs? or what if instead of a plateau, we invert it so it's a massive pit? Just thoughts)

Starting locations: The alignment divide for three starting areas is the better idea for a sandbox, IMO. You can usually get away with using the same divide for class types - Clerics, Monks and Paladins etc. from the good area (Missionary Outpost/Rehabilitation Co-op/SuperMax Prison Guards?), Fighters, Rangers and Wizards etc. from the neutral area (Mercenary HQ/Quirky Town/Exile Stronghold?), and Warlocks, Rogues, and Barbarians etc from the "evil" area (Bandit Lair/Captured Vault/Sacked Frogmen Village?). At any rate, yeah Grutzi, you'll only need to do up one I think (sounds like you want the bandit/evil one). True, you do another one (you volunteered, yes? Pick neutral or good theme for it please). That leaves the third one still up for grabs. One thing to remember about these places - don't make them "exclusively starting" locations, yeah? That way, we can duel-purpose them as adventure sites as well. Add some interesting shit there so players can actually use them beyond a spot on the map they can point to when someone asks where they're from.

For my part - if we're good to go with conglomerate concept, I'll start design on the small dungeon, which I think will be a conglomerate dig site over a small lost civ bio-vault (seeds and such). It'll allow the players to interact with both slaves and conglomerate in a small way, as well as let them touch lightly upon what the lost civ was all about (I'm thinking this particular vault was the civ expecting the end of all things and trying to weather the coming apocalypse that swallowed them). We can stick hooks out from there into the other sandbox elements (Villagers wants seeds for crops, bandits want to stick it to the conglomerate, tyrant wants the vault content for himself and is forming a faction to rival the conglomerate, players want to endear themselves to a resistance group by freeing slaves, you know stuff like that...)

 

[The1True]

That dungeon idea sounds solid. Lots of factions, lots of roleplay, lots of weirdness. Am I the only one who'd like to see the exploration of this dungeon result in the release of something ancient and unstoppable to propel our party into a future second act?

I will get to work on a hard-scrabble community of religious fundies. Primarily Lawful and Neutral. Maybe an opening for Malrex' enigmatic Groundwater Deity?...

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Am I the only one who'd like to see the exploration of this dungeon result in the release of something ancient and unstoppable to propel our party into a future second act?

I figure such a thing would occur in the Big Dungeon, as opposed to the Small Dungeon. The small dungeon is meant to be a sort of side-quest node, as opposed to a story node. They'll likely link to each other (I'd wager it'd be a good idea to have something in the small dungeon which allows access to a certain non-essential "bonus" area of the big dungeon, or at least gives an advantage of some kind in the big dungeon).

 

[Malrex]

you should expand this idea a bit. It sounds good but I am not exactly sure what you mean. Do you mean like a talking puddle of water that you can only access by digging down to the water table? One time I watched a video on the water table and that shit blew my fucking mind.

Heh...ya, sorta threw that idea out there without an explanation...my brain has been hosed the last few weeks.
Basically--I have an idea and maps drawn up for a 'cliff' adventure with a series of tunnels. Deep within is a strange portal that allows entry into a temple/shrine of a forgotten Groundwater Deity...figured it could maybe be a short adventure if needed.

 

[Ice]

Heh...ya, sorta threw that idea out there without an explanation...my brain has been hosed the last few weeks.
Basically--I have an idea and maps drawn up for a 'cliff' adventure with a series of tunnels. Deep within is a strange portal that allows entry into a temple/shrine of a forgotten Groundwater Deity...figured it could maybe be a short adventure if needed.

That's a super cool idea, I really like it! I would love to see a map. In my gooberish brain, it would be most interesting if instead of teleporting to the deity's shrine, you could just find the talking puddle groundwater deity itself and have a converstaion with it about anything that's on your mind. Maybe it knows some crazy spells and secrets of the DM or players choosing.

 

[The1True]

I figure such a thing would occur in the Big Dungeon

Right, right, sorry. Nice idea for finding the keys to bonus content in later dungeons!

 

[Commodore]

I'll take an F or two. One with the Glass Gippoli, one with some ruins and an Indiana Jones/Belloc things?