Community

A setting that mixes modern fantasy as described my MechaPilot and others (IIRC) in one section, steampunk in another, Wuxia in another, and Mechas in another. Basicly, five contenents that are somehow cohesive that offer wildy different enviroments. It's a shame that Eye on Eberron is going, but mister Baker is working on a new setting and I eagerly await that one.

The setting I would like to see added to the game would blend Sci-fi Space Opera with dimension hopping antics and tradiontial fantasy.
I know how old-fashioned some D&D Players can be and even suggesting adding Sci-fi to D&D could get me chased off the forums with pitchforks and torches, but the setting I'm currently working on for a future campaign entitled SoulStorm blends these together fairly well in my opinion.

The basic premise is that there billions and billions of different universes co-existing with one another. Every living thing in existence contains a portion of life energy, commonly known as a "Soul". When the creature dies, its soul is released, and begins to gravitate towards the centre of the universe towards the SoulStorm. The Soulstorm is at the centre of all universes, and as you get closer to it the universes start to merge together somewhat. The Soulstorm looks somewhat like a maelstrom composed of white-ish green life energy. Towards the centre of the soul storm, the pressure generated by the life energy being sucked in causes a rip in the walls between universes, and the life energy is thrown into a another universe where it will occupy the closest living thing without a soul. This natural phenomenon is known as "Reincarnation" and forms the basis of how life can be in the universe.

That basic premise has a few extra ideas and rules which make it a bit more interesting, here are a few examples.

1. There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as the avian race of Phoenixes, who upon death quickly age backwards and then suck their own soul back inside themselves, essentially living forever.

2. Magic can be used to travel between different universes. An entire class, The Wanderer is based around magic that allows travel between universes.

3. Different universes have a different rules of how reality works here. Using highly advanced magic, these rules can be ignored by individuals who can cause their own bodies to work by the rules of another universe, mostly liking their universe of origin.  There are too many universes to count but most universes can be categorized into commonly recurring types.
Here's an example: Infernal Universes.
Infernal Universes are inhabited by highly malevolent creatures and even being in these universes for long begins to twist and corrupt minds, causing mortals to have desires to inflict pain and suffering on others. All pain experienced in these universes is exaggerated, causing even the tiniest scratches to cause indescribable agony.

4. Creatures known as Demons feed on this Life Energy, slowing killing all of reality as we know it. Who knows how much of reality has already been destroyed by these creatures.

5. Demonic Energy is the ultimate destructive force, even rare for demons to use it. Effects and powers that have the Demonic Keyword that cause damage are permanent. These powers often cause huge damage and also cut the victims maximum Hitpoints by that amount of damage, therefore damage sustained from demonic energy can never be recovered.

A setting like this is my ideal setting. Do I expect WOTC to ever publish anything like this? Of Course not, but it's what I want.

Dec 28, 2012 -- 9:33AM, Crimson_Concerto wrote:

Dec 28, 2012 -- 9:28AM, Orzel wrote:

The more I think about it, the more I am liking the Young World setting. PCs could be the first scouts and handle negotiations with newly discovered races. And weird alliances and enemies could be formed.

That's not a setting, though. That's an okay idea for a one-shot campaign adventure, but there's no way to make a consistant and extensive world out of that.

I could do it quite easily.  What you need is a good backstory, such as the universe being the playground of a numbe rof mighty powers (gods, demon lords, aberrant entities, etc.) that never previously ineracted, each esxisting in their own discrete universes.  But the edges of their disparate realities bled together forming a puddle like melted candlewax.  That is reality.  And as the various entities find it, they find this candlewax can be heated and melted and refotmed to their liking.  From the melted wax they made the first races.

So what you have is a cosmic battle to determine what the shape of the world will be and various regions of the world that have more influence by each of the outerplanes.  I'd throw in Primal Spirits as the awakened powers of the material world, seeking to preserve itself, but uncertain how to handle the creatures made by the other planes that ar emade from prime material.

You have innumerable stories that can flow from this scenario.  You have alliances and plots by the various Powers against one another and the Primal Spirits.  You have the mortals unlocking new secrets, discovering races that can ally or not ally.  ou get to completely undo all the traditional frameworks of D&D.  You can have dwarves and kobolds allying against elves and orcs.  You can have new races nobody has seen.  You could be this world's Vecna, ascending to godhood.  

It's the stories of Gilgamesh, the early Greek and Egyptian Myths.  Imagine Odin and his brothers first discovering Yggdrasil. It's a world built on discovery and constant new horizons.

It is absolutely the basis for a campaign setting.