Campaign Worlds

[babbage]

I'm a new CK, but a long-time DM (approx 25 years). I'm just about to start up a new campaign and have been looking for a campaign world to use. I used to do these things myself, but as time has gone on - free time has slipped away.

I used Kalamar with 3.5e and enjoyed it for a while. When I switched to C&C I thought 'is there anything bettter'? I used to DM Harnmaster a long time ago, and still have the books. I dug them out and got all nostalgic (again!). The more I looked, the more I realised what a great pairing these are.

There are barbarians and viking-types for the barbarian class (although not all the barbarian tribes are suitable). The knight is a perfect fit as Hrn is big on feudalism. The religion is concise and lends itself to an easily understood mythos. Wizards though, were a conundrum. Until I hit on the idea of making the convocations (similar to spell schools) optional. Rangers are called Uthriem Roliri (and worship a deity called Siem), and paladins all worship Larani (also known as 'the Lady of Paladins'). And of course, most rogues belong to the Hrnic-wide thieves' guild, the Lia Kavair.

I'm having such a good time, I thought I'd start a thread to see if anyone else has positive experiences of other campaign worlds mixed with C&C.

[rabindranath72]

Never played Harn, so I cannot give any hints about it. However...

I am steadily working on adapting the Dragonlance setting to C&C (and viceversa!). Despite its many "nuances", this has proved far easier than I thought at first. One must simply look at the core ideas of the setting; and most often than not, C&C provides a nice, fast and easy way to implement those ideas. I am having as much fun as adapting the campaign, as CKing it!

Furthermore, I am working on a Legends of Hyboria campaign, in which I try to give a Swords & Sorcery feel to C&C. I am heavily "borrowing" from the old Conan TSR CB series modules, the old Conan TSR rpg, GURPS Conan and the recent Conan OGL. I am quite satisfied with the results until now. As soon as I have something "readable", I will let the crusaders here know.

Cheers,

Antonio

[seskis281]

From the published settings I'd certainly look at the following:

Already written for C&C: Definitely check out Gary Gygax's CZ:Yggsburgh. It's not a full world, but a more centralized city setting - although discussion of Gary's pantheon isn't to come till later supplements and modules.

Published settings:

Greyhawk (original 1ed boxed set, or even current Living Gazetteer) - Especially easy to use as it is very "crunch" light and gives only the broadest strokes... always a classic.

Karameikos - As above, and lots of 1ed Modules that can move pretty easily to C&C without enormous headaches.

Erde - Which soon will be Aihrde, which TLG is rewriting just for C&C.

It's also not quite out yet but Goodman Game's "Gazetteer of the Known World" looks like it'll be a good fit.

Avoid:

Forgotten Realms - Unless you stick with a specific region the general overpowering of the Realms, IMHOP, makes it problematic for C&C conversion, and all its material is crunch heavy.

Eberron - Ditto squared - this new setting makes for interesting reading but is specifically designed for the opposite gaming concept - intense empowerment of PCs, enormous varients and templates, LOTS of 3.x specific crunch.

Other:

Dragonlance - while I agree with the above that it's probably not as difficult to move, my own problem comes simply from too much knowledge, too much on-going history. When I tried to run a campaign here, many of my players "knew" this world so well from all the published literature that I couldn't run an adventure without someone saying "wait, but such and such happened..." or "that's not right...." or even more commonly being disappointed if my adventures didn't interact and comport to the world and legends of the literature... they HAD to start at the Inn of the Last Home, they HAD to go meet Dalamar, etc., and so got frustrated with my own stories.

One last thought, and just a plug to check out my own campaign setting, Ilshara: Lands of Exile: http://johnwright281.tripod.com/
John Maddog Wright

"You've got to know when to roll 'em.... know when to run!"

[rabindranath72]

seskis281 wrote:
Dragonlance - while I agree with the above that it's probably not as difficult to move, my own problem comes simply from too much knowledge, too much on-going history. When I tried to run a campaign here, many of my players "knew" this world so well from all the published literature that I couldn't run an adventure without someone saying "wait, but such and such happened..." or "that's not right...." or even more commonly being disappointed if my adventures didn't interact and comport to the world and legends of the literature... they HAD to start at the Inn of the Last Home, they HAD to go meet Dalamar, etc., and so got frustrated with my own stories.

There are so many ages of Krynn which have not been detailed, that it is really easy to stage a campaign in which the knowledge the players may have cannot spoil anything. If players are well-versed in the legends, it may be a boon, since they start with a good grasping of the setting. On the other hand, if the players do too much metagaming...it is not a fault of the setting in itself, nor of the gamemaster; it is simply that players are not good roleplayers. But these kind of people can spoil ANY campaign setting.

Cheers,

Antonio

[seskis281]

[/quote]

On the other hand, if the players do too much metagaming...it is not a fault of the setting in itself, nor of the gamemaster; it is simply that players are not good roleplayers. But these kind of people can spoil ANY campaign setting.

[/quote]

Quite true.

John Maddog Wright

[babbage]

My brother DM's Karameikos but that was during our 3.5e phase. He'd converted a load of 1e material and we enjoyed it immensely. He's a long-time DM like myself and has the same opinions as me re: 3.5e. As he's going to be playing C&C shortly I'm sure he'll want to move Karameikos across.

[Treebore]

I've been stealing all the awesome free Harn downloads for my Erde game. Plus there is a Harn d20 document free for download that may help with conversions.

So I am saying since Harn/erde is such a great mix Harn by itself will be good as well.

I like most settings. The only one I realy don't like is Eberron.

[Combat_Kyle]

I ran a highly modified/house rules (as far as plot and politics) Erde campaign, which is on Hiatus, pending the publishng of the rest of the A series modules. I then started a Yggsburgh campaign which I have ran the last 2 weeks, but I am not feeling it for whatever reason. Not sure why, but I think it is because there isn't a underlying of pending doom like Erde (gotta love the meta-plot). Anyway I have pulled out some old notes of a homebrew I started several years ago and customized it for C&C. I am still working on a world map (I lack the cartography skill, and I am thinking of shelling out the cash to hire a artist to do it). I have the history pantheon and details worked out, so I am going to run it this weekend. Anyway sorry to ramble, but the link is in my signature if you are interested.

CK
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The beginnings of my homebrew campaign world and info for my play by chat game:
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[Julian Grimm]

seskis281 wrote:
Avoid:

Forgotten Realms - Unless you stick with a specific region the general overpowering of the Realms, IMHOP, makes it problematic for C&C conversion, and all its material is crunch heavy.

The original Greybox is quite easy to convert to C&C. The only thing youhave to do is ignore the stats for the Flaming Fist in the DM's section. Other than that it's as easy as early GH to use it.

FR's later stuff (2e on) is where the over powering and such started.

Our C&C test runs took place in the greybox set and we had no conversion issues at all.
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[Maliki]

seskis281 wrote:
From the published settings I'd certainly look at the following:

Already written for C&C: Definitely check out Gary Gygax's CZ:Yggsburgh. It's not a full world, but a more centralized city setting - although discussion of Gary's pantheon isn't to come till later supplements and modules.

Published settings:

Greyhawk (original 1ed boxed set, or even current Living Gazetteer) - Especially easy to use as it is very "crunch" light and gives only the broadest strokes... always a classic.

Karameikos - As above, and lots of 1ed Modules that can move pretty easily to C&C without enormous headaches.

Erde - Which soon will be Aihrde, which TLG is rewriting just for C&C.

It's also not quite out yet but Goodman Game's "Gazetteer of the Known World" looks like it'll be a good fit.

Avoid:

Forgotten Realms - Unless you stick with a specific region the general overpowering of the Realms, IMHOP, makes it problematic for C&C conversion, and all its material is crunch heavy.

Eberron - Ditto squared - this new setting makes for interesting reading but is specifically designed for the opposite gaming concept - intense empowerment of PCs, enormous varients and templates, LOTS of 3.x specific crunch.

Other:

Dragonlance - while I agree with the above that it's probably not as difficult to move, my own problem comes simply from too much knowledge, too much on-going history. When I tried to run a campaign here, many of my players "knew" this world so well from all the published literature that I couldn't run an adventure without someone saying "wait, but such and such happened..." or "that's not right...." or even more commonly being disappointed if my adventures didn't interact and comport to the world and legends of the literature... they HAD to start at the Inn of the Last Home, they HAD to go meet Dalamar, etc., and so got frustrated with my own stories.

One last thought, and just a plug to check out my own campaign setting, Ilshara: Lands of Exile: http://johnwright281.tripod.com/
John Maddog Wright

"You've got to know when to roll 'em.... know when to run!"

Pretty fair assessment, although I agree with Julian, the original greybox for the Realms should port over fairly well.

Myself I'm really looking forward to the release of the C&C version of Erde, and DCC World from Goodman Games really has me excited.
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[Rigon]

Combat_Kyle wrote:
I am still working on a world map (I lack the cartography skill, and I am thinking of shelling out the cash to hire a artist to do it).

Have you ever checked into the Arr-Kelaan Hex Mapper program? I used it for the maps I did of my homebrew and it is a great little free program.

R-
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[Treebore]

It is a cool program. Heck of a lot better than nothing, that is for sure.

[babbage]

I had the grey Forgotten Realms boxed set! That was a good set. Shame about all the material that has come out since.

[Arazmus]

Aihrde is a good place. Great background too. Nice feel to it.
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[mostrojoe]

I go absolutely with Karameikos.

[anglefish]

For cool settings that need minimum tweakage:

The Castles and Crusades Freeport Companion PDF + Pirates Guide to Freeport hardback = a highly detailed campaign city with a "broad strokes" continent nearby.
It also comes with plenty of advise on how to campaign in several directions (adventure wise) and themes (replace all guns with crossbow for a full on DnD vibe or turn the city into a steampunk/interplanar nexus.)
There's also the Scarred Lands, a warped land that has survived the war between gods and titans by Swords and Sorcery aka White Wolf.
Most of the product is 3.0 and was designed to be easy to use with most standard modules, though the world has some great set pieces, seas of blood, infested thorny woods and giant mythrial golems that stand guard over a city.
Settings to play with Quick and Dirty Conversions for two Fantasy Flight Games RPGs:
We also used the history, politics and maps for Dawnforge, a "First Age" setting.
It's a new world where the elves have arrived only 300 years ago, before their Civil War. There are 3.0 rules for making the game much more epic, but it was fun to use CnC as is in this world.Midnight: What if Sauron had won. 'Nuff said.

[DocEldritch]

I've been looking at a few ideas for campaign worlds, myself, and have mostly narrowed it down to the following possibilities:

Freeport: With the companion and pirate's guide, this is a pretty nice setting! It has all the piratey goodness of Freeport and enough world info to make things easy on me as a GM, depending on where I want to set things.

Mystara: I still have my old Gazeteers, and the Rules Cyclopedia, so this one is a prime contender, and quite a favorite. Of course, I am also planning on using the "skills" from the RC and modified weapon mastery rules anyways! But Mystara is a ton of fun, and even some of the sillier areas have a lot of potential!

Golarion: The campaign world Paizo designed for their Pathfinder stuff, and now the "base world" for their RPG. While I have really, really liked PF, I have a hard time wanting to run it, considering how much easier C&C is and how much it scratches the exact fantasy gaming itch I want, with only minor changes. This is the one I am currently leaning towards using, as a lot of the world books are pretty system neutral, and even the game system stuff in them is easily useable if I want (DCs are easy to use in C&C by just subratcting 10 and making the remainder the Challenge Level for whatever test is needed). It has a lot of charming bits to it, and some really well designed ideas.

Golarian is currently my top choice, with Mystara being quite close behind it. If I somehow ran two games, one would be in each world, I think.

Freeport is still on my list of fun settings, and someday I want to run my Tales of the Freeport Watch campaign (ala the Hawk and Fisher novels series)!

[mordrene]

anglefish wrote:
For cool settings that need minimum tweakage:

The Castles and Crusades Freeport Companion PDF + Pirates Guide to Freeport hardback = a highly detailed campaign city with a "broad strokes" continent nearby.
It also comes with plenty of advise on how to campaign in several directions (adventure wise) and themes (replace all guns with crossbow for a full on DnD vibe or turn the city into a steampunk/interplanar nexus.)
There's also the Scarred Lands, a warped land that has survived the war between gods and titans by Swords and Sorcery aka White Wolf.
Most of the product is 3.0 and was designed to be easy to use with most standard modules, though the world has some great set pieces, seas of blood, infested thorny woods and giant mythrial golems that stand guard over a city.
Settings to play with Quick and Dirty Conversions for two Fantasy Flight Games RPGs:
We also used the history, politics and maps for Dawnforge, a "First Age" setting.
It's a new world where the elves have arrived only 300 years ago, before their Civil War. There are 3.0 rules for making the game much more epic, but it was fun to use CnC as is in this world.Midnight: What if Sauron had won. 'Nuff said.

My thoughts exactly. I highly recommend each one.

[anglefish]

I've run most of the Runelords and some of the Second Darkness Adventure Path stuff in my Freeport game and had a blast.

So the real answer is "all of the above."
Simply have the port city of Freeport between the "continents" of Golarion and Mystara in a mash up world.

anglefish wrote:
For cool settings that need minimum tweakage:

• The Castles and Crusades Freeport Companion PDF + Pirates Guide to Freeport hardback = a highly detailed campaign city with a "broad strokes" continent nearby.

It was almost Ten years later before readers found out about that continent because Freeport has always been a "drop it in a world of your choice" setting. For example, my world has been Dawnforge. So instead of Arthurian style elves, I have a truer fey race that has been on the world for only 300 years.

The goblins on the other hand would look very familiar to Golarion fans.
We be goblins, you be food!

Regardless, for 41 monsters and 30 NPCs along with new spells, poisons and other stuff, the $12 CnC Freeport PDF is a great bargain.

[anglefish]

Quote:
Tales of the Freeport Watch campaign (ala the Hawk and Fisher novels series)!

That is cool, but I think you might be missing out on some of the more unique aspects to running a Age of Sail style RPG:

Modular: Each island is a plug and play dungeon. No need to figure out how the adventure impacts your setting.

Traveler's expectations: Traveling by land, players expect random encounters, which sometimes drags out the game (picking out sleeping rotations, scouting ahead, etc). By ocean, encounters are more of surprise and special.

Ships can be impacted by weather, taking parties off course, or worse.

Plenty of NPC crew to be "graduated" into PCs if you have a TPK. Better yet, the new PCs already know most of the score.

The Exploration of Distant Lands/Ambassadors From Afar tropes let you introduce new elements, races and spells with ease.

[DocEldritch]

Oh, the age of sail type stuff is definitely another idea, and if I did something like that, I would probably put Freeport in a custom world made mostly of small islands, lots of unexplored areas to delve around in, as well as nearby island kingdoms to provide the fat merchant ships for Freeport's pirates to prey upon.

"Tales of the Watch" would work in almost any large city type setting. Freeport was a good choice to me, because of the original Freeport campaign hardcover which had a wonderful map and the whole city designed for me (Pirate's Guide is almost as good). But I could as easily run it in Absalom (in Golarion), or one of the larger Mystaran cities.

[MithrilKnight]

anglefish wrote:
There's also the Scarred Lands, a warped land that has survived the war between gods and titans by Swords and Sorcery aka White Wolf.

• Most of the product is 3.0 and was designed to be easy to use with most standard modules, though the world has some great set pieces, seas of blood, infested thorny woods and giant mythrial golems that stand guard over a city

I'll second this! This is my setting of choice. Lots of great flavor. If memory serves, there were really only three "modules" produced -- the Serpent Amphora series. But the several dozen setting books are filled with tons and tons of plot hooks and ideas. I always have a hard time picking what I want to dangle before my players. Hollowfaust is a favorite (city of not-so-bad necromancers).

I started playing Scarred Lands in 3.0 and then 3.5, but I've had no trouble making the shift to C&C. The flavor transfers easily, even if you have to leave some of the crunch and some of the spells behind.

[Lord Dynel]

I think the Harn stuff would work quite well. Really, any system that is very "crunch-lite" (Greyhawk, FR Grey Box, old Kalamar) should work fantastically. I started using the Grey Box but now that that campaign has come to an end, I'll mosr likely either do my own thing or Greyhawk.
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[artikid]

For me it's Greyhawk or Moldvay's Known world.

When I want to play space pirates I dig out Spelljammer .
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[Piperdog]

Of course, most know Airhde is my favorite setting right now, but there are some others I dig also. Gurps is a system my group has played extensively over the years, as we have covered many different genres with their ruleset, and their fantasy setting book "Banestorm" is pretty cool.

In a nutshell, the ancient elves, desperate to rid the world of the orcs, got all their mightiest wizards together and summoned the Banestorm, an interdimensional galactic storm of energy. Of course, it goes awry, and devestates the planet, and the Banestorm starts ripping into other worlds, tearing humanoids, monstrous creatures, and so forth from their home planes and depositing them in the campaign world. More interesting to me is that the Banestorm tore through various areas of our own real world history, and deposited chunks of varioius cultures of varying time periods throughout. Norse raiders, Muslim zealots, Crusaders, Greek Hoplites, and so forth were forced to learn to survive in the new world, and over a few hundred years, really shaped the setting into a campaign world that is very familiar, yet different.

The coolest part is how the major religions of the real world exist in the game, and the work that went into speculating how the religions may evolve to include magic...or not. Division in the Christian churches, for example, where one denomination believes that Magic is a power from God, and as long as the magic is used in the name of Christ, it is okay (the history shows that this denomination originally didn't accept magic, but the church was getting their butts handed to them until mages intervened to save them). Yet another sees it all as blasphemous and burns all magic-users at the stake. The Muslim sects are all at odds as well, with a large orc following in some of the extremist groups (orc terrorists anyone?lol).

I don't do the setting justice here in the forums. It is well worth the purchase alone just for the interesting read.
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[jeff]

I use my own homebrew setting of Daear with horse-nomad Elves, Dwarves who are more known for astrology and prophecy than for being pygmy Vikings, Gnomes who are swamp dwelling guerilla fighters perpetually warring against Lizardmen, and Halflings who are like little Ferengi.

I'm also working on converting Fantasy Flight's Dragonstar setting to C&C.
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[Aladar]

jeff wrote:
I use my own homebrew setting of Daear with horse-nomad Elves, Dwarves who are more known for astrology and prophecy than for being pygmy Vikings, Gnomes who are swamp dwelling guerilla fighters perpetually warring against Lizardmen, and Halflings who are like little Ferengi.

I'm also working on converting Fantasy Flight's Dragonstar setting to C&C.

Halflings as Ferengi, now that's an interesting idea! I may have to borrow this idea.
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[anglefish]

heh. heh. I've already got the Halfing mafia in my urban game.

When the little people got tired of being picked on, they got together and got organized. Then all it took was one halfing merchant to start giving out "loans" and now he own half of the city's organized crime.

The "Godfather" has a vicious gnome enforcer (Illusionist/half assassin) and plenty of human "enforcers" on the payroll.

[mostrojoe]

I have everything about the Scarred Lands. But Karameikos remains my favourite.