Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Darth Sephiroth 02-04-07, 04:59 PM	With my Avantiar campaign having ended for the most part, I've started work on a new setting for that group. At the moment the setting for the new campaign and Avantiar are seperate and won't cross. My new idea came from the Blue Moon special on National Geographic channel, and developed from a mix of that and the Kashyyk from the Star Wars novels. Namely the closer to the ground you get the nastier and less safe it is. Civilization is on the mountain peaks and floating cities for the most part with a few built into the treetops that are still over a mile from the ground save for on a few isolated islands in the oceans and a few fortified villages nestled a bit lower, but are far from safe and most people that live there are on the run for one reason or another. Airships and flying mounts are common for transportation, though trade is still rather limited and in most places people are rather friendly due to the comparitive lack of visitors. Immense versions of Soar Whales cross the skies in pods, while insectile creatures hunt in swarms. Giant Eagles are common mounts for the military and for the wealthy to travel in. Balloon Trees float high in the sky while others seem to hold lakes in their leaves. I want to aim for a society built in that kind of a place where the depths are nearly impossible to pass through alive. I also want to have a frontier feel to this in many ways.
Turaj 02-05-07, 12:43 AM	So how do you want help. Sounds like a great campaign idea to me. kudos. :clap:
Darth Sephiroth 02-05-07, 01:05 AM	I'm mainly looking for ideas while going through preliminaries for it. The Soarwhale in A&EG seems like a decent primary method of transportation Paladins gain a Pegasus as their special mount, they gain hd at -2 from the Paladin table though and use their own INT. Other creatures of similar ability may be substituted.
Turaj 02-05-07, 01:49 AM	well, include some kind of large fast transport that air-pirates could use, and dont forget rules about falling, etc. Lakes in trees paints a nice picture, but if the trees are that big, how big is the world itself?? Transportation would be a b***h in and of itself, considering it might take months to reach a "near" by kingdom... its late, so i cant think of much, but some kind of plague or something that only occurs in the lowest areas could some how be brought to the upper levels by some kind of cattle/pet/etc.
Darth Sephiroth 02-05-07, 02:12 AM	Airships would be rare but available, they'd outpace most things. There are also other mounts from various places for airborn attacks.
Towel_Ninja 02-05-07, 02:26 AM	im working on a campaign that has to do with aeriel stuff such as airships and other misc stuff but i suggest picking up (or ordering) a copy of the sky captains handbook. has all info on airships like stats and combat also includes info on mounted flying combat, has airship record sheet ^-^ great book to pick up
Artifact 02-05-07, 11:35 AM	I'm deathly afraid of heights, so I prolly wouldn't be too comfortable in your world ;). Which brings up (I think) an interesting consideration: How do you address such a common fear (I'm assuming of course, that it still applies in your setting). Tell me if you've heard this one: A man stands on a talll building. He refuses to step close to the edge: "You don't understand", he says, "I fall 5 feet up, 5 feet over, and 500 feet down; that's just how I fall when I'm up this high." That's kinda how I felt when I read your idea :P; so you know its cool if it evoked that kind of emotion in me.
Roscoe_Greenbottle 02-05-07, 11:50 AM	sounds a lot like my world but the ground isn't so dangerous. If your using all the standard races you can put halflings as the native race to what in my world are skylands. Makes sense that they'd be so small living in limited spaces. The plague could be the reason that civillization moved up to the air in the first place. Dwarves get the mountain tops with gnomes. elves and halflings get the skylands. Humans mix with everyone else and half-orcs come from cross breeding on the defended cities. Great mental picture of the setting though. Airships launching off from a mountain tops towering above the clouds. Skylands floating in the distance. Towering forests covering the world. I think it's great.
Darth Sephiroth 02-05-07, 02:33 PM	The Climb skill becomes a necessity in this setting if you want to leave the cities Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Sorcerers, and Wizards replace Profession with Climb as a class skill
Vahenir 02-05-07, 03:07 PM	I'll toss out a few ideas that may or may not help you: Sky Chariots. Little bit of magic, and a little bit of just plain ol' reins hooked up to flying beasts. Would be a little slower and a lot less maneuverable than your average griffon or eagle, but would be able to carry more passengers, depending on the number of mounts used to pull it across the sky. Crazy Druid: Make some nutty, psycho-druid responsible for the living situation. You know, casts a few spells, cracks open a potent magical item -- all in the hopes of helping the Earth protect itself from humanity's depredations -- and ends up covering the planet in plant-life so thick that humanoids cannot much survive in it. That would explain both a smaller population of humanoids in the world, the smaller size of settlements, and how the 'monsters' of the world got to multiply and take over unchecked. Friendly or Unfriendly: You say that because of the 'few visitors' - most settlements would be friendly to outsiders. I'd say in more cases than not, it should be the opposite. Being closed off from everyone else, especially in a dangerous world, is more likely to make communities tightly knit and very xenophobic. Plus, it becomes more of an adventure when you can't just walk into a new town and expect hospitality. You could also have a lot of fun with reinventing basic animals. Imagine how many land-dwelling animals, especially large ones, would adapt to your world. Bears, for instance, might become more like sloths - able to easily climb and cling to trees, but becoming less bulky because of it. So tree-bears would be a danger to most communities. Dragons are another example. If they exist in your world, they will probably have evolved to become smaller - both because they need to not require so much food, and because -getting- the food requires them to get into the tight quarters of the treetops and underbrush, which would be hampered by their innate bulkiness. Goblins. Maybe they developed into monkey-like creatures, able to climb easily, but even more primitive than normal goblins. Treants should become a staple creature of your setting, both as friends and antagonists to surviving communities. Ocean-living: Surely in a world like what you describe, some people would have decided that it's best to live on the open-water, setting up villages that span over many joined ships. Extinction: Just as some races/species would evolve to their new circumstances, whether naturally or technologically - some would die out. Orcs, for instance, might not exist in your settling because they were not adaptable enough to figure out how to survive in it. Or maybe they only exist in the boat-societies on the oceans, unable or unwilling to adapt to 'the high life' - if you'll excuse my pun. I would also suggest, for some cool adventuring, making a certain area of your world untouched by the forests. Maybe a desert or a massive patch of grasslands. And on this area is a mega-city. But it's more myth than reality, as no one in the 'normal' campaign area has ever actually been there. That any help?
stargate525 02-05-07, 03:10 PM	The Climb skill becomes a necessity in this setting if you want to leave the cities Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Sorcerers, and Wizards replace Profession with Climb as a class skill or just add the thing...
Darth Sephiroth 02-05-07, 05:36 PM	or just add the thing... Just adding it causes other problems with balance, I'd need to add a skill to other classes which is doable though
thefred 02-05-07, 08:43 PM	if your starting at level one climb and skill focus (climb) are essential, but after elevl 3 or so arcane casters can use things like feather fall, levitate, fly, ect, clerics would probably need either climb or the travel domain (or something similar, idk i dont play clerics often but spells with something that has things like levitate, maybe make a special domain just for this world with those types of spells) and the domain spontaneity alternate class freature in PHB2 (or the feat in complete divine)
stargate525 02-05-07, 08:52 PM	Just adding it causes other problems with balance, I'd need to add a skill to other classes which is doable though Adding a single skill to the class lists WILL NOT overpower them, especially if it's necessary for survival in the world. If you had a game completely underwater would you not make swim a class skill for everyone?
Darth Sephiroth 02-06-07, 11:29 AM	Adding a single skill to the class lists WILL NOT overpower them, especially if it's necessary for survival in the world. If you had a game completely underwater would you not make swim a class skill for everyone? I'd make it a class skill for all classes, but the classes without it would end up losing a skill as well
Darth Sephiroth 02-18-07, 02:53 AM	All classes have Climb as a skill. Any class that already has Climb as a skill may select a skill to become a class skill for that class upon taking their first level in that class.
Darth Sephiroth 02-18-07, 02:55 AM	I've got an idea for an opening adventure, defending a convoy of loaded Soarwhales from a group of Kobold Raiders with flying mounts and a Dragonwrought Leader with wings.
GoriceXII 02-19-07, 11:42 AM	Perhaps hordes of humanoids are not the only menace below. Think of all the really weird creatures in the MM series and especially the environmental ones, the plants and goo creatures and such. Make the very effort to tame the earth a war, and have the sky peoples almost like potential champions for the people living earthbound. There might be political divisions on that score, with some skyborn seeing themselves as natural rulers who are owed fealty and devotion, somewhat uncaring about what happens on the ground as long as they get what they need, while others perhaps realize that they need the grounddwellers as much as the grounddwellers need them. Perhaps as well there are conflicts the skyborn are involved with, perhaps rival dragonkin or other aerial creatures.
LostMage 02-19-07, 03:32 PM	An interesting adventure could be that the heroes fall from a tree-village (and land safely!) and need to work their way back to safety. This reminds me of the setting I tried to run, but my players wouldn't hear of it, so I had to scrap it and recycle what I could. And what about ruins halfway down or all the way at the bottom of the forest? ...*sigh* I wish I could play in this setting.
Darth Sephiroth 02-20-07, 12:41 PM	I am aiming for adding layers of ruins in the trees at various levels that were abandoned when they became unsafe or for more insideous reasons like the Yuan-ti being transformed by the deep forests. Other monsters lurk down there in the dark that has not seen the light of day in centuries and it becomes a very nasty place to be if you are not very careful. The cities are designed with the habitations close to the center in the most fortified positions, and are as high up as they can while the businesses and other things are on the outer edges.
LostMage 02-20-07, 07:15 PM	Would expeditions be led to under the canopy, or do people just not go down there as a rule? And, just a random note, but how would the people on you campaign world get water? I geuss rain resevoirs would do the trick.
JusticeZero 02-21-07, 10:30 AM	One easy way i've found to give a 'flavor' setting it's needed skills is with prestige classes. Make a PRC. It only needs to be one level deep, you can go two or three if you really want. Require everyone to be level 2; one normal level and one in the PRC. The PRC gives all the skills and such needed for residents of that area. Also helps the 'level 1 blues' a bit, as everyone essentially starts at level 2.
Darth Sephiroth 02-21-07, 09:16 PM	Would expeditions be led to under the canopy, or do people just not go down there as a rule? The upper forest is traversed, but the farther down you go the nastier the beasties get. Think about the Kashyyk from the Star Wars novels. The ground level is nearly mythical to the people in most of the world. And, just a random note, but how would the people on you campaign world get water? I geuss rain resevoirs would do the trick. Well the special I'd seen that inspired it had these massive trees that held massive lakes in their upper branches to collect rain water.
LostMage 02-21-07, 09:32 PM	Rainforest canopy, correct? I understand now. Tree top lakes...when I tried to run my sky campaign, I was trying working out water myself. Also, are all the inhabited areas trees or mountains, or are there any areas that have people living on clouds or the like?
Darth Sephiroth 02-22-07, 01:30 AM	There are a few mountain top communities, most cities are built into the treetops. In the few ocean areas there are a few cities on islands or floating but remain a good distance from the shore area which is also overgrown. I really don't want cloudcities, though a flying fortress could be interesting. Airships are new technology but gliders and flying mounts are common.
LostMage 03-03-07, 01:03 PM	A flying fortress sounds good. This setting sounds really neat (I think I've said that already, but...) Is there anything else you'd like to work on? What ideas are you looking for? I'd like to help with this. There're some movies this reminds of, a little. Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke by Studio Ghibli. In the former, air travel is very common, the latter focuses on a giant and dangerous forest.
KeshFerrar 03-03-07, 07:20 PM	Why is the understory so dangerous? I can't see animals being a threat -- unless they are intelligent enough to work in unison. There were and are a lot of dangerous animals on earth, but our ancestors have tamed this planet. Numbers, intelligence, tools, and fire can overcome a lot of obstacles. You could have intelligent creatures working against the expansion of the canopy societies. Like drow, but they live in the understory. Alternates to the standard orcs and goblins include the aranea, abeil (bee centaurs from MMII), formians, lizard men, and myconids. You did mention yuan-ti. And I always loved the thri-kreen, and insects do love the jungle. An alternate society -- one or many -- would be dangerous, and could be sinister. But it wouldn't be "alien:" something the canopy society couldn't fight. For completely alien and uncombable I would consider something more elemental. The earth or the forest -- whatever the force is -- is "alive" but not sentient, it preys on sentient life, and can't be reasoned with. You could fight back against it, but it would only delay the inevitable -- like standing outside in a hurricane. Everything built is eventually brought low and all sentient life is eventually devoured. The setting got me thinking, hope the ideas help.
Darth Sephiroth 03-04-07, 12:05 AM	I've considered making the understory have a shadowlands taint like effect for those who remain there for to long under a certain distance. But also have the forrest growing this to immense size as it gets deeper. Giant Vermin and animals and other things that can tear through people with ease. Add dragons and other nasties and you've got problems.
mearrin69 03-04-07, 01:54 PM	You might want to check out the Niven books The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring. Not exactly the same thing but might give you some ideas.
Darth Sephiroth 03-07-07, 06:46 PM	I'll have to look for them. The first adventure ended with a disaster as one of the party members blew up their transportation while they were standing on it which ended up killing 3 of the five members of the party.
Darth Sephiroth 03-15-07, 03:12 AM	Northrem The fortress city of Northrem is one of the oldest places inhabited. It sits atop the towering Shadowpeak mountains. Northrem is also a place many caravans pass through and travelers from all over the world visit when in need of goods from far off places. It is also one of the strictest places in the world when it comes to law enforcement. With harsh fines or banishment from the city being some of the punishments
Darth Sephiroth 03-28-07, 04:39 PM	Daisoni Fortress Town Built in the skies, Daisoni is one of the safest places in the world. A flying city that travels the world with a fortress that is built to encompass it. It is the home of the Dragon Knights who ride specially trained Wyverns in battle and contains the largest library in te world