Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jastra of the clawed hand 03-21-08, 10:13 PM	This is the basic draft of a horror-oriented setting. Please give me opinions, suggestions, everything you can think of. It's still in the making but I can use any and all input I can get :) Once, the world of Sharaa was much like many other worlds. Several races thrived on it, among them the Rathi, cat-like inhabitants of the steppes and jungles in the south, the Faen, desert and forest-dwellers with a mystical bond to nature and the short, gruff Ashkar, natural sailors with the ability to drink sea water. And humans, of course. Ambitious, adaptable humans. Forging many empires, warring with each other, prospering under the watchful eye of the Twelve, the gods that had created the world in the First Dance. Monsters were unheard of, not even the darkest depths of the world were home to anything worse but the occasional dire animal. Magic was known but lacked the power it had on so many other worlds. Yes, a few were gifted with the ability to wield either arcane magic or the powers of the gods. But these powers were severly limited. Priests could heal basic wounds and wizards were able to throw balls of energy at their foes or turn invisible...but not much more. The gods knew that too much magic in the hands of mortals could lead to huge catastrophes. All that changed when the Stranger arrived. No one knows where he came from or what exactly he was...a god, more than a god or less than a deity...or something else altogether. One day, he just arrived in the midst of a divine congregation...and with a few words, he drove an entire pantheon insane. Thus began the Dance of Madness. Entire populations were warped as the gods decided to remake them in their new twisted image. Ordinary animals were bombarded with pure magic until they turned into slavering monsters...mountains were shattered and seas turned to pure acid. Magic was suddenly loosened into the world in massive amounts...and no one knew how to wield it properly. Priests went insane from one moment to the other, committing indescribable cruelties... And everyone feared that the final doom for the world was at hand. But one hero changed it. One man, a human named Orlon, found a way to seize control of the flood of magic loosened in the world. In a desperate feat unparalleled not only on this but many other worlds, he forged a seal, a mighty arcane construct designed for only one thing...to seal the world off from the influence of the gods. He and thirteen others saved the world....or did they? It had changed irrevocably. Empires had shattered, the churches were almost nonexistant. Monsters now roamed entire countries and the dark corners of the forests now were home to even worse things... And magic has come to the world, allowing mighty feats hitherto unknown. Fourty years have passed since the Dance of Madness has ended. Priests have started to channel the powers of their gods again, adhering to principles their deities once stood for...but not all are able to withstand the touch of madness contact with the divine brings. The relations between humans and the other races are strained. As a mutable and adaptable race, humans are the stock from which most of the horrible monsters in the world spring from...and while humans are envious of the other races who survived the Dance mostly unscathed, the other races react to this open envy and distrust with hostility. And then there are the priests of the Stranger who try to subvert the whole world to the same madness their lord brought upon the gods.... In this world, madness is as much a force as are good and evil and some people have begun to call upon the madness that suffuses the gods and now their world. While risky, this enables them to call upon the darkest things lurking in our minds, the Horrors... Well, that's it for now...as I said, I'd be grateful for any reply. I am looking especially for ways to show the risk of insanity clerics have when they cast spells. Also, as I do wish to balance the magic classes against the martial or social classes, I would like suggestions for a system incorporating risks a character has to take when using magic as the ways of the arcane are new to the world and most of it is experimental in nature.
Quietis 03-24-08, 04:42 AM	For the insanity mechanic, you might consider making use of Taint from Heroes of Horror. The cleric should gain taint from casting a spell, earning a number of points equal to the spell's level. Instead of having taint effects be permanent, I would recommend having their point total dropped to zero after a full eight hours of rest. Ignore the corruption results and focus purely on depravity to represent mental illness. Also consider having some sort of specific material that will ground out this mental 'taint', as mentioned under Resisting Taint on page 67. I wouldn't allow spells to remove accumulated taint points, but good deeds and sacred springs could remove them as normal. You could give arcane casters the Wild Magic ability of the Wild Mage prestige class from Complete Arcane. This doesn't make magic particularly risky, but far more unpredictable.
Jastra of the clawed hand 03-24-08, 06:18 AM	Hmm...taint for priests seems like a great idea...and again I am asking myself why I didn't think of that? As for arcane magic...well, the Wild Magic option is interesting, but at the same time I would like magic to be something that can be dangerous at times. In 3rd Edition, Wild Magic is often ridiculous and that is something I don't want to happen as it would reduce the wizard or sorcerer to a comic relief sidekick. Oh and one more thing for all who read this: the goal is not to deter people from playing magic-users. But since this is a darker, more horror-oriented setting, I want magic to be something obscure and dangerous rather than the solution to everything.