Blank world [Archive] - Wizards Community

Blank world [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Darakian Shadowalker
02-13-04, 10:50 AM My current gme is a little odd. The story is, the players world can no longer support life, so the great wizard council pushed a doorway into another world that is completely new, the races there have not yet become civilized. So the players, all three of them, along with their dragon companion (me) go through the portal, which closes behind them, to explore this new world and see if its worth takeing over.

The game is very open ended and the players can go anywhere on this uncharted world. I have several regions written up and several isolated adventures created.

Anyway I was wondering what you guys and gals could come up with. The world is blank, no gods yet, and no countries. You can do ANYTHING, create ANY encounter you want. My only request is that you don't create any highly developed civilizations.
Sorel
02-13-04, 11:07 AM It has three moons with highly eccentric orbits and one of them is shaped like an egg which 'tumbles' in its orbit. Consequently, tides are wildly unpredictable to all but the DM chosen sages of this world. Find the sages, satisfy their quest and maybe they'll let you find a way of travelling safely across the everchanging oceans.
Adriayna
02-13-04, 11:17 AM What are the PCs goals? I guess by determining what it is they are interested in (or even asking the players what type of campaign they want) you can develop something.
meabolex
02-13-04, 11:17 AM Allow them to run into a highly-intelligent, rather small black pudding that challenges them to series of games. Since the black pudding can't talk, it'll have to find some alternate way of communicating. If the PCs win the games, the pudding takes the PCs to his tribe, an entire group of highly intelligent black puddings. They treat the PCs as deities from another world, and thus try initially to get on good terms with the PCs. They're constantly at war with another tribe, a group of half-black dragon vampire camels. The camels must be repulsed, or the puddings will be destroyed. Since the puddings can't communicate using a standard language, you'll just have to explain what the camel creatures look like. A good knowledge check (nature, religion, and arcana) will reveal their true powers. If the PCs win, the puddings will make the PCs honorary chiefs, for which they will recieve charms that give massive acid resistance.

Just some ideas off the top of my head. . .
Morka
02-13-04, 02:09 PM Originally posted by meabolex
They're constantly at war with another tribe, a group of half-black dragon vampire camels.

:D :rofl: :D
Luminous Crayon
02-13-04, 02:17 PM Reminds me a little of the old SNES game, Terranigma.

As for what's on this "blank" world, there are a lot of options. Perhaps the PCs need to clear out an area of wilderness to allow refugees from their homeworld to build a settlement on the new world. There's a great location geographically, but the surrounding wilderness is full of strange monsters; perhaps a jungle sprinkled with Assassin Vines that are lethal to the unprepared settler, but an easy task for seasoned adventurers.

Perhaps the blank world is inhabited by pre-civilization humanoids, at a cave-man level of civilization. They're primitive but numerous, and the PCs may have to negotiate with them and befriend them, or fight them over land.

Perhaps this blank world has also been recently discovered by another group of extraplanar travelers, and you have to fight these new interlopers before they can sieze the land you need to survive.
meabolex
02-13-04, 02:21 PM Everywhere the PCs go in the new world, everything they come in contact with becomes animated (animated plant, animated objects, etc.). The intelligence and wisdom scores of the objects are equal to the PC's scores minus 7. After a while, the things begin fighting each other and organizing. The main groups formed are plants versus rocks. The side the PCs take is irrelevant, however, the rocks would probably be more hostile since they're more likely to be the creatures that were stepped on initially. Eventually, the PCs will recieve clues as to what is causing the animation: An intelligent bead of force that has as many levels in wizard as the PCs have now. The bead escaped into the "blank world" while trying to dodge a raging deity in another plane. The bead ("The Umega" as he calls himself in the third person) is interested in making all objects intelligent. He gets on the side that the PCs are against and makes life difficult for the PCs and their supported side. PCs eventually find him and combat him. I would say that all the PCs have to do to kill "The Umega" is simply throw him (he is a bead of force, after all).
Bacon and Eggs
02-13-04, 02:37 PM You meet up with a party that has the exact same goals as you do.
meabolex
02-13-04, 02:50 PM As soon as the portal to your previous world closes, two gates open about a mile away to the west and about a mile away to the east. Out of the gates come two armies: the western gates include an army of maugs; the eastern gates an army of sladdi. The forces chose this plane to combat in simply because they figured that it would cause the least amount of non-combatant damage. The PCs are directly inbetween both gates. The armies charge forward, completely ignoring the PCs unless they get involved. The PCs may choose to do a wide range of things. I suggest that the armies only listen to the PCs after they've proved their worth (through possibly some missions). Whatever the PCs do, if one side defeats another and the PCs are on the winning side, the outsiders should reward the PCs with some fabulous prizes. If the PCs negotiate peace, they can start up a trading town in the plane for various outsiders that will stream through the gates. If the PCs lose, they are chased onto the loser's plane and the gate is sealed -- how the PCs will deal with Sladdi or Maug country is another adventure.
Darakian Shadowalker
02-13-04, 03:46 PM These are some great ideas, keep them comeing.

Oh I should mention the players will arrive in the new world on dragon back.
olshanski_home
02-13-04, 04:29 PM The world is populated by harmless and rather stupid omnivores... Once every 7 years they undergo a mutation and migrate across the countryside eating and destroying everything in their path.

The rivers have a lots of big oddly-scaled fish, and a very few extremely dangerous black dragons. The fish are actually the larva stage of the dragons... the dragons mostly just eat thier own young to keep a stable population. If the party kills one of the adults, they create an ecological disaster as all of the young ones are able to transform into the dragon stage... pretty soon the party is facing 1000 young dragons.
Not a monkey
02-13-04, 06:19 PM Originally posted by Bacon and Eggs
You meet up with a party that has the exact same goals as you do.

Except it's composed entirely of girallons.
DeWayne
02-14-04, 01:27 AM (1) The party finds a lush river valley. Add a few villages of humans, apply the Feral template from Savage Species (think 'cavemen') and hand out levels in Ranger and Barbarian. The party is caught 'trespassing' in a sacred area and the local shaman says the party must sacrifice one of their own to appease the 'god.' Then they find out that the 'god' in question is actually a dragon somewhat more powerful than the parties companion.

(2) The party enters a vast forest. The forest is sentient with certain powers over itself (animating trees, etc.) and uses these abilities to try getting them lost and/or leading them into a death trap (food for the forest, yummy).

(3) Several hundred years before another group of people were looking at migrating to this world just as the characters are doing now. They built a great city (think 'lost city' from an old Tarzan movie) before they were all wiped out by a plague native to this world. The builders left their story behind in strange symbols like nothing the party has ever seen before (they think it's artwork). If the party figures out the builder's story they will have the problem of making sure the same thing doesn't happen to their own people. If they don't they may try to find where the builders went. Have the city currently inhabited by various 'classic' monsters like sphinx, cyclops, lions, etc. just to keep things interesting while they try to figure things out.
OmiKapSi
02-14-04, 03:47 AM Ok, I could come up with some original stuff, but since you are looking for lots of original and unusual stuff, I'm going to crib:

A giant grassland of 6 foot tall blades of grass that are literally blades, razor sharp. Not hard, but sharp. Harmless to anything with hardness or natural armor, but a real problem to flesh.

A river that flows under a mountain, going through numerous caves and caverns en route.

A forest of severely apathetic empathic mushrooms.

Rain that happens to be a rather strong alcohol.

A tropical disease that causes a character to grow flowers from their skin. All over their skin. Pretty harmless, but they look like a roving bouquet. (sp?)

A race of gigantic people imprisoned in the form of huge stone formations.

All of the above were taken from Alan Dean Fosters 'Spellsinger' series. They are all good as stand alone novels, and each has plenty more where that came from.
Tevish Szat
02-14-04, 04:22 AM The world is semi-sentient. It does not like the interlopers on its surface.

the region where the PCs end up is fetid, dark swamp for as far as the eye can see. it is infested with oozes of various types, th earily primordial creatures of this world.

The PCs find the begining stages of Elven society. right now, the elves are just a small tribe of beings, and that's all there is in the world. however, they seem ot have some sort of arcane prowess, making them a danger to any colonization effects. the question: Wipe out the "Cro-magnon" elves or find another way.
VirgilCaine
02-14-04, 09:24 AM This is pretty cool. Good luck.
macfry
02-14-04, 07:38 PM The tribal shamans on this world use a magic that the PCs don't understand, and have never seen (Psionics), and they must either find a way to make peace with these people or protect themselves and the colonists from the psionics.
Rasmus
02-15-04, 05:02 AM Kill the DM dragon... then have some powerful force (god-ling, ultra powerful druid?) destroy the gate they came through. Now they are stuck on this world, a million lightyears from home, with enemies closing in. How do they get back? What will they find? And how will they avoid getting killede by whatever destroiyed the gate?
Autopsibiofeeder
02-15-04, 10:47 AM Darakian

They enter this world with a lot of knowledge and expectations, for they have been formed by the world they stem from. Here everything is different:

They walk through a mystic forest and hear lovely voices chanting songs of beauty. When looking upwards, they notice stairs and houses in the tree-tops. Off-course they would like to go up and meet (probably elfish) creatures. When they are halfway up a friendly orc approaches them and welcomes them in their home. Here they warn them for the brute and savage elves, the pranking roguish dwarfs and so on.

Fey are monstrous and aberrations are regarded highly evolved paragons of the standard species. Animals are feared.

Or whatever you can think of...The point is: players cannot rely on what they knew (players and characters) and have to find everything out again.

Leather from cow-hide is stronger than the metal present on that plane and people in full-plates are laughed at.

This approach forces you to do make serious adjustments on races and equipment, but players may be amazed as they were once in their first campaign ever...

Greetings

Auto
LordMacbeth
02-15-04, 05:28 PM How about you create a paradise world. When the players arrive, the residents believe them to be gods because they carry advanced weaponry and ride massive beasts. Then, the players can betray the world's people, enslave them, rob them of their treasure, destroy their religon, steal their land, and infect them with diesieses. Then, after several hundred years, they can say thy're sorry and think everything is fine.

Wow, does anyone here getting any deja vu?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Darakian Shadowalker 02-13-04, 10:50 AM	My current gme is a little odd. The story is, the players world can no longer support life, so the great wizard council pushed a doorway into another world that is completely new, the races there have not yet become civilized. So the players, all three of them, along with their dragon companion (me) go through the portal, which closes behind them, to explore this new world and see if its worth takeing over. The game is very open ended and the players can go anywhere on this uncharted world. I have several regions written up and several isolated adventures created. Anyway I was wondering what you guys and gals could come up with. The world is blank, no gods yet, and no countries. You can do ANYTHING, create ANY encounter you want. My only request is that you don't create any highly developed civilizations.
Sorel 02-13-04, 11:07 AM	It has three moons with highly eccentric orbits and one of them is shaped like an egg which 'tumbles' in its orbit. Consequently, tides are wildly unpredictable to all but the DM chosen sages of this world. Find the sages, satisfy their quest and maybe they'll let you find a way of travelling safely across the everchanging oceans.
Adriayna 02-13-04, 11:17 AM	What are the PCs goals? I guess by determining what it is they are interested in (or even asking the players what type of campaign they want) you can develop something.
meabolex 02-13-04, 11:17 AM	Allow them to run into a highly-intelligent, rather small black pudding that challenges them to series of games. Since the black pudding can't talk, it'll have to find some alternate way of communicating. If the PCs win the games, the pudding takes the PCs to his tribe, an entire group of highly intelligent black puddings. They treat the PCs as deities from another world, and thus try initially to get on good terms with the PCs. They're constantly at war with another tribe, a group of half-black dragon vampire camels. The camels must be repulsed, or the puddings will be destroyed. Since the puddings can't communicate using a standard language, you'll just have to explain what the camel creatures look like. A good knowledge check (nature, religion, and arcana) will reveal their true powers. If the PCs win, the puddings will make the PCs honorary chiefs, for which they will recieve charms that give massive acid resistance. Just some ideas off the top of my head. . .
Morka 02-13-04, 02:09 PM	Originally posted by meabolex They're constantly at war with another tribe, a group of half-black dragon vampire camels. :D :rofl: :D
Luminous Crayon 02-13-04, 02:17 PM	Reminds me a little of the old SNES game, Terranigma. As for what's on this "blank" world, there are a lot of options. Perhaps the PCs need to clear out an area of wilderness to allow refugees from their homeworld to build a settlement on the new world. There's a great location geographically, but the surrounding wilderness is full of strange monsters; perhaps a jungle sprinkled with Assassin Vines that are lethal to the unprepared settler, but an easy task for seasoned adventurers. Perhaps the blank world is inhabited by pre-civilization humanoids, at a cave-man level of civilization. They're primitive but numerous, and the PCs may have to negotiate with them and befriend them, or fight them over land. Perhaps this blank world has also been recently discovered by another group of extraplanar travelers, and you have to fight these new interlopers before they can sieze the land you need to survive.
meabolex 02-13-04, 02:21 PM	Everywhere the PCs go in the new world, everything they come in contact with becomes animated (animated plant, animated objects, etc.). The intelligence and wisdom scores of the objects are equal to the PC's scores minus 7. After a while, the things begin fighting each other and organizing. The main groups formed are plants versus rocks. The side the PCs take is irrelevant, however, the rocks would probably be more hostile since they're more likely to be the creatures that were stepped on initially. Eventually, the PCs will recieve clues as to what is causing the animation: An intelligent bead of force that has as many levels in wizard as the PCs have now. The bead escaped into the "blank world" while trying to dodge a raging deity in another plane. The bead ("The Umega" as he calls himself in the third person) is interested in making all objects intelligent. He gets on the side that the PCs are against and makes life difficult for the PCs and their supported side. PCs eventually find him and combat him. I would say that all the PCs have to do to kill "The Umega" is simply throw him (he is a bead of force, after all).
Bacon and Eggs 02-13-04, 02:37 PM	You meet up with a party that has the exact same goals as you do.
meabolex 02-13-04, 02:50 PM	As soon as the portal to your previous world closes, two gates open about a mile away to the west and about a mile away to the east. Out of the gates come two armies: the western gates include an army of maugs; the eastern gates an army of sladdi. The forces chose this plane to combat in simply because they figured that it would cause the least amount of non-combatant damage. The PCs are directly inbetween both gates. The armies charge forward, completely ignoring the PCs unless they get involved. The PCs may choose to do a wide range of things. I suggest that the armies only listen to the PCs after they've proved their worth (through possibly some missions). Whatever the PCs do, if one side defeats another and the PCs are on the winning side, the outsiders should reward the PCs with some fabulous prizes. If the PCs negotiate peace, they can start up a trading town in the plane for various outsiders that will stream through the gates. If the PCs lose, they are chased onto the loser's plane and the gate is sealed -- how the PCs will deal with Sladdi or Maug country is another adventure.
Darakian Shadowalker 02-13-04, 03:46 PM	These are some great ideas, keep them comeing. Oh I should mention the players will arrive in the new world on dragon back.
olshanski_home 02-13-04, 04:29 PM	The world is populated by harmless and rather stupid omnivores... Once every 7 years they undergo a mutation and migrate across the countryside eating and destroying everything in their path. The rivers have a lots of big oddly-scaled fish, and a very few extremely dangerous black dragons. The fish are actually the larva stage of the dragons... the dragons mostly just eat thier own young to keep a stable population. If the party kills one of the adults, they create an ecological disaster as all of the young ones are able to transform into the dragon stage... pretty soon the party is facing 1000 young dragons.
Not a monkey 02-13-04, 06:19 PM	Originally posted by Bacon and Eggs You meet up with a party that has the exact same goals as you do. Except it's composed entirely of girallons.
DeWayne 02-14-04, 01:27 AM	(1) The party finds a lush river valley. Add a few villages of humans, apply the Feral template from Savage Species (think 'cavemen') and hand out levels in Ranger and Barbarian. The party is caught 'trespassing' in a sacred area and the local shaman says the party must sacrifice one of their own to appease the 'god.' Then they find out that the 'god' in question is actually a dragon somewhat more powerful than the parties companion. (2) The party enters a vast forest. The forest is sentient with certain powers over itself (animating trees, etc.) and uses these abilities to try getting them lost and/or leading them into a death trap (food for the forest, yummy). (3) Several hundred years before another group of people were looking at migrating to this world just as the characters are doing now. They built a great city (think 'lost city' from an old Tarzan movie) before they were all wiped out by a plague native to this world. The builders left their story behind in strange symbols like nothing the party has ever seen before (they think it's artwork). If the party figures out the builder's story they will have the problem of making sure the same thing doesn't happen to their own people. If they don't they may try to find where the builders went. Have the city currently inhabited by various 'classic' monsters like sphinx, cyclops, lions, etc. just to keep things interesting while they try to figure things out.
OmiKapSi 02-14-04, 03:47 AM	Ok, I could come up with some original stuff, but since you are looking for lots of original and unusual stuff, I'm going to crib: A giant grassland of 6 foot tall blades of grass that are literally blades, razor sharp. Not hard, but sharp. Harmless to anything with hardness or natural armor, but a real problem to flesh. A river that flows under a mountain, going through numerous caves and caverns en route. A forest of severely apathetic empathic mushrooms. Rain that happens to be a rather strong alcohol. A tropical disease that causes a character to grow flowers from their skin. All over their skin. Pretty harmless, but they look like a roving bouquet. (sp?) A race of gigantic people imprisoned in the form of huge stone formations. All of the above were taken from Alan Dean Fosters 'Spellsinger' series. They are all good as stand alone novels, and each has plenty more where that came from.
Tevish Szat 02-14-04, 04:22 AM	The world is semi-sentient. It does not like the interlopers on its surface. the region where the PCs end up is fetid, dark swamp for as far as the eye can see. it is infested with oozes of various types, th earily primordial creatures of this world. The PCs find the begining stages of Elven society. right now, the elves are just a small tribe of beings, and that's all there is in the world. however, they seem ot have some sort of arcane prowess, making them a danger to any colonization effects. the question: Wipe out the "Cro-magnon" elves or find another way.
VirgilCaine 02-14-04, 09:24 AM	This is pretty cool. Good luck.
macfry 02-14-04, 07:38 PM	The tribal shamans on this world use a magic that the PCs don't understand, and have never seen (Psionics), and they must either find a way to make peace with these people or protect themselves and the colonists from the psionics.
Rasmus 02-15-04, 05:02 AM	Kill the DM dragon... then have some powerful force (god-ling, ultra powerful druid?) destroy the gate they came through. Now they are stuck on this world, a million lightyears from home, with enemies closing in. How do they get back? What will they find? And how will they avoid getting killede by whatever destroiyed the gate?
Autopsibiofeeder 02-15-04, 10:47 AM	Darakian They enter this world with a lot of knowledge and expectations, for they have been formed by the world they stem from. Here everything is different: They walk through a mystic forest and hear lovely voices chanting songs of beauty. When looking upwards, they notice stairs and houses in the tree-tops. Off-course they would like to go up and meet (probably elfish) creatures. When they are halfway up a friendly orc approaches them and welcomes them in their home. Here they warn them for the brute and savage elves, the pranking roguish dwarfs and so on. Fey are monstrous and aberrations are regarded highly evolved paragons of the standard species. Animals are feared. Or whatever you can think of...The point is: players cannot rely on what they knew (players and characters) and have to find everything out again. Leather from cow-hide is stronger than the metal present on that plane and people in full-plates are laughed at. This approach forces you to do make serious adjustments on races and equipment, but players may be amazed as they were once in their first campaign ever... Greetings Auto
LordMacbeth 02-15-04, 05:28 PM	How about you create a paradise world. When the players arrive, the residents believe them to be gods because they carry advanced weaponry and ride massive beasts. Then, the players can betray the world's people, enslave them, rob them of their treasure, destroy their religon, steal their land, and infect them with diesieses. Then, after several hundred years, they can say thy're sorry and think everything is fine. Wow, does anyone here getting any deja vu?