Blending Asian, Eberron, and FR Style World.... Possible? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Blending Asian, Eberron, and FR Style World.... Possible? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Elemental_Elf
02-11-06, 01:44 PM i have a problem. My group and I want to start a new campaign and I decided to DM it. I asked my players what kind of world they would like to play in seeing as how they are just as much apart of the campaign as I am. One of my players said oriental Adventurs style. Another wants Eberron + LotR, and the other wants Forgotten Realms. 2 of them want the campaign to be very Skills and talking oriented while the other wants Hack, slash 'n' blast.

So to satisfy them all I was thinking about setting up a world with 4+ continents. Each have very little contact with the others. 1 will be kinda like Eberron, 1 will be oriental style, 1 will be Norse/English dark to medieval style, 1 will be very dessert/Arabian based while the last will be a dark/evil continent.

To get these different contients connected as well as in constant contact, I want to have the campaign set on a series of islands towards the center of the world (or atleast in between most of the continents. From here each continent's nations/clans set up city states in their own style. The cultures clash often leading to little battles and intrigue. The islands would be the home of barbaric tribes of Ratlings and Orcs and Goblins and the like. Thus allowing for raids on cities and stuff. Also the islands would play host to a giant castle of diplomacy where al lthe nations of the world gather to work out peace amongst them. Kinda like Babylon 5.

I'd allow all the Ebberon Races, Core Races, Oriental Adventures races, some of the sub-races in FR and 2 or 3 of my own races.

What do you think of this idea? Also what ideas do you have with these seeminly impossible clash of cultures? Any ideas on how to blend these redically different worlds together?
MysteryGilgamesh
02-11-06, 02:16 PM Warforged Swashbuckler Ninja's riding Elminster PM'd into an Oliphant on a quest to dunk the One Dragonmark of Vol Ichijoji into Mt. Fuji in the land of Cormyr comes to mind.
JamesDruidDM
02-11-06, 02:26 PM Warforged Swashbuckler Ninja's riding Elminster PM'd into an Oliphant on a quest to dunk the One Dragonmark of Vol Ichijoji into Mt. Fuji in the land of Cormyr comes to mind.

:bow: :rofl:
Elemental_Elf
02-11-06, 06:34 PM :mad: Don't spam!
WCH
02-11-06, 07:22 PM Heh... well now that Gilgamesh has officially won the thread...

Because it needs to be said: don't. Eberron, LotR, FR and OA are way too diverse, and cannot be woven together without straining credulity.

Main problem: divinity. Each of the four has a very different approach to what the gods are and their role in the world. Even if you explained away cultural things by having different continents, having divine magic be completley different in all four would be rather odd, to say the least.

Best example I've seen of this being attempted is in Order of the Stick (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=273), and even it wasn't as disperate as what you're talking about... it just has four pantheons that each operate on very similar principles, although they behave differently. This isn't true of any of the CSs you mentioned... except for maybe Eberron and LotR, which, while very different, have some elements in common. OA and FR are both radically different from eachother, as well as from Eberron and LotR, and thus would be extremely hard to combine.

Bottom line: go ahead if you want to, it's your funeral. Maybe you should ask your players if they like the idea of an "Eberron/LotR/OA/FR" game -- I'll bet none would have wanted it. Better to just stick with one. Great to have input, but don't focus group the credibility out of your work.

If you insist on having the world be decided by your players, why not do it by ballot? Write 10 different general ideas down (Ravenloft, Planescape, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, LotR, OA, Warcraft, etc), and get your players to score each of them on a scale of 1 to 10 (ie, put favourite at the top and least favourite at the bottom), and then add up the results, and go with the one that has the best score out of the bunch, even if was nobody's #1 choice (maybe they all put 1 for their own thing [Eberron, FR and OA], but everyone put Greyhawk as 2nd best and each others as pretty bad, so Greyhawk ends up winning). Also, vote yourself, and make your vote count for more than the others -- you're the one who'll have to build the world, after all, so it's more important for you to like it than them.
Tallow
02-11-06, 07:37 PM go Forgotten Realms. You can easily incorporate LotR and Eberron stuff into an FR campaign, and FR includes Hordelands, Zakhara (old 2nd edition Arabian Adventures stuff), Kara Tur (oriental adventures), Maztica (old 2nd edition Aztec, Mayan, Incan adventures), etc. The whole world of Toril also has 2 or 3 large continents that are totally undeveloped, at least commercially. There are also a couple FR countries south and west of the Sword Coast and I forget their names, that are tech based, and could include war-forged stuff from Eberron. Psionics entered FR with Caderly the Cleric, Chosen of Denier, and have increasingly become a part of the world. The Eberron races would not really be out of place in the Forgotten Realms. The only thing I can't really see is LotR type of world in the Forgotten Realms, but you could easily just incorporate that type of plot into your storyline. Some uber powerful and evil magical item is being sought by the evil wizard of the northern tundra or towering mountains to the east, and is found by the PC's. The quest for the PC's is to destroy said item without it falling into the hands of the evil wizard. Voila... you have FR, LotR, Kara Tur, Zakhara, and Eberron all rolled into one.
Hodo
02-11-06, 09:22 PM Lets see...

Forgotten Realms= High Fantasy themes
Eberron= Magitech themes
Oriental Adventures= Asian themes

Need lots of talking and story development mixed with lots of battles and loot?

Sounds like they're collectively gunning for a Final Fantasy (not the face!) styled DnD campaign, which you should have no trouble finding resources or inspiration for.
Elemental_Elf
02-11-06, 10:18 PM hmm... Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I had hoped. What I want to do is to create more of a 'real world' World. One where there exists different cultures and societies. I'm not looking to make a world where Eberron, OA, and FR join together. rather I want to blend them into 1 world. So perhaps 1 continent is more advanced then another, that's only natural. Perhaps 1 continent has a radically different view of the world then the rest, that's only natural right? I want a world where perhaps some places look at magic and see possabilities, like Eberron and otehrs where they view magic in terms of the elements like oA. I want a world where different cultures clash and because of those differances they war with one another. i want a world where the peoples of these nations reach out to the other nations and try to reconsile their differances in a neutral colony in neutral territory. A world where even with this meeting ground war, plagues, death and suffering still exists. I want a world where commonisn't a language. A world where languages are very different from place to place, there is no uniting language. i want a world where even with cultural contacts, there is still room for variation and uniqueness yet still allows for uniformity.
WCH
02-11-06, 10:33 PM Well, first you need to decide the cosmology of this world. What role do the gods take in it? It'd probably work best to have the gods in the background... like there's some kind of divine force out there, and different cultures call it different things -- the proof of which they get in the miracles they can perform -- but the gods never manifest themselves and say what they really are or what their names actually are.

This would allow for an Asian culture to not differentiate between the Good divine forces and the Evil ones, for a FR-esque culture to consider all the gods to be *just about* to make their grand entrance, for an Eberron culture to have religious institutions but not as much emphasis on them, and for a LotR culture to not really concern itself with the gods at all, instead focusing on the magic itself.
Tallow
02-11-06, 11:08 PM hmm... Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I had hoped. What I want to do is to create more of a 'real world' World. One where there exists different cultures and societies. I'm not looking to make a world where Eberron, OA, and FR join together. rather I want to blend them into 1 world. So perhaps 1 continent is more advanced then another, that's only natural. Perhaps 1 continent has a radically different view of the world then the rest, that's only natural right? I want a world where perhaps some places look at magic and see possabilities, like Eberron and otehrs where they view magic in terms of the elements like oA. I want a world where different cultures clash and because of those differances they war with one another. i want a world where the peoples of these nations reach out to the other nations and try to reconsile their differances in a neutral colony in neutral territory. A world where even with this meeting ground war, plagues, death and suffering still exists. I want a world where commonisn't a language. A world where languages are very different from place to place, there is no uniting language. i want a world where even with cultural contacts, there is still room for variation and uniqueness yet still allows for uniformity.

You were VERY clear, and I'm saying that the planet Aber-Toril, where Faerun is, and ultimately the entire Forgotten Realms campaign setting actually has ALL of those themes already developed out. Kara-Tur IS the Forgotten Realms Oriental Adventures setting. Lantan or Nimbral (forget which) IS the Forgotten Realms magitech.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Elemental_Elf 02-11-06, 01:44 PM	i have a problem. My group and I want to start a new campaign and I decided to DM it. I asked my players what kind of world they would like to play in seeing as how they are just as much apart of the campaign as I am. One of my players said oriental Adventurs style. Another wants Eberron + LotR, and the other wants Forgotten Realms. 2 of them want the campaign to be very Skills and talking oriented while the other wants Hack, slash 'n' blast. So to satisfy them all I was thinking about setting up a world with 4+ continents. Each have very little contact with the others. 1 will be kinda like Eberron, 1 will be oriental style, 1 will be Norse/English dark to medieval style, 1 will be very dessert/Arabian based while the last will be a dark/evil continent. To get these different contients connected as well as in constant contact, I want to have the campaign set on a series of islands towards the center of the world (or atleast in between most of the continents. From here each continent's nations/clans set up city states in their own style. The cultures clash often leading to little battles and intrigue. The islands would be the home of barbaric tribes of Ratlings and Orcs and Goblins and the like. Thus allowing for raids on cities and stuff. Also the islands would play host to a giant castle of diplomacy where al lthe nations of the world gather to work out peace amongst them. Kinda like Babylon 5. I'd allow all the Ebberon Races, Core Races, Oriental Adventures races, some of the sub-races in FR and 2 or 3 of my own races. What do you think of this idea? Also what ideas do you have with these seeminly impossible clash of cultures? Any ideas on how to blend these redically different worlds together?
MysteryGilgamesh 02-11-06, 02:16 PM	Warforged Swashbuckler Ninja's riding Elminster PM'd into an Oliphant on a quest to dunk the One Dragonmark of Vol Ichijoji into Mt. Fuji in the land of Cormyr comes to mind.
JamesDruidDM 02-11-06, 02:26 PM	Warforged Swashbuckler Ninja's riding Elminster PM'd into an Oliphant on a quest to dunk the One Dragonmark of Vol Ichijoji into Mt. Fuji in the land of Cormyr comes to mind. :bow: :rofl:
Elemental_Elf 02-11-06, 06:34 PM	:mad: Don't spam!
WCH 02-11-06, 07:22 PM	Heh... well now that Gilgamesh has officially won the thread... Because it needs to be said: don't. Eberron, LotR, FR and OA are way too diverse, and cannot be woven together without straining credulity. Main problem: divinity. Each of the four has a very different approach to what the gods are and their role in the world. Even if you explained away cultural things by having different continents, having divine magic be completley different in all four would be rather odd, to say the least. Best example I've seen of this being attempted is in Order of the Stick (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=273), and even it wasn't as disperate as what you're talking about... it just has four pantheons that each operate on very similar principles, although they behave differently. This isn't true of any of the CSs you mentioned... except for maybe Eberron and LotR, which, while very different, have some elements in common. OA and FR are both radically different from eachother, as well as from Eberron and LotR, and thus would be extremely hard to combine. Bottom line: go ahead if you want to, it's your funeral. Maybe you should ask your players if they like the idea of an "Eberron/LotR/OA/FR" game -- I'll bet none would have wanted it. Better to just stick with one. Great to have input, but don't focus group the credibility out of your work. If you insist on having the world be decided by your players, why not do it by ballot? Write 10 different general ideas down (Ravenloft, Planescape, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, LotR, OA, Warcraft, etc), and get your players to score each of them on a scale of 1 to 10 (ie, put favourite at the top and least favourite at the bottom), and then add up the results, and go with the one that has the best score out of the bunch, even if was nobody's #1 choice (maybe they all put 1 for their own thing [Eberron, FR and OA], but everyone put Greyhawk as 2nd best and each others as pretty bad, so Greyhawk ends up winning). Also, vote yourself, and make your vote count for more than the others -- you're the one who'll have to build the world, after all, so it's more important for you to like it than them.
Tallow 02-11-06, 07:37 PM	go Forgotten Realms. You can easily incorporate LotR and Eberron stuff into an FR campaign, and FR includes Hordelands, Zakhara (old 2nd edition Arabian Adventures stuff), Kara Tur (oriental adventures), Maztica (old 2nd edition Aztec, Mayan, Incan adventures), etc. The whole world of Toril also has 2 or 3 large continents that are totally undeveloped, at least commercially. There are also a couple FR countries south and west of the Sword Coast and I forget their names, that are tech based, and could include war-forged stuff from Eberron. Psionics entered FR with Caderly the Cleric, Chosen of Denier, and have increasingly become a part of the world. The Eberron races would not really be out of place in the Forgotten Realms. The only thing I can't really see is LotR type of world in the Forgotten Realms, but you could easily just incorporate that type of plot into your storyline. Some uber powerful and evil magical item is being sought by the evil wizard of the northern tundra or towering mountains to the east, and is found by the PC's. The quest for the PC's is to destroy said item without it falling into the hands of the evil wizard. Voila... you have FR, LotR, Kara Tur, Zakhara, and Eberron all rolled into one.
Hodo 02-11-06, 09:22 PM	Lets see... Forgotten Realms= High Fantasy themes Eberron= Magitech themes Oriental Adventures= Asian themes Need lots of talking and story development mixed with lots of battles and loot? Sounds like they're collectively gunning for a Final Fantasy (not the face!) styled DnD campaign, which you should have no trouble finding resources or inspiration for.
Elemental_Elf 02-11-06, 10:18 PM	hmm... Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I had hoped. What I want to do is to create more of a 'real world' World. One where there exists different cultures and societies. I'm not looking to make a world where Eberron, OA, and FR join together. rather I want to blend them into 1 world. So perhaps 1 continent is more advanced then another, that's only natural. Perhaps 1 continent has a radically different view of the world then the rest, that's only natural right? I want a world where perhaps some places look at magic and see possabilities, like Eberron and otehrs where they view magic in terms of the elements like oA. I want a world where different cultures clash and because of those differances they war with one another. i want a world where the peoples of these nations reach out to the other nations and try to reconsile their differances in a neutral colony in neutral territory. A world where even with this meeting ground war, plagues, death and suffering still exists. I want a world where commonisn't a language. A world where languages are very different from place to place, there is no uniting language. i want a world where even with cultural contacts, there is still room for variation and uniqueness yet still allows for uniformity.
WCH 02-11-06, 10:33 PM	Well, first you need to decide the cosmology of this world. What role do the gods take in it? It'd probably work best to have the gods in the background... like there's some kind of divine force out there, and different cultures call it different things -- the proof of which they get in the miracles they can perform -- but the gods never manifest themselves and say what they really are or what their names actually are. This would allow for an Asian culture to not differentiate between the Good divine forces and the Evil ones, for a FR-esque culture to consider all the gods to be just about to make their grand entrance, for an Eberron culture to have religious institutions but not as much emphasis on them, and for a LotR culture to not really concern itself with the gods at all, instead focusing on the magic itself.
Tallow 02-11-06, 11:08 PM	hmm... Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I had hoped. What I want to do is to create more of a 'real world' World. One where there exists different cultures and societies. I'm not looking to make a world where Eberron, OA, and FR join together. rather I want to blend them into 1 world. So perhaps 1 continent is more advanced then another, that's only natural. Perhaps 1 continent has a radically different view of the world then the rest, that's only natural right? I want a world where perhaps some places look at magic and see possabilities, like Eberron and otehrs where they view magic in terms of the elements like oA. I want a world where different cultures clash and because of those differances they war with one another. i want a world where the peoples of these nations reach out to the other nations and try to reconsile their differances in a neutral colony in neutral territory. A world where even with this meeting ground war, plagues, death and suffering still exists. I want a world where commonisn't a language. A world where languages are very different from place to place, there is no uniting language. i want a world where even with cultural contacts, there is still room for variation and uniqueness yet still allows for uniformity. You were VERY clear, and I'm saying that the planet Aber-Toril, where Faerun is, and ultimately the entire Forgotten Realms campaign setting actually has ALL of those themes already developed out. Kara-Tur IS the Forgotten Realms Oriental Adventures setting. Lantan or Nimbral (forget which) IS the Forgotten Realms magitech.