Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Timpookie Nov 24, 2014 6:26:22	Instead of just a few scattered islands in the middle of the ocean with pirates for your next seafaring campaign, here's another reason that I thought of for everyone to live on boats:   One of the gods went mad and flooded the world thirty years ago. Almost everyone knew how to swim, and the wizards quickly managed to find out how to make a spell  to build boats as the flood started oncoming. Sure, it wasn't immediate, it took a few months for the water level to rise, allowing for experimentation in the spells, but hundreds of thousands still drowned.   The kings and monarchs quickly lost all their claims and wealth to the unforgiving depths of the water. The wizards and more powerful warriors became self-proclaimed kings of their boat, pillaging other boats for food and supplies and making shaky alliances where they could. A few wizards managed to magically modify some foods to grow on water, and those foods spread like weeds until they became as commonplace as forests used to be.   All sites of public gathering are boats that are much larger than all the rest, typically containing a few structures typical of towns. These places are often ruled by powerful wizards, or maybe even multiple powerful wizards acting as a council of sorts, enforcing "peace" on their boats.   As always, storms are fierce, and threaten to sink ships constantly. However, there are no islands to go to because there are no islands at all.   Dragons typically fly all day to survive, and spend their nights on boats that they can find. Dragon attacks are commonplace nowadays, seeing as the dragons are just as nomadic as everyone else.   Is this a good idea for a campaign setting, or is it just an interesting concept that wouldn't work at all well in a game?
#2 Magistus71 Nov 24, 2014 10:27:15	Sounds a lot like the movie Waterworld.
#3 cowleymen Nov 24, 2014 13:40:16	ID play that game. Requires extensive amount of prep work.
#4 Imaculata Nov 24, 2014 14:01:26	It's a good start. I'd definitely elaborate on the motivations of this god. Madness is often a weak plot filler, so I'd try and come up with an interesting reason why the god decided to flood the world with water. And I'd keep away from the Abrahamic "flood to end sin" cliche. Maybe there is another, far more interesting reason why the god chose to flood the world. And that can all tie into the overall plot of the campaign.   Another thing to explore, is the idea that all cities are basically always on the move. Much like in Waterworld, communities can rise from a flood, by simply stringing a couple of boats together. Given enough time, these can grow into massive floating cities, which makes them unwieldy. The larger the city, the more it is a prone to the movements of the wind. So maybe these huge cities are hard to control, especially during particular seasons. Maybe the flood of the world has also caused the weather to become very unpredictable and dangerous. How have these cities prepared for such dangers? What do they do when a storm hits? Do the cities have massive sails that they can lower incase of a storm? Is the whole city perhaps air tight, like a submarine?   Some cities can also have been constructed on top of large sea creatures, such as a giant turtle, or a whale. What happens when these creatures dive under water? Do the cities perhaps have ways to keep the animals on the surface at all times? Or have the cities been built to dive underwater? Or perhaps the city is built on a giant sleeping creature, that is blissfully unaware of the thing on its back.   And what about flying cities? Air balloons perhaps?
#5 Timpookie Nov 24, 2014 15:45:27	An interesting idea for a motivation - The god was actually the good guy, and he was trying to kill some being of ancient evil (Maybe the tarrasque?), but the being survived. Now people hate the god because they have no idea of his intentions, as the ancient evil he tried to kill awakens.   I definately wouldn't run the campaign as it is yet, because I have no idea how racial prejudices, planar travel, and all the classes, among other things, would fit in.
#6 Imaculata Nov 24, 2014 23:34:10	Thats an excellent backstory for the god. It needn't be complicated. The players can then start believing that the god is evil, just like everyone else on the planet. Maybe the different races each have their own belief regarding the intentions of the god, and maybe they are all wrong.   As players explore ancient underwater ruins, maybe they'll stumble upon wall carvings that show that people used to worship this god. And that they looked upon him as a good god. Then over the course of the campaign you can slowly hint at what is really going on. The massive shift from believing in the god, and now outright hating him, could have severely weakened the god's powers.   Perhaps the people today believe in a new god, that is actually an aspect of the monster. So they are worshipping an evil creature, without knowing it. In fact, maybe some of the priests deliberately smashed any tablets that portrayed the monster in a bad light. Maybe the players will get into trouble if they as much as suggest that the priests might be wrong.
#7 Timpookie Nov 25, 2014 0:26:29	Imaculata wrote:
#8 Magistus71 Nov 25, 2014 9:08:49	If the gods are all knowing in this world, they would all know the truth, but even though they all know it is up to that god if to care or not.