Ideas for building a patchwork world - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Ideas for building a patchwork world

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Drecon84
Oct 12, 2011 6:23:44 Let's start with the basic premise of my world.
The world is basically made by some force picking up pieces from other worlds and dropping them on the one the players are on.

The adventure actually starts when the whiole village the players are in is transported through the spaces between the worlds into the adventure world (that I haven't actually named yet).
After that they are alone in a hostile world, there are no real sources of food, as all the farms were outside of town, they don't know anything about the surrounding lands and they don't know who they can or can't trust.

The idea here is that I want the world to be populated by different tribes that are forced into unusual alliances.

Some things I already have:

Nearby is a large lake. Beside the lake is a large fort occupied by goblins. The tribe is led by a young Brass Dragon and he commands an army of Hobgoblins and their Goblin slaves. The dragon is dead set on trying to impose order on this chaotic world. Depending on the players' actions this could either be a great alliance or an all-out war.

The nearby forest is probably infested by kobolds, but I'd like to give that an extra touch. Maybe they have some savage halfling allies?

There is a large mountian nearby (just randomly placed in the landscape). In this mountain are some dwarves holing up and trying to keep out the big bad world.

So, I have some loose ideas but I would like anything you people can come up with.
#2
Carl_the_half_ork
Oct 12, 2011 8:05:03 I had a longer post, but my comp messed up..

long story short.

Spiders and Chitine egg (giant) crashes like a meteor over a city full of aristocrats,diplomats and politicians, the spiders and chitine flee into the sewer after causing terror, and form an alliance with the brain rats, mind flayers and vampires that live there.

They go to war with the city for resources, sabatoge the sewage system and cause the streets to flood with filth. Disease becomes rampant for everything in and under the city.

Diseased spiders, brain rats, mind flayers, and vampires. EVERYWHERE.

Fighting the mercenaries of pissed off, soft, whiny, stuck up politicians.

Pretty much.
#3
yronimosw
Oct 12, 2011 21:18:41 This reminds me a little bit of the setting that Belaine is cooking up (link), where colonies of people are being brought in from off-world as part of a divine experment. The landscape isn't patch-work, but the population appears to be, and there might be a couple of ideas there that you can use.
#4
yellowdingo
Oct 14, 2011 6:28:38 As a DM it might be useful for you to know that People need Resources to Survive:

Firewood: Light forest yields at 1,280,000lb of wood per square mile of Light forest which is enough to support 1280 people once every fifty years or 25 people sustainably annually.
Wheat: Requires 50lb seed per acre (32000lb per square mile) and yields at 640000lb per square mile. 640000lb-32000lb=608000lb so a square mile can produce grain sufficient to support 1665 people. In the end it may be more beneficial if your villagers become nomads moving to new resources and leaving behind crops to grow until they return for harvest.
#5
Carl_the_half_ork
Oct 14, 2011 8:16:28
As a DM it might be useful for you to know that People need Resources to Survive:

Firewood: Light forest yields at 1,280,000lb of wood per square mile of Light forest which is enough to support 1280 people once every fifty years or 25 people sustainably annually.
Wheat: Requires 50lb seed per acre (32000lb per square mile) and yields at 640000lb per square mile. 640000lb-32000lb=608000lb so a square mile can produce grain sufficient to support 1665 people. In the end it may be more beneficial if your villagers become nomads moving to new resources and leaving behind crops to grow until they return for harvest.

Im new, so I dont understand stuff such as this. Whats the point of information so specific? Do you (While running the game) say to the players, "A farmer plants 50 lbs of rice seed in a 1 acre valley and it yields 640k per square mile." ?

I just dont get it. Why is this useful info? (Im not saying it isnt)

It sounds like a setup to a math problem instead of good description to me.
#6
khorne37
Oct 14, 2011 10:27:11 You could have the same mysterious force that brought the village there to provide for the people as wel..
#7
yronimosw
Oct 14, 2011 13:36:51

Im new, so I dont understand stuff such as this. Whats the point of information so specific? Do you (While running the game) say to the players, "A farmer plants 50 lbs of rice seed in a 1 acre valley and it yields 640k per square mile." ?

I just dont get it. Why is this useful info? (Im not saying it isnt)

It sounds like a setup to a math problem instead of good description to me.

You don't necessarily have to get THAT precise in the day-to-day mechanics of the game, but YellowDingo does suggest that for very good reasons.

One way it can be useful is to suggest ways to fill out details in a unique setting, to give the setting some depth and realism.

For example, the popular Underdark setting, which portrays a subterranean world that exists entirely in large caverns, would realistically be impossible when you think about it enough: there isn't much food in real-world caverns, no trees for wood to cook with or to fuel forges with, not much soil to grow crops in, no wood to make the handles of digging tools and weapons with, and so on.

In that example, finding inventive ways to provide alternative sources of fire, fuel, livestock, and crops can help your players suspend their disbelief better and make your fantasy world more immersive and suggest some unique terrain for underground battles, while also suggesting a lot of great ideas for adventures and campaign plotlines.

It can still be useful even in a generic fantasy setting, for the same reasons.
#8
JayM
Oct 14, 2011 14:07:10 A campaign like this is a good opportunity to make languages important. Drop in a community of humans, obviously neither hostile nor friendly, who don't speak any language in common with the PCs. Throw in a community of humanoid creatures that speak their own racial language. Add a really monsterous race that the party can negotiate with once they can speak the language. This isn't a huge burden, since comprehend languages is only a 1st level ritual. However, it will give them a big problem until they get their hands on the ritutal, and even after they do low level characters will only get to understand the language not speak it back.

A large dead section, over run with undead, can make for a big problem. This also makes for a good puzzle, the characters needing to untangle a bit of the history recorded in the dead section to find the source of the undead and destroy it permanently. A field of lava or other really hostile terrain makes for a good road block, and since it will probably moderate over time the party can eventually get past. An abandoned village or town make for a creepy inport, particularly if spiced with a few ghosts and an implication that their might be a lingering disease or curse.

Really alien landscape, such a field of crystal growths, tentacle plants, or such adds weirdness. For a good touch you can have the really alien section contract over time as the local environment overwhelms the alien landscape, but one or two small bits should adapt and spread. A spieces of crystal flower might be able to fit in and survive.

A slice of land that was a lake or ocean but doesn't match up with the new landscape and simply spills over the lands is an amusing one off disaster.

One great way to show how the world is changing is to bring in totally out of climate chunks of land. You can update the description of the area each time the party passes through, showing how the environment changes over time. For instance, a vast chunk of desert brought into a temperate wet region would first become a vast mud pit, then over run with fast growing weeds and grass, a few years later it would be a shallow grassland, with a few shrubs and trees growing in suitable spots. It would take decades, if not centuries, for a real layer of rich soil to develop to support a forest, but it might happen eventually.

#9
yellowdingo
Oct 15, 2011 6:46:23
As a DM it might be useful for you to know that People need Resources to Survive:

Firewood: Light forest yields at 1,280,000lb of wood per square mile of Light forest which is enough to support 1280 people once every fifty years or 25 people sustainably annually.
Wheat: Requires 50lb seed per acre (32000lb per square mile) and yields at 640000lb per square mile. 640000lb-32000lb=608000lb so a square mile can produce grain sufficient to support 1665 people. In the end it may be more beneficial if your villagers become nomads moving to new resources and leaving behind crops to grow until they return for harvest.

Im new, so I dont understand stuff such as this. Whats the point of information so specific? Do you (While running the game) say to the players, "A farmer plants 50 lbs of rice seed in a 1 acre valley and it yields 640k per square mile." ?

I just dont get it. Why is this useful info? (Im not saying it isnt)

It sounds like a setup to a math problem instead of good description to me.

Basically You use it to add realism, or find alternatives to it. If a village of 1000 has to send wagons out for firewood three days out by trail then they must send out 86 wagons a week (all year round) to bring in firewood for the whole population.

Basically it means there are almost 200 people outside the community, and when the PCs swan into the community they might pass 20 wagons on any single day of travel.

As YronimosW suggests food in the underdark: mushroom farm tunnels of a mile long can yield enough Mushrooms per year to support 101 mushroom eating 'gnomes'.
#10
Vicarius79
Oct 15, 2011 7:41:15
I hate to be glib about this, but your concept reminds me of Marvel Comic's Secret Wars. The Beyonder -- the deus-ex-machina villain -- did something similar. I think this is an awesome concept personally. I second the notion of the making languages important in the game. Another thing I'd suggest -- is to place a 'wise elder' or sage somewhere in the wilds. Maybe his tower appeared from another world, but he's very sick and his apprentices come looking for help for his ailment. Yet the sage could provide help against a Big Bad that was also brought to this new world.

#11
Drecon84
Oct 16, 2011 5:46:37 Thanks for the great ideas everyone. I can really work with this stuff (especially yours JayM).

Alright, I feel I owe you a little backgrounde on this specific campaign actually:
History lesson!

Once upon a time there was a God (I really need to work him out a bit, I keep putting it off) who was growing too powerful and started trying to usurp the domains of some other Gods.
They didn't like it of course and a great war ensued.
The one God could not stand up to the other Gods and was vanquished.
They could not actually destroy him though so instead they split him in three parts. One part was cast into the nine hells, one into the elemental Chaos (I haven't decided where exactly) and the last part was cast into a place in the middle of the Astral Sea.

The part of the God in the Astral Sea still had some of his power left but could not break out of his prison on his own. So instead he started pulling pieces from other worlds onto his prison and started building a world here.
This has been going on for a few thousand years and the planet is actually pretty large. There are a number of forces present but all of them are secretly guided by the God in multiple intricate plots to free him. Nobody knows about this but everybody is part of the plan.

But in the low levels it's just about survival of course.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Drecon84 Oct 12, 2011 6:23:44	Let's start with the basic premise of my world. The world is basically made by some force picking up pieces from other worlds and dropping them on the one the players are on. The adventure actually starts when the whiole village the players are in is transported through the spaces between the worlds into the adventure world (that I haven't actually named yet). After that they are alone in a hostile world, there are no real sources of food, as all the farms were outside of town, they don't know anything about the surrounding lands and they don't know who they can or can't trust. The idea here is that I want the world to be populated by different tribes that are forced into unusual alliances. Some things I already have: Nearby is a large lake. Beside the lake is a large fort occupied by goblins. The tribe is led by a young Brass Dragon and he commands an army of Hobgoblins and their Goblin slaves. The dragon is dead set on trying to impose order on this chaotic world. Depending on the players' actions this could either be a great alliance or an all-out war. The nearby forest is probably infested by kobolds, but I'd like to give that an extra touch. Maybe they have some savage halfling allies? There is a large mountian nearby (just randomly placed in the landscape). In this mountain are some dwarves holing up and trying to keep out the big bad world. So, I have some loose ideas but I would like anything you people can come up with.
#2 Carl_the_half_ork Oct 12, 2011 8:05:03	I had a longer post, but my comp messed up.. long story short. Spiders and Chitine egg (giant) crashes like a meteor over a city full of aristocrats,diplomats and politicians, the spiders and chitine flee into the sewer after causing terror, and form an alliance with the brain rats, mind flayers and vampires that live there. They go to war with the city for resources, sabatoge the sewage system and cause the streets to flood with filth. Disease becomes rampant for everything in and under the city. Diseased spiders, brain rats, mind flayers, and vampires. EVERYWHERE. Fighting the mercenaries of pissed off, soft, whiny, stuck up politicians. Pretty much.
#3 yronimosw Oct 12, 2011 21:18:41	This reminds me a little bit of the setting that Belaine is cooking up (link), where colonies of people are being brought in from off-world as part of a divine experment. The landscape isn't patch-work, but the population appears to be, and there might be a couple of ideas there that you can use.
#4 yellowdingo Oct 14, 2011 6:28:38	As a DM it might be useful for you to know that People need Resources to Survive: Firewood: Light forest yields at 1,280,000lb of wood per square mile of Light forest which is enough to support 1280 people once every fifty years or 25 people sustainably annually. Wheat: Requires 50lb seed per acre (32000lb per square mile) and yields at 640000lb per square mile. 640000lb-32000lb=608000lb so a square mile can produce grain sufficient to support 1665 people. In the end it may be more beneficial if your villagers become nomads moving to new resources and leaving behind crops to grow until they return for harvest.
#5 Carl_the_half_ork Oct 14, 2011 8:16:28	As a DM it might be useful for you to know that People need Resources to Survive: Firewood: Light forest yields at 1,280,000lb of wood per square mile of Light forest which is enough to support 1280 people once every fifty years or 25 people sustainably annually. Wheat: Requires 50lb seed per acre (32000lb per square mile) and yields at 640000lb per square mile. 640000lb-32000lb=608000lb so a square mile can produce grain sufficient to support 1665 people. In the end it may be more beneficial if your villagers become nomads moving to new resources and leaving behind crops to grow until they return for harvest. Im new, so I dont understand stuff such as this. Whats the point of information so specific? Do you (While running the game) say to the players, "A farmer plants 50 lbs of rice seed in a 1 acre valley and it yields 640k per square mile." ? I just dont get it. Why is this useful info? (Im not saying it isnt) It sounds like a setup to a math problem instead of good description to me.
#6 khorne37 Oct 14, 2011 10:27:11	You could have the same mysterious force that brought the village there to provide for the people as wel..
#7 yronimosw Oct 14, 2011 13:36:51	Im new, so I dont understand stuff such as this. Whats the point of information so specific? Do you (While running the game) say to the players, "A farmer plants 50 lbs of rice seed in a 1 acre valley and it yields 640k per square mile." ? I just dont get it. Why is this useful info? (Im not saying it isnt) It sounds like a setup to a math problem instead of good description to me. You don't necessarily have to get THAT precise in the day-to-day mechanics of the game, but YellowDingo does suggest that for very good reasons. One way it can be useful is to suggest ways to fill out details in a unique setting, to give the setting some depth and realism. For example, the popular Underdark setting, which portrays a subterranean world that exists entirely in large caverns, would realistically be impossible when you think about it enough: there isn't much food in real-world caverns, no trees for wood to cook with or to fuel forges with, not much soil to grow crops in, no wood to make the handles of digging tools and weapons with, and so on. In that example, finding inventive ways to provide alternative sources of fire, fuel, livestock, and crops can help your players suspend their disbelief better and make your fantasy world more immersive and suggest some unique terrain for underground battles, while also suggesting a lot of great ideas for adventures and campaign plotlines. It can still be useful even in a generic fantasy setting, for the same reasons.
#8 JayM Oct 14, 2011 14:07:10	A campaign like this is a good opportunity to make languages important. Drop in a community of humans, obviously neither hostile nor friendly, who don't speak any language in common with the PCs. Throw in a community of humanoid creatures that speak their own racial language. Add a really monsterous race that the party can negotiate with once they can speak the language. This isn't a huge burden, since comprehend languages is only a 1st level ritual. However, it will give them a big problem until they get their hands on the ritutal, and even after they do low level characters will only get to understand the language not speak it back. A large dead section, over run with undead, can make for a big problem. This also makes for a good puzzle, the characters needing to untangle a bit of the history recorded in the dead section to find the source of the undead and destroy it permanently. A field of lava or other really hostile terrain makes for a good road block, and since it will probably moderate over time the party can eventually get past. An abandoned village or town make for a creepy inport, particularly if spiced with a few ghosts and an implication that their might be a lingering disease or curse. Really alien landscape, such a field of crystal growths, tentacle plants, or such adds weirdness. For a good touch you can have the really alien section contract over time as the local environment overwhelms the alien landscape, but one or two small bits should adapt and spread. A spieces of crystal flower might be able to fit in and survive. A slice of land that was a lake or ocean but doesn't match up with the new landscape and simply spills over the lands is an amusing one off disaster. One great way to show how the world is changing is to bring in totally out of climate chunks of land. You can update the description of the area each time the party passes through, showing how the environment changes over time. For instance, a vast chunk of desert brought into a temperate wet region would first become a vast mud pit, then over run with fast growing weeds and grass, a few years later it would be a shallow grassland, with a few shrubs and trees growing in suitable spots. It would take decades, if not centuries, for a real layer of rich soil to develop to support a forest, but it might happen eventually.
#9 yellowdingo Oct 15, 2011 6:46:23	As a DM it might be useful for you to know that People need Resources to Survive: Firewood: Light forest yields at 1,280,000lb of wood per square mile of Light forest which is enough to support 1280 people once every fifty years or 25 people sustainably annually. Wheat: Requires 50lb seed per acre (32000lb per square mile) and yields at 640000lb per square mile. 640000lb-32000lb=608000lb so a square mile can produce grain sufficient to support 1665 people. In the end it may be more beneficial if your villagers become nomads moving to new resources and leaving behind crops to grow until they return for harvest. Im new, so I dont understand stuff such as this. Whats the point of information so specific? Do you (While running the game) say to the players, "A farmer plants 50 lbs of rice seed in a 1 acre valley and it yields 640k per square mile." ? I just dont get it. Why is this useful info? (Im not saying it isnt) It sounds like a setup to a math problem instead of good description to me. Basically You use it to add realism, or find alternatives to it. If a village of 1000 has to send wagons out for firewood three days out by trail then they must send out 86 wagons a week (all year round) to bring in firewood for the whole population. Basically it means there are almost 200 people outside the community, and when the PCs swan into the community they might pass 20 wagons on any single day of travel. As YronimosW suggests food in the underdark: mushroom farm tunnels of a mile long can yield enough Mushrooms per year to support 101 mushroom eating 'gnomes'.
#10 Vicarius79 Oct 15, 2011 7:41:15	I hate to be glib about this, but your concept reminds me of Marvel Comic's Secret Wars. The Beyonder -- the deus-ex-machina villain -- did something similar. I think this is an awesome concept personally. I second the notion of the making languages important in the game. Another thing I'd suggest -- is to place a 'wise elder' or sage somewhere in the wilds. Maybe his tower appeared from another world, but he's very sick and his apprentices come looking for help for his ailment. Yet the sage could provide help against a Big Bad that was also brought to this new world.
#11 Drecon84 Oct 16, 2011 5:46:37	Thanks for the great ideas everyone. I can really work with this stuff (especially yours JayM). Alright, I feel I owe you a little backgrounde on this specific campaign actually: History lesson! Once upon a time there was a God (I really need to work him out a bit, I keep putting it off) who was growing too powerful and started trying to usurp the domains of some other Gods. They didn't like it of course and a great war ensued. The one God could not stand up to the other Gods and was vanquished. They could not actually destroy him though so instead they split him in three parts. One part was cast into the nine hells, one into the elemental Chaos (I haven't decided where exactly) and the last part was cast into a place in the middle of the Astral Sea. The part of the God in the Astral Sea still had some of his power left but could not break out of his prison on his own. So instead he started pulling pieces from other worlds onto his prison and started building a world here. This has been going on for a few thousand years and the planet is actually pretty large. There are a number of forces present but all of them are secretly guided by the God in multiple intricate plots to free him. Nobody knows about this but everybody is part of the plan. But in the low levels it's just about survival of course.