I ran across this a little while ago...and I have no idea what it's about. Any of you old-timers (I mean that in the most respectful way :D ) care to enlighten me? Thanks
--Darkblade
Hollow World is a setting from the version of D&D that included Basic set, D&D Cyclopedia, etc.
The world is Mystara (also known as the Known World).
The world is hollow and open at the poles. Almost no one can access get through the poles, which are hidden by mountains and/or dense fog banks, besides being, well, polar (extreme cold, etc). The outside world includes the Gazatteer Series (Darokin, 5 Shires, Aphaphia, Thyatis, and so forth) in which many modukles were set (B series including "Keep on the Border Lands", X series, M series, and so forth).
The concept is that the gods are "preseving" cultures by either when or as they are being destroyed, sinking the original area, and restarting them at their height of power inside the world (aka, the Hollow World). People on the outside world would only know there was a great catastrophy and the land sunk. This allowed for play of "ancient civilizations" and neaderthals, etc.
The world of Mystara (or the Known World as it was called prior to conversion to AD&D) was hollow inside. It had its own cultures, civilizations, and races. It was its own campaign world with its own gods. Very original.
Don't confus this with another underdark. It was more like a dyson's sphere. The planet's core was the "sun". It had clouds and outdoor weather patterns, trees and other green plants, bodies of fresh and salt water, etc.
There were routes to the "outer" and "inner" worlds, but they were hard to find. People mostly stumbled upon them by accident. Finding your way back was usually an entire campaign unto itself (like so many other "portal" worlds), and a little cliche.
cross section view of hollow world--> (( ))
One of the things to note about Hollow world is that deep within the earth there is an anti-magic barrier so you can't teleport there, in fact, even inside the hollow world, teleport spells dont work, and neither does spells that raise the dead. Rain and Gravity is magically created with preservation spells made by the immortals
Hollow world is perpetually lighted by a small red sun(makes colors a bit funky) which is actually a pinsized gate to the Elemental Plane of Energy. Keep in mind, people follow their own biological clocks, sleep when you're tired, eat when you're hungry, open and close shop as you dang well please. Navigation is also much more difficult since the sun is always at high noon.
There are also floating continents in the sky to add to the available land that PC's can explore
In the mid 90's, the publisher gave away the boxed set to try to drum up support for the supplements.
There are permenant spells that make the cultures within EXTREMELY resistant to change. Get beat by the Long Bow in battle after battle after battle, but if your culture hadn't developed the long bow when placed in Hollow World, you weren't going to use it.
Nobody bothers conquering their neighbors, because the neighbors refuse to change their ways so whats the point.
Originally posted by rostoff
Nobody bothers conquering their neighbors, because the neighbors refuse to change their ways so whats the point.
Ahh, the Spell of Preservation... It was put in place for just that reason: to preserve the cultures. Just because they didn't wipe each other out, though, doesn't mean there weren't border disputes and skirmishes between the various groups.
And.. if you wanted them to wind up conquering each other, then just let the plan from HWA 1 go through :D
Rob
