Homebrew DnD Setting Pt. 1
Oh man, am I overdue for a session report. That's okay, we'll procrastinate with a setting post! If you're just stumbling here, I'm just gonna talk about a brain child I have been slowly working on these past few months. I plan to someday use this setting for a hexcrawl like Wolves Upon the Coast. I have some hexes written out. Some are just ideas for things or are locations. I don't know how game-able this will be, but then again, I'm not sure if anyone knows if their setting is game-able.
Just a warning, I have done zero research. This is all vibes.
Let's start with some overarching things, macro as macro can be. Gods do not exist in my setting. So that means, there is no such thing as clerics (thank fuck). This is an easy way to get rid of any pseudo-christianity that classes like clerics like to bring. The spell list will be edited down and given as a possible spell book for MUs. I can get in to mechanics in a later post but I'll try to keep on track here.
On the subject of Gods, they do exist. But in a very material way. They are man-made, created, and birthed. In my experimentation with prose I wrote,
"Corpse of a God - Hex Location:
Not one of steel, but of flesh. The blood still drains to this day. The Spear still protruding from its back when the Heavens revolted."
When I wrote this, I wanted to convey a few things at once with my writing. One, the impression that Gods are material things that can be hurt or destroyed. It is something that is impossible to perceive, so no other words exists for this thing other than Gods. Second, this thing is old. Third, what does it mean when "...the Heavens revolted." Its a good thing I have no idea. Maybe I'll write that out later. Maybe the answer will never be found, and that's okay. You don't have to know everything in your world.
The next step down from omniscient beings, is time. And where in time does my hopeful adventuring party take to the country side and face many dangers. Welp, broadly I think I'll place this two apocalypses later. Something happened, and the world regressed in technology. Time healed some wounds, but not others. Second apocalypse happened and now we are in current time. The post apocalypse of the post apocalypse.
What does this mean? It allows me to add in whatever I feel like. Dinosaurs, aliens from space, magic and elves. I'm given creative freedom to just go with my gut and vibe things out. It also can allow me to write horror in the setting as well. Which I do find some of my locations lean that way.
Zooming in a lot more now and we are looking at people. Continents are divided and fought between warlords, petty kings, and communities banding together to fight oppression. I want to leave room for hope in this setting. I think that if things are entirely doom and gloom, then it should lean to the comedic side, but I wanted to leave things serious, optimistic, and permanent for my players. I'd like to think that vast majority of every day people in this world are just trying to get by.
This leaves Adventurers. These are people that have abandoned living a normal life. These people are looked upon as though they are crazy, who wants to live a life of danger? So many townsfolk may look at Adventurers as untrustworthy folk. Though, many communities can see the benefit of enlisting their help if troubles arise.
I think I'll leave things there for now. I feel just any setting post can get out of hand, and I know this could go on for a long time. I'll try to set aside some time to write this out more. I'm sure there are some things here I might change but it's cool to see where I started.
Thanks for reading, and be safe out there!