Wednesday, October 03, 2007

New campaign setting noodlings

Well, the Freeport Pbp is off and running. Both groups went through an introductory combat to work out some kinks and set the tone. Then they ended up in the same inn, chatting with each other in the common room. A few other things are going on, but all in all, still very much early days. "Team Monkey" has an assignment and the vaguest outlines of a plan, but "Team Gorilla" still doesn't even have a patron or an adventure hook to follow yet.

I had another idea. In fact, I've had it before, but it came back to me and I want to think about it a bit. What if you played D&D---but with no magic? Seriously; instead of magic, you'd have psionics in the same role. Every class that has a spell progression gets the axe. Every race that seems too overtly tied to "classic" fantasy goes. Instead we get: what?

Classes:

Fighter, rogue, barbarian and monk from the PHB. Although I could do without the monk.

Psion, psychic warrior, soulknife and wilder from the XPH.

Lurk, ardent and divine mind from Complete Psionic.

Races:

Keep human from the PHB. Add in elan, maenad, xeph, half-giant, and dromite from the XPH. Synad from Complete Psionic? I dunno. Plenty of racial options, though. I mean, at least a few classic races work. If you're going to have blues, you need goblinoids, and I like goblin and hobgoblin being choices. I'd do away with blues as a separate monster manual entry, and just say that goblins with a psionic class level gradually turn blue.

Hmmm... maybe do something with the gith or duergar, but there's no reason to. I mean, seriously---how many races are there in D&D to choose from now? 50-60, no doubt. I can find more if I need them. The only thing I need to do is work up some fluff about how they all fit together.

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Anyway, that's the core of a new setting. Maybe I'll "Ray Winninger" it up with a few entries to see where it goes.

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