EFX brainstorm update

After I made that post, I thought about it off and on for a few hours, and decided that there's no way I'm making all of those classes. For one thing, I don't want to be too overt about borrowing themes and tone from Heroes 3 (or at least, how I imagine it) I want it to be more subtle than that. For another thing, there's way too many of them. I can use optional classes adapted from some of the "advanced companion" style books that attempt to adapt Advanced D&D or even more modern class options into a more OSR or m20 style paradigm.

Speaking of which, I was amused but also intrigued by how Microlite20 Fifth Adamantium handled races; there were three groups; a tough group that had a bonus to STR, a magical group that had a bonus to MND and an agile group that had a bonus to DEX. Each group had a few races under it, which were all mechanically identical (and mechanically the change was so modest anyway that it hardly mattered.) Everything else came down to roleplaying rather than a mechanical reflection of your race. I'm not quite sure that I'm ready to be that reductionist, even though my racial benefits are also pretty modest, they're also not quite so bland either. But I can certainly appreciate the sentiment and even applaud it. 

I also don't want to be too overt about borrowing from Eberron, but I also haven't decided exactly yet how it will actually do so anyway. I've made some vague geographical correlations, and of course I love the tone and themes of Eberron (in fact, I've long been convinced that the system it was designed for serves those tones and themes poorly and it would have been better with a different system. Maybe Savage Worlds like Golarion eventually did, would have fit Eberron extremely well, actually. At least I've heard that from a lot of folks. I'm not a Savage Worlds guy myself, and I prefer to lean way more into rules light than Savage Worlds seems to be.)

Let me reiterate the geography and add a possible (optional, at this point—I'll wait and see if I take the option or not) place that can be "Factory-like". All of these correlations should be seen as only a vague correspondence, not that this nation is really all that exact compared to the Heroes 3 faction that I'm lining it up with, or the Eberron nation that I'm also correlating it with.

First, let's presume that there's a large landlocked sea in the center of the land. Big enough to be the Black and Caspian and (original) Aral Seas all put together, or the American Great Lakes all combined into a single sea. This will be called the Lanstall Sea. 

• Kingdom Protectorate of Rodach: similar in some ways to Breland, has Cliffgate, the city similar to Sharn. No Heroes 3 correlation, but is a fairly cosmopolitan place, so anyone from anywhere can be there. In fact... maybe Cliffgate is more like a city state and Rodach is more like the hinterlands that's under its protection. Rodach is south and a bit west of the Lanstall Sea.
• Kingdom of Hombarast: directly north of Rodach is the Kingdom of Hombarast. With lots of mountains, it stays fairly cold, except in the outer slopes and some deep valleys. Loosely based on the Tower faction and Aundair in Eberron, it is the source of most of the genies, ultimately, who entered the world many generations ago through in intermittent gate that has been quiescent for centuries now.
• Kingdom of Kharnimrion: cold steppes, forest steppes, "mammoth tundra", and boreal forest north of the Lanstall Sea, is a dark land where necromancers, vampires and liches rule openly--although benevolently enough that the human inhabitants don't just flee. That said, nobody else other than citizens of Kharnimrion can really stand their death-culture and their acceptance of necromancy, so they're a diplomatic pariah. Compare to Necropolis and Karrnath.
• Theocracy of Thamath: to the west of Hombarast, this country is most similar to the Castle and Thrane. Few non-humans live among them, and while they're welcome enough as long as they behave, they simply tend to stay in other places.
• Realm of Nevregel: This rebellious and monster-infested land was once the eastern frontier of Rodach, but it broke away and now claims to be an independent nation, under the leadership of a coven of witches. While viewed warily by pretty much everyone, and its become a home of criminals and monsters, mostly, nobody is in a position to challenge their claim, so they reluctantly accept it, or at least plead "no comment." Compare to Droaam (although put to the east rather than west of Breland) and the Dungeon faction.
• Dominion of Othlon: east of Nevregel, Othlon also lost territory south of the Lanstall Sea to its establishment, and therefore is more unhappy with Nevregel than most, and is in fact one of the few nations that refuses to recognize its legitimacy. Othlon is a dry place, has relatively little arable land, and in addition to hardy humans, it is also home to orcs and goblins. (i.e., similar to Stronghold and Darguun.)
• Reynhowe Frontier. the eastern side  of the Lanstall Sea is largely a trackless forest. After many past wars, it was left untamed and became a frontier that few could breach—but elves and dwarves have lived together in the forest for generations beyond counting. Once they welcomed some human refugees of past great wars into their home, they became a diplomatic nation on par with the others nearby, but they still remain pretty aloof and relatively uninvolved, if they can be, with their neighbors. However, as Kharnimrion became more overtly necromantic and expansionist, and as Nevregel started trying to gobble up new territory, they decided that they could no longer remain neutral and isolationist and have joined the rest of the nations to apply diplomatic (and when necessary) military pressure to accomplish their goals in protecting their land. Similar to Rampart and the Eldeen Reaches, although it's been moved geographically from my alt.Khorvaire style map.
• Valade Holds. A small and newly established state claiming some shoreline of the Lanstall Sea nestled between Kharnimrion and Reynhowe, the Valade Holds is home to an elemental gateway, so elemental personages are entering the world from outside. They tend to show up with limited memory of their past. Similar to Conflux and kinda sorta the Mror Holds.
• Kochbin: a new colony, mostly peopled by outcasts from Hombarast and displaced people who lived in Nevregel, against all odds these criminals, outlaws and more are forging a new nation in the harsh deserts of Kochbin. Protected by their constructs, they are watched warily by everyone else, because experiments that are illegal everywhere else are accepted here, Kochbin still lacks much in the way of recognition or respect from the other nations. However, luckily for them, nobody else really wants the territory that they claim. Similar to Factory. No real Eberron correspondence, although maybe its closer to Q'barra in the desert instead of the jungle than to anything else.
• Principality of Gothrastir: the island nation of Gothrastir is famous for their sailing prowess, and they are famous traders and merchants. However, they are just as often coming as raiders and pirates, and their relationship with everyone else on the continent is strained. Most similar to Cove and the Lhazaar Principalities.
• Giledzar: the northwestern extremity of the continent (I say continent; it's not a very big place, though. Australia is the biggest that I could claim that it is, but with a big interior sea, that's still not really comparable.) Volcanic activity is much more common here than anywhere else, and fire elementals (ifrits) and demons are common, as well as the cursed and possessed demoniac human tribes. Most similar to Inferno and the Demon Wastes.
• Doloth Marches. The final region of this setting is a swampy, forested frontier on the southeast extremity of the game. A nation of strange beastmasters and witches; barbaric savages who have little in common with the rest of the world, the Doloth Marches are most like the Fortress and the Shadow Marshes. It's a vast area, but is little populated, and full of all kinds of strange, mysterious ruins and mystical locations. 

I whipped up this schematic, which is mostly just to show the relative size and position of the various regions; it's not meant to be an actual map, by any means, but a schematic to be used to develop a map.

Since my EFX game, if I ever run one, is most likely to be centered around Cliffgate, the other nations might be overkill background rather than actually relevant information, but still. I like worldbuilding for its own sake. And in Eberron, at least, flitting around across the continent and even beyond is a feature of the setting, so sometimes you need to have that background in your back pocket.