Hey guys,
So I was recently contemplating some things, and decided to settle down and try to start a game here once again. Before I do that, however, I wanted to check to see if there would actually be any participants for it. After all, a living campaign with no players or only one GM, would be a very sad game indeed.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of living campaigns, please read
here.
As for how this would work over the forums, I propose the following:
Each GM (depending on how many we have) would essentially be in charge of one location or region of the setting. That is to say, if this were Forgotten Realms, one GM might be in charge of The North, another Luiren, and so on. Gamemasters would be responsible for handling character applications, adventures, and so on, in their sphere of influence. Essentially, each region would be its own game.
That's not to say that they aren't all tied together or that a player character couldn't travel from Waterdeep to Calimsham if they so chose. Communications between the GMs would be paramount, both to ensure that any worldspanning adventures could be properly supported, potentially to occasionally enact large scale plots in which all the characters might be drawn into, and to keep most of the players on a (fairly) level playing field.
My question, bay12, is this: What say ye?
24 Point-buy
Starting Level: 3
Max Health at level 1, Average (rounded up) After
Oasis
Dammit, I think that might be the old one...
Each hex is about 250 feet across. The whole map is about two miles to a side.
Red circles designate the zone affected by each totem.
Black lines are major bridges or properly paved roads. Tan lines are dirt or otherwise non-paved roads.
Most of the rest should be fairly self-explanatory.
Oasism the last bastion of civilization. Surrounded by tainted badlands created by the Terminus War, protected only by the nine ancient druidic totems scattered throughout the city. It was originally a human city, settled in the pleasant area around the Beach Totem. After the Terminus War, refugees from surrounding lands flooded to Oasis--humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, even goblinoids and stranger beings. Now, five years hence, Oasis boasts a population estimated around 50,000, with only about 19,000 humans (half of which are refugees).
19,000 humans (38%)
8,900 halflings (18%)
5,100 half-elves (10%)
4,500 dwarves (9%)
2,900 elves (6%)
2,600 gnomes (5%)
2,100 assorted goblinoids (4%)
1,700 half-orcs (3.5%)
750 kobolds (1.5%)
510 orcs (1%)
290 various (0.6%)
250 gnolls (0.5%)
150 assorted fey (0.3%)
140 lizardfolk (0.3%)
120 merfolk (0.25%)
110 trolls (0.2%)
76 minotaurs (0.15%)
89 assorted giants (0.2%)
72 troglodytes (0.15%)
53 ogres (0.1%)
32 aasimar (0.06%)
29 grimlocks (0.06%)
26 sahuagin (0.05%)
21 ghouls (0.05%)
15 tiefling (0.03%)
13 hags (0.025%)
12 araena (0.025%)
10 dragons (0.02%)
3 ogre mages (0.006%)
(If you have suggestions to put species to those 290 assorted, speak up!)
Councilmen
The Councils of Oasis are the main governing body, although religion, industry, wealth, monsters, and mobs are also often influential. There are two councils, the Low and the High, as well as a number of lesser offices such as judges and ministers. These people are often referred to as the Great Assembly.
The Low Council is elected every year. It is required to include members of all races, in rough proportion to their commonness in Oasis (34 humans, 16 halflings, 9 half-elves, seven dwaves, six elves, five gnomes, a half-orc, a kobold, a goblinoid, and an orc). Needless to say, the "monstrous" races like ogres, trolls, and most reptilian humanoids are unhappy at their lack of representation...
The High Council is elected every decade, and consists of one member from each totem's region of influence. The High Council is the most powerful governing body in Oasis.
the High Councilor, High Representative of the Beach Region.
the Damp Councilor, High Representative of the Lake Region.
Andromalius the Undercouncilor, High Representative of the Night Region.
the Wood Councilor, High Representative of the Forest Region.
the Dry Councilor, High Representative of the Desert Region.
the White Councilor, High Representative of the Winter Region.
the Green Councilor, High Representative of the Field Region.
the Stone Councilor, High Representative of the Mountain Region.
the Murky Councilor, High Representative of the Swamp Region.
Dragons
There are ten dragons residing in Oasis, one of each common breed. They typically go by the Common translation of their name. The dragons are a surprisingly powerful faction.
Cogwing the Green. Young adult, tinkerer. Dextrous and inventive. Cogwind lived a solitary life in the swap before Terminus, and is absolutely delighted to have a number of apprentices and others who help him make his devices. She has one missing wing and one crippled wing.
Lord Deepchanger the Black. Old, transmuter. Secretive loner, hoards magic and silver. Deepchanger lived and still lives in the caverns. Nowadays, he mostly keeps to himself, sticking to the caverns where people are positively delighted if he takes the inhabitants and carves them up.
Grandmother Bladecutter the Red Cutter. Great wyrm, barbarian. Greedy and unkind, Bladecutter was a lord of his kind before Terminus caused her to lose her flock.
Mindclaw the Brass. Juvenile. Friendly. While younger than many humans at merely 31 winters, Mindclaw is active in the community. He grew up in the area.
Snowglacier the White. Old. Proud and knowledge-hoarding. Snowglacier was driven out of the south a century and a half ago, and settled here as the coolest place. She remains apart from most of the community, save the Iceland hermits and Mindclaw, who she treats almost as a son.
Toxinspell the Blue. Young adult, warlock/assassin. Mistrustful and arcanophilic. Toxinspell fled from the armies of Pelor during Terminus, and constantly
Wildspeaker the Copper. Adult, musician. Nature-loving and artistic. Wildspeaker visited the druids here once, many decades ago. He returned when Terminus began, and settled near the druids' shrine.
Windsoarer the Silver. Mature adult, artificer. Knowledgeable, aloof, and art-loving, Windsoarer came along with Wildspeaker, due to their long friendship.
These 50,000 are less than a third of the people who have lived in Oasis since Terminus, the rest having succumbed to starvation, disease, or violence. Nowadays, only the cooperation of Guild of Priests, Druids, and Healers with the Council keep the population from falling further, with hundreds of acolytes and outer-circle druids summoning massive quantities of food to supplement fish, farms, and what little meat can be gained from monsters and what poor animals wander close enough to Oasis.
A number of districts have sprung up, to accommodate these people.
The most divided of all districts, Hightown is essentially the old Oasis and then some. It has a variety of industries, from fishing and a couple mills to metal- and glassworking to banking and leading. All over Hightown, except in the poorer areas, you see roadmen constantly replacing cobblestones and the like and extracting the sand that the Totem tries to replace it with, the sand going to the glassworks and the stone coming from Mineton.
The Palatial Neighborhood consists of Council Isle, which houses the most elite of Oasis and the servants and services they require, plus a bit on the mainland separated from the rest of Hightown by a solid wall of oak beams, reinforces by metal bands. The Palatial Neighborhood houses the bigwigs of religion, industry, mercantilism, and of course the government; the only notable demographics without their leadership in the Palatial Neighborhood are the druids, the undead and other monsters, and of course the poor.
The rest of Hightown's neighborhoods vary greatly. Some areas have the old, battered buildings of old Oasis, along with a number of ramshackle huts, and house the poor. Others have sawmills, forges, glassblowers, and other industrial buildings. Still others have newer buildings for the upper-middle class and others who are too poor or frugal to live in the Palatial Neighborhood, but rich enough not to live in slums or other districts. Military presence is strong, but monsters (unless you count soldiers, servants, or Mindclaw, who lives in Hightown).
West Uptown is located right across some bridges from Hightown. It is riddled with bridges connecting sparsely-populated neighborhoods (similar to modern suburbs with scattered farms and such), and includes fishing, pastoral, and educational facilities. West Uptown is a nice neighborhood--not as nice as the Palatial Neighborhood or the nicer areas of Hightown, but without the rifraff of the slums. One downside is frequent floods.
East Uptown is adjacent to both West Uptown and Hightown, as well as the "lower" districts of Southwood and Northwood. It was once heavily forested, and continues to have trees grow at unnatural rates even in the middle of town. Many of the more urban areas have cobblestones over nearly the whole ground, much like Hightown, to counteract this. East Uptown is a location known for its entertainment industry, from playwrights and theaters to bars and taverns. It also boasts soap and paper industries.
Northwood is firmly inside the Forest Totem's region of influence. It is a mass of buildings, with some gardens and paths in between. Its primary industry is logging, but hunting and pottery are also notably present.
Southwood is notable for being the seat of druidic power. Southwood's main inhabited area is a small cluster of buildings in the middle, with the totem and the Archdruid's Shrine to the north. Logging is strictly illegal except when okayed by the druids, or when the tree in question is a sapling cropping up near a building. A new cathedral is being constructed to the south, much to the chagrin of the druids. To get around the logging laws, they burnt a section of forest, then set up tents so they could cut down the saplings on the cathedral's building site.
Farmsvil is a mass of fields, with some houses interpersed in clusters, old half-made walls scattered about at what was at some point seen as Oasis's outer border, and a few towers to protect the fields from outside dangers. Its primary industry is, surprise surprise, agriculture, but it also makes a good number of handicrafts. Bladecutter makes her residence on the eastern edge, and refuses to allow farmers to plow the area near her lair.
No one is quite sure how Fishmine got its name, whether it refers to "mining" fish from the sea, the amount of mining products that come through, or something else entirely. Regardless, it is an important district, composed mainly of fishers with a fair number of merchants. It also has most of Oasis's mechanics and tinkerers due to the presence of Cogwing.
Mineton is one of the more densely-populated districts, devoted entirely to--as its name implies--mining. It was a rich district once, due to the totem infinitely replenishing veins of metal and clusters of gemstones...then the market crashed, forcing the High Council to seize control of the economy before it crashed completely. Mineton is a combination of gulag and slum, where the poor and criminal dig ores and such out of the ground, praying at night that they will not fall pray to the criminals or monsters who lurk at the outskirts of the district. It also houses the cave where Deepchanger lives, and is the home of Windsoarer.
Hermits--those who do not live in the larger districts, and instead live in small "neighborhoods" of less than a score, occupy a good amount of Oasis, including the desert and winter regions. They typically keep to themselves, but often trade with Oasis at large.
This category informally includes tribesmen and the like who live in larger groups but avoid interacting with the population at large.
Between Hightown, East Uptown, and the desert is a patch of tainted wasteland unprotected by the totems. Oasis has used this place as a dump for the worst kinds of criminals, when they cannot be executed for whatever reason. Walls of enchanted oak and those of Hightown itself prevent any exit from the land, save by flight. The little land, a rough triangle around 400-500 feet to a side, does not house many criminals...but it keeps them in. Usually. Jailbreaks from the Scar are things of nightmare. Usually, though, the walls, guards, free supplies, and relative freedom keep the prisoners apathetic or content.
Once, the northernmost totem in Oasis protected a forest of stone, shielding a rough facsimile of the Underdark. It was not frequented by many, but some druids tended it for centuries until Oasis was conquered and after Terminus, while dwarven and other Underdark refugees settled here. Unfortunately, Oasis was not stable in those early days. Ghouls, vampires, and other undead were the first of the "monstrous" races to demand equality; when this was denied them, Andromalius the Red, a lich of great power, lead a rebellion and corrupted the Undertotem into what it is now known as, the Night Totem. The druidic keepers of the Totem were killed, the other residents enslaved or turned. Andromalius and his allies set up a new district in the ruins of this totem: Nightland, where undead march and the living are used for labor and, with surgery and healing magic aiding sustainability, food. The High Council declared war on Nightland for a while, before the dragons forced negotiations. Nowadays, Nightland and Oasis are mostly separate by choice, although some trade occurs. Andromalius holds a seat on the High Council, and Nightland citizens vote, but Oasis typically ignores these contributions as much as possible.
