dungeons and dragons world building guide

These elements, combined with a post-apocalyptic desert setting and the alien feel of Athas' native cultures, give Dark Sun a unique flavor among the various D&D worlds. Playable humanoid races in Athas include the Thri-Kreen (mantis people) and Half-Giants, as well as warped variants of races found in other conventional fantasy settings: humans, the dominant race in most of known Athas, appear to be tougher than in other worlds elves are nomadic desert dwellers and long-distance runners halflings are depicted as savage jungle cannibals. However, a small underground minority of magicians called 'preservers' work to maintain life and ultimately restore the primeval lushness. Wizards and arcane spellcasters, on the other hand, are rarer and usually discriminated against, mainly because most of them are 'defilers' who drain life force from the environment to power their magic. Religion and divine magic is based on the worship of elemental forces, spirits or the Sorcerer-Kings themselves – the old gods have long abandoned the world. Psionics are a dominant aspect of the setting and are as commonplace as magic in other D&D settings – native / latent psionic abilities are commonly found in individuals of all humanoid races and their powers are respected. The campaign is set on the harsh desert world of Athas – once a lush planet teeming with life, it has since been stripped of its fertility by uncontrolled use of defiling magic and is now a desolate and savage place where civilization has retreated to city-states controlled by god-like Sorcerer-Kings. Released by TSR in 1991, Dark Sun diverges from the tone of 'conventional' medieval fantasy, drawing heavy inspiration from novels like Dune and the Barsoom series. There are also Hyboria-specific adaptations of the AD&D rules: fear factor, luck points, and quick non-magical healing. All three AD&D modules (CB1, CB2, and RS1) contain a two-page setting overview of 'The Hyborian World', with sections on history and geography, people, technology, monsters, spellcasters, and magic items. (In 1985, TSR released a stand-alone (non-D&D) Conan Role-Playing Game boxed set based on the Marvel Superheroes RPG system.) In 1986, TSR published another AD&D module: RS1: Red Sonja Unconquered licensed from Red Sonja Corp., which is set on the Zaporoska River, and authored by Anne Gray McCready. CB2: Conan Against Darkness! takes place in Aquilonia. CB1: Conan Unchained! is set in the Vilayet Sea. In 1984, TSR released two AD&D Conan modules as licensed tie-ins with Conan the Destroyer (1984), the second Schwarzenegger film.

It was also run as a Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game, or MMRPG, a type of living campaign. In 2004, Blackmoor was again published by Arneson and Zeitgeist Games. The D&D Blackmoor supplement was published in 1975. Arneson created this setting for use in personal games with the Chainmail rules set in 1971, prior to Greyhawk and indeed Dungeons & Dragons itself. The original campaign setting played for D&D, created by Dave Arneson. Main article: Blackmoor (campaign setting) A number of the settings here are no longer published or officially licensed, though all have active fan bases. Theros and Ravnica originated in the Magic: The Gathering franchise, another property of WotC. These are official D&D campaign settings that have been published or licensed by TSR or WotC. Many campaign settings include standard sword and sorcery environments, while others borrow Asian, Central American, swashbuckling, horror and even space-travel themes. For those who wanted a pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and other publishers have created many settings in which D&D games can be based of these, the Forgotten Realms, an epic fantasy world, has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed settings. The flexibility of the Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D) game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings. JSTOR ( January 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).

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Dungeons and dragons world building guide