Starting to campaign noodle

[jeregenest]

The River of the World, a D&D Campaign

What is known about the world: The continent of Cīna is dominated by the great River Yenisei, which flows a meandering path of over 6,000 miles through a circuitous route that includes three inland seas.

Where we start: A great plateau, Kamakura, high in a great mountain range, upon which five great rivers flow, coming together in a great lake. Each delta has a small city. The shores covered in rice paddies and other farmland, villages and other communities, interspersed with wilderness and wetlands. The lake itself is dotted with islands, many inhabited, and fisherfolk ply its waters for the bounty of freshwater life. A great citadel stands at the other side, over a large waterfall.

At the bottom is a trade city, a bustling metropolis that specializes in trade from the great river that meanders across the continent and the high lands. Transportation between the two levels is provided by a series of canals and locks and balloon transportation.

This bustling civilization is a set in interlocked communities held together by a series of symbiotic circles of powers. There are the be, corporations that maintain much of the secular power; a caste of aristocrats, the uji, who serve primarily as interlocutors with the spiritual and divine worlds and function as a judiciary branch; and there is the military. All three branches sit atop a bewildering set of local village based clans and other structures (depending on the race) and are driven by a merit-based exam system.

The most striking feature of this arrangement is its aesthetic quality this is a society moved by considerations of refinement and governed by a rule of taste. Subtle rules of aesthetic refinement are the major regulators of behavior. Negotiating these rules with skill is the primary challenge for an aristocrat desirous of the coveted goal of a good reputation. What constitutes good taste? That which was beautiful constitutes good taste.

This is a multiracial area with various races being seemlessly integrated into the power structure. (races to be determined by the players)

The Campaign: Starting play in Kamakura that players will have roots to the plateau and its myriad city life. Play will start during a period of uncertainness. During a major festival the stars disappeared, to reappear mostly unaltered a little latter. Since then travel from down the Yenisei has nearly halted, with what travel is coming up being strange and wondrous.

The first six levels or so will involve encounters around the lake of Kamakura and up each of the tributary rivers. From there game play will turn to exploring slowly down the river.

Comments

[drunkencarp.livejournal.com]

I assume (maybe foolishly?) you'll use the Character Builder, which begs the question whether options will be restricted. IE, if no one plays a swordmage, do swordmages exist? If no one plays a psionic-power-source character, does that power source exist?

On the off chance that you aren't using the CB, I can't recommend it enough.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine doing this game without character builder. My gaming skills have been made flabby by all the narrative games I play.

I wanted to take my chances, so everything was in limits. Which is why I got a Shardmind Psion (the starchild), a Wilden Runepriest/Shaman (the boy) and a Deva Paladin (peaseblossom)

Brainstorming-type questions

[drunkencarp.livejournal.com]

The boy is a man after my fiancee's heart.

1) All the PCs do some kind of magic when they fight. Does everyone do some kind of magic for everything?
2) Man, I thought I would be able to come up with more than one. Sorry, man. You know me.

Re: Brainstorming-type questions

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

I think so. I'm thinking magic is just part of life.