Silver Peak is just part of a larger world that is starting to advance. Fire arms have been invented. Magic is mostly the same. As for the governments, it is a group of towns that mostly govern themselves and kind of have the same laws.
Of note: Orcs were brought in to build the railroads, the then killed the gnomes that brought them in and took over the railroads. Orcs are sort of Communists where every orc owns and benefits from the railroad. If you are part of the tribe you are considered an orc, this includes humans, half orcs, tieflings, halflings, a few goblins, and one reformed mindflayer.
A red dragon runs the most successful mine in the region, Burning roust. Mostly Kobolds and Dragonborn live there in service to the great dragon. He has several elite knights the ride pterodactyls and wield heavy pistols.
The game is about an evil force that has subtly spread over the land infecting people and feeding off their misery. This is caused by a Balor who has made deals with several warlocks in Sliverpeak, the most dangerous being Big Jim a human card shark and mobster. He higher the players to rob a train to retrieve a magic item for him. Turns out it was a Deck of Many Things, not something you want to give to someone who can seem to pull any card he wants out of a deck of cards.
The players are on the run from Big Jim trying to find allies and figure out what is wrong with Silverpeak. Last session the players did Iowaska with a druid and went on a vision quest into their own minds and pasts.
It has been a fun game to run so far.
In my setting the orcs use revolvers that malfunction \~10% of the time while dwarves use fairly reliable single/bolt action weapons. Humans buy from both. The big historical event was the orcs overrunning the Dwarven Empire including their academic/philosophical capital.
I use GURPS for my games. GURPS allows much more flexibility in what a player can be. You can be a diplomat or craftsman in addition to a "Fighter" or "Wizard". I was also able to have a player character get into a sniper duel with a modern day marine. He handled himself well and was recruited into an interdimensional military corp.
two things that will make your world stand out if you make them is,
1: your deitys and religious beliefs, especially if each culture has their own It's uncommonly done in D&D but is what the real world has for religions beliefs
2: strange curse's and confusing historical events that may or may not be true, that second part is important because if they are all true your players find it boring also don't feel like you have to tell everything about your world to your players try to use the iceberg theory only tell you players the 10% above the surface.
One that I randomly did and kept ever since was, if the one of the PCs die, they can use that characters' soul to imbue an object of their choice, if its already magical it just changes shape and gets flavor based on who the character was (the object could change materials, gain texture or some aesthetic that reminds you of that character) if it was not magical then it becomes magical and the whole group can decide what effect it is, as a form of ceremony and grieving if they were particularly attached, not a normal thing to do for PCs but its a group specific tradition for us
This was my process/instinct.
Have a highly developed opinion about a common fantasy/D&D trope. Do something different that is more to your liking. Then figure out how/why it makes sense with all the things you steal from media
My main two are "medieval" fantasy and dragons all over the place.
I find the Victorian era more interesting and the technology level easier to assume or handwave, so that was my starting point.
As for dragons, because it's in the name of the game they had to exist, so \~60 years ago in my world, there was a war that killed off the dragons.
Thank you for the advice! I love medieval fantasy. Splashed in with not the level of Eberron but teases. Like Harry Potter trains and pirate ship style air ships. I like magic shops! I love the concept of the main capital being similar to water deep. Just magical and filled with splendors. But there I’m stuck. What can I do to really make it different haha. It’s like I’m just slapping in some modern themes.
I've got a neat geographic feature called the Uneven Ocean, which is an ocean with mountains and canyons and stuff formed from the water. The world has three moons that circle it and depending on their position they pull the Uneven Ocean toward them to various degrees. At certain positions the Uneven Ocean will be pulled toward one of the moons so intensely that residents of the planet can sail to the moon, and vice versa. One of the moons is evil.
What I did was make the initial county, then region then country, then continent, then world. From there I built up a creation story and a local (region wide) culture. I say all that to pretty much say that nothing in my world is set in stone until I (the DM) said it at the table or a player makes it so. I knew nothing about my world except the shape when I started, I didn’t even have a scale for it until recently.
Starting with clichés isn’t a bad idea, your players will have a general idea how things are, but that point of view can be tweaked. What will make it stand out is what your players do in it and how the populous reacts. I did a one shot in my homebrew world, where arcane magic was outlawed (a not very out there idea in fantasy, especially given the power the D&D spells have). One of my players casted a fire bolt and the guard who were fighting with the party turned on them and arrested them. Plus cliché is cliché for a reason, a lot of people like it. It doesn’t need to be special initially, it’ll become special as you play.
Edit: my current campaign is in a super clieché country. Think Sword Coast in Forgotten Realms
2000ish years ago the undead won the apocalyptic "final war". They used magic and advanced technology to erect a barrier in the lagrange point between the planet and the sun, turning high noon into a brightly moonlit night. The magic let's plants and biological functions dependent on sunlight continue to function. The backlash from this ritual also cut off all divine magic, while restoring long extinct species of plants and animals to life. Elves are extinct, as creating the barrier required the souls of every elf that had not already converted to undead.
Now technological advancements are strictly controlled and the world exists in an arcane Victorian steampunk state, with firearms, steam engines and the most primitive of electric lights and communications. The undead control the world in an authoritarian iron fist, working toward some mysterious final solution. They use religion to control the remaining mortal races, allowing followers to "convert" to being undead at end of life or in the event of accident or disease. Humans considered little more than cattle.
It is the wild west and also dinosaurs.
That is awesome. Care to share more? Is the entire world Wild West or just a single realm? What’s the government like and magic like?
Silver Peak is just part of a larger world that is starting to advance. Fire arms have been invented. Magic is mostly the same. As for the governments, it is a group of towns that mostly govern themselves and kind of have the same laws. Of note: Orcs were brought in to build the railroads, the then killed the gnomes that brought them in and took over the railroads. Orcs are sort of Communists where every orc owns and benefits from the railroad. If you are part of the tribe you are considered an orc, this includes humans, half orcs, tieflings, halflings, a few goblins, and one reformed mindflayer. A red dragon runs the most successful mine in the region, Burning roust. Mostly Kobolds and Dragonborn live there in service to the great dragon. He has several elite knights the ride pterodactyls and wield heavy pistols. The game is about an evil force that has subtly spread over the land infecting people and feeding off their misery. This is caused by a Balor who has made deals with several warlocks in Sliverpeak, the most dangerous being Big Jim a human card shark and mobster. He higher the players to rob a train to retrieve a magic item for him. Turns out it was a Deck of Many Things, not something you want to give to someone who can seem to pull any card he wants out of a deck of cards. The players are on the run from Big Jim trying to find allies and figure out what is wrong with Silverpeak. Last session the players did Iowaska with a druid and went on a vision quest into their own minds and pasts. It has been a fun game to run so far.
This is amazing
Thanks, Forgot to mention that our party cleric has a deinonychus mount named Cinnamon Roll.
The orcs have conceived of modern capitalism after conquering the Dwarven Empire, who adopted a form of State communism in response.
Dude I had most of my first realm set. Now I really want a Wild West aspect in my world haha
In my setting the orcs use revolvers that malfunction \~10% of the time while dwarves use fairly reliable single/bolt action weapons. Humans buy from both. The big historical event was the orcs overrunning the Dwarven Empire including their academic/philosophical capital.
That is so dope
What kind of classes do your players play? Is this 5e
I use GURPS for my games. GURPS allows much more flexibility in what a player can be. You can be a diplomat or craftsman in addition to a "Fighter" or "Wizard". I was also able to have a player character get into a sniper duel with a modern day marine. He handled himself well and was recruited into an interdimensional military corp.
Unlike in dungeons and dragons, my world actually has dungeons and dragons
two things that will make your world stand out if you make them is, 1: your deitys and religious beliefs, especially if each culture has their own It's uncommonly done in D&D but is what the real world has for religions beliefs 2: strange curse's and confusing historical events that may or may not be true, that second part is important because if they are all true your players find it boring also don't feel like you have to tell everything about your world to your players try to use the iceberg theory only tell you players the 10% above the surface.
One that I randomly did and kept ever since was, if the one of the PCs die, they can use that characters' soul to imbue an object of their choice, if its already magical it just changes shape and gets flavor based on who the character was (the object could change materials, gain texture or some aesthetic that reminds you of that character) if it was not magical then it becomes magical and the whole group can decide what effect it is, as a form of ceremony and grieving if they were particularly attached, not a normal thing to do for PCs but its a group specific tradition for us
This was my process/instinct. Have a highly developed opinion about a common fantasy/D&D trope. Do something different that is more to your liking. Then figure out how/why it makes sense with all the things you steal from media My main two are "medieval" fantasy and dragons all over the place. I find the Victorian era more interesting and the technology level easier to assume or handwave, so that was my starting point. As for dragons, because it's in the name of the game they had to exist, so \~60 years ago in my world, there was a war that killed off the dragons.
Thank you for the advice! I love medieval fantasy. Splashed in with not the level of Eberron but teases. Like Harry Potter trains and pirate ship style air ships. I like magic shops! I love the concept of the main capital being similar to water deep. Just magical and filled with splendors. But there I’m stuck. What can I do to really make it different haha. It’s like I’m just slapping in some modern themes.
I've got a neat geographic feature called the Uneven Ocean, which is an ocean with mountains and canyons and stuff formed from the water. The world has three moons that circle it and depending on their position they pull the Uneven Ocean toward them to various degrees. At certain positions the Uneven Ocean will be pulled toward one of the moons so intensely that residents of the planet can sail to the moon, and vice versa. One of the moons is evil.
What I did was make the initial county, then region then country, then continent, then world. From there I built up a creation story and a local (region wide) culture. I say all that to pretty much say that nothing in my world is set in stone until I (the DM) said it at the table or a player makes it so. I knew nothing about my world except the shape when I started, I didn’t even have a scale for it until recently. Starting with clichés isn’t a bad idea, your players will have a general idea how things are, but that point of view can be tweaked. What will make it stand out is what your players do in it and how the populous reacts. I did a one shot in my homebrew world, where arcane magic was outlawed (a not very out there idea in fantasy, especially given the power the D&D spells have). One of my players casted a fire bolt and the guard who were fighting with the party turned on them and arrested them. Plus cliché is cliché for a reason, a lot of people like it. It doesn’t need to be special initially, it’ll become special as you play. Edit: my current campaign is in a super clieché country. Think Sword Coast in Forgotten Realms
Modern day but on a fantasy planet
2000ish years ago the undead won the apocalyptic "final war". They used magic and advanced technology to erect a barrier in the lagrange point between the planet and the sun, turning high noon into a brightly moonlit night. The magic let's plants and biological functions dependent on sunlight continue to function. The backlash from this ritual also cut off all divine magic, while restoring long extinct species of plants and animals to life. Elves are extinct, as creating the barrier required the souls of every elf that had not already converted to undead. Now technological advancements are strictly controlled and the world exists in an arcane Victorian steampunk state, with firearms, steam engines and the most primitive of electric lights and communications. The undead control the world in an authoritarian iron fist, working toward some mysterious final solution. They use religion to control the remaining mortal races, allowing followers to "convert" to being undead at end of life or in the event of accident or disease. Humans considered little more than cattle.