I've been toying with a new way of writing campaign ideas down that is fun and idiosyncratic.
Start with the name of a god or faction, and describe its members. Then name how they are troubled by another group in a way that lets you flow into the next paragraph.
So, for example:
The Faction, who are a shifty group of people that terrible at coming up with names. They are insanely jealous of ...
The Appellomancers, wizards who have the power to rename things and transform the thing at a fundamental level. They are in an intellectual feud with...
...and so on. if you have a neat quirk or characteristic that didn't fit this format, add it as a footnote to your document.
I did an extended brainstorming session in this fashion, and found that it does a great job of getting you into a creative flow, and forces the creation of a more cohesive world.
My first experimental setting created in this manner I call The Far Horizon: an arctic tundra and mountain range that has recently been flooded by settlers and refugees.
Here's what I came up with on my first attempt at using this method:
The Far Horizon
The Stone Tribe are hunters of the woolly centipede and dream blissfully on its venom caring little for the sophisticated ways of the downland men they are often preyed upon by...
The Silken Court: fat, face-dancing merchants who claim that the gods themselves bless the Court with sumptuaries of ages past, which they sell for food, fuel, and coin in their emporia in many settlements. In reality, they are slavers who trade with the tusked, Tapir-faced demons of Narraka. They compete heavily with...
The Steam Men, short, squat dwarves encased in clockwork armour (1). They dig, smelt, and forge the metals of the hinterland in advanced and highly mechanized camps. They dare to use the Benighted Road, ancient tunnels that criss-cross the region, overrun by slow mutants and shadow crabs. To a one they are cultists of the...
The Great Rune, an ancient, sentient codex that postulates endlessly the mechanical processes of the cosmos, revealing technologies as it goes. It's instructions to the Steam Men are a laboratory to test its hypotheses. A far less popular deity than...
Jandoor the Firethane, a poet who cast himself into the lava vents of the Boiling Crag and came back a being of living magma to warm his hometown. His obsidian husk still stands elated at the heart of Torchwind and some who seek courage at his feet report hearing muffled chanting from within. His cult of self-sacrifice is reviled by...
The Pine Maiden, an ancient dryad who is the high Druid - and a lesser nature goddess of the region. Her pine tree and her arms of fire scarred from an ancient inferno (2). She demands burnt offerings of woodland plants, livestock, and criminals to clear the forests of "meaningless tinder". Her cult holds much power among the wood-fort steadings, but the folks of the plains prefer...
Okalu the Ice-Buddha: a revered elder of the giants who heard the wooly tapirs of the Western Tundra. He has sat on moving and meditation for 2,000 years, totally self-sufficient. He wakes only seldom to answer the questions of petitioners - usually those regarding matters of mental health. Access to him is the reason comely maidens are made Giants' brides once a decade and the easternmost tribes are now half-giants. Stuck between these extremes is...
Eagon The Laughing King, an ancestor of the royal line of Anthos - a nation to the South that is the source of much of the trade that enriches Frosthold and Ultima Thule. (And to a lesser, extent Verge and Torchwind.)
He was a king who would not die, no matter how many assassins hoped to end his tyranny, for he had been granted a wish for immortality. The first 60 years of his reign were an Age of Terror, and then time succeeded where the 17 sainted assassins failed: watching his beloved Jester Tribulo (3) and his grandchildren age and suffer, his wives die of disease, and an entire line of servants end, overcame him with remorse that cured his madness.
He remade Anthos to a kingdom of justice and humane laws before setting out with a Jester and a Knight (4) to accept his reward in Hell. In a final irony, hell refuse to let him in and be given the mercy of the ultimate torment. So, he holds Court in a demiplane at the edge of hell, taking in worthy souls to offer a chance at penance. Eagon's cult is a barrier against...
The Baku Cults, worshipers of the tusk-faced demons who lurk on the edge of the dream planes. While evil, these demons primarily feast on other denizens of the netherworld that attacked mortals to their dreams. The Baku encourage indulgence, indolence, and casual non-violent cruelty to ensure nightmares are commonplace. They are most vexed by...
Yavimoue, a wandering wizard who is deeply faithful to the teachings of Eagon and the word of Okalu. He has dedicated himself to bringing hope to the people of the Far Horizon. He has proven vexing to the Baku Cults, the Silken Court, and most of all...
The Hoar Wyrm, a cruel old linnorm that becomes active during the worst storms. It delights in bringing ruin to families by devouring one member and leaving the others to mourn and lament. He often enters into campaigns of impoverishing farmsteads by consuming livestock first before devouring the patriarch. He was equally brutal to the Western giant clans. He goes almost anywhere, save...
The Citadel of Thraille, an ancient obsidian ruin whose origins are lost to time. The Benighted Road navigates far around it. Time and space act oddly around it, and doors open to other realities in the depths of its catacombs. Mad insights can be had by those who dare to read it's hieroglyphs, making it an irresistible attraction to...
The Lexicographers of Navek, an order of magicians were dedicated to decrypting the Language of Creation. Aside from exploring the Citadel of Thraille, they often interview the Hoar Wyrm. When not engaging in the pursuit of lore, they otherwise rarely leave their tower in Frosthold - instead roaming the astral planes by way of a cosmic door at the Apex of their tower. They are experts on matters arcane according to the locals, but not without dispute...
The Guild of Alchemists, Necromancers, Chirurgeons, and Mountebanks is a small organization of dabblers in magic (allegedly) who do not wish to live the lives of acetics in the Tower of Navek. They are interested in practical - and profitable - uses of magic (5). They lack theoretical understanding, but are far more active and pro-social. They make a fortune helping out in...
The Emberyl Mines, a vast complex of minds that run near lava vents. The Masked Miners dig up stones that store vital energies and can be used as medicine, or powdered to enrich crops. Different varieties of Emberyl require research. Has veins deplete, the tunnels often attract strange ethereal terrors requiring a camp of armed men supplied with enchanted weapons to defend operations. They often recruit from...
The Destroyers, an order of mercenaries who control trade in men-at-arms. They are headquartered in an ancient Obsidian tower at the heart of the lowlands. They also arranged to collect bounties on...
Ettercaps, the spider hurting dark Forest folk of the Eastern wood. These cruel and territorial brutes have made settling in and around the forests very difficult. The silk of their spider herds is most prized by...
The Singing Monks of Hoarfrost Abbey. While they are forbidden to use words, these monks chant wordless songs of praise as they weave the silk of giant spiders (6) into lovely textiles. The monks are not wholly human: they're too long of limb, and too grim in features. They do not share the tenants of their faith with anyone, but it is known that they train endlessly with many different weapons, and to fight even bare-fisted in preparation for some great oncoming storm.
1. The suits of the Steam Men are so critical to their survival that they consume more coal than food.
2. In honor of the pine Maiden, The Druids of the region paint their arms and their foreheads and soot.
3. Jesters and assassins are sacred in the cult of Eagon. Eagon's four jesters variously found a way to mitigate his tyranny, help him find humanity, balance his laws to better serve Justice, and comforted him on his way to Hell.
4. All festivals to Eagon appoint a blessed fool who suffers no penalty for the truth they tell that day.
5. Guildsman wear a tin pendant covered in sigils, most of which are meaningless, but a few cause the pin to glow with a dim light.
6. The elite members of the destroyers where carapace and silk armor made from the spoils of their conflict with the Ettercaps
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