What is your campaign setting?

The damage values are fairly similar to non-tech, and it's assumed that while (for example) a laser might do damage, it's not on its own incredibly lethal unless it's fires repeatedly (e.g. it has safety limiters). Same with kinetic (your bullets are really just advanced musket rounds). There are bows and swords and whatnot. There are also rules for "archaic" weapons and armor, with some negative I can't remember off the top of my head, but they're made of wood or bone or stone, meaning they're not as tough as their metal counterparts. It's actually incredibly balanced.

No actually, I kinda just make it up as we go since I'm stitching together a few different Hard Covers to create a big epic campaign. We just finished The Lost Mines of Phandelver last month after 180 hours (finishing at 7th level) and we've been on a hiatus while I adapted the City of Triboar from Storm King's Thunder to be my "hub" town and a "Prologue" to the Red Hand of Doom where I've already seeded a toooon of narrative hooks that lead my players to that city... After 3 weeks of working on Triboar I ended up with over 73 NPCs spread out over 31 different locations. (<a href="https://i.imgur.com/KyBB9tw.png)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/KyBB9tw.png)</a> I also decided that Triboar was going to be the place where I introduce the players to the major villains of the Red Hand of Doom, the Hobgoblins. To do so I decided that Azar Kull, the Great Khan has sent a veteran company full of vaunted war heroes from the Wyrmsmoke Clan Wars (think like a Goblinoid "Easy Company") for some R&amp;R in Triboar. This is also them establishing roots in their NEXT battlefield (after they conquer the Elsir Vale they'll move onto this region). Here's where I'll be using your City Market map and a few others the Hobgoblins will even host some boxing matches on that arena! In any case I hope my players spend a significant amount of time here cause once they head to the Eslir Vale and RHD's countdown clock begins

bewby

Thanks for the positive feedback. We will target the wizard lair next weekend. The timing could not be more perfect - and I will let you know how it went!

Eckart Bindewald

Hmm, that's an interesting response but you're right I did conflate genre, era and location. I should have phrased it better or split it up into different questions. Great answer though. Red Hand of Doom! That's a campaign I haven't seen or heard about in years. Sounds like you're really testing your players mettle to get them there. Are you making up the world as you play or do you have your own world mapped out?

Cze and Peku

Everything besides sci-fi and then you go and quote a sci-fi show!

Cze and Peku

Hey Eckhart, hopefully the new wizard lair wasn't too late in being useful for your wizard tower adventure. I really like how your campaigns are non-combat focused. The best parts of roleplay for me is being able to think outside the box and present the sort of lateral puzzles you'd never be able to in a video game. The flattery/insults play is such a great example of that.

Cze and Peku

Hey Douglas, did the new flying library comes in handy for this campaign? Hopefully airship will win a poll one of these days, I'd really enjoy making that. I miss those old FF airships. This was my favourite ship theme: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPyr4i0tgs" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPyr4i0tgs</a>

Cze and Peku

How does Starfinder work when it comes to low-tech encounters, like medieval? I guess there are some rules for keeping the balance in check with your op sci-fi weapons?

Cze and Peku

I don't think I've ever actually played Planescape although I remember reading through the campaign books as a kid. Do you just play a different plane/setting each week Jeff?

Cze and Peku

Thanks Ryan! I really need to get around to ordering the print version of Yoon-Suin. Been really enjoying reading Noism's blog recently, lots of awesome ideas.

Cze and Peku

Yoon-Suin

Ryan Heffelfinger

We're a big mash-up of Planescape / Sigil (the city of portals to everywhere) and the worlds of Magic the Gathering (Ravnica, Kaladesh, Ixalan). So I'm not sure really how that qualifies :)

Jeff Ginger

Just played through some of the wizard tower rooms that you designed this evening. So yes, this would correspond to medieval Europe. Spiced up the gameplay with "ghosts" that could not be fought in a traditional sense, but only persuaded to let the adventurers go by means of flattery or insults, or uplifting thoughts. The many portal-like artifacts in those rooms had effects of switching player identities and they had to keep playing until everyone got their original personality back. We had a great time. Thank you for the great art inspiring this type of game play!

Eckart Bindewald

Starfinder here. I can range anywhere from Fantasy to Mediveal to Modern, to Cyberpunk, and then, obviously, SciFi.

In the words of River Song - "Now now... Spoilers..." (But I did select everything besides Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk, so that should give you a hint)

BananaDealer

I feel like this is a two or three part question rather than a single question, but limiting me to answers that don't really answer all those questions effectively. It sounds to me like you want to know what GENRE my setting is (high or low-fantasy/scifi/steampunk/western/etc), what ERA my setting is in (Future/Modern/Industrial Era/Medieval/etc), and WHERE my campaign is CURRENTLY taking place (Desert/East Asian/Pacific Island/African/Rainforest, etc.) So it'll just be easier for me to say: I run a game that's about to head into Red Hand of Doom in an era i like to describe as being on the cusp of the industrial revolution... but to get to the Elsir Vale (a lush valley surrounded by mountains and badlands) my players will have to choose to either sail through the sea and thus visiting a Pacific Island influenced location on the way or taking a Caravan through the desert and visiting a Middle Eastern influenced one.

bewby

I’ve just begun an epic steampunk thing, where there are no oceans and the continents float in the air. Mega excited about my characters getting their first airship (a la Final Fantasy)

Douglas