I live for the bizzare... hense why I run planescape.

As for 3.5 D&D... I get bored of running dungeon bashing... we had a really silly planescape game run on the fly at the student nationals when the actual GM didn't show up... that was just random. I've found such games tend toward chaos... hahaha.
I love it.

I'm currently working on a piss take game based around the film bubba hotep atm... if I ever finish it, it'll essentially involve geriatric adventurers trying to save their nursing home. Well, 3.5 DID give us the rules for aging... they only have themselves to blame! besides, I find the idea of a warrior with a gippy back and a senile mage funny.

I always really enjoyed Xcrawl for D20 actually, it made dungeon bashing so much more interesting.

Some people however enjoy mindless dungeon hacks... Worlds largest dungeon perhaps might appeal to the more hack and slash minded. I remember laughing my head off at the group attempting that last year, especially when their paladin who had the awesome uber holy sword that was about the only thing that could destroy the big bad fell in a pit and got er.. digested alive... sword, armor and all... oops

Traditional, but with a million things happening at once. I keep track of all details of a world, who is warring with who, where armies are, which countries have plagues, etc.

Both the campaign I play in and the one I DM are both very traditional. One is 3.5 and the 1st Ed but both very Faerun based. May go a little more farther afield with my 1st Ed DMing but as the players are all new to the game I thought a more accessable base was best to start with.

Just a quick strafe on this topic...more later....

I use the 3.5 rules.

My current campaign is set on a dismal world that was blasted by the Mage Wars centuries before.

The world is dumped on its side and has a night side and a day side, with a narrow band of twilight between...much like the Judges Guild module, Portals of Twilight, only the environment sucks a lot more.  The locals are prisoners of this world, forced to remain there if they linger too long...transformed by the low gravity and the magical forces of the world (known as the "Law of Change").

I use my own firearm rules........essentially, muskets and the like are slow to load but they have great potential for scoring criticals and they punch through armor very well (you get 1/4 of your armor, rounded up).  Essentially, you fire once and then drop your firearm and draw a blade.  The potential for very painful critical hits ensures that high level characters do not laugh at guns.

The society and setting is a blend of Dune, Vault of the Drow, Elric of Melnibone, Hawkmoon and Creatures of Darkness and Light (Zelazny)

The culture is Greco-Roman, with heavy elements from historic Near-Eastern paganism (as opposed to the un-historic pagans of typical fantasy, who act much like Catholic priests only more bald).  The unsavory practices of actual, historical pagans can be quite amusingly horrid and alien to modern minds, conditioned by the the light and rationalism engendered by 20 centuries of the Christian Era.  

There is a slave class, just like Roman society. The slaves do all the work, which keeps a true technological society from emerging...that, and the luxury of practical magic.

Pretty much everyone's hand is raised to defend against everyone else.  There are no goodguys.

Everyone in free society is an elf...only they are not immortal and they lack most of the sneaky benefits of being an elf.  Everyone (everyone) is a rogue.  After 3rd level it becomes a favored class.  Other races appear often in the campaign...always as slaves or Outlanders.  (As you might guess, the campaign's player character design notes run to 17 or so pages...with equally large files for religion, culture, politics, common gadgets and the actual campaign setting...gotta love email and attachments for running a campaign!)

There is a certain level of technology based upon the simple invention of the magicaly-powered wheel.  Thus, it is possible to have elevators, pumps, light trains, etc...with the limitation that they have not developed rubber, plastic, polymers or other substances that make these technologies really work well.  

Other pieces of technology are lying around...usually in the form of hideous weapons from the Lost Age.  There is always a debate over whether to use such things when they are found (and pay the soul-draining price they always exact) or destroy them.

The campaign orbits around magical gates and endless plots and counterplots between the great houses...usually over money, power and prestige.  Everyone fights over shares of OMM (Opera Mezzaluna Merchantile), the company that owns everything.

Because all of my players are adults, there are frequently un-PC themes in the campaign, such as drugs, insanity and casual cruelty.

One of my players has decided that his character has a strong desire to see (and possibly own?) a horse.

This looks like a lot more than a passing strafe on the topic, but it is actually just a light dusting of background.

Mark  

Badmike wrote:
What a cool world, Mark!  Sounds very Elric-like in theme.  Also like some of the Clark Ashton Smith locales like Averoigne. I dont' know where I would find the time to develop something like that, kudos!  I restrict myself to non-traditional locales on a mostly traditional world, you've gone and created an entirely non-traditional world.  
    The business angles are intriguing. Something I've always thought missing in a lot of fantasy roleplaying, the effects of inflation, supply vs demand, etc.  
 

Mike B.

his world with light one side and darkness the other - there is a moorcock novel with that theme. i have it at home, but just cannot recall the title right now. its not an elric or hawkmoon novel though (that i can remember) - its about 10 years since i read it.

great concept though - i like it!

Al

killjoy32 wrote:
his world with light one side and darkness the other - there is a moorcock novel with that theme. i have it at home, but just cannot recall the title right now. its not an elric or hawkmoon novel though (that i can remember) - its about 10 years since i read it.

great concept though - i like it!

Al

You may be thinking of Jack of Shadows, by Zelazny.

My campaign has a different concept than Zelazny's book, but the night and day sides are a common theme.

MShipley88 wrote:
You may be thinking of Jack of Shadows, by Zelazny.

My campaign has a different concept than Zelazny's book, but the night and day sides are a common theme.

here ya go, i knew i was right

"The Shores of Death" (1970)

http://www.novymir.com.au/terminalcafe/misc70s.html

its a good novel too.

Al

MShipley88 wrote:Sounds very much the same as my own campaign world.  

There is so much Moorcock that I have not read!

One difference...my campaign world is not set on an alternative Earth, but on an alternative Moon.

hehe

it was the on its axis thing - one side light and one side dark which turned the light on with regards to that book.

great concept though and could develop some very cool adventuring ideas.

Al

MShipley88 wrote:

The world is dumped on its side and has a night side and a day side, with a narrow band of twilight between...much like the Judges Guild module, Portals of Twilight, only the environment sucks a lot more.  The locals are prisoners of this world, forced to remain there if they linger too long...transformed by the low gravity and the magical forces of the world (known as the "Law of Change").

Definitely sounds interesting!!!

It reminds me also of one of the Star Trek novels (from the original series, not The Next Generation or later) but I can't remember which book it was in--I do remember it was an interesting idea for a planet......