Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Alec walks us through the different Noman Empires in his world. Noss Farii is an imperial empire dominated by a restrictive theocracy. Hyrend is an atheist society where anything goes when it comes to magic, even necromancy. Brevtensa is a plutocratic wild west society where money is king and a plethora of different faiths thrive alongside each other. Outside of the three empires are the States of Cambella composed of numerous smaller nations that are trying to compete against the larger countries. The Noman Empires have beholders, demon lords, ancient vampires, and solidified magic. Come for the Zer'Sun! Stay for the Drothal!

Garrett talked with me about his setting, Pyrim. Instead of being a whole world, Pyrim is a single city built on top of a dwarven mining town. A civil war was stopped in the town by four brave heroes, but it cost one of the heroes her life. To consecrate her resting place the remaining three heroes placed three blessings on Pyrim. Water always flows, crops always flourish, and no one can die in combat within the city walls. This garden of Eden has attracted people from across the region to settle in Pyrim and take advantage of its gifts. Recently the town was taken over by a cult that broke the blessing of combat and now control the water supply. With an iron grip on water the rest of the town is enslaved by the threat of dying of thirst. Garrett also does an excellent job of weaving in conspiracies that involve PC relatives and friends.

Thesi tells us about his world of Saared, an archipelago surrounded by an impenetrable wall of water shooting up into the sky. Saared is ruled by the Terrace, a floating city that monopolizes all magic within the islands. The people of Saared have lost a strong connection to the gods, so they must rely on themselves to defeat the Terrace. A rebel organization known as Cloudfall opposes the Terrace from a moving fortress ship, the Hoard. The PCs in Thesi's world are close to defeating the Terrace which also open up the water walls around the archipelago. Soon Saared will be joining a wider world and involving themselves in an even greater conflict with the void tears that afflict the rest of the realm.If you're interested in being on the show or known someone who might be check out www.gocorral.com/sts to learn more!

Hayden and Carson joined me for a dual interview on their world called Egress. Egress is the name of the world and the god of the world. The world has a single continent that slopes downward from the sea towards a funnel in the middle. All creatures feel the Longing which pulls them into the funnel when they get to past their prime. The Longing is a defense mechanism against Chaos demons from outside of Egress that wish to destroy the last bastion of creation in the multiverse. The demons upset the balance between the good and evil sides of Egress, reintroducing malice and cruelty to the good side.The races of Egress have very well thought out positions within the world with flavor that is similar to standard fantasy tropes but creative and independent at the same time. On Egress all power comes from gold which is essentially solid magic. Large piles of gold spawn a powerful dragon which can offer protection, power, and magic items to those who bring it more gold. It's through this process that the characters of Egress level up, but only gold can be used this way, not other treasure.Hayden and Carson DM the world together with a rough split of the DMing responsibilities between each other. They use a few different DMing tools to help out. During the call we talked about a creator who has been very helpful, Giffyglyph, whose material can be found here: https://www.giffyglyph.com/

This week's guest is Sara. She's running her campaign using Savage Worlds in the world of Tamriel of the famous Elder Scrolls games. Sara's game is set between the events of Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall and Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. The game takes place in Western Cyrodil near the heart of the Empire. A bandit king in the hills has found the Poppy Crown, an artifact of Sheogorath that has driven him mad with megalomania in exchange for the ability to control people's minds. Unfortunately, long-term exposure to the crown has some side-effects.Featured in this episode is everyone's favorite vampire of Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Janus Hassildor the Count of Skingrad. Additionally, Sara and I discussed setting selection and how to choose what's best for the story you and your players want to tell.Sara has her own podcast as well on the many elements that are important to storytelling. Check out the Storyteller Conclave at this link: https://storyteller-conclave.blubrry.net/

This week I interviewed Kris about his campaign world, Veris. The world is ruled by a powerful king who made a deal with Lolth. A mythal was installed in the world that hid Veris from the gods' sight and prevented anyone from advancing in power beyond level 5. All except for the powerful king who claims control over the mighty Consequencers. However, the mythal that binds people to low levels is now becoming undone at the same time that the colonization of Interminus, a suspiciously USA-like continent, is taking place.Kris is also putting together a campaign setting book for his world that should be releasing soon!Here is a map of Veris

This week I interviewed Darin about his campaign world of Aellorah. Aellorah's cosmology has only seven celestial bodies and no stars besides the central sun. Four planets orbit the sun and two moons orbit the main planet of Aellorah. There are seven goddesses for each of the celestial bodies and each of the planets has seven races on them for each of the goddesses. Aellorah, the main planet, has races based off of mammals like the typical D&D world. As there are seven goddesses the number seven is an important concept throughout Aellorah with seven parts to each day, seven days per week, seven weeks per month, and seven months per year. There is also an outside force that seeks to destroy the harmony of Aellorah, the evil god of the Void. This demonic entity sends goblins and orcs to destroy the peaceful life of Aellorah, using the evil races as vessels for its infernal power.If you're interested in being a guest on the show, the first step is filling out the Google Form at this link: https://forms.gle/U11TbxtAReHFKbiVAIf you'd like to join the Discord server for Setting the Stage, you can do that with this link: https://discord.gg/Nngc2pQV6C

I talked with Bob about his campaign, the World below Azbymn. Azbymn is the realm of the gods and the sun god, Menora, is currently on her death bed. As Menora slips deeper into her sickness, the world is likewise affected by an illness that brings insanity and death. To stop it, the PCs must find a weapon capable of killing their own patron deity to free the world from her curse.Bob uses the Faerun map for his campaign, but with his own names, locations of interest, and countries superimposed on it. Bob has also dabbled in paid DMing which comes with experience in a lot of 5th edition's most popular modules as well as the Guilds of Ravnica setting. During our talks we touched on a lot of different topics, with a quick sprint through how to approach racism in your game.If you're interested in being a guest on the show, the first step is filling out the Google Form at this link: https://forms.gle/U11TbxtAReHFKbiVAIf you'd like to join the Discord server for Setting the Stage, you can do that with this link: https://discord.gg/Nngc2pQV6C