Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

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MrHemlocks
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Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by MrHemlocks »

I have chosen two:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/robert-conley/ ... 86F3210DD4

OR

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/89944/Blackmarsh

I would like to make up a campaign setting but that would require months, maybe years, to complete so I will be picking one of the above. Any suggestions?
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Ravenheart87 »

The latter. More system neutral, more useful stuff for playing - like hex maps and adventure places. The former is more like an overview of Conley's Wilderlands with some Swords & Wizardry classes, monsters, magic items, spells.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by ragboy »

All of them. Every. Campaign. Setting...

Seriously though, you can't go wrong with Conely. Even Goodman has published some of his stuff:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/57374/Points-of-Light
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/62961/Poi ... unrise-Sea


Also note that there are free versions of several of Conely's releases on his website: http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/
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Colin
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Colin »

Blackmarsh. Goodman's Points of Light even contains another section of the Blackmarsh setting if you find you want to expand it.

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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by MrHemlocks »

So, Points of Light, is still for sale on this site. Are the prices for the print versions or PDFs? I thought the print versions were long gone.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by beermotor »

Make your own. Using Villages I and II, Castles I and II (all JG products, cheap PDFs) and Grain into Gold (PDF). I started dicing up a random village this morning. It's super awesome. And remember the DCC tenet, start small. So really all you need is a starting village with a couple shops. Of course, randomized it could end up being larger than that... the one I was doing this morning, Buckdawn (strange name!), is about pop 280, with 2 government buildings (Temple/Church and a town meeting hall), and a couple shops (notable: wagon shop and horse trader), surrounded by some thick earthen walls (probably overgrown with grasses, but good visibility of the surrounding area) and some wooden pallisade gates. Pretty awesome. Was planning on fiddling with the heraldry stuff and the castles part to site a small keep inside or nearby the village, to have a local feudal lord.

The cool thing is, the dice will really take you on a trip if you let them.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Colin »

It's also worth pointing out that Blackmarsh is FREE to download. So, if you want to read the whole thing you can, legally, free of charge, in pdf format.

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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Colin »

MrHemlocks wrote:So, Points of Light, is still for sale on this site. Are the prices for the print versions or PDFs? I thought the print versions were long gone.
No, they're not still for sale on this site; there's no "add to cart" button for either PoL book. They can still be found from other online retailers, however; I just saw two copies of PoL I (the only one you really want) on Ebay, f'rinstance.

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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by cthulhudarren »

beermotor wrote:Make your own. Using Villages I and II, Castles I and II (all JG products, cheap PDFs) and Grain into Gold (PDF). I started dicing up a random village this morning. It's super awesome. And remember the DCC tenet, start small. So really all you need is a starting village with a couple shops. Of course, randomized it could end up being larger than that... the one I was doing this morning, Buckdawn (strange name!), is about pop 280, with 2 government buildings (Temple/Church and a town meeting hall), and a couple shops (notable: wagon shop and horse trader), surrounded by some thick earthen walls (probably overgrown with grasses, but good visibility of the surrounding area) and some wooden pallisade gates. Pretty awesome. Was planning on fiddling with the heraldry stuff and the castles part to site a small keep inside or nearby the village, to have a local feudal lord.

The cool thing is, the dice will really take you on a trip if you let them.
This can be very fun for a gm.... If you have the time.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by beermotor »

Yeah I've thought about trying to write a script for it, heh... wonder if someone has already done it.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Flexi »

I agree with beermotor that it can be good to randomly gen up a setting. One can work with the players to create one too as a group, as in the collabarative camapaign creation in LoA. I can use Vornheim, Ultimate Toolbox, Cityworks or the 2nd ed World Builder to generate a setting or city if I need to.
Majestic Wilderlands and Blackmarsh are going to be on my next lulu order to check out soon. If an updated gazetteer came out for DCC (and I think this has been mentioned as a possiblity on these forums before?) I would snap it up in a trice.

The only published setting book I have used with DCC so far has been Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel which I picked up on ebay out of curiosity. I was very pleasantly surprised by that and took an instant liking to it to use as a decadent city of sin. It was ideal for the PCs to use as a major city centre to return to, rather than a smaller borderlands outpost or hamlet. At the time I was thinking of something along the lines of Lankhmar or Kratas for Earthdawn, Punjar came along and fitted in just right.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by beermotor »

Hmm, the RPGNow reviewer complained that it was kind of short for $5. It's on eBay for $7... thinking about picking it up in print. If it was like $2 -$3 as a pdf, might be tempted...
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by MrHemlocks »

The more I think about it the more I am now geared to making my own campaign setting. I could get some local geographic maps and start making a campaign setting using them. Like an alternate earth 'thing'.

For example I could use a map like this, http://www.ohiodnr.com/Portals/10/pdf/L ... tation.pdf . I could center my campaign in the South East Ohio valley region. Has hills, forest, lakes and different seasons. I could even place village Hirot in the Doom of the Savage Kings where present day Athens, Ohio is at. These maps are great to use!
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Ravenheart87 »

MrHemlocks wrote:For example I could use a map like this, http://www.ohiodnr.com/Portals/10/pdf/L ... tation.pdf . I could center my campaign in the South East Ohio valley region. Has hills, forest, lakes and different seasons. I could even place village Hirot in the Doom of the Savage Kings where present day Athens, Ohio is at. These maps are great to use!
Nice! I was planning to use some ice age Europe maps and base my campaign in the mediterranean, but I dropped that idea. The campaign I'm going to start soon will take place on a continent made of terraforming platforms. Now all I have to do is finish my S&W, AD&D and previous DCC campaigns and convert the non-DCC PCs to DCC PCs.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by smathis »

Of the two in the OP, I'd agree with those who recommended Blackmarsh. I own them both and agree with the comments that have already been made.

As for other possibilities for DCC campaign settings, there are tons of options out there. My fallback is my own hack of the Wilderlands setting (of which Conley presents his own in Majestic Wilderlands). I have the Necromancer games boxed set and it fills most every need I could ever have with a fantasy rpg setting.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by tovokas »

As much as I'm a a 'big map' fan, I think DCC is particularly suited for the concept of starting very local with only white space and legend in every direction. Then you can steal like crazy from every resource imaginable as the map gets filled in as the campaign develops. :)
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Aplus »

tovokas wrote:As much as I'm a a 'big map' fan, I think DCC is particularly suited for the concept of starting very local with only white space and legend in every direction. Then you can steal like crazy from every resource imaginable as the map gets filled in as the campaign develops. :)
I agree one billion percent. Making your own setting is fun and rewarding, and doesn't need to be a lot of work. I wrote this thing on the very topic the other day. You may find it interesting.

http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot. ... pdate.html
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by MrHemlocks »

Aplus wrote:
tovokas wrote:As much as I'm a a 'big map' fan, I think DCC is particularly suited for the concept of starting very local with only white space and legend in every direction. Then you can steal like crazy from every resource imaginable as the map gets filled in as the campaign develops. :)
I agree one billion percent. Making your own setting is fun and rewarding, and doesn't need to be a lot of work. I wrote this thing on the very topic the other day. You may find it interesting.

http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot. ... pdate.html
So, you prefer to us computer generated graphics more so than hand drawn? I like the look and feel of hand drawn maps...look so much more personal)

I have picked BLACKMARSH as my campaign setting. I will add a hidden valley, off map, that will include my own ideas and players likings.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Aplus »

MrHemlocks wrote:
Aplus wrote:
tovokas wrote:As much as I'm a a 'big map' fan, I think DCC is particularly suited for the concept of starting very local with only white space and legend in every direction. Then you can steal like crazy from every resource imaginable as the map gets filled in as the campaign develops. :)
I agree one billion percent. Making your own setting is fun and rewarding, and doesn't need to be a lot of work. I wrote this thing on the very topic the other day. You may find it interesting.

http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot. ... pdate.html
So, you prefer to us computer generated graphics more so than hand drawn? I like the look and feel of hand drawn maps...look so much more personal)

I have picked BLACKMARSH as my campaign setting. I will add a hidden valley, off map, that will include my own ideas and players likings.
I don't really follow. If you're referring to the map in my post, I drew that, but maybe you're talking about something else? At any rate, I think you'll enjoy Black marsh, and there's lots of room to add personal touches.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by cthulhudarren »

Aplus wrote:
tovokas wrote:As much as I'm a a 'big map' fan, I think DCC is particularly suited for the concept of starting very local with only white space and legend in every direction. Then you can steal like crazy from every resource imaginable as the map gets filled in as the campaign develops. :)
I agree one billion percent. Making your own setting is fun and rewarding, and doesn't need to be a lot of work. I wrote this thing on the very topic the other day. You may find it interesting.

http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot. ... pdate.html
I love the map! Is there some way to get those terrain/city graphics as IMGs or jpgs to use for our own?
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by jonchappellnow2 »

I've been using the world of Mineria from Divine Right. It's very swords and sorcery / old school to me, and has my absolute favorite map of all time:

http://guildofthedungeoncrawlers.blogsp ... paign.html
http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/vie ... 60&t=42303
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23/divine-right

There are tons of detailed histories available through the Dragon magazine.
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Re: Which campaign setting would be best for DCC?

Post by Aplus »

cthulhudarren wrote:
Aplus wrote:
tovokas wrote:As much as I'm a a 'big map' fan, I think DCC is particularly suited for the concept of starting very local with only white space and legend in every direction. Then you can steal like crazy from every resource imaginable as the map gets filled in as the campaign develops. :)
I agree one billion percent. Making your own setting is fun and rewarding, and doesn't need to be a lot of work. I wrote this thing on the very topic the other day. You may find it interesting.

http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot. ... pdate.html
I love the map! Is there some way to get those terrain/city graphics as IMGs or jpgs to use for our own?
I suppose you could just save the image and then crop out any pieces you'd like to reuse.
Check out my DCC Resources Page for cool stuff!
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