Setting the Setting - OD&D (3LBB) & AD&D2e - Part 1 - World Hooks

 

Although I'm sure there is material I could use for setting generation in OD&D era 3rd party content, or in Strategic Review / Dragon, the 2nd Edition World Builder's Guidebook is something I've had in my collection since it came out - often perused but seldom used.

My first step was to look at the 'World Hooks' table in Chapter 1 - Worlds and Planetology. I initially rolled, getting the 'Cultural' category, then the 'Seafaring' entry. I then decided to either roll or choose a 'hook' from each heading. For the category 'Climate or Landform,' to keep with 'Seafaring,' I chose 'Archipelago.' From 'Situation,' I rolled 'Religious.' From 'Historical,' I rolled 'Insurrection.' For 'Sites of Interest,' I chose 'Shrines.' The descriptions are thus:

Archipelago: No large continents exist, only countless islands. (Ursula K. Leguin's Earthsea is a good example.) Kingdoms could be limited to one island apiece, or multi-island trade empires could be prevalent.

Shrines: Lonely sites scattered across the land concentrate some kind of unusual power or quality. By visiting the shrines, the PCs prevent some horrible event from occurring, or gather the power necessary to unseat a despotic tyrant or warlord.

Seafaring: The culture is reliant on seafaring for trade, communication, fishing, and general survival. Usually, this characteristic is paired with another to create ancient seafarers, Arabian seafarers, and so on.

Religious: An unusual religious situation exists. Perhaps priests venerate the elements instead of anthropomorphic deities (Athas, the world of the DARK SUN setting, is a good example of this), or there may be a faith or religion that is so powerful that it dominates a region or the entire world.

Insurrection: The heroes stand against an oppressive government or conqueror, seeking the overthrow of the offensive person or persons. This can be a light-hearted Robin Hood campaign, or a deadly serious and grim battle for survival against overwhelmingly powerful opposition.

So, based on these Hooks, we are looking at setting composed of islands and island chains of various sizes, scattered across vast oceans, along the lines of One-Piece (which I've only seen the live action), or Pirates of Dark Water. In spite of this, I'll focus on a medium to large island as the Local Campaign Area, at least initially, as most of Original D&Ds material pertaining to aquatic adventuring doesn't appear until Supplement 2 - Blackmoor, other than 6 pages on Naval combat at the end of Volume 3 - Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.

Additionally, we have situation in which a single religion has forced itself on the Local Campaign Area, surrounding territories, and possibly the world. Temples to other religions have been destroyed, and no other religious practice is tolerated in civilized lands. Should they survive their initial adventures, the characters may find themselves caught up in a movement to break the yoke of this forced religion, perhaps by seeking out the long lost and most ancient shrines of the old gods to rekindle mortal connections to these faiths.



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