Setting Builds

So recently watched the extended version of LOTR on DVD which I found a big improvement and some of the extra features that gave me some ideas. Normally I plunder more mythology and national epic literature but watching LOTR while writing my BX clone made my head spin a bit. Just visuals of films can inspire a monster or a scene.

A few things I considered are just next time I revise my large scale maps I will add a bunch of wonders made by humans or natural or magical. Probably more cities need a wonder or some feature to make them extraordinary like a great temple or monument.

Orcs worshipping siege weapon shrines I want more

Plus that one elf can be used to make multiple orcs apparently
Incompetent and mad rulers helping the spread of evil by accident is a great opportunity
A war somewhere every year, occasionally one effects party homeland
Wonders, monuments and tourist attractions for visitors and even villages need something
Everywhere you go there is a local monster or animal famous for menacing people

Considered how I might use my war blog posts to run a game where war is raging and all the dungeons are to make shortcut trips or find important weapons or information. 

My best campaign of several years in the late 80s using RQ3 with only divine magic had a landmass of countries each imperilled by a different evil cult, monster and evil god which players would have to hunt. Plus telling the big evil from local petty evil was tricky and distracting. I used Pendragon too as the game time happened over years so children and how long your horse lived mattered.

I also looked at making something for campaign planning. With some symbols for point-based flowcharts. Probably more on this later.

My cave folk game has a few months and Id want to get some playtests in of higher-level play for my homebrew. I expect play will feature exploring, killing increasingly huge beasts, making tribal and supernatural alliances. Players have had hints of things beyond them in power to avoid before. At some point this setting I might merge with Xor or my fantasy settings set chronologically later too.

Have a post on my campaign pointcrawl flow chart boxes soon...