New D&D Setting: Life Under the Wheel

At the post-Christmas drinks gathering, I was encouraged to consider running another D&D campaign - one of our new players really enjoys fantasy but doesn't have the same interest in Firefly. And, I should say, I have had some thoughts along those lines in my thoughts of late.

However, if I were to run another campaign I think I would want to do so in a homebrew setting - largely because I'd almost certainly want to run the game using 5e, because Eberron is not currently supported under 5e (at least, not properly), and because I'm not a fan of the Forgotten Realms.

Which, rather conveniently, gives me something to write about here. For want of a better name, the campaign setting is titled "Life Under the Wheel", where "The Wheel" refers to a dominant landmark in the setting.

Basic Premises

So, to start the setting, here are a few of the basics. I've actually mentioned a couple of these before, but it's probably just as well to repeat them here.

Points of Light

This will be a "points of light" setting, as defined during the development of 4e: the world will be largely unexplored and dangerous, with only a few pockets of civilisation in amongst the wilds - the so called points of light.

The World Malevolent

By contrast, those parts of the world that are wilderness (or dungeon) will not merely be untamed and wild, they will be actively hostile to life. Adventurers in the wild must be careful, because the environs they explore and ancient and angry; they will harm you if they can.

Human-centric

Although all PCs races will be available, the main adventuring areas will be distinctly human in character and population. Strangers are treated with suspicion, and non-humans more so (because they're just that bit stranger still). Not outright hostility, I should say - just suspicion.

No gods, but...

D&D settings have typically struggled with the juxtaposition of a semi-Classical polytheistic setting and drawing heavily from history and from horror films that are both strongly flavoured by Christianity. This makes for some real oddities where things just don't quite 'fit' in a lot of cases. The one major D&D setting that deviates from this, Dark Sun, simply has no gods at all, with a knock-on effect that there aren't really any established religions.

The "Under the Wheel" setting takes a different view again, in that there are no named gods, and yet there is a single dominant religion, called simply "The Tradition". This is actually a patchwork of local rituals and practices with significant variation and little actual authority (and no real commandments), but which virtually everyone pays at least lip service to - if for no other reason that it's so loose you can't meaningfully rebel against it.

The setting will also have Clerics but these are not associated with The Tradition at all. Instead, Clerics are initiates in one of several mystery cults - groups that purport to some greater knowledge and understanding. Their power comes simply from their training in the mysteries of their cult.

I haven't decided about Paladins as yet.

And that's enough to get started with, I think...