Friday, July 31, 2020

Orbimond: Monvesia Redux

I have spent years converting, building, and expanding my homebrew Dungeons & Dragons setting for that game's "5th Edition."  Previously, I has played the setting using the Rules Cyclopedia version of D&D, later converting to the Pathfinder RPG.  Over the last couple of years, I have spent more time "ret-conning" the setting, and editing older posts as new 5th edition material has become available instead of writing new content.  I believe the time has come to refocus, simplify, and re-present the setting--particularly now that the ruleset of 5th edition has matured enough to accommodate many early aspects of the setting.

Just as much of the setting is going to change as it is going to remain the same.  While the high concepts of the setting will remain, how they represent and are represented by the game rules will be altered.  The Six Spheres, Temperaments, Taint, etc. will be present in more simplified manners.  Dragon Island, its subcontinents, and the other regions will be populated by the various races of the game in ways that were not as originally presented--and more careful planning will be put into spreading the variety of races and the availability of class options available to them.

Many elements will be subject to removal, simplification, and revision.  The relationship between Temperaments and Alignments will be revisited, and a model that allows both may even be explored.  The re-classification of creatures will be abandoned, and the intentional omission of particular creatures will be revised.  If a game element exists in core D&D, then it will have a home in Orbimond without extraordinary conditions or mechanical modifications.

The presentation of the setting will follow the model of the existing campaign books: the Guildmaster's Guide to RavnicaEberron: Rising from the Last War, and Mythic Odysseys of Theros.  I guess we could call this digital reference the Temperamental Guide to Orbimond.  Posts will be longer, and more inclusive of available options--no more single posts for each race, instead expect posts like "Races of Raviq" or "Class Options in Henjal."  Any existing post with content that remains relevant will be copied and re-posted with new set dressing as necessary.

This new presentation will have its own tags.  #Monvesia will be mostly retired, considered the proprietary tag for the old posts--though it may emerge from time to time for posts regarding the region of Prace where adventures in the setting began.  #Orbimond, which had been used for the rare post regarding the mortal plane as a whole, will become the proprietary tag for the new posts.  Therefore, there will be some overlap between the two.

Furthermore, to emphasize the "Campaign Guidebook" intent of the new posts, chapter tags will also be used, based on the common chapters seen in the official campaign books. These will likely include:
  1. Welcome to Orbimond as #TGOWelcome 
  2. Character Creations as #TGOCharacters
  3. The unique setting element chapter as #TGOSpheres
  4. The physical setting chapter as #TGOGazetteer
  5. Creating Orbimond Adventures as #TGOAdventures
  6. Treasures as #TGOTreasures
  7. Friends and Foes as #TGOCreatures
This way, anything commonly presented together as a single chapter will be available though a unifying tag.

Monvesia has evolved from a starting zone for player characters into he complex, global Orbimond campaign setting.  Many early projects (Dray, Nefret, Xahaca) became absorbed into it, finding natural fits into gaps in the original setup.  Having built much of the early content from the bottom up, I look forward to exploring the setting from the top down.

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