Playing In The Sandbox (Recruitment, Info, And OOC)

So, yeah, I'll be running a game with loose mechanics (more on that in a later post) in a 4th ed D&D setting of my own making (though it's mostly just modified Grey Hawk aka the Default setting). I'm looking for 4-5 players and currently I have nothing particular in mind  for how I'll choose who gets in if more than five people sign up (probably not going to just be first people to show up, so don't get discourage if you see people have already said they want in unless I say they're in. Btw, Bronymous and Xel are in. =P). The game will be more of a sandbox type of game than a linear story. (For those that don't know, sandbox means the players are encouraged to choose to go in any direction and should not feel compelled to follow the apparent plot if they feel like they would like to do something else.)

This post will mostly be setting info. The next will be mechanics and character info. The third will be reserved for stuff I might think up later.

Note: I will probably continue to edit this over time as I come up with more stuff.

Setting Info

Short version: Feudal Japan in the desert with dinosaurs.

Long version (keep in mind this is just common information the average person might know):

General world stuff: Mostly the same as the default 4th ed setting, some monsters/divine stuff might be different. Most notably there is no objective good and evil. Not for people. Not for gods. Not even for undead, devils, and demons. Things are what they are and have what goals they have and it's up to each person to decide what's "good" and "evil" for themselves. As such, characters don't have to be your classic good heroes. Even things like Paladins are defined by what their chosen diety's goals are and how they feel they should further them.
Other notable differences from the default setting (again, this is just stuff the average person would know):
Lolth wants to be the sole god of all fae creatures instead of her default desire to kill all of them aside from the drow.

A list of Deities

Spoiler:

Land specific info:
Currently the land the game takes place in does not have a name The land's name is Chiheisen. It's my tradition for this setting to allow the players to come up with the name of the land their game is taking place in. I haven't named the world either. Which is fine because there isn't really enough travel for people to even know the names of other lands outside of their own.

The land is largely a big desert with less than a dozen large cities. I might later put up a map (when I actually figure out how many cities I want and what their names are and where they are and then it'll still be a crappy Paint picture that hopefully someone will make a better version of because oh man do I have no artistic talent). It's mostly ruled by feudal lords of the big cities. Their setup will be most of what I cover here. There are also ninja clans and verdant places heavily influenced by the feywild (commonly referred to as greater oasi) but, a lot of that stuff is not really covered by common knowledge, outside of people knowing they exit and knowing the names and some vague details about the larger ninja clans. There are also small clans of wandering Kobolds that more or less occupy the same niche in society that Jawas do in Star Wars (no they don't have sandcrawlers...probably).

In place of a map here is a vague geographical description: A lot of desert. On the entire known eastern reaches of the land there is an almost impassible mountain range. The northern edge is sea/ocean and the land along it is rather tropical. On the far west, more sea/ocean. To the south.... more desert stretching farther than anyone is known to have gone. It is unknown what is past the edges of the land. There must be something as their almost every race has cultural myths and legends about old empires and kingdoms and the like but, nobody has any idea where these might be.

Edit: Map (of the low quality unreliable variety)

Spoiler:

The feudal society is more or less a caste system (it actually doesn't mirror feudal japan, the japanese influence is mostly just in architecture and honorifics, here's a link for that btw since we'll be using them: Honorifics ). I wouldn't say the caste particularly strict or loose. It's possible to rise or fall but, it's not a simple matter. It's also divided into Greater and Lesser races (more on that in a bit). The warrior/noble class is at the top, followed by officially recognized artisans, followed by merchants and unrecognized artisans, followed by peasants and entertainers, and at the bottom slaves. Keep in mind it's not totally strict and it's possible for someone to personally be of a higher caste than their profession would indicate. Lesser races cannot legally rise higher than merchant caste, own land or magical weapons/armor (depending on city this varies anywhere from only caring about weapons/armor to strong magical items of any sort to even any magical items at all) and certain tools and items (generally things used by recognized artisans and such), or own slaves. Greater races cannot legally be slaves. Slaves cannot legally own anything and there are very few laws regarding their treatment (varying from city to city). Lesser races and slaves can "own" things they otherwise legally can't by being lent them from someone who can. While it's legal for this to be established by word of mouth alone, it requires officials to ask the proposed owner if this is in fact the case, often while keeping the suspected criminal in custody. It's more common for lenders to give the lendee a legal script with their signature and official stamp stating their permission to be using the lent thing(s). These are often referred to as "gift scripts" and sometimes basically involve renting the items in question from the owner. Don't enjoy paying rent on your apartment? Imagine paying rent on your pants or magic sword.

Greater Races

Spoiler:

Lesser Races

Spoiler:

Some notes on the races: I've replaced Deva with Aasimar and as far as I'm concerned Revenants don't exist because of their close ties with one specific deity (the Raven Queen) and she already has a more interesting race of people for her own anyway (the Shadar-kai). Also Aasimar are virtually non-existant in this land.
Drow and Shades are very rare outside of a certain ninja clan (more on that later). Also, technically Shade is more of a template than it is specifically a race and becoming one is the only likely way to rise from lesser race to greater.
Changelings are rare as well, though not as much as drow and shades, and similarly mostly comprise a clan of ninja.
Vryloka also are pretty rare (about the same as drow) and partially compose a clan of ninja.
You may note that Warforged weren't listed. This is because they are of mythical status in this land and referred to in legends as "Guardians". So, in case you were still wondering, no, they aren't a playable race. They would certainly qualify as a greater race (and as far as most people are concerned, nobility) if one showed up.
Minotaur aren't very common and are most populous in one city in the south east, in a volcanic area.
Elves, half-elves, and gnomes are the only of the fae races, aside from Drow, that even come close to being common, the others (Eladrin, Wilden, Hamadryad, Pixie, and Satyr) are all exceedingly rare to the point that most people probably haven't even heard of them.

The major deities of the cities and those who fall under their rule are: Bahamut, Tiamat, Avandra, Ioun, Asmodeus, Bane, Kord, Moradin, and Pelor.

The major ninja clans (who all don't have names yet and are currently refered to by what race they're mostly composed of):
Black Lotus (Thri-Kreen): Probably the biggest and most well known. Widely considered by everyone to be an honorable choice to hire.
Mirage (Changelings): Probably the next biggest and known for stealing the Shardmind's holy land, the Flowstone, an area of animate stone where legend holds the Shaedmind race was birthed, that constantly moves and Shardminds would go on pilgrimage to visit every few years before the Changelings somehow stole it and occluded it from them and made their home after having wandered for generations with no place to call a home of their own. Incredibly dishonorable for any Shardmind to hire.
Empty Sound (Shades and Drow): Fairly honorable choice to hire for most.
Crimson Talon (Varied): Known for their brutality. Not really a good choice is subtlety is required but, they are cheaper and willing take contracts on groups (within reasonable limits. A trade caravan, sure. An entire long established family, probably not.).
Broken Chains (Vryloka, Human, and assorted lesser races): Dishonorable for just about everyone to hire, not that they're typically hired by the greater races at all. About a hundred years ago some humans made some sort of deal with vampires and gained some of their powers, giving them and the rest of the enslaved populous the strength to overthrown the rulers of a relatively weakly controlled city on the far west of the land. They then turned on the vampires who sought to rule them in exchange for their gift, claiming the city as their own and establishing it as a place free of slavery.

Notes on hiring ninja: It's not illegal in and of itself. The legality is all about who is getting whom killed. Typically it is legal to have rivals of equal or lower caste assassinated. If discovered it is always somewhat dishonorable but, depending on which clan was hired by a member of which race of which family of which class, etc, it can range from no more than a slap on the wrist to being diminished to a lower caste. The result and method also play a part in determining legality and dishonor. Dishonor can range from personal to your entire family. Shardmind hiring the Changeling clan risk severe reproductions (though only at the hands of their own race since the other races don't personally care) as does anyone hiring the Vryloka clan. Note that personally murdering someone is almost always more dishonorable and illegal than hiring an assassin.

Rough history notes
It's rumored that long long ago the land wasn't a desert and was mostly flat plains and some forests. The most common races supposedly being Humans and Dwarves (who still are pretty populous) and Shifters (who are not so much). When the land started turning barren there were great wars. At some point during these the Githzerai arrived and introduced psionics to those besides the Shardmind. With this new power, most of those who were members of are allied with what are now the greater races conquered the land. This took hundreds of years and a lot of the history of those times and before was lost.

The cities still war with each other but, not with anywhere near the severity of the old wars as the old wars were as much about conquest as they were survival, where more modern battles are more about honor and the personal power of noble families.

Notes on flora and fauna
As would be predicted, a lot of the surviving non-monstrous flora and fauna are things you'd expect to find in a desert. Additionally agricultural druids employed by the cities help with farming (a lot of rice) and some amount of actual trees. Still wood is pretty rare and expensive. To adapt wizards and artificers invented a wood-like substance known as wud that is mostly made from sand (though the more expensive kinds include actual sawdust in their crafting) that has commonly replaced the mostly unavailable wood for construction of everything from buildings, to tools, to paper. It is a bit more course and brittle than real wood and for some reason still manages to burn about as easily.

While there are still some cows and pigs and a surprising amount of horses (you can thank the noble class for that), it's far more common to see birds and lizards. Large and small, including dinosaurs that fortunately (?) have inexplicably adapted to having so little water. And even though we now know a lot of dinos probably had feathers, I think the scaled kind are cool, so we have both. Here, have this complimentary lampshade. So, it's just as common to see people riding a large lizard or some kind of raptor as horses and using (again) large lizards as beasts of burden is more common than oxen. Even as far as what people eat, it's most reptile or poultry when it comes to meat, or sand eels (note: not sand eels but, magically altered eels of all types to be able to live in the desert climate) which are still technically fish. Unless you live near the ocean and then it's plenty of fish. Some fish does get exported to non-coastal cities of course but, it's pretty expensive to get fish that isn't dried and salted anywhere far from the coast as it requires magic to be kept fresh.

More stuff goes here? Probably. What are the chances I didn't forget something important?

See, knew I forgot something.

There are various schools of warrior monks. The monks can fall anywhere on the caste system, typically depending on their rank. The greater and lesser races are typically trained separately, with the greater races receiving the better instructors and equipment. A small portion of the lesser rank pupils are recruited from talented slaves and usually made free when they reach young adulthood or after a few years, generally long enough to make sure they are dedicated and not just grabbing an opportunity to be freed from slavery and run off. Monk school names usually reference animals or plants, commonly paired with a color or type of gemstone.

Old rules, go ahead and ignore most of this stuff. Though you may want to read the section on Skill Challenges.

Spoiler:

Reserved in case I need it. Past me, you're a genius!

Right, this is much simpler. Putting the new LL style sheets here:

Cyrtanthus

Masaru Bastos

Skaimos Terai

Tethe

Toku Kuromori

Tsukino Maihime

Leveling System

Spoiler:

Bumping up to the front page.

So... guys? Anyone have anything they want to do? Go to sleep? Other?

Well I'm pretty sure Masaru might pass out soon.

In other news: the internet situation has been brought under control, so I'm not going to be cut off.

I kind of want to let the others decide what they want to do though.

So, are those of you in the coed section wearing anything? The cultural norm is to not (to the point where those in their respective gender sections are just assumed by me to be naked) but, not absolutely everyone confirms to those norms.

Well it's not like Masaru has anything else to wear.

Cyrta is not wearing anything.

posting so I get updates for this, why doesn't that happen automatically when a thread splits?

and nope.

Anyone have anything they want to do or should I continue on?

I think Masaru's content just sitting down and drinking with Tethe at the moment.

Right, I come bearing some bad news...

Ramsus is leaving the forum. He's tired of all that's happening between him and the mods, namely his multiple bans plus his current one, and decided he's not going to put up with it anymore. He might come back if they apologize, but that's not looking to be very likely. I wish there was really more I could say or do on the matter, but there really isn't...

Looks like the sandbox isn't going to be around any longer...

What wonderful news I come back to. Anyway, he got banned again? Why and what caused it?