Introducing the Silverlands

In the lands of the East are mighty kingdoms and Empires as old as Time. But the western kingdoms are much younger, for they lie on the border of the most unforgiving wilderness upon the world. It is called the Savage West by easterners, Kingdom and Wilderness alike. But to the peoples of Seoland and Malrene, and Hesurea and the Dells, the wild lands beyond their borders are lands of limitless opportunity, where one might decide his own destiny upon the keen edge of a blade. Here savage tribes of Orcs fight amongst themselves, seeking ever to unite as they did in the elder days, to sweep aside all the kingdoms of men in a red tide of war. Here mad wizards delve into forbidden secrets in impossible towers which destroy the sanity of the weak-minded. Here there are riches to be found and kingdoms to be forged, as much as there are ill ends to be met. The men of the west call these forbidding reaches the Silverlands.

The centerpiece of reader-usable content here at Ardwulf's Gaming Table is going to be a "traditional" campaign called Silverlands (which has no relation to my previous aborted project of that name.) Silverlands is going to be a "structured sandbox." It will be up to the players to decide where to go and what to do, but seeds to help them along, with absolutely no actual prodding from the DM, will be built into the design, using traditional tools like randomly-generated rumors, and a set of rival adventuring bands and potential nemeses.

Silverlands is not going to be setting-heavy. I intend for the entire world background to be able to fit on one two-sided sheet of paper, suitable for use as a handout, to provide a DM with maximum flexibility. The Silverlands themselves - the wilderness in which the campaign will be set - will be mapped out exhaustively at 6 miles to the hex, with placement for major adventure sites, bases of operations, and miscellaneous places of interest. My model for this is going to be the Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

UPDATE 3/11: Silverlands is going to be developed for D&D 4th Edition, not D&D3.x as previously planned. The design is at such an early stage that this makes absolutely no difference. I'll still be posting my progress, although I've been made aware of a couple of resources, which I'll point to in due time, that will be of great assistance.

However, I will be running 3.5/Pathfinder as well, using one of the Paizo Adventure Paths - I haven't decided which one yet. I'll be reporting on this as well.