As of now, I don't have time to play much anymore. At some point, I'll finish complete drafts of my ideas and get someone to playtest them for me.
So here's where I try to bring some order to this page.
This is a low magic campaign that Tim has been running for years. One day I get an instant message that someone named gurgi wants to say something to me, and that's how I got involved. I do some layouts and editing and all that stuff. I'm not a team member, just sort of an assistant, if you will.
Goblins in Backara have some unique characteristics, not the least among them being the half-goblin (Skraag) and the offspring of two Skraag (Mortan). It is interesting that two half-goblins produce a different kind of half-goblin.
I'll probably end up creating a university or campus of some sort. The access to higher education in the Backara setting leads to some very interesting social issues.
One of the things that I am looking to do is to define a kingdom and setting that has a mystical setting without necessarily using magic to make it that way. Here's draft 1:
Khazair is an ancient kingdom that lies between two seas in the middle of a continent. The Eastern Sea spills out into the ocean and is fed by a warm water current. The Western Sea is really an extremely large lake fed by the snow melt of the mountains to the sea's west side.
Khazair is a country known for its salt. Salt is the translation of the Khazarii word used to describe a group of spices unique to the area. The word salt was chosen because the spices are mined, like salt, and not grown like most other spices. Each spice has a different color and once processed, has a gentle aroma.
In games that put you in contact with aliens, there is usually some sort of quick 'creature' generation that can be used to describe an alien that is different, but that the GM doesn't have to worry about later. The idea of this project to modify this idea to help certain D20 campaigns. The issue is this: Everyone is familiar with Elves, Dwarves, Humans, halfings, etc. etc. Although some of the best monsters are sentient, there are a lack of sentient monsters to deal with. And, if you want to create a campaign that is different, (meaning no elves, blah blah blah) it usually ends up with different looking creatures that are ciphers of ones that are already familiar to everyone.
The engine will come in two parts, the quick create system and the full create system. The quick create would be for random planar encounters or something like that. The full create system would be used for creating specific NPCs and possibly PC races. Obviously, the full create system will have more thought involved than simple dice rolling, but you never know what fate will create, huh?
If you have any ideas, feel free to write me. The file will be up sometime in May, when it is a link will be created.
If you're looking for a good low magic campaign, you should talk to gurgi over at Backara. For the absolute latest, check out the forums at mortality.net. For reasons that make more sense below, I go my the handle of salt mage. For now, I do a lot of editing, though I should get to designing a building for Freetown. I also need to get around to writing a guide to Backara's goblins. They're different, they're not what you think, especially the half breeds.
If you like a good high fantasy campaign, I am partial to the Iron Kingdoms. After all, a steamjack is about as high fantasy as you can get. They've got miniatures based on them as well, but minis have never been my thing.