The Background Story of 'The Unlit World'

Background

Last Updated:

My Thoughts

Just around the time when 3rd Edition (3E) was released, we had started an insanely high-powered 2nd Edition AD&D campaign fondly known as 'Insano'. Starting the campaign at 2 million XP to spend on the character (and increasing the amount when characters died - so that new characters wouldn't be unduly penalized for being 'new'), we ended up at around 2.7 million XP when the campaign was stopped due to an ill-advised jaunt to the Shadow Plane as well as the release of 3rd Edition.

After a few abortive attempts at campaigns in 3rd Edition - one Viking-inspired campaign, a couple where we started out at 3rd level or so, and a few forgettable more, my regular gaming group decided to pull out (almost) all the stops. (I wasn't there at the time, so I can actually claim innocence to the character creation method used - I didn't come up with it. I wasn't originally slated to be the DM either, but sometimes things just doesn't go the way you think they would.)

The result? A campaign we nicknamed 'Insano Jr'. Junior, because 3E is a system much, much younger than 2nd Edition. Insano, because of the character creation system used. And The Unlit World as a campaign world, because I decided that 'wouldn't it be cool if Dark won, for once'? The players didn't have much to say, as I was the DM and could do pretty much what I damned well pleased .

With a little luck, this'll be a longer-running campaign than the other campaigns we've tried. It'll be 'shared world' as well, so DM burnout shouldn't become an issue.

Character Generation

Stat Generation:
Roll 4d6. Drop the lowest, roll eight scores, pick the six best. You can roll three sets maximum, and pick the best set of six. This does tend toward very good scores, but does not create characters with all 18s or anything like that.

Hit Points and Rerolls:
First level has maximum hit points. Subsequent levels are rolled for, and noted on the character sheet. 2 000 gp can be spent to reroll a particular hit point roll during character generation, and the better of the two rolls is then used. We always note what we rolled for hit points on the various levels, as some magical effects and spells can allow us to reroll that die at a later date.

Racial Considerations:
No race - monster or standard - is automatically barred. The exceptions to this are dwarves (but not duergar or derro) and elves (forest, wild and so on, but not drow). The Light races - particularly the dwarves and the elves - are nigh extinct, and the Dark races rule the world together with a smattering of evil humans. Half-Fiend and Half-Dragons are restricted as for now, and the race chosen has any particular powerful abilities stripped - Spell and/or Power Resistance cannot be possessed by any PC race.

Magical Items and Equipment:
A newly generated PC has 50 000 gp worth of equipment, magical or otherwise. 2 000 gp buys the character a hit point reroll.

Experience Level:
A starting character is placed at level 10. If the character is of a particularly powerful race or type of monster, the character will be penalized in levels. For instance, githzerai are penalized one level when starting, making a githzerai a 9th level character instead of 10th level. Powerful races are not penalized in the amount of money available for magical items or other equipment.

If a character dies or is otherwise "unplayable", the accumulated experience point total is kept - though, obviously, no experience points are forthcoming from the scenario that that particular character died on.

DM Considerations:
As this is a 'shared world', the DM also has a character that he'll play when he gets the chance. Each session in a particular scenario is worth 1 000 xp for the DM's character. If the DM's character levels up, he gets 5 000 gp worth of magical equipment. This is completely independent of the activities of the other players.

The Unlit World

The Unlit World is so named for its most obvious feature - the dimmed light from this Prime Material Plane's sun. In fact, races that normally are bothered by normal sunlight, only receive either half penalties while they are in the sunlight, or reduces their penalties by one - whichever is higher. So therefore, duergar are at -1 while on the surface world, while drow are at -0.

Light and Dark

As is common on the Prime Material Planes, the various races allied themselves with either the Light or the Dark. As is not so common, there was very little Neutral ground - you were either with the Light, or with the Dark. There were no neutrals.

In the end, the forces of Light and Dark clashed in a titanic struggle for ultimate dominance. The sky wept blood, and deadly vapours oozed from the ground. It was a terrible fight.

The Struggle

130 years ago, the Dark finally and almost completely defeated the Light. As such, the Dark races (and the humans that sided with Evil, of course) are fairly smug about the entire situation. The Light races - Elves and Dwarves - are almost legendary while the gnomes and halflings of The Unlit World are few and far between, embittered by their lot in life.

However, the Inquisitors of the Dark suspect that there might be one last, powerful stronghold of Light left in the world. The victory was not quite as complete as the rhethorics of the clerics of the Dark pantheon would like one to believe.

Signs are that after more than a century in seclusion, the forces of Light are again venturing out to bring Light to the world. Lately, there have been rumours of furtive thievery of truesilver - Mithril - by allies of Light. Why? Nobody knows.

Current Situation

The Light is in a desperate situation. Almost entirely defeated little more than a century ago, they have only recently built their strength up to a level where they can even think about trying to do something about the situation.

The Dark is no longer as unified as they supposedly were during The Great Struggle. Factions of Dark war against others, as they argue (and assassinate, and war, and lay curses) to what is True Dark, and how it shall be implemented.

Some, like the alien illithids, are even now advancing plans to make sure that it is their idea of True Dark that will be prevalent in the end. Our 'heroes', on the other hand, are for now merely trying to survive in their new stronghold, the Citadel of Mirrors. Fate, it seems, is not without humour.