I've been role-play gaming since 1982. I've been designing my own adventures and campaign settings for most of that time. For the non-gamers in the audience: an adventure is a story in which those playing the game take on the role of the protagonists; a campaign setting is the overall universe or "world" wherein the adventures take place. For Example Star Wars IV: A New Hope was an adventure; while the campaign setting is "the Star Wars universe."
As gamers we develop preferences toward the types of stories we like to tell or take part in, just like we prefer certain types of movies and books. Eventually anyone that aspires to running his or her own game will begin to develop certain story traits that will serve as the foundation of a campaign setting.
Generally I prefer High Fantasy settings, but I aslo enjoy quirky psuedo-science technology, pulp story elements and cinematic action. So from time to time I go looking for something new. Often times the Roleplaying Gaming Industry doesn't keep up with my personal taste in games, movies or literature.
Three years ago, I was lamenting a general dearth of available campaign settings to my liking. I shared my sadness and displeasure with my wife, who in here pragmatic fashion, stated simply "Then, make your own." I spent an hour in the local bookstore and came away with three highly enjoyable, yet disparate paperback novels: Earth Hive (Aliens Book One), by Steve Perry; Neuromancer, by William Gibson and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
Last night I started a new D&D 4th Edition campaign. The campaign setting was crafted from these three novels. Over the next several months, I'll post here about the process, path and decisions I made. I will show how these very diferent books came together to create a fun fantasy setting, very diferent from everything else available on the market.
I could not have bought this setting, but, I was able to buy the books that inspired the setting.
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