A Fantasy Campaign and a Map

Anytime you want to run a Savage Worlds game, you are faced with an overwhelming amount of choices: 1930s pulp, horror, sword and sorcery, sword and planet, sci-fi. The list goes on and on. I have run Deadlands, sword-and -sorcery (Legends of Steel), sword-and-planet (Mars), post-apocalyptic dark fantasy (The Day after Ragnarok), tomahawk-and-sorcery (Totems of the Dead), and, most recently, Hell-On-Earth.

I have yet to run a traditional fantasy campaign in Savage Worlds. I played Dungeons and Dragons for more years than I care to admit and loved almost every minute of it. Since becoming a Savage, though, I have not run a fantasy campaign. My first Savage Worlds campaign was Sundered Skies, a setting with elves, dwarves, and orcs. It was a post-apocalyptic setting as well, with skyships and black powder weapons. That particular campaign was six years ago!

I wanted to run a fantasy campaign with a more quasi-European, quasi-Middle Ages feel . I looked at Hell Frost and Shaintar, but I wanted to run a home-brew. I had all sorts of notes and musings about the campaign that I wanted. I really wanted a blank slate to start with.

For me, one of the first things I look at when designing a campaign is the world map and the starting area for the party.

I found this wonderful map online:

http://eotbeholder.deviantart.com/art/The-Only-Fantasy-World-Map-245738593

While tongue-in-cheek, it actually contains a wealth of imaginative nations and regions. I liked the political geography of the map. I could see how the various states and cultures were linked to each other by trade. I could see how and why animosity existed between the various states and cultures.

The physical geography also appealed to me. The numerous bays, inlets, and islands meant that ships and seafaring was important. The interior of the continent was large, and covered by mountains and forests that helped define some of the nations and cultures.

The map offered plenty of areas to adventure in. Simple phrases like “Clockwork Tsars”, “Hellfire Imperium”, and “The Crawling City” were enough to base an entire campaign around. The blank areas of the map held promises of ancient crypts and dark dungeons.

So, with the map decided on, I had to pick a region for the party to start in. To the north, there is a region called the Blasted Hellmouth. That sounded very promising. Near the Blasted Hellmouth was the a land labeled “Goblin Hordes”, and to the north was an area called the Witchlands. Amongst these three areas there was a triangle or gore of land that would be the campaign’s starting area.

The campaign would start somewhere north of the Blasted Hellmouth. And, like all great campaigns, it would start in a tavern.