If you're unfamiliar, Hot Springs island is a small island in the Sword Fight Islands archipelago. The island is described in two books, A Field Guide to Hot Springs Island and The Dark of Hot Springs Island. The field guide is an actual in game artifact, written as a journal, to give players. The information contained it may true or false, as it's an actual adventurer's journal. The Dark of Hot Springs Island is the gm's guide. Various factions vie for power on the island and it's a black powder hex crawl. Both books are system neutral, incredibly well written, and gorgeous. I will probably do a proper review of the books one of these days.
My goal is to run a 5e game that starts with the characters finding themselves stuck on the island and exploring it. Since they can't stay there forever, I've already been thinking about how to expand the world (which will also expand character creation and such). I'm picturing an exploration style game (which could also include piracy, diplomacy, and many other things depending on what the players want). I decided to take another pre-existing setting and build from it. While it's not going to copy everything (especially the multiverse of it's setting), a lot of my groundwork is going to be taken from Planeshift: Ixalan. Here are some notes of what I'm building.
Nations/Factions/Locations
- Torrezon - this world's analog for Europe. about conquered about the Church of Dusk. Other religions are illegal and considered heresy. The nobility of nation are all vampires. Most are MtG Ixalan-esque vampires (meaning they are long lived, can walk in the light, drink blood, and are tied to negative energy, but aren't actually undead), though there are more classic vampires in the hierarchy too. The general population is mainly made up of humans, though there are dwarves, gnomes, and halflings too. Elves are very rare and when the expansion of the Church began, most of the elves on the continent chose to flee to other planes. In the campaign, this is all mostly background. Adventures will not take place there. However, it still will affect the game as vampires will be playable characters and the Legion of Dusk will be common place. These vampire soldiers and paladins are conquistadors and privateers.
- Brazen Coalition - this hodgepodge of nominally allied group is made up of pirates and traders from various races (human, orc, dwarf, gnome, and halfling). When the Church began to conquer the Torrezon, these folks made the choice to flee and take to the sees. Along the way other races of folks have joined up, such as the island harpies and the goblins of Ixalan. While not always welcome, they have embassy and small settlements spread across the world and in some major metropolitan areas. They have a hidden island sanctuary (think Tortuga from original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy).
- High and Dry - this floating city is made up of barges, ships, hulls, and other floating things lashed together. It's a mostly lawless city frequented by the more piratical side of the Coalition.
- Flotsam - a village in the vein of High and Dry (described in Pirate Bundle by Limitless Adventures), this will be an important early homebase for pc's
- Ixalan - This majestic and primal island is often referred to as the center of the world. It is ruled by the Empire of the Sun (an Aztec-like civilization). They worship the Three-Fold Sun and have a symbiotic relationship with the numerous dinosaurs that dwell on the island. Other nature spirits are venerated and the nation's pantheon was once much larger, but several of hte dark gods were eventually cast out. There are many ancient ruins on the island and it is considered a treasure trove by unscrupulous individuals. The other major faction on the continent is the River Heralds. These nature-loving merfolk-kin roam the rivers and protect the secrets of the continent. Additionally, parts of the jungle are cursed and inhabited by savage tribesman that worship the cast Empire gods (which is my way of placing the material from Jungle Tomb of the Mummy Bride into the setting).
- The Snout of Ogmar - This small island is technically a part of Ixalan. It is primarily known for it's village of tortles (mainly including to use all of the fun from The Tortle Package).
- The Swordfish Islands (mentioned above)
- While I don't have a name for them yet, I will be creating a series of islands based off of Filipino legends as presented in The Islands & Aswangs.
I think this could be an amazing and magical adventure campaign. I really hope I can get a group together to run it for one of these days.
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