Designing an old-school-ish fantasy setting

I'm working on an old-school-style fantasy setting for an old-school D&D campaign (Technically, I'm using one of those retroclones released in recent years. Labyrinth Lord, to be precise), and could use some feedback on what I've got so far.

Here's the pantheon so far (Had originally been designed {Except for a few of the deities} for a 3.5ed campaign, hence the 'greater', 'lesser' and all that):

'Core' Deities:
Intended for PC clerics:
General Deities:
Num, greater goddess of nature ; N (NOTE: Has druids, not clerics)
Nahkra, lesser goddess of chaos ; CN
Bikdá, lesser goddess of darkness ; LE
Kamca, demigod of strength, courage, and revelery; CG
Ralin Farwalker, intermediate god of luck and travelers ; CN
Ol, greater god of the Sun ; NG
Akkar, intermediate god of fire ; CN
Kazis, intermediate god of healing ; LG
Ugrad, intermediate god of war ; CN
Cudal, greater goddess of laws and justice ; LG
Anriz, intermediate goddess of the sky ; CG
Quistra, intermediate goddess of freedom ; CG
Irum, intermediate goddess of the sea ; CN
Peladim, greater goddess of knowledge, magic, and the Moon ; N
Maltæmus, greater goddess of creation and glory ; NG
Evhol, greater goddess of agriculture and fertility ; NG

Dalor Deities
Salm Cogspinner, greater god of Dalor, invention, and community ; CN

Felin Deities:
Sitsô, the (greater) trickster goddess of Felins, mirth, humour, wit and charm ; CN
Ablælho, demigod of family and community ; NG
Jaldæ–An–Kèmsa, intermediate goddess of protection and nobility ; LG

Dwarven Deities:
Simo Kul Kulur, greater god of Dwarves, the earth, wealth, and the forge ; LG
Olin, intermediate god of revelry, brewing, and festivals; CG
Cog, greater god of war and victory; LN

Elven Deities:
Minaro, greater god of Elves, magic, trees, and time; CG
Elssasha, intermediate goddess of knowledge, healing, and medicine; NG

NOT intended for PC clerics:
Oth, lesser god of lies ; CE
Beru, lesser goddess of lust and depravity ; CE
Athri, overgod of fate and the universe ; N
Kal Dexam, lesser god of greed; CE
Sa-Erbos, lesser goddess of cold, oblivion, and entropy ; CE
Ngok, lesser god of disease and deformity ; NE
Nuglush, intermediate god of death ; NE
Darsan, intermediate god of destruction ; CE

Evil Felin Deities:
Tôlçåira, lesser goddess of war, bloodlust, and rage ; CE

———

I guess I should describe a couple of the races mentioned above.
Felins - Catpeople, essentially. Tend to be Chaotic Neutral.

Dalor - Take a gnome. Now remove all of its hair, and I mean all of it. Squash the poor thing's nose so it's broad and flat. Make its eyes big. Give it a tinker gnome's personality. That's pretty much a dalor in a nutshell. Skin colours are dark indigo, dark scarlet, and dark green. Eyes range from golden-yellow to amber in colour. Also tend to be Chaotic Neutral.

Basically, when the mortal world was created, the gods made something called the 'Orb of Dreams', which allowed them to manifest directly into the mortal world, as opposed to merely manifesting an avatar. Long story short, the gods of evil eventually try to seize control of the Orb for themselves, and a war breaks out amongst the gods. Some of the neutral gods side with those of good, and others side with those of evil. Eventually, the gods of good and their allies decide that it would be better to destroy the Orb than let fall into evil's grasp. They shatter it, and the Shards (In this case the word's a proper noun) end up scattered around the world.

Any feedback?

edited 1st Jun '11 11:06:03 AM by Vorthon

Not sure what you're looking for in the way of feedback, since what you've given is pretty bare on the details, and not exactly telling us why the gods are in conflict. How, yes, but not exactly the why. It's just "oh we're evil, so we're going to do this" instead of a reason. I'm not even sure why the "evil gods" are working together. What do they get out of it? What do the good gods want from the world?

Then again, I don't necessarily think building off the deities is a good choice of focus. It might work good for stories, but players? May not work out.

edited 1st Jun '11 11:19:10 AM by blueharp

If you'd read the paragraph near the bottom, you'd find it mentioned the reason for the gods fighting being basically a struggle for control of the Orb.

And besides, Shards play a fairly big role in the setting.

Actually, I read that as a how, not a why. All you said was the evil gods tried to seize control, that's not a reason for why they did it.

Well, at its most basic, it was basically for power.

It may be worth having a bit more developed reasons. Depending on your players anyway.

That whole 'Shard' thing sounds like The Stormlight Archive, to me.

jussayin'

edited 1st Jun '11 5:38:08 PM by TheEarthSheep

Well, if my test-run campaign with them is any indication, they're pretty open-minded plotwise.

More a question of the players wondering about the gods (and whoever follows them) being evil, apparently for the sake of being evil.

But if you don't have players who worry about such things, it's not necessarily an issue.

edited 1st Jun '11 5:45:15 PM by blueharp

Well, the plot I've got worked out so far involves the party getting recruited by a representative of one of the gods to collect Shards.

I don't see the problem with Theomachia (War of the Gods). It is a perfectly standard setting. I use it myself and follow it with Thaumomachia (Mage War). Does that system have to be exactly and perfectly true? Leave yourself some wiggle room. The Players know these myths are preached by the well-known churches. How are they to know the exact truth themselves?

Do you want your players to collect the Shards and rebuild the Orb? Or is their mission to destroy each Shard Deader than Dead?

edited 7th Jun '11 6:42:37 AM by Trotzky

Well, they're supposed to keep the Shards from falling into the clutches of evil, although some of the Shards have unfortunate side-effects (Gradual insanity {of the Stark Raving Mad/delusional type}, paranoia, radical alignment changes, etc.). Basically, another war between the gods is brewing.

Side note: The reason Bikdá's listed among the gods suitable for PC clerics is that while she is evil, she's more like a slightly eviler version of Wee-Jas (i.e., lawful evil with neutral tendencies), as opposed to "All-Consuming Darkness". She ended up siding with the gods of god during the first war.

So it's a Horcrux hunt Quest set against the Background of World War Two In Space?

edited 7th Jun '11 6:28:37 PM by Trotzky

Sort of, except for the in space bit.

Technically, Recycled In Space means "recycled in a different setting", not necessarily in space. "Fantasy WWII" still counts as Recycled In Space.

And now you know.

Frodo wore the Ring around his neck and suffered. Harry Potter wore the Locket and suffered, Sam did not suffer from carrying the Ring.

In the movie, Sam did not wear the Ring nxt to his flesh, he put it in his pocket.

edited 7th Jun '11 6:36:10 PM by Trotzky

...Yeah, okay.

edited 7th Jun '11 7:01:49 PM by nrjxll

Actually, what Trotzky said isn't a non sequitur. I specifically stated some of the Shards would have potentially horrific drawbacks to them. So, he's pointing out that said drawbacks don't have to manifest themselves all the time. I think.

It looks like a cool fantasy setting.

And now it even has a necromancer.

But I'd say it's a good exercise to go back to the basics every now and then, particularly for adventure friendly worlds meant to serve as roleplaying settings.

For my part, I'm mostly partial to Heroic Fantasy in the Robert Howard style, meaning forgotten ages of our own world, rife with low-level magic, mythical monsters and half-human races, and a wide variety of bloodthirsty thugs career heroes to tangle with them. Politically, it's an age of city-states - minor dots of civilization among untamed wilderness full of ancient secrets. There's no great republic or grand evil empire... none worse than any other, at least. There's the occasional cosmopolitan hub ran by merchant princes, while seizing power by force is just as common as bloodline succession, if not even more so. All in all, it is an age undreamed of. And hither came... whoever I feel like writing at the time, from barbarian heroes to sly sorcerers and intrepid merchants, ambitious upstarts and rebellious warrior queens. Really, with a setting so basic yet so versatile, high-flying adventures practically write themselves.

edited 17th Aug '17 3:15:25 PM by indiana404