Second World
Occasionally a person steps around the corner of an alley¸ finds a hole in the back of their closet¸ takes a shortcut down a wooded road at night¸ or simply turns their head at just the right moment to watch a falling leaf and then finds himself elsewhere. These people are called Exiles; they step or turn out of our world¸ the world of crowded freeways and glittering convenience stores and into the Second World¸ a place of magic¸ mystery¸ danger¸ and more than a little bit of terror. There are two worlds you see¸ separated by a roiling gulf of chaos called the Forge. The Second World Campaign Sourcebook details a setting that's part high fantasy and part modern dark fantasy. The dual-world setting is common enough to count as a sub-genre of science-fiction¸ fantasy¸ and horror. Core examples of the genre are works such as The Talisman and Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub; Weaveworld¸ Imagica¸ The Great and Secret Show and others by Clive Barker; the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (to a lesser extent) by Stephen R. Donaldson; the Chroncles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis; H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamquest for Unknown Kadath; and numerous other short stories¸ television series¸ and comic books show at least some influence from the genre. The dual-world genre has the advantage of being both familiar and alien¸ mundane and fantastic. You may know the terrain; you may know some of the history or at least some of it will sound familiar; but at the same time you're exploring a new place¸ one that operates according to different rules. And occasionally you can step back across the barrier between worlds and fight a dragon in a Wal-Mart. The campaign setting itself will be detailed through a narrative chapter but as much as possible the content will detail the setting; for instance¸ the influence rules require that I detail some of the political structure of Second World New York in order to describe the organizations you'll be using. The two key features the Second World Campaign Sourcebook will develop are the influence rules and the wardens. Influence: A complete set of influence rules for the d20 system will be provided. Moreover¸ a gamemaster will be able to drop these rules into any campaign setting without drastically affecting game balance or requiring significant re-writing of existing player characters; by significant I mean adding more than couples lines of text. The rules will include a list of over 25 organizations set in and around Second World New York (most of them should be adaptable to other settings)¸ over 40 positions characters may occupy within those organizations¸ over 80 operations or favors that you can request from these organizations and your contacts¸ and a set of rules for using influence to acquire resources. Wardens: In the Second World special characters can associate themselves with a core principle of the way the world works; these characters are called wardens. For instance¸ motion wardens invest themselves with the dynamic of motion itself and use that dynamic to power their special abilities. The Second World Campaign Sourcebook will include at least 6 warden classes (the precise number will depend on how much space each write-up requires). The warden classes are essentially prestige classes¸ but each class can be customized with a number of special abilties called Bindings. Moreover¸ each warden will be able to select from a list of at least 25 bindings¸ many of which are unique to that particular warden¸ so that¸ for example¸ one could play two lightning wardens and give both of them a distinct playing style and feel. Play Balance: All the elements added in the Second World Sourcebook will be provided in a way that should allow you to drop them into your game without disrupting it. Both you and your players should feel comfortable using some parts and not u