Welcome to the insane world that has lived in my head for far too long. Dungeons and Dragons is a game that has really had a massive impact on my life. I was first exposed to Dungeons and Dragons back in the 90’s with 3.5 edition. I was every bit the cliche, I ran games for me and my friends in my parents basement and had a lot of great memories a long the way.
I didn’t find my way back to the hobby until much later, when I was married with kids, and then 5th edition was out and I discovered this thing called Critical Role. And after watching a lot of actual plays, I reached out to my wife and a few friends and said, I’d really like to give this game a try.
So that group of friends got together, and we played our first session, and I was the only one at the table who had ever played before. And seeing the way we all lit up that first session, it was truly magical. But I could never have predicted the impact it would have on my wife. That game continued monthly, and some people left and new ones joined over time. But then COVID-19 hit, and our monthly game moved to a weekly game. And that game became something that got us all through COVID-19, and our lives since. Our group of friends have gotten closer because of this hobby involving monsters and math rocks.
And that first campaign was great, and I learned a lot as a DM, and it set me up to take on the much bigger challenge of building my own homebrew world. I have long had this idea in my head of a fantasy setting, and with a committed group of players I set forth with the task of building a world that we could all inhabit.
The original inspirations for Zenith are numerous, but at it’s core I wanted to build the following:
- A “magic punk” setting: I wanted a setting that very much took the idea of a high fantasy setting and rolled the clock forward to start to introduce technology. The idea that being like artificers moved the entire world forward in interesting ways. A time of innovation and evolution of the magic world in new ways. Drawing inspiration from steampunk worlds, and settings like Candela Obscura, Eberron, and Piltover / Zain from Arcane.
- A mega city: I wanted to build a mega city in that setting. Somewhere that served as the pinnacle of this “magic punk” world. I make no secret of my interest in modern comics. I have always been a Batman fan. And as such have been fascinated by Gotham City, and more importantly his relationship with it. So I wanted a city which would be the DM’s player character. Something that was living and evolving. Something that could changes as my players inhabited it.
- I wanted to make a setting that was “alive.” I really wanted to build a setting that was changed by the players, and that would have things evolve. When they have a major battle, they see the damage after. When they do things their reputation is impacted. One thing that I’m not a huge fan of is that all too often TTRPG campaigns start in one setting, build to a battle, and then the party moves on. If you look at the greatest fantasy stories, they all follow this pattern, example being Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, and many others. I wanted something where players had to deal with the fall out.
And with that, I give you Zenith, the first city of a much broader world. The goal here being that I want to share with you the joy of building this creation. As part of that, I intend to share all parts of the world I’ve created with you. This includes everything from the world creation myth, and include the following:
- Organizations
- Religions
- Zenith and it’s districts
- NPCs
- Locations
- Magic Items
- Monsters
- Feats
- Spells
- Character Options
- Custom Game Mechanics
- My thoughts and techniques for being a Game Masters
All of this is presented under the OGL with the intention of helping to enhance games at other tables. I’m a firm believer in “contributing to the success of others.” And for me, if one person is able to use parts of this setting to make their games a little better, all of the work will be worth it.
I hope you feel inspired to take what I have here and include it in your games, or even build on top of it. Nothing would make me happier than to know that I have inspired someone else’s world.
By trade, I’m a software developer, and a technologist. In software there is a concept called “Open Source Software.” The idea being open-source is that you take the code you write and publish it publicly. And it’s available for free to any who want to use it. But the biggest benefit, is that you cultivate a community and invite other developers to contribute back to the source code. For me, I would love nothing more than to hear how others took the world of Zenith and expanded upon it.
To me, the greatest way this could be a success is to meet someone I don’t know someday and hear how they took this world, used it and expanded and what they made.
Thanks, Kevin Mack – Dungeon Master and World Builder