Gygax 75: Intro, Index & Setting

Having seen many people do Gygax75 - or more specifically having seen a bunch of people start and stall-out I took this as a challenge to see just how hard a world-building effort it is.

Origins

Dragons Never Forget starts it all off with a discovery: The Gygax ’75 Challenge: Introduction. DIY & Dragons brought it to my attention and collates a bunch of peoples attempts

For my attempt I printed off Ray Otus of Viridian Scroll free pdf version of Gygax75 on itch.io.

So the schedule of this will be
0. Introduction & Index (this post)
1. The Setting of the Campaign
2. The Map Around the Dungeon
3. The Dungeon
4. The Dungeon Level 2
5. The Dungeon Level 3
6. The Local Town and All the Trouble
7. The World Plan
8. Conclusion & Links to Other Challengers

My main theme for this will be adapting it to setting up a Spelljammer campaign. I have gotten tagged into a running a campaign once Spelljammer comes out so I need some sort of backdrop for it. This is not starting from nothing, but from a randomly generated Spelljammer crystal sphere that was rolled up using the rules in the boxed set.

Week 1 is where one decides the theme of the campaign and picks out some inspirational materials that you can refer to whenever you need help populating your campaign with details.

To start off, I wanted to do something a little different, to see what pops out when some of the setting dials are swung way out of their standard ranges - we have gigantic planets! Discworlds! Gigantic discworlds! What kinds of life and civilisations grow in these places?

I also wanted to have a go at a challenge that has been nagging at me for a bit of how to run a ship based campaign and have the ship feel really like part of it. I think crew, some benefits and burdens associated with having a flying ship, and some challenges that can only be faced with a flying ships are needed here.

After some thought and refinement together with the in-house testing team we came up with our couple of pitch statements are:
1. As captain of a spelljammer you can brave risks others don't dare - travel a range of worlds from the hospitable to the inaccessible
2. Be the first human to encounter fascinating societies shaped by their bizarre environments
3. Encounter the great races at the heights of their power - Dare the fires of the giants forge - Treat with the dragon kings
4. Get up close and personal with the elements
5. Find treacherous footing where there is no solid ground

For Appendix N and inspiration.
- Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
- National Geographic - coral reefs
- Prehistoric Ocean documentaries
- Frozen Earth
- Discworld - Colour of Magic, the Light Fantastic
- Pandora (Avatar film)
- Nidavellir (Infinity War)
- How to Spend It Yacht ads
- Uplift novels (Brin)
- Greek Legends
- Mustafar (Revenge of the Sith)
- Dune

I also intend to test out generators and world building tools as I go where I need a jump-start in inspiration. Oracular dice will feature more than an inspiration board so that will be a variation to the traditional approach to Gygax 75.