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I have been talking "shop" with him on DMing for the past year. Its weird, cus he has addmited to knowing too much about whats going on in my game now that he knows how I run things. Its really weird how he can look at me during a game now and he smiles, knowing what I just did (mechanics wise) or when and how I fudge a roll. He knows what I am doing by my notes and when I stray for sake of story.

But we are still talking about a DM-style that is mine, and not his. I think back to my beginings as a DM and wonder if I woulda took advice from a DM who ran games for a longer period of time. Or if NOW a DM were to come to me and say "Hey, look, Ive being doing this longer, and I think you NEED my advice on this craft" would I take it? Id prolly listen, pick small tricks n stuff from his style, and then forget or intentionally ignore the rest...why? Cus being a DM usually comes with this inner desire to be in control, to get the credit for the good adventure, to please the table with your personal ability to tell a good story and create tension and dynamic plot.
So I would listen, and yes I would learn...but I doubt I would ditch my entire style (in fact I know I wouldnt ditch my style) for his, just cus he has more time at it then I do. So no matter how I do this with this newer DM, I wont be able to guide him into creating freedom for his PCs the way my style does.

The way I run a campaign is open enough to begin a campaign with me allowing you full freedom to go anywhere you wish, as long as you have method of travel and the drive to go there.
I never have one plot...that just drags the PCs along on good story, but it still a one-way adventure.
Insted I hide the main plot among dozens of smaller adventures that somtimes connect to the bigger picture. I have small one-shots, larger plot driven quests, emotionally charged personal interactions that dont nessarly need the PCs to make a move, but it may be too close to home or family for the players to ignore.
The entire campaign does have a "end" "middle" and "begining" but its easy to lose perspective on what the main story is since there is a fully working world moving along side your every choice.

I also make a note besides every smaller plot, hook, one-shot, quest etc, what the outcome will be if the party chooses to not interact with that smaller side-adventure

"since no one decided the trolls to the north of Mercamere castle was anything worth investigating, they have bred to double their numbers and now have control of the northern caves n farming road. You guys coulda stopped that but you were all too busy fighting the dragon-whorshiping zealots of the Themshuk."

With this style of play, nothing ever gets fully "fixed", it is almost impossible to handle every adventure, small side quest, save every kiddnapped NPC, all the while mlving towards the money-shot quest that is the hidden point of the entire campaign.

This form of play allows a party to choose what is and what is not interesting to the group. As the GM I never have any idea where they will go next, or what order these adventures will be done in...and THAT is important. NON-LINEAR! Writing a campaign from point-A to point-B is cute, but its stale and boxed-in. You are on a coaster-track with no flexibility unless the GM chooses to derail from his linear notes to add to the flavour of the game. Such derailing never really happens as much as it should, the GM usually dosnt want to afford the chance at losing his presious window of oppertunity to drop his bad-ass NPC on the party, at the right time, on the right day, when the notes say it should happen. Most DMs (newer ones) think they themselvs are the drivers of the adventure, thats wrong. The players should be the driver. The GM is simply the law of physics in the campaign setting, not the guy who chooses what you will and wont do.

In the game mentioned above, the party is being hunted by a city of assh*l*s, and I as a players reccomended that, "since there is an entire city against you guys, and you are very favoured down south (they saved a king's life about 5 gamnes ago), perhaps we can all just travel there and talk to the king who loves you all...perhaps he will back us up, get a mounted army to help stop this evil kingdom?"

the party thought this a great Idea...the GM looked at his notes (not seeing them discribing a entire army coming from the south cus the party decided to go get help insted of enter the queens fortress with sword in hand, highly outnumbered etc) and said

"wellll, thats really far, and getting there would take almost a year...you prolly dont want to go all the way there and all the way back...sooooo"

NO!!! SEE!? thats bad...in my game, if you won the love of a kingdom, and the politics between the two kingdoms allowed it, I would allow you to travel back to the king...I have every mile between the two kingdoms mapped and noted for random encounters, who lives there, what you may or may not meet on the way...I also have the King's army noted and the size of his forces. But the king wont just say "sure! Ill help kill a queen!" it all depends on politics...if it would cuase political problems with allies, will it disrupt trade? Does this king have anything stopping him from sending a armed attack on this queen? Perhaps there is too many monsters attacking the king, and sending his army would leave his people open for an attack...whatever.

Or perhaps the king says "fine..this queen is evil, lets do this"

That too will be played out in a fasion that meets the standards of an open-game. I have rules for mass combat if thats what it comes down to...I have everything ready to go. Its all documented, who is where, who is what, what is going on where. Its the players that get it moving...Everything is almost stagnent before the players enter the mix..they are the mover n mixers of the story, not me...I simply know what will happen if the players do not intervien. thats how it should be done in my opinion. It always makes for a great fluid adventure, and cuases the players to see that they are the ones running the game...I simply am governing physics and the NPCs around them.

The fact behind it is , that creating a world like I am discribing takes little time, over time. People wonder how I can have so much detailed, and have so many freedom options of travel or choice of quest without pushing towards somthing or another.

Fact is, the system I use prolly takes so much less work then yours. Yes thats a bold statment, but I truly think its true. Last week a DM I have been coaching said he wanted to see how I run a nation called "Qwom"...so I brought the book to work and showed him...his eyes lit up and he said "wow, I'm gunna use 'some' of this"

He returned a few days later and said

"I out n out stole everything you did..its a great system"

its an illusion of compleation, not truly a detailed work of micro-perfection. The way I keep things, all notes double as both random encounter lists, realm notes and population information, quick reference and still remains detailed enough to keep a good eye on the mechanics of your entire realm, while remaining easy enough to map, stat and discribe a whole nation in just under two hours of light work. I can have an entire city, three forests and two mountain ranges consist of just under 5 pages, where I see many DMs with less attention to note orginization or detail take 30 pages to discribe one jog to the next town...

Some day I might just share the method I use (it was passed down to me by an older DM in its purest form, but I evolved it over the years to be a completly new animal of note keeping)

But, if time is your reason for not having a world that you can watch "run itself" then my friend, you are missing my point. I spend prolly less time then you making an adventure, realm, world whatever...its all about how its done.

Culture shock isnt a bad thing.

3 cities in 8 games sint a bad thing. I see you take the DMing style that every day must be in-play. I can make a year or ten pass in under an hour (with players detailing what they do during that time). A player can feel free to build a home, learn a new weapon style, take the task on of learning a new langue in a game that took the place of a 5 month span. I see days go by in minutes, and minutes go by in hours...it all depends on the flow of time at the time of play. So instead of making a 5 month travel between cities last 5 months real time, its fast-forwarded and rolled as such, fast.

A campaign in one city? Ive seen this done and find closed eviroments to be awsome when done well. In fact I think those types of games tend to be more real, cus people arnt travling all over the world at the drop of a hat...so no, I dont think thats insain, In fact Ive done it many times..and enjoy that sort of thing.

The three cities that my players traveled in 8 (4-12 hour) games, didnt need a flying carpet, cus it traversed about 12 years in-game play. the humans became adults, the elvin players saw it as 12 months.

I have started games that end in one year, and the next instalment takes place 20 years later after they raised children, became politcal figures, gathered small armies, etc etc. I dont usually have anything agsint play-by-day games that take time playing within every day of the week, in effect role-playing every day of the year by the end of a 45-game span. But I also see that as a trap of "focred play" at times...meaning, I am forced to make these PCs live a life so fricking amazing that somthing incredibly impossible (like an adventure of D&D status) happens so often that a mortal expects to battle a dragon 10 times in a life time.

Time passage is key to my realm, and its handled in a very delicate way. It is virtually inmpossible to judge a style of DMing between any of us here..and I am not doing that. I am simply pointing out what I see as the common norm, here in my area, between other DMs in the tri-state area. Not trying to judge you, and yours...just those around here and the many games I have personally seen.

I understand the small details of our campaigns are impossible to detail in this forum though.

I went and glanced at your time line...and WHOA...thats nice. See? thats great, I like this alot. The work you put into making things work shows in your time-line alone. I always love seeing this kind-o stuff, and I'm gunna go steal from it if there is somthing I see thats streamlined and better then what I do.

See? thats the point here. A DM who takes care of his fantasy reality, cuasing it to become logical and real. I would prolly feel safe losing myself in one of your games, weather you use wide open maps, closed-in city play, flying orks or what not...then again, who knows, pretty notes dont always mean attractive DM skills.

But this sort of thing shows me you are a DM who takes time to make sure that his players arnt just farting around in a half-ass world that is more of a mystery to the DM himself then it is to the players. Solid foundation of time, plot, pace, story..all this should be concrete! All this things shouyld never be left to a guessing game, in the middle of a game, when a player asks a question.

I know for a fact that if I was a PC in your game, and I asked when somthing happend on grand scale of our adventures, that you would have the resoucres and notes to give me a good answer without guessing or fibbing to protect the fact that you are not prepeared enough for a serious game session...

And thats what it boils down to with me...I do not enjoy GMs who have no clue to the rules, no idea whats going on in his own realm, inconsistant answers dealing with major things in his/her realm, etc etc.

I have witness far more DMs then not, lieing, fudging, faking, falsifieing and squeezing-rules just to make up for bad planning, bad notes, bad delivery and just bad DMing.

Its my view that a good DM is not only the story master and physics of the realm, but also the end-all say in what really did and didnt happen. With bad notes, or too little work on thier behalf- a game becomes just a whistling fart from the butt of a idiot who shouldnt have the right to guide 3-8 players to the bathroom, nevermind on the tail of an epic adventure...

But yeah...I dug your timeline alot.

It does sound like we use simular style in creating a world.

As for good names, I agree, nothing is as rewarding as a NPC whos name brings fear, cuases emotion, induces a chuckle, cuases a party to have found memories, etc.

Best name as of recent is the elvin King's virgin duaghter "Newpoonani"...Just funny, yet somhow very elvin sounding.

I also keep a list of good names without knowing who will use them, for random encounters, NPCs that didnt get written in as important as they turned out to be (the shop keeper that everyone decided was gunna be a best friend of the group).

I also keep a handy pile of plays next to my table, within reach at a moment's need. Works of great playwrites always come in handy cus the names are easy to find (left hand of page) and they are easy to change one letter quickly to make them not a total rip-off. Changing "Ceaser" into "Celzer" is good for a pinch NPC in the nick of time.

Since I last been here, I have played twice within "Qwom", and added 4 more regions to the land (one they have recently entered and say its the best place they have adventured within the realm yet!)

I have fully fleshed out these four areas in just under 5 hours (with blunt breaks and work inbetween the note keeping).

I also have re-tweeked all the areas that they have physically or politcally changed in the last game (removing what was killed, forced out, or just retired from being in the area), and we are planning another game for tonight or possibly tommorow. They recently removed Igoore the stone giant from the Bhad-Lhands, but now have good reason to think they giants brothers will be coming soon to find out what happend to Igoore...The sister giant will also be around in the next few months when she notices the lack of brothers to mate with...The have made friends with an interesting lost tribe of humans (the Hewhos) and have earned tribe-rights to be welcome in all tribe activities (killing a giant that cuases trouble locally will get any good tribe to be nice to ya)...

Now as the DM for next game, I have no idea what the party will do. Nothing is planned to force them to do anything, they simply hunt down adventure and interact with the locals. The last two games have found the players leaving the elvin forest (in fear of their lives, and pockets filled with elvin treasure...bad move). They learned that the elvs do not travel into the mountains for any reason, so they escaped to the Bhad-Lhands to hide from the forest dwellers...

Since my notes allow open play, I didnt keep them around in the forest to finish out the story they began, I really wanted to but thats not what I do (my players often comment that they enjoy the right to do whatever they wish). If I didnt do things my way, I woulda forced them (tricked them) into staying in the forest. So m,uch is happening there now that they spent 6 games kicking butt and robbing elvs...but they wanted out, and thats what they got to do.

I had no idea thats where this was going, I am not incontrol of their actions or path, simply whats in their way. I can not sing loud enough about the quality of play when you allow the players freedom. Its actually less work then prepearing every step of the way through a small area...

The stone giant almost murdered them, but they knew what was there (lore says giants are in the Bhad Lhands)...So if they venture there and die at the hands of giants, I dont ever get the blame...they went there, the sotry didnt force them there, my hands are clean of blame.

So next game, I dont have to write a damn thing, simply run the land and allow them to make choices and actions within it. I know, by the notes, if any giant is dead in 1-4 months the rest will gather to attack. The giants will prolly blame the Hewhos (since they are common enemies), so natrually I will cuase the giants to move south towards the tribe...Thats where the story is next game...I didnt write it, I simply am making the giants move accoring to whats obveious or natrual for the giants to do in the event of their kin dieing.

The giants also had the ability to work alongside the party to battle the crude to the north if some kind of deal could be worked out. the giants could also have been delt with in other ways...It was all up to the players....heck the giants could have never been in this game if they didnt travel so far to hide in a remote area far away from the elvin forests where the adventure had been rooted thus far.

Lastly, I want to say, playing this way has one huge advantage...The DM gets to be shocked. Not by rolls of dice, or weird critical failures or hits, but by not knowing anything about the path of the player's next move.

that allows me to actually be surprised as much as my players...and allows a whole dimension to my role as a DM

Story, plot and arch are always important, so yes, yes I have PLENTY of story and plot. The level of story incorperated into my campaigns is often discribed as "epic" or "too much to take in at first", or just plain "huge". The campaign world that we play in the majority of the time is a creation of my own that has been running forever, we know this, and its chock full of indepth story, conflict, political complication, mystery and comical elements. Its giant- and for its size and age it has everything a campaign should have...but for sake of the argument that "well that campaigns really old, so wonder it runs smooth open ended", Ill disscuss my side campaign world called "Qwom".

In this setting there is a huge story. The human lands are sperated by a weeks sail from the Fey lands of "Qwom" (an island forbidden to humans for over 400 years). The players began with me asking them a few questions...

Questions such as-
Where are you from? (they were given a run down of the areas of the campaign setting before game, since no one had ever played here before...the setting is only a few months old now).

What does your PC do for a living? (I always figure this out before we play, I find it helps me and the players both when it comes to picturing a life for a PC before any adventuring career)

Why are you adventuring? Are you seeking riches? Fame? Searching to better your world? etc etc... (I always make a written side note of this stuff for future reward or story hooks for the individual player).

I also allow players to begin knowing each other if they so wish, this usually makes for smoother introductions and right-of-the-bat movment, insted of bickering or players trying to one-up each other with stupid little things like "watch this! Im a fighter! whooooo! see! see!"

After that is all said and done...i began the campaign.

Now for the story. This is what I had preplanned for the realm before we started.

In Qwom (the island) there were a few interesting plots n hooks for party memebers to find if they so went that way. These interesting points were
1-Three mongrell men who pre-dated the downfall of the human race (over 400 years ago), they had memory of what it was like before the dark ages, and the interesting point here was that the mongrell men were magic creations made to serve the woman who was noted for bringing the war that crushed all human history cuasing a loss of the human's true orgins and struggles before the downfall.
The history that the humans preach is twisted and untrue, and these mongrell men have the true history of the land in their heads...but one was an evil mongrell man who would lie, one was nutrual but appeared evil due to his disgusting look and manner of speaking (cuasing the PCs to think HE was the lier)- but he would give the TRUEST form of human history...and of course there was a good aligned one, who also lied about much of the history...but for good reason. reason being- knowing the truth could begin it all again, and send the human race spirling back towards another cataclysm of man...

The mongrell men's information, if figured out or discipered from lies, or just aquired from the truthful one, could lead them to the tomb of the women who cuased the downfall of man...

2- There is a tomb of the woman who cuased the end of human history (in effect cuasing it to start again from the stone age over 400 years ago)...her name is Tolllyenna Magheek, but the crazy part is this....She rules over the human lands as a queen, an immortal queen, who has ruled from her thrown well past the dark ages, over 1000 years now...the humans teach she is a wonderful person who saved the humans from total distruction....depending on who you talk to you will get differnt stories on that. But even though she rules, alive and well across the sea, here she is buried in a tomb on qwom, in the middle of a dusty city that appears to be a twin of the capitol city of the human lands "Magheek".

when the players found this place, they had only spoken to the evil Mongrell man (hence how they found it, and they didnt have anyway to ressurect the dead queen, and they wanted to distroy the body cus they thought an evil NPC was looking to ressurect her...they wouldnt allow this cus they figured the queen to be evil and the bringer of doom.

3-The elvs live on qwom, remaining invisible to human eyes hiding in the trees and living a perfect life of harmony. The players had one problem, the elvs seemed to kill humans on site, no questions, no warning..just pop out and BOOM! arrows...death. They would kill women, children, men alike...even their rangers didnt lose their ranger status killing humans who begged for mercy....the players were confused and disgusted at the elvs of this land compaired to the elvs of my other campaign that would NEVER harm a creature begging for mercy.

Why did the elvs get away with such actions? slughtering any human who entered the woods of qwom? How did they retain their good clerics and rangers even when they hunted and killed humans for sport? Duun Duun Dhuuuuuun! Plot....baby.

4- There were a few monsters here and there in the forest to hunt n kill to gain the help of a few elvs who felt that human hunting was wrong no matter what they said in the elven kingdom...Those little forest monsters were there for passsing time, seperating plot from time to time for distraction, or just for danger value of the forest...all those big bad monsters are dead now and the forest is temporaly tame...

5- A knight was one the island of Qwom for over 15 years, they met him randomly in a forest and he insisted they take him home to the Queen on urgent orders...he commendeared (sp? bah) their ship and forced them to take him home...after a week he was prepearing 10 ships to sail to qwom, and no one knew why..it was the Queen's secret mission, sending her knights to do "somthing"...but what?

The players had the option to fight the knight the first time they met him, one player did and lost....he went to prison yknow...poor guy. the rest just obeyed the law and let him have the ship.

there was alot of other stuff going on as well, stuff that had little to do with the Queen's mystery, but I could spend all day disscussing the smaller plots n hooks, but the one im discribing now is the "main story"

Now the PCs have this big backyard called "Qwom" to figure out stuff...I have all the peices ready and placed, maps drawn, NPCs (yes, AND the NPC's personalities, alignments, goals and desires noted)and all the small details ready and waiting for PC interaction. I had no idea where they would go, or if they would even try to figure out the Queen's interesting history of action throughout the two histories of man...They did.

Heres what happend in a game by game short discription...

Game 1- The players decided to cash in on the human market for Elvin antiquities. they decided, screw story and dramatic play...lets just rob the elvs and sell their stuff! So they did...a few got shot at, and one died, but mostly they got a few elven swords and sold them for alot of cash...it was a fun game, had no heaveyness to its play. No one wanted a big epic at that time...They did wonder how the elvs got away with killing innocent humans...even the good clerics of the elvs seemed to kill without warning or punishment. Weird. But they got paid...and hired again by the local mafia to bring back MORE stuff, since one PC told the city guild that he saw an elvin graveyard that must have had hundreds of tombs in it...MONEY! weeeee!

Game 2- the players got funded by the guild to retrieve this amazing graveyard's worth of stuff. The humans had no idea such a huge disposit of elven stuff could be found..no one ever reported seeing such a sight in Qwom, and the PCs swore they could lead the party to it..but they needed men, weapons, ships, etc...So they hired a bunch of 1-hitdie mercs to help out, promising them that the elvs are no challenge for a mob of humans fully armed and prepeared...they were wrong, as they tromped across the woods, every day humans died in the darkest shadows of the journy...every morning 1-6 humans were missing, being preyed apon by the elven fighters now following the party...
They got in a huge fight with over 30 elvs who arrived after the first game, hearing that humans were raiding the coasts of Bhechwood. (this was in the elven notes...30 fully armed elvs will come in 1d20 days to confront any human problems that the rangers couldnt handle)...They returned with 90% of thier mercs dead, two ships lost and burned, and no elven treasure. Two Pcs almost died and one lost his hands...resulting in the guild shooting him in the head (he was usless to them now)...The guild now was getting angry cus the party wasnt producing the treasures promised...this led to more fun stuff, but it still didnt touch on the big story.

Game 3- By now they had made friends with one elf who was a travel guide (for lack of a better word) of the woods...She was an elf with a view that "Life shouldnt be killed no matter what, it should be guided towards good and gently tamed by kindness). They distroyed a bunch of monsters by now and the elven woman was very interesting in keeping these humans safe from the elvs. This cuased alot of political stress among the elvs since she was a political figure taking sides with the humans.

She told them what the elvs teach. The humans came here 400 years ago and slaughter most of the elvs...there used to be more then 25-thousand elvs,m and now there is less then 300 (284 to be on the money)...they refuse to allow humans to come here for that reason. She told them the reason it was evil to slaughter humans...it was a loophole...humans had no souls. No souls, no murder...it was like smashing a table or chair...not a crime of any kind.

The PCs were shocked by this! Sure the humans had no casting church, and the god they worshiped was powerless and just a passion of faith...mucvh like churches of earth, the humans never witnessed divine power...magic was all there was that broke the laws of science, and it was all powerful cept for two things....magic couldnt heal or resserect. Two things humans forever thought impossible....But the elvs proved both very possible and easy for the elven people. This lead to the PCs having inner debates with themselvs one what to think about having no soul.

Game-4 The humans faught the evil clerics of Mezzel. the elvs knew that Kobolds worshiped an evil god, and that they were polluting the very soil withg thier demons of evil. So the party took it upon themselvs to clense the elven lands of this evil. They did...it was epic, it had story, plot, arch etc...it went down fast and hard, PCs died, a few lived...but this gained the party a never-before-granted pardon from elven exicution. They were the first humans to ever be welcomed to travel unharmed by elvs within qwom..this pissed off many elkvs, but the clerics of the land decided they deserved it,,,,they removed Mezzel from the land...This game led them to finding the Queens tomb.

This game was really cool cus the player's lost their minds. In the tomb they found out secrets...like
Humans dont have souls cus they are not humans...they are man made constructs that were created by the queen before she was killed. (hence why she is buried here, but still is alive and ruling the lands of man)...they found out that the living queen is not really the queen, she is a construct as well.

The elf in the party (who has not spoken or even appeared to them but once, and that was just to attack them to prevent them from raiding a grave), laughed at them, saying "hahahah! your a toy!" in the voice of tom hanks from toystory...the party bugged out.

Game-5 This game they started really getting into the plot..they found it without me guiding them,,,,it seemd more mysterious since it was hidden and the GM made no attempt to even guide them there. They searched out the rest of the Mongrell men (killing the nutrual one cus he seemed evil at the time, and very jumpy)...what they learned was a huge peice of the game...

its not just the humans...or just the queen...all life on Qwom is fake...constructs made by the original queen. Also, the queen in the tomb was fake as well...another construct...and she was evil, she was good....and didnt get defeated by the elvs (as the elvs teach) she died to protect themm from the living queen....the thousands of elvs that dided didnt die fighting her, they died fighting along side her....only one elf retained this elven history, and he kept it secret for plot reasoins that would take to long to disccuss.

Anyway...the story is deeper then this, and there is also 5 other sotries going on in the realm (some not found yet like the secret island of Sharrow where the original Queen still lives...and she is the only real living thing here in this realm, everything else was created by magic)

The end of this story, weather the PCs ever get that far into the story or not is this...

Thousands of years ago a good Wizard was banished to a banishment realm that was empty and just a black void...she was a huge powerful wizard of impossible level (above what the book allows), boardering on goddlyness. She was banished by the world that the PCs thought they were actually in, and sent to this void. over the years she had created a world of her own, and her creations have grown to be a real world...there are many plots, tricks, and traps dealing with figuring out the truth...the PCs now often speak of the "good old days" when they thought they were humans...now they know they are magical creations that possess inner programed abilities that they should have..they are evolving themselvs through this, and gaining abilities such as infravision, ability to never sleep or eat, no need to breath air, grow doppleganger claws (1d12) at will...etc etc...at the cost of there innoicence and humanity.

The party has banded together now in effort for a great adventure...alls they want to do is win souls for the human race (since all other fake life seems to have gotten souls over the years, and no one knows how..only the humans and the halflings dont have souls in this realm) They have decided to embark on an adventure to save the afterlives of all humans...they do not know if it is possible, or even how to begin....but as the DM i will tell you

"I know where all the races got souls...and I know the horrible adventure of pain and horror that awaits those who find this secret place"

its gunna be fun watching them find itt....they may never actually go that direction...oh well..its only the biggest plot in a small realm of many.,.,Im glad they found that one interesting enough to devoute time to exploring...

Make sence?

prolly not...sorry this post was so long..I typed it in under 14 minutes, at work...peace

Ok...lemmie answer what I can.

1. How did the PCs find out about Qwom?

The entire human nation knows of Qwom. It is the place only the magi are allowed to venture (as of law of the Queen). The nations of man think this is becuase those few who do venture there, never return (the humans do not think elves to be real but know monsters must be there). It is a crime to venture there unless you are a magheekien berry picker...Magi of the Queen pluck berries used to make healing potions (the realms usual way of healing since magic cant do it, and clerics dont exsist among the humans). The party itself heard of elven treasures lost in qwom...they had choice to venture in the city, they got ahold of a boat (life's savings to rent for a few months), and then went artifact hunting in the forbidden lands.
The humans have documented Qwom for many years as "A hostile place, crawling with monsters of all shapes and sizes"

2. If humans have no souls, then what happens to free will? How can humans build cities, have art, make choices, etc. without a soul?

See? you would be a fun player to have running in Qwom. I have hinted at the political and spiritual debate of "are there really souls?" , the clerics of the elvs think so, but do humans really have anything different to them just cus its said they lack a true soul?

I will tell you, I do try to lead players down that philosphofical (sp) debate all the time. I have two players constintly asking the question "what if there is NO souls!?" or "what says we doont have souls?"

Saddly for them, the story is there and its ture they lack any true soul. it means they have no after life..they wont go to heaven. The way the elves got souls hundreds of years ago was for great sacrifice...if the humans make great sacrifice then they can be granted souls. An avatar of a real god follows them around in the form of a cat (I hope they dont sneek here to read that), and its judging them as they go..they gained its attention through doing good for the land.
How does a civilization get made without souls? Easy...they have already found out that every skill in the book is pre-proggramed into them...if they try to hunt hard enough, and make the correct roll, they gain (mentally unlock pre-exsisting data) on how to hunt...they get the skill...it has its draw backs, the more they learn (every ten skills make a roll vs effect) they get dangerously close to finding out what they can really become....and it aint nice...and its very clive barker weird. I wont share that here, just in case my players have found me...

"It would have been really cool to visit this world somehow from your other world."

THATS funny....ysee, in my other realm, years ago, a great mage created a void, a bansihment realm to lock away three evil gods forever...that banishment realm has a viewing window in my "main" realm...the players have looked into the limbo hole 3 times in past epic adventures...they once used it to get information on the future from an acient banished god named Cree...

In the Qwom game, the humans worship a god that gives them no divine magics...no spells. Just church like here on earth...the god they worship is called Cree...this was the first hint to where they really are.

Now in this game (qwom) they have heard tails that if they sail towards the "dark star" (a black star only seen during the day) that they will find another world...but no man has ever returned from that journey...its a myth...but it isnt...what it really is- is the limbo hole from my other realm...its the only working door from my other game...if both games had players looking through the hole at the same time....they would see each other.

So yes..it would be cool...and it has been incorperated..infact it was the thought that started the realm "wouldnt it be cool if somone made a realm INSIDE the banishment void!?"

3. If there were originally 25k elves, and they can reincarnate, how come there's only 284 left?

The elves cant reincarnate...but they do have endless supply of an herb that picked from the Jabbarwokey's cave (only elves can venture there without waking the beast). The herb is a leaf from a bush called "Penasylvan" and it makes resserection potions....each elf carried one from birth. So YES why are there thousands of elves dead!????

that question was part of the mystery up untill about 4 games ago...they wondered why the elvs didnt fix the damage of all the elvs...one elf was going to start bringing them to life and he was arrested by the woodland guards (in my games, elven cops are called Ormayus...its been that way for decades. it means Elvan weapon)

They found the answer from talking to Hadabra (one of the three mongrell men) who told them...that before those elvs died in the great war, elves didnt have souls...not a single elf but one was old enough to remember the day of that war....just Polokus, the wood's elder. He alone shares the horrible secret...the elves didnt die fighting in that war..they died willingly, never raising a sword, to show full peace of being, and total good....that many martyrs was enough to cuase the remaining elves (at that time they were the elven children..283 babies and toddlers, 284 counting the elder). Those who died granted the children souls..making them true elves...the elders died in effort to give the children a chance at being real elvs...forever granting them afterlifes.

4. Why would killing humans be evil? Whether or not they have a soul shouldn't matter. Don't all sentient creatures with free will and choice have souls? That'd include orcs, dragons, centaurs, lizardmen, etc.

Why would? Cus killing is wrong...its wrong to murder for pleasure, greed or gain...its wrong to prey on life. (ehtically in my god's eyes). But the loop hole is that these humans havent gained souls yet...all other races have but them and the halflings (called halfees, they are evil halflings).

Not all things have souls in my realm here, cus they were made by magics...magics one step below that of a god's power...it was dangerous and unstable...there is a reason she started "the project" and thats important info to be found if they ever travel to the far away lands of Penrose (notice the quantum-esk name...hint hint)

Also, the dragons (there are only two in exsistence in this realm) are said to be servants of two of the clone queens. The gold (Lusterlux) serves the dead good Tollyenna (T2), while the black serves the evil first queen...the original (T1)...does T3 also have a dragon servant? Im not telling, but its not a "normal" dragon by any means.

Hadabra, the mongrell man hinted at somthing called "The project" when talking about Qwom and the creation of fake life...and he also said humans are deadly close to failing the project...and he said that was bad...thats got the players looking for more answers.

5. What is the average airspeed of the unladen swallow?

Im sure I dont know...and whats it matter? Its already been eaten by that Roc.

I hope this made sence...again, to discribe each reason vs logical answer for each question would result in a total geek-out of me telling you ever small footprint of information in a huge mystery plot...its cute, its kinda twisted and weird...and its all about not knowing the truth at face value...

Its not dead...its just sleeping.

but its nailed to the perch!!!

But thats cus its a very strong bird, it can bend the bars and POP, off he goes!