Campaign Worlds (CBE)

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Most of the published AD&D campaigns have a fairly even mix of the various races, although they tend to allow humans to predominate more often than any other race. Since humans have the most drive and ambition of any of the established humanoid races, it is only natural that their power always be taken into account when considering who controls the world.
However, it's possible to create a campaign world wherein humans are not the dominant race. What follows is an outline of possibilities for other races' dominance and how such changes would affect the lives of elves on these worlds.
==The Elf Campaign==
On this world, elves are clearly the dominant race. Their world-spanning civilization has control of the portions of the world the elves find desirable. The race is fairly isolationistic, preferring to let the rest of the world run its course, rather than interfering with it in any way... usually. If something comes along that would disrupt the normal flow of nature, the elves will certainly be quick to step in to make sure it doesn't become too glaring a problem.
Most of the elves here have little contact with other races because their scouts and border guards keep the other races away from the elf sanctums. The elves will allow a rare few to journey unmolested past the borders of the elf lands, but usually only invited guests are allowed inside. The perimeter system is very thorough, with few living or unliving beings getting through unobserved.
Because they do not have to worry about other races threatening their power, the elves of this world spend quite a bit of time in magical research; the magical content of the world is thus very high. Most of elven civilization has become very much like that of the familiar grey elves, although their intolerance for others has not reached those proportions.
Indeed, the elves are faintly amused by the antics of the other races, and they enjoy watching the others' rapid ascents and declines in fortune. Elves are guaranteed to live in comfort (if not outright luxury) on this world and would take up adventuring only to provide themselves with excitement or to quell the incursions of other races. Most of the quests would be along the nature of epic adventures, for there would simply not be anything else that would rouse elf interest enough for the elves to take part.
The time period of this campaign world would probably be near the time of creation, before humans became too populous. If not then, it would probably be after some world-wide war, wherein the populations of the other races were decimated, while the elves repelled the worst of the catastrophe from their forests and survived.
These elves might very well see humans to be as threatening as orcs; both are prolific breeders, both are expansionistic, and both encroach into the elf lands readily. While the elves hate neither of these races, they will hunt them to keep them away from the elf lands.
==The Human Campaign==
On this world, because of the human propensity for rapid growth and their expansionist tendencies, the once mighty elven civilization has been driven into decline. The elves have abandoned their fabled homes in the hearts of the ancestral forests, seeking refuge in lands untouched by human taint. Although the elves do not hate the humans at this point, they pity them for their total misunderstanding of nature's forces and for their short lives.
The elves here have either mostly retreated from the world or have set secure strongholds past which no other races may pass. While their intolerance is no more than usual, they do not admit outsiders to their lands, which they consider inviolate. In short, the elves of this world are similar to standard sylvan elves, although there may be exceptions (as there always are).
==The Dwarf Campaign==
In this sample world, the elves have been nearly exterminated by the orcs and their humanoid allies. They fought a good fight, struggling mightily and nearly holding the orcs back. In the end, however, the sheer numbers of the orc hordes spelled disaster for the elves.
However, the elf resistance managed to severely weaken the evil humanoids, making them easy pickings for the dwarves from the mountains, who finally marched a little too late to aid the elves. However, they banished the last of the orc hordes from the elf woods and offered assistance to help the elves rebuild their cities.
Although the elves accepted the dwarves' generous offer, they remained suspicious of the dwarves' timing. When the dwarves began lumbering operations in the forests, cutting down the very trees the elves had once protected against orc hordes, they felt their worst suspicions regarding the dwarves were confirmed. These elves watched in shocked outrage as the dwarves grew wealthy off the trees, living lives of luxury once paid for by the blood of elves.
There were other elves beyond those who had survived the Battle of the Woods. Those who were off adventuring or acting as merchants returned home now to find the forests devastated and the dwarves lumbering the remains, with little regard for the sacred and valued places of the elves.
The elves joined together and swore an oath that they would not rest until they had repaid the dwarves for their monstrous deed.
These elves began harrying dwarf loggers, firing arrows at the miscreants and disrupting dwarven trade in general. The dwarves retaliated against these "ungrateful elves" by increasing their logging efforts and killing the renegade elves who were killing precious dwarves. They also rounded up the few remaining elf villagers and enclosed them in closely guarded camps, using the threat of violence against the innocents as a cold-hearted means of quelling the elf rebels' actions.
The PCs have the option of trying to discover who was responsible for the delay in the march of the dwarf army and who is ultimately responsible for the rape of the forests. Since dwarves are essentially good beings, there should be some mystery and intrigue involved in this campaign as well as the expected out-and-out fighting against the oppressive dwarf forces.
Perhaps the fault lies in the messenger system that ran between the elven and dwarven civilizations, or maybe a corrupt dwarf general accepted bribes from an oily extortionist to begin the dwarf army's march so late. If the player characters discover the mystery behind the late arrival of the army and manage to restore relations between the elves and the dwarves, they will still have their hands full trying to rebuild the elf race to its former glory. Considering the years of culture destroyed by the battles, it would not be an easy task.
This world, too, is probably either without humans (set at some point before the time when they came into power) or has very few humans (perhaps set sometime after their influence had waned). Remaining humans could be either on the dwarves' side, on the side of the elves, or hanging on the brink of extinction themselves. Whatever their role, they will need some clearly defined relationship to the elves.
This is not, of course, the only scenario that could be played in this world. The dwarves could simply be the dominant race because the world is situated so that every forest is ringed by mountains. The dwarves thus keep the elf population from growing too large, although they may not be entirely conscious of this fact. Regardless of the circumstances, the elves are likely to be resentful that the dwarves prosper while the elves suffer. Although they will not necessarily be filled with venom when dwarves are mentioned, they will certainly not go out of their way to befriend the little runts.
==The Evil World Campaign==
In this campaign, the forces of evil have somehow taken control of the world. As a result, the forces of good have been driven underground. The evil ones, who might be orcs or some other humanoids, may have been dominant right from the beginning of the world's history, or they may have seized power only as recently as twenty years ago, perhaps with the aid of some powerful magical artifact.
The PCs play elf characters from the Wild Lands, where the good folk have been captured. Their job, naturally, is to restore the world to the side of good. They harry travelers and fight the heroes of the orcs. Eventually they undertake earth-spanning quests in search of the power that will enable their side to overthrow the orc empire's brutal regime.
The tone of the campaign is, naturally, rather dark. The situation might seem somewhat hopeless initially, as the orcs are breeding the sort of adventurers the players are used to playing themselves. But in this campaign, the players get to see what the orcs and goblins must routinely experience in other worlds—that is, when PCs trounce them in search of adventure. This should give the players a better perspective on the adventuring life and the effects of their rampaging through the lands of humanoids.
An interesting variation on this theme would be to have the elves and humans in the Wild Lands revert to a savage bestiality, while the orcs and their allies come to flourish in the cities. Consequently, the orcs grow ever more civilized, learning the value of cooperation, while humans and elves begin a descent into savage evil, fighting among themselves only for their own individual benefit.
==The Aquatic World Campaign==
Not all campaigns have to take place on dry land. Since landbound elves have their aquatic cousins, they find it easier than most to receive a welcome beneath the waves and to gain a base from which to operate. The players need not necessarily play landbound elves, either, for they have the option of playing aquatic elf characters.
There are at least two viable options for the underwater campaign. In one, the players take the part of landbased elves who have gone beneath the waves to combat a menace to the upper world. While there, they can learn to understand the undersea lands and fight the creatures that pose threats to their allies, the aquatic elves. If or when they defeat the threat to the upper world's peace, they have the option of remaining below the waves with the aquatic elves or of returning to their sunlit lands above the waves.
The second campaign has the characters playing aquatic elves themselves, giving them more mobility underwater. This campaign, naturally, has little chance of going to places beyond the sea, but that is quite all right. There is enough that is unknown about the sea that the players should constantly be amazed by what is going on around them. If the DM throws in fantastic monsters, the undersea life will be doubly interesting.
==The Outcast Campaign==
Everyone knows how most elves feel about half-elves. But how do they feel about the parents of half-elves, especially those who willingly created their children? What about those elves who disregard the few elven laws, preferring to make their own way in life?
There are numerous other possibilities for characters in the outcast campaign, most of whom have been exiled from the elf lands. They wander the world, seeking either to atone for their crimes or to make the elf nations pay for the indignity of exile.
This is a good campaign to play for both role-playing and the tone of the epic quest, for the outcasts will constantly be trying to prove themselves to the realms that rejected them. They will always seek to be bigger and better than their peers thought they could be, whether to prove them wrong or to seek readmittance to their ancestral homes.
But the campaign is also, unfortunately, somewhat limited, for there are only so many role-playing opportunities with outcasts. Certainly, they have as much opportunity for adventure as other characters, but their attitudes all tend to be rather similar. Still, an outcast campaign could be used to introduce a player to a gaming group, a person who has chosen to play a half-elf.
Whatever campaign world a DM chooses to design, he or she should keep in mind the simple need for plausibility. A world can be as fantastic and as original as a referee desires, provided it works for the players. This, after all, is what gaming is all about.