The World Of Khoras

What is Khoras?

Khoras is a fictional fantasy world of wizards and knights, castles and dragons. It is a creative endeavor... a mixture of writing and art, fueled by imagination. Khoras can be used as a campaign setting for role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, GURPS, Lord of the Rings, Rune Quest, High Adventure and others.

Just what is a Campaign Setting, anyway?

If you've come this far, chances are you already know. But just in case... a campaign setting is NOT a role playing game in and of itself. Nor it is an online video game.

Khoras is, simply put, a world! A fictional world intended to be used as a tool for helping add depth to the role playing experience. In a role playing game such as Dungeons and Dragons, players assume the identities of heroic fantasy characters: brave warriors, clever wizards, and the like, all working together towards a common goal. The World of Khoras campaign setting is designed for use with good old-fashioned dice-and-paper role playing games. It can be the world these characters live in and explore, and help every game come to life!

Most campaign settings are published in book format. The World of Khoras, however, is an exclusively online entity.

How much does Khoras cost to join?

Nothing. The World of Khoras is free and there's nothing to join. This is simply one gamemaster's home brewed world offered up as a resource for fellow role players. Grab some friends and a role playing game and enjoy.

How long has Khoras been available on the internet?

Khoras went online in May, 1997. It moved to its own domain name - www.khoras.net - on April 16, 1998.

How long have you been working on Khoras?

I started working on Khoras, in earnest, around 1992 in preparation for a D&D campaign I was going to run in college. Specifically, that was the Warriors of the Mark campaign, which was the very first campaign run in the world of Khoras. However, the original Avisarr campaign (my very first major campaign) had been played the previous year. Although Avisarr had been played in the world of Greyhawke, I created many bits of lore for the campaign and those were used as the starting point for Khoras. The very earliest pieces of Khoras lore were created in December of 1990. That's what I consider to be the beginning of Khoras. December of 1990.

Why are there no official stats for the creatures and characters of this world?

Khoras is systemless. It focuses on details of the world, rich cultures, fascinating locales and vivid characters. Artificial number systems are not important. There are many different role playing games and everyone has their own particular game of choice. I want this web site to be accessible and useful to everyone, no matter which particular game they prefer.

Besides, every role-playing game is essentially the same thing... a system of rules designed to simulate reality. If you describe a brawny warrior with muscular arms, he might have a strength of 16 on a scale from 3 to 18 in one game and a strength of 85 on a scale from 0 to 100 in another. But in the end, you're talking about the same man, the same strong arms. The specific numbers should be secondary to that. What matters most is intention of character, and how that character relates to his or her own world.

Therefore, in the World of Khoras, everything is described in plain, non-technical language. It leaves the Game Master and players free to fill in the numbers using their own favorite game system. It enables me, as creator, to abandon number-crunching and "min-maxing" in favor of painting a picture, creating the illusion of a vast and rich world.

What makes Khoras different from all of the other campaign worlds on the Web?

There are many wonderful fantasy campaign settings available on the web. Khoras is merely one among many. Check out this page to see a few of them. However, Khoras is one of the older, larger and more detailed campaign settings.

How do I get in contact with others who use the World of Khoras?

There is a Community Section along the top navigation bar to address just that. Check out the Forum to post messages, share campaign notes and get in contact with other players who have trod the roads of Khoras.

I'm a Game Master who could use some help. Do you offer any "adventure modules" I could take my players through?

Once again, check out the Community Section. The "DM Tools" button at the top contains some free adventure hooks to help stir your imagination, showcasing the many possibilities for your gaming group in Khoras. There are several long-range multi-session campaigns, such as the "Quest of the Avisarr", completely detailed out for you. There are also a number of shorter adventure ideas listed.

Can I download the entire Khoras website to my computer?

Yes. There are many offline browsers available. Many of them are free. Just do a search online for "offline browser" and you'll probably find dozens of free utilities. An offline browser allows you to download a web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. It basically rebuilds the entire website on your local machine.

Here are some offline browsers to try: BackStreet Browser 3.1, HT Track, Teleport Pro. There are dozens of others as well.

If you do download the entire site, here are a few things to keep in mind:

  1. The Khoras website gets updated every month and your copy will eventually be out of date. So you'll need to update your copy.
  2. Several parts of the site won't work in a local copy. This includes the forum, the guestbook, the chat room and possibly other sections.
  3. There may be pages and sections in a downloaded copy that aren't linked and active in the main site. These are unfinished sections.

Can I use material from Khoras on my website/game/book/etc?

Everyone is welcome to use Khoras in their own private role playing games. Absolutely. That's why it's there.

If you want to use Khoras material for a book, website, comic, film, opera, holodeck program, whatever... just ask. Most of the time, the only thing I request is a credit and a link back to the main Khoras site.

What software do you use?

The entire site is built, uploaded and maintained using Adobe Dreamweaver CC. The graphics programs I use are Photoshop, After Effects, Acrobat, Premiere and pretty much everything else that Adobe makes. The Khoras world map was done entirely in Adobe Photoshop. Computer generated artwork, of which there are several pieces on the site, is done in Blender. Some of the early pieces of 3D art were built in 3ds Max and Hash's Animation:Master.

Can I get you to draw my own world map in the same style as the Khoras map?

Yes! Although not for free. Time is valuable and the creation of a high resolution world map comparable to the Khoras map is a huge investment of time. Exact price varies but is usually in the hundreds of dollars. Contact me for details.

Can I contribute material to Khoras?

Absolutely. If you would like to contribute something to Khoras, send it in - writing, art, music, photographs, sound effects, whatever. It can be new material for an existing page or it can be something totally new - a new character/taven/magic item/guild/race/town/village or whatever. Feel free to send it and we can discuss where it would fit and how it would be integrated. You'll be given full credit for anything you submit that gets included in Khoras.

Other ways you can help:

Donate - There's a donate button above. Funds are used to pay the bills and keep Khoras online. Every nickel helps.

Proofread -If you notice any kind of mistake - spelling error, grammar problem, punctuation or even a logical contradiction - feel free to let me know and I'll fix it. There is a special category on the Khoras Forum for submitting errors. Or, if you can simply email me.

Spread The Word - Tell other gamers about Khoras. Get your DM to use it for your next campaign.

Join The Forum - Join the Khoras Forum and post a comment. Everyone there is very friendly. We would love to hear what you're up to.

Post The Link - Post a link to Khoras on some of your favorites web sites and forums around the web. Khoras still wallows in obscurity and I'm always interested in spreading the word.

Write A Review - Find a place online that rates campaign settings and write a review of Khoras. (Favorable, I hope).

Sign The Guestbook - The guest book is no longer online, but you are always welcome to email me a "guestbook comment" if you'd like me to add it to the list.

Email Me - I'll respond.

Make A Request - If you would like to see something specific created, added, modified or otherwise worked on, let me know and I'll spend some time on that.

Footer

This website was last updated September 30, 2024. Copyright 1990-2024 David M. Roomes.

Contact Webmaster