On feat tax replacement:

This is the most generally agreed-upon solution I have found:

1. +1 to all attacks at 5th, 15th, and 25th level - This eliminates the need for all Expertise feats while also taking care of racial powers and other miscellaneous powers.

2. +1 to Fortitude, Reflex, and Will at 11th and 21st level - This eliminates the need for Robust Defenses and Paragon Defenses. Simple, elegant automatic scaling, and now there's only one problem left...

3. +1 to Fortitude, Reflex, or Will at levels 5th, 15th, and 25th - This mostly eliminates the need for Epic Reflexes, Fortitude, and Will. The feats Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, and Great Fortitude (and their epic equivalents) can find function again to fill in the gaps.

You can find this latest iteration on the other side of this link:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/22610077/The_Endgame_Errata:_Updating_the_Levelup_Chart,_Removing_Feat_Taxes?pg=1

Rules, resources, and directions.

So Character-builder makes creating a character a lot easier, so I think we will probably use it rather than fussing with  even a reduced number of books.  It is a bit buggy, though, and occasionally lets things happen when they shouldn't, so check your rules to make sure it makes sense (for instance, one of my friends was able to use martial versatility to swap out a class feature for an encounter power).

So a quick walk-through of what options everyone will be taking or not taking (there are a few things to ignore).

From [new (Essentials)] [custom] [load], pick custom, or else it restricts you to essentials classes.  Then for setting, pick [DnD Home Campaign] - this ain't Dark Sun, you know.  Be sure that your character's starting level is 1, obviously.

When you get to character details, don't worry about deities there - I'll explain the deities in this campaign somewhere else, and that should be fairly simple.  The Divine Empire worshiped the Five Aspect Deities.

Similarly, do not select a theme or a background - just write your background as part of your character, and themes come... naturally.  This prevents a little bit of silly, and means your background and character concept can be whatever you want, free of mechanical constraint.

Lastly, over on the Manage character sheet, don't hit "Dark Sun" "Spell-scarred" or any of those.  Those are things that exist in other campaigns.

A note about power-level here:  Simply put, the stronger the party is, the stronger monsters I will pit against it.  The weaker the party, the weaker the monsters.  And as the party levels, you'll be seeing all the monsters anyway.  So don't worry about picking all the strongest powers - pick the ones you want, and everything will adjust accordingly.


Expertise and Superior Defenses:
Now there's a few other things - the math of the has been noted to be slightly... incorrect.  Monster defenses and attack bonuses go up one per level.  It makes things easy for DMs - to shift a monster by a few levels, you add that much to each defense and attack, fix the damage via a chart, lower the HP by a number related to Constitution... and that's it.

On the player end, though, attack bonuses and defense go up by 1/2 per level, plus all the bonuses people can shove onto the characters.  Which... generally nearly matches monster defenses and offense.

Nearly.

Unfortunately, the scaling was off, and by Epic level, characters needed to put all their feats and items and stuff into attack bonuses, and monsters could hit them very easily.  So what Wizards did was create a series of feats that give a +1 feat bonus to hit for every 10 levels, and a feat that gave a +1 to all defenses for every ten levels.  Characters who did not take these feats would slowly fall behind, until they were missing an extra 15% by epic (levels 21-30).  Everyone had to take these feats, in some form or another, constituting a "feat tax" - two feats that you were forced to buy.

Anyway, I will be awarding the math fixes of those two feats directly, at the exact appropriate times calculated by some math-happy DnD players.  The details of your universal to-hit and defense bonuses will vary by character, and arrive at levels 4-6 depending on plot events (trying to weave it in, you know).  As such, don't take any feat that says "expertise" or the feat "Superior Defenses" - you'll be getting their effects for free later on.

Other than that, a few classes are noted to have a few feats that were made to "fix" the class.  If you play one of those classes, I'll provide you with the appropriate feat.

Everything else falls into the category of rules on ambiguous cases, and a few changes from Rules as Written to Rules as Intended.  And again, mind that the character-builder isn't really a perfect device.

The Worldly Empire

History:

The Worldly Empire started about a century and a half ago, with the awakening of the Dragonborn, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere.  At the time, the Divine Empire had already broken apart after the shock of the Devas disappearing, and the individual Stewardships were desperately vying to maintain order.  Local warlords and despots were springing up all across the remains of the Divine Empire, and it looked as if the world would soon lapse into anarchy.

And then came the dragonborn, with their armies seemingly springing from the ground.  The stewards at first saw them as another little empire, but as their armies crushed all opposition, diplomats reached the stewards with an strange philosophy: Just rule and prosperity is--and should always be--the responsibility of mortals.

Within a decade, the dragonborn had nearly conquered the near entirety of Almakatha, the largest continent, and the location of Makatha, the capital of the Divine Empire.  As they consolidated their rule, the lands under their control began to prosper, and soon the nearby islands had revolted against their rulers and invited the dragonborn to rule over them.

Two decades after the dragonborn awoke, Makatha--under siege for ten years--surrendered to the dragonborn.  As the dragonborn entered the hallowed halls of the vanished Devas, they unfurled new banners, declaring themselves the Worldly Empire - an empire built by mortals for mortals, to bring peace and prosperity to all mortals.

In the years since that day, the Worldly Empire has become the preeminent power in the known world.  The situation has now almost, with the Stewardships holding true to the teachings of the Divine Empire in the outlying reaches of the known world, many island and archipelagos independent and fearing the Worldly Empire, and the Worldly Empire itself, still seeking to expand by diplomacy where possible, force when that fails, and by subterfuge when force is not an option.  The Worldly Empire's massive galleys ply the ocean, and the Empty Throne receives tribute from lands almost to the reaches of the known world.

Of particular note, 14 years ago a human trader brought back news of a fertile and verdant land on the northern continent.  Immediately the Worldly Empire diverted its fleets to find this land, and soon they found a lush green coast.  While to the East and to the West, icy tundra stretched to the horizon, warm air blew south from a massive mountain range to the north.  Claiming the land for the prosperity of mortals, the Worldly Empire set up an administration, and soon colonists, hungry for the free land, sailed north to this strange and wonderful place.

However, this windfall was not as it seemed.  As the colonists spread out and began to farm the land, they came under attack by what survivors described as a wild, vicious manner of elf.  As the Worldly Empire's legions set out to crush the attackers, they were set upon by the elves, this time riding massive, ravening predatory beasts, the likes of which existed nowhere else in the world.

But the legions rose the challenge, and in a horrific, bloody war, forced the elves and their creatures back beyond the mountains.  A unofficial cease-fire resulted - any elf found South of the mountains would be killed, but the Worldly Empire proclaimed that they had completed their task and protected their citizens, and did not so much as send patrols over the mountain.

Since then, the Worldly Empire has been doing what it does best - building and prospering.  The farms of the colonies are now become an indispensable part of the empire, and the colonists have grown rich.

Structure:

The Worldly Empire has no emperor.  Instead, the head of the empire is the Empty Throne, which represents all mortals of all races.  In more practical terms, the empire is run by an imperial senate, sworn to serve the Empty Throne.  Below that, each island or part of a continent is run by a governor, with considerable autonomy, as long as everything seems to be going well.

Relations:

As the rising power in the world, the Worldly Empire is viewed with suspicion by the other powers in the known world.  Most Stewardships that have not already merged with the Empire generally have some grievance against them, and many island states worry about being consumed by the Empire.  Most common people don't care that much about rule, as long as their lives aren't affected, and as such find the Empire just as good as the Stewardships, but generally not that different.  Dwarves view the Worldly Empire with suspicion, and tieflings generally resent the dragonborns' dominance, and the replacement of nobility with meritocracy.

Location:

The Worldly Empire is based in Almakatha, ruling from the city of Makatha, but rule much further than that continent.  All nearby islands and smaller continents have been conquered, but Stewardships and kingdoms farther from Almakatha have generally only come under imperial rule through their own consent (though not necessarily free consent).  Almakatha is southwest of the colonies.

A Guide to Races

The following races exist within the known world, and are possible for PCs:

Links lead to pages on the setting-specific information about the major races - all the information that everyone is expected to know.

Dragonborn
Dwarves
Goliaths
Half-Orcs
Devas
Humans
Tieflings

Minor races:
Gnomes
Shifters
Eladrins
Elfs
Half-Elfs
Halflings


Other races are possible with DM approval.

Minor Races

Not every race is well-known and plays upon the world stage.  Most people would think that a halfing is a really small human, possibly with some sort of hormonal dysfunction, for instance.  These are all the playable races that aren't really known by reputation, and stem from some island, or some obscure river valley.  PCs have to make knowledge checks to know things about them, and responses from NPCs will be truly varied.  Careful backgrounds are expected.

These races are those that existed under the Divine Empire and later the Worldly Empire.

Gnomes
Shifter
Eladrin
Elf
Half-Elf
Halfling

Other races are possible by request.  No guaranteeing anything, though - never everything fits.  (Psionics does not exist within this setting, for instance, so Shardminds and Wilden would be a bit out of place.)

Deva

The Devas were the guiding light of the Divine Empire.  While the gods provide most religious races with visions or omens, they spoke directly to the Devas, and through them guided the Divine Empire to prosperity.  Devas were ageless, and were said to remember events up to the creation of the world... however dwarves and goliaths agree that Devas did not exists before the Divine Empire.  But everyone in the known world knows that Devas were what made the golden age of the Divine Empire possible.

And that they all vanished.

Devas would be a minor race, save that everyone knows of them by reputation, despite almost nobody having seen a Deva in nearly 200 years.  Dwarves despise the Devas, believing that it was through some plan of theirs that the ancient world was swept under the sea.  Tieflings, and to a lesser degree all the minor races, view Devas with religious awe, but feel betrayed by their sudden disappearance.  Dragonborn respect the Devas for their deeds, but feel that the Divine Empire was inherently misguided, and the disappearance of the Devas is an example of that failing.

Today, most races wouldn't recognize a Deva, and wouldn't believe that a Deva is actually a Deva.  After all, they no longer exist.

For Deva PCs:
Stats are as written, save that devas get a +5 bonus on any check made to convince people that they are not, in fact, a deva.  Please discuss with DM before deciding on a Deva PC.  You will also need a cover-race, and a considerable amount of hidden background.  Might be complicated.  Don't know if I want a Deva among the PCs anyway.

Tiefling

Tieflings control the remnants of the Divine Empire.  After the disappearance of the Devas, the Divine Empire lost it's guidance, and collapsed in many places.  The tiefling Stewardship still attempts to run the empire has it always had been run, but without the wisdom and knowledge of the Devas, their pockets of control are stagant at best.  Many pockets of the Stewardship (which is spread among many continents) have been pressured into joining the Worldly Empire.  Tieflings used to be the nobles and lords of the Divine Empire, and as such they see the Dragonborn of the Worldly Empire as rivals at best, and ursurpers in the more common view.

Tieflings are stereotyped as the power of a by-gone era, clinging to authority that is slowly failing in legitimacy.  They are seen as old-fashioned, legitimate, traditionalists, knowledgeable, well-heeled, and slowly crumbling.  However, the age of the Divine Empire was a golden age in the known world, and people still look up to them for that.

Known slightly less are those non-noble tieflings, who are adaptable and driven - while many tieflings cling to power, those tieflings who are making a place in the world are becoming more well-known.  In the meritocracy of the Worldy Empire, tieflings are a rising force, much to the private dismay of the dragonborn.

For tiefling PCs:
Tieflings are as written in the PHB.