Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The mood/look your much of this setting is drawn from three basic sources, the third is less dominant but there. The first source is what Terry Pratchett called "The Uberwald." The mysterious central European region where all the Universal Horror films were set. Yes the houses have electric lights, mainly. Telephones are sometimes seen. Foreign visitors wear 1930s and 1940s clothing. But cars don't exist, roads are dirt tracks, and sunset comes with finality. The second source is the "OZ books." Although this setting has ancient European connections the place is American in tone and accent, although it's America in a fun house mirror. Magic is overt, colors are bright, this isn't a sad melancholy place. The third source is Ruritanian Romance. This is strongly implied in the first two. This is a land of small restricted states.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

In most fantasy fiction gates between worlds are at one of two extremes. Either they're a rare secret or they're setting chrome. Try something between. Recently a passage between the four worlds of this setting has stabilized near the homes of the PCs. In each case the local authorities have taken control of the main gate/portal, but people are finding themselves being moved between the four worlds.

The worlds in question all broadly resemble the valley of the Thames. The first world is a great deal like the writings of Godfrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain". New Troy Town is an active port and the Greek Gods are a real force. The second world resembles something like T.H. White's take on King Arthur. The King is in Avalon, Morgaine is regent, parliament is running the kingdom, and the whole thing looks like early Tudor England. The third world is a Gothick Romance Victorian Britain. Rumors abound that a foreign Count has gained power over Queen Victoria! The fourth world crosses steampunk with cyberpunk. This London is contemporary with Metropolis (the silent film). This London has a similar esthetic and social problems. However the elites are in terror. It seems that an heir of the long disgraced Blakely family has sought aide from the American Lamont Cranston. "Who knows what secrets burn in the hearts of men?" "The Black Pimpernel knows."

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Because the local environment has mana in it at noticeable levels scientists have had to take notice of magical and spiritual energies as a regular thing. Thus the local Science is basically Weird Science. Before TL5 Alchemy was Science. Now Alchemy is a specialty of Weird Science equivalent to and including Chemistry. Specialties of Engineering often include Weird Science. MagiTech is slowly becoming a norm and could bring radical changes to the setting.

The local magic used by powerful Wizards is a form of Realm magic based off the Ritual Magic skill. The Realms are Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Minerva.

More later...

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Astra Terram is teetering on the edge of its final fall, but a miraculous appearance of a new force in the world may change everything.

It is a normal mana world, and home to a wide assortment of monsters alongside the mortal human populations, who grind along in very well-developed but static TL-3 kingdoms. These city-states have the strengths and weakness of their types: strong external defense, but brittle political structures. For centuries, it was all that humanity could do to stay alive in a world which is constantly subjecting them to cannibalistic giants, bloodthirsty vampires, insidious demons, vain and avaricious dragons, and petty yet malicious kobolds*, among many other things, while facing clashes between those few states which manage some temporary success. Immortal elves are known to live here, but they are rare, and it seems as though one is only born when another dies. Aside from that, there are various neutral or even benevolent spirits, but they are even rarer than elves.

The population worships the Aethyrs as given in GURPS Magic, more or less. They have many names, and have lesser servants who handle most calls upon them. Their cults are generally local affairs, but a devotee of a particular Aethyr can often find shelter with a cult to an equivalent in any relatively friendly land.

Mages are rare but not unheard of, with perhaps one in 500 having some level of magic sensitivity, mostly at the 0 level. Truly great powers are somewhat rarer. It does not appear to run in families, but rather is a gift of fate. Mages might become cult leaders associated with a particular Aethyr, but the most successful ones have a more secular view, calling upon any of them as needed.

City-states might have access to fairly substantial resources (the mountains are rich in minerals, mundane and magical, and the dark forests and implacable jungles verdant), but those that grow strong and start to push back the wilderness face the increased focus of the vampires, demons, and dragons, among a few other long-lived beings, who break down the empire to prevent a potential threat without destroying a source of sustenance, worshipers, and plunder. These beings have had centuries or even millennia to arrange things to their favor, and it seems these plans are advancing apace.

It is said that long, long ago, mortals ruled this world, but the age of great mages has passed, and civilization is withering away. The remaining great kingdoms are corrupt, ruled by inbred monarchs and self-serving bureaucrats, and more and more perimeter villages are falling to raids or swearing fealty to demon princes for protection, only to become mindless thralls at best. Some say that this may be the beginning of the end of mortal self rule for all time.

Banestorms are not common here. But they are not impossible.

Your characters may have been on a commercial jet when a freak storm blew up around them. Maybe they were crew of a nuclear submarine beached on an alien shore. Or maybe they were residents of a university dormitory which future investigators will determine must have suffered a massive gas leak. The important thing is that you are all now here, under the stars of Astra Terram, equipped with remarkable knowledge of technology (scientific, engineering, and social), facing a medieval kingdom (and indeed world) looking for a sign of hope. Oh, and everyone so transported has gained at least Magery 0. Alternatively, a player could be a hearty warrior with cinematic levels of Luck and even DR come to guide these strangers, a pickpocket with a heart of gold come to help relieve the visitors of their burdensome items, or an enigmatic elven agent with their own reasons for treating with the new arrivals.

Are they enough to turn the tide?

*A few notes. The goblin-like being here is a kobold, a spirit which resides in the underground and attacks miners, builders, machines, and any opportunistic targets -- really anyone they can find. They are quite weak individually, but they are plentiful and not mortal beings. Destroying one results in it simply re-emerging in the dark of some other cave, unless certain magical rites are performed. It is not known how, or if, they reproduce, but basically there's not a reason to feel bad about destroying them.

Culturally, the locals are not direct equivalents of anything, with elements from whatever medieval culture seems cool at the time. They have a uniform tech level and culture in part because there IS some magical infrastructure and travel, so the post-columbian-exchange standard fantasy world is in effect, as are diverse and even somewhat open-minded polities, at least where vampires and demons haven't set forth specific commands to their thralls.

This is my best attempt to make a setting where players get to play the uplift game with someone who could really use it. This is a world where you can take out the vampire lord with a silver-plated .50 cal while he's still monologuing... provided you can arrange the logistics to pull that off and do so before his spies start to figure out what your capabilities are. Prophecy helps make some political advancement easier, too, with your new allies being willing to at least listen when you suggest that serfdom is really just holding everyone back. If you've ever had players say, "If we could just make some black powder and convince the blacksmith to build us a cannon..." this might be the game for you. If your response is, "Exactly what kind of forging process do you suggest the blacksmith use for your cannon, " then you have the right idea.

I would love to hear of any oversights I can correct to better fit that fantasy.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Try this idea. Most fantasy settings are TL3 or early TL4. However, one of the finest American Fantasy novels, The Blue Star is set in a version of Maria Theresa's Austria, which would be a TL5 setting.

Thinking about this brought the The Black Castle and The Strange Door into my mind. Both films using corrupt and powerful nobles as monsters in an Uberwald setting. It also got me thinking about Camilla by Le Fanu.

All this suggests a cross between horror, fantasy, and the swashbuckler, set in the Uberwald. The dark forests of the Brothers Grimm, the fear of the Turks returning, the vast and arbitrary powers of the nobility, all make this a dark and disturbing fantasy setting. And yet it also has elegance and sophistication.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Traitor's Keep:

In Araterre the infamous Traitor's Keep is unique prison erected by architectural mages. It is a maze filled with deathtraps and no one has explored the end. The torture devices are the most ingenious of Yrth and every craftsman there is schooled at the feared Imperial College of Beneficent Mercy in Megalos. Inmates captured by the Prince's secret police are tossed their and their fate is wispered in hushed tones.

Or not...

In reality the Secret Police and the Araterrean Independance Movement are secret allies with the full knowledge of the Prince who is waiting to hoist the banner of rebellion. Not today of course. Everyone is biding their time. But the Prince doesn't mind if once in a while a Megalon agent goes missing or a Megalon ship peculiarly ends up lost at sea with all hands. His only request is not to get caught. Of course the Secret Police has to be seen to be working so they once in a while do a round up of traitors who "disappear" rumors say into the Traitor's Keep, to unexplainably reappear in obscure parts of Araterre. Sometimes too when there is a Megalon agent in deep cover the resistance passes a hint to the Secret Police who in turn pass them through the Traitor's Gate never to be seen anywhere. This fact is a running joke in some Araterrean tavarns but if the Emperor knows he has not seen fit to bother his feisty subjects about it.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Furthest Kingdom

Tell me of this new land.

It is wealthy, the people highly skilled, they rule themselves in a republic with a stunning amount of democracy.

How do they keep the rable out of office?

They wonder about that themselves.

Quiet jester, let the Wizard speak.

He has a point. And they have a sense of humor about themselves. But they are often unfairly abused for that. Still, I think we can get them for allies.

Sadly the darklord seems to have influence there. Or someone as nasty.

Does the jester speak the truth?

It seems like it. But as the jester told you, it may only seem like it.

Basically, the free lands are threatened by a dark lord. This creature has plotted the enslavement of the world for millennia. Now the Wizards have found a new path into a far kingdom called "The Soviet Union of America!" or something like that. More information is needed.

As more information is needed a mixed group of adventures are being sent out to explore this strange alien land.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Every four years they have a strange ceremony where they pick two victims to ride on a donkey and an elephant respectively. They spend months hurling abuse and invective at both of them.

What happens then?

The one that endures it has invective hurled at them for four years. The other is forgotten.

And what idol do they worship who demands such a barbarous sacrifice?

No one has figured that part out yet.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The medieval mindset versus the modern world. But, minor note, the medievals keenly understood elections and constitutionalism. The early modern absolutists tried to erase all that.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

There is even a certain amount of written material, both on election theory and practical electioneering politics. But it's in the context of church elections, and so seems to have been overlooked even by academic political scientists until the 1990s or so. It wouldn't be surprising if equivalent material existed among the guilds and burgers and just didn't happen to get written down or survive.