Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

"Full Fathom Five"

What happened to me? I don't have a tail!

Actually..

No I don't! This is a nightmare!

Then wake up.

I can't! I can't.

You were swimming in the sea and the current dragged you away. You fell off a dock. You were walking by the sea and a sudden wind blew you into the sea. However you got here you didn't choose it, you were chosen. Now you're a triton, a mer person, or something stranger. The sea folk who found you explained that that's how it happens. The sea kingdoms are at war, they really aren't good at raising kids. So the gods of the sea ordained that mortals from the land, doomed by fate to die soon, would be taken by the sea and become sea folk.

Basically, you were a normal 21st century human who has now been thrown into an undersea sword and sorcery world. PCs are first created as ordinary PCs for a contemporary campaign. Then explain what's going on and add a few hundred points of changes to make them into undersea Connans and aquatic mages.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Mage: the Ascension and several other games have made Mad Scientists a type of Mage. The delightful web comic Girl Genius explicitly says that Wizards got hold of engineering and science and upgraded their powers. Let's run with that.

Picture a version of 18th century Europe were Mad Scientists are becoming a thing in the 1740s. Meanwhile Witches (female and male), Warlocks (they command spirits so they can be whatever gender they like so long as they don't kill me), Sorcerers (the book element in Path/Book) all are somewhat taken aback.

Picture a cold (icy) war between Mad Scientists and traditional Mages. This isn't M:tA. Reality is not at stake, but people have killed for bragging rights.

Assume Magery is vital to being either a traditional Mage or a Mad Scientist. At Magery-0 Mad Scientists can create tech level five supertech (TL5^). Each level of Magery adds plus one to the tech level the Mad Scientist can create. Thus a Magery+3 Mad Scientist could create tech level five plus three supertechnology (TL5+3^).

The magic used in this setting is Path/Book. Magery+0 equals Ritual Aptitude, each additional level of Magery functions as a level of Ritual Adept.

Magery plus three is the limit in this setting.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Demimonde

You're new here.

That obvious?

Yes. But it always is. Why you leave Alfhame? Or Mag Mell? Or wherever.

It was beautiful but something was missing. It turned out to be my life.

The PCs are Elves, Faeries, Goblins, even a few Angels and Demons. Basically, you PC is a defector from timeless dreaminess. Of course living in dreamland does not prepare one for modern life.

The PCs are innocents trying to join the human race. This leads to comedy and chaos.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Wizard's Newground

The basic idea is simple. A half Elven Wizard finds his way to the Earth in early 2022. Earth is mainly a Low Mana realm but with about a quarter of the world Normal Mana and about three percent High Mana.

The Wizard, after a few months of study, decides that this world is perfect for him. He appears to be a handsome man in his forties. He explains his pointed ears as something his Dad did when he was a kid. Claiming not to know if his Dad was in to Tolkien or Star Trek. Generally the elf passes as an Irish man who was born in the states but raised in Ireland. The Wizard's accent fits this.

The Wizard settles down in California a little South of San Francisco. Which he assumes will make him harder to notice. He's gathered resources including a fortune and an impressive library. Now he's looking for students. He wants to bring magic to Earth.

Basically, the PCs are talented young people (more talented than they know) being recruited to study magic.

At first the comedy of being inexperienced mages in a resolutely Un magical world would be the campaign. But remember, the half elf found his way here. Other less pleasant folks might find us too.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It's simple, but how does he find people with talent?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Magic, I would think.

Actually, how do people in fantasy setting usually identify mages? Just keep casting Aura (or the equivalent in their magic system)? Have a magic item among as set of mundane ones, and get them to pick it out?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I've always assumed that people with a lot of magical talent will display it with some kind spontaneous ability. In settings where being a magician is a respectable career, I could see parents wanting to have their children tested for aptitude.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

He goes from house to house announcing: "You're a wizard, Harry!" even if their name is George or Peter.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

You win the prize!

This is a low girt setting meant to start as comedy. You can take it were you please.

Example: Picture that the Half-Elf is simply wrong. There are scads of mages on this Earth, but the native Mages can only access power if they accept enslavement to a hostile and malignant being. The magic taught by the Half-Elf is a form of Realm Magic. It takes talent and skill. The Malignance (the nasty creature I spoke of) fears any of its slave developing any kind of talent or skill. The Half-Elf's magic is slow going to learn but powerful. Relatively few people even with talent can master this path. The "gifts" of the Maliginance are weaker by far, but quickly learned by anyone willing to degrade themselves and willingly become the slave of an anti human monster.

The Half-Elf group is small, but with vast capabilities and potential. The slaves of the Malignance are many if weak and lacking that very individuality they sold off.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

How about like knows like?

It would be like the psi corps in B5. Or the Janissary corps. The mage's guild would hunt adolescents in the villages to see which showed gifts and then pick them and school them according to their own ideology. That way they keep control of magic.