Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Mirrors and what they Reflect

Our problem has two main parts. Think of them related to a mirror and reflections.

There was this cafeteria we went to when I was a kid. It was more reliable than good, but Mom and Grandma liked it. And Mom was our rock and Grandma was our darling. Waiting in line we stood between two walls of mirrors.

Yes, I know, no sane Wizard would do that. I was unaware I was a Wizard. Anyway we think of infinite reflections on each side, but there aren't. The information that makes the reflection gets degraded. They faded to a green blur in those mirrors.

Similarly, the near worlds we travel to are complex and Earthlike. The further worlds tend to be far simpler. The cultures of these worlds are also simpler. As an old Sci Fi fan I see these as single biome worlds with planet of hats cultures. But they are just degraded refections of the Earth.

The other half of our problem comes from were we start. Which gets into what the mirrors reflect. Mirrors reflect us. Both professor de la Pole and myself are Star Trek fans. We both became even bigger Doctor Who fans, and we both love Stargate and The Orville. So we tend to both land in high tech worlds. I loved the Arabian Nights as a kid, and I watched all those sword and sandels melodramas. Professor de la Pore, she loves all of the King Arthur stuff. There isn't a single Mercedes Lackey knock off she hasn't read. Consequently, the places I take us to tend to be warmer and drier than were she takes us.

The PCs are Mages, they might call themselves Wizards and Wizardesses. They are desperately trying to find a path to a stable earthlike world. Earth itself is dying. The worlds that the wizards can reach are like projections of a magic lantern. As long as the lantern stays lit, the projections exist. Stuff out the light and the projections cease to exist. To save humanity the wizards must go beyond the illusions to something real, something true. But in any search for the truth your own ego is likely to get in the way.

Each searcher going out into Earth's projections tends to find his fears and desires reflected back at them.

The near worlds, called the Rose Worlds, are nearly as complex as the Earth itself. Many are "Print the Legend" heightened reflections of Earth. Many are reflections of our myths and the most popular and/or enduring fictions, legends, etc.

As you go further from Earth the reflections degrade and simplify. This gives you single biome single culture worlds. Although worlds where Tarzan's jungle gives way to a sandy desert with no transition are definitely to be found on the way there.

But if the path out of illusions and too a real world can be found by magic, it will be found out where the reflections of the Earth are most degraded. Where the world's are simplest. Complexity would give the real world away.

Basically, a mystical detective story set in the shadows of Space Opera and Planetary Romance.

More later I must go.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

A friend told me that the one above had good ideas but was unplayable. She also said to rework the idea. So here goes...

The Mirror of the Rose

Calm down now. Yes we aren't U.S. military and this isn't an emergency shelter. At least not in the way you think it is.

As you know freak storms, anomalous beasts, and other stranger phenomena, have been killing millions of people. We've brought you to a place off the Earth.

Calm down now!

This is a place of safety. We did kidnap all of you. But we took you from where you would have been murdered and/or enslaved, they enslave the living and the dead. We've brought you to a place of safety and good climate and soil. We've got a good start on a town. You can survive here and build your future.

No, no one can return to the Earth. The Earth is dying.

Yes, we've left the Earth. That's why I am talking to you people in this open field at sunset.

Look behind you, the moons are rising.

Due to unending feuds among Mages and supernatural beings Earth is dying. The dying is picking up speed and it won't be pretty. In fact hell will more or less literally be unleashed on the Earth. That's why your group of Mages and allied supernaturals are going out and rounding up whole communities of people and taking them to off world places of safety.

Basically, Black Ops with supernaturals running the show. You might have the supernatural community co opt the military, which would be very smart because they do know their jobs.

There would be different sorts of operations. Some would be straight up con jobs luring people to transport with various promises. Some would resemble military operations. Like rolling up to a college, announcing an emergency evacuation and getting everybody into buses. Or going to small rural towns and evacuating the people.

Given first, human contrariness, people might resist. Second, given rival supernaturals, things might not want their larder to escape. These evacuations can be complicated.

Setting up the new off world communities would involve their own complex campaigns. As written, humanity is being divided between several hundred worlds to both reduce conflict and make finding all of humanity much harder.

After all, the rival supernaturals want humans too. And not in the good way.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Yeah, she is right. The Mirror of the Rose is a good one and could be very interesting and a lot of fun. I'd play in something like that.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It's a very flexible frame. You can do dozens of types of extractions. Luring prominent people and skilled professionals and trades people. Simply hijacking a plane full of people and taking them to safety. The subtle to spectacular range is great.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Sail Away

The wars are going against our allies your Highness. Soon the Goblin armies of Gog and Magog will conquer all the human lands to the sea. Our islands will not long remain safe.

But despair not. We of the council of magi have discovered a ray of hope.

There are fertile islands, in total area substantially larger than your kingdoms all together, across the sea. We Mages believe we can get our people safely there and reestablish your realms in safety.

Basically, this is a multilayered campaign. In the New Lands you have a TL3 magically assisted colonial settlement. Since in our real history early colonial administrators called the Native Americans "elves" (even depicting them with green skin in some drawings) why not have TL2 elves be the natives in this world.

Meanwhile, you could have an ongoing naval war against the Goblin hoards. Further, tensions between the continental refugees and the locals could be a serious problem. Though the practical realization among the nobility that settling in the new lands will destroy their authority will also breed resistance.

It's a setting that can support multiple campaigns.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Make these Elfquest elves, instead of sophisticated Tolkein-style elves, and this could be fun.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

That was pretty much the idea. Forgive me for not stating that.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Unfamiliars

"Ah, Mr. Jameson. Take a seat. We've been getting a lot of complaints about how you're treating your familiar. You haven't been engaging in operant conditioning at all, neither reinforcement nor punishment. On top of that, you're spoiling it by letting it eat at the table, sleep in your bed, feeding it unhealthy foods... I even understand you've taken to dressing up in little outfits! All this inhumane treatment could end up stunting your development as a mage!"

<You could just ask me if I thin--> *squirt squirt squirt*

"See what I mean! It doesn't even know how to remain silent."

At the Aurora Academy for Arcane Arts, they magic they teach relies less on an innate ability than to work locally available magic, but instead channel and control magic from other planes. To do this, aspiring mages fuse their soul with whichever creature they feel on a parallel ley line, and drag them onto the material plane to complete the subordination of the familiar. It's not their fault the familiars are sapient sometimes.

Now, you may have had some troubles before you went off on that long walk in the woods, but I'm pretty sure "being brainwashed by high school student" was on the agenda. And don't even think about trying to get out of this with your fists; if they get hurt, you feel all of it, but when you get hurt, they feel almost none of it. So now you're thinking, "maybe I can run? I can blend in if I cut that string round my neck" Well, good news, bad news about that string: it's not physically there, but the mage your bound to can trace you with their end.

Pretty bleak, right? Well, there are some ways out of this mess. Many student mages haven't fully internalized the idea that familiars are dumb as rocks yet. And you'd know, you can read their thoughts just fine. They can do the same back at you, but usually they don't expect to find anything worth the trouble, (apart from maybe seeing out your eyes). But say the mage you're bound to is less flexible, what can one do? Well, all the magic they cast is really just powered by you. No reason you can't copy their rituals and get the same, if not better, results.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

So, does the familiar die if the mage does? Are they linked that intimately?

Because, based on the short description, the best possible choice is to go all Bene Gesserit on their slaver asses, and remain in the trap long enough to kill them all.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Brobdinag: In a far away realm the gigantes dwell, human-shaped beings so large that we are to them as mice are to us. They do not dwell there alone and often do they contest with with the similarly large multi-tentacled hekatons, as well as the great dragons that dwell there as well. The cyclopes live there as well although they are barely thigh-high to the gigantes, and they are greatly valued for their skill at metalwork. Within that realm also dwell the smallest of all speaking folk, the humans. Often regarded as vermin by the large folk of that realm, only a few see the benefits that can come from an alliance with some of the small creatures and how their intelligence and small size can allow them to excel at both honest craftsmanship and darker deeds of espionage and assassination.

In that land is an imprisoned lady of noble birth, one who could lay claim to a large estate were she free. And with a great deal of time on her large hands, she has had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of a community of humans who dwell largely unnoticed in her captor's fortress. Thus one such alliance begins to form...