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...

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Yes, but not the other way around. Unless, you know, you time it right with when the mage does the regular ritual to ensure the pain's only one way. Or you figure out the ritual yourself.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Or you say, "screw it," and strap a bomb to yourself, and kill your own master mage along with as many of his colleagues as possible, all at once.

(I think it's safe to say that my understanding of how this campaign should proceed may differ, somewhat, from the GM's expectations....) 8)

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Well, to that I'd say, where going to get a bomb? Either way, the setting's engaged with and the game continues. The story of how a bound familiar persuades a mage that their system of binding unsuspecting creatures from another dimension is morally wrong, the story of how a "familiar" learns magic and imprisons a mage because they're the familiar's phylactery, and the story of how an unwilling familiar blows up a lecture hall are all equally valid stories.

Though I suppose I ought to have emphasized the fact that the local sapient population has reasons why they don't think any of the familiars are sapient. Most are simple animals (small mammals, birds, reptiles), emphasizing that extraplanar sapients are anomalous, extraplanar sapients are confusable with animals (i.e. they have hairless plains apes no more sophisticated than chimpanzees), not implying the abducted sapients are human or semi-human, etc. Maybe I should have written it from a more objective perspective.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I was expecting more elemental forms, actually. Ones associated with fire, water, body, mind, motion, and so forth.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Mouse Wars

Although the humans clearly don't understand any animals, let us remember to be understanding. Although many of us harbor ill feelings towards humans they too are part of the Most High's plan of creation.

That is why the Mouseinauti must be stopped. Genocide is evil in itself, but summoning demon lords you can't dismiss is madness!

Our council of mouse wizards must stop these fools!

Basically, Mage: the Ascension with mice. Take any twelve trads you like and create the good guys. Then take twelve of the more obnoxious groups to be the villains. Paradox comes from being caught by humans. All sorts of animal Mages can get burned. Humans, because they generate paradox, allow reality itself stability. The Mouseinauti believe that eliminating humans and paradox would mean freedom for all. The Council believes it will mean madness and death for all.

The fight is on!

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Mouse Wars sounds very similar to Things That Go Squeak in the Night by Gallant Night Games. You might want to check it out, since World of Darkness was one of the inspirations.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

You caught me. I was trying to file the serial numbers off of Things That go Squeak in the Night . I definitely plan to buy that game. And my gaming group seems interested.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Border and the Road

We of Aladore have always had the advantage over Dacia. Our lands are warmer, fairer, greater in extant, and gifted with stronger magics. I am told that magic is so weak in Dacia that many common and useful spells aren't even possible. Even the charm to recover mystic energy can't be cast. Little wonder that we always had the precedent.

But now strange things are happening. The Dacians have learned new arts. They steer their ships by pocket watches and measure their land by looking at the stars. That seems mad, but it works. They also organize their armies in strange new ways and field terrifyingly large armies. This war may go against us.

Basically, Aladore is a classic Chivalric Fantasy setting. A Normal Mana TL3 setting based on the most glamourous aspects of Medieval France and Spain. And a very print the legend take on the trope. Dacia is a series of Islands to the Northwest of Aladore. They were a Low Mana fantasy remix of the British Isles that could be described as Anglo-Celtic. They were TL3. Due to connections being made to distant realms they've gone from a late Medieval TL3 to an mid Eighteenth century TL5.

As you can imagine the power balance has changed. Aladore isn't helpless. People with Magery are one hundred times more common in Aladore. Magical skills are more widely studied and skills like Alchemy more broadly known.

Still, knights versus pirates anyone?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Gate of Saturn and Apollo

It seems to be some combination of the old clock up on top of the building and walking these stairs at the right time. You can climb or descend the years as well as the stairs.

It seems to be a building secret. There's something like a jinx on anyone who tries to publicize this thing. But word does get to a few. There's an actuary in this building that knows which people not to insure.

Bet the horses? It doesn't quite work that way.

Time travel in this building seems to be limited by the orbit of Saturn. We can go back or forth one Saturnian year at a time. You can't go to anytime before the clock on top of the building started nor can you go to anytime after that same clock stops.

No, I don't know why it stopped. I just hope it wasn't the end of the world.


Saturn's year is 29.45 Earth years. Pick when you want the building built and the clock started and stopped. It lets you link a series of time periods to each other in a stable pattern. If the building with the clock (as written an office building in a large city) is built and the clock started in the 1880s. You can link the 1880s, the 1910s, the 1940s, the 1970s, the 2000s, and the 2030s, in one campaign with PCs and NPCs coming from any of those time periods. I chose Saturn's year. But there are multiple cycles that you could link the clock to.

Possibilities for PCs might include Private Investigators. Even with the time limits the ability to investigate before a crime happens can turn up some interesting clues. Similarly, tracing someone who went missing forty years ago is easier if you pop back thirty years.

Many other mystery scenarios can be worked into the setting because the limited time travel keeps the PCs from being all powerful.

Time travel can also provide a safe house. If someone has to disappear, taking them to the past or future seems a pretty good bet.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Premise for a play by post campaign.

You are on the losing side of a succession war, and the victors are not inclined to be generous. Not only are they going to kill those of you who actually fought, but they also intend to eradicate your entire families and all memory that they ever existed. You have only one hope, a quest to find the spell to open a planar gate, allowing all of your surviving kin to flee to an empty world beyond your enemies ability to reach or even find you.

You get the spell, you test it and scout out several worlds until eventually you find one filled with life but seemingly devoid of natives who might object to your intrusion. With time running out you make your escape and close the door after you. All seems well until about a hundred days later when a keen eyed skywatcher notes that far off in the distance there are lights descending and ascending. Your team of scouts is dispatched to the east to discover what strange magic could be causing such a thing. The trip is mildly dangerous since a native predator has not learned to be cautious of your kind.

When you arrive you discover the beginning of another settlement not unlike your own in some ways, and very unlike in others. A circular pad made of stonelike substance is nearby and on it is a strange metal tower which after being unloaded of people and square containers ascended back into the sky on a pillar of fire.

The people are much like yours in appearance although they have round ears and no horns. But before you can learn much, one of the metal totems surround their community begins to make a loud noise and one of your scouts falls, their blue blood spraying the ground.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Doorkeepers

It used to be that there were many doors between the two sides of the world. This led to chaos and misery. Cradles robbed and changelings left, the dead drinking the life of the living, curses, plagues, endless sorrow. Then our order of Wizards decided to control the boundary. Almost immediately we had the Renaissance.

Now seven centuries later humanity is has settled the solar system and has developed superluminal flight. Obesity is a greater problem worldwide than starvation even in the poorest lands. More people get to go to university now than could read in medieval times.

But many people hate this world. When freedom and prosperity are common deference and submission are rare. There are people out there in the world who can't enjoy even the most exquisite wines unless they know others are thirsty. There are those who can't savor the taste of pheasant or lobster unless they know others are hungry. They can't enjoy being healthy, strong, and beautiful, unless they know others are denied vital medical care. These people want to rip the barriers down and drown all light and hope.

Our duty is to guard the doors between the two sides of the world and secure the right of humanity to choose its own fate.

Basically, the PCs are Wizards and Wizardesses ("witches are another category dear") who regulate passage between our mundane reality and the other world of ghosts, faeries, and stranger things. Both the beings of the other side of the world and rival groups of magic workers want to break the control in order to gain increased power over humanity.

The governments of many lands are becoming slowly more aware of the magical demimonde. As they gain awareness they gain a desire for power over this other border. Many of the Rival factions are beginning to link up with the government to break the Doorkeepers.

First shatter the doors then devour the world. At least that's the plan.

Note: Use Transhuman Space as a guide to the general tech level.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Wouldn't the closest analogue in English be sorceress: I've never heard of a female wizard.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Tolkien doesn't do much in the East and South. Why not explore there a bit. The battle against the Forces of Evil must be going on and perhaps the Blue Wizards are doing their part (alternately and perhaps more likely they turned traitor and are the bad guys).

Some of Aragorn's adventures before LotR.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The culture of the southeastern lands of Middle Earth would be a romantic blend of various southwest Asian cultures. Tap GURPS: Arabian Nights and GURPS:Castle Falkenstein: Ottoman Empire for the details. From what I've heard of Tolkien's notes the Blue Wizards count as more misdirected than evil. Which would keep you away from standard evil wizard tropes.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Wizardess was frequently used in the 16th through 18th centuries. Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter refers to the Governor's sister as a Wizardess. Many works by witch hunters in the 17th century preferred to use the word "wizardess" over witch.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

That's a great idea. It has to have subtleties. The Rohirrim and the Men of Dale are kind of like the Russ (who were real cavalry Vikings) but the Rohirrim were regimentalized in a way that looks rather like British cavalry (each Eored is about the size of a squadron). Likewise you have to make the Easterlings and Southerns have something that is a little different than Turks and Arabs.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

That's why blending the two would work well. The Arabs and the Turks (not to mention the Persians/Iranians) are profoundly different peoples. Mix and match to create new cultures.

Also pray for the publications of GURPS: Medieval Persia and GURPS: Mogul Empire.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Sergeants and Witchdoctors

Well Colonel, learning what the local practitioner did and how he did it was self-defense. The priest, or whatever the locals call him, Witchdoctor doesn't sound right, put hexes on my men. So I learned some of his craft from this local lady I've been keeping company with. Then I hexed the priest right back.

Yes, I think I hexed the priest. Why else would he glow in the dark?

Basically, this is a Weird War II game. The local spellcasters on these South Pacific islands don't like the troops. The boys in uniform (or largely out of uniform both because of the heat and a local mold that ruins clothes) are spending to much time with the local women. Plus they give them gifts! So the spellcasters hex the men.

However, where there is a will... The men have gotten the local women to teach them magic (some of the guys have gotten men to teach them magic, but they keep that on the down low).

Now, without offending the Brass or fouling up the war effort it's a battle of wits and witchery!

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

You Again!

Now I have a plan to get the mortal folks to believe in us again. It came while I was reading some mortal books and magazines. The first inspiration was from an old children's book called The Ship That Sailed to Mars. It was by one of those illustrators that made all of us Faerie Folk look like sugary twits. All you need to know is that in the book a man needed to go to Mars for spiritual reasons and the faeries in the book built him a space ship.

What's a space ship? It's a vehicle that flies between worlds.

Yes, mortals are thinking of making that sort of thing. Which brings me to my other source of inspiration. Science Fiction, no I can't define it. But I can say that a lot of it involves space ships and people traveling to other worlds. Like Sinbad and Gulliver but traveling beyond the moon using technology.

How does that help us? Simple, they also tell tales of people from other worlds (they call them Aliens) traveling to Earth. And lots of people believe in aliens who don't believe in faeries. So, let's all dress up in tin foil and drive the humans nuts as spacemen!

Basically, the faeries are back and you are them. The early twentieth century boom in illustrated children's books ruined the credibility of the faeries. So now the faeries are dressing up as space people and building flying saucers to get their street cred back.

Problem, these guys calling themselves Black Ops are hunting the Fay down and they are dangerous. Well the Daoine Sidhe don't back down.

This is Black Ops from the other side. The Lords of the Daoine Sidhe aren't weak. And the faerie folk are tricky but the FBI is damn scary!

Set this in the late 1940s just as the first UFOs are coming out. If you have a good sourcebook on the Shaver Mysteries then you can get the faeries all dressed up as Deros and Teros to freak the mundanes. Just don't get caught by military intelligence.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Wizardess is a real word. There is a different feel between Sorcerer and wizard and this carries over to Wizardess for me. At least Astromancer avoid calling female wizards "witches."

I, male, was a witch for around 20 years.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Living your Mask

We are the Ogri. Called Ogres by outsiders. Blessed by the Night Mother. But times are against us. Once we could rule openly. Now we must hide even from others of our own kind.

Still, we are blessed by the Night Mother. We used to be able to feast in secret upon those whose ships we lured onto the rocks. Now the king's men hunt us even here in Cornwall.

We must hide, maybe for generations. We must abstain from eating manflesh. But we must preserve the sacred rites of the Night Mother until we can once again walk openly.

Basically, the PCs are descended from groups of Ogres that swore off cannibalism generations ago. You still venerate the Night Mother (a form of Hecate) and benefit from enhanced abilities. Dropping cannibalism, murder, and crime, has been great for the Ogri. Ogres are stronger than humans, also healthier, somewhat longer lived, and normally a bit smarter too. Most Ogri are also better at magic as well. Mind you those Ogres that eat manflesh regularly are much more powerful. But who wants to be a cannibal? Hiding in the shadows never knowing when the police will find out the truth. Ogres have secrets enough to deal with.

Of course those Ogres that give in to power lust and eat manflesh aren't just a problem for the common men. They also like eating Ogres. To maintain their powers and longevity, those Ogres that eat manflesh can eat either one human a month or one ogre a year. Even the Ogre cannibals can do math.

We are going with the Breton/Cornish Ogres here. These Ogres look like normal humans. They are different stronger, more agile, healthier, tougher, smarter, better looking, with keener senses, and a gift for magic. However, those Ogres that eat manflesh are much more powerful. They also gain a limited form of Remarkable Luck that only works to help them get away with murder ( literally, their luck advantage only works to keep them from being discovered to be murderers and cannibals).

The PCs are normal late Victorian Ogres trying to live a respectable life in Britain. Avoiding being eaten by your crazy relatives is a worthwhile goal. Though not always easy.

Note: Magic in this setting is Path/Book. Ritual Aptitude is available to PCs. The more powerful Ritual Adept abilities are only available to cannibal Ogres.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

That is wonderful.

OK. Another addition to the long list of campaigns I'll never have time to run.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

These are also great creatures for any Cabal campaign.
I'll keep them on the back-burner, as part of the menagerie the players in Facets never bothered to look into. 😉

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Yeah. Might put them in my current Monster Hunter campaign.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Hero fell. The Hellmouth opened wide, and the hordes of the Demon Realm poured out, conquering the human world. The great kings have either bent the knee to the might of the Demon King or died in futile combat. Only a few scattered city-states remain under the control of humanity.

... but it turns out life under the Demon King is an improvement. The demons brought with them the agricultural technology that allowed them to grow food in the inhospitable Demon Realm - and in the fertile human world, this allows land to produce unheard-of yields, yet without depleting it of the necessary resources to grow further generations of crops. Demonic craftsmen can work wondrous devices out of steel, bronze, and wood - and are more than willing to share knowledge with their human peers. Slavery has been abolished, and former serfs have been granted rights over the land where they live and work (limited rights, but far more than they had as serfs). People have never been more free and equal in any of written history, and the human world is experiencing a golden age.

Aside from those few scattered city-states mentioned above, where Lords rule over their populace with an iron fist. That's where the PC's come in. Disguised as refugees from another city-state that has recently "fallen to the demon horde," their objective is to find some way to loosen the Lords' control over the populace, allowing the city-state to be incorporated into the greater Demon King-ruled world, ideally with minimal loss of life. How they do this is up to them. Will they infiltrate the military forces and stage a coup? Rouse up the downtrodden masses so they rise up and overthrow their cruel masters? Secretly spread word of the outside world, helping the workforce to escape and draining the Lords of their resources? Perhaps they will instead assassinate key officials, weakening the Lords' grasp over the city-state and allowing another method of overthrowing it... or work completely outside the box, befriending the local Lords and convincing them to cede power, perhaps in exchange for some goods and/or services.

... or perhaps the PC's will begin to question their saccharine memories of abundant food, freedom, and happiness. Might they themselves be ensorcelled, led to believe they are liberating this city-state, when in reality they are delivering the population to the hungry maws of literal demons? When they arrived, they spun a horror story of demons overrunning their former home - raping, pillaging, and burning their way through it. What if that were the truth? What if they are condemning this new city-state to the same fate?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

If I ran this, I'd want to time things just right such that I add a demon PC (a shapeshifter or something to justify why they weren't caught at the gates) just as the players reach maximum paranoia.

Then again I always want to turn RPGs into social deduction so...

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

If going the "paranoia" route, my inclination would probably make this a non-option - I'd have the PC's discover the city-state has some sort of secret barrier around it that makes demons unable to enter, and also discover that whichever method they've come up with to liberate the people is one that will also destroy the barrier. Almost as though the idea was planted in their minds, and they only had the illusion of choice...

The reason for the "probably" qualifier there is that it may that what they've already done has weakened the barrier enough that, while a demon army can't just march in and raze the place, a few weak demons (like the shapeshifter that just joined them) can get through.


All that said, my headcanon for the setting would be that the characters' memories are accurate, and things really are better under demonic rule. However, this softhanded treatment of the humans doesn't actually sit well with a lot of the demon horde - the high-ranking demons went into the war wanting to take the humans' lands for themselves, and the low-ranking demons lost a lot of friends to human opponents in the war - particularly to the Hero. What they themselves are unaware of is that the Demon King's apparent change of heart on how to deal with the humans is on account of a secret alliance between said Demon King and the human Hero (who by all accounts perished in their fight). So there would be plenty of intrigue for the characters to potentially work their way through, even then.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

A few extra notes. The non cannibal Ogres have leveraged their looks, intelligence, health, and longevity (aided by magic) to play the marriage markets. As there is always a surplus of daughters over sons in an Ogre family, marrying up was a good strategy.

Male Ogres almost always marry female Ogres though. The gifts of the Night Mother's Blessing can pass down from mother to daughter, from mother to son, from father to daughter, but never from father to son. If a male Ogre wants his sons to be Ogres, he needs to have his children with a female Ogre.

The Cannibal Ogres on the whole don't try to marry up. That would bring too much attention. So although the Cannibal Ogres are more powerful than the non cannibal Ogres, they are generally less socially prominent and connected.

If a Cannibal Ogre fails to eat either one human a month or one Ogre a year, their extra powers and abilities can't be used. If a Cannibal Ogre has a strength of 25 which he increased from 16, and hasn't eaten manflesh or Ogre flesh within the required time, he can't use the extra strength. The same goes for all other heightened abilities except longevity.

If a Cannibal Ogre is multiple years older than they look, and they fail to eat either manflesh or Ogre flesh in the required time they begin to age at the rate of one month a day. This takes them to their actual age. And then goes back to the normal aging rate.

If a Cannibal Ogre ages into the part of the life cycle where they take aging rolls, then they take them on the twelve days equals a year schedule.

Cannibal Ogres will generally do anything to avoid this fate.

Given the social setting of most Victorian educational institutions Cannibal Ogres almost never pursue higher education and don't go into the skilled trades often. So, although most Cannibal Ogres are far more intelligent than average their skill sets aren't always impressive.

The non cannibal Ogres have applied themselves to education and the skilled trades. Thus they have advantages in general knowledge.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Sky Brothers

I've been a witch for many long years. I've long outlived my youngest sister's great grandchildren. But this was new.

It was round and made of metal. It glowed softly and floated and soared with no visible (even to witch sight) means of propulsion. It was large enough to contain a manor house of a wealthy lord.

Men came out of it. Or things like men.

No, I have seen elves. Beded one or two. These were strange men. Men from beyond the sky.

Basically, witches, faeries, wizards, maybe a dragon or a giant, have to deal with spacemen! As written, assume the technology and social backgrounds suggested by the movie Forbidden Planet . But with a more progressive take on diversity.

The PCs are the magical beings and are interested in discovering who these strange visitors from another planet are.

Note: Different factions among the local supernatural folks might have differing agendas in relation to the spacemen. Some may seek friendship, others potion ingredients.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Sane Wizards of Mars

It takes a lot to keep this all hidden. We'd have made other choices but who knew science would work so well. Or so quickly.

It's like a Bradbury story. Or, maybe it's like the Twilight Zone put Mayberry on Mars!

Your metaphors are getting out of hand. These are actually rather normal mid-20th century Midwestern American towns.

On Mars and run by Wizards!

I suppose that is rather dramatic.

Basically, wizards foresaw cataclysmic events they couldn't understand in the 17th century. The Wizards of Oxford and Cambridge had found the way to travel to Mars from a temple of Nodens. Mars is drier and smaller than Earth, but livable. The Wizards have obscured this since the 1890s. Lowell got too close.

Mars was picked as a garrenteed safe haven. Smuggling large numbers of people to a far world and keeping it a secret was never going to work from Britain. So passages to Mars were set up in America. First in Pennsylvania, then in the Midwest and California. The great depression and the 1960s were particularly easy times for people to disappear.

But now as the long predicted cataclysm grows near, it suddenly seems unsure. As if humanity might yet avoid disaster. This joyous news is also scary. Keeping the true nature of Mars secret won't be possible soon. Keeping NASA's rovers busy was hard enough. But if humanity avoids disaster, then the population on Mars will be discovered and the Wizards that created this community will face the fury of their enraged peers. Furious at magic being exposed as real.

These bitter magi could create their own cataclysm and guarantee no survivors.

You must protect two worlds from the mad vanity and insane paranoia of the other Wizards.

Post apocalypse standard fantasy world
 

I originally sketched this out for the Forgotten Realms (In second edition, when characters like Elmister and Alustriel walked the earth.) It can work with any fantasy game.

A lot of fantasy worlds have a huge underdark, with enormous caverns, underground oceans, etc. Somehow, the surface oceans don’t flood them—probably some divine protection added into other things.

But, the ongoing war between elves and drow, and between dwarves and deep dwarves, combined with a surge of illithid problems, resulted in a change to that.

One group of heroes was faced with the consequences of this war again and again, and gradually grew more and more willing to adapt extreme measures. In particular, three great Drow cities and the primary Ilithid nation were the targets. It was a welcome bonus that a few other dark communities were in the expected flood zone. The Deep Gnome communities and a few others were categorized as “acceptable losses.”

It took a century, but they broke the protections against flooding—and at the same time, shattered the barriers between the greatest ocean and the underdark in several places, including the great inner sea.

The results were more than the association had expected. Fault lines they had triggered broke with more violence than they’d dreamed of, and the oceans poured into the underdark, accompanied by earthquakes and volcanoes. Cities below were wiped out, miles wide sinkholes opened up above ground. The great Inner Sea was reduced to a few small lakes separated by miles of exposed sea bottom, and a massive sinkhole.

The association DID accomplish their desired results—the Drow are all but extinct, Mind Flayers likewise. Essentially, the entire western underdark has been destroyed. And there are connections between various regions—and every so often, another one gives way, and more of the underdark is opened to flooding.

Even underground seas were all but depopulated of everything smaller than microbes, as the pressure change crushed almost everything.

Now, decades later, the old inner sea bottom has collapsed into the sinkhole, and in one place, is over 10 MILES deep. (Not an error; it’s the deepest known sea in the world, since it flooded into two subterranean seas) Its sea level is much lower than it used to be, only a little higher than the ocean.

This is geologically unstable, and the shore is bound to collapse soon.

Here and there enclaves survived by one means or other—usually mighty magics. Some of them have continued to survive, but others fell as, for example, Drow and Deep Gnomes that had combined their power to survive, fell back to fighting.

The surface is a MESS! Sea Levels have dropped a few hundred feet, devastating portside economies. In some places, the earthquakes created Tsunamis, wiping out coastal communities. Even now, decades after the crash, massive shifts are causing more earthquakes throughout the continent. Places that see earthquakes are seeing them more often, and more severely, and there’s a few regions that have not seen earthquakes in living (elvin) memory until the event, are now major quake and volcano zones.

There was a year without a summer the first year after the Event, and have been a couple more of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer

Re: Post apocalypse standard fantasy world
 

You've posted this elsewhere? I'm sure I've read this before and been properly horrified by the consequences.

Re: Post apocalypse standard fantasy world
 

Probably. It seemed like a good change on the standard fantasy campaign, while still keeping the trappings everyine was used to. I never did use it. (The group I played with would accept different campaign settings, but only so long as it was a D&D type setting...elves, orcs, and all the trimmings.

One good variant would be for PC's to know that someone's planning this, and try to STOP it.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Days of the Red Sun

Long ago the seas were filled with water. Salt water, but unlike now, fish lived in it.

Fish, they had scales and breathed in the water. Many of them were good to eat. Nothing that could live in the seas now could be eaten.

They had fresh water too. Sometimes lakes of it, miles across. Much smaller than the seas.

It's true. And the sky was blue. Yes. And you could only see stars at night.

Okay don't believe me.

The world is a dry shell of itself. The sun is dying. Wizards have long since opened vast portals to lead the people to new worlds around other stars.

The PCs are scavengers. Picking over the bones of past civilizations and their treasures. Looking to make one last score then run away to the stars.

But the few remaining treasures have bitter guardians. Furious that they are forgotten and abandoned. Hungry for fresh blood and souls.

Basically, a sword and sorcery set up with elements of Steampunk and Planetary Romance.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I want a Promotion!

I got bored just haunting the old manor. The family and servants avoid the places I haunt at the times I haunt them. So there isn't any point to it anyway.

So I just go to the library and find books to read. What else is there to do?

Anyway I found a book on the faeries and it said that these Russian faeries, Rusalky, were only faeries half the year. The rest of the time they were ghosts!

I started looking up anything on ghosts or faeries in the library. It seems that some faeries start out as ghosts and other undead!

I don't know about you guys, but I think being a faery would be a vast improvement over being a ghost. I'm going to find someone who can either change me into a faery or tell me how it's done!

Basically, this is a fantasy quest story were the PCs are a group of Undead (with all the limitations thereof) looking to improve themselves by becoming faeries.

The setting can vary. But it needs to be a high enough tech level for books to be common and cheap.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It seemed like a good idea

Back in 1827 when Dame Amelia Fitzgibbins modified the portable hole charm it seemed so perfect. Extra rooms wherever they were needed.

Tiny apartments in the slums could comfortably accommodate multiple families. Middle class homes had more rooms than Buckingham Palace when it was first built.

Then Dame Fitzgibbins created her tunnel charms. A Duke with an estate in Scotland or Ireland could could connect it with his London townhouse via a few short halls for himself and the servants. One Parvenu Millionaire connected his townhouse in London with both his estate in Cornwall and his new estate in New Zealand.

By the 1890s the British Empire had outposts on Mars Venus and Mercury. London had suburbs on the Moon. London, Dublin, Edinburg, New York, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, Washington, Auckland, Melbourne, Montreal, Halifax, and Honolulu, were effectively one city.

Then about the year 1950 we discovered that these spells could deteriorate with age. Things got strange.

Basically, this is a Gaslight Fantasy Post-apocalyptic setting. Space makes no sense and time is beginning to break down as well. This is a Zauberpunk twist on 1950s London. Listen to the songs the Beatles wrote about their childhoods and the experience of childhood,Penny Lane , Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds , and most of all Strawberry Fields Forever . Then blend with the Alice books for a horror landscape/dreamscape.

For audiovisual inspiration look for the 1966 BBC Alice in Wonderland . Once you remove color and comedy costumes you'll be shocked how quickly Alice becomes horror.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

That inspires a modification. Dame Amelia Fitzgibbins (who is a female version of Digory Kirk's uncle with her messing with stuff she shouldn't) left behind in her will the opening spell a magical doorway. This doorway leads to a Gormenghast like endless three dimensional maze of tunnels filled with strange creatures. It is a dungeon between the worlds or it is a world of it's own? Do the other portals lead to other worlds? And who is in charge anyway?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

From post-modern to traditional dungeon fantasy with Moorcock bells and whistles. Interesting ploy

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Thank you.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It is the Russian Civil War, if you wish to dignify it by such an orderly term as "war". Mad Baron Ungern really has made a deal with an evil spirit (ok maybe he did, he was stupid and evil enough to try, but if so he was scammed). He is planning to take over the world and for all you know he will succeed. He has an amulet that gives him his power and will take it away if destroyed.

The PCs are in a city full of refugees including Reds who got caught in the wrong place, Jews for whom all of the Russian Empire has always been the wrong place and who know the Mad Baron will take his time in killing them, peasants who are starving same as always. They are guarded by unpaid Chinese soldiery who would desert except that there is no where to run and some of them do feel protective toward civilians who are in a worse plight then they. There is also a British Consul keeping a very stiff upper lip guarded by tough Indians, either a squad of dignified Sikhs or perpetually adolescent Gurkhas who are always amiable except when they are not (ok I am running stereotypes a bit). In either case they everyone knows they are doomed to die and the only desire is to make it unpleasant for the Mad Baron's Minions.

Somehow word gets out of the magic amulet. It is the PCs job, of course, to sneak out into the enemy camp and destroy it. If they get caught they will die in a horrible way, no doubt after a gloating speech telling the Evil Plan because the real Mad Baron was just stupid enough to do that instead of shooting his captives.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories. From which we get the Vancian magic and ioun stones from D&D. Both Gary Gygax and myself loved those stories.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Can the decaying tunnels also connect to their counterparts in parallel and divergent timelines? So multiple versions of people with differing histories could pop up? That could go to psychological horror quickly (especially when some poor bastard runs across his dead family, alive again ...).

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I love how your mental illnesses and mine mesh. In one of the two sources I'm stealing from, that kind of thing is part of the plot.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

"All on a Summer's Day"

The Kingdom is held in a single day. Every day the people wake up is the same day. Michaelmas, the festival of the end of harvest. Before the autumn turns cold.Outside of the Kingdom, the Dark Lord reigns. No light of sun, moon, or star, has fallen on the land in a thousand years.

But the Dark Lord has made a mistake. His reign can be ended at certain points in time. We the Archmagi of the Stellar Council have removed this kingdom from Time itself. That we could raise champions to oppose the Dark Lord's tyranny.

You, the Wizard Knights of the Stellar Council must rescue the world from the grip of endless icy night.

Basically, the PCs are warrior mages raised up to fight a brutal Dark Lord. However, these Chivalric warrior wizards are facing an icebound cyberpunk dictatorship.

PCs ought to be 500 point characters that are formidable knight and mages with extra skills.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Thinking on it some more. The PCs probably need to be 750 point characters. This is an over the top setting. Cinematic rules would apply.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The New Warlords

It's these strange new beasts. They may eat grass but they are terrors on a battlefield.

The Chivalry, our foes call themselves. The name has something to do with the beasts they ride. As they don't walk, their warriors wear suits of steel which isn't easy to hack through. Worse, the beasts run so fast. If we can't counter these beasts, all our kingdoms will fall.


Basically, a Dark Lord saved his money and bought a clue. Searching through different worlds and realms the Dark Lord sought a practical advantage. He found horses.

The Dark Lord imported horses and many practical horse related technologies, like stirrups and horse collars. The knights of the Dark Realm aren't that impressive, yet. But they do have the opposition cowed.

The PCs are going to be sent on an interdimensional quest for horses, horse gear, and people with horse sense.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

This is an idea I've had for a while now, heavily inspired by a paragraph in GURPS Fantasy Folk:

It is an older age, shortly after the elves first awakened to behold the wonders of the world of nature. The decadent empires of the lizard people, the sinister fish folk, and the inscrutable insect people still reign over vast swaths of the world and their wars shake it to its foundations. The familiar beasts have not yet come to be and dinosaurs serve in their stead, while elven god-kings begin to reshape the land to make it more suited to the coming Sylvan Age. Something like if the Silmarillion were written by Robert E. Howard for publication with Games Workshop. Can the characters forge an alliance with the primordial, drowsing dragons? Negotiate an agreement with the reclusive, primeval tree herders? Unlock the unfathomably ancient secrets of lizard people sorcery or the horrifying magics of the fish folk? Will they awaken the other Sylvan races, and what does that mean, anyway?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Great actioner. I can see it as an eighties movie.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Oh, for sure. I definitely have things like Deathstalker (II mainly, the others aren't really worth the time), Sorceress, The Warrior and the Sorceress, and so on, maybe even Barbarian Queen, on my mind.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I'd play in this one. :)

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

End of the Golden Age: You live in a time when magic has been industrialized. The affluent are ageless, while even the poorest command one valuable asset, in the form of their own body which can be mortgaged so that in return for subsistence they will join the zombies, skeletons, mummies, golems and Awakened objects who labour for the realm's prosperity. (Well...life kind of sucks for the Soulless minority cursed with Magic Resistance or worse Magic Static who are well known to be unemployable criminals and beggars and can't even sell their afterlife. So far as anyone knows they don't have one.)

Houses are warmed in winter and chilled in summer by water that flows through underground pipes using fire and water elementals. Beast masters magically hybridize and enhance the creatures they steer to turn them into better military weapons. Yes, they made dragons among other monsters. Teleportals allow nigh instant travel between cities. The weather bureau aims the weather with precision to local requirements. Farmers and greenhouses have crop yields that a technological civilization can only dream of. Any suggestions are welcome

Except it's all starting to go wrong as the overstressed mana field begins to warp. Some of those monsters are getting a little too smart. The portals and the weather patterns are getting unstable. The Demon Suppression Squads are getting busier and busier. And the mummies and skeletons oh the mummies and skeletons are turning into a real problem. And there are as many of them as there are of the living.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Return

What did you say your big plan was?

To bring it back. Magic has been fading in this realm since seven sacred treasures were taken from this realm.

You mean to bring back seven pieces of bric-a-brac to save the world.

You see Excalibur before you. And I healed your wounds with the Golden Fleece. Five more relics and we've broken the curse. Already, magic is easier in Britain. Charms that haven't worked for generations are potent again.

Which relics?

The Curse was cast in the West. And cast against the power of the Western Wells.

The Western Wells?

Tubber Tine, the burning well of Irish myth, and Mimisbrunnr, that well which Odin traded his eye for a single drink of, the Fountain of Youth, the Well of the Water of Life, the Fountain of Lions, the Hippocrene, and the Dear Green Place.

Do we need to find the wells to find the relics?

Each must be found together. I found the Golden Fleece in the Hippocrene and Excalibur in the Dear Green Place. The wells and the relics must be separated to save the world.


Basically, someone working in the West sought to cut Europe off from any and all spiritual power. Instead they cut the whole world off from magic. The PCs are questing to break the curse.

The world until about 1947 was about 90% no Mana and 10% Low Mana (there were a few places of higher Mana, but to few to be statistically significant). Now the British Isles and Greece are both 90% Low Mana and 9% Normal Mana, and 1% High Mana always around springs and wells.

The PCs are questing in late 1940s Europe for ancient mystic relics and places of power. Certain far less honorable seekers are after the same relics. Nazis, Stalinists, and other monsters seek the same power for different ends.

Meanwhile, the return of magic isn't always all technicolor sparkles and Disney songs. Magic has many faces. Is the world ready for the return of wonder?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

A civilization that had a magical-industrial renaissance, but only because of the extensive use of self-enhancement alchemy (essentially magical steroids, but more than just strength). But something disrupted the supply, causing the civilization to collapse.

The PCs now roam the ruins, searching for enough traces of alchemy to kickstart a new rise. And constantly questioning if a society should be so dependent on one source of power.....

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The New Borders

When I was young, it was many miles to London. You had to travel through a forest to get there. Most of that forest is gone except for the park where the gentry drive in their fine carriages.

What they don't know is the other Gentry never left. Some of those highway men would be more easily warded off with cold iron than hot lead.

Basically, a once rural area near London (or whichever European city you like) is being built up. Contrary to popular beliefs, fairies can live in cities just fine. They charge and adapt, which can be dangerous if you don't know how they've changed.

This is a mystery/horror campaign set in the outskirts of 18th century London. There are still areas of wilderness within a few miles of the city. Farms, villages, woods, and built up areas are in a fairly random pattern.

The faeries in this setting are just as powerful as in actual English folk belief. Interesting twist. It's a mark of ignorance to believe in the faeries. There is plenty of evidence that most people in this period, even the educated, did believe in faeries. Good luck getting them to admit the same.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Of course. It HAS to be London. But there are some other interesting places. For instance the distributaries of the Thames were swampy and sickness-ridden and few lived a natural life. Maybe King Harold's ghost really is haunting the place where William the Geneologically-challenged buried him under a pile of rocks. And any place along the Thames where something uncanny happens like an eddy or a joining of rivers or whatever. But that is a very good idea on it's own.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Some British (Celtic?) medieval beliefs about the fae had it that they were ghosts themselves who learned various tricks to interact with mortals, so that overlaps pretty well.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Golden Mountain

I had no hope back home. I was not just a younger child, I was the younger child of a concubine. I heard of the land beyond the sea, the land they called the "Beautiful Country" or the "Golden Mountain." I knew I had to try my luck.

This setting takes the story of Asian immigration to the United States of America in the 19th century and looks at the Yokai of Japan and China's Yaoguai. Of course just as the humans of East Asia met the Americans already living there, the Yokai and the Yaoguai have to deal with the local supernatural folks. Mainly European descendant Faeries, but some Native American supernaturals too.

Basically, you're playing a Yokai or a Yaoguai dealing with Faeries, Nunnehine, Ghosts of the locals, plus witches, HooDoos, Conjure Folk, and others. So, go out and meet the new neighbors.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Certamen Circuit

(Got inspired for this one by reading up on Pokemon and that one Pyramid article Codex Duello.)

Modern day alt-history Earth(?), magic exists and it's public and plenty of people use it. Something like Technomancer, maybe?

The PCs are professional wizard duelists out to compete in the sport of Certamen (the "technical" term for magic dueling) across the region. They travel up and down the country, dueling other wizards for prize money, fame and honors. It could just be a straight sports contender thing, or maybe they stumble into villains along the way to the Championship and foil their plans.

Play it like a mixture of the Pokemon games, The Olympics, the first part of that one Harry Potter book, Rocky, classic road trip, and stuff?

If you wanna make it darker, throw in inspiration from Death Race 2000, Thunderdome, Cyberpunk dystopias in general, Rollerball, Tonya Harding getting someone crippled, Roman gladiator games, underground fighting rings, the FIFA scandals, hardcore Kung Fu movies (especially Bloodsport and Game of Death), the Pyramid article Play Stupid Games, etc.

(Check this TVTropes page on Pokemon trainer classes for ideas on the colorful characters PCs could end up dueling.)

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Let's tune up the saturation and set it in a parallel '80s. Cold war tensions, the goal is to show up the Necronists in the World Championships, and for sure there's profiteering and politics going on behind the scenes.

It also makes me think of the Pro Bending circuit in Legend of Korra.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I'd imagine the wild world of sports and their fandoms would be great inspiration.

IIRC, The Dollop podcast had plenty of episodes about whacky sports and sports-stars (baseball in particular), I should check those out.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

This sounds like it might need quite a bit of history/folklore detail knowledge (specifically, lots of knowledge of 19th-century American society and folklore, both native and white, on the GM's part, and some knowledge of Asian society and folklore on the players' part) to pull off. But if you did have that, it sounds like it could have legs.

It might be useful for the magical creatures (of both sides) to have some kind of Invisibility (Except to magical creatures and magicians) ability as default, so the ones that can't pass as human don't have to hide all the time - although those that can pass as human might be able to dispense with that to save points.

I did try to stat a few yokai a while ago, but got stuck trying to work out how to stat the kappa's head-dish.

Native American folklore seems to involve quite a few of the "talking animal" type of story, actually, as does East Asian folklore, so that works out - the coyote people and the kitsunes can sort it out among themselves.



This also sounds like it could have legs. Especially with PTTG's idea. With all that international prestige to play for, maybe the Soviet-expies try to cheat by binding a demon to power up their spells, and then it escapes. And just generally, even just "there is no plot, you just fight a series of magicians" might be some people's idea of a very good game, and if you want more plot than that, well, you're wizards on a road trip, it looks like there's bound to be possibilities in that.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

For Us

My idea is simple. The humans are moving out to other worlds, why can't we?

Out there we'd have the space to grow. Instead of being the "Vanishing People" the fading away people of a forgotten past people don't even believe in, we could renew who we are. Besides, read some Sci Fi, they model most of their aliens in those stories on us. Either visually or in terms of behavior. We elves will make great aliens.

Basically, in what on the surface seems like a Golden Age Sci Fi setting, the Elves and other Faeries are seeking out colonies of their own. Since this is a more or less standard GASFS (Golden Age Sci Fi setting) habitable worlds are plentiful, if not always desirable.

More later I must go.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Sky Elves

Basically, this idea is Flash Gordon (already mainly a swashbuckling fantasy) and simply making it a Fantasy.

Flash Gordon and Dale Arden become high elves. Kirkas Linna is our golden haired warrior, Laaksoon Kaanis is our raven haired investigator, and our Wizard and Alchemist is Armollinen Kuningas.

Much of the Planet Mongo remains unchanged, in fact it all works better as a fantasy realm. Each kingdom initiates it's people (at least it's people of standing) into a sodality. The initiation gives the initiate a Pact in GURPS terms.

Thus the Hawk folk get their wings and keen senses, the shark men get underwater breathing and pressure support, Baron's rangers get their elf like traits, the Lion men gain enhanced strength and endurance. The people of Mongo are one people but the sodalities make them many phenotypes.

Ming is obviously a powerful cleric/mage and the favorite of the god Tao. But Ming worships only half of his deity.

Note: Get Mango a pantheon of its own.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

A pantheon for Mongo.

Tao is the only deity that works as deities in a GURPS Fantasy setting normally do. Ming has allied with the worst aspects of both Tao's Yin and Yang aspects. The other gods are asleep, locked in an enchanted slumber. They can only get in contact with their followers through dreams.

These deities are...

Maat Were Tao is the god of Reality and Authority, his wife is the goddess of Justice, Society, and Order. Tao is the patron of kings. Maat is the Patroness of Assemblies and Law courts. As long as Maat is asleep, absolute monarchy is the only form of government possible on Mongo.

Toirneach and his brother Gherian are the Storm and Sun warriors. Both brothers are gods of battle. Toirneach is the god that brings the rains. He wields the thunder weapon. He is the patron of nomadic tribes and herders. He inspires Bards and Skalds. Gherian is the chariot driver of the Sun. His spear is the lightning. Gherian is the patron of farmers and settled people. Gherian inspires poets and musicians.

Gaelach is the moon queen. She rules the largest and brightest of Mongo's moons. Sister to Toirneach and Gherian. She sails the moon. She is patroness of fisher folk, and those that farm the sea. She is the navigator. She is also the keeper of secrets and Lady of the hidden powers of the world.

Ilargia is an old lady. No one knows where she came from. If Gaelich is the Queen of the brightest moon, Ilargia is the old lady that tends the furthest and darkest of Mongo's moons. She is the Patroness of witches, potion makers, shamans, and the mad. She is the most active of the sleeping gods.

Odol Gorria is the warrior of the red moon of Mongo. She is the youngest sister of Toirneach , Gherian , and Gaelich . She is the goddess of battle and strategy. Her siblings are mighty warriors, she is the cunning warrior.

Nyx and her husband Itzala (night and shadow) pre-existed Tao and Maat. Nyx and Itzala rule the night and the underworld. They guard the spirits of the dead and the cycles of death and rebirth. They keep the houses of purification where the recently dead are cleansed of sin and degradation and readied for rebirth.

The Hirurak the three preceded Nyx and Itzala. The first spins, the second measures, the third cuts. They don't judge, it is of no interest to them. They spin lives, souls are other people's concern.

The realm of Night and the Dead is an island. Peleks is the ferryman who brings the dead across to the island. How long he has done this is unknown even to Nyx and Itzala . Even the Hirurak claim not to know how long. Only that his sins aren't yet forgiven.


More later.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I was completely unable to prevent myself from reading this in the cadence and tones of "candygram for Mongo".

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

What you lack in mental health you make up for in insight and wit. Or that's what I say to myself.

How do you like the parts of the pantheon I whipped up?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I think you might be half-right about me.

They seem all right, though I confess that I'm pretty tired of "Moon Goddess" as a type of deity, perhaps especially when using an Irish word as Her name (the available evidence seems to indicate that the Irish understood the Moon as a masculine figure, and also the Sun as a feminine one, much as do the Germano-Scandinavian and Slavic peoples). That said, I'm interested to see what you do with the Red Moon, and how you plan to keep players from associating Her with the Gloranthan Red Moon Goddess—I presume that it will be by leaning into the white/black/red scheme of the three moons, tying that to something like the Indo-European color scheme that implies. If you do that, though, there's a whole lot more that gets further implied there, from the threefold structure of society to the structure of the cosmos (and since you've already conflated some of the Indo-European deity types, particularly the three kingly ones into something like a god/goddess pair, it doesn't look like you're intending to do that). You could potentially subvert that by adopting the indigenous American Medicine Wheel colors and adding a yellow moon, but I don't know enough about that to offer any advice.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

New Neighbors

When I went through the new mountain pass I came to a strange new land. The crops were grown in artificial swamps. The people wore cotton and silk.

The people were the color of honey. They all had black hair and brown eyes. Their eyes were shaped like almonds.

Basically, two fantasy kingdoms have been placed next to each other. There is a high mountain range between the two kingdoms with a few good passes through. So war is wildly impractical but trade is possible.

The Kingdom west of the mountains is a fairly normal Anglo-Celtic fantasy kingdom with an "Merry England" vibe and plenty of Irish traits (or should I say "Oirish") thrown in. The Kingdom east of the mountains is Chinese, but very much a "Willow pattern plate" highly romantic "print the legend" take on China.

The two kingdoms are friendly but lack any clear understanding of each other.

As both kingdoms have been placed in a new reality there are plenty of adventures to be had beyond their borders. A perfect chance for mixed groups of heroes to adventure together.

Alternatively, you could do "Mulan the Giant Killer." Jack could learn martial arts and fight hopping vampires. Robin Hood could team up with the Outlaws of the Marsh. Faeries could consult with Chinese supernaturals.

Play it your way.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

On the other hand, I think having kind of boring gods just like every other set you've ever encountered is actually a pretty useful feature in a swashbuckling fantasy sort of setting.

If you need more than a minute to describe the gods well enough for the PCs to decide if they should risk their lives to defend the temple from the approaching monsters or loot it themselves before they run, you've probably overdeveloped your pantheon.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It's later.

I'd make the general setting a TL6+3^ or a TL7+2^ one. Most Fay should have a couple of powers Magery should be rarer. And only a few of the most powerful Fay should have realm magic.

Having the Faeries meet "real" aliens should be a blast. It might be best if the "real" aliens were just faeries that left Earth long ago. The Nordics could be elves. The Greys could be some sinister Dwarf varient. While the Reptiloids could be somehow related to dragons.

Having the Faeries realize that humanity is being controlled by a conspiracy of wizards and sorcerers could work too. Especially if the faeries decide this time they're the heroes and stage a rescue.