Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

That could make an interesting setting by itself, although the version drifting through my head at the moment is more superhero-y.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Sounds like Harry Turtledove's Opening of the World trilogy. Two cultures separated by an impassible mountain range until a glacier melts back.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Five Cornered Square

Who dressed that little boy in pink?

Back in the day pink was the boys color. Little girls wore blue, like Alice and Dorothy.

That's weird.

Not at all. It came from soldiers giving their sons their old coats. Red fades to pink. Pink was a mark of young manhood.

The past is a foreign country.

The park was built in 1780 and the new bypass went through in 2054. What no one knew when they built the park was that it was built in a soft place. The nature of this soft place was set when the Masonic Lodge set up the sun dial at the center of the park.

Individuals walking around the sundial sunwise/clockwise can move forward one year per completed trip around the sundial. Those going counterclockwise can go back in time at the same rate. Only full years can be traveled and you always are in the park. (A public space).

Only those with Magery-0 or an equivalent or better advantage can do this. But they can take people with them. It only works in plain sight of the sundial.

As written this is set in London. But any city were a city park might last 274 years could work. The idea is to link as many interesting places and times together as you can.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Mythic History

You're telling me that you've found an inscription that's twenty-eight centuries old for "New Troy Town"!

Calm down, and yes.

Not only is that pushing it for Homer poems being composed, Virgil wouldn't be born for centuries. It would make Geoffrey's chronology possible!

Nothing would make the History of the Kings of Britain possible. But we have a wild mystery here.

Maybe something real inspired Geoffrey's fantasies.

A reality quake has hit Britain Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britannia is now Great Britain's past. With all of the supernatural machinery of Arthurian legend in tow. Suddenly Wiccans have access to actual ancient lore. Folk customs have magical effects. And still more madness.

Basically, the setting blends T.H.White's Once and Future King with Doctor Who: The Daemons. If the PCs are running away from dragons one moment and angry old ladies protesting hedgerow clearance the next, you've got the right tone.

Note: The British Isles are now High Mana.

"Five rounds rapid, the chap with the wings."

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Otherkin

Why move here?

Because we can't live in the forests anymore. There aren't enough deer to live on nor can the women gather enough from the woods.

But live in town with the big folk?

Town folk don't believe in faeries. They'll never find us here.

Basically, this setting takes the long discredited notion that the faeries were a type of European pygmy and runs with it. The faeries moved into the larger cities in the 17th and 18th centuries. The faeries pretty much started with low skill jobs but over the decades became mainly skilled tradesfolk. Tailors, coblers, sutlers, bookbinders, smiths, bakers, etc. any job where skills mattered more than background.

Many of the faeries are part of the demimonde. As with their more respectable brethren, they gravitate to skilled trades. Pickpockets not muggers, burglars not highwaymen, con artists and forgers rather than thugs.

Both the honest and less honest faeries still tend to have "gifts." ESP (the sight), precognition, and Dream Omens are fairly common. Path/Book Magic is rarer than it used to be, but far more common than among humans. Luck advantages are very common as is the ability to inflict bad luck for short periods.

The faeries in this setting tend to be four inches shorter than humans of the same sex and strength. Although almost always pale skinned, the faeries almost always have black hair and eyes. The faeries tend to be slender. The faeries have plus one to both Dexterity and Constitution. The faeries also have plus three to perception and the Sensitive advantage.

As written these faeries are meant to be part of a low magic or hidden magic steampunk setting.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Destroying all the Ladies...

When we marched down to Fernario, /
when we marched down to Fernario, /
the Captain fell in love with a maiden like a dove/ They called her by name pretty Peggy -O

What will your mother think pretty Peggy-O/
What will your mother think pretty Peggy-O/
What will your mother think when she hears the guineas clink/
The soliders all marching before you-O

In a carriage you will ride pretty Peggy-O/
In a carriage you will ride pretty Peggy-O/
In a carriage you will ride with your true love at your side/
As fair as any maiden in the area-O

Come skipping down the stairs pretty Peggy-O/
Come skipping down the stairs pretty Peggy-O/
Come skipping down the stairs combing back your yellow hair/
And say goodbye to Sweet William-O

Sweet William is dead pretty Peggy-O/
Sweet William is dead pretty Peggy-O/
Sweet William is dead and he died for a maid/
As fair as any maiden in the area-O

If ever I return pretty Peggy-O/
If ever I return pretty Peggy-O/
If ever I return, all your cities I will burn/
Destroying all the ladies in the area-O!

Basically, a faerie tale version of the old West. The song, (look up the Joan Baez version on YouTube, the name is Fernario) transposes the events of The Maid of Fyvie-O from medieval Scotland to the Old West. I suggest using the setting of the Old West for a fantasy campaign. Retain the Tech Level of five, keep swords (they did use them in the Old West) add six-shooters. Either use the supernatural creatures of Western folklore and Native American myth, or simply have the Native Americans be elves. (If you do the latter give them the wildness of Elfquest elves and the dignified grandeur of Tolkien's elves).

Blend Western plots with high fantasy plots and the action and intrigue of the Anglo-Scots border wars. (In many ways the Old West was the Anglo-Scots borders transposed to North America).

I'd suggest either normal or high Mana. Just have the railroads beginning to come into the area.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Strange Seas

The enchantress was a granddaughter of Dione herself, her curse placed us in a two thousand year slumber. Dione, deciding her granddaughter was cruel, sought the aide of Poseidon, Proteus, Amphitrite, and Medea, to transform us to hide and protect us.

That's why we're underwater and most of us are merfolk?

Yes my Lord.

Can the gods undo this?

If we could speak to them I am sure they might. But the gods seem to be missing.

The western city fell into an enchanted slumber just as the news came of Troy's fall. Now they are awake again and it seems that Athens and Rome have come and gone. Plus the seas are stranger than in ancient days.

Basically, the PCs are heroes sent out of their city to explore the mysterious realms of the seas and rediscover the lands they city-folk came from.

The PCs look like ordinary humans (most of the city-folk are merfolk now) and can survive equally well on land or sea. They are totally ignorant of the world of 800AD. And the seas are as mysterious to them as to surface folk.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

We Hidden Ones

Once these were our lands, now we hide in shadows and avoid the sound of bells.

Basically, this takes the discredited theory that the faeries were a pygmy people living in Europe from ancient times and either dying out or marrying in to the dominant groups in their areas at different times between the end of the middle ages and the early 18th century. The fans of Margret Murrey's Witchcult in Western Europe still support this theory.

Basically, assume a TL2 people living in Britain and Ireland in the late 1400s. The adults of this group are about a foot shorter than ordinary humans of the same ST. This can vary. Being able to pass for an ordinary human should be a Perk. Being instantly spotable as one of the "Little People" is an Unnatural Feature .

The faeries use whatever magic system your fantasy England uses. They use it far more often than ordinary humans, but they are more primal/primitive in how they use magic. The Faeries always have special talents with illusion and invisibility.

As faeries the PCs are trying to survive both as individuals and a tribe. They make sure to avoid the officials of both Church and State.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Renewed Well

Sally is a cousin of ours from America, a great great Uncle, or something like that, married a Welsh Woman and moved to America. Any way, Sally's father works at the US embassy in London and her mother is at Cambridge for something involving science. I think someone mentioned British Rocket or something like that.

Anyway, Sally is always wanting to explore the estate like it was something exotic. Maybe it is to her as an American girl from Berkeley in California.

To get back to my story, she was exploring that totally boring Roman villa ruin down by the river bank. She was looking at the ceremonial room, or that's what the archeologist called it. She said she heard a voice from the well. So she went and pulled up the stone that blocked the well.

Even for someone as stubborn as Sally Kelly that took some doing. Sally, who's better at Latin than you'd think an American girl would be, talked with something from the well. I didn't get all the details, our school focuses on Greek and Modern Languages, middle class boys take Latin, and I will be a Baronet.

Anyway, Sally says the magic is coming back and the old gods with it.

It could make the summer interesting.

Basically, Sally Kelly has opened a portal to other worlds in early 1960s Britain. Her distant, and somewhat distainful, cousin Neville Mandeville, thinks it may be mildly amusing. Already his family estate in the Cotswolds has Normal Mana, Sally and Neville have gained Magery-5 but are only slowly becoming aware of changes in themselves, which both of them being twelve, they assume have other causes. Everyone else living on the estate has gained Magery-2. The entirety of the Cotswolds is now Low Mana, but rising. The area of Mana is spreading. Every time an area of Mana is enveloped (this world was No Mana with areas of Very Low Mana scattered around the landscape at points where the locals localized legends, haunted houses, wishing wells, etc.) that area of Mana becomes a new source of Mana leaking into the world. This slowly but surely speeds the process up.

Note: The nymph of the well likes Sally. She might want to turn Sally into a nymph as well. The Nymph thinks Neville is dull but likely to be handsome later. When he's old enough, she might snatch him. Until then she's friendly with the kids and wants to teach them magic.

Further Note: As the nod to British Rocket suggests, this world could have certain features of British popular culture be real. Are Sapphire and Steel ready for Sally and Neville?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Theomachy

This movement among the mortals.

You mean the Romantics Allfather?

Yes Thurd.

It has better possiblities for us. The Theoi of Olympus gained much from being symbols of the Enlightenment. But the wars with France have dimmed their luster.

And you think we can become glorious again?

Having learned from your blood brother Loki, I made sure that a book of ancient poems about the Aesir will be discovered. Soon the Northern folk will have their own glorious Myths again.

Granddaughter you do me proud.

Basically, four Pantheons of deities are struggling for influence and glory in Europe. The Theoi of Greece, the Aesir of the Nordic lands, the Tuatha Danann of Ireland, and the Netjer of Egypt. Each is trying to hold a place in the minds and cultures of Europe as a path back to being worshipped and powerful.

More later.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Basically, the PCs would be the chosen of the Gods, or those opposing the return of the old Gods.

Europe would have had falling Mana from the fall of Rome's Western provinces until the French Revolution. The Classical World had Normal Mana, High in limited areas. The Nordic countries and the Celtic fringe had Normal Mana until close to the year 1000CE. Now Iceland, Norway, and the Celtic fringe are Normal Mana again with up to a fifth of both Ireland and Wales being High Mana. Many areas of Italy, up to a sixth of that nation is Normal Mana. Egypt and Morocco are also mainly Normal Mana with isolated pockets of High Mana.

About a quarter of the Americas are also Normal Mana. That isn't spread evenly. Some places like New England and the Caribbean are almost all Normal Mana with areas of High Mana. Most of Chile and Argentina are Low Mana. The condition of the rest of the world is unknown.

The Gods don't really trust Mages but they are willing to both recruit and teach them. The Egyptian Gods are especially eager to recruit Mages as they have the best reputation for knowing Magic.

This setting is a Napoleonic Swashbucklers campaign with the possibility of becoming a Gaslight Fantasy/Steampunk campaign. Both Athena and Hephaestus have advanced technological knowledge and believe that quickly advancing human science and culture would aid their pantheon. The Muses profoundly agree, although Apollo wants to hold back.

The Theoi of Olympus are actually stronger in the new United States of America than in Greece. The Netjer are less centralized. Egypt, being Islamic isn't really a place of influence for them. But they have influence throughout Europe in many small places. Thoth and Seshat, created the Rosetta Stone and made sure it was found to increase the influence of the Netjer. The Aesir are rather less known at this time but they have lined up the Brothers Grimm to link them to German pride and identity. The Tuatha Danann are pretty much limited to Ireland, which is low prestige in this period. However, they are strongly allied with all of Europe's faerie folk and have managed to create the Celtomainia craze. So their prestige is rising.

The main foes of the Gods, other than the other pantheons, are those theurgic Mages allied with the monotheistic faiths and the more secular Mages. The Fair Folk are allies of the pagan gods, but other supernatural beings, many recently rewakened, are not.

More later.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I'm assuming that Path/Book Magic is the way magic works here. It just goes better with Napoleonic Europe. Although the standard paths from GURPS: Thaumaturgy are used by many Adepts each of the Pantheons have paths based on their deities.

The Theoi path of Aphrodite not only provides a variety of love charms, it also has powerful charms for enhancing or removing beauty, and rites controlling and manipulating pleasure. Each god's stories and duties providing a path.

The Aesir have paths based on the Runes. They use these both for quick castings and deep enchantments.

The Netjer use complex nets of symbols, hieroglyphs and numbers to shape their charms. And are scary precise in their results.

The Tuatha use plants and herbal concoctions to shape their charms. But they also use music, poetry, and performance, to cast charms as well. You never know when an Irish song or tale is actually a casting.

Most, enchanted items are subtle as is most magic.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

There seems to be a rather large plot hole in this, if it's set on a recognisable Napoleonic-era parallel Earth. What are GMs to do about Christianity? It seems likely to come up.

Judging by the date you gave for Scandinavia stopping being Normal Mana, the displacement of the four pantheons by Christianity is supposed to be the cut-off point for the mana level to start to fall, rather than the Enlightenment or anything. (Although the Celtic fringe being Normal Mana until 1000 AD seems odd. Are you supposing a much higher level of "underground" belief in the pagan gods there than elsewhere? Or, given that when the mana level starts to rise again large chunks of that area bounce back up to High Mana, did they just have a naturally high mana level before then and that partly balanced out the drop?)

But if those four religions can provide magic, why can't one that was founded by a figure who was famous for throwing miracles around like candy and expecting his worshippers to do the same?

Some possibilities.

1) In this world Christianity is not true and the others are.

2) Possibly less contentious, and might be interesting, when the pagan gods saw their religions were dying out they pulled some kind of "if we can't have the mana nobody else can have it either", and that's now breaking up (either they're doing it on purpose or it's an unavoidable side effect) as they're becoming well known again.

3) Maybe magic is weaker if there aren't multiple gods. Christianity, Judaism and Islam may be different religions but they all involve worshipping only the Almighty and not allowing any sub-gods to be mentioned. The sudden input from four rival pantheons each containing multiple gods and often competing for the same territory sends the mana level up to crazy levels, possibly higher than in those pantheons' heydays when at least they were mostly restricted to their own separate home ranges. (This might give you an Asia that's been Normal Mana all along in many areas, which might or might not be what the GM wanted).

What's the deal with the Normal Mana areas of America - were they Normal Mana all along or has that happened recently?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Maybe the Mana levels fluctuated on their own? This avoids having to ask questions about each different part of the setting: places outside Europe experienced the same reduction because it was a global event, and Christianity has nothing to do with the reduction and can be in the same spot as the rest of the mythos.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Christianity is in the same political and cultural state that it was in 1801(the game present). It is the State Religion of all European states except the Ottoman Empire, which is Islamic.

The Pagan gods see the Mana level as linked to them. Many other actors in what is basically a secret magic / Illuminati campaign would agree with that assessment. It's your call in your campaign.

Perhaps the Abrahamic God doesn't want to do so. Buddha forbade his followers from performing miracles. Miracles on demand has often been declared heretical by the Catholic and Protestant Churches.

Again, your call.

Again, your call. Perhaps the fall in Mana levels was natural, and the Pagan Priests simply lost power.

That's and interesting idea. Plurality of deities might mean that mystic power isn't monopolized by the gods.

The Native American cultures and their faiths worked things out differently. However, the massive plagues caused by contact with Europe and Africa have massively disrupted everything. The rapidly growing European and African descended populations are further warping the older set up.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Golden Slumbers

This is a Dream.

No s**t Sherlock.

I didn't dream the aliens.

Me neither. I think we're being invaded.

In our dreams?

So these guys are sneaky.

Basically, it's H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands (Chaosium printed several good guides) and it is being invaded by aliens. These could be little green guys or MiGo Fungi take your pick (although one could disguise as the other). The Dreamlands have a lag when it comes to technology. A given technology has to become part of the Collective Unconscious in order to exist in the Dreamlands. If your campaign is in the 1920s do it like Lovecraft. More modern campaigns might find Dreamland technology jumps ahead of Earth technology because of fantasies about the future. Either way, the aliens are under the same technological restraints.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Banshee Council

He's a man of means and he has somehow learned about the council and the death edict against him. He has sealed himself in a sound proof bunker with his guards all around and equipped with sound dampening gear. His actions threaten the reputation of the council. If he is allowed to oppose our death edict then other factions may get the idea that they can to. This must not be allowed to stand.

The players are a group of banshees working for the Banshee Council. The Council sent in individual agents at first to go after the target, but each failed. They have now decided to send in a group of their best agents.

The target is hiding in an underground bunker that has additional sound proofing added to the natural sound dampening properties of the ground surrounding the structure. The guards, who are on constant patrol, are outfitted with all the latest sound dampening technology their employer could get his hands on.

The death edict of the Banshee Council is an energy field the Council creates around one of their targets. Once the target hears a banshee's wail while infused with this energy then the two things will bind together within the target to seal their fate. The energy of the field surrounding the bunker is now so high that anyone hearing the wail of any banshee will instantly be killed by some strange and unlikely occurrence.

This idea is basically for a fun one or two night adventure. It also should be a chance to give the GM some fun thinking up strange and unusual ways for the guards to die when the players remove the equipment protecting them from the players' wails.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I'm reading a Poul Anderson reprint book, Swordsmen from the Stars. The second story is set on the Llowellian Mars, dry seas, twin moons, canals and all. The first tale suggests the pulp Venus with a world under nearly eternal clouds were even a small parting in the clouds brings sunlight so intense that it causes forest fires and boiling seas. The third and last story is set on a tidelocked future Earth. These are all fantasy tales involving sorcery, prophecy, and swordsmen. A textbook on how to use Sci Fi tropes in fantasy. And a good little action adventure book too.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Underways

In an otherwise very mundane modern world, secret passages have opened up.

Your players encounter this world accidentally, tangientally. Someone was following a rival and saw them walk into a solid wall. Or an anonymous text message included a video of a short hallway that connects Paris to the school bathroom.

Investigating these leads quickly shows that yes, there are otherworldly passages hidden everywhere, concealed in gaps and blind alleys and behind coat closets, or sometimes hidden in plain sight but just out of reach.

But using these passages does more than make long trips shorter. Most people who discover these underways never discover this in time. But a few do recognize that every jaunt brings you closer to being discovered by the being that made the underways. The being who still travels them. And if you are very, very lucky, you might find out how to protect yourself from that entity, and its lesser kin.

But that is just the beginning of your concerns. There are few other travelers, but you are not the first. And some of those people have been walking the ways for a long time indeed.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

There's a more fully developed version of this idea in China Miéville's story "Reports of Certain Events in London", published in his collection Looking for Jake.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It also sounds like Peter S. Beagle's Overneath.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Yeah, I remember the first time I saw a demon. I was out with my family, just picking up some groceries and supplies for my youngest's birthday, when the first portals opened. A big one dropped down right in front of me, all cloven hooves and claws and teeth - and I punched that sumbitch right in his misshapen face. That was the, uh, I think they call it theodrenaline? You've not seen a demon yet, so you don't know, but let me tell you that feels like some f****n' rocket fuel running through your veins. And I wasn't the only one - everyone got straight up p****d when the demons showed up, and it didn't take long before we'd pretty well trashed all the ones that didn't get away. Then the angels showed up, told us what was going on. Not sure how I feel about all that, and I sure as... well, I ain't going to Hell to fight for them, but I wish our boys luck.

The demons discovered what they thought was a vulnerable passage into Heaven, the home of their ancient enemies, through a planet filled with weak, hairless apes - Earth. But it turns out Earth wasn't as vulnerable as they thought - the angels had interfered with human evolution, reengineering them with dormant genes - genes that would activate if they were ever exposed to demonic energies. The primary effects of exposure is production of a neurotransmitter, since named "theodrenaline," that enhances aggression, strength, resilience, mental acuity, and reaction speed (in GURPS terms, theodrenaline gives +2 to ST, DX, HT, and IQ, and thus +2 to Per and Will and +1 to Basic Speed; it also gives a further +4 to Basic Speed for purposes of determining turn order and grants Fearlessness 3). Secondary effects are longer-term - activation of dormant genes grant humans Regular Regeneration and Regrowth, and combined these allow dedicated humans to be able to pack on muscle rapidly; the dormant genes also allow rapid training up of other stats. A "Sentinel" - a human who has trained up to at least what human average would be if all these genes had always been active - has ST 20, DX 15, HT 15, and IQ 15. Sentinels also have markedly increased need for food, suffering Increased Consumption 1, but as it turns out demon flesh is extremely nourishing - the equivalent of one meal consisting of demon flesh provides all the Calories, vitamins, minerals, etc a Sentinel needs for a full day. With their secret weapon - humanity - now activated, the angels are pressing for humans to invade Hell, helping them to conquer it and put an end to their ancient war. Some humans are willing - particularly as the angels have managed to engineer Intolerance (Demons) into the human genome - but others are reticent... and some oppose the angels, or even side with the demons. Reasons for this are extremely varied, ranging from resenting angelic interference in human evolution (and religion/culture) to opportunism to just thinking demons are "Metal AF" (one can work past the built-in genetic Intolerance; indeed, there are many humans who have developed legitimate friendships with demons). And it's not like humans have suddenly gotten over all their hangups with each other just because they've found themselves at the nexus of an interdimensional war that's been ongoing since before humanity even existed.

There are plenty of campaign options for such a setting - crusaders invading Hell as auxiliaries in Heaven's army, soldiers fighting both demonic incursions and their country's human enemies, humans who have allied with the demons fighting both their fellow man and angels, or even independent humans fighting all takers, to name a few.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

GURPS: In Nomine: The Cold War Just Got Hot. Coming soon to a theatre near you!

Nice setting idea.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It's something of a fusion of two short stories I came up with but never got around to writing (humorously, both science fiction, but easy enough to shift over to fantasy). The first was where the bulk of the concept came from - it was going to be the invasion of Earth by demon-like aliens, and told from the perspective of one of the humans, with emphasis on how, rather than being frightened, he found himself enraged by the appearance of the demons, and he and the other humans wind up tearing the demonic host apart (because, again, humans had been engineered by aliens who resembled angels). The second was where I got the idea of the Sentinels eating demons to sate their increased appetites, to be titled something along the lines of "'Great Taste' is Not a Survival Trait." In that, a species of herbivorous aliens unleash an engineered plant strain that they can eat but humans (and our livestock) cannot, which quickly overwhelms the native Earth plants. Humans despair, as once their stockpiles run out there will be no more food (also, pretty much all plants and animals are going to be extinct in short order), until one desperate human takes a bite out of one of the invaders... and discovers they taste amazing. Queue humans overrunning the genocidal aliens, commandeering their technology, and basically keeping them as livestock as the only thing humans have available to eat.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

DOOM, except everyone is Doomguy.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I'm... honestly not certain how I didn't realize my Sentinels were basically lesser versions of the Doom Slayer. In my defense, when I originally came up with the short story that was the basis of the setting, I hadn't played the newer Doom games (in fact, I believe I came up with it prior to 2016, when the first entry in the "revival" series came out).

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I believe you (I've been in the same position); it's not like "badass dude single-handedly kills invasion of ugly things" is a unique premise. An alternative was the Space Marines from Warhammer 40K.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Space Magic!

Basically, this setting combines Phil Master's GURPS Thaumaturgy: Age of Gold with Lucifer -5 from the Infinite Worlds book. Alchemical rocketships in a Pulp Sci Fi version of the solar system.

As in Phil Master's book, Path/Book magic is the norm. Eastern and Western magic are being merged at the University of California Berkeley as well as at UNC: Chapel Hill and Harvard. Oxford isn't far behind nor is the University of Tokyo.

France, Germany, Britain, China, Russia, and the USA, are all major players in Alchemical Technology. Japan and Italy are playing catch-up. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are all explaining to Britain that they need their own Alchemical Technology programs. Britain, not wanting to have to compete for top talent is getting them to wait with promises that are beginning to ring hollow.

In most ways this setting is a pulp magical Earth circa 1938. Technology is beginning to move to TL7, although the alchemical technology can add pluses to the Tech Level and can function as supertechnology. However, alchemical technology isn't distributed into society enough to justify a higher tech level yet.

In inner planets of the solar system are like the depictions of of these worlds in Poul Anderson's Swordsmen from the Stars. Use Witch of the Demon Seas for Venus, The Virgin of Valkarion for Mars, and ignoring the fact it's set on a future Earth, use Swordsmen of Lost Terra for Mercury. I strongly suggest that Mars should be discovered to be Atlantis.

Some of the asteroids should be mini worlds, strange magical islands in the sky and more fantasy in tone.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Misemono

This isn't a worked setting, it's a great little tib bit of Japanese culture for fantasy games set in Japan. Since Edo Period is when both Samurai culture and Yokai are at their fullest development I think most GMs will find the Misemonos a gift. According to Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan the Misemonos were a major force in the development of Yokai folklore and focused on Yokai. The Misemono were a combination of Freak show, side show, haunted house, vaudeville, and a Ripley's Believe it or not! Museum. These shows were fashionable from the early 1750s until the early 1770s. The customers and performers were both generally part of the Floating World. This means that the PCs would logically be in the same social world as the Misemonos.

Thus, if you want your Edo Period Japanese PCs, Yokai or otherwise, situated in the best place to have adventures in Early Modern Japan, try making part of a Misemono.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Alternatively, the Wikipedia article notes that the predecessor of the misemono may have been performances used as a means to raise funds for shrines and the like - which I've seen show up from time to time in anime, and always assumed was a modern concept (akin to the benefit concert or similar), and thus an anachronism if it showed up in a markedly pre-modern setting... but it isn't, and that opens the possibility of having such things as a plot element in a lot of fantasy settings.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Just proof that cultural history is the gift that keeps on giving to gamers.

By the way, Google misemono and you can get large numbers of scholarly articles on the subject. A great way to get the little details that make a subject come alive.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

In other words, a circus, the modern form of which developed about the same time, likewise has ancient religious roots, and has a history of being a fine adventure seed. Travelling performers is a great frame for adventurers in any setting, because they are people with weird skills with an excuse to be travelling about and to be temporarily tolerated even if they aren't very respectable people.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Good observation. The difference between a circus and a Misemono is the Haunted House element, which is far more like the Phantasmagoria shows. In fact both Phantasmagorias and Misemonos claimed in their advertising to be actually supernatural.

I suppose that in both cases, if the authorities questioned the supernatural element, the show runners would simply say it was just an advertising gimmick. In your mind's eye you've already cast the horror actors playing the impresarios.

I'll need to post a link. The Phantasmagorias were mid18th century European special effects shows that claimed to summon ghosts and demons to perform for the audience.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Here is the promised link to the Phantasmagoria.

An important difference between the Phantasmagoria and the Misemono is the type of setting. Phantasmagorias were theatre performances or sometimes what Europeans call a Caberet. The Misemono was a less structurally unified type of show. A vampire theatre troops like the one in Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat would have to have the whole troop in one the plot. A real world successor to the Phantasmagoria like the Grand Guignol would be totally mundane. Meanwhile, in the Misemono, which would have been like a modern sideshow a collection of shows grouped together each with its own tent or booth. Thus you could have one or two actual Yōkai working hidden at a Misemono without even other Yōkai knowing about it.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Star Guard!

This is a combination setting. It blends Sword and Planet with Sword and Sorcery and stirs in some Sword and Sandal tropes too. The PCs are working for the Warlocks of the Esoteric Dawn. They strive to prevent either the theocrats that rule the southern cities and the ancient canal systems or the strange merchant princes from beyond the sky from enslaving the people. In order to keep the peace the Warlocks need a credible force of warriors. That's where the PCs come in.

The Warlocks will hire anyone that takes the binding oaths into their legions. Then the flesh crafters among the warlocks will make them mighty beyond anything still human.

Basically, if you're into Warhammer 40,000 you are now a Space Marine. Although you're a more Sword and Sorcery variation on the trope.


This is a military fantasy setting. assume a roughly Roman form to the Warlock military units. The Warlocks pay well, plus they take good care of you and grand you the Unaging advantage, as long as you are loyal to them.

Are you ready to defend the people from both the theocrats and the merchant princes?

The planetary populace lives at roughly TL4. Isolated communities can be as low as TL2. In the Canal cities the elites live at roughly TL6+2. The Merchant Princes from beyond the sky live at TL12^ (strict galactic laws inhibit what technologies they can use on a primitive world).

The Southern cities, where the theocrats rule, are CR6 for those below Status 1. CR 4 for Status 1 or higher. More than 90% of the population are Status 0 or less. The Northern cities, where the Merchant Princes rule, are CR1, for those Status 3 or higher. For each status below 3 and two to the Control Rating. Six maximum.

The Equatorial cities vary widely. Although those under the strongest Warlocks of the Esoteric Dawn, tend to be aristocratic republics with strong democratic elements.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Did you mean anything particular by this? Seems like there might be several possible ways of interpreting this apparent contradiction and it's not clear which you had in mind if any.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I was signaling the reader to think of the 17th century Netherlands or Medieval Venice or Renaissance Florence. All Aristocratic Republics with Democratic elements. Certain periods of Roman history could be described in the same way. It's not really odd.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It would certainly read as odd to anyone not familiar with that part of history, or who knows about it but doesn't use the term 'aristocratic republic' to refer to that sort of government.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Long Road

Are we to go into the past of an alien world?

There is no other way. You must take the dream road into the dreaming of another world to save our people.

How did this come to pass.

A lonely bitter old man found an artifact. We don't understand what or how. Then when he understood what the artifact could do he unwound the pattern of his life. His will must have been enormous. Then he created a new life pattern for himself. Part of this new life path led to him mentoring several talented scientists and engineers. They saved the Earth folk civilization. Thus they became space colonizers not a colonized people.

How does this threaten our people.

Not truly. But the strong alliance the Earth folk formed has forced the Talnoclyn Imperium to realize they can't expand into that area of space. So they were left expanding into the poorer and far less profitable areas of space, including ours. No the Earth folk aren't our foes. But it is them or us.


Basically, the PCs are souls from a distant future world sent back in time to change Earth history for their own world's survival. But bad luck on the way, they've lost the memory of who it is they need to stop. So they decide that preventing space flight is the only thing they can do.

But you aren't alone, others who see different ways to attack, far less honorable ways, also came back. Just because you must stop these Earth folk from space travel doesn't mean you have the right to torture and enslave them. There is both unavoidable evil and evil that must always be avoided.

The PCs are spirits with Path Magic. They can pocess human and animals. They can time travel within a period of two hundred eighteen years between 1870 and 2088AD. The PCs are trying to keep humans out of space. Their rivals vary from those trying to exterminate humanity to those seeking to create a world dictatorship to control humanity. Further, the old man who found the artifact is still around. He has discovered the presence of the PCs and their rivals and wants them off the Earth. Between his willpower and the artifact and the allies he was able to get in his new life, he looks like he could win.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Those sound more like Plutocratic Republics with Democratic Elements.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

What do you call a plutocrat whose wealth was in large part inherited over several generations?

EDIT: Speaking of medieval Italian republics, though, imagine that late 15th or early 16th century Europe is undergoing an alchemic revolution. Lots of new discoveries being made, and the great cities of the Italian paeninsula are competing to have the best elixirs - and sending spies to make sure of it. Also, think of the effects of large-scale alchemy on Renaissance warfare.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Sure, you can say that old money are like the aristocracy. But is worth making the distinction between those who merely inherited wealth and those who inherit systemic privileges, especially when the latter doesn't necessarily include wealth (i.e. poor Patricians in Rome)

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Fun idea and a rich culture to provide details, motivations, and subplots. Sound choices all around Prince Charon.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

What sort of alchemical effects though? That matters a lot.


I think It'd be cool to have crazy pyrotechnic effects, strength and durability boosting potions, fire protection, healing, and revivification form the core of the elixirs. Access to "true steel" and other material advances could also be cool.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

There are many drawings from Renaissance Italy that show that the Italians had a very sophisticated understanding of mechanics. If you gave them alchemically enhanced steel, you'd get a fairly wild clockpunk campaign even with no other alchemical or occult additions.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

There seem to be quite a few "alchemical revolution" worlds for Infinite Worlds already, not sure if you're aware of that, Prince Charon. Some of them seem to be set at about this time.

But, as ericthered says, what is done with the alchemy might make a big difference to how it works. I'm not sure what the alchemy in the various alchemy-using Infinite Worlds worlds is used for.

Pyrotechnics and fireproofing sound like they could be normal chemistry rather than alchemy. But if alchemy starts producing impressive results and lots of money is thrown at alchemical research, it seems likely that there'd be faster progress in normal chemistry as a by-product - especially if in this setting they basically are all the same thing. And that could give you your high-quality steel, too. If the rules of chemistry work differently in this setting to allow the alchemy to work, that could justify exaggerating the normal-chemistry things, too!

The Italian clockpunk sounds interesting!

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

My immediate thought was 'something like the elixirs in GURPS Magic,' along with experiments in High Temperature Alchemy:

Which would be pretty close to this. I would also think that some cities would be better in some areas than others, or prioritise some areas.

One idea that occasionally passes through my head in regard to alchemic mass production is very, very specialized alchemists making one elixir or a small number of elixirs over and over again in specifically-sized batches. Which elixirs this is done with would depend on which ones the city-state has the most need for large numbers of, though I would expect that all of them would want Janus (alchemical antidote) and Aesculapius (cures disease) - the latter especially would make for BIG changes, due to how much of a killer diseases were at the time, especially in cities.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Anthor

I tell you that it is a new age!

Just because an Italian apothecary has come up with a better way to make steel?

Now steel is cheaper than iron used to be. They've made pocket watches that keep time so well that longitude can be accurately calculated with them. I've seen them make gliders that can carry two men on them ten miles!

I'd have been more impressed if they had given some thought to how to land after the flight.

Neither man died.

Basically, it's 1590. The Armada was defeated by the weather ("God breathed and the enemy scattered."), and the new steel is transforming Britain. Many technologies were held back by poor material science. Example: Pocket watches were so inaccurate in 1600 that many had only an hour hand. The watches were so inaccurate that a minute hand was simply useless. In this setting second hands are on even cheap watches. Longitude is as easily calculated as latitude. Sea traffic is accordingly much vaster.

This is a clockpunk world. Selected technologies are TL4+2, and a tiny number of technologies are at TL4+3! In most ways this is a Tech Level four world with Alchemy and Path/Book magic, but the few exceptions are truly wild.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

You need more than cheap steel for clockpunk at this date: you need major advances in measurement and standardisation. Having Jacques Besson live past age 33 would be a good start; he invented the screw-cutting lathe but it did not catch on.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Spring?

Sire I bring news!

We grant you permission to speak.

The Pale Queen is destroyed! The power that bound kingdoms in eternal winter is shattered!

Who claims the witch's kingdoms?

None know yet.

"Ding dong the witch is dead!" Sadly peace might be dying soon. The Pale Queen kept several kingdoms bound in endless winter. With her death the snowfields are melting quickly and the glaciers more slowly. New lands have opened up. Or rather ancient lands are being reclaimed.

Peasants are building farms, villages, and towns. Kings are determined to tax these lands.

Basically, there are several ways to use this.

1) The PCs are medieval pioneers. Although they might have a couple of hedge magicians with them, the PCs are mainly just farmers seeking new lands. Claiming land, defending those claims, and avoiding threats, would be the point of this campaign.

2) The PCs are adventurers seeking ancient ruins and lost secrets. Fritz Lieber, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith, are good guides here. The better preserved ruins might have minions of the Pale Queen still there.

3) The PCs are military scouts looking for the best way to attack rival claimants to lordship of these lands. But also, good sites for castles, navigable waterways, useful mountain passes, mineral resources, and more. They'll find monsters too, but they don't want to.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

A good idea for the spring setting might be beings connected to cold/darkness/ice stranded by the Pale Queen's dead. The PCs might cut a deal with a frost giant or a family of yeti to help them to safety.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

When Worlds Smush Together!

Anyway my Aunt Louise from Nynack shot the Dark Lord Salnarack and now she's dating the Elf Lord/Lady who's name I just can't pronounce. Anyway Aunt Louise has been rejuvenated and she always swung both ways. So life's good for her.

How is the property dispute with the vampire and the dragon going?

The realms of myth and legend have opened their portals once more and... it's complicated. Oh sure questing to save the princess, or the realm, or whatever's going, is important. But so is paying the rent. Besides, I like watching my shows.

Basically, dump a full on Tolkienesque fantasy world into a sitcom version of daily life. Dungeons and Dragons meets Papers and Paychecks. Did you ever consider that some orcs might prefer auto mechanics or sewer maintenance to raiding and pillaging?

Like GURPS: Discworld this is a comedy game. But the spirit of the comedy is closer to The Honeymooners or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia than I Know Where I'm Going or The Philadelphia Story.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Caer y Hof Ser

The title is my very crude attempt at Welsh and means Fortress of the Summer Stars. A major Welsh semi-legendary figure (Taliesin) claimed to be from "the region of the summer stars." Thus things Arthurian are associated with the region of the summer stars. This whole idea is Arthur showing up in a world where Julius Caesar never conquered Gaul. He went for Persia instead. Neither France nor Britain was ever incorporated into the Roman state.

Although the Druids weren't dethroned in this reality, the presence of the highly developed economies of the Mediterranean basin still changed them. Celtic lore was written down. Greek and Roman knowledge entered the Celtic lands and Celtic knowledge went forth into the wider world.

The main change was that a British princeling read the Gregorics Virgil's celebration of agriculture and decided to improve British agriculture. He brought chickens to Britain and Ireland. He introduced some new crops. But his main achievement was inventing the moldboard plow. (His wife figured out the horsecollar).

Thus Arthur gets born into a Britain that is richer and more stable than the one he traditionally gets born into. Further, it's a more mystical one too.

In many ways I am suggesting a Celtic Mahabharata. Even in the Mabinogion Sir Kay (spelt Kei in that book) can breathe underwater for nine days, with other powers. You might think of this as an Arthurian supers campaign. All the PCs would have exotic powers based on the deities they and their families venerate. They would also have exotic taboos or more correctly geis.

Witches, druids, wizards, and knights with superpowers versus the weird exotica of the Celtic Twilight!

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The World Turned Upside Down

Why do we need kings. They had no kings among the Children of Israel until the people asked for them. And as I read the Bible neither God nor Samuel thought Kings were a good idea.

But the world is different now. Besides, just because you Diggers and Levellers don't want kings and nobles, what makes you think they want to give up their power and wealth?

We know they don't. But there is an old power in the land. She's come back as penance for how she treated her brother.

You can't trust a witch.

She was never a witch. Morgain le Fay knows ancient secrets, the old powers in the lands. Let the kings and nobles turn to Satan's teachings. Morgain has brought us wisdom older than the devil himself.

Cromwell is dead and Charles has come home to claim the crown. The rich and powerful are done with the Commonwealth. They even pretend that England was never a Commonweal under the old kings. Didn't Elizabeth of glorious memory herself describe England as Res Publica Anglia?

So the rich forget, the poor don't want to. We had neither leaders nor power. Then she came back.

Morgain le Fay is back. She is determined to give the people of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, the power in their own lands. She's teaching the Diggers, Levellers, and other radicals magic. Now the people can stand up to the Kings and the Rich.

But Satan is not pleased that the old wisdom has been brought back. It challenges his monopoly on teaching magic. I mean why sell your soul for what hard work can get you with no danger to your soul. So Satan is rallying his minions among the nobles and the rich to fight the radicals.


Basically, it's 1660, do you know where your revolution is? The rich have restored Charles to the throne. But the poor now have magical powers. Secret cabals of Satanists have risen up to defend the throne. It's Swashbucklers and magic. The rich have Maleficium! But if the powers in the land are slower to learn, they are far more flexible and in no way weak.

The PCs would be villagers and other low status people in 1660s Britain. They would all have magical powers. The powers of the people taught by Morgain le Fay should be either syntactical magic or realm magic. The witches allied with Satan and the monarchy would have standard GURPS Magic.

The poor want land and freedom. The Royalists want serfs and power. The fight is on.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Evening Stars

We are all agreed that the humans are the greatest threat to our people. Still I council against a war that would only benefit our foes, which are mankind's foes as well. I have a shrewder plan.

We are subtle, wise, profoundly skilled, and gifted with the greatest beauty of any mortal folk. Let us wed into the nobility and royalty of mankind and simply take them over.

Long ago the elven folk married into the nobility and royalty of human kind. Now all nobles are half elves with few close human kinfolk. The Bishops, abbots, abbesses, all the heads of the monastic orders are elves. Humans are only peasants, craft folk, merchants, and the lower clergy. The present king has ruled for three hundred and forty years. The present Pope, Oberon I, has ruled more than twice as long. Humanity remembers that humans once were kings and lords, but only long ago.

The elves pay very close attention to humanity. they mind humans out of everything. It's like being locked in a cradle for life. Humanity finds that exploration, art, scholarship, commerce, are all closely supervised by the elves.

The people grumble. "The long dead orcs only murdered us, the elves try to make sure our whole lives are a grave."

Basically, it's a peasants revolt. Humanity is sick of being caged "for their own good." The elves always make sure things suit them. If ordinary folk suffer, well elves say we lives such short lives anyway.

The PCs will be at a serious disadvantage. Elves have magery, and they limit what magics human mages can learn. Elves have decades or centuries of marshal skills. Humans often can't get either good weapons or training. Defeating the elves will be an epic challenge.

However, although the elves are mighty, they are fading from the world. It's only holding power over humanity, keeping humanity from coming into its own, that allows the elves to hold on to this plane of existence. Some elves feel it is a brutal injustice to steal humanity's time in the sun.

It all boils down to Robin Hood and Galadriel team up to fight the power.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The Faraway Near

What useless stunt did that old Necromancer pull to get himself killed?

He seems to have been trying to open a doorway to a far star controlled by a demon lord allied to himself.

What did he achieve?

He opened many small doors to someplace far stranger. A place of our world but not our realm of existence.

The land forms seem to be the same and the climate. But magic is rare and weak. They have great skills of other kinds and seem to be very rich.

Although they do have warriors with strange weapons, they don't use magic in combat. I smell easy conquest and rich looting.

Well the old fool may have been useful after all. What is this new land called warlord?

California my lord. The city of Los Angeles.

Due to a botched spell a nearby parallel world of barbarian swordsmen and exotic sorcery is now in direct contact with a modern American city. Full contact hasn't been made yet. It's a fair assumption that both sides will be surprised.

The Sword and Sorcery realm is Normal Mana. The societies are mainly monarchies or oligarchies. The culture vaugely resembles Hellenistic Greece or Ptolemaic Egypt. Religion is polytheistic and most priests are at least trained in some form of sorcery. The Tech Level is three. Although as in the Mediterranean classical period some really impressive technology exists, it's in the hands of a narrow elite and mainly used as toys, showpieces, or luxuries.

In spite of their self confidence these kingdoms aren't a match for the USA. But, until people figure out what is happening, their raids for slaves and booty will have some success.

Basically, this is like the Beastmaster sequel were the characters moved back and forth between Los Angeles and the Sword and Sorcery realm. Only transport back and forth between the two realms starts easy and becomes easier the more people move between the worlds.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I'd play in this one.
I'd even have fun running it. 😀

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

A very usable idea here. Very similar to one I had except it being "viking" raids along coastal areas.

I can just picture rampaging groups on Rodao Drive. For that matter, the raiders might be thought to be part of some tv/movie production, at least initially.

I would play in a game using your idea. It could be fun!

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Well, just run it! You'd do a great job.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Thanks, man.
Once I finish Facets, though, I'll take a break and play in Anten's "low-life space" campaign, inspired by Firefly.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I'm tempted to steal this for a arc of my Monster Hunters campaign. Phoenix, AZ instead of LA because that's where it is. Well Goodyear but that's more or less a suburb of Phoenix.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Some further notes:

The Earth being invaded from the Sword and Sorcery realm was Very Low Mana. Since the door between the realms are opened the worldwide Mana Level is Low and raising. Many people have gained Magery but they don't know any magic.

There are three types of magic in this setting.

Path/Book magic is ubiquitous. The tribes folk and the rural poor use Path magic. The City Folk and the literate use book magic. Those who more formally study Sorcery start with the Emerald Primer which covers the basics of setting up a Wizard's workshop. Most people read books that fit their trade. Sailors read The Periplus of Neptune's Realm to learn spells to summon good winds, keep water and food fresh, and repair leaks.

Powerful witches use Pacts to gain powers. (Use GURPS: Psi Powers. But remember this is a low tech world. Computer psi and energy manipulation don't fit.

The most powerful Sorcerers use realm magic. The Realms in use in this setting aren't consistent. Priests tend to use the members of their God's pantheon as realms with each realm shaped by that deity's attributes and myths.

Secular Sorcerers use widely varying realms. Generally based on the theories they learned to cast realm magic.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

One thought comes to mind, which "side" would be most interesting to play?

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I'm certain that is a matter of taste and the talents of the Game Master. A GM with a talent for suspense might make being the Los Angelenos attacked by these mysterious warriors a great horror campaign. Where a group wanting something goofier might enjoy being barbarians in LaLaLand. This setting offers choices.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

It could be, but I think rather short term. Then the raiders lose and it turn into the crushing invasion of fantasyland. Which can also have its moments but is a different sort of game. There are several anime and light novels on that theme worth glancing at for ideas.

The problem with any sword and sorcery thing interacting with the modern world is the modern world easily crushes it. If guys with swords have [any chance at all] against something, it's doomed against modern foes, and by the nature of the diversity of specialists in a modern economy, and the agricultural revolution needed to support them, fantasyland is always vastly outnumbered even neglecting the quality differences.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

True. But the shock of the meeting and the immediate results are what most people would focus on.

Still, move the story a couple of decades forward. Fantasyland would be undergoing several kinds of revolution. The priesthoods of the various pagan gods would be fighting all change tooth and nail. Most kings would be with them. Many other people would be violently rejecting their old lifestyle and desperate to get something better.
Most of fantasyland's people would be living at Roman poverty levels. Anything would be better.

Meanwhile, back on regular Earth. People know magic is real. After twenty years of contact with fantasyland the Mana level is Normal. Earth is going through several kinds of cultural revolution.

Just picture how the introduction of full blast magic into a society that never had it before would not just upset all applecarts, it would blast them out of existence. All aspects of society would come under stress. Example: Are Love Potions rape? Medieval courts called them black magic.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The mind-controlling version of love potions certainly qualify as date-rape drugs, IMHO. The version (that is not necessarily a potion) that just makes you much more likely to meet that special someone, on the other hand, seems far more innocuous, and the law would probably make a distinction if the difference were made clear soon enough (provided that both exist).

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

One of my current projects is called Bullet Eaters, and its explicit goal is to turn make a fight between sword-wielders and a modern army even. Tricks I've used so far:

• The fantasy land is underground, with impossible terrain for aircraft and horrendous terrain for tanks or trucks
• Going insubstantial is common
• Mind control is common
• Healing Magic and Resurrection are common
• Homogonous, Diffuse, and Unliving are common
• Tricky Monsters that look like puddles or attack through portals are common
• The Local sword-users have defenses and experience against all of this
• Magic is common, and fueled by a harvestable resource.
• Most opponents can see light sources but don't need them to function

One of my big questions is how much money do you need to give a DF character with the DF equipment list to stand toe-to-toe with a modern soldier. Also, Monster Hunters has great ideas for reducing the utility of guns.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Generally when I want Sword to go up against Gun, Sword is backed up by superhero-level martial arts.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

That's about right. One of the factoids I carry around from decades ago wargaming is that estimates and a few historical engagements are that early firearms are worth about 2, bolt action rifles are worth about 20 and more modern rifles about 70 troops armed with pre-gunpowder weapon.

So yeah, getting Sword-guy up to at least the modest superhero level of "worth 20 men" is pretty much a minimum necessary start, probably more given that guys with battlefield appropriate pre-gunpowder weapons like spears and bows are themselves probably worth a couple guys with just swords.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

I am reminded of the short story "The Road not Taken" by Harry Turtledove, where a society that thinks it has an advantage due to a technology not discovered by the other society, Humans in this case, discovers that a Matchlock/black powder weapon equipped army doesn't fare well against an army with automatic weapons despite the one technology they have.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

One of my aphorisms for superhero settings is "Never take a gun to a sword fight". If you've got a superhero or supervillain who uses a sword in a gun rich environment then clearly they are either a quickly dead wanna-be or they have an answer for guns. Of course guns can be a shock even in a superpowered setting if they've never seen them before. For example in Sexy Sect Babes, guns are a game changer when introduced into a cultivator setting. But still, the most powerful cultivators need much more powerful technology to threaten them and less powerful cultivators quickly learn tactics to counter guns once the surprise wears off.

Personally I lost interest in GATE, after a few episodes because it was such a curb stomp against the fantasy people that they had to make the Americans the actual threat. The stupidity of the empire in blindly attacking a foe about which they knew nothing was inexplicable.

Which takes us to the original premise here. Conquerors don't initiate hostilities against totally unknown foes after a superficial glance. If the emperor wasn't just going to take the "open diplomatic and trade negotiations" route with the new found land the other approach would be to go the covert operations route. Infiltrate spies, capture a few locals who don't look like they'll be missed, make sure you understand what you're up against thoroughly before before you even think of starting a war. And once they have a clear picture of their potential foe, they aren't going to want to use the kind of attacks that their foes are strongest against. Everyone knows that fireballs against guns aren't the way to go, much less swords. But what about mind control?

You know who would attack without thorough investigation and assessment of the odds just relying on the advantage of surprise? Bandits. Murder hoboes. The kind of guys who don't care if they're starting a war because they will have grabbed all the loot they can carry and scarpered before the locals even mobilized. The war won't be with them.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

With a supply of Reflect Missiles items or similar they might have more of a chance.

It might shift things if the modern people couldn't follow them back through the portals - or if the TL3 people just thought they couldn't. In that case, "go through, steal things, run away" might seem like a more reasonable strategy. (Although outright conquest still seems obviously daft, unless the raiders are very stupid). Maybe some kind of magic is required to make the portals work and they think the other side of the portal doesn't have enough magic to open it or that the magically-illiterate locals won't be able to work it out (they may be wrong about this).

Another possibility - maybe the leader doesn't have full control of who goes through the portals (maybe they move about or there are some he doesn't know about yet and thus hasn't got guards at), in which case it might be that the leader does have more sense than to try to go head to head with America and what's coming through is individual idiots in search of glory. The PCs might find themselves on the same side as the barbarian leader.

Being overconfident might make more sense if they'd previously overrun a nation (in their own world) that didn't have magic, or not as much as them. The comparison with Greece makes it sound rather as if they are themselves more technologically advanced than most of their neighbours... maybe they're used to thinking of themselves as the ones that curbstomp their "less developed" neighbours! Or, especially since their magic seems to be something that their priests (among other people) do, maybe they think that having so much magic proves that they're the ones "favoured by the gods" and the Americans are not. Or both.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

As written, the king ( purple text) and the Warlord (red text) assume that people without magic are mere barbarians and easy pushovers. The suggestion that they are like the Greeks in assuming they are always the curvestompers is correct.

But remember, the LAPD (or whatever police force is in the city of your choice) isn't prepared for magic. It will take time for them to adapt.

Once the portals are more stable, trade will become a norm. One good campaign might feature mages looking for patrons and students in a richer more comfortable world. The more traditional alternative, people from our Earth looking for instruction in magic also works.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

The issue is that you are seldom comparing unknown magic or monsters to technology in a vacuum. You are also comparing it to a known technology (guys with swords) that you know it does not obsolete (because there are still guys with swords running around in the setting).

Certainly unknown magic things might outperform modern technology, but if they did, they'd even more greatly outperform the medieval technologies characteristic of fantasy worlds, and would have replaced them. The difficult balance is there isn't a good way to have both "magic is competitive against modern technology" and "magic has not utterly replaced medieval technologies that modern stuff has" at the same time. Every fantasy game already struggles with this - you can see it every time we debate why some spell or other hasn't destroyed the medieval style economy or society characteristic of fantasy worlds (or the equivalent, "why haven't the monsters already eaten everyone"), throwing in direct contact with higher technologies just makes it harder.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

There's never much problem with somebody deciding to start a fight they have no chance of winning in the long run - happens all the time. It even works OK as a one shot adventure. It's just harder to construct an interesting campaign around curbstomping the hopelessly outclassed. Much the same problem (in reverse) as making an alien invasion plot interesting - you need to nerf the aliens (or set odd objectives somehow) to make the fight something other than a foregone conclusion.

One reasons I think these stories work slightly better in anime is the JSDF is already nerfed by restrictions on using it outside the country and a widespread public semi-pacifism already being in place to oppose the obvious conquer everything strategy. It seems a lot more plausible for a Japanese government to throw up a defensive perimeter and try to negotiate with the lunatics who just massacred a bunch of our citizens than for a US government to do the same.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Assuming "Deflect Missiles" is standard military kit the idea that guns are better than swords takes a hit. Or maybe a ceremonially cast suppress combustion spell to give them an upper hand in their beach head.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Unless you can equip nearly everyone with Deflect Missiles, equipping a smaller number of soldiers with Reverse Missiles would be more effective against infantry, at least so long as you don't make it obvious who has Reverse Missiles and who doesn't - once the infantry sees their bullets coming back at them, they're going to be disinclined to shoot at anyone.

Of course, that just means they'll be relying on artillery, grenades, etc. And in that paradigm, it's better to equip a larger proportion of your forces with Deflect Missiles to protect them from the shrapnel. Overall, I'd say Deflect Missiles is the best option.

How would the US military respond to that? Well, the muscle-powered weapons of the invaders probably aren't going to be able to get through modern soft body armor, even without the plates. But of course modern body armor leaves a lot exposed - you'll undoubtedly have a lot of people (soldiers and civilians) creating body armor out of Kevlar/Dyneema/etc. to protect where typical armor doesn't, much like there was a thriving market for uparmoring vehicles* during Operation Enduring Freedom (also, I think there's already much of such armor available for sale); if the war goes on long enough, the military may officially start providing such armor to soldiers. Offensively, modern soldiers are probably going to have an advantage in training (even in melee) as well as ST and HT compared to most of the invaders' conscripts. At least early on, they'll make heavy use of bayonetted rifles for close combat (both to bludgeon and stab); dedicated melee weapons - captured from the enemy or personally purchased - may see a return to the battlefield. With shrapnel being less useful, they may favor using concussion grenades (which can be used offensively rather than defensively) and the like. It would be bloody work, but I'd expect the US military to come out on top in most melee engagements. If the invaders have a lot of magical weaponry and armor (not just those Amulets of Deflect Missiles or whatever), however, that may level the playing field.

*Of course, the US military may also be able to just run over a lot of the invading army with armored vehicles.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Yeah, vehicles are actually super deadly weapons in melee. I once did a thought experiment about what a world without gunpower or explosions would look like, and I came to the conclusion that war vehicles would drive infantry off the battlefield anyway.

Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.
 

Whatever the vehicles are using for motive force could probably be repurposed into a slugthrower anyway - steam cannons, spud guns, gear rifles, etc. But even with projectiles rendered moot, just running foes down - and you may wind up with vehicles having blades or similar mounted as aftermarket additions to increase their impact area - will probably work, particularly if you opt for rugged solid tires. Also, in this situation, considering OpFor would have something that rendered traditional firearms useless, I could see the military deciding whatever rules prevent them from using napalm and the like these days simply don't apply to invaders from another world - Deflect Missiles isn't going to do much for you when your position gets carpet-bombed by napalm, and also equipping all your soldiers with enchantments to both ignore burning damage and not need oxygen is going to be quite a drain on a force that likely is already at a logistical disadvantage.